Let me begin by addressing Laags first post: When I first read your comments, I was going to say that I disagreed with you, that the "need to address" something PRODUCES the reason. I would have said, "I want to address the lack of privacy, so I need to somehow block this extensive line of sight." However, having the last two days to ponder your post, Im finally having one of those AHA moments. I believe what youre saying is "You want a private retreat in your backyard. To achieve this, you need to address the lack of privacy." Correct? I guess it just didnt occur to me to articulate this. So, Ive been figuring out what else I have in the back of my mind that needs to come out my mouth (or hands, as the case may be.) Laag, you said "Start by ignoring the site altogether and focusing in on what you would ideally like to be able to do in and around your home (not in a landscape way, but in a lifestyle way- play badminton, entertain 20 of your closest friends twice a week, have a quiet place to read,...)." Its taken QUITE of bit of thinking, to be honest, to figure out what I want to be able to do in and around my home outside of thinking about my own property. Instead, I thought about parks that I visit, why I make a POINT of going there. I also thought about other outdoor experiences: why I had them, what I enjoyed about them, would I like to duplicate them, in part or whole? My train of thought finally brought me to designing our house. Not this house, but the house that we hired the architect to design, the house that couldnt be built (but cost a LOT anyway!) I knew what activities took place in our family: homeschooling; a LOT of cooking; a LOT of craft projects; hubbys woodworking; 1 teenager; 3 special needs kids who need to be in view much of the time; 2 girls who would soon be teenagers. These facts and the lifestyle that we live dictated WHAT we needed in our house design: Five bedrooms; living/kitchen/dining area open to one another; some expandable space for another bathroom; plenty of room for bookcases and spreading out for projects; a family entrance near the garage (six people makes for a LOT of coats and shoes!). Finally, the site dictated the layout of the rooms: Garage on the north side to buffer the winter weather; kitchen somewhat near the garage for unloading groceries; dining area near the kitchen, etc. Is that what you were getting at: The lifestyle needs of our family existed outside of the site where our house would be situated. However, the needs dictated by our familys lifestyle, combined with the particulars of this lot dictated how the rooms of the house would be configured, the flow from one room to another, where the entrances and exits and windows would be placed, etc. Have I got it now? With ALL that said, I know the first part of why this has been difficult: Weve never really had a space to DO anything in. Which brings me back to my other outdoor experiences and what I want to be able to do in and around my home... I want to ground the house to the land, to settle it in so it looks and feels like it belongs here. I want a beautiful place to relax, to sit or lay and be surrounded by trees and plants and birds and squirrels, to take a deep breath, let it out, and go AHHHHHH. I want a small place to grow a few vegetables and herbs. I want an area where our family (minimum of six, more if anyone brings a friend or two) can grill and eat outside. The kids and dogs need room for running/jumping/playing. We LOVE cool spring and autumn nights around a fire, so we want a place to huddle around a fire, roast marshmallows, sing songs, maybe with a few friends. I need a place for my compost tumblers (2 right now, maybe a couple more later). I want to look out my windows and see a beautiful, natural world. Moon

For Turface, do an online search to see if you have any Ewing Irrigation Stores near you (Anaheim, Garden Grove, Lake Forest, San Clemente, Santa Anna) - or John Deere Landscapes dealers. The Horizon Dealer in Orange (714) 279-8154 should have it, too. Ask for Turface 'MVP' or 'Allsport'. I'll check a thread over on the container gardening forum that's dedicated to helping growers find various ingredients. If you're lucky, maybe someone in your neighborhood already using the gritty mix will pitch in and help. You can substitute coarse perlite for the granite if you have to, or if you find a suitable sized pumice, we can make that work, too. Call around, for the bark (pine/fir/redwood), but I'll look for that, too. The size of the ingredients is important. It may initially be a pain to locate what you need, but if you're willing to do the legwork (with whatever help we can be), I'm sure you'll be well-pleased with the results. I gave a presentation after a pleasant luncheon this afternoon to a local chapter (Saginaw, MI) of a national organization (Women's Farm and Garden Association). I talked about many of the things I regularly share here (the topic was caring for houseplants) - the response was very enthusiastic - great audience participation and involvement, with the most questions asked being about soils - and particularly about how to make them. Though I never got to that part (ran out of time), a promise to provide recipes and instructions was extracted. It was a really great group - very friendly. I'm still excited about the positive response, but most of all I'm thrilled as a result of getting to see 'the light go on' over and over again as the ladies (and a few gentleman guests) sort of rearranged some of the pieces of the container gardening/houseplants puzzle and gained understanding in areas where there may have been some confusion or even a void. I'll never grow weary of seeing that 'AHA moment' - it's tremendously rewarding - I'm still pumped. ;-) Al

JD, This could be personal preference. I leave the leaves and buds IF there is no sign of mold/rot/decomp, they're clearly firm and also located nearest the (to be) unburied end of the stick. I prefer to focus on roots and leave in the bags as long as possible to accomplish that. This is just my preference! Everyone does their own thing. If you have the same lack of rot that I've had, you could get away with it. If the leaves had started to rot and I was seeing no roots, I would personally 'nip it in the bud', pardon the pun. Some more experienced rooters may possibly try to cup it up. My experience is, premature shooting moved to a cup with no rootlets = the cutting will continue to shoot until it runs out of energy, then the leaves will droop, fall off, rot on the potting medium if not removed, and eventually the shoot will shrivel and die. I *have* seen additional shoots occur from other locations, though. Just for pictorial example, this is a Sudliche cutting I received from an amazingly generous forum member a little over 2 weeks ago. BTW - This is also a prime example of masterful pruning and a great callous, same as the cuttings Dan sent you (some people are just amazing like that). The person who cut this was very thoughtful and knew what he was doing. First pic shows what I wait to find before transferring to cup - at least two or three 1/4" rootlets. Also for reference, the 2nd pic shows the top half of the same cutting after I cupped it up in 50/35/15 coarse perlite/Fafard3B/sphagnum. Not the growth. That same growth has been in a paper towel for almost 10 days, AND it went through the antibacterial soap scrubbing AND the 10% bleach dunk with no obvious ill effects. No rotting present, and no issues.

All-in, the whole back yard cost me less than 75k. Budget was 70k, so a little bit over...not much. This was all using top-of-the-line everything too. Didn't skimp on materials, or equipment. Pool builder quotes on the LOW end were 80k, for low-end materials, no waterfall, etc.... All-in, for the top of the line materials like I used, with deck, firepit, bbq island, waterfall, etc... the pool-builder quotes were closer to 120k. So yes - very happy with the outcome. Saved around 45k, or close to 40%. It was a LOT of work, and planning - but it payed off in spades.