Well,just an update on this house and garden, it sold the first week on the market, with an all cash offer just slightly over the asking price. I wish I could say that it had something to do with the landscaping we put in, but it was more probably the killer panoramic bay and city view, which most impressed in the end. The approach to focus on the front garden and leave the back garden mostly unlandscaped with just a vignette of a small lawn, perimeter wire fence with espaliered Grewia caffra flowering hedge, it seemed to help the home sell. The builders only broke even, and it was definitely only a mildly profitable installation for me, I was giving the client a break on my labor costs. I figure it was what it takes to remain competitive in this market, and also generates good will for more work. I hope this really is a positive sign of the real estate market getting better here, and that sales pick up across the country. The mood is cautiously optimistic here, as long as smaller projects continue to come along, if no big budget ones are on the horizon... A few tricks I pulled to try and bring this job in within a very tight budget was to use new plants that could easily be propagated from the client's own garden, as well as using clippings/cuttings from various other client's gardens over a couple of months in advance of the project. I'll admit this is particularly easy with mild climate plants such as succulents and bromeliads; but the idea could as easily utilize divided perennials, unwanted plants by one client dug up and saved for another client, etc. Although this means that many plants are just mere cuttings, they can be planted closely in mass to give an immediate impact. It would be a nice plum if the new owners elected to use my services to finish off the rear yard, as well as with help maintaining the new garden on a quarterly basis. No idea whether that will happen, but optimism never hurts...

I followed the link above to read more about this story. It upset me so badly that I have been trying to think of any way that people could have some influence that might prevent the destruction of these plants. I wrote an email to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack asking that our government try to exert some influence to preserve these plants. When I was a kid my grandmother told me stories about when the chestnut blight killed all the American Chestnut trees in the eastern US. One fungal disease managed to decimate one of the most important trees in the forests of the eastern US. In a matter of a few years, a tree, which was as common in forests as oak trees are today, were all completely dead. Because the wood was naturally disease and rot resistant, the dead tree stood for years until people gradually cut them down for timber. They stood like skeletons to remind them of what had been lost. The trees had provided a tremendous source of nutrition for humans, livestock, and wildlife as well as one of the best lumber materials available. I live in Knoxville, TN at the foot of the Great Smokey Mountains. For the past 20 years, the hemlock woolly adelgid had been repeating this same story as it kills all of the hemlock trees in the Great Smokey Mountains. Scientists are predicting that all all hemlocks in the southern U.S will be dead within 10 years. We never know when a new pest or disease will come along and wipe out a species or variety of plant upon which we depend. It is imperative that organizations with collections of plants, like the ones at the Pavlovsk experimental station, be preserved so that we have genetic diversity upon which we can develop new variates that will be resistant to plant diseases of the future. I am going to start putting together a list of URLs and email address for sending comments to press, government, and other groups to see if anything can be done to convince the Russian government that they need to build elsewhere. If I put this list together of URLs and email addresses, how many people would volunteer to send notes to them all. You could write a one simple note to them all, but it is not as simple as sending a group email with blind carbon copies. More and more often groups are using web pages where you must post your comments to them, rather than having a public email address. For these you have to click, paste, and send to each one. Besides agreeing to send to the list I can put together, everyone that is interested could send the list to friends that are fellow gardeners for example. If a few dozen influential people get a few thousand emails, something might happen to prevent this catastrophe. The alternative to preserving this plant genetic diversity is that soon we will all be held hostage by a few large corporations who will hold the patents on every plant that is grown for food or fiber, and these plants will depend upon their company's patented chemicals to...

