aimeekitty, your two biggest issues are going to be the drainage, which is a given. You're in a newer area where, by law, they must compact the soil up to a 98% compaction so seismic waves pass through it quickly, producing less shaking. It's a trade-off. Good drainage and shaking, or bad with less movement. The other is going to be hard frosts. Being at the foot of that slope, and where you are in general, cold air is going to flow into your back yard and pool around the house. Any outlet you can provide for it to flow through the yard and not get trapped there will increase your chances with most plants. Those we've mentioned and not alerted you to cold issues should be fine. Duranta can have thorns so make sure any you buy are thornless. They CAN freeze badly there, so put them where there is good air drainage and reflected heat from hardscape. I use it on a south facing wall in Stevenson Ranch where it is happier than the Hybrid Perpetual the lady who installed the garden used. Solid green foliage is much more durable up there than the variegated types. Spring Bouquet has the more durable foliage of the Viburnum there and it is evergreen. I grow a Pink Snowball which is deciduous and the foliage shows burn half way through summer partly due to heat, aridity, alkalinity and its deciduous nature. If your Mom's spirea is doing OK, consider rooting more if you want more, from her plant instead of buying them. That way, should one not make it, there is still a starter plant to go to for more. Repeat flowering iris and daylilies aren't as vigorous as once flowering, so they don't take over and naturalize like the once flowering. In smaller gardens where everything has to carry its weight and provide some sort of interest, they are a much more reliable and pleasing choice for most people. Like the OGRs, if you had an acre where they can be hidden when "off", they're wonderful, but when they are in your face as soon as you walk out the door, they'd better look great and provide interest all the time or you will soon resent them. I forgot I wanted to also suggest Germander for your garden. Beautiful color in both foliage and flower and being fuzzy, the rabbits won't like it. Teucrium chamaedrys makes a lovely edging or filler plant. Teucrium fruticans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teucrium_fruticans is the silvery, fuzzy one which flowers later in summer with blue violet flowers. Both have grown quite well there and regain their early beauty by being whacked to the ground should they out grow their welcome. If lavenders aren't happy in your back yard, I agree, it's very likely the drainage. You might try digging enormous holes, much larger than needed, use something better composted than green to amend, then plant the crown of the plant higher as is suggested for Camellia and Azalea so when the water level is higher, the crown is up out of the muck. Yes, they will eventually settle down lower, but it has seemed to allow them to mature into more durable plants by the time they settle. You should also look at Santolina, either the green or silver, or both. They should be whacked back severely to renew themselves each spring. NOTHING eats them. They are highly scented. If you can determine where the rabbits enter your yard and concentrate the highly scented plants in that area, you'll "jam their radar", creating a zone they won't enter as the plants keep them from being able to smell predators. It is actually very effective. Anything you can stand that is highly scented (foliage, rather than flower) works well for this. While I can understand the comment about wishing more green shrubs were planted earlier in the garden, please keep in mind with your drainage, plants aren't going to grow as quickly, perhaps eventually not as large, because instead of growing down into the soil, roots have to grow closer to the surface, usually just under the sod, but they will eventually get larger. I know how frustrating it can be to keep seeing bare spaces between the plants, but if you're planning on living with that garden for a number of years, putting less permanent things in where the existing plants are expect to grow into, will make for many fewer headaches later on. Everything mentioned so far not only can be pruned, with few exceptions, they SHOULD be pruned to maintain them and make them grow more densely. If you drive along Soledad Canyon and notice the Leucophyllum along the bike path from Rainbow Glenn east, you'll see how rangy they are from no pruning. Contrast that with how wonderful they look in nursery cans at Green Thumb. Not only water, but PRUNING. All of the shrubs can get rangy unless kept sheared to maintain their density and that dense canopy creates many more flowering shoots, concentrating the blooms and fruit more densely for prettier effects in smaller spaces. Diosma can be pruned, it's just that it has such a nicely pleasing shape and habit, they're prettier if unpruned. The truth is they will probably require some pruning over time. I prefer simply cutting them half or more straight across the top. They grow upright with a fairly flattened surface, punctuated with flowering shoots. If you just cut it all off straight, it will respond by shooting up new flowering shoots and filling in, only shorter. That's what they do with the nursery plants before putting them out in flower. Why can't you? They just aren't that pretty if kept sheared as