At our house, the fact that we eat more fresh produce when we grow it is priceless. Definitely an excellent ROI, in wall street terms, and ROH (return on health.) The physical labor involved and the increased intake of "good for you" combined with the fact that we didn't and won't spray any kind of stuff on all of that food is an exponential benefit. Not all of the seeds we buy will end up yielding something to eat. But even when you add the cost of seeds you buy that produce nothing to eat, there has always been a financial gain in overall money saved at the grocery store. Critters of various types end up killing some plants or ruining some produce, but if I start sprayin stuff, there goes the money I was going to save. If I'm going to eat produce that's been sprayed, it's probably better if it's been done professionally and not by me, clueless about 'cides. So it makes more sense to me to save the trouble of all of the extra mosquito bites I would get doing it, the cost of the spray, and the need to become educated about using 'cides which I am growing produce to avoid. I think it's better to let the birds eat the bugs they can find, attract beneficials (that don't end up getting 'cided also) to handle the bad guys better next time. When the failed plants are put in the compost pile, they make a last contribution to the food chain. Growing food that you would have otherwise paid for is a no-brainer to me. One is already paying for the space, makes a lot more sense to get something of value from it than to have just more grass that costs more money to mow. Veggies don't have to be grown in ugly rows, or huge dedicated squares and rectangles. If you mix them in with flowers, it just looks like more leaves. It's also easier and so much more yummy to pick tomatoes, cukes, zukes, etc... off of a chain link fence than to weed-wack the fence all summer. Veggies just blend into the landscape, except corn. Monocultures are also more vulnerable to pests and diseases, so spreading your produce - tomatoes especially - throughout the yard instead of all in a row can make the difference of even getting something vs. nothing. This is also (insert number of spread-out plants) times more likely to attract beneficials who look for pests on certain plants. Like the clich� about putting all of your eggs in one basket. If you get one bell pepper from a bought plant, you're probably already ahead financially. Same with a pack of cantaloupe or watermelon seeds. And what kid wouldn't prefer to grow a pumpkin ($1 for seeds) over buying one (starting at $5.) Cha-ching. Lettuce and spinach was really great this year! We're not real into salad, but we ended up eating some lettuce almost every day since all I had to do was go outside and pick exactly the amount we wanted. Often when I buy lettuce or spinach, most of it goes bad. I've never understood why they only sell such big bags of spinach, or a whole head of...

Thank you all. Sempervirens are so overused in parts of the south. They are beautiful, but i just want something different. I have c. cashmeriana, which so far so good, but its winter. I have located a c. lusitanica, but i fear it may be mislabled in that is idential to the cashmeriana I have. I also have found a source of funebris, but I'm just not sure what to try. The cupressus are so unique to me, in that I've never been able to use them having lived in the north, aside from c. glabra. Its sort of frustrating, because I cant seem to come across information on line related directly to the South and I'm really not seeing much diversity in plant material in Southern nurseries, aside from in the Raleigh area.

Thanks---yep, we've played with their site, which is definitely very cool. Found unfortunately that it's not a great representation of the actual colors with the monitor oddities, even after adjusting the calibration, though. Ah, well. I got stuck because I like the gray-green combos fine on screen, but when we started pulling the chips they didn't look at all the same...argh! The guy at our local BM dealer said the same about the historical colors, interestingly---he thinks they're richer. We like a couple of the HC grays (Edgecomb + Stonington) but haven't had much luck with greens there---they seem more muted. (So far the front runners there are Pear Green, Wales Green, and maybe Potpourri Green from the Color Preview line.)

Yeah, that's why I say the pictures don't do it justice jasdip. It's not a tiny house. Not a monster, but not tiny. You can stand in the basement. When I say full, that sounded like finished, but it isn't. Just big! Lots of storage. You see the tiny white car in the picture, on the lefthand side? That's right about where my house is. As you can see, even from far up, going down the white stairs to dock which is on the river alone is about thirty feet. Plus another 40 or so feet straight up to that grove of trees? No way the river is coming up to the house. After the great flood of 2010, everyone has a good idea of what does flood. It's not on the FEMA map. It does not have to have flood insurance. And they didn't disclose it flooded. I really really really truly doubt it can flood, since it obviously didn't flood then. Everything flooded in 2010! I lived across the street from the above linked building. Gosh what an ugly picture of the area. Must've been spring before anything was blooming. closer look at the stairs. I'd hate to walk those!