Chelone - yes, I use a walker all the time - outdoors at least. (I can use a quad-cane in a house and this house is set up so that I can do some walking around without support...) The main problem with the particular mulch path at that estate was the material was too loose and the base too soft so it took a lot of effort to push the walker. It wasn't quite as bad a pea gravel - impossible to push a walker through that stuff! The path also was a bit too steeply pitched to the sides in places so the walker had a tendency to want to slide sideways. The path was running along a creek, through a wetland area so the ground was quite soft. The same bark over a very firm base would probably been much easier to walk on. My paths here are about 1/3 concrete sand; 2/3 pine bark mulch. Our soil is quite heavy clay so is quite firm - as long as it is not too wet! Only the 'wet corner' area is a problem in the spring. Over time the concrete sand has migrated to the bottom and combined with the clay to make a nice base. The pine mulch - quite fine stuff, not big nuggets - breaks down reasonably fast so it needs topping up every 4-5 years. When we first laid out the paths, we put the mulch/sand mix down and then went over it with one of those water filled roller things to pack it down. Next spring we need to do another layer of the mulch/sand mix on all the paths here. The pine bark keeps the paths looking natural in the woodland areas while the concrete sand gives firmness. In the front garden the paths have been topped up with just the pine mulch so often now that the paths can be a bit too loose in texture. But the clay soil underneath is heavy enough that the path is still quite firm. On the whole, I think the firm base under the surface material is probably the important thing as long as the surface material isn't so thick and loose that the base gets 'lost'. When we put the path material down it was probably no more than 1-1 1/2" thick once it was packed down - maybe less... A couple of years ago the Sweet Woodruff under the pines was starting to spread across the path. I was able to just run the blade of one of those J-shaped crack weeder tools along between the Sweet Woodruff roots and the path surface and peel the SW up and roll it back like a carpet! The path was perfectly smooth and intact underneath - the roots hadn't penetrated beyond the loose surface layer of decomposing pine needles.

Thanks, everyone for your nice comments. Kathy, I am also in Northern California, the Bay Area. I have been admiring your beautiful roses and garden. Actually, I once asked you in this forum about your OLG and Eureka. However, I couldn't find those two roses anywhere. I ordered a tree rose OLG from JP this year, but it didn't turn out well. Do you or anyone from the forum know where to get Our Lady of Guadalupe in any form (bush or tree rose)? Thank you. KhaVi

Hi Francesco. Regarding my fertiliser, after having used different ferts for several years and subjecting my small collection to the effects of not using better ones I was directed to Try Chempak8 by another UK grower who sang its praises. Since being converted from Tomorite, Phostrogen and several other regular types, this one has improved my plants in leaps and bounds. In this current season it appears to have solved the unsightly corky midribs and thick, small leathery leaves on my arabicums whilst (I will also accredit this next fact to it) causing me to see flowers mature and open fully on two plants. Nothing else has changed so I assume it's the fert switch that's altered them. One had never had flowers before, the other had buds three years in succession, but always aborted them in the bud stage.Growth on all plants has been good with more branch extension and lush healthy leaves. I'll continue with the Chempak8 from now on. It's NPk ratio is 12.5:25:25+ trace elements. Lots of our US counterparts advocate the use of a Dynagro product which has a similar ratio as far as I'm aware? Hopefully others will confirm info regarding the Dynagro. I'll post a pic so you can see the makeup of the fert I'm using. In lots of the ferts that I was using over the years, the Nitrogen content was too high and that combined with the fact that other essential TE's were absent, the imbalance was causing my plants to not do their best overall. Gill

Nice. That budding one is really curious and does not look like a mini ... It looks like a cutting! The minis all have lots of low self branching. Why does this one look so thin?