the mow/blow/go manicurists do to everything green. You'll see many Pittosporum Wheeler's Dwarf and Nandina domestica nana all over and they work well, remaining smaller and more ground cover. The Nandina also adds beautiful spots of red in cool weather. The City has them planted everywhere because they live forever, add color and require virtually nothing. Taller types can get fairly rangy pretty quickly and benefit from being whacked low. I'm not personally attracted to the Pittosporum and usually warn to keep all of them away from the house as they contain an oil which burns rather hot if the house burns. You don't need fuel as there is plenty already. The Nandina nana can be quite beautiful. I use it along a sidewalk in a very narrow strip with Santolina and lavenders in Old Orchard. It gets hacked when it grows on the walk and in spring, otherwise, they just do their thing and look pretty. Lantana can be a very effective ground cover there except when hard freezes hit. It loves the heat, is quite drought tolerant, stinks so the vermin usually avoid it and will flower any time it's hot. The low growing white and lavender are very effective and benefit from being cut low when needed. Santa Barbara Daisy is another "weed" which will grow with wild abandon there and can cover a lot of open ground. It will reseed itself and can easily be pulled and needs scraping off at the ground annually. It will fill a LOT of holes! You may want to check the free ads there for a source of horse manure. Don't worry about weeds as there are PLENTY of seeds there already; they blow in on the wind; come in on your gardener's tools and feet; on the rabbits that visit and even on your shoes when you walk around. The bacterial action of the digesting manure releases Humic Acid which helps to condition the soil, and the earthworms which will crawl across flaming asphalt to get to it will churn things up greatly. Keep it around the drip zone of the plants and between them, not against the trunks and crowns and keep it damp. In this heat, you can digest an inch of the stuff with regular moisture, to a thin layer of earthworm castings in about three months. I did it for years in Scenic Hills. You might also consider picking up Grow Power Plus and Grow More Organic All Purpose at Green Thumb, mix the two together so it's 15# of Grow More and 20# of Grow Power Plus, broadcast it everywhere by hand, then rinse it all off the foliage on top of the mulch. Not enough nitrogen to hurt anything, yet enough to feed the soil bacteria and get things cooking. It helped break up the red clay in Northbridge in a season, permitting things to grow which hadn't gotten bigger in years. All of it will help with your drainage over time and keep things growing healthily until then. If you have dogs, they will LOVE eating the organics. There is no difference to them between blood and bone meal and dog food. Neither product has insecticides or fungicides in them. I've used them in my gardens there for years. In all my years of gardening there, the only white fly problems have been in sheltered situations which promoted their growth. Bacopa in a nook where they dryer vents, sheltered by the garage in Old Orchard and in a walled back garden in Northbridge where no direct sun or wind hit it on Begonia were the only spots. Generally, if it is windy, hot, exposed, you aren't going to have many insects other than possibly spider mite because of the aridity. Scale can also be a problem there and it is a witch to get rid of. Florida Scale can attack Pandorea there. Systemic rose and flower food has seemed to work on it. Don't worry about the white flies on hibiscus, you won't have them due to the climate, and the hibiscus will likely freeze out before it's an issue anyway. Lavatera don't seem bothered by them there, nor here and they do provide enough color and fill. I grow Kew Rose out front in the upper terrace behind Mary Rose and they are similar in color. As is their habit, it gets quite rangy and requires hacking back to the nubs each year. It went from a one gallon to over seven feet in each direction in one year. The drainage is very good and it's protected from the wind by a six foot wall. Dwarf myrtle is the one you want. You can keep it six inches tall seemingly forever or allow it to get huge like the six foot tall one out back here which is the lone survivor of the sixty year old hedge of it. The stuff roots very easily so you can make more if you want and it will self seed easily in mulch. It germinates at a client's house up there from plants in the neighbor's yard. It is EXTREMELY difficult to give you accurate ideas of what to expect these things to mature to due to drainage alone. What grows feet each week in Old Orchard with the sandy soil and excellent drainage, grows inches in the same time in her daughter's garden in Stevenson Ranch. The climate is a bit more severe there and the soil is highly compacted making things struggle more. If you get some mulch down, preferably horse manure, use the fertilizer combination suggested above and keep it all moist, things will begin responding much more quickly and mature to larger sizes than they would otherwise. You'll also make the soil conditions more favorable for the things you've had difficulties with already, permitting you to expand what you plant where, with time. The Chinese Snowball can grow there with afternoon sun protection to prevent foliage burn, but it may not be happy. The best two I've seen in gardens here in Southern California were the one in The Homestead Acre in Chatsworth Park South planted on the north side of large trees so it received dappled sun, and the one Laurie Chaffin grew at Pixie Treasures in Yorba Linda, which also had protection from the hottest sun. Both enjoyed excellent drainage. I've actually had very good luck with Hydrangea quercifolia Pee Wee in Old Orchard where it gets shielded from the brunt of the hot sun by the block wall and the drainage is excellent. http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/plant.asp?code=Z460 It flowers nearly all year and gets a bit of autumn color, though never goes fully deciduous. The warning about Hebe and drainage is right on. They hate soggy soil. Kim

