There's nothing quite as cool-looking(temperaturewise) as BLUE flowers. I grew Phacelia a few years ago, best blue i ever saw, next to cornflowers. The bell-shaped blue flowers with icy-white anthers were beautiful, and stirred up images of cooler weather. They do have a short bloom time, hot weather just about stops the show, cutting back helps somewhat. Give 'em a try, i believe there are 2 or 3 varieties. Good luck, and enjoy.

Hi I guess that might be true but by the time you invest in grow lights,hydroponic systems,even air conditioning,not to mention operating the systems, what would be the expense of a little refining for a crop at least 20 times more valuable.?? After all if it wasn't illegal it would be downright cheap .lol Note that the US is still the largest producer of tobacco and still the most valuable agricultural export last time I checked. Seems to be a bit of research suggesting that it may be harmful?? lol gary

Toads eat bugs, and bugs are attracted to light, water, and hiding places. Toads, and most other frogs, also mate & lay eggs in water. The water needs to be a pond, ditch, or deep puddle, with a going mini-ecology, so that the tadpoles have something to eat & places to hide. (A saucer of water is not sufficient.) I can nearly always find a toad or two at night, waiting for dinner under the porch light. Thick, fine foliage is only a few inches away, and the automatic sprinklers keep the ground moist for both the frogs and bugs. The toads just wait for a flying bug to land on the foliage or the concrete below the light. Put in a small garden pond with a little rock waterfall, and let it run for a summer. Plant ferns or other fine foliage around it. Pretty soon you'll find that birds have brought frog eggs (stuck to their feet), and you'll get tadpoles.. and frogs. The waterfall provides aeration that is often absent in a still garden pond. Aeration is the key to beneficial organisms starting a viable ecology in the pond. Algae growing on the waterfall rocks also provides feed to microorganisms that feed the tapoles, as well as snails & other pond critters. Of course, the perfect environment for frogs is also the perfect environment for snakes.. who feed on frogs. Most snakes are very reclusive, and you may have a half-dozen small snakes in your yard and go for years without ever seeing one. (I haven't mentioned that to my wife.) Snakes also eat small rodents, which is a feature that keeps them on my "good critter" list. On warm summer nights in the south, following a rain, toads and other small frogs go noisily berserk in their mating frenzies. Drive out into the country after a rain has followed a couple-of-weeks dry spell. The ditches will be full of frogs and long sticky strings of frog eggs. The country-ditch ecology will not miss a zip-bag full of eggs, from among the billions of frog eggs that are laid in a damp summer night. (Wear high boots, and make lots of noise walking.. snakes will hear you coming & nearly all snakes will leave the immediate area if they "hear" a human.) Here is a link that might be useful: Lone Star Chapter, American Hibiscus Society

phylhl, you are not alone in making creative use of your photocopier! Check out oldbat2be's thread on this. Pretty good idea, might just have to get my printer fixed. (It died mid-reno, I suspect from construction dust.) MareLuce, that's one reason I liked the travertine -- it complements the island top nicely. It was suggested to me that travertine in a larger format might look more contemporary than 3x6s, but I just don't know. And then there's the whole "pink elephant in the room" problem. (Will the travertine stay beige, or will it turn pink in the room?) Ack -- this is hard! Maybe I like the painted splash just fine! Here is a link that might be useful: photocopied tile