There are upright and prostrate forms of P afra, and only the upright lends itself willingly to the formation of a heavy trunk. If you don't have the upright form, remind me come May, and I'll make sure you get started cuttings if you'd like them. Determining whether a soil is good or bad depends on what you're contrasting them with. MG isn't so bad when compared to all the other commercially prepared soils as a group, and that are commonly available and used for houseplants; but, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being perfect and 1 being almost unusable, I'd rate it at about a 3-4 - LOTS of room for improvement. When you think of potting soils and what to use as your base, think of larger particles, like pine bark or other inorganic particles much larger than peat particles. In your mind's eye, picture a soil made of particles the size of BBs, and see all the healthy air spaces between the BBs. No matter how much water you pour on the soil, those air spaces won't fill with water. Now imagine a soil based on peat, compost, topsoil, sand ..... The air spaces between particles are very small and tend to fill up with water when you water - like you said the peat your plants are in does. If you mix the peat and BBs 50/50, the peat just fills in around the BBs, robbing the BBs of their air space, so a soil that has mostly larger particles and very few fine particles so the air spaces stay open is going to be much healthier for roots than a soil with all the little air pores filled with water. The primary difference between these two types of soils is that because the more open soils hold less water, you need to water more frequently. You'll need to decide if the extra effort is worth greater promise for your plants to grow to the potential they were genetically programmed for. There are 2 sides to that coin. Some feel the soils that I and many others grow in hold too little water, and robs them of the convenience of longer intervals between waterings, but since we build these soils with the plant's well being in mind, I know without doubt that soils that offer extended intervals between waterings hold too much water to NOT be limiting in their effect on growth and vitality. One of the most important considerations is that well-aerated and fast-draining soils are far more forgiving and much easier to grow in. They forgive your watering mistakes readily, as long as you don't FORGET to water, and make fertilizing easy. Because they promote such healthy root systems, they have the potential to produce much healthier plants with robust metabolisms that make the plant better able to resist insects and diseases. I'll leave you a link below to some information that explains the soil/water relationship. An understanding of the concept it defines almost automatically puts you far ahead of other container gardeners as a group. It shouldn't be too difficult to see what other growers that have read and applied it think. There are other threads similar to that one about other aspects of container culture, like nutritional supplementation, when/if you're ready to move on ..... or you can just not respond & I'll take that as a 'not interested'. The comments I left on YM's thread today might also be of interest. What my houseplant's feet are in: Al Here is a link that might be useful: I'd like to see you put this in your tool box!

You picked things that won't fit in that strip very long. I also would ask to exchange your choices for smaller items. How long is your strip? Grasses might be well suited for part of an alternating design in the strip. I would go for midsize, 4-5 ft. Grasses do like sun, so might not get full height possible. With wavy movement, they stay nice all summer into fall, early winter. Hydrangeas are now available in many kinds. Flowers can last incredibly long times, with new introductions blooming on both old and new wood. With those blooming on only new wood, the size will stay smaller as you remove old growth each spring. I got some reds to try next year. They start white, fade to red. Others are red, fade to pink. One supposed to bloom all summer. My Swan has huge petals, lasts a couple months, really pretty. Mopheads have big blooms. There is a dwarf Oakleaf, might be nice for the great big leaves, color in fall. Tree peonies are a smaller bush, wonderful flowers in early spring. Nice background for smaller flowering annuals. Just plain sticks in winter. Some shade helps Peony flowers last a bit longer. A Clematis on a trellis or net, will really brighten up a wall. Large flowers are pretty, but they have multiple style flowers, with different kinds of vine growth, full, sparse, to suit the grower. Again, some bulbs and annuals at the base, for bright spot. Clematis choices can bloom any time of the summer, will need a bit of pruning each year to improve blooms. Takes a couple years to really take off. Lots of spring blooming small shrubs, Fothergilla dwarf and regular, lowbush blueberry, which also have great fall color. However they are just green all summer. Does work well for the annuals or bulbs as background, plant colorful row in front. Regular herbaceous Peonies make a lovely low hedge, June bloom time, again a nice green summer background for annuals or bulbs. I mix in my Lily bulbs with my Peonies. Bloom height is above Peonies, many colors, great smells. Using Asiatic, Trumpet, Orientals, Lilies bloom most of the summer. You might check for herbs to plant, for butterfly, hummingbird attractions in that area. If you do annuals next summer, you have more time to plan for bushes and plant design next fall, when they are on sale again. Smelly plants, Lavendar, scented geranium, sage, herbs, make the aromas we enjoy as you brush by them going along the walkway. Great variety of texture and green shades to use. A pretty bird bath kept full of clean water draws a huge amount of birds coming for drinks, bathing, eating insects in the plants. Fun to watch. Read the labels, don't just grab stuff because it is on sale, even with wonderful bargin prices. You just get stuck moving it later, when it doesn't fit next summer. End up giving it away, don't have anyplace it fits. Make a plan, try to stick with it in the face of sales. Save the money to get REALLY good stuff, maybe order out of catalogs. I avoid any prickly plants, bushes beside a walkway, they all try to grab everyone going by. Let us know what happens with the new garden area.

After our mini kitchen remodel 2 years ago, I now have beautiful easy-care granite counters and tumbled stone backsplash. The hall bath has an antique vanity with granite top. While the stone is quite easy to wipe clean, there isn't a contest between it and the granite. The granite is utterly smooth and cleans up really well. I'm sorry, but that is the ONLY thing I can think of to sway a vote for that granite behind your stove. And since so much stone and tile is easy care too, I just don't see a good reason to keep it. If you had it finished and were just worrying a little that maybe your choice wasn't perfect, I wouldn't even post. Once a thing is done and money is spent, I really disapprove of a re-do. (Generally speaking!!) But since you are in limbo, I vote No. Get it gone. Do something else. I don't think it does a thing to enhance your kitchen. Red

Where do you live? France is a big place. And does it snow in your area? Here is some general info on lawns. Ignore your neighbor. He's trying to intimidate you and set you up to fail. Plant new seed only in the fall. Start in the early fall. That might be August or it might be September depending on where you live. You seem to have done it pretty well - perhaps by accident. Not rototilling was excellent. Rototilling is a big mistake that a lot of new gardeners make. See if you can rent a roller. You only need it once the first time you seed a big yard. After that, for annual overseeding, you can simply walk on the new seed to press it down onto the soil. Water new very lightly 3x per day, every day, until you get 80% germination. For the shade grass you planted that would be 3 weeks. If you have shade type grass, I'm assuming it's a fescue. Fescue should be mulch mowed at the mower's highest setting most of the time. If it gets hot in the summer, then mow every other week. The idea is to develop deeper roots to get water from deeper places in the soil. Fertilize for the first time on Fête du huitième mai or Jour de la Victoire 45 (same date different name). Fertilize again on Assomption and for the last time on or about Jour d'armistice. With the new lawn skip Jour d'armistice for this year. National holidays are easier to remember than specific dates. If you want to use organic fertilizer, you can do that any time including now. The application rate for organics is almost always 7 kg per 100 square meters. I like to use alfalfa pellets (lapin chow) as a fertilizer. Get them from a local feed store in 20-kilo bags. They really work. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 3 cm all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps from 33-38 deep water once per week. With temps from 25-32 deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps from 21-24 deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 21, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. In the USA this deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont (for Oz think Hobart to Darwin including Alice Springs), so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. These are in reverse order of importance. Watering is key to getting a good lawn with the fewest problems. Weeds: Spot spray a liquid herbicide in mid April and again in mid September.