k, thanks guys for the info. Can you place those breathable weed barriers with lotsa mulch on top of that close around plants like Pawpaws that sucker to stop the suckers from breaking through? Guess I could be persistent and just cut suckers off to maintain a better tree form but was just curious

After a whole year of growing Canna and spreading them, I think I can provide a better answer to this question now. I have observed that Canna bloom rather randomly, one plant blooming while another is not. They do not all bloom at once. I imagine that if you plant your Canna by breaking them up and regimenting them separately, into some geometrical pattern, that it just won't look cohesive because of the randomness of each separate plant's blooming. Therefore, I have found even greater reason to prefer allowing Canna to clump thickly. The random blooms that appear in clumps stand a better chance of having separate clumps showing blooms continuously and the randomness of blooms on individual plants is lost in the overall presentation of clumps or clusters of Canna. Mind you, that my current clumps of Canna are not yet thickly established and so, all through the season it has been odd to watch a bloom here, have it deteriorate, followed by another bloom somewhere else, in a rather haphazard fire-works like fashion. I personally, will strive to thicken up my Canna now so that each clump stands a chance of having continuous blooms all season long. And that means, letting the Canna grow thickly in groups and solid bars or lines along walls and fences. I find Canna an good answer to a problem I wanted to solve earlier in the year, finding flowing plants that will grow in shade. Canna do well in shade and unlike many plants that need sunlight to flower, Canna will flower in Shade or Sun. But because of the randomness of their flowering, I think I'll try to supplement them with some other flowing plants that can find harmony growing in close proximity to the spreading rhizomes of Canna. In that way something is flowering virtually ALL THE TIME. I just don't know what that other flowering plant will be yet as it also, must do well in shade or part shade and be a ground cover type of thing. IMHO

Skimming here there are some things to think about The eye sore part: -You can barely see the towers now so there must be some current trees between the house and the towers --but what if something happens to the trees? Disease, more development, the power people feeling the need to cut them down *I would definately try to get a handle on whether there is going to be more development between the house and the power lines -Will winter affect being able to see the towers? -Someone mentioned upgrading - you might want to call the electric company and get an idea of whether they will be upgrading - although it will be hard to find any office or employee that has a clue, you will have to have patience and persistance The risk thing - hard to know. When I was younger I used to worship at sciences feet. As I've gotten older I find scientists tend to be arrogant and absolute. When new findings throw out previous findings which is the nature of science, they don't even blink. They just tout the new findings as the now absolute last word with the same arrogance. I try to do research with information from all sides and apply some common sense and gut feeling. You have to do what feels right for you and don't let anyone make you feel bad for it. Resale - Given a choice I would prefer not to be near power lines. That is of course getting harder to do. You need to really evaluate the bigger picture of the areas people "like you" are looking at. Sounds like schools etc. are important. How many "good" neighborhoods in your price range are affected by a negative (hwy, power lines etc.) Do people have choices? Lkplatow comments: madmartian - I'm in surburban Philadelphia -- close enough to NJ to have the same problems I guess. Too much development, not enough land.... Really the elephant in the room everyone is ignorning is population growth. Although of course I realize a lot of people with chime in with population moving around - growth (whereever it happens) still is a bottom line problem.

IME having plants in a spot means that cats don't try to dig there, but I don't live in an area that has really high numbers of loose or feral cats. Perhaps after the holidays are over, you could cut branches from Christmas trees left by the curb and spread them anywhere there is bare soil. Another possible option - we also had a gizmo that was motion activated and battery operated that gave off an ultra sonic pitch that we set in places like the stove top where we didn't want our cat. Ours worked really well, and the cat soon habituated to not going in those places. Although ours was not weatherproof, when I just did a web search (ultrasonic cat repellent), I see they now make outdoor ones. This might make them find someone else's yard more appealing and get out of the habit of visiting yours. You could also try one of the sprays designed to discourage cats. It is an unpleasant aspect of having bare garden soil or mulch!