You've told me so much and you know the things you need to know. Like ignore all the "fertilize with K and P annually". In Knoxville, at the University, Ione planted a tea noisette, Duchesse de Auerstadt, in river loam about 100 yards from the Tennessee River. (I grow a clone of that, several hundred feet higher and in tight red clay. You'd think they were different roses, but they-from the same supplier- are in different microclimates and soils.) You are in the heat 'island' that is the Nashville Basin. Your soils are self fertilizing but for the N. If I were you, I'd collect Tea Noisettes and make the most bodaceously beautiful rose fence in Tennessee. I might even be tempted to put a few Hybrid Perpetuals in for splashes of red-purple color. Foget the once bloomers. With your water conditions, with the nutrients that are in your river soils, the only thing you need to do is work to keep your pH in the zone where the K and P aren't tied up as salts and stay available to your roses' roots. That you don't have abundant cedar, BTW, tells me that you don't have a lot of limestone anywhere near the surface. In my fields I can almost tell you where there are subterranean limestone remnants under the soils. Even the cedar seeds don't sprout in my red clay. As for trees to tolerate in your fenceline: yes to dogwoods and redbuds- they aren't that bad. No to almost everything else. In your soils with ground water, you may find ten to fifteen years of vertical growth each year. This year we are sufferening the ones we didn't cut back last fall and that loved the inch a week of rain we had all of last year. Kill: all hackberries (they make good firewood). They are the host to wooly hackberry aphids and the aphid poop drops heavily and then gets a black fungus on it and the fungus doesn't wash off. Really ugly when it drops on roses, and everything else. When you get to Knoxville, let me know. I've probably got some suckers you can use. More later, Ann

Lee - Up to a point I incline to agree with your antipathy to exotic plants in a Japanese garden. Perhaps it amounts to feeling uneasy with anything that looks somehow out of place because few things of that shape grow in the wild here? For instance, I feel a bit uneasy if I see Phormium Tenax or Pampas grass. I'd probably feel even more uneasy with a Monkey Puzzle tree, especially since somebody who'd seen them growing in their native habitat in S. America said they looked out of place even there. On the other hand, a restrained use of bamboo doesn't (to me) give that feeling. That brings me to what I'd call exotic artifacts. I wonder for instance, how a sleeve fence made from cedar lath compares with one made from bamboo? Here in N. America does the one made with cedar lath look more at home in its surroundings? I lean towards using the cedar lath. Coming back to the Bear artifact, I've got some more pictures of it (of them actually - it's a mother Bear & her cub). The carving is rooted in the ground - the owners told me that it used to be a big tree in their garden, & when it got too big, they had the top removed, leaving an 8ft high stump - and a young fellow then carved the bears from it with a chain saw. They said he did it in no time. When I consider those stone foxes with a red bibs round their necks that you see in some Japanese garden settings, it makes me think of the Bears as their western equivalent (though the red bibs don't suit!). Another artifact that I saw illustrated a year or two ago - I think it was in this forum - was a wooden post or tablet, carved in the style of Native Indian work, that somebody had positioned in his garden. He may have referred to it as a Stele, but I'm not sure. (It certainly wasn't what you'd call a Totem pole), It was in just the right place & it looked entirely at home - it was just as effective as a stone artifact like a lantern. Does anybody remember it? Herb

Update: we've decided to keep the siding on the dormer and just repair and paint all the clapboards and trim. I've been testing colors and have found two gray-green shades I like, SW Retreat and SW Link Gray (same level, just one chip apart). The Retreat is almost too bright and clear when I see it in the sun on my South and West exposure, so I'm leaning toward the Link Gray, but I'm still open to suggestions But trim colors are still hard! I think white is too stark with my dark brick and taupe/gray mortar, but I'm not sure what undertones to look for in the trim. I wonder if a pinky beige would work best with the brick while still complimenting the green of the siding. Or vice versa, maybe a green-based beige? The swath of siding on the right is Link Gray, the little piece midway up on the left is Retreat (they look almost the same in this photo). The corner board on the right is Rice Grain (a green based neutral) and the left corner board and some of the window trim is painted Portico, a deeper pinky beige. I think it might be too dark as a trim color, but I can't tell if the undertones work better. The Rice Grain almost reads white, but maybe if it were all over it would have a bit more oomph.

Thanks ILoveRed; did you ever build that wonderful house? The forum seems to have taken a turn for the worse when members were allowed to advertise their commercial status. Remember when business use of the forum would have cost you your membership and put a picture of the tea cups ride on your screen? Did you know the PRO badge turns green when you've filled out all of your profile and have 3 reviews, etc.? You get rewards for supporting the new business model. Of course, in the old days the contractors hated architects and that seems to be coming back. MightyAnvil got kicked around a bit but Renovator 8 didn't. Its odd that Corbu2 wasn't pegged as an architect. Rita, thanks for paying attention; I appreciate it. The historic architecture of Edgartown looks wild and crazy compared to Nantucket, however, the variety of architecture on the Vineyard is impressive. I took some French friends through the historic district and it felt like a final exam in architectural history. Of course, they didn't think the 1700's were very old. Unfortunately, the very early buildings have been lost. Vacation houses arrived in the 20's. Ahearn's favorite style is the Shingle Style and its the most eclectic style of all, allowing much room for personal expression and he makes good use of it. I found Kevin's house at 8 Chambers Way, Edgartown. I hope he comes back to claim it someday. $950,000