I've had success growing French lavender, but there are a few rules! First, amend the soil where you'll be planting it. Mix some fresh in-ground potting soil, a handful of gypsum, about 1/2 a cup of Azomite, and a handful of Perlite together, then add that mixture to the existing dark gray Dallas clay. I would buy small plants instead of starting from seed, so after you've amended the soil, simply plant your new plants and water well. Water daily until it takes root. As for choosing a location, it should be planted somewhere shady. I have mine on either side of a bench that sits under a huge tree. The smell...you can't be angry when you sit amongst the lavender!!!

Day 4 Build (Day 6 calendar) - Gunite I'm a little behind with the progress updates. Going into gunite, we were worried if a few things were going to turn out right. And then inspecting the pool afterwards threw us into a wave of second guessing some of our decisions and designs. Gunite in process Gunite Completed So, here are the things that we fretted over. Tanning Ledge Step location - we moved the steps from far driveway end to the middle. I think it looks much better plus it didn't make sense to have steps going into the deep end. Tanning ledge edge - after moving the steps, we didn't think to extend the tanning ledge. Doh! Bubbler location - managed to get it in. Originally had it in the far flat area but then moved it to bottom of the beach entry. And what's with the return sticking up from the middle of the beach entry? We originally wanted a return that came back across the beach entry to keep it clean. I looked at this and thought they are giving me a bubbler return. But then they said they put an angled jet on the return so it sweeps across. Do you pool builders ever get annoyed with our questions? Beach entry angle - it seem too steep. I'm not sure what my options are. Maybe we can flatten the slope and angle it back into the deck? Would this comprise the pool beam integrity? Weeping wall and moss rock below water line - we wanted the rocks in the water and not above the tile line. I thought they were going to build a ledge into the beam to support the rocks. Instead they angled the beam down. I was told that this is preferred since it can accommodate bigger rocks. Reverse beam - In this area, they also transitioned from the angle too late. We should have more beam and less rock. I was told that they can address this with the rock guys. Deep end step out - We had a seat in the deep end. We thought it would be good to add some steps to make it a deep end step out. I think this turned out well. Spa Oh, where do I begin with the spa? Size - dang this thing looks huge. It seems more like a small wading pool! And it looks really high. I remember making sure it was 18" (vs 12") so that it would be a good seat height from the deck. It just looks like a castle turret now. Multi level spa seating - managed to get a section 21" deep as I wanted to be fully seated and submersed. Never did measure the length of my upper body... Seating - they did a horseshoe seating arrangement. Seems like the wall along the spillway is just wasted space. This was to prevent playing footsies with the person seated across from you. Spillway - we didn't spring for the fancy spillway. Nor did we cut it open as we were hoping the notches would give us a scupper effect. Now I wonder if that was a wise choice. Again, castle turret... Piping - What's the deal with the piping outside the gunite? I know it'll be covered up with the mortar and veneer. Should I be worried about this kind of stuff? In pool table We thought this was a cool idea. Being able to have a drink or a meal while sitting in the pool. Well... Pedestal placement - I posted before that the pedestal had to be a mere 9" from the pool wall to prevent the cleaner from getting in there. I thought that was too close. In actuality, there's no problems. The pedestal itself is very small and the corner seating is wide so it's not like having to shuffle into booth seating at a restaurant. We are planning on using one large oval piece of rock as a table top. Table height - now this is where we didn't think it through (or the PB didn't educate us). The table is going to be at water level. They did standard in-pool bench seating. So it appears that when I sit on the bench, the table is going to be up to my neck! At this point, they can't raise the seat with gunite. The only thing I can think of is adding a layer of flagstone to the bench seating to raise it up a few inches. Any other ideas? Of course we also changed our tile selection for the 3rd time and made some last minute changes to the light locations. All of which I hope were the right decisions. Anyways, enough of my rants. It's good to document this stuff as I'm sure my wife is tired of hearing me talk about these things. Sounds like I'm just a worry wart. We're still very excited and can't wait for the pool to be all done and the backyard mess all cleared up. Cheers! Here is a link that might be useful: Day 4 - Gunite

I'm new to roses (planted my first rose garden in 2011) and, thus far, they're all healthy, but I do read a lot and want to be educated and ready to remove plants if it becomes necessary. I saw my first RRD rose at my local independent nursery a few days ago. A landscaper had brought in a branch and blooms. The horticulturist on staff at the nursery was kind enough to gather a few of us around and point out what to look for. In all honesty, it looked really different in person than what I had here-to-then seen online and read in descriptions of the virus. It was really helpful to see the "witch's broom"-like growth, the blooms that looked like it was grown at a leaking nuclear plant, and the weird thorniness that were like thorn-hair. This particular afflicted plant was off a Knockout variety but I know it can affect all roses, so I'm watching everything at my house, praying that I don't have to "euthanize" any. Pretty scary. Wish there was something we could do to avoid it. Makes you feel so helpless. . .

I had one in my yard in Euless, and it had grown to be a 10' shrub when I moved (after maybe 10 years). I had mine on the east side of a storage building, under the neighbor's fruitless mulberry, so it was pretty much full shade. The plant was mature and bloomed. One year my sprinkler head in that area of the yard stopped working and the tree died to the ground. Once I fixed that head it came back, so I'd say regular water was important. I don't know how true this is, and I can't find the source any more, but I remember reading that it can take cold or wind, but not cold wind, so you might want to protect from winter winds. BTW, I have one planted in east Texas and it's now about 6' tall. It's on the north side of my house next to my hardy orange tree.