A few comments to the comments on my post... Maro, our Mexican trip was taken after we retired. I no longer have any desire to landscape as a business. But I still love the creative part, often stopping at interesting houses under construction and making quick sketches of landscape ideas for my own amusement. The tingle of deep design involvement, the working of ying and yang, feeling the pulse of a design as I play with light, shadows, texture and other feelings not easily translated into words, will forever excite me. I agree, bahia, on your remarks about high walls surrounding dwellings. However, our archeologist son points out that in the early days man surrounded himself with walls to protect his family, food crops and to prevent sewage from spilling into the family compound. There were, of course, many reasons for walls, much dependent on climate and location. In some respects I would rather live with your abundant, overplanted, ever changing palette of color. It allows me to be casual, not afraid to change the position of a chair or garden ornament. The minimalist approach generally allows no additional room for change. The design is right there in your face, always perfect, always complete saying, "admire me". Accordian, you have brought up a point to be stressed. It is very important to design interior, exterior and landscaping as one package. We talk about this every once in awhile on the Forum. Most home buyers locate a house too late in the building process to have this happen. Sadly they are faced with many of the landscape problems we see posted daily here. Yes, there will always be "something missing" in these developer aberrations.

Well, hello cactusjordi! I have owned 4 different C. peculiaris now. One that I planted out in a succulent bowl (that I got from a wonderful San Diego chap), the one in the picture here, and two others. Of the 4, my first one (the one bought in San Diego) did not like the hot humid and wet summer. RIP :-( So bummed. It struggled at first then was getting stronger then this. Does not like water and heat when it is dormant. The one that I purchased shown in the original post here....I have no clue...must have croaked too. Brain is really going. But it did bloom and give me seed. The last two that I got over a year and a half ago made it through this past crazy summer. These were more protected so I guess that helped. I ran out as the sun had already set tonight and took a few shots. So there you have it. Some successes and some failures. I know now where to keep them best in my garden. I have no greenhouse or protected area. Mother nature dictates. Yours look great cactusjordy! ewwmayo - I'm pretty sure that cactusjordy is completely reliant on Mother nature. They are outside under the cover of other plants. Water....when it falls from the sky...that's it.

It is very lovely where we are, we are surrounded by commercial nurseries because we have such great growing conditions right where we are. We feel very, very blessed We do spend huge amounts of time outside, here. I have an entire outdoor kitchen, in fact (both of us being of Italian extraction, we must have an awesome kitchen, lol!) We are all doing well, I am recovering from a shingles outbreak, which I'm kind of young for and had not gotten the vaccine, yet. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. So, I would admonish anyone who had chicken pox as a kid, to talk to your doctor about the wisdom of getting a shingles vaccination. I'm hoping I don't end up with permanent nerve damage from that outbreak, ugh. All the family is well, and we're gearing up for our annual July 4th shindig! Jades are doing great! One is big, one is still small, and I might have a little something for you, hint, hint :-) Patty S.

You couldn't have chosen a better place to relocate! We live in San Luis Obispo, and love Cambria. We will be building a home in the hills outside Arroyo Grande in the the near future. As for weather - it doesn't get much better than the Central Coast. Cambria can get cool (the price you pay for being on the coast), but it will seem like a tropical island after Philly! I would encourage you to be picky about both your architect and your builder. There are many great ones to choose from in this area. However, I would talk with more than two. Before meeting with architects, have a clear picture about what you are looking for and be prepared to ask lots of questions. The county here can be picky and it is helpful to have an architect and builder who are very familiar with the building codes and have good relationships with the county. Also, if you have views (as many lots do in this area), make sure your architect is talented at exploiting them. We have seen homes with amazing views that had a huge fireplace blocking the view - so sad! Best of luck to you!