Steve, it would be easier to refer you to the photos of this same garden showing the entire area, to illustrate how a vignette relates to the larger garden. I was trying to use the analogy of the human body as a metaphor for how the similarities of the plants as a repeating element link the entire garden together when one steps back to see it as a whole. From a greater distance, it will be the massed repeating forms and color more so than the textural contrasts that unify the garden, which I think of as the "skin" that ties it all together. I also find it a natural linkage between plants when they are similar in their needs; in this case, all had to be both shade and root competition tolerant because they were being underplanted below existing mature Coast Live Oaks, and also tolerant of drier soils between irrigation cycles, as our native oaks are intolerant of continually wet soils in summer. I also switched out the irrigation system on this front slope from uniform spray to targeted drip so that I could keep the immediate areas adjacent the oak trunks completely dry. This wider view of the front garden is not really at a point where I would use it as a portfolio photo, as the limited irrigation for the oak's health has meant that the plantings have yet to really fill in. Typically, after a year's growth, almost any of my recent garden installations would be completely filled in; this section of the garden has been a tougher one for the new plants. I think you will be able to see that the vignettes of those two plant photos are just a subset of the entire garden, but repetition of plant forms, foliage colors, plant types(multiple layers of different succulents in this case), and repeating the monochromatic house colors with the choice of rock for retaining the slope by the sidewalk all reinforce a common experience. While the individual plants selected have nothing whatsoever to do with a native California Oak Woodland understory plant community, they are all quite well adapted to the conditions, and look "woodsy and shade tolerant" without screaming "exotic" in my opinion. Does the additional photo explain what I mean more so than the text? Browse the other photos in the various Drager Garden sets on my Flickr account if you want to see how much the garden really varies from area to area. The east side of the house with the most sun is the most radically colorful portion of the landscape,(lots of orange against the copper house siding), and the rear garden slope at the back of the house/patio is also less monochromatic in use of plant colors, but still uses a lot of the same plants as here in the front garden. Fire safety issues and deer browsing tolerance as well as gopher tolerance were also prime selection criteria for plantings in this garden. Here is a link that might be useful: Wider view of Drager Front Garden

I have some very simple starting systems. I have a few DWC system with aquarium bubblers. They are made of whatever junk I could find. (like styrofoam cooler from dumpster lined with plastic, holes cut to hold yogurt cups that hold the lettuce and perlite.) They have been very sucessful at keeping us in very nice salad since last October. Very simple easy set up for beginners to start learning with. I have also built a few solar powered gurgle gardens that have worked very well for my Snow peas and Chineese Kale. They are much like the gurgle gardens you find diagrams of on the web but I substituted the plug in air pump for a little DC air pump and a couple solar cells so that I don't need to worry about running extention cords. Only drawback is if no sun then I have to manually scoop nutrient from below and drench the medium every so often to keep things from drying out. Once the roots grow down through the holes this isn't as imparitive. Below is a link to a sight where some of the photos are. I will post another follow up with some more of the photos. Here is a link that might be useful: Hydroponics forum

Bev, I have emailed you privately with a LARGE sample construction spec. Much of it will likely not be helpful to you as we did an ICF house with SIPS panels for the roof, and a rainwater collection system for our drinking water. However, I believe most of the "standard" language for construction is still in there (though crossed out) and you will certainly find categories, notes that foundations, etc. should be to national and local codes, etc. You will see things that we crossed out, like landscaping allowances and specs, because this was a country home and we didn't want any of that stuff added....but the category is still there as a starting place. I almost ignored this thread as our specs are so different due to the location and the building materials, then I realized that a lot of the standard categories and language are still in there. The "template" for the specs originated with our architect.

I taught kindergarten for 22 years, not higher math but I realized a long time ago that what I taught and how I taught it could make a big difference in the long run. Number awareness, meaning how numbers relate to each other is something that when mastered makes math seem logical. The kids that "get it" might make a mistake but they realize it and correct it. They don't rely on memorizing "how to do something" and then if that form of the problem changes, become lost. No, they can adjust the original form of the problem to the new form. I'm not saying you don't have to memorize "formulas" that you need in alegbra but you also know how to derive them. An example - in elementary school, you are taught to memorize math facts, addition then subtraction, multipication and division. But for many years they were treated as seperate and unrelated operations. Once kids were taught that subtraction is the opposite of addition and that multiplication is a shortened way of doing addition and that division is the opposite of multiplication, all of a sudden the light goes off. Now, that doesn't mean that all kids get it easily but "math families" approach sure did help to build the confidence of many kids as far as how they felt about math. I still go into schools to do pre and post testing for grants in our county. I was amazed at how many kids would start to add or subtract from the left column of the problem, instead of the right. Works if you don't have to regroup but is a sure fire failure method if you do. What it means is that kids don't understand what "borrowing" or "carrying" as we called it in my school days, now called regrouping, really means. Somewhere back in kindergarten or first, they weren't physically shown how to do it. We did it everyday when we counted the number of days in school with straws. When we had say 9 days in school, the next day we would add a 10th straw, band them up into a "group" of one "10's " and move then into the 10's spot. When we had our 100th day of school, my kids got it that 100 could mean a hundred ones, or ten 10's. I even had one kid who made the connection that if 100 means ten 10's then 1000 must mean a hundred "10's"! About blew me away but that child had a number awareness at the age of 6! I know I'm rambling but it goes back to finding out where you started having problems and moving on from there. You have to look through the forest to find that one tree and chop that one down! Good luck!