I cant say that in our younger days, and having bought our first home when I was only 20 years old, that we didn't hoard ourselves. Hubby just refused to throw anything away. The excuse.."they might come in handy ....one day. As far as weeds, you cannot EVER destroy a weed by cutting it...that only makes the weed come back stronger than ever. Weeds must have their roots, either kiled...or removed entirely. I guess that speaks then of a glyphosate...i.e. RoundUp...and after being killed, they have to be removed. Then the slow, yearly approach to caring and repairing, and growing from scratch all what has to be done to get a lawn worth something. What you have to do is take stock of what kind of soil you have and what it needs to grow grass. Was the dethatching necessary......was the ground compacted so much that it didn't harbor moisture long in it. Was any compactness the reason why you have weeds....not likely. You have weeds because they are very easy to grow...and they fight like h*ll to live. When you have a semblance of weed free ground, then the ritual of keeping it free and add organic matter to your soil which will help retain moisture and adds nutrition to the soil''s nitrogen, phosphurus and potassium levels. Every spring....whether you believe its necessary or not, overlay a 1/2" - 1" of good compost, triple mix or quality topsoil over the lawn, then do an over seeding. EVERY SPRING. Let your grass grow to 3" - 3 1/2' and maintain it at that level.....don't cut lower at any time. You may have to mow more often but keeping it at that height will ...in time, shade out weed seeds. A pre-emergent might be considered and spread at the optimum time in your zone. Any nursery can tell you when 0the best time is for your area. Pre-emergent kills most of the weed seeds produced through summer and fall. Much of the weeds that are produced from their seeds will be prevented to show up the next spring. But....a pre-emergent will kill grass seed. So you must wait until the pre-emergent has done its job before over seeding the lawn. A fertilizing schedule must be maintained as per the type of grass you have. Liquid grass fertilizer is a waste of money....most of it runs away if drainage is not what it should be. If possible....your mower cuts the lawn and is able to leave the clippings to remain....then follow that procedure. Some mowers are unable to disperse properly the clippings without leaving clumps in different areas. If so... use a bag and save them in a garbage bag and use in a compost pile for later use as an organic to spread on your lawn in the spring. I have one like that....a TORO that has a gate you open to let the clippings go into the bag...otherwise, it collect at the gate and drops at the most inopportune time. So, I use a bag almost exclusively and feed a compost pile with it. I use it to overlay my lawn and feed my garden in the spring. I seed every spring.... BUT....fall is the BEST time to seed a lawn because there is less competition from weeds But.. again.....its now past the optimum time to seed a lawn which must have soil temperature long enough --high enough--to germinate in time before hard frost arrives. So think spring.

Hoarder? No. Enthusiastic collector? Yeah. The difference being that someone that collects things does that for pleasure and enjoyment. And with plant's that is even more true as plants don't just sit around and collect dust. They require an active investment of time and effort. I suppose it could GET TO a point where it would be hoarding, but again, if they were neglected they would just die and become trash taking up space. People who hoard do so for many reasons, not the least of which is they feel some sort of attachment to things. Like they cant live without them. So, even meaningless things like a movie ticket from a film you loved you saw with an old friend 15 years ago becomes in their minds, priceless. Once something in the brain starts to change, and it turns into hoarding, I think there is a point that is reached where it just becomes overwhelming. Too much "stuff" to handle and that is where it spirals out of control. Things can trigger that too. Death of a good friend, loved one, or spouse can cause someone to find something as an emotional surrogate / replacement which leads to hoarding. I think most plant collectors are more just that. Perhaps sometimes the collections get a little out of control, or too much for a person to care for sure, but mainly I don't think its hoarding. Now, if every available space in your living space and / or outside is covered in pots, and all you have is little paths to get from one place to another, well , yeah. Maybe then you have a problem. LOL. I could never personally live like that. The sad thing is, that people do do that, and sometimes they do it with other living things, including animals. There was just a woman caught around here who had 250+ animals in her home. SOmething like 100 cats, 75 rabits, 25 birds...etc. Feces 8" deep on the floor in places,and dead animals found stuck under piles of trash. It was horrific. Some of the animals had to be euthanised, but the majority were able to be cared for and adopted out. There are still some animals left from that house currently being adopted out to forever homes in fact.

I finally made a list of all the goodies Erin sent to me. Peruvian Lily Iris Corsage Chrysanthemum Sheffield Pink Ajania Pacifica Gaura Passionate Rainbows Plena Elegans, Polish Spirit, and Jules Correvor Clematis White Stokesia Platycodon Sentimental Blue Attraction, Royal Red, and White Buddleia Jasmanum Nudiflorum Perennial Hardy Hibiscus Leeba Orange Crush, Elegant Candy, Karen Sue, Fooled Me, Miss Jessie, and Big Time Happy Daylilies Mediavarigata Blue Spruce Sedum Little White Lines, High Country, June, and Roller Coaster Ride Hostas Orange Candy Lily Purple Echinacea Erin was a great partner. Her plants were very healthy. She packaged them very well. A+++ Swap Partner.

Amy, That sounds so peculiar to me! Well, maybe they have a distribution center in Texas now? For example, Amazon.com has a distribution center right there at DFW Airport, so when we order from Amazon, we often get it the next day. We could get it the same day if Tim could pick it up. The same is true of U-Line, from whom I order gift bags, tissue paper and bows every year for the gift bags for the VFD and for Tim's salsa gifts for work. I can order by a certain time of the day---it may be 5 pm and get my stuff the next day. It is pretty amazing to me to get anything that quickly. Mary, Today the heat was so awful so incredibly early. We went out to eat breakfast and then stopped by Wal-Mart. By the time we got home, it was only about 10 a.m. and the heat index was 100 already. That is crazy. Really, when we left the house to go eat breakfast, our heat index already was 88. It seemed insanely hot so ealry in the day. There's been a couple of fires paged out today. No one should have to fight fires in this heat. Maybe it is because I just watered the garden a couple of days ago, or maybe it is because of the shade from the west, but when I go out to the garden around 7 or 8 pm, the garden feels 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding area. Of course, this makes the garden really attractive to snakes, rabbits, chickens, etc. Our humidity has been dropping into the 30s in the afternoons and I'm grateful for that. It keeps our heat index from going higher than it already does. We've started cooling off more at night too, because dry air cools more rapidly. We might not cool off for long, but to be 74 degrees at sunrise is better than being 78 degrees at the same time. Dawn