Well,just an update on this house and garden, it sold the first week on the market, with an all cash offer just slightly over the asking price. I wish I could say that it had something to do with the landscaping we put in, but it was more probably the killer panoramic bay and city view, which most impressed in the end. The approach to focus on the front garden and leave the back garden mostly unlandscaped with just a vignette of a small lawn, perimeter wire fence with espaliered Grewia caffra flowering hedge, it seemed to help the home sell. The builders only broke even, and it was definitely only a mildly profitable installation for me, I was giving the client a break on my labor costs. I figure it was what it takes to remain competitive in this market, and also generates good will for more work. I hope this really is a positive sign of the real estate market getting better here, and that sales pick up across the country. The mood is cautiously optimistic here, as long as smaller projects continue to come along, if no big budget ones are on the horizon... A few tricks I pulled to try and bring this job in within a very tight budget was to use new plants that could easily be propagated from the client's own garden, as well as using clippings/cuttings from various other client's gardens over a couple of months in advance of the project. I'll admit this is particularly easy with mild climate plants such as succulents and bromeliads; but the idea could as easily utilize divided perennials, unwanted plants by one client dug up and saved for another client, etc. Although this means that many plants are just mere cuttings, they can be planted closely in mass to give an immediate impact. It would be a nice plum if the new owners elected to use my services to finish off the rear yard, as well as with help maintaining the new garden on a quarterly basis. No idea whether that will happen, but optimism never hurts...

Robin, thank you for you pleasant and informative reply. Keep plugging away in your ag column. You are right about the value of connecting a producer to a major marketer, assuming you can get good contract terms. Around here we are also promoting local, mostly organic produce with the help of a new commercial venture that buys locally and delivers to subscribers, much like I have been doing from my local production. Welcome to California, the country's salad bar and source of much of the almond, walnut, table grape, etc. not imported from Mexico and elsewhere during the winter, especially. Before NAFTA, California produced 80% of US winter produce. Now a decade later. we produce less than half. And produce prices are going through the roof as I write this. Our trillion dollar ag is expected to mostly go the way of the Model A Ford unless public policy changes. Big agri-business here survives on international sales of specialty items and value-added items. Most of the produce (those "minor crops" we grow) is not sold and consumed as raw purchases but rather are first processed in a variety of ways from cut-and-bag to frozen to processed for junk food. Less than 5% of our ag production is sold fresh. So much of fresh produce is now grown south of the border that most of the freezing and canning operations have left California. So, Robin, when you write: "Do you think the US will ever be able to feed itself any where close to adequately? I have wild dreams of doing away with corn chips and HFCS to better use the space it takes to produce corn." ...I have to point out the historic overproduction of a few crops and diminishing relative demand for fresh and wholesome food that we produce. Moreover, the lack of parity in prices paid to farmers and animal producers means that the US farmer receives a smaller and smaller share of the money spent on food. How many boxes of lettuce must you sell to purchase a decent tractor and tool bar? The "organic movement" threatens the status quo of value-added food processing because organics convince people that real fresh food can be wholesome and tasty and health-supporting without a load of unwanted chemistry. This chemistry is both in the conventional products at farm gates and added later in processing to enhance shelf life, appearance, and taste (fat, corn fructose, salt), AND with much ballyahoo additional nutrients and minerals to "improve" their products alread de-natured and de-neutrified. People are malnourished on our abundant food. I want to make a minor plug for many conventional growers I've known and inspected. Most of the good ones just hate spraying toxics on crops, animals and ground. Most will choose the least toxic to get something under control. Produce standards are so tight, cosmetic standards even more so compared to those applied to organic products. If you need to wholesale your production, you better conform unfortunately. They cannot ignore bug and diseases because a shipment of "infected" produce or fruit can be rejected by wholesale terminals or official inspectors at any point. The whole harvest can be returned or otherwise disposed of at a loss. Japan buys a lot of certified organic grapes from California at premium prices. Let there be ONE black widow spider in a shipping container of California grapes, the container is returned immediately. Growers pay a premium to pickers for finding and delivering black widows. Back then $5 per spider was worth the cost of losing sales. The practice of fumigating fresh produce and fruit is widespread, including imported organic. The Japanese will accept phytosanitary documentation to avoid fumigation or irradiation. Fumigation is done at port of shipping and sometimes en route. Under NAFTA, there is not automatic fumigation, as I recall. All kinds of bad bugs are getting through to plague our ag people. So far I haven't been aerially sprayed with pesticided baits as have hundreds of square miles elsewhere. Got to go collect eggs and set the hens in for the night.

I had a couple of pink flamingos in my yard for awhile. I named them 'Tongue' and 'Cheek'. They finally died. I think of,embarrassment.

Poor Snidely, living west coast and flying to any island in Hawaii nonstop in only five hours! LOL We have at least a 14 hour travel day from Chicago. It's worth the hassle to have the long leg (nine hours) in first on a 767 -- especially if I can lie nearly flat and be able to sleep on the redeye returns. I'm OK in a coach seat for about three hours before I start sighing. Fran -- There's only 'coach' and 'first' on our flights Chicago-Maui, but the 'first' is more like what's called 'business' on transatlantic flights. I see that our fake return has us on an old MD80 Chicago-Dallas, but on a B321 on the return. That aircraft seems to have three classes, and we will be in 'business' as far as I can tell (pairs of slightly canted seats along the aisle). The 'first' cabin has single seats along the central aisle. Coach is three and three facing forward. Rob -- No, I didn't hear the pitch for flying US Airways, but the very first message asks if I want to hear all about the merger. (Not.) Your boss probably has a gazillion miles, and they want to wipe them off their books. When I select a coach flight online I do get prompted to "Upgrade to First for only..." Then I see I can pay twice the price of coach if I want to buy First. (Not.) We are retired Seniors whose miles come from CC purchases and miles flown once a year Chicago-Maui (8K roundtrip). At our stage in life we aren't buying (charging) a lot of things, but we've managed to keep enough miles in the kitty to use them for upgrades on our annual winter trip. It's only become a struggle to find the upgrades in recent years. (We aren't profitable or important to the airline -- not frequent flyers.) I attribute the problem to there being tons of newly retiring Boomers -- more competition for the upgrades and some willing to buy first outright. Thanks to you all for letting me vent! Remind me that you've already heard it all if I go nuts trying to get our returns set for March 2016 -- when the AA calendar opens.