mister gin, my gardens are in full sun and the soil makes a huge difference in this heat. I split my plants and did some in a raised bed with more porous garden soil, and some in sunken beds with native (clay) soil/composted manure/coco coir. Once it heats up, the tomatoes in the clay soil do much better. You want to plant when soil temp is 50+. I planted out starts in the sunken beds on Feb 28 and all plants are very healthy and prolific. We did build a shade structure that provides intermittent sun and shade and I believe that's helping. I have 6 types of heirlooms and 3 others that volunteered out of the compost. Sorry to say that one of the heirlooms was black cherry and they didn't like the heat AT ALL. one just gave up over 90 degrees. Most successful - Paul Robeson, Green Zebra, Jaunne Flamme. Paul R. is from Russia and likes the cold and the heat, so you can start it early and grow it late. I'm in love with these plants. Pauls and Zebras have strong uprights too and hardly seem to require tying up.

I guess why I am at it... I have two ficus trees in the back yard. Both got hammered last winter. One is of good size already, and though it took some time battle back, it's fine now. The littler one cam back too, but here it is a year later and it's even smaller than it was after the pruning when it got frost bitten. I wouldn't mind so much, but it's whomping 5ft is not doing it's job, which was going to be to block the fish bowl affect from a caddy corner neighbor with a two story home. I'm ready to yank him and get something more "prolific" there. Here are the concerns: 1) Needs good cover, height, spread... the "ideal" is something that gets about 25 - 40 ft tall and isn't terribly messy on the pool. 2) It is placed near a pool and a pool pump. The center of the planting site is about 15 feet away. That is the only place it can be put. I just want to make sure the new tree won't try to crack into my pool or pool plumbing. It will also be even close to a block wall, so surface roots would be of concern that are not disruptive to the fence. Thanks guys and gals!

Just a quick update on the builders I'd originally mentioned. (After consideration, we've recently decided to request quotes on a larger pool than we'd originally looked at.) Presidential: I submitted a dimensioned drawing on Tuesday asking for an updated quote & haven't heard back yet. I think I can deduce the extra cost based on some of the line items from the original quote, but would certainly like to know for sure. Dolphin: Good quote, weird experience. Has anyone else worked with these guys before? Curious if your experience was anything like mine, or if this was an anomole? They came last night (an hour late, due to being hung up at a previous appointment, but whatever... figured I'd forgive it & see how the actual meeting went.) Even though I had already very carefully measured the yard and access, he spent the 1st 10-15 minutes re-measuring everything. I guess I can understand that; some people probably aren't as obsessively careful as I was. While he was doing that He gave us some ziploc bags full of pictures to look at (though we'd seen just about everything we could possiblly hope to see by now online), and we waited for him to finish. He then proceeded to take the next 2 hours to meticulously draw the exact same pool dimensions I'd already given him onto a larger piece of paper. (I gave him an actual CAD drawing I did with full dimensions, placed in the yard with required setbacks, summed perimeter ft, surface feet, etc.) He sort of messed up his drawing and we had to go over it and have him re-do some things. He used a bunch of architectual tools & a calculator to come to the exact same dimensions I'd already given him, and finally quoted me a pretty decent price. Of course, I was able to ask him a bunch of questions along the way, but it was still a pretty weird experience, and he wasn't a good multi-tasker, so it really stretched out the time he was here. (I already had my questions before he got to the house, so I could have easily asked them via phone or email, so I didn't see any real value-add to having him at the house.) I sort of get the "old-school" approach, but honestly, the only real thing that scares me off a bit from using these guys was the lack of technology involved in their pitch. Maybe I am not the norm here. Anyway, when it was all said and done, he gave me a price, but left without giving me a quote sheet or 2D/3D renderings of the pool. The latter was less of an issues since I'd already done all that myself, but I literally had to snap a cell-phone picture of the quote that he penciled in on his drawing before he rolled it up and took it with him. So right now I feel a little conflicted by these guys. I do believe that, at the end of the day, they build a good pool with a lot of the add-ons you want packaged in, for a fair price. But would have been nice to see this company had stepped into the 90s (let alone the 2000s or 2010s!) California Pools: Still haven't heard back from these guys. Maybe Cliff is trolling boards here at GardenWeb and decided that my calling him a turd didn't warrant a response from them! LOL... anyway, i sent a follow-up email to him today. If I don't get a quote by end of day, they're out of the running. I might call one or two of the smaller guys to see what they have to offer, and we'll make our decision within a week or so. That's all for now! Dan

If you live in any of the old mining towns, you have tailings piles. What this house also has is a view across the rest of town to the mountains and valleys on the other side. As a B&B it could make money.