Great job..............another idea to put on my TO-DO list! OMG I'll never get to the end. What type of glue did you use to hold the glass pieces on? Does anyone know what type of paint may have been used on the ones in the GJ Inspiration Album. My thought process really started rolling after seeing all those inspireing bowling balls.

I can't say much about the long term since I've only been living in this house for a couple years but I'm strongly with the "the heck with em" camp about pests and diseases. I do try to rotate my gardens around (not planting the same thing in the same spot all the time with annuals.) I am very firmly against buying bagged dirt, Just costs way too much. I do get mushroom compost when I can and I have used the free compost from the county too (ya just gotta watch out for glass in it.) We collect most of the neighborhood bagged leaves and grass clippings for the gardens and compost. We ask tree services working in the area if they need a place to dump the chips they can do it at our house. We compost and have a worm farm. I figure the more biologically active I can make the soil, the less likely the negative stuff can out compete and proliferate. About the only things I've sprayed as pesticides or whatnot, were thruicide, organocide, and neem. My biggest problem seems to be potassium deficiency. I spray with maxicrop but that gets costly when I have most of my yard growing squash, pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers that are all asking for more potassium (powdery mildew tends to attack those plants when they are weak on potassium.) Anyway, most of my gardens started as "lasagna gardens" with cardboard and mulch and mushroom compost. We don't till though occasionally we will for or spade through a bed after harvest to try to get rid of most of the annoying grasses. I can't really see replacing soil though if a particular bed or area seemed to get "toxic" I would probably knock it down and leave it fallow if I couldn't find something that wanted to grow there as a cover crop. I only add organic matter. I don't buy "top soil" or even "sand". I don't even buy bagged potting mix anymore. I just make a mix of old garden or potting soil mixed with new mushroom compost, other compost, some home mixed organic fertilizer and worm castings and call it new potting mix. I figure the more composted stuff around, the better everything will be inoculated to the possible diseases. I can't say for certain the long term effects of my methods as they have only been going on a couple years but I seem to be doing well so far. Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

Hi Karen, We've been doing pretty good over here. The home remodel will hopefully be done in the next couple of weeks. A lot has changed since you came over last summer! My Plumies survived the winter, with no damage, but only because I over-wintered them in my garage and storage bin. My hubby wasn't too thrilled to have all 28 plumerias stacked all over his garage and bin, but at least they survived our horrible winter freeze. I just finished a couple days ago transplanting all of them into bigger pots, so I have no idea how I'm going to find room for them next winter. (Half of them are now in 15 gallon pots, the other ones are in pots over 5 gallons) Because of the remodel I wasn't able to get the yard prepped for putting some of them in the ground this year. I'm hoping to put at least 6-7 in the ground by next year. As it is I'm looking to buy an Aztec Gold (or other strong yellow) and a Penang Peach. I'd love to get a ACW as well, but we'll see... I understand what Bill is saying about the wood rotting..Would hate for that to happen and cause damage to my plant. I guess I was just hoping that since it was only going to be for this growing season that I could get away with it. But it's not worth the risk of losing a plumie...So I guess I have more work to do! :) Good luck jroot, you've come to a great place for help with your "new addiction"... :)

Well…it’s done, but it was a huge ordeal. In my yard, there is about 8 inches to a foot of topsoil, and solid dense clay under that, that is also full of rocks. It’s why I have difficulty planting anything large. I had told him that in advance, but it was not something he had dealt with before (this was friend doing the work, like a trade; I will help him install a non-standard door later). The auger was useless after a foot. I have a post hole digger too, that was no better. The clay had to be chipped out bit by bit, and larger rocks pried out til the depth got to the 2 feet he wanted. So instead of 2 deep narrow holes, we had 2 cone-shaped holes, maybe 16" in diameter. We moved the big hibiscus, and some lilies, and I had put stakes marking other plants to protect them. But that plan went by the wayside quickly, as digging those holes seemed to require more and more room. I was supposed to be just an observer, due to my knee surgery. But I and another friend ended up helping too, which flattened the area even more. I should have removed all the plants within a 3 foot radius of each hole! We got the posts level, mixed and poured in the concrete. Then the position of the posts had to be endlessly tweaked, which took 3 of us. I wanted to “hide” the square posts behind 2 of the outermost uprights. The plan was to let the posts set while we had lunch (it was then 3:30, and we had started at 12:30). But we decided to place the gate immediately, while we could still move the posts slightly. Which turned out to be a good thing. Again, more tweaking of angles and leveling. Had to shim one end with bricks, as (you might be able to see in the above photo) the pointed ends at the bottom are different lengths. Got it clamped on with 2 thick U bolts at the bottom and muffler clamps at the top. I will paint those soon. Tomorrow I will have to clear out stray gravel and clay pieces from around it, which will be challenging considering I can’t kneel on my right knee. I will come up with a new place for the hibiscus, which I put into a large pot temporarily. I have a non-performing Endless Summer hydrangea at the sunnier end of the bed, which never grows more than a 16” tall (and doesn’t bloom). I think I’ll put the hibiscus there, where it won’t block the view of the gate. The thing I am worried about now is how compacted the soil became. I don’t know what to do about that, if anything is possible. The plants that had not yet emerged might not be able to get through. The ones that were emerging in that 3 foot radius are largely smashed. Some tall salvias, liatris. Lots of crushed irises. I think I will fork those out and move them. I don’t know if it would be advisable to try to stick pitchfork in and loosen the soil in general. And/or just add some bagged topsoil on top of everything, and call it a day. Buy some new plants. ;) I know I will like the results in the end, once things start growing around it.