Gretchen, I doubt that I'll be able to take many PCI pics this season. I'm pretty busy right now, as we are traveling the next couple weeks (I'm starting to get into my usual semi-panic mode and starting to do the marathon laundry and packing and other things that need doing), and then once we get back it's MORE laundry and get the tomatoes planted and then I have to get ready for a maybe knee replacement surgery.
If you're in the Sacramento valley (or worse, up near Redding), yowza, that gets super hot during the summer. I'd say good luck to keeping PCIs alive (but then, what do I know?, and I've pushed boundaries myself with certain plants, so I say go for it!). Afternoon shade would be a must, though. Also, fwiw, I ignore people who say don't irrigate the PCIs. Our garden is on twice-weekly automatic irrigation, and so far as I can tell, the PCIs (those that I was able to establish in the first place) are doing fine, no foliage problems or anything. (They *are* in a redwood root choked area, though, so you may have to factor in your soil type and root competition or lack thereof...)
Thanks for the explanation, Monty. I have an inkling of the enormous amount of work in homesteading (a niece is doing it, just her and her middle school age daughter, and I'm suspecting that won't last past when the daughter goes off to college, IF she goes). I can also understand wanting chickens ("pets", eggs, pest control), but unless you are milking the goats or using them to keep the vegetation down, I'm surprised that you still have them.
