Red clover and hairy vetch are the best for nitrogen production. They are often planted with cereal rye (3 rye: 1 vetch). Rye doesn't produce nitrogen, but it does take it up and so prevent it from leaching away. Good luck! Regards, Peter.

I like the cover. The countertop looks fine, but it's a countertop. A countertop should go on top of a counter. You've got a cat lounge going on up there. And it's too matchy-matchy for me. Oh, and the cover on top makes it look more like a piece of furniture. Whew. All this talk about cats jumping makes me realize the fun I've been missing out on since we're down to only one cat now, and he's too old too jump up on anything. His favorite spot to sleep is on the bed, but I have to lift his fatness up there at his bidding. I love that old guy.

"In case you *are* thinking of getting new switches, rewiring the switch is easy DIY--just be absolutely sure that you turn off the circuit breaker!" THIS. pull it up on youtube and take a look. The only think you have to really, really be careful about is flipping the breakers off. I'd switch off the ALL of them. which of course means doing the change outs during the daytime. And pick up one of those live wire checkers at lowe's so you can double check the wires before messing with them. Might seem like unnecessary BUT I figure it's worth the few bucks and extra few seconds to double check on it. I watched one being changed out on HGTV yrs back and the guy - knowing what he was doing - took probably less than 5 min to change one out. I didn't time him but it only took him a few minutes to do it.

@Lisa Adams Off topic: Thanks, Lisa. I subscribe to the theory that there's a "genius of place" to any large garden. If you listen, it will tell you what it wants to be. I'm lucky AND blessed to be able to garden right on the edge of where cool season plants and warm season plants will tolerate the other extreme. I can grow delphiniums (as annuals), and tea roses; tulips and camellias; lilacs and illicium; arctostaphylos and yuccas. I also have a large enough garden that I can "waste" space on single season displays. I won't post it again here, but there's a photo (from a few years ago) of my "daffodil glen" on Melissa's fragrance thread. It shines for about six weeks, then it's just a swathe of shady grass. But it's one soul-satisfying sight while it's at its prime. OT: Frangrance in your garden The daffodil glen pic is about 1/4 of the way down the page.