title: R ggplot facet: varying x axis formatting and varying aesthetics by facet
body: <p>I was hoping someone could help with
  1) varying the format of the x-axis across panels in a facet plot
  2) showing the loess smoother only on the left side of the facet.</p>
  
  <p>The left side is longer history, the right is last twelve months.
  The real dataset has more data (more time and more variables), and so these problems become worse, but I think the below code should show my issues.
  The right hand side dates are squashed, and the smoother is not needed with only twelve points.</p>
  
  <p>Very grateful for any help!
  Thanks
  Aidan</p>
  
  <pre><code>    g&lt;-structure(list(Date = structure(c(13909, 13938, 13969, 13999,
      14029, 14060, 14091, 14120, 14152, 14183, 14211, 14244, 14274,
      14302, 14334, 14364, 14393, 14425, 14456, 14487, 14517, 14547,
      14578, 14609, 14638, 14666, 14699, 14729, 14760, 14790, 14820,
      14852, 14882, 14911, 14943, 14974, 15005, 15033, 15064, 15093,
      15125, 15155, 15184, 15217, 15247, 15278, 15308, 15338, 15370,
      15399, 15429, 15460, 15125, 15155, 15184, 15217, 15247, 15278,
      15308, 15338, 15370, 15399, 15429, 15460), class = "Date"), value = c(199.8,
      195.7, 200.1, 201, 207.7, 215.1, 210.3, 202.9, 191, 186.5, 180.1,
      175.7, 164.6, 168.2, 169.9, 166.6, 174.7, 181.8, 181.3, 177.3,
      176.1, 172.2, 170, 170.7, 164.9, 164.6, 169.6, 172.3, 174.6,
      182.9, 182.1, 177.3, 171.4, 170.6, 170.2, 168.8, 157.9, 156.1,
      159.8, 161.1, 169.3, 175.6, 171.2, 171.2, 165.3, 160.8, 164,
      162.2, 154.6, 155.6, 164.8, 177.4, 169.3, 175.6, 171.2, 171.2,
      165.3, 160.8, 164, 162.2, 154.6, 155.6, 164.8, 177.4), variable = structure(c(1L,
      1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L,
      1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L,
      1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L,
      1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L), .Label = "NAR Median Hse Price ($000)", class = "factor"),
          var2 = c("History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "History",
          "History", "History", "History", "History", "History", "LTM",
          "LTM", "LTM", "LTM", "LTM", "LTM", "LTM", "LTM", "LTM", "LTM",
          "LTM", "LTM")), .Names = c("Date", "value", "variable", "var2"
      ), row.names = c("1016", "1017", "1018", "1019", "1020", "1021",
      "1022", "1023", "1024", "1025", "1026", "1027", "1028", "1029",
      "1030", "1031", "1032", "1033", "1034", "1035", "1036", "1037",
      "1038", "1039", "1040", "1041", "1042", "1043", "1044", "1045",
      "1046", "1047", "1048", "1049", "1050", "1051", "1052", "1053",
      "1054", "1055", "1056", "1057", "1058", "1059", "1060", "1061",
      "1062", "1063", "1064", "1065", "1066", "1067", "10561", "10571",
      "10581", "10591", "10601", "10611", "10621", "10631", "10641",
      "10651", "10661", "10671"), class = "data.frame")
  
      gp&lt;-ggplot(g,aes(x=Date,y=value,group=variable)) +
           opts(
              panel.background = theme_rect(size = 1, colour = "lightgray"),
              panel.grid.minor = theme_blank(),
              strip.background = theme_blank(),
              axis.title.x = theme_blank(),
              axis.title.y = theme_blank()
        ,strip.text.y = theme_text(size = 12,angle = 0)
          )
      gp&lt;- gp + geom_line(size=1)
      gp &lt;-gp + facet_grid(variable ~ var2, scales="free")
      gp&lt;-gp+geom_smooth(method=loess,size=1,span=.35,alpha=.005)
      gp
  </code></pre>