Thanks, Billie I didn't cover it for the first night. I didn't want the piece to get the same texture as the bag. The next morning I covered it up first thing. As for the bird baths and the like, when knocking on them, I think the peat moss gives them a more muffled sound. This is why I thought it wasn't made of concrete (straight mortar). I'm feeling pretty confident about what my next piece will be. As for the manhandling, my next piece will require me to flip it over at some point, before it's too late to carve. So far, both of my molds have been outter molds. I've noticed that the rim, which is up against the plastic, which in turn is up against the floor, always has a plastic glue-like finish. I want to make sure I can manipulate this before the tufa is dry, and that will require flipping over. Also, I am going for a rock-like look, which means thicker walls, which means heavier piece, which means, handling it will require precise timing. You'd think I'm crazy going for something more difficult when this simple thing failed, but I think I learned some valuable lessons here. I'm going to start creating the mold. One of the lessons I learned, is you can make a mold out of anything. This new approach is going to be really interesting and I am surely going to post it here, hopefully with successful results this time :-) As for working outside, now is a good time here in FL, because it's not raining, although I did have a stroke of bad luck the next day, because it did rain. Luckily, my tufa had been covered by then ;-)

I live in Orlando too and went organic about 18 months ago. I fired my lawn spray company after getting hit with crabgrass and cynch bugs last year. - those last pictures are crabgrass and you just need to rip it out. You can spray it, but still you have to put something down. We get a lot of rain this year and cg loves rain. Rip it out, replace with sod. It will spread fast so rip or spay asap. This is what I did and worked ok for me. - March - Depending on the ground temp, above 50 for a few days I put down 60 lbs of CGM. You can get this at Palmer's Feed store (2 locations - one downtown and the other close to Baldwin Park - look in the phone book and call them before going over there. They might have to order the CGM. It is expensive 54 dollars for 40 lbs. Also, the bag I got a few days ago really stunk because it was wet. I wish I had not bought it since it stunk up my garage. But it was their last bag. If that stuff is not wet there is no smell. I did get great results preventing crabgrass for about 3 months. Then the rains hit and I have crabgrass on the low spots. I just rip it out by hand. But for me CGM worked pretty well. - Soybean Meal - I put down in June. Good Results. Dark Green grass. I get it from Farm City downtown. Call them and they will order it if not in stock. (50 lbs for 18 dollars) - Alfalfa Meal - I get it from Farm City too. They usually carry it. (50 lbs for 18 dollars). It comes in a pellet form so you just toss it around on your yard. It has a very nice smell to it. All of these grains put down as soon as you get them. You don't need mice etc..in your garage. Then water it in after you put it down. The alfalfa gets big then breaks down after you water it. - Corn Meal - I found the Carribean Store over in Pine Hills carries this product (50 lbs for 18 dollars, always in stock). We had a lot of rain and I put down 100 lbs to prevent fungus. No fungus problems. - Milorgite - I got from HD - 12 dollars for 40lbs. I just put down 40 lbs of CGM yesterday to see if it will control the "winter weeds" and crabgrass. Dead Spots - Last year I had some dead spots from the cynch bugs and I just ripped out the sod and put down some black cow (4 dollars a bag) and then new sod. This worked very well. Also, put some milorgite down on the new sod too. Weeds - My worse areas are the low spots and get swamp grass. I've been raising those spots by sand and/or ripping out the old grass and raising with black cow/dirt. Water - I try avoid over watering. We had a lot of rain this summer so if you are careful you can time it right. Crabgrass loves the water so if you over water you will get Crabgrass. The swamp weeds are a real pain and you can rip them out or spray with weed killer. If you kill it, you have to replace it with grass or it will just grow back. You might notice some areas don't need water whereas others do. Just use your hose vice watering everything. This past summer we got a lot of rain and my grass got a "lime green" color. I used milorgnite to bring it back. I don't really care for the ironite stuff. One mistake I made was not getting the soil test. I just keep putting it off. I'll do it this winter. My experience going organic has been ok. It is not cheaper than using the commercial lawn care companies, but my grass looks better than most of the lawns around me. I like the results of the CGM and soybean meal. I mow at the highest setting and obtain good results. - SOD - A pain getting good sod. I call HD or Lowes and they usually get it twice a week. Call first. Then look at it when you get it. If it's dry, skip it and wait till the next shipment. Putting down the black cow then the sod works well. It is usually about 1.40 per piece. - Some other things I played around with were spraying molasses on the lawn to see if it prevents/kills sod web worms. I noticed the moths flying around a few weeks ago and sprayed it down. I don't see very many moths now. After I get the results of the soil test I'll make the necessary adjustments. I would guess you can get used coffee grounds from Starbucks but that sounds too messy for me. Next year, depending on costs, I will use more soybean meal since I like the nice green results. It's a long process so just take your time and do it the best you can without losing sleep over it. If costs are a concern you could do the front first since that is what everyone sees and then work on the side as time goes on. Good Luck!

