Thanks for all the input! Unfortunately, the source of the seeds probably come by the birds and groundsquirrels which are everywhere, and just behind where I stood to take that picture is the woods we live on the edge of...where I'm sure lots of seeds stray from. I'm not at all opposed to using round up! If I use the stuff, how soon after can I try to plant something within the cracks? I found some creeping phlox on sale and bought some. I love it...cascading down other peoples' walls...may take awhile, but I'd love to have that effect myself. I am not sure if the ground squirrels will mess with any plantings....our yard is overrun with them (rock walls especially), but I'd like to try. Thank you for all the suggestions! I am going to read them all more thoroughly and take some notes. I saw a rock wall belonging to a neighbor of a friend of mine on Thursday. They have phlox on the top of theirs...it actually grows into my neighbors yard. Perhaps that might even keep the weeds off the top of the rock walls as well? To the person who suggested inserting smaller rocks in the larger spaces...I've actually started doing that, on another wall, the largest on our property. If interested, I have a photo album that contains pictures of most of our yard...and I believe all but one of the rock walls... you can see them on the link below. yes, I know my whole yard needs a lot of work. Some of you have seen some of these photos before. Here is a link that might be useful: yard album

I agree that the extra growth is probably mostly from extra water. Perhaps there is some contribution from K as you said, and also N content of some of the chemicals. Don't forget that the 'dirt' that gets washed away by the soap also has proteins, etc. so there is some N there. I would not use it for plant food though. Surfactants dissolve fats and oils, and in high enough concentrations they will begin to damage the cell walls of soil microbes as well as plant roots. I agree with wertach, reuse it as soap. When the glued-on bits are just too small or won't stick well enough to the new bar, I put them in a box. When the box is full, grate with a box grater, soak in water, and cast new bars in a bread pan lined with foil.

davidnall; You're right. Those suckers can get enormous! I was raised right here in Chalmette but worked our farm in Avoyelles (Plaucheville) every weekend, summers and holidays for many years. Trying to learn/teach the correct name of species we've given our own "Loosyanna" version of a name. Just a few; Gros Bec=Black-Crowned Night Heron Choupic=Bowfin Bec Crosse=Ibis Patasa(sp?)=Bluegill Green Trout=Bass Poisson Armee=Gar Sac-a-lait=Crappie French Duck=Mallard (still call em French Ducks) Barbou=Catfish Cowain=Snapping Turtle SOB!#+ or Coco grass=Nutsedge poule d' eau=Coot (Don't even know one person who calls them coots!) pain perdu=? cous cous= with some gratons crumbled in! You'll get a special bonus if you know what the bottom two are! BTW, crossed the Atchafalaya many times at Krotz Springs rather than at Simmesport. missingtheobvious; You are probably right. However, after your link led me on a search of "Great/Giant Ragweed", I spent over an hour "googling" that plant. It seems unusual that none of the sites I visited made mention of the distinctive freckled bark or corky core of the plant. It was obvious that many sites just parroted verbatim what the other sites had already written. Our little corner of the world no longer has any significant agricultural activity. I often wondered how the Squash Vine Borer could proliferate here without hardly anyone growing squash or sunflowers. Well, it appears that the Giant Ragweed is part of the "Astor" family (same as sunflowers). This would provide millions of host plants for that stinkin lousy killer of my squash plants! I hate Bloodweeds even more now. This post was edited by bigoledude on Fri, Jun 13, 14 at 3:56

Yes Mike. It is a very handy tool. The bent tip makes it really useful. You can grab the base of the plant and jiggle the base to loosen the roots and pull it out. Very useful when reaching in tight spaces especially for succulents. In bonsai the back of the tool that likes a little spade is useful to tamp down the soil, smooth it out and tamp down moss on the soil. I have two of them because my wife seems to like it too and it disappears from my tool box from time to time. Come to think of it I have two of most tools.