Personally I think this is a really interesting discussion. I am an engineer at Honda R&D near Columbus, OH. At my location, there are over a thousand white collar workers, mostly technical. Within a hundred mile radius of me, there are a 4 Honda assembly plants, employing around 10,000 people. At other sites in the US and Canada, there are probably another 15,000 workers. Each of these plants is turning out thousands of new Hondas per day. Nearly every Honda/Acura sold in the US (by volume) is made in the US. The engines, transmissions, every major component. Furthermore, Honda actually *exports* cars from the US, something that the Big 3 can barely talk about. Sure, there are niche cars like the S2000 roadster that are 100% Japanese, but that is a tiny part of our market. I think these are pretty impressive numbers, especially if you consider that Honda is only something like the 7th largest market share in the US. Its been here since 1979, I'd wager that in those 27 years Honda has contributed significantly to Americans and their way of life. There are a lot of secure $25/hr plus full benefits jobs available in Ohio because of Honda. The US auto industry lost their way in the oil crises. They haven't been able to turn it around since then. They concentrate too much on short-sighted markets like giant fuel-guzzling SUVs. Its not that the Big 3 makes bad cars, its that they make cars that aren't in demand. Compare a Focus to a Civic. A Taurus to an Accord. Sure, those Fords might last 200k miles, but I'd much rather spend that time in a nice Accord than a hard plastic Taurus. I would rather support the thousands of American workers who build Hondas than support a few suits in Detroit and drive a Mexican Dodge. That said, my garage: 1980 Lawn Boy 7229 1996 Stihl trimmer 1997 Honda Accord (shocking, right?) 2002 Triumph Speed Triple (mc) 1976 Honda CB400F (mc) 1976 Suzuki GT550 2-stroke (mc) 1948 Johnson Sea Horse (outboard) 1949 Evinrude Zephyr (outboard)

Hello, I don't know how much I can advise you, but I'd like to comment on a few things mentioned here. I've bought property many times here and on the subject of gazumping and gazundering, yes it happens here and there but nothing like as rampant as has been implied. It's never happened to me. In most cases the only time some renegotiation can take place is after you've had a structural survey done on a property and you find some fault that could work out expensive to repair, then you might look again at the price agreed. Transactions have been speeded up lately, but yes you can be stuck in a 'chain', for a while, but we get there in the end. Best to buy a property where 'no chain' is advertised, but that's not always possible. I don't know what price range you will be looking at. Most of us here will go to an 'Estate Agent' in a town where we plan to live, there are always several of these, and most often now you will already have seen properties on line that appeal to you, so you go to the agent to arrange a viewing. If you like what you see you make an offer on it. Some haggling can go on here for a short time. When agreement is reached, you arrange for a structural survey to be done and both sides will employ a solicitor to do the conveyancing. When all is satisfied, Exchange of Contracts take place when 10 percent of the agreed total is handed over by the buyer to the seller's solicitor. 1 month later [28 days] Completion takes place, they move out, you move in. In most cases, things run reasonably well, but you will always hear of nightmare stories, concerning delays mostly, if stuck in a chain. Just to correct some points made above by some members. Yes we have huge Fridge Freezers, usually called 'American', we used to have one but it was too big for us. Yes most of us have dish washers, they are so popular and essential for many people. Yes we have tumble dryers, sometimes within our washer or separately. I use mine nearly every day. We are an older couple, just us and a dog, and my electricity bill every 3 months, is about £100.00 which I think maybe $130.00 U.S. Most people here have Central Heating, which means you have a modern dual purpose condensing boiler in a cupboard, or on a kitchen wall, this takes care of your constant hot water and central heating to radiators. The price is about the same as the electricity, depends which supplier you are with. Doesn't matter where you live, many of us do 'home shopping' these days. We order nearly everything online, get the supermarket to deliver it to the door. Clothes are very cheap in supermarkets and other more budget outlets, most of the stuff is made in Bangladesh after all. Health care is free. Medications are free even if you need 20 different ones [if you are aged over 60]. Everything is free medically, except for medications if you are under 60 and can afford to pay them. Yes you have to wait for appointments, but in my experience, if they know it's 'urgent', i.e. something serious, they move you along. There are major problems with Accident and Emergency at the moment due to the time of year and pressure on the system, but I have found the medics that come out to your home, in the rare event you might need one, to be expertly trained. If you can afford private health care on top of this, then so much the better. One of the taxes we pay here which nearly everyone hates with a vengeance, is the Council Tax, which is a tax on property. It's paid monthly for 10 months of the year usually, lots of people don't pay anything much if they are on low incomes with no savings, and then others who do pay have to pay more to make up shortfalls, which causes resentment. I'm in a Band A property which is the cheapest. I pay the equivalent of about U.S.$1600.00 per annum. Larger properties are Band D to Band H and they pay more. We're all just getting on with our lives regardless of Brexit. Who knows how that will turn out. If you'd like to tell us which part of the UK you will be buying in, I might be able to advise you further. I hope this has been of some help.