What makes me hesitate a bit here is that it's late enough in the year that I would expect the plant to recover and resprout a lot slower at this time of the year than it would in, say, May. No obvious harm in that, but it's going to use water even more slowly and need water even less frequently than it does now, once the canes are cut, so you'd be taking a bigger risk of rotting out one or both canes than you would be by waiting. So I'd say if you can stand to look at the long bare canes for the next five or six months, you should go ahead and do so. If you think they look bad, and every time you see them, you think about how bad they look, then you should go ahead and do it now, because that's better than training yourself to hate the plant. The cut stems will normally sprout one to three new growing tips, after an agonizingly slow wait. As in the above thread, the tops can be re-rooted if you so desire, and you can shorten the stems on the canes before rooting them. I've had very limited success trying to get cane sections of D. marginata to root, and by "very limited" I mean zero, but the theory behind it is pretty straightforward: cut the cane into three-inch sections, plant the sections either vertically or horizontally in soil, and wait for rooting. My cane cuttings of Dracaena have so far all either rotted or been given up on before anything got going. Next time the opportunity arises, I think I'm going to try rooting them in water -- I don't know if it will work better, but it can't work worse.

In response to the questions above, let me offer some more information. First, I did not mean to imply that I do not use any heat in the greenhouse. I do heat, but the thermostat is set to 40. The only extra effort I put into heating for the tomatoes is to have the seeds germinate on a heating system (Hydrofarm) so that they are not adversely impacted by the low nighttime temperatures. I had initially planned on an all passive solar greenhouse, but the aestetics of such a structure caused us to go to a greenhouse that receives quite a bit of its heating from passive solar, with a propane backup. (We have thermal mass in water containers, and large raised beds filled with compost.) The greenhouse only ever needs to receive heat in the night. During the day in the winter, the temperature is regularly in the 90's, and the vents are open some. We are located in a zone 5 area, and only have about a three month frost free season outside because we are in mountains. The greenhouse makes growing so much easier. Our relatively dry climate also means that it is almost always sunny during the day, so there is lots of solar gain. I grow in several media: a peat-lite mixture that I make (based on the Cornell mixes), or vermicompost that I produce in the greenhouse. (There is a large worm bin in the greenhouse that processes all the waste materials from the greenhouse, as well as our home.) I grow almost all inderterminate tomatoes, so that they fruit for an extended period of time. I find that it is generally too much work to be replacing the determinate varieties. Yes, the vines can get to be quite large; I allow space around each plant to let them spread out: plants are in a row, spaced about 16 inches apart, and with about 30 inches from one row to the other. I use 3 gallon pots filled with my potting mixtures. Watering and fertilizing is done through a cheap fertilizer injector from Dripworks, and a simple timer from Home Depot. I water with drippers, 4 times a day, for 10 minutes at a time. Each tomato gets a little over 3 liters of water and fertilizer solution each day. The fertilizer mix is very dilute, and the fertilizer injector is always in the watering line. I use several different fertilizers, but really like the Hydrogardens products. Hope this helps. Renais

I would run wire to connect the slats. A fine gauge wire won't be noticeable and should do the trick. Find a gardening friend willing to climb a ladder.

As others have said, if you own the land, then it's your land and you can visit as much as you want to. When I visit and know there will be people working, I usually take some coffee or food. It goes a long way in your relationship. You'll know when the basement has been waterproofed when you can't see the concrete from the outside. It should be covered in something black. Read online to learn the difference between damp proof and water proof, then talk to your builder about what they're planning on doing. Bare minimum code might not cover what you had intended. The two pipes on the exterior of the house tied to the drain tile might be bi-directional clean outs. It's a little difficult to tell from the photo, but if the vertical pipes are connected to the horizontal with a "y" rather than a "t", and they're facing opposite directions, then that's what it could be. Tough to tell what the other two pipes are from your picture. The PVC is a large diameter pipe that sits away from an exterior wall. This rules out sump pit connection since those sit close to the wall. It can be assumed that it ties to the interior drain tile so it might be a floor drain? Not sure what the thin one is but it looks like 1" copper with a fitting on the end? Do you know if the water valve is installed in the yard? Could be water. If you have plans to rough in a 1/2 bath, then judging by the pea gravel that appears to be in, you should see PVC for the toilet and sink sticking up. Ask your builder. You also don't appear to have any stacks for the other floors so plumbing probably still has to come in to lay the basement rough in and start the stacks. They'll also either have to dig under the footing or drill through the basement wall to connect to sewer, depending on your height differential. It's important to find out how high your basement is above street sewer tie in. Judging by the other houses, I'm guessing you'll be high enough and they'll dig under the footing to connect to sewer. Question: What's with the hole to get into the garage? Are you planning storage under the garage and using a precast concrete garage floor?