Got any shopping centers near you or a bank or something similar that has landscaped beds of low lying shrubs that are watered on a regular basis? If so then go look and see if you can find any moss growing in the shaded portions of those planters. If so then that should tell you if your water is ok for moss. Also note the type of moss you find. Not all mosses are created equal! Thinner leaved mosses may be more sensitive to your water than those with thicker walls in their leaf cells. If your moss is natural then maybe the drought is something the mosses have evolved to be able to rebound from in the course of time??

Is there a specific moss rock or other rock I need to get for our Rock lug(coping)? We went to look at another persons and their rock was orangish/peachy colored after 1 year. It isn't the look we were hoping for and want to make sure we get the correct rock installed. It is for a small grotto and then the coping on each side of the grotto. Any help is appreciated!

alaskadiver: Well I printed the info on the link and showed it to the gardener. He said he is pretty sure that is the snake they found behind the waterfalls! He aksed if he could keep the information to show his crew that it was not posionous...but since it said it could climb some 40 feet up high in the trees---now he's going to have to worry about his guys staring up in the trees while they are working on the various yards! :) You mentionted "if our pool borders a river..." well,... Armand Bayou & Nature Preserve (http://www.abnc.org/, borders our neighborhood!! It is a very large Wildlife refuge and wilderness preserve (2,500 acres by us and NASA). So I guess along with the deer that come to our window, we will have to put up with a snake sometime. We have lived in this house for almost 20 years and have only seen the occasional water snake. Thank you so much alaskadiver, for sending the information regarding the snake!! barco & tresw: Thanks for the 'good' info on the pressure washer. Starting with a wide spray pattern would be the way to go...now to find someone to do it! I'm still a little 'apprehenisive' of spending any serious amount of time around the waterfalls!!! So today was the last day of school for the boys & I have a housefull of swimmers celebrating. Hands off the rocks for now. Thanks again for all the input!!!! Now some time for summer fun...oh to be a kid again!!! :)

Thank you Yardvaark. Meditarranean refers to the climate, though I do also like Meditarranean gardens. English garden means some hedges, crucnchy paths, relaxed, busy with layers of flowers, as lush as we're able to make it, useful plants mixed between ornamentals, some trailing the ground, some climbing vertically, pops of color. My mum is English. The gardens she grew up with and the she kept as I grew up. Rough guides for us. Here are better photos. The yard is super bumpy from the the bobcat sinking into wet clay soil when we pulled up all the concrete. We've had to wait for the soil to dry. The bobcat is coming back to grade and smooth. This is the left side with the cinder block retaining wall. If we planted a hedge, it would go in front of the cinder blocks. If we build a moss rock wall, the wall would be built in front of the cinder blocks and would wrap over them. The fence is actually straight - the crookedness is from the panoramic scan. The fence with all lattice has no retaining wall right now. After it's graded, the area in front of the lattice will be a 3' wall as it's the high point of the yard and we're taking out 1' of dirt. It's only a 2' wall at the other end. Close up of the area we'd potentially plant vines. It's above the wall, in front of the fence. Plenty of weeds there before, bamboo and blackberries. You can see the side yard. That gate at the end gets replaced and moved back a good 10'. It was all concrete. The kitchen is by the gate, so we'll put herbs, small BBQ and a place to eat over there. I'm thinking pavers with green in between. The side yard passes 3 rooms, so we'll put arbors to create slightly different areas to look out of from each room, and to give a sense of passing through slightly different spaces to get to the backyard. This the same area from the other direction, facing the concrete garage wall at the back of the yard. If we go hedge, it would be planted right at the wall, where the dying cala lilies are, growing towards the fence for its depth. And a panoramic of the retaining wall side in two images, slightly warped from the panoramic scan. This shows the concrete wall that used to be the back of the garage. Please excuse the leftover tree bits. We did battle with a monstrous Blackwood Acacia that was crushing the neighbor's roof. No warping. This is the lumpy yard. Back of the yard. I'd love rose vines covering all of this. Something. Right side of the yard. The white wall is the downhill neighbor's garage, right on the property line. It was under 18" of dirt when we moved in. I excavated it and we're grading to this height to keep her garage wall exposed. The garden actually extends beyond this photo. There's about 5' width that runs 4'-10' along the side of the house, depending on where we move the fence. And finally, the existing back of the house. We're extending that room so the house is a square - where the green bin is will be house. That slider will be replaced with a 10' French sliding door. The small window will be replaced and moved. The metal siding will be gone. There will be a deck along the entire back of the house, about 5' deep. We're grading to the level of the house. The rickety fence on the left will be moved back and replaced.