Thank you so much Jenn. My wife gets all the credit for the pool design. I just had few ideas and she pulled it all together. We started with a couple of designs from PBs but then we kept wanting to change this and that to see what it would look like. So we got our own software and my wife created at least 50 different versions of our pool. The final PB plan started from our plan and they made some recommendations based on their expertise of designing pools. Our tanning ledge will only have partial flagstone around the area that will be out of the water. We wanted the beach entry for our babies - 2 tiny toy poodles. There's no way they'd be jumping into a foot of water. Let's just hope they learn to use the beach entry. I'm looking most forward to the tanning ledge. It just seems like the best area to lounge around in. Glad to hear no birds have paid you a visit. We used to have a koi pond by our patio and birds would come. But then again, we used to have 4 trees in our backyard that have since been cleared. So yes, time will tell. Otherwise I'll have to find creative ways to scare away the birds.

There are basically two methods of making something look better: covering it with a housing; or "chroming" it (for lack of knowing someone else's better term). An example of the former are car bodies and almost any kitchen appliance. We don't see the guts of a toaster because they are covered with a concealing housing. Some ugly things on the other hand, because they are either difficult to conceal or the designer wants different, are left to be exposed but their surface is treated to make it jewel-like or somehow otherwise pretty, and the quintessential example of this is the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which is why I call it "chroming." Every part of the ugly engine is covered in chrome so that, collectively, the engine looks like a big, shiny piece of vibrating jewelry. It seems that both these techniques will be useful in tidying up the yard space. One pitfall of concealing by using the housing method, is that whatever is being concealed becomes larger. Since shrubs and vines are the common material of which to make landscape "housing," they are bulky and can consume enormous amounts of space, depending on how they are maintained. In addition, if the materials won't do their job naturally once arranged in the proper spot, maintaining them can require a LOT of trimming maintenance. It helps to have a big yard in order to use these things this way. My own back yard is small but there happens to be a more or less massive heat pump at the back, center of the house. When I was initially planning the back yard I figured I'd do what everyone does and conceal it. But I'm a believer in testing ideas (to the extent one can) prior to implementing them. I used tall stakes and flagging tape to simulate the limits of a concealing vine on a trellis (it being less than the size shrubs would need to consume.) The concealing planting had to be larger enough than the AC unit in order to conceal it so seemed, with its housing, as if something the size of half a locomotive was parked at the back of the house! I knew immediately I wasn't going to be happy with it. My next solution was a combination of "housing" and "chroming." The chroming part was that the AC unit was given a two-tone paint job with gloss oil base paint. The housing part was a trellis surround that was very low and allowed the AC to be seen except for at the very bottom. The front posts were very short The trellis was my standard posts connected by swag chains that are hung on hooks, which allows me to remove the vine (by unhooking and laying down flat) whenever the front panel on the AC unit needs to be accessed for servicing. I'm happy with the compromise solution as what part of the AC unit shows, does not look offensive. Another thing that helps to conceal, though it is not concealment itself is placing something in shade. Many things can be obvious in sun, but nearly hidden in shade. Another things that sometimes help conceal is distraction, by having something more important upstaging the offending object. Another is "filtering". Even if a screen can be seen through partially -- as a gauzy haze -- it many times can be enough to remove offensiveness. So there are lots of tools to work with. But don't think about it too much at this stage. The first thing to plan for is where the various functions of the yard will occur, and arranging them for harmonious interaction.