I will gladly come down and help you establish a lawn if I can stay at your house free of charge!!!! I don't need much space, but you will have to feed me :). The first thing you need to consider is water. Establishing a lawn, from either seed or sod, will require a lot of fresh water, especially with your sandy soil and hot windy climate. Will this be a problem for you? If it is a problem, or too expensive, then it will make a lawn somewhat difficult. It might be a good idea to become friends with a local golf course superintendent, as they will have plenty of information as well as sources of things like fertilzers and amendments. In terms of what type of grass I think you should consider paspalum. Paspalum is a salt tolerant grass that spreads well and does best when cut short, like a golf course fairway. It can be grown from seed or sod. Are there any sod farms on your island? If not, sod might be very expensive. Again, a golf course superintendent might be your best source. When establishing a lawn, the best results generally happen when you start from scratch. This requires killing whatever grass/weeds you have with a herbicide, and seeding a few weeks later. P.S. Your English is very good, much better than at least one member on this forum.

Artemis - I usually remove the pics after 3 months. I sadly found out way too many "borrow" pictures, without asking permission.Using a tracking tool I have seen some of my pics posted on up to 17 other websites. One woman in Australia even posted a picture of a bouguet of roses of mine, 2 years later claiming that she got the flowers, from her compagny after closing a big sale. She described how lovely they smelled - quite hilarious considering it had already turned into compost spread in my garden! I did not burst her bubble! I suppose that is the risk of posting pics on a public forum. Still If people ask permission to use pictures for non-profit purposes - I have never said no to them. I think it is common courtesy to ask for permission - some here on the forum has taken wonderful pictures of roses, that is spot on colorwise or parts of their gardens, that is truly inspiring. Lorielf, Aprille and Jon e.i. gave me permission to use one of their great pictures on my blog, for which I am truly grateful. The pictures of my small garden can be seen on my blog. Here is a link that might be useful: Small rose garden

Reg, I know that garden phlox/paniculata will colonize. I read that David's bad about that. I'm trying to keep it in two clumps so will take the shovel to the others that show up. Thanks for telling me what happens in your garden. The phlox has always taken a couple of years to take hold and start to bloom -do you think maybe the small ones just haven't matured yet? Btw, do you prune yours down in early summer to control size? I haven't before but might try this year. I have the native bleeding heart, Dicentra formosa all through the woodland garden - at least I did until I started digging in it. I hope it comes back because it is really pretty. A friend gave me one of the large dicentras, spectabilis. It had grown from hers, so I figured it spread. It is a striking looking plant, for sure. Sorry your delphiniums didn't return; mine didn't either, but neither did the larkspur. which of the delphiniums do you like or have the best luck with? I had always wanted to grow delphs in the south so planted them the first year. I wasn't as crazy about them as I thought I would be and think I like larkspur better anyway. I am trying to germinate some wintersown magic fountains, but if they don't take, I don't think I'll try for the started plants. I am glad you have luck with salvias. I loved 'May Night' in Ala and planted some up here, and they just didn't grow. I switched to 'Cardonna' last year and I don't think they did well here either. I haven't tried the annual salvias here; I grew salvia farinacea, mealy cup sage, in the south. Is that what you grow as an annual? btw, the chicken topiary pic above has a 'Cardonna' in it- it's the spindly looking plant between the lavender rows. That was taken in early August; it never really got robust. But maybe it will grow better this summer. hi, Strawberry, It's amazing how much of an effect concrete leaching can have on a plant. I've heard of vinegar as an acidifier; thanks for the mention of lemon, too. You post pics too, okay?

Beautiful! What a difference in two years. Now I need to get my behind outside and get to work on this bright sunny day and maybe SOMEDAY mine will look as nice as yours!