It's been interesting to hear that some of you southerners are having a hard time with the humidity. We northerners start complaining when the dew points get up into the sixties and feel like we're dying when they reach the seventies, but I had always thought that you southern natives were acclimated to it and didn't pay it any mind. How on earth do outdoor workers down there survive the summers? It's in the low eighties today with a dew point of 63. That combination was good for a little sweating in church at the hour-long wedding of a friend's daughter. It was very nice, but give me a good old Protestant wedding anytime: twenty-five minutes and you're out the door. :-) (Hope no Catholics took offense at that - certainly none was intended.) Not a big fan of weddings, ThinMan

I'm a compulsive shopper. I way way way way way overthink any purchase of more than $100, and I live in terror of not getting the best deal possible. I have been known to waste $5 in gas to save $1 in groceries. So when, like many homeowners, I was caught last Winter with my pants down and heating oil $4/gallon, I started wishing I had something else. We don't have a good spot for a stove, which would have been my 1st choice, but we did have a wonderful masonary fireplace/air conditioner so we decided to go that route. So I started to do my homework to pick the "best" insert for my fireplace. I wanted ease of install, plain black w/ no frills, STEEL FIREBOX, the most glass. I narrowed it down to two: PE Summit and Lopi Freedom (I found the Regency dealer too late). After figuring the demensions and installation constraints I realized the Summit wasn't going to fit easily, and that I'd have to do som major demo to get it to fit. I wanted the biggest firebox I could get. I also wanted the option to completely flush mount the unit, and that was something the Lopi would allow me to do. I went with the Freedom,(not the bay I swear those things look so gawdy in the pictures). It was more when factored on a price/cubic ft of firebox but I really wanted the largest firebox I could get. Larger firebox=more heat right? Well, yes and no. You can get more heat but you may not want it. My insert is in a room about 300sqft, and at a perpetual 80 degrees. The rest of the main floor of the home fluctuates between 65 and 72, depending on how long I'm burning hot and how many fans I have blowing. I expected this. I think I could've easily gone with a smaller insert, because save for 1 overnight burn I'm tending the fire every 2 hours anyway, so I could just as easily toss in more wood at that time. Also, I did the survey/install myself. An experienced dealer may have known from experience whether a larger Regency (in hindsight my fist pic) or PE Summit would have fit, but I was hung up on flush-mounting the stove into the hearth. I love the stove. Its a quality/lifetime item. The large glass is great, and I don't miss the hearth at all. It stays clean with dry wood, and if I choke it down and it gets dirty I run it hot the next morning and it burns right off. I'm buring my own wood from my land. If you have to buy wood I'd suggest you get a pellet stove. This being said, to do it again I'd get the mid-size Regency or PE. Afte all the concern of wanting to flush-mount the insert (little ones) we mounted it forward, so we could have a stovetop. It was the right decision, and when the power went out for 7 days it was a really really good decision. I can't move all the heat this stove puts out, and the other ones are just as good and cheaper. The regency is close to the same insert, and the blower is standard on their unit. My friend has the mid-size Regency, and he saved $500 over what I paid, which is like getting free installation. DO NOT BOTHER WITH AN INSERT IF YOU DON'T GET THE BLOWER. Trust me, you'll be disappointed and you're wasting your money.

Pot lights in a perimeter pattern (about 12 inches from cabinets) the ceiling, a soffit with crown moulding over the cabinets, modern long SS cabinet handles, a pretty modern chandelier/ceiling light with personality to replace the fluorescent light, SS microwave, stove, and dishwasher to match the fridge..... SS appliances, pot lights, crown molding over a short soffit so cabinets appear to go to the ceiling, cool light fixture. Long handles on the cabinetry, again soffit to ceiling pot lights Interesting light over proposed/suggested island. The kitchen needs to be finished before you will feel comfortable in it; items are not relating to each other because you do not have enough items in the kitchen.......when you do have all the elements it will look 'finished' because it will be.