Hi Incitatus First off I need to know if you are in Vail, Corona De Tucson, Basicly where. Because if you are in Tucson the temps are warmer than in Vail... So I need to know how much freeze they have gone threw. Just to let you know I have been growing plants in the high desert all my life, As child at Edwards AFB. My Mother gave me a little corner in the backyard which I grew a vegtable garden, in Casa Grand AZ. while in jr. high, and High School I also grew a vegtable garden. While in apartments in Tucson going to U of A I grew my veggies in pots. I work in a nursery in Tucson. To Start I would never water any plant everyday even in summer. Unless they were bedding plants, or in pots. Watering in the desert needs to be done deeply, it forces roots to grow deeply, and the plants don't get overwatered. The first sign of plants being overwatered is, the plants look fine except that they are not growing, not producing flowers. The second sign, is the leaves starting at the lower leaves turn compleately yellow, and will drop off. Bamboo I don't believe will have an over watering problem as long as they as the soil is a good draining soil. I believe watering everyday for 2 weeks is not long enough to do damage. The duller sheen could be due to the fact that the myrtles are going dormant. In some areas they can go compleatly dormant. In other areas they can go semi-dormant. Depends if you are near a wash, a large park or golf course, or near the mountains or in Tucson. It also depends on your yard and where thing are placed in the yard. This is known as micro climates. when I water to establish; I water once every 3rd day, in summer. Shrubs to depth of 18" trees to 18 - 22". I keep doing this untill I see leaves turning yellow, and droping. Then I will water every 5th day and deeper, till I see the signs again, then every 7th. till I get the watering down to once every 2 weeks. In winter I would water once every 4th or 6th day to start. Again I need to know your area to advise you on what plants to get for privacy. I don't want to tell you something to get if your area wont's support the temps for the plant. If you noticed my zone is 13. That is because I don't follow the USDA's idea of zone temps. That is because they do not take into concideration the extream heat we have to deal with. Any thing that is writen by Sunset deals with the western states, and have zone ranges that deal with all the climets of the west, and takes into concideration the extream heat we have to deal with. I tell you this because If you read something writen by someone who is in the east, and their information tells you, you need to add lime into the soil to bring the ph up to nutural,,, well that would be very bad for us because are soil is a high ph. We have to add acid to our soil to bring our ph down to a nutural level. I hope this isn't too much information to start. Naycat

It was hardly my intention to mislead anyone, and I apologize for having done so if anyone has, indeed, been misled. I had assumed that by identifying our swap as a 'NEW' swap that folks would realize that it is, well, new. If anyone remains confused, please note that this is an entirely different swap, meeting for the first time November 4th, and has no connection with "THE Middle TN Plant Swap" held on the Buffalo River. I will be coming to your swap October 21st, Jan, and we'd love to see you in Hendersonville in November. Anyway, we have set the date/time/place for our next organizational meeting. It will be held Tuesday, Ocotober 3rd at 5:15 pm at White House city park. Anyone who's interested is most welcome! Any questions, comments, concerns etc, you can either post a follow up to this forum or email our group at BloomingIdiotsPlantSwap@yahoo.com.

Daniel, That is a good point. But there is a way to add Zone, State etc in the profile. New Houzz format allows adding more in the user nrstame. First enter user name , in First Nam. Second add additional info in Last Name box. So maybe you can open a thread and have a discussion on having more info in the usere name that shows on the top of each post. I personally suggest adding Heat Zone or Sunset zone which are more useful when it comes to summer crops gardening . JMO Sey PS: I have entered " Seysonn" in First Name box and " 7b-WA-HZ1" in Last name box. So the "Seysonn_ 7b-WA/HZ1 " appears on the top of my posts. . It is simple, and meaningful Sey

Also, Sabino canyon, in the Catalina's is a treat. There are guided tram rides up into the canyon with 9 stops along the way. There are many mapped hikes with literature at the visitor's center. You can get off the tram at any of the nine stops and re board waving your tram ticket stub at the driver. Wear hiking gear and take water. I have spent many many hours hiking there. Hiking not necessary. The tram ride which is narrated is fun. If you are not too tired, on your way back to the hotel, stop at Medicine Man gallery, Mark Sublette, m.d. Is the owner and has another outpost in Santa Fe. The gallery is in an unassuming shopping center with a Bashas supermarket, about 2 miles from Sabino, down Sunrise. Dr. Sublette has a great eye and you will be surprised at the excellent and serious offerings at serious prices. Or visit the gallery on another day. Your eyes will thank you. i enjoy taking our visitors to Biosphere, about one hour north of Tucson. It is was an experiment in self contained and self sustained living by a group of scientists in the last century. Lots of walking. Now part of the U of A. San Xavier Mission, going south, is a pretty, old, church with guided tours. Worth a couple hours, definitely. Sweet and low key. Gift shop has good prices. La Encantada is an upscale mall close to your hotel with the usual suspects. Frost gelato shop, 1 on tripadvisor, is there and is yummy and has pretty displays. We also like Firebirds restaurant, a casual place. Several restaurants there but we have only gone to fb and frost. AJ is an upscale grocer in the mall and nice for lunch. Funky, vintage shopping is on 4th, not far from the U of A. Touristy. Check out whatever culture is in town---dance, theater, music. I haven't been but will take dgs to Kitt Peak Observatory as he will soon begin college to become an aeronautical engineer. He would love it. We are snowbirds and have our winter home here. My faves are the Desert Museum and Sabino Canyon. the Tucson art museum is good but cannot compete and doesn't try to compete with the worlds great museums. Cafe ala Carte at the museum is nice. Enjoy. As you have great southwestern stuff in Santa Fe, I didn't focus on that.