I use the gritty for slow growing woody plants (japanese maples, japanese red pine, etc) and the 5-1-1 for fast growing annuals (Lantana, Cuphea, etc) and a modified 5-1-1 (for Salvia) which is 3-1-1 with the "1" pearlite replaced by Diatomaceous earth (OptiSorb from FastenAll) for increased water holding capacity. Although this year I'm going to do a pot with 3-1-1 and one with straight Miracle Grow for the Salvia. They are on my deck in full sun, I mean dawn to dusk FULL sun! and there is a bit of a wind tunnel effect. I have to water 2x a day in 90+ weather or they will start to wilt. They are dark green and lose a lot of water perspiring, and I like to put 2 plants in a 4 gallon (ish) pot so there are a ton of blooms for the hummingbirds!

Another thing that this thread keeps bringing back to the surface of my memory is that as a student (both in my early 20s and again in my mid 30s) it was surprising how many concepts were really difficult to understand. Many of these were those that seemed like the teacher was wading in nonsense until finally something broke through after much of the semester passed and the "Aha moment" finally hit. That is after several weeks of the same subject for six hours a week with direct interaction with both teachers and other students while working on excercises directly designed to get you to that "aha moment". That just points out the difficulty in teaching landscape design in short courses and especially in all in one comprehensive classes. You brush the surface of many subjects, but you can not expect to instill a great deal of knowledge in any of them. Classes like botany, geology, dendrology, soils, sociology, psychology, biology, and such were all taught in the usuaul 1 hour lecture hall twice or thrice a week format with some classes having a two hour lab. Design studio was three hours long three times a week with on going projects that kept students busy well into the night for their sophomore,junior, and senior years. Plant design, drafting & graphics, grading & drainage, and site engineering all met six hours a week with on going projects. There was a studio for each class year because we all had these on going projects that required the teaching and critiques to be done where we were working. This stuff was all taught through multiple projects that made us work through concepts and develop understanding. They were not taught in lecture halls because you could not get the same understanding from that format. It is not rocket science and it is not a gift. But it is a lot more conceptual than informational. While classes like geology and soil science are largely based on information which you can absorb through reading and lectures, design is not that way. You never get THE answer because there is no single answer. There are so many ways to get to a suitable conclusion that it takes having to go through a whole lot of excercises in doing things the way that you would not do them based solely on your own instincts in order to learn new things or potential pitfalls that you would not learn from going with your own way. In the end, you've done so many things in so many different ways that you can't help but to have learned to recognise situations and have learned a number of ways to address them. Those ways to address things are not off of a list, but based on experience and what you have developed as methods that you have become comfortable with and work well for you. It is still your own creativity and and style that drives everything, but you have more ways that you are comfortable with applying that creativity and more knowledge to go with it. The problem that most self taught people have is that they work within their own comfort zone. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but it has a high limitation on it. That limitation is that there is very little outside influences in either recognizing unfamiliar situations or in getting comfortable with other ways of dealing with things. One of my teachers, Professor Toru Otawa, would constantly say "you could do a master's thesis on that subject" when someone asked a question. Of course, he would answer the question, but we also could see what he meant by saying that. Most of us stay within our comfort zone once we get out and do this after school and after interning. The difference is that we were forced into situations that made us develop a wider comfort zone. I don't know how much sense this makes to a lot of people who have not gone through this. I expect that those who have will agree with this and those that have not will find a pile of reasons why this is not as good as the way they learned (I think that was standard rule #1 of messageboard posters that I mentioned very early in this thread).

Since I don't speak French, I could move to Alberta. Although I like the work week in Newfoundland. Can you grow hostas there? By the way, the only difference between Manitoba and Minnesota is that the price of beer. Even Canadian beer costs more in Winnipeg than it does in Minnesota. Or so I hear... Thanks for cultural and geographical education, Beverly

We are home! We drove a total of 1900 miles - way too much driving, but was it worth it. Our first night was in Bar Harbor. Lovely little town that I would like to visit for longer next time. Then on to Saint John by way of Campobello. Campobello was great and I'm so glad we went. I LOVE PEI. Another place I would like to go back to for a longer visit. We stopped at a little out of the way fish place near Stanley Bridge. I have never had oysters on the half shell that fresh and that good! I fear from now on other oysters will be a disappointment. Highlands Provincial Park in Cape Breton was beautiful. The first day was rainy and foggy. :-( But, the second day was gorgeous. It was rainy again when we got to Halifax, so we just kept going. Lunenburg was charming; touristy, but charming. The old houses and the academy have been well-maintained and gave us a glimpse into what the town must have looked like 150 years ago. From Lunenburg, we went to the Luckett Vineyards in Wolfville, where we did a small tasting (driving prevented a larger tasting). I brought home a small bottle of ice wine. Loved the red phone box in the middle of the vineyard (not my photo) We were told we could call anywhere in North America for free, but everyone I tried to call was unavailable. Mom, Sister, and DD were all having lunch together and not answering phones! We drove through Annapolis Royal on the way to Digby and had a quick lunch at the German bakery and cafe across from Fort Anne. Lunch was good but the palmier I had for dessert was fantastic! Many thanks to all of you who gave me information and ideas for planning my trip. I would like to especially thank robo who answered dozens of questions by PM (she would probably have her cottage totally finished by now if it weren't for helping me!). I think we are home for a while, now, except for weekend jaunts. I slept 15 hours last night/this morning!