"With the air tight IC recessed light cans you should still build air sealed enclosures around them because they leak a lot apparently. LEDs are a great choice for these locations especially without enclosures as they have a weaker "mini chimney" effect." in all my projects new and existing I've found many ways to seal IC cans. retrofit with inserts. then seal housing to sheetrock ceiling...from inside the house before putting trim kits in place. even 'air tight' trims don't stop the oversized cuts in sheetrock from leaking. I use a mastic tape made by Hardcast #1402 for all my holes in ceiling. more on this later. this seal described above is the best with no measurable air leakage. building boxes..maintaining the 4" air space on all sides & top of can light..also works, cheaper cost..harder install. problem is the 'legs' of the can lights that are attached to ceiling joists & properly sealing around them. this is where the air leakage occurs. I never use foam..because it shrinks over time, you have little control over where it goes & unless it is fire rated..shouldn't be next to heat producing areas. and yeah..I'm overly cautious about this. this method can be well done..and still leaky. foam installs I've seen online in videos put fg batts around recessed lights and foam them. I don't like this at all, and it is never done on my jobs. best of all is to use ICAT only, and use the hardcast tape to seal the cut between housing & sheetrock. Hardcast brand mastic tape #1402 is a 3" wide strong mastic tape. I perfer it over any other brand on the market. cut it into 1 1/2" wide strips and use it in full width depending on size of opening to be sealed. sticks to just about any clean dry surface...to the point of pulling paper off sheetrock if you try to remove it. so use it carefully. opeings at bath fans, supply boxes, stove vents, recessed lights..I use hardcast. use it once..and you'll understand why. not the cheapest on the market @ $22- $35 per 100' roll. but absolutely great stuff. while it is hard to describe the sealing of supply boxes with hardcast from inside the house..a picture shows it well. I'll attach one to this post. flgargoyle .. foil bubble foil is an overpriced product that performs no better than the cheaper radiant barriers. in my house with a tin roof..I have a single sided foil scrim fraft paper like what is used for ductwrap. I used button cap nails to attach it to the undersides of my rafters. with gable end vents..and 3 hurricanes later I've had to do a little repair on it..but it was worth the few bucks it cost me & the 2 mornings it took to install. good benefit in summer little to none in winter. my attic has fg batts on attic floor, one layer in joist bays the other unfaced layer laid across joists. no ducts, no equipment no recessed lights and a damn near perfect air barrier from living to attic space. ducts are in fur downs inside living space, vs air handler in side living space also. a bit over sized @ 2 tons with an whole house april air dehumidifier..also in conditined space. 4" media filter at return. 15SEER unit the addition I re-roofed last summer, batts in rafter bays 1" R-7 foil foam sheating lathes & gavalnized tin. as rafter/ceiling joists are 2x4 (yeah...go figure) the batts are R-13 with the R-7 gives me R-21 for this large bedroom. prior to this install the room was used for storage as it was too hot in summer & too cold in winter and too expensive & uncomfortable to use. with radiant barriers there always has to be a mininum of a 3/4" air space. thus the lathes on top of foil foam board under tin in addition & opposite install in big attic with rb under rafters with foil facing into attic space. gotta run...but wanted to share my take on things. oh here is the pic of the supply sealed from inside the house with hardcast tape. best of luck

Funny that you should post asking what I did, since I JUST made up my mind and ordered something! Takes me a while on this stuff lol! As much as I love shutters, I ended up ordering blinds. I got real wood since the natural stone and high graining of the wood floors in my house just did not mesh - in my mind anyhow - with white shutters or blinds and the faux woods I looked at did not hold a candle to the real wood ones I found. They are very unique - Levelor 2 1/2 inch slats in a collection they call the "Estate Collection". I got the color they call "Estate Oak". They are the right tone of stain but what they bring to the mix that is unusual is that they look distressed - flecks of black and lots of variation in the stain so it looks like old wood. LOVE them. Now I cannot say how well they will hold up regarding warpage and such, but have come to the conclusion that NOTHING is a perfect choice in spite of my deep desire for that to be. I got them through StevesBlindsandWallpaper.com. First I ordered the smallest blind for this room with the idea that if I didnt care for it, I could use it on window of the same size in the back room. I did like them, however, so ordered the rest and they will be here in about a week. Steves was really good to deal with. There were some slats that had a tiny amount of sway to them - not at all noticable when the blind was closed but slightlly noticable when it was open - probably only to someone like me. Anyhow, I told them about it - not really complaining but just sort of asking if that was to be expected as I knew I had to order four more blinds that were much larger. They contacted Levelor and Levelor is sending me an entire new blind and not even requiring that I send this one back! I will move this one to the back room, and order one more like it for the other window back there! Excellent experience with them! The other online source that had a good price was Blindsexpress.com. I ordered from Steves instead as they seemed able to get the order to me sooner. After the experience with customer service at Steves, I am glad I did, altho I cannot say that BlindsExpress would have done less. They very well may have been just as helpful, and to be fair, they had the best price up front. Steves just matched them when I brought that to their attention. If you are open to doing a DIY installation of Shutters, I found great prices on shutters online at a store called Theshutterstore.com. They offer all sorts of shutters - stained, painted, real wood and faux. Before I finally ordered my blinds I was leaning very hard toward doing stained shutters in here and the price was not that much more than the blinds. I did blinds mostly because I already had white trim, crown molding and such in here and could not 'see' the stained shutters knitting easily with that. If I could have come up with a design solution, I might have done the shutters as that was the main thing I was struggling with. Given that I found blinds with such character, I think I will be happy. Plus, with blinds, I can pull them all the way up to see my very pretty view. The wall space around my windows would have been tight if I had wanted to open the shutters. I am considering doing the shutters in my bedroom, however, since a white of some shade will go well in there. Plus, TheShutterStore.com offeres a privacy slat that would really block out light. I do question the idea of having shutters only in that room, however. Is it odd to have blinds in the other rooms and shutters in that one? Anyone have an opinion on that to share? I hope you are able to make a choice that brings you peace. I really like the blinds I chose, but as I said, cannot be sure that they wont sway or warp eventually. I got the 'no holes' option - meaning that the slats just are lying in there and not with strings running through them. I figure if a slat gets a sway in it, I will flip it over and let it 'sway' back the other way lol! I think I made the right choice for me.

