gardengal48: ok, that is very helpful. Thank you. :-) nwnatural: given the feedback here, and our assessment of the situation, that is the direction we are going. karinl: I am glad to hear that it didnt come off as whining, which was not my intention. I greatly respect the skills and abilities of the people here who work with gardens and landscaping. It is just a bit overwhelming to the rest of us mortals. In terms of the ground cover, this was suggested to us by a friend who is a true gardener, and we have incorporated various types of thyme, teucrium, cerastium, etc. into our design. The problem is that this site was full of weeds when we cleared it to build the house and we need to control that without the use of chemicals if we can avoid it. Based on how the ground cover does, we may be able to slowly incorporate it in other areas, thereby achieving eco-enlightenment. :-) I have included photos below: gweirdo: it is somewhat difficult to answer your question, since we didnt do the landscape design. I can say that our intention was to use drought-tolerant plants that grow well in this area to create an ambiance that defined a place of sanctuary for us. Since a Mediterranean landscape evoked that feeling for us, we began to use that term, perhaps inappropriately. We also wanted to contribute to the land by replacing all the scruffy weeds with plants that would help support the local wildlife (the birds and the bees, not the adolescents in Mini-Coopers). The difficulty is to being able to communicate the experience we want from our garden using the limited lexicon that we have. It is like trying to tell someone from another planet what milk tastes like. We know exactly what we are talking about (fortunately) but no one else does. This probably means we were raised by wolves. To see the details of our design, please go here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0623022121666.html inkognito: I believe I have read enough of your posts to both respect your knowledge and appreciate your writing style. I also believe that you do not mind a bit of verbal jousting, which I am happy to provide. No offense was taken. :-) I will talk to our landscaper about the suggestions you mentioned thank you. We were also concerned about the clean up on gravel, so you are spot on there. springvillegardens: your herb garden is beautiful and the view of the hills is amazing. You have obviously put a great deal of work and love into your creation. Thank you so much for sharing this. frankie_in_zone_7: your vote has been noted and recorded for posterity. I hadnt thought about the linear feet of raking on the paths. Hmmm.... perhaps I need to take up Zen Buddhism. When you say decomposed compacted material, do you mean decomposed gravel and would that be with landscape cloth underneath or not? Thanks.

I just wanted to follow up this post with some additional information. The plant above continued to decline even after I cut off the water for the last few weeks. I was out checking it out today because it looked even worse than it had and I was tugging on the plant and it was loose in the soil. It turns out that the crown was rotting and the whole plant came free with little effort. I tugged on the other one and it was rock solid. I started doing some research on crown rot (the crown was fetid and smelled of vinegar and rotting fruit) and saw mentioned agave snout weevil. Low and behold when I started looking closely at the underside of the crown I found many holes that looked like tunnels in the crown from the bottom and found several very large agave snout weevils. I could hear a slurping, sucking sound which I can only assume was the weevils feeding in the crown. Needless to say I've removed this thing from my property and am probably going to have to treat the other plant with a systemic to be on the safe side. Another note...when I dug down into the root zone I found lightly moist but not wet earth. I do not think this plant was getting too much water. It was definitely not sitting with wet feet. The other plant looks great. Let's hope the weevils don't find it.

It might be Agave americana mediopicta alba although there was a similar looking plant that was not an agave (it had softer leaves) that they were selling at Lowes this spring. There are other striped 'century plants', too. Here is a link that might be useful: Agave americana mediopicta alba

majority? 2 design commenters mentioned home design. Did you also read the part where OP stated she wanted to use a stone veneer and asked where to put it on her house? I would consider that a merging of the two. And I don't know how long you've been lurking, so you really can't discount all discussion when it comes to plants. I have a ton of mediterranean plantings around my own home. Along with a multitude of other types of flowers, trees, orchids, palms, succulents, ferns and plumerias, and am quite familiar w/the style and their requirements. And when I said frost, I really meant snow. Not the occasional 32 degree nights. I'm talking 0 and the negatives. Most of the plants we're talking about will be toast. Hence, "Where does OP live". Which I'm surprised you experts haven't even established yet. You're too busy w/the condescending attitude. So Amanda, what are the plans for the house? you mentioned the stone and if it should go all around the house or just partial? did you want something along these lines? Keep in mind you're working with a post-war type of ranch house w/siding and smaller windows. For the look you want, you may also want to consider new windows. i was trying to find an example w/the stone veneer and siding like yours. but for the style you're after, the stone is often w/stuccoI believe this is what Flo had in mind when talking about the roof. Doug drew up a good design for you. that driveway would be a giant plus for the look you want. Also, that porch design. can you bring in some thicker wood post supports? This shows the post and a stone veneer, as well as a flagstone driveway.