Driveway entrance. Yes, I get itÂyou want something simple yet unaffected, unpretentious but with a bit of drama, natural with no-fuss (drought tolerant) and no-worry (deer) habits. And grasses give more multi-season interest than do bamboos. Off-hand recommendations? Drama: Miscanthus sinensis, especially 'Gracillimus' or 'Variegatus,' but others are just as (if not more) interesting. Shorter, for near the mailbox: try some Panicum virgatum (any cultivar); or a sweep of Deschampsia...Oh, the list could go on. But do yourself a favor. Take jackgrass advice and get a good book. Without reserve, I can recommend Rick DarkeÂs "The color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses." If you love (or come to love) grasses as we in this forum do, you also will love this book; itÂs a treasure.

Here is a website that you may find useful.http://www.extension.umn.edu/Garden/ There is a wealth of info there. It really isn't necessary to test your soil every year, I think the recommendation is about every five years. Compost is one of the best things you can do for your soil. You need to be careful adding sand to clay, you can end up with bricks. You can build raised beds, or berms if drainage is a problem.Leaf mold, compost, peat moss....any organic material will be helpful. I am mainly organic but do not rule out synthetic chemicals in some cases. You may want to research IPM (integrated pest management). An excellent book is "The Truth About Organic Gardening" by Jeff Gilman. He talks about and compares synthetic and natural chemicals and their eco impact. If you haven't had a soil test done, it would be a good idea. Also, instead of trying to change your conditions to meet plant needs you may want to choose plants suited to your conditions. Best of luck to you and have fun playing in the dirt.

Sorry to chime in late here. Your set up is close to the one I have except that I have 48" where you have 40". (My pics are posted under "Pics of my new bathrooms".) Other than that 8" width difference, I have the same "C" wall, which is a 36" long half wall with glass above it and the niches in wall C. About nine inches of our wall C is solid and we put tall skinny niches in there too. So if you can picture it, the C wall is like an L. I don't think that you would be happy with a 3/4 wall because the water will likely spray over and get the toilet all wet. On the other hand, making that a solid wall will make the shower and room feel like a tomb. You can definitely go doorless. This is exactly what we have. Our wall "C" is also 36" long with a 24" inch opening. We get very little overspray. We keep a bath mat right outside the curb and it picks up whatever small amount of spray comes out. I don't see why you can't center your shower head on wall A with the handshower placed in the corner. If it swivels, you can direct it where you want when it is in the holder. In our 48" space, we have a rainhead in the center (hanging from the ceiling, the handshower in the corner (close to your wall B and we even have body sprays on wall A close to your wall C (which can be rotated and which we permanently tilt inward toward the middle). So with only 40" but no sprays, just the fixed head and the handshower, I think you will be fine.

Can you get a Kelvin number for them? In my opinion, anything under 3500 is warm enough, over is too cool. A lot of LED's are 4000 or 5000. Incandescent is about 2700.