great info tdog. i appreciate the organic component of your post too. i used organic soil, amended w/molasses, meal and worm castings and a good layer of mulch. i will use compost tea once a month for the next 3-4 months to keep those microbes happy. last year i "fertilized" with liquified seaweed every 2 weeks and rotated with regular MG at half strength every 2 weeks. i got tremendous lush growth but no blooms. i have since heard that i was not fertilizing enough and needed MG's Bloom Booster or equivalent and used at recommended strength weekly (which seems a lot to me). does this sound about right to you? (if by solid ferts you mean something like osmocote pellets i dont ever use those type ferts.) thanks again for your input! jo

Most of the lower cost shower heads at Lowes, HD, Walmart, etc are made of plastic, even though they may be chromed. Yes, there are some in 'rainhead' style.

Hi -I'm in bentleigh east - have had the problem since moving here, but never before. Prior to that I was in prahran (prahran inner melb suburb, bentleigh east is a middle ring suburb) -various - tomatoes, basil, hops, capsicum, etc - have both raised them and also bought them as seedlings. - currently using richgro but have also used more expensive general potting mixes with the samme results - using miracle grow to fertilise, once every two weeks or so at about 3/4s the directed usage. last summer i also tried osmocote in desperation. i use the same regimen on my garden bed which is going gangbusters. - the pots are resting on concrete, but they were also resting on concrete at our previous place. Hope that helps Cheers!

"It’s very dark where I live..." You are lucky! You can see the stars at night, something those of us who reside in cities can never do! I would follow the Dark Sky outdoor lighting guidelines: lighting should... Only be on when needed Only light the area that needs it Be no brighter than necessary Minimize blue light emissions Be fully shielded (pointing downward) "We’re Planning to put two wall sconces on both sides of the front door on the porch" You could use sconces that faced downward or attach lights to the underside of the overhang that would illuminate the porch. I think the latter would work better to illuminate the porch. The former would largely illuminate the wall on which they were hung. "Lights will go under the small roof over the garage doors" What would be the purpose of these? The garage doors don't need illumination. "Do I put a post light at the end of the stairs coming down on the left in the landscaping OR do I mount a larger light on the outside wall space to the left the stairs as you go up." You could use a downward facing post light but it might not illuminate the entire staircase from that position. I think step lights would be the best as they would illuminate only the area that needs the light, the stairs themselves. A wall-mounted light above the stairs wouldn't work well as the small windows above the stairs are in the way. If you needed to illuminate a path to the staircase, you could use dark sky path lights.