Sherry, If you go to see the giant redwood/sequoia trees, please realize that there are dozens of places worth seeing them along the coast from the CA/OR border to central California and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains along the CA/NV border that each have their own unique appeal. It would take a week just to explore all of the big tree NP's, SP's, SRA's, SNR's and Monuments in CA alone. When I lived in San Francisco, Russian Gulch, Big Basin SP and Mount Madonna were favorites, but after I moved to Carmel it was all about Polo Colorada Canyon and the many spots around Pfeiffer Big Sur. I'll have to tell you about my very rare and unique coffee table made from a Polo Colorado Cyn giant and Bixby Creek driftwood sometime. Yes, "mesa" is a term loosly applied to any landform in the arid west with a flat top and verticle cliff sides, and they are quite common. They are also referred to as table mountains, buttes, potrero or tuya depending on how they were formed and their characteristics and can vary from small ones like those in the BDW to the Grand Mesa in CO which is the largest in the world at around 500 square miles on top. Sometimes plateau is also used wrongly. They don't always have the verticle sides and are much bigger covering huge areas up to millions of square miles. Yes I could move back to St.George I guess, although in many ways the cost of living is higher there than Vegas. I'm sure some of my old friends are still there and kicking. But since my Dad lives there now I wouldn't even consider it.

Hi B2, I'm still getting caught up from being gone 2 1/2 weeks! Just noticed your wonderings about sedum and hen & chicks! What you've done looks great and with ground cover sedums they'll spread fairly quickly and you won't really need mulch in there. If you want something while they're growing I'd recommend a thin layer of small bark mulch. With that you can easily pull it back as they spread, and they'll grow over whatever happens to get left and it'll eventually decompose. But the grass right next to them will keep sending rhizomes into the sedum which will be very hard to get out of the middle of the plants so I highly recommend putting some sort of edging/barrier between the grass and the sedum area. It won't stop it completely, but it'll sure help! For that little strip you have you might want to consider eventually replacing the sedums with hen & chicks. No round leaves but there would be other advantages! They spread more slowly so they'd take longer to completely fill in the area but when they do they'll be VERY dense and they do a pretty good job of keeping out most weed seedlings (still need to keep the grass out of there!) They also have less upkeep. The sedums need to be cut down once or twice a year to keep them compact and good looking, especially after they're done blooming--and it takes a while for them to come back after you cut them down. No cutting down with the hen & chicks! Every year a few of them will bloom and you just pull them out or cut those few off at the base and you're good to go! So, less upkeep and they grow denser than the sedums. The only downside is that you don't get the flowers of the sedums! But you could put a mix of different varieties in there and let them all grow together so you'd have some "variety", especially in spring/early summer when they're at the height of their color! If you have enough sun in that corner you could also plant a few of the upright sedums thru the rock mulch--varieties with dark leaves would be pretty against the white rock! Your yard always looks so neat and well-kept!!! Skybird

David, Interesting to read about your methods and results. Although I've gardened for 40 plus years I really never used containers till 2 years ago. This is my 3rd growing season with them. So far I've mainly grown tomatoes in them. Have one pepper plant in a container this year. Last year was better than the first and so far this year the plants are looking good for what they are and as late as I planted most of them. Due to the drought and my current work situation I only have plants in 11 containers. I use the 25-30 gallon feed tubs. I can get all I want for free from about any farmer/rancher around here who has cattle. They work well. I've grown in smaller containers. My personal opinion is the bigger the better and I would want at least a 5 gallon for even a smaller type tomato. I know several growers who have good results in ten gallon containers. I recycle my mix like you do. This year I added some HuMore compost and a little of the organic fertilizer I used this year. I tried a product from Fox Farms called Happy Frog for tomatoes. I've been impressed with the results. I also mixed a little in around the top and will again around Sept 1st. My plans for my container plants is I will move them from the partially shaded area they are currently in to full sun as the temps cool and then on into my lean to I put up and hope to extend my season 4-6 weeks. Some of these plants will be just starting to produce I figure about the time I move them inside. One thing I've found here in our heat that David don't have a problem with is the containers and especially the black ones will get real hot and even cook the roots. This year I put straw bales around the containers and also mulched the top well. I can tell a big difference even in the extreme heat we had this summer. I've used several potting mixes. I prefer the Ball mixes. I don't use potting soil. I have mixed in some manure compost before from my pens, some pecan hulls and some leaves if I have them. But this year it was just the HuMore mixed in with what was in there except the last 2 which got some Soil Mender I had handy and wanted to use up. Bonnie and anyone else growing okra in a container. I wonder how Stewart's Zeebest would do in a container. It is a big bushy plant so one to a container would be plenty. And one of them will usually out produce several regular plants. And a good eating variety also. In the garden I space them 3-5 feet a part. Jay

Definitely go. That's a long drive, but if you take the time to make some stops along the way, you can make a really terrific vacay out of it. I haven't been in a long long time, but it's not crazy busy like some of the other national parks. What makes it stunning is the number of environments you see in such a compact area... woods full of fir trees, granite topped mountains, Maine's rocky coastline, lakes, ponds, bays, sand beach...and of course even the McDonald's sell lobster rolls. (Of course what always cracked me up was, when we were in Maine, we saw signs in restaurants that said "fresh pacific salmon" and signs in Seattle that said "fresh maine lobster". Go figure!) I'm sure you'll get lots of input on things to see and do along the way if you let us know where you might want to stop and for how long. EG, you can stop in the Brandywine River Valley area, that's one of my favorite places to visit...Longwood Gardens, Winterthur, Hagley Museum, Brandywine River Museum, Nemours mansion. You can stop in Boston of course too...