"Looks like it's gonna be expensive judging from my phone call." Don't loose faith. As President Clinton said it best - "I feel your pain!" I recently bought a 3 Rotary Phase wood shaper with a 5 HP 3 phase motor. Just look at ebay for "3 phase converter" After alot of reading and hunting, here is what i got: They have 2 types - Rotary and Static. I got a rotary converter because a rotary produces the 3 sine wave phases where a Static doesn't give the true 2 sine waves so i read. It says Static is fine for occasional home use. With this, get power from a 240V outlet like water heater / dryer and you are in business.

Hi Molly.. You could absolutely have a compact mini-garden in your spot. The GOOD thing is, since it's such a small space, taking care of it won't be so much work! I would suggest the following: Either: 1) As the other said, do a raised bed, and fill it with good store-bought dirt (probably your simplest solution...) or lasagna garden (disadvantages would be all the material you'll have to buy & haul in for the 'lasagna layers')... OR 2) Your best option, in my opinion: no raised bed,, just get the weeds, weed-roots, & rocks out with a fork, loosen it up REALLY good, and buy as much good dirt as you can (from Natural Gardener or Great Outdoors, or another garden store with a conscience).. something with lots of compost, hummus, etc.. already in it.. and once you put your plants in, put as much of the GOOD dirt under & around the plants as you can. Then you can till the leftover stuff in the rest of the bed. If you do this every year (& keep adding your own compost), your soil will get better & better, and you will have to do much less work every season. Then cover everything with a good layer of pine bark mulch. The mulch will also decompose into your soil and further improve it. THEN start a compost pile! This is the best way to start making your own soil. A vermicompost bin is another great way to do the same thing, but more concentrated. Leaves (from your autumn raking), kitchen scraps, b&w newspaper, chicken/cow/rabbit manure, hay, etc.. all go in both of these. And eventually it goes into your garden soil, improving it even more. This takes time though.. which is why you need to buy the good stuff, at first. By next year you can start adding the 'black gold' to your garden.. and that's a great feeling. Some reasons why your tomatoes probably failed before: 1) Soil not ready (see above) 2) Did you get healthy plants, from a good organic garden store or local farmers market? or, from a big box store (some folks might do fine with these, I would never risk it)..? 3) Did you get varieties that do well in our area? The good stores/farm mkts will sell these. 4) Did you get them in EARLY enough? Preferably mid-March to early-April. The main reason is that they need to get established before the brutal TX heat, and b/c if the nighttime temps are too high by the time they are just getting blossoms, the pollen gets too sticky/heavy in the heat and they might not fruit. So you need to get plants in the ground when nighttime temps are still cool (someone here might know the exact cut-off temp.. high 70's, I think?). 5) Did you feed them?? Tomatoes are heavy feeders, especially in our poor soil...unless you live on the east side, or somewhere with better dirt. 6) Was the soil well loosened/aerated around the plants? If not, the roots struggle too hard to get through our rocky-clay soil and cannot breathe, can't grow, & water can't get to them. 7) Did you give them enough room? How about support- a sturdy tomato cage? The small flimsy cone ones are worthless, IMO... get the biggest cones you can find, or the large folding non-cone ones if you are really serious. But if you have compact bush plants, this isn't as much of an issue.. 8) Stink bugs and other pests will likely take over around July, but that's kind of a given.. you can try sucking them up with a hand-vacuum... but usually by then I've gotten a good crop and I just give up (the mosquitoes are too bad to be outside much, and to hot anyway...) 9) How about water? It's best to water in the morning or evening, and just water the soil around the plants, try to keep the plants dry. Make sure they get a good deep watering, about once a week, or more often if it's really hot/dry. They will start to wilt a bit when they need more water. The longer you water them at one time, then leave them alone for as long as they can stand it, the deeper the roots will go. If you give them only shallow, frequent waterings, the roots will stay closer to the surface. 10) Toms need at the very least 4 hrs of direct light a day.. Soooooooooo... Here's what you need to get started (if you choose option #2): 1) a big garden fork/ spading fork-- which is an investment.. absolutely essential for loosening up our soil. You wiggle it into the soil by putting ALL your weight on it til it goes in- then start pulling up & flipping over the soil, & get all those pesky weeds out (make sure you get all the roots). Rocks too. This will also break up the clumps. Keep pushing the fork down as deep as it can go & scooping it up. Just think of those nice healthy roots going way down in there= healthier plants. It's hard work, but great exercise, and it gets easier.. just do a section each day & you'll be done in no time. Watering the soil a bit helps too. 2) shovel (of course) 3) at least a couple bags of good soil.. and remember soil is everything... it will feed your plants, which will feed you. So don't get cheap junk at walmart or wherever.. Ladybug brand is great, or something similar.. 4) a few bags of mulch, either pine bark or pine needle.. if you want a short cut, you can use a thick layer of leaves if you have a leaf pile handy. Mulch will help keep the soil moist after a rain/watering, & help keep soil from getting too hot and dry. Also helps delay weeds somewhat. 5) a bag of Rabbit Hill farms tomato & pepper food (my personal favorite). Put a handful of this into each hole as you put the toms in. Then work another handful in around each plant as they start to fruit, and every few weeks after. 6) a bottle of seaweed-fish solution & a regular sprayer bottle. Mix a half-capful or so with water (fill it up)- and mist the leaves every couple weeks (in the morning, before 9 am, when the leaf 'pores' are still open)... this helps heat/drought tolerance and also feeds your plants. I hope this doesn't sound complicated,, it really is simple! You will get into a rhythm and it will just become a natural part of your day. I would also suggest volunteering for the green Corn Project and planting a garden with them at least once, they use the biointensive double-digging method, which is basically kind of what I do (a simpler version). Or, visit other peoples' gardens (like at the Natural Gardener- theirs is amazing!) to get inspiration & ask for advice. You could probably do about 3 tomato plants (compact/bush varities might be easier to manage in that small space)... and maybe a few bush cukes and non-vining squash, a pepper or 2. Realistically that's probably all you're going to fit in there, so make sure you are putting in what you really want. But the biointensive method says.. the healthier your soil (and therefore, your plants), the more you can crowd them together. So keep that in mind. And don't forget about Austin's great opportunity for a fall/winter/into spring garden: spinach, broccoli, beets, carrots, asian greens, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, onions, potatoes,, leeks, peas, etc...! Good luck.. hope that helps!

