I did a walkthru of their SJ shop recently and thought, ew, sleazy. They wanted you to sign in and no price tags on anything. (And a goofy name.) On the bright side, no salesmen bothered me, but it sounds like you NEED a salesman. I haven't been to a shop where salesmen knew anything except maybe Atherton Appliances. I'm in east bay and not north, but if you do end up traveling and these shops have your brands, Atherton App. (Redwood City) is a very nice shop. If you know what you want and just need to see it, Airport App. in Hayward has almost everything. A little scuzzy, but not a bit pretentious. Salesmen will swoop in but leave you if you're "just browsing". Doubt they know much. Don't know about the prices. But they do HAVE prices on most items and it's the biggest assortment I've seen. Also depending on brands, I found Western App. (I went to the one in Newark) to actually have more stuff than I expected--VAH, DCS, Meile, FP, etc. and the kids working there were nice and not pushy (and probably knew their TVs pretty well). I think that chain is big enough to be able to find some recommendations for or against. I haven't bought anything yet so I don't know about service or anything. Let us know what you come up with.

> that I will not be able to do certain things on my iPad until I cave and download IOS 8 to my iPhone and my iMac What things? My ipad is running iOS 6 and all is well. No problems here. But I never, never update any iOS device past the version of iOS it came with. Learned that the hard way with the iPad 1 and my old ipod touch.

Yes, I move each crop down one bed so it's a few of years before the same plant is in the same soil. At least in theory. What happens in practice, of course, is that I see a space and stick something in or have some plants left over and put them in the 'wrong' bed. I let things self sow and they don't always put themselves in the 'correct' bed and I also put salads into any spare spot regardless of which bed it is. In my climate one bed can have 3 different crops in it from November to November. And often there are two things in a bed at once. Favas for example with baby winter Brassicas in amongst them waiting for when the Favas are cut down and the nitrogen in their root nodules returns the the earth. Then as the Brassicas start to go over the next spring I might pop in some lettuces and then have runner beans or zucchini ready to go in amongst them. Successional, inter- and catch cropping. A garden plan needs to work in the dimension of time as well as space.

Has anyone found any good apps to use as a garden journal, planner, etc? Ive been exploring the free iOS versions but please let Me know about any good ones despite platform or cost!