Use iron oxides in varying amounts. Colors range from yellow ochre and rust to black (the black is a very strong colorant, I usually just sprinkle that in sparingly without much mixing). Chromium oxide (strong green) can mix with the rust to make a fine brown. Iron oxides, up to 10% of the cement, actually improves the strength. It's good to let the colors be somewhat streaky as in nature; that way repairs fit right in. Filling in cracks (and bug-holes for fine work) with a cement-marble dust paste with a touch of iron oxide looks like veins - quite nice (it polishes up beautifully if you go that route). Also, use vermiculite & perlite in your mix - then on the second or third day, use a wet sponge to sand off some of the top layer to let the vermiculite & perlite show.

For those that think "it does not make a difference where the NPK atoms come from," do you also get the nutrition you need for your body in pill form only? It isn't the same thing. This is an apples and oranges comparison. Study after study has been done and plants are not physiologically capable of determining where it gets nutrients from. Plant response is the same regardless. A case in point is hydroponics. There ain't no soil, but the plants do just fine. Whether a bag of organic fertilizer, a cow's butt or a bag of synthetic fertilizer the 'stuff' that enters the roots is the same regardless. All fertilizer and no organic matter makes soil unhappy. This is not the same as saying 100% of nutrients have to come from organic matter or plants will be unhealthy. Take organic matter, strip away the organics to make the mineral available to the plant (which is what the soil herd do) and it's the same thing as is in the bag of fertilizer. That's what the plants take up into themselves.

I used to post a bit on Roses and Antique Roses - haven't been around much in the past few years though. I love the Name that Plant Forum, I think it's the best one on GW besides the FN.

I use firefox (love it!) and double check on IE. I don't have netscape installed (I really hate it!!) so I can't tell you about netscape however I can say that spewey is right and that IE handles some html coding poorly. I have had problems with picture resizing (my fault). Firefox sizes larger photos to fit on the screen. IE doesn't do this. Sometimes I forget this and check my page and end up with this huge photo. So I have to go back to photoshop and resize it so it doesn't fall off the screen in IE. Other problems I have seen have to do with formatting. I will double check my code and it appears fine however IE doesn't seem to handle it like firefox. I guess I should just start developing using IE and that would save me a step! -renee