Tabby, You are a saint! I am in a huge need of a tiller for a 2-acre garden I have just inherited. It is at a hospital with a few of the many acres dedicated to horticulture therapy and instruction. My students include Veterans as well as other patients. I can assure you it will go to a great cause and if you like, I can issue you a tax deductible form. I'd also love to provide you with some starter plants for you new home/yard. What are you interested in growing? Thanks. Hope you still have it!

Thank you, to all, for your advice. The home is 3827 sq.ft. 2 levels, and we thought we needed to match the 4 ton furnaces. One company priced a 3 1/2 ton which I questioned, but he said if you need more they would upgrade it at no extra cost to us, so I guess they would do a load calc when we accept their bid or if we find it's not cooling enough. Should we be request a load calculation from someone now? I don't remember anyone mentioning doing a load calculation during the bid process. I also find it's very chilly on the first floor, even when the thermostat is set at 70 - 72. I don't think this house is insulated very well and I guess all the heat rises as well. Advice on next steps to take? Thank you for your help with this information. My husband is leaning towards AC, but I wondered if we were making a mistake not trying to go more energy efficient with a heat pump. It's all too new to me, but I'm learning.

I have an area just outside the front of my house, see attached picture, where there are a couple of plants and small trees but a good portion of the dirt is exposed and bare. This section gets lots of indirect light during the day but no direct sunlight as it's under the overhang of the roof. There is irrigation in this area, both drip and spray. I need some ideas on what to plant in this area such that the dirt doesn't show as much. Would appreciate the community's feedback. Thanks, Sal

I agree with the advice to hire a local designer. The yard is too chopped up to make meaningful suggestions from the pictures. Based on the "like succulents" comment, I would remove any shrubs that are in the "green meatball" stage which is overly sheared because it was in appropriately planted to begin with and replace with shrubs that are more casual to compliment the tropical palm look. A proper irrigation set up would also be advised when doing the renovation or as a first phase. Also consider using synthetic turf in areas where the old grass died but not as much square footage to save on overall costs. Maintenance should also be a consideration when developing a new design. Homeowners who are not willing to spend time in their gardens should have primarily plants that are diehard and tolerate neglect. Container plants need to be properly watered on their own irrigation station separate from the plants in the ground. The best bang for your buck would be to hire a local APLD certified designer to do at least these three things: 1) Recommend what to keep and what to remove (may or may not need to create a sketch, but could use the aerial photo to create zones or spaces to refer to 2) Develop a plant palette / list of plants 3) Hire them back to perform the placement after demo and irrigation is set up (This assumes no hardscape will be added or modified) Laypersons and contractors who are simply the installers who simply follow a plan of a planting plan don't realize that if the designer were digging the holes for the plants, they would invariably move them to appropriate spots regardless of where they appear on the plan. Field placement is far better than relying on a 2 dimensional plan. But not all designers get to be present during installation. That is one drawback of a design only unless you are willing to do it yourself and hire them back for the install process. If you do hire a designer, make sure the preliminary design is sent to a few licensed contractors who can give pricing and make sure the preliminary design is sufficiently detailed so as to provide meaningful pricing rather than ballpark figures.