The leaves make excellent compost makings for the following summer. What Foghorn do is to bag up those shredded (hopefully) leaves in those ugly black plastic bags. They go into a pile out of sight. Foghorn also steal what leaves he can from the neighbors. He tip what he has't to, wrapp some, and hill with dirt, pine bark or other "on sale" mulch stuff. After everything has frozen nice and solid, Foghorn heap the bags on top of the buried canes and between and around the rose bushes. Foghorn rips those black bags off and untips the tipped EARLY in March otherwise Foghorn has one soggy disease ridden mess. Foghorn leaves the mulch and dirt in place in case of the usual visits from Mr. Frost. OK! This year Foghorn got burned by Mr. "Late" Frost. We have the polar winds here and only have a brief January thaw. Just trying to keep everything frozen is our goal. Foghorn think you may have a greater temp variation than we do here in the Mudwest. We keep the excess leaves piled into two bins made from wire fencing material. That might be the best. YMMV! Watch out for those soggy birds!

Hello nullzero, thanks for the helpful information. Your lychee tree is absolutely beautiful, what variety is it? I have also noticed that the particular microclimates are very important to keep in mind. I mulch my soil with Kellogs and E&B Stone Organic compost, I also innoculated the root zone with redworms, earthworms and leaf litter. I personally feel that wind protection is much more important than increasing humidity because a couple years ago, my Sweetheart Lychee had an absolutely beautiful growth flush in the summertime. Search "My small but dense Sweetheart Lychee". Notice all the bone dry weeds on the ground, San Diego was in a severe drought at the time and I did not mist my tree with water and the growth flush was the best I've ever had on the tree. After paying very close attention to how Lychee trees grow in SoCal, I have noticed that Lychee trees that are grown next to other large trees that act as wind breaks, have beautiful large canopies. An example of some beautiful lychee trees in SoCal can be seen at Exotica Nursery in Vista. Although the trees are neglected and in need of pruning and weeding, the leaves and entire canopy are absolutely beautiful on most of the trees. Some of the smaller trees look like crap however and these smaller trees are planted next to other small lychee trees that won't provide much of a windbreak. Planting Lychee trees next to a wall or house can be a good idea to help with wind damage but we should also remember that the decrease in light may reduce your final harvest. For some of my smaller lychee trees, I'm considering growing them in my garage under flourescent lights untill they have a canopy about the area of an opened up umbrella before hardening them off and planting outdoors. Simon Simon

I fully understood the posts, I was strictly commenting on not putting an oven next to cabinets... "The problem is, it fits very close to my appliances. it makes for a nice look but I am concerned about the heat and the close proximity of the cabinet. there is no other way to configure these items and I was wondering if there is a way to "protect" the cabinet from heat damage that may occur over time." What exactly didn't I understand when my comments were directly related to the initial post of protecting cabinets from heat????? What didn't I understand based on someone asking how to protect cabinets from heat? And you are correct placing sheetmetal directly on the cabinet surface would transfer heat just as the side of the oven, to properly protect you NEED an air space between the sheetmetal and the cabinet as air is a great insulator and without it the sheetmetal is something else that just gets hot and transfers heat.

haku, I'm not on water restriction to any extent, apart from the cost and the guilt of watering plants when we are in a major drought. There will be a point, and I'm learning to accept it, where only some roses in some of the best spots will survive. I'm already researching drought-tolerant shrubs that won't need much water for the sunny areas where the roses are not doing well. Thanks, rosefolly and Sheila. It's always a boost when I can look at some varieties that have pretty flowers and are doing their best to keep up my spirits.