Hi, Pam! "..do any weeds dare grow in your garden?" Well, they do. Sometimes. :-) "You must spend hours keeping them so well-groomed." Not really. I found that it will be easier to prevent them start growing than fight them later. 1. All new beds/ freshly dug areas receive generous dose of 'Preen' if bare grounds ment to be left for longer than a day or two. 2. Mulch is all year around, 3-4" of cedar mulch for EVERY new or freshly disturbed areas at any time of the year and 1-2" every year in early spring (late March-early April the latest). Though cedar mulch cost almost twice as much as hardwood one, it doesn't decomposes as fast and by the end of the season I still have at least 1-2" thick layer of it in all beds. If you also consider the fact that cost/time of spreading of good mulch vs the cheap one is the same, you may figure out that in a long run, difference in cost is not that significant. My garden takes about 17-18 yards every year if no major area had been started, but I always order 20 yards and keep the leftover in pile just in case I'd move plants or plant something new. By the end of the season it all gone somehow.:-) Because of such treatment, I rarely have a self-seeded 'bonus' garden plants, but I don't have a weeds either. I could live with such trade-off. 3. 'Wild' areas that immediately adjacent to the property might be threated by 'Roundup' or equivalent few times a year and I never refuse myself a pleasure of ocassional pulling/digging of the most stubborn offenders. My major enemies in a garden are Norway maples and wild onions. Unfortunately, this is an ongoing battle, but nothing I could do about. " Your gardens are meticulous!!" Thanks for the kind words, but you have to see my garage in a summer...LOL.

Geez Lars, I think you DO need to get out more <g> When I was younger, barefoot. Our house was mostly carpet. I know, it's better to wear at least socks because feet do tend to add oils to the carpet and that attracts dirt. But being hot natured all my life, socks were a no-go. Older now and I'm paying for going barefoot all the time. And our house is now mostly hard surface (tile and wood. Carpeted den and bedrooms). So now it's shoes. Should be ALL the time but occasionally I'll get stupid and walk around half a day barefoot :o I'm in Texas. Cold tile feels good on hot feet! ps...the shoes I wear in the house are for house only. My mother actually uses a Lysol wipe to wipe the bottoms of her shoes when she comes in from outside.

DH just called me to say he got a text message from BM to 'please gather up all SD's clothes that she bought and send them back.' She said she's got a bag of 'our' clothes that she will trade him on Sunday. (at least I can nix the idea of mailing them back) I just counted and we have exactly four pair of socks, two pair of torn up shorts, and two tank tops. THAT's IT. DH says she's probably trying to get clothes for summer by saying we have her clothes here. Maybe she's just looking for something to start more crap, because I can see her throwing a fit when he hands her the bag with four pair of socks and two outfits. LOL, of course we do have two big bags of yard sale stuff that doesn't fit her anymore. I guess we could be asses and send that over there. (Nah!) I don't even have to buy SD any new summer clothes. She has all her shorts from the beginning of school (she hardly wore them to school) and she got a bunch for her Birthday, so I don't have to go shopping until 'back to school' time. Fortunately, we don't have a community sock basket. My kids all do their own laundry & have hampers in their rooms. My husband keeps his hamper in his closet & I use the one in the bathroom. SD has her hamper in her room too so her stuff isn't washed with anyone else's. When the kids were small, I used to wash everyone's together and I HATED sorting the socks. I'd rather toss them & go buy new ones than waste an afternoon sorting out whose is who? That drove me crazy and I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore.

Hardwood throughout my entire first floor, including the kitchen and all entry areas. Residents don't wear shoes in the house. Human residents, nor furry ones. :) Visitors are not given any rules upon arrival. :) Most people see you walking around in bare feet, or socks, or slippers, and immediately move to take off their shoes. Depending upon who they are and why they are there, I often tell them don't bother. For instance, if it's the HVAC guy and he's going to work in the cellar, I couldn't care less if he keeps his shoes on. As someone noted upthread, the nice thing about hardwood is that it does clean up very easily. I prefer the residents keep shoes off the floor b/c it does keep the floors cleaner, but there is no way I would ever make a guest remove their shoes. As far as damage - most of the damage to my floor comes from the toenails of the 20 pound furry lunatics who share my home. Yes I keep them short - no lectures on appropriate dog nail procedures please! They are young and love to run and play - nails dig in on cornering no matter how short they are. :) However there has been some damage from people in shoes who had rocks stuck in the treads. Most of it from the early days when the house was under construction because sadly my GC was an inconsiderate moron regarding things like this. TL:DR. It's hardwood. It dents. I do what I can to keep the dents to a minimum but don't stay up at night about it either.