I received the proposal for the work. To some extent the plants selected and the numbers of each is based upon plants of sufficient size which are available now. So I would like to stick with these choices for the moment. My question is which to plant where. The area has several sections that I list the proposed plants for. Left Side - This is the long 4 1/2 ft fence on the left side of the property. This is the shortest fence. Ideally I want there, the plants that are tallest, fastest growing and that are "wide" making it hard for dogs to jump across them. I have no clue of the proposed plants meet this goal best of those available (again assume that I only have available the 192 plants that I list). Back - This is the 5' fence along the back. About 5' behind it is another 4 1/2' fence. Right Side - This is the 6' fence on the right side of the property. About 5' behind it is a somewhat broken down wire fence, sagging in places, 3 to 4' high. Because this side will have the 6' fence it can have the smallest plants. Right Side from House - This is a cross fence on the Right Side going from the garage to the 6 ft fence. This would have the plants planted facing into the back yard (where dogs would be) Left Side from House- Back - This is a cross fence on the Right Side going from the house to the 4 1/2 ft fence - This would have the plants planted facing into the back yard (where dogs would be) Left Side from House- Front - This is another cross fence on the Right Side going from the house to the 4 1/2 ft fence - This would have the plants planted facing into the front yard. Therefore the choices here are more aesthetic since the dogs would not be in the front yard. On the below list some spellings may be wrong. I have an emailed sketch and it hard to read a couple of things. Left Eleagnus 9 10 gal Pineapple Guava 7 15 gal Viburnum 7 7 gal Wax Myrtle 6 15 gal Back Bottlebrush 9 7 gal Wax Myrtle 2 15 gal Viburnum 5 7 gal Wax Myrtle 4 15 gal Ligustrum 8 10 gal Pineapple Guava 5 15 gal Ligustrum 13 10 gal Right Bottlebrush 8 7 gal Wax Myrtle 5 15 gal Pineapple Guava 7 15 gal Wax Myrtle 5 15 gal Eleagnus 16 10 gal Right side of house Variegated Pittosporum 10 7 gal Left Side of House - Back Wax Myrtle 11 15 gal Variegated Pittosporum 5 7 gal Left Side of House - Front Lopopetallum 10 5 gal Giant Lipiope 12 1 Gal Foxtail Fern 9 3 gal Indian Hawthorn 10 3 gal Agapanthus 6 1 gal Crape Myrtle 3 15 gal

Barbara, nice seeing you there. I bought a bunch of plants. I was going to come by later but had a little tragedy in the pet family. My dog had a heart attack Saturday and died Sunday. Obituary from my wife cindy potts to Tracy, Kim, Claire, Joni, Joyce, panda78413, James, me, Brenae, Patty, sharon, Pat, Christopher, Renee show details 2:16 pm (8 hours ago) Today, October 7,2007 is a very sad day in the Potts family. Today we lost our beloved Tex. He died this morning. Tex had heart worms for the past year. Tex is survived by his wife Jasmine, his loving brother Rex and sister-in-law Mollie. He was the father of 13, but only three were living with him, they are LT, Tiger and Snapper. We will all miss him, he was our joy. He is the reason that we are blessed with all our other "kids with tails." Love to all, The Potts I wish you could clone dogs like brugs. I do not imagine there is another on this earth like him. I bred him 4 times hoping for another. No luck, just dogs. He was part human and had the Iq of an Einstein. With no fear. I will miss him dearly. Roses I can kill them faster than anyone. They hate my soil. I talked with Linda and a neighbor of yours has a type of plant I am after. I need to find out the name. It is growing at green acres next to the herb area. Email me and I will give you my phone number again. I am sorry I missed coming by your garden home in Rockport, it is special. It was nice to see you and Ruth and to meet Linda. Gardeners are special people. Jim

Sorry it took me so long to respond, I've been out of town. I'm south of Tampa and actually on the coast, which means warmer temps than the inland areas of zone 9b. Can't even recall the last time we had a freezing temp here. Foxtails are one of the most common palms around here and they thrive. Along with royals, queens, cocounuts, and christmas palms. In fact, there's a large palm farm within a mile of my neighborhood that grows tons of large, healthy palms. Weather is definitely not an issue here. Maybe I just expected too much from my foxtail. All over the neighborhood I see foxtails with 8-10 fronds. I have watched my neighbor's foxtail sprout and open 3 new fronds in the 3 months since it was planted. Perhaps mine is just slower because it's smaller and is just taking longer to get established. I guess time will tell. BTW, the second spear has now caught up in size with the first spear. Starting to wonder which will open first!

I live in Austin, not in San Antonio, and I garden on caliche/limestone. While I've never gardened on sand, I have a friend and a co-worker who have. One in Bellville and one in Dale, Texas whose husband is actually a farmer. Given the choice, I'd pick the sand. Where I live, I have about 3-5 inches of soil over caliche. In some places it's hard rock. The amount of topsoil you have various with location. Planting anything in caliche is a pain. It takes a breaker bar and an hour or so to dig a fair sized hole. As Linda mentioned, she grows many things in raised beds and I have begun to do so too after learning the hard way. I also have fruit trees--a fig and a native persimmon--planted in the caliche 8 years ago, and they have only grown about two feet in that time. They are both only about five-six feet tall. They should be taller. The fig and the persimmon produce, but they are stunted. I also have an American Beauty Berry planted in 2000 that has not grown at all in all of that time. It has three branches and is 2 feet tall but should be 6 feet tall. My friends who grow on sand seem to have healthy plants. They do have to add a lot of soil ammendments and water because everything seems to go through the soil, but at least their plants are able to put down deep roots. On the positive side of caliche, my house foundation, fence posts, and clothesline posts have never moved. It's the only positive thing I can say about the stuff.