So far, Darcey Bussell has been my best DA performer. She’s not a favorite, only because I prefer softer colors. She remains “fairly” compact, relative to most DA’s here. She never seems to mind pruning, no matter when or how often. She blooms all the time and makes a better cut flower than most DA’s. I don’t get any disease on her here, although Embothrium has big problems with something like downey mildew on Darcey Bussell. I don’t think that’s in a dry Mediterranean climate, though. Mine is always healthy and happy. She’s in a rather small bed, so she’s cut back often. She doesn’t receive more water than anything else does, and doesn’t seem to need it. My soil is clay, so it does retain water well and is full of nutrients. Abraham Darby on the other hand, DOES want extra water here. I have never experienced rust(other than on hollyhocks), until recently. I’d been very busy over the past month or so, and must have slacked off on watering, just a little. Nobody minded except for AD. This, combined with the wind and 3-5% humidity produced a spectacular case of rust on Abraham Darby. Even though I’ve never seen rust on my roses before, it’s so bad that there’s no mistaking what it is. I’m not even sure what to do about it. I’m giving him lots of extra water, and thinking of pruning him down to almost the ground. I’m worried about spreading the rust, even while pruning. Last night, I went out late to move the hose with my headlamp on. I removed a spent bloom from AD, and in the light beam I could see tiny dust like particles floating off. I can only assume they were rust particles. I fear that while pruning the rust will blow everywhere. So AD definitely wants extra water. He’s brought me my first case of rust on a rose bush. And oh yes, of course, he grows huge in our kind of climate. Lisa

Is this a valid concern? Enough to either switch to standard pots instead, or increase the ratio of calcined products even further? I'd say it's a valid concern, given the evaporative surface is probably in the neighborhood of trebled. I can't tell you what to do because it sort of depends on how much you're willing to water. I suppose it you're willing to water daily if that's necessary, a try at upping the water retention with the added water-retaining products is a good bet. Regardless of what you try- why not also try at least one variant container type with a regular mix (if you use 1 pot) or a super soaker mix if you use the fabric bags. - And just out of curiosity, if the unscreened Turface/DE doesn't affect aeration why do you (seemingly) prefer perlite? Cost- or weight-related? I use perlite because I don't want or need the additional water retention afforded by products like Turface or calcined DE. I don't particularly like to water, but my plants appreciate me making soils that require frequent watering. I have at least 200 containers, so I have to make the watering rounds daily (unless it rains) anyway, because I have so many bonsai pots that have 1/2 cup of soil or less. Some plants only need watering every 5 days or so (like pines & junipers), but the little guys demand close attention. That's not the soil's fault - it's related almost entirely to my choices that limit soil volume. Should I water based on the volume of the media with 5-1-1, or should I water based on the size of the plant? Both of those considerations are part of what you use to decide when to water. A well made 5:1:1 is quite forgiving when it comes to the potential for over-watering, so common sense usually carries the day. After a planting is established, you might wait for a weekend when you know you can watch a plant carefully. Water on Wednesday or Thursday, then watch carefully for the first sign of wilt to give you a better idea of where the limits are. It won't take long before you'll be factoring light levels, wind, humidity ..... as a matter of course into your determination of when to water - it'll become almost reflexive. I hardly even think about what I'm doing as I water - usually thinking about something else. If you're in doubt about whether or not the plant will be ok until your next opportunity to water ..... you can usually water w/o ill effects because of the nature of the soil you're using. - Would you recommend the seedlings in an intermediate pot before they go into their final 15gal homes? Personally, I wouldn't bother, but I WOULD be mindful of making sure I keep the soil moist where I think the roots are. IOW, if all the roots are in the top 3" of soil, you better water so the top 3" is moist enough to satisfy water demands. As noted, if you run into this issue at transplant time, you can set the fabric bags on the ground (to take advantage of the earth's wicking action, or set things up so an actual wick is keeping the lower part of the container from staying soggy - say if you have to water daily immediately after transplanting. Don't worry about asking questions. That's what drives the forums. If I can't answer, there are a lot of smart folk here who can help. Once I'm a part of as thread I usually follow it until it fades away, so if you're getting replies from others (say on this thread) and I seem to have gone missing, it's just that I agree with what's being said & there's no need for me to add anything to 'their' able advice. If I think you're not getting good info, I usually offer some sort of input that will make whoever's following the thread view what was said in a light that shows it might not hold up to more than casual scrutiny. With the number of messages I get from people who actually make a point of saying they are totally confused by conflicting information, it's probably as GOOD thing for everyone if we make it more of a point to hold each other's feet to the fire so people can rely on what's being presented as good advice. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Thanks for the kind words, BTW. Al