In central Texas I've had pretty good luck by alternating sprayings of 50/50 mix of skim milk/water (for powdery mildew) then at two week intervals spray two TBSP baking soda, two drops dish soap to a gallon of water (for black spot). This way the sprayings are not too arduous, one each per month, and the roses really take care of themselves. Keeping the soil very healthy, adding some vinegar once per season to the soil, a 2" addition of good homemade compost annually in the fall, and random grooming is about all I do. The sprayings can be a little labor intensive, and if I'm really busy at work, sometimes they don't get done. As long as the soil is good, and the earthworms active, the diseases don't become much of a problem. If I have a basket of leaves that had black spot, I don't add them to my compost bin. I only use good grass clippings and leaves from the fall. Occasionally I get a bag of alfalfa pellets and throw about 4 cups of them in a 60 gallon trash barrel full of water. Let them steep for about 5 days, then use the 'tea' to water the plants, roses included. The leftover alfalfa goop goes into the compost bins because it often contains viable seed. I just don't like them sprouting in the rose beds. Cheryl

as far as the guest house goes, around here you would be REQUIRED to install a separate septic for it. each plumbed structure must have it's own system! my neighbor behind me foudn this out the hard way. he spent 12k on dirt work to build a "guest" house next to his house. his grandson was going to live in it full time, though the county did not know this. anyway, the county ended up nixing the guest house because they only have 1.75 acres and each system required a minimum 1 acre at teh time. they would not allow it to be tied in to the old system either, even if they doubled the tank size. so for the last 4 years there has been a 50'x50'x4' dirt pile in the side yard that was smoothed and compacted for building on. now in my area you have to have a minimum of 2 acres per septic system for new build. older systems are grandfathered in, but if you decide to add on to your home you cannot if you have to increase the size of the septic and don't have teh 2 acres to do it. and as stated above, the health dept here sets the size and type system you get. you give the house plans to them, they come do a perc test if they don't already know that area, and then they tell you what type system you require. sometimes they will give you no choice at all, but usually they give you the option of a minimum and a suggested system size/type. my house has 2 septics, one for the laundry and kitchen and one for the bath rooms. both are 1000 gallon with at least 350 ft of leach field line each.

A reputable upholstery shop thats been in the business for 15 years and longer and has a good following can help you with this. They run into people like you everyday. Usually they will have a large assortment and will guide down the right path. Basically a heavy tight woven blend of natural and synthetics should last many years if maintained properly.

Very Interesting..... Lozza said in one of the other threads about Roses "" In constantly hot weather, dormancy can be induced by withholding water from the plants. They will become dormant, not dead, just unproductive, until awakened by drenching rain."" ...Lozza would know these things Now never having done this before I thought I may try it next Summer but exactly just how much water do we with hold as its no good depending on natural rainfall as sometimes it does not rain for eight weeks or more, also if I stopped watering mine the soil will go hard like concrete then the water would just run off down to the hardwood edges which would have shrunk being so dry and what a waste. Mine have been flowering all Mid Winter, Spring and Summer and I was getting heaps of buds all over Summer, till the caterpillars came by the hundreds and we could not keep up with pulling them off by hand, then four weeks ago I hard pruned all my 39 plants, climbers, carpet roses, ramblers, Standards, Mini's and bush roses to get rid of these caterpillars. It did not work and two weeks ago they started again with the leaf curling cocoons on the new growth so I sprayed them that worked and now I have heaps of buds coming on. My two Bonica Patio Roses were in such a bad way that last Saturday I dug them up but because they each have a hardwood stake in them of course all the soil fell off them anyway I put them in a different bed and there is new growth there already after only one week.. thats Qld weather for you, I also fed my others but not Organic this time as I got tired of adding the tsp of K to it as in Potassium Sulphate and they were lacking something so now I give them 10 grams of Nitrophoska Blue Special at six week intervals so I will see how this food goes if I dont see a improvement then I will go back to Organic food.. So if I have to do this dormancy thing next Summer just to keep those Caterpillar's away I will do it. I just need to know the right amount to water or do I just water when they start to go limp, which sounds like what FF is doing . Cheers..MM.