jayo, I strongly advise that you don't accept that survey as the final soil test for your garden. Soil content can vary from one block to the next, from one neighbor's yard to the next, it can even vary within your own yard. Some people may be on land that was once farm land, or an orchard, some people's top soil is trucked in. Nothing will beat an actual current test performed by a lab. And even if you have the actual test done every 3-5 years in your own yard, you can see changes. If you want to know your drainage, you can perform a simple percolation test yourself. test the drainage with a percolation test by digging a hole 8 inches wide and 8 inches deep. Pour a bucket of water into the hole and allow it all to infiltrate. Pour in another bucket of water and monitor how long it takes to sink in. If infiltration is slower than 1 inch per hour you’ll have to do extra work to improve the soil’s absorption ability. Before you amend your soil any further by guessing, get your soil tested. Your Extension Service can provide you with soil testing information. Mine was only $9.00, less than the cost of some strictly pH tests, and far more thorough. No guessing at what might need to be added, no money wasted. Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it. Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri (download the pdf) complete with spring and fall planting dates (underneath the spring planting dates for appropriate crops), how much to plant per person, etc. They can also tell you the average last frost date for your area and ideal planting times for specific crops and varieties in your area. See how detailed this example is: ...y idea is to kill the grass without using chemicals so I figured I would lay newspaper and sheets of black mulch to shade out the grass throughout the fall and winter. Come spring I would rent a roto tiller to remove the dead grass, mix in compost and begin planting. Like I said earlier I know nothing. Please critique my plan and gimme some advice. earthworm73, The best thing you can do is start reading books from the best authors on the topic: Best Books about Vegetable Gardening Don't bother removing the grass or tilling. Since you're planning this far in advance you don't need to, you have plenty of time to do Lasagna Gardening. If you read the information at the link and tilling is still the chosen method, then do so at least six weeks in advance, and preferably months in advance in order for the soil tilth to build back again as well as for dormant seeds to sprout so you can skim them to kill them as they come up. Do this a few times for a couple of weeks until they've subsided, then you're ready to plant. Next you need to prevent weeds by mulching and mulching well (2-3 inches). This will prevent further sprouting of weeds and prevent migrating wind born seeds from taking root in your soil. If you plant vegetable seeds, you can mulch with a thin layer of shredded leaves or grass clippings or compost or straw, etc. When the seedlings get 3-4 inches tall you can mulch at a greater thickness and more as they get larger.

Wow thanks for the great ideas. I have to be honest I haven't heard of half of the plants you suggested. I will have to do some googling LOL. I am always up for solar powered things but I have yet to find a fountain in the height and look that I want that is solar. In the Netherlands things are slim pickings compared to the US. You really take those things for granted when you are from the US and move over to Europe LOL. England being the exception. England has everything the US does usually. The program I used to create the 3D renderings was Landscape Architect. (Free Trial) The trial gives you limited plants and flowers and decorative options to work with but unlike most programs it allows you to save your work and view in 3D. I have had the program a couple weeks now and its still up and running so I guess there is no time limit on it. I would highly recommend the program for anyone providing you have a basic understanding of computers and don't mind tinkering around in a new program to learn the ins and outs. I don't know what the full price version costs but if its under 200 dollars then I would say its worth EVERY PENNY! It even has people you can add into the decoration and they are animated in the live view LOL. I made a swimming pool for fun and put the girl in the bikini in it and she swims all over the pool I LOVE IT! Also an old woman will walk down the street too. Its really fun program! Its called Realtime Landscape Architect. I will include a link to it here. I just looked at the price since I went and got the link. Its 399 to buy it. I don't know if I would pay that but if Landscaping was my business I sure would. Its a bit much to pay for planning your own garden unless your a vanderbilt or something lol. The coolest things about the program is that you can view in perspective mode which is 3d, plan mode 2d, and live walkthrough which is obviously 3D and you can select the time of day, cloud cover, season and so on so that makes it really cool! The sound effects with it are nice too!!! It took me about 2 days to really learn how to use the program. It was trial and error. I don't mind your long posts I love to hear others opinions. Finding Flower Carpet Roses in Appleblossom over here has proven to be very difficult. I am still hoping I hear back from a guy named Hans that Kim from here recommended me to. The space is so small that it makes planning the plants really difficult. If I had much more space then I do then I could just use regular perrenials and plan for each blooming period from them and adjust the planting to keep the in bloom look but since those plant areas in the buxus in the corners are 3ftx3ft (in essence) besides for where they start to form a triangle shape It makes it really difficult to choose flowers to maintain constant color there. This is why I was thinking the flower carpet. since it would be in bloom the entire period that I would actually be outside. UGH its frustrating lol. I hate that I have to save then buy then save then buy it makes finishing the garden a long process. (I'm far from wealthy lol) I will post pictures as things progress. The picture here is a picture after our first day working on the garden about 2 or so weeks ago. It was a jungle of weeds. You cant tell by the pic how bad it was lol. 30 black bags of weeds lol. I'll be sure to post more pics as we progress. Thanks again for yoru suggestions I will look into them. Here is a link that might be useful: Realtime Landscape Architect program.

An update for my street trees situation! I decided on the Chinese fringe tree, and had a site visit from the city of San Jose..... And they said I can plant three small canopy trees like this, but also, I have to redo my cement driveway approach, grind three parts of sidewalk, and replace 48 square feet of sidewalk, by march- or I get a bill from the city for $1500. Also they are fining the neighbors in both sides for planting without a permit, non approved trees- one has to take out a mature hedge, the other has to take out some cherries. Both have to fix their sidewalks and driveways and replace the trees also. I guess that's what I get for going the legal route ! Next time I will just ask for forgiveness rather than permission. There goes my kids piano lessons for the rest of the year, into the flipping sidewalk that was here when we bought the place and passed a stringent FHA inspection. Thanks city of San Jose!'

Why don't you try painting one of the chairs you have to see what you like? You could try painting one chair with this coloration in mind. Except do the chair in red and leave the seat color you have. I tried for some visuals here to explain what I meant in a previous post above. I know others have mentioned black or stainless but to me it would just be adding another color to the mix. The picture below is nothing like your kitchen but it does have red stools next to a red island. If the kitchen was like yours and had teal/turquoise accents in the back ground one could get away with a teal seat color weather it be the same as yours or a bit darker. I think you can also get a basic idea on how black or stainless stools would not look right in the mix and could just look cluttered. If you paint one chair as suggested above and like the colors but not the chair there are a few other stool companies who do red. Bago Luma is one off the top of my head (although pricey). They have a few styles besides this plus different seat cover picks but I wanted to show the red. Or, this...