Everyone has been most helpful. Thank you for all the suggestions. I think gayle brought up a good point about having both lamps on the fireplace wall. I tried some different arrangements and decided I did not like the ginger jar lamp on the drapery wall though as it competes/clashes with my drapes. I feel it works best to the right of the fireplace. However, I swapped the floor lamp and the drum table, moved some of the items closer together plus took down some of the wall decor and would like feedback to see if I'm on the right track. Galye's idea of moving the curio to the left side does not work. There is no pic yet in the little red frame, but that is the plan. Here it is with the gold shade back. Perhaps it does not look so off now that the floor lamp has moved. I'm going to go back to Lamps Plus tomorrow and look at some different shapes in gold. I haven't been able to find a black one in the size I need and even with the excellent virtuals squirrel has provided, I'm a bit leary of ordering one online. squirrel: I really appreciate all of your PS virtuals. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating. You are incredibly talented. If I could please ask (when life settles down) if you could PS the sconces on either side of the painting in the above picture. I am not quite decided it I want the sconces there or elsewhere. I did try the floor lamp where you placed it and from that perspective I really like it, but from the other angle it blocks the view more than I would like of my drapery. While I do love the virtuals of the pics to either side of the fireplace IRL it just feels like the pictures are competing with one another as the room is not that large. With the taller table top decor to either side of the fireplace (which I still need to work on), I'm thinking perhaps I don't need so many pics on the wall. I also liked Les' idea of putting some greenery/plants in the sconces instead of the candles. Les, can you suggest any particular plants or place to shop for them? Do you see it as more upright or cascading? Here is a close up of my corner curio: It was not a deal and I paid more than I wanted to. I spied it some months ago at an antique store, but didn't get it since I was not far enough along with this room. When I decided a few months later I still wanted it and had not seen anything on CL for sale, I decided to go back to the antique store and bought it. They didn't want to haggle on the price, though it was on a 10% off sale. I still need to work on items for the center shelf. I just love the little key that I need to use to open the cabinets. squirrel, did you notice the fern on top like you had added (though yours does cascade better than mine)? Do you even realize how much influence you've had on this room? You picked out my floor lamp too.

The earlier comment about avoiding wood applies (IMHO) to thicker branches, not sticks and twigs. Especially when green this so-called 'ramial' wood has enough nitrogen to actually heat up on its own. Tree trimming crews making mulch in summer when leaves are green will have hot piles in a day or two. As for the more woody stuff, it works well as mulch for perennial beds and paths. You can add it to a compost pile but it's going to take time to break down. I second the idea of making a pile of wood chips and let it rot for awhile, then use it in compost. Works OK in the winter to layer with your kitchen scraps if you don't have a pile of leaves set aside. Your garden 'containers' might benefit from something other than just compost though. As it breaks down it will compact at the bottom and this is why container mixes are very coarse - drainage and aeration. Some coarsely shredded material mixed into the entire thing might be just the ticket. How large and how deep are these stock tanks? Do they have drain holes?