Well,just an update on this house and garden, it sold the first week on the market, with an all cash offer just slightly over the asking price. I wish I could say that it had something to do with the landscaping we put in, but it was more probably the killer panoramic bay and city view, which most impressed in the end. The approach to focus on the front garden and leave the back garden mostly unlandscaped with just a vignette of a small lawn, perimeter wire fence with espaliered Grewia caffra flowering hedge, it seemed to help the home sell. The builders only broke even, and it was definitely only a mildly profitable installation for me, I was giving the client a break on my labor costs. I figure it was what it takes to remain competitive in this market, and also generates good will for more work. I hope this really is a positive sign of the real estate market getting better here, and that sales pick up across the country. The mood is cautiously optimistic here, as long as smaller projects continue to come along, if no big budget ones are on the horizon... A few tricks I pulled to try and bring this job in within a very tight budget was to use new plants that could easily be propagated from the client's own garden, as well as using clippings/cuttings from various other client's gardens over a couple of months in advance of the project. I'll admit this is particularly easy with mild climate plants such as succulents and bromeliads; but the idea could as easily utilize divided perennials, unwanted plants by one client dug up and saved for another client, etc. Although this means that many plants are just mere cuttings, they can be planted closely in mass to give an immediate impact. It would be a nice plum if the new owners elected to use my services to finish off the rear yard, as well as with help maintaining the new garden on a quarterly basis. No idea whether that will happen, but optimism never hurts...

Thanks for your reply. However, your psychic senses are wrong. I do tend to analyze things, especially when it's regarding a new endeavor/field I have no prior knowledge/experience of. It has yielded outstanding results for me in the past and so I continue to approach things in this manner. Regarding seeding too late - well, first off, I just took possession of the house so I couldn't seed earlier. Also, I live in Edmonton, Alberta Canada and if you've ever lived here, you would know that our summer is pretty much about 2 weeks long. lol Anyway, When I did the overseeding, it was about beginning of June and temperatures were about 10 C - 20 C and we've been getting a lot of rain lately. In fact, we're just starting to go up to highs of 20 C - 25 C and in about 5 days is the first day we're supposed to hit 29 C, as per the forecast. I know that Spring and Fall are the textbook times to overseed but our weather/termperatures here does not conform to the norm. Our temperatures in October are already winter temperatures for a lot of places in the States. Also, I did not want to wait until fall because I wanted to get started on thickening the lawn asap. I was confused with this statement though: "But you are just now coming into spring...and fall is just around the corner." Spring is technically done..did you mean, "just coming into summer"? I usually mow at around 4 -5 inches and only take a bit off. I know all about the "only take 1/3 off" and "mow high" recommendations. I only scalped it this one time to prepare for overseeding to facilitate better seed to soil contact. I've read about the roller thing but decided that it wasn't needed. I did not want to compact things any more either especially since I was core aerating. I ran my rake through the soil and seeds to enhance seed to soil contact and this is a technique that has been recommended in several articles and videos. I also did not want to bury the seeds too deep. In fact, I already have baby grass growing to about heights of 2 inches now. I only noticed them yesterday and they are even much taller today. I like your idea of sowing KBG first, then fescue then PRG but here's the thing - I have not found any stand alone seed packages in my local Walmart/Home Depot/Canadian Tire stores. They are all blends. I haven't gone to garden centers though but that's also because I do not want to pay more for something that sells less at Home Depot. Also, I think this says something.. I think that for our climate and grass types, the seed blends probably tend to work better. I think this is evidenced by the fact that I primarily see Scotts Sun and Shade being sold in all these places and not the other types - i.e. high traffic, high heat etc.. Also, this blend tends to get the best reviews on Canadian Tire.com. The other thing too is that I've read blends were made so that the PRG can germinate first and help establish the turf while the fescue and KBG are taking their sweet time to germinate - helps with thickening up lawn quicker and crowding out weeds. If I wanted to wait (or had the luxury to do so - i.e. lawn isn't too bare) the full 21-28 days, then I would probably just seed with pure KBG and not worry about blends. I've decided to wait with the dandelions. I've emailed Scotts and they said to wait after mowing the new grass 3 times before using Killex as it destroys grass seed and new grass. Just wondering why you say spot spraying is far better than broadcast anything. I just feel that if Killex is safe to use on an established lawn, it would be more efficient to just broadcast it, in terms of time and coverage. Regarding my neighbor's lawn - I'm not worried that her lawn looks like crap..I just feel that her dandelions are invading my lawn and I can see that most of the dandelions on my lawn are on the side close to hers. Anyway, I'm just gonna keep mowing high and hopefully it gets thick enough to crowd out weeds and hopefull I won't have too many dandelions and I'll just deal with them as they come.

Sorry i didnt not get this earlier Jamie. They were ok but you have to stay on them or stuff wont get done. Their contractors drink beer on the job site. Make sure the contractors are using your specs cause they originally put my shower in the wrong way which would have messed up my bathtub and tile set up. Contarctors spilled a whole bottle of some red sauce they had for lunch on the sub floor and was going to leave it there. i brought to the attention of schumacher and they barely wiped it up, so i went in and cleaned it myself so I would not have ants down the road because their spill on my sub floor (when i say spilled the entire bottle, they left the spilled bottle ontop of the spill, that bottle was full the prior day when i was at the site). I will just say this stay ontop of your builder/project manager like you are monitoring a toddler. i didnt want to micro manage them but if you do not things will get missed even though its on your contract. Example: Shower plumber put in wrong direction, Missing lighting, missed painted spots on the exterior, cleaning is not the greatest prior to you recieving the house so be prepared to go in a do a deep clean once you officially get keys, door swing. These were just the things i did not catch during the build and pointed out after, there were plenty of little things during the build i had to point out to the builder during construction that were add in Precon that they were not doing per my contract. Overall house is good, but i did not like that i had to micro manage them to get what i paid for or i would be missing alot of my paid for items and upgrades.

Red Rose tea isn't Canadian anymore, it is owned by Lipton. I didn't like it when they changed the packaging from the green and white box with the red rose to an orange coloured box. Even though I drink it still, somehow it doesn't taste the same as the old Red Rose Tea. While I was drinking my tea earlier I was thinking about mugs. When I was a child mugs were used for cocoa, coffee and shaving cream. LOL As far as dunking donuts in tea I have never done that but I used to love cookies dunked in tea and the best of all was hot toast with peanut butter dunked in my tea. I can't have anything with peanuts anymore so I really miss that. LOL Moni, my Aunt in North Bay used to have a koffeeklatsch with all the neighbour ladies. I loved it whenever I visited there.Sometimes they were more elaborate than any of the high teas I have been to. My Mom always had the ladies over for tea in our house. LOL Lori, you made me laugh because my Mom held her pinky finger up but she didn't do that until she had Alzheimers. I used to get a big kick out of it and I would ask her if she was having "tea with the Queen" LOLOL In many British families "Tea" can be a meal just like lunch is and it can be a hearty meal at that. Grandma used to say "come for your tea" which translated meant "come for lunch" Sometimes it was the heartiest meal of the day. Tea is not just a beverage, it is social gathering with friends and family. Anne