Curious: what did you end up planting? We have a similar situation; we live in a very dense, urban area and want privacy in our single family house from the adjacent apartment building. We'd like to plant along the fence line something evergreen, dense, tall--20-30'-- with columnar habit and a narrow base. The only thing I see out there that grows fast enough is the skyrocket juniper, which won't do well in Seattle's moisture. Can't deal with bamboo. We've had it before and it either flops over or spreads like mad and becomes a massive property value liability. What was your solution?

Hi! I have two deer Christmas lawn decorations (white thick wire frames that used to have white Christmas lights which all blew) that I'm trying to recycle in my garden room which is part shade - in late summer, it's mostly shade. One deer is a buck (antlers) standing upright; the other a grazing doe - each deer is about 3-31/2 feet tall and maybe 3 feet long. I was thinking of planting Clematis to cover the deer frames in summer. Is Clematis a good choice - is it too big? Can I manage the plants size without harming its flowering power? Do I need more sun? I'm looking for white or light pink - does anyone have any recommendations? If I don't have enough sun for Clematis, can anyone recommend a flowering vine that does well in part shade/shaade in Z6? Thanks - any feedback is appreciated.

This is a GREAT plant. I had my specimen in 4-5 hours of direct sun last year and it colored up pretty strongly. I will be bumping it up to 6-8 hours this year(the beauty of conifers in pots) to test if it has any sun burn issues and to see how much brighter it will be(which is certainly will be even brighter then these photos). It's certainly comparable and probably a much better plant than 'Seattle Mountain'. To confirm what a few have mentioned, it is the coastal variety, not the Rocky mountain subspecies. Closer. -Will

We DIY a metal stud and hardie board grill island using Tejas Textured Stone. It is much lighter weight than real stone. I like the looks of real stone a lot better, though this is not terrible. We removed a tree planting bed and installed flagstone in it's place for a 54" round coffee table with fire pit/fire glass and rock seating wall capped with flagstone that matches the pool retaining wall and coping. In doing so, we removed a flower bed as well, and were quoted to cover the old flowerbed with pavestone pavers, as is the rest of the patio. Only after excavation did our contractor learn our pavers were no longer made, so we opted to move the grill island (which would have been much heavier with real stone), remove the pavers under it and replace with flagstone. Needless to say, now I think the grill island doesn't look as good. I have pavers, oklahoma flagstone and Tejas all competing. The grill is 18 years old and ready to be replaced. So far, we haven't found a new grill to fit this cut out in the island so we may have to rebuild. I would go back with real stone instead of Tejas Textured Stone. The top is Noce 4x4 travertine with Longhorn inserts. The tile has held up exceptionally well and I power was it and seal it once a year. Bird poop, grill grease, ketchup, bbq sauce comes right off.