cozy - Wow. If I publish photos on iVillage, or for that matter, write on iVillage, I forfeit my ownership of those publications - just like you or any other participant here does - it's in the fine print, and it's an implied contract, which we all agreed to when we posted our first words. To whit: BY VISITING THE GARDENWEB NETWORK OR COMPLETING THE MEMBER REGISTRATION PROCESS AND SELECTING THE "SUBMIT REGISTRATION" OPTION, YOU ARE INDICATING YOUR AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, AS SUCH TERMS MAY BE MODIFIED FROM TIME TO TIME. iVillage shall not be liable to you for any breach of these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service, please do not visit or register for any websites on the GardenWeb Network. From time to time iVillage may supplement these Terms of Service with additional terms pertaining to specific content, services, products, features or tools ("Additional Terms"), which Additional Terms may be placed on the GardenWeb Network to be viewed in connection with the specific content, services, products, features or tools and shall be identified as such. You understand and agree that such Additional Terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Service. In addition, from time to time iVillage may amend or otherwise modify these Terms of Service, as set forth in Section 4 below. Unauthorized access, distribution, reproduction, copying, retransmission, publication, sale, exploitation (commercial or otherwise) or any other form of transfer of any portion of the GardenWeb Network, including but not limited to all content, services, products, features or tools, is hereby expressly prohibited. That's pretty straightforward. The process of print publication, unlike on the web, requires a different set of agreements and contracts, to which I am also bound, and one of the stipulations is that until the book is published, my advance on royalties prohibits me from publishing closely related content in other media outlets. Since the prose part of the book is essentially complete except for the final edit, and because gardening is only one facet of a much more complex topic than you seem to be imagining, I have a good understanding of what I can and can not write, but the illustrations are actively being dealt with right now, and I'm not going to jeopardize a project that is several years in the making just because you can't understand what I'm describing without a picture. Obviously it must be a failure in my writing. I have no idea where you get this impression of "dictatorship," maybe you would prefer that I preface every post with the phrase "What I would do... " but dude, this is the internet - that should be implied from the get-go. Nor do I understand what you find wrong with my interest in selling my words or pictures or ideas... where I'm from, we call that free enterprise, and it's not only accepted, but encouraged. I'm not selling it here, I'm giving it away (or perhaps not giving it away, in some cases, but I'm not asking anyone to pay for anything). I have spent many years and dollars and hours of labor creating what I have, including a market that many people don't fully understand. I have, I think, been quite generous with my experience, and intend to continue to be so. If that doesn't satisfy your needs, really, I'm sorry. Nothing I'm doing is preventing you from doing the same thing, and every resource that I used to get where I am - from the Boston Public Library to Nexis Lexis to visiting farmers who don't speak English in Europe and chefs in the US who don't garden, and learning many things the hard way, by making costly mistakes - is just as accessible to anyone else who wants to make the effort. I already have a pretty full plate; making your life easier while you "sit on the sidelines" and get pointlessly pissed-off is more than I want to take on, and is not in my own best interest. If you simply need an outlet for your frustrations I'm content with providing that for you, but if you think that I'm the cause of them you might best be served by some further introspection.

I have six citrus trees in wine barrel planters, and I grow them there because I have terrible soil plus a lot of concrete that gets a lot of sun. I would never put anything else in the planters with the trees, other than bark, as the trees are too valuable to me. When the level of the soil sinks down, I carefully remove the tree and add soil to the bottom. The trees need all the soil they can get and do not need competition from ground cover plants. I also give my trees citrus food on a regular basis, about four times a year. If you want something decorative in the planters, I think a coarse gravel might look nice. I find nice gravel at a stone yard. Lars

One consideration for your cut out size is how will your vines get enough water? You really don't want to set yourself up to have to water constantly. If the cut outs are too small and the spacing on your boards are too narrow to provide enough rainfall year round to get enough water to the ground. If the cut outs are large enough to collect enough water on their own, maybe 26" X 26", I kind of like the bottomless plexi glass sleeve idea filled even with the deck with good soil tilled into the original soil so the roots can penetrate and spread out. That way no leaves build up in the cut outs. That would also solve the other problem I see with the small cutout idea if the ground is 10 inches below the deck and the cut outs have no lips. If something falls and rolls off the edge into the hole, how will you fish something out of the hole? You have to think about how the trellis in each cutout will be held in place so that winter snowstorms or summer thunderstorms don't blow them over. It will take strong fastening. They also need to be made out of no maintenance materials. You could use these strong trellises to hold containers of annual vines like morning glories (I grow morning glories and moonflowers on my deck every summer in containers) to fill in in until the clematis vines get larger. Since the winter cold will kill the annual vines and they are in containers not the ground, they shouldn't interfere.

I like the versatility of a ledge - more dimensional opportunities than a plain wall - adds a cozy scale to a high wall. Two go around a corner where the DR is partially open to the front hall here, above beams which support the open spans. Ledges on both the DR & entry sides but only visible from one side or the other, as the wall above ends at the center of the beams & deep molding finishes all sides. The entry hall walls go up another 15', giving a feeling of volume very similar to a vault. Neighbor friend has a 2-story family room where display boxes were set between the studs at what would have been slightly over single story ceiling height & drywalled. Both treatments give a more interesting silhouette to what is otherwise a straight tall wall expanse. She displays sculptures in hers, which are strikingly dramatic at night with shadows from the lamp lighting below. My ledges hold colorful gameboards & painted wooden carvings. One of those tallish wand dusters on a swivel head makes dusting simple & twice a year I use a ladder to remove & clean thoroughly. Same with stoneware atop the kitchen cupboards. Paintings & 3-D artwork hung on the entry walls go nearly to the ceiling & get the high telescoping duster treatment in routine cleaning. I don't think of these as dated, but as classic. Open beam structure from before colonial times were used to store & hang items, Craftsman homes often have wide & high shelving rimming a room for the same purpose, and cupboard tops traditionally store & display items. If you like the look & the possibilites, go for it. You can always leave them bare as dimensional highlights to the wall.