A landscaper used the weed cloth in my father-in-law's shrubbery beds and it was a nightmare! the weeds just germinated in the mulch on top of the cloth and sent tiny roots through the cloth into the soil. they were impossible to pull. I will never use the stuff. I just put down 10 to 15 layers of newspaper covered with wood chips. Those will work in vegetable or perennial beds and will smother the existing weed seeds. Every year, I add another layer of wood chips as the newspaper and older chips break down and enrich the soil. If weeds to appear, they're easy to pull. The man who cut down some trees for us has a good chipper and will deliver chips by the dump truck load for free because it saves him a trip to the landfill and a tipping fee. A lot of people won't use wood chips because they use up nitrogen as they decay, but if you let them sit for a couple of months before you spread them it's not a problem. I sometimes don't even do that and have not noticed that the plants have suffered from it. Also consider using a preemergent herbicide to keep the weed seeds from germinating. Preen is the easiest to find, but the garden stores may have others.

Quite right, Shazam. That's why I specified north-Calgary and outlying (I'm actually in one of the bedroom communities outside of Calgary's north limit), and mentioned my observation about the Brandons I've seen in my area. The downtown and inner-city areas are also quite a bit more sheltered, which the Brandons prefer. I'm not quite so densely urbanized, and get the north and west winds blasting pretty good XD Pudge, the Zoo's gardens are still lovely and should still be seen. They're well chosen to keep their interest in the fall and winter months, as well as our brief growing season, and they are a fine example of what can be made to grow here. Just not so practical for us on the blasted-heaths *lol* I'll be looking forward to their native-plants conservatory, as I'm working towards a lot of native grasses in my lawn and native flowers in my gardens. What can I say, I'm a lazy gardener *lol* Thanks for the advice on the Techny cedars. I asked around a few more sources and was pointed in the direction of the Wicheta Blue Junipers, which apparently do well enough in my area that one seller warrenties them. Spruces are good windbreaks but they're just not dense enough to be a good sound barrier. The densest spruce I've seen is the "Alberta", and apparently its like the cedars in requiring shelter from the winds (how ironic, a tree named Alberta that doesn't thrive in Alberta......) We "test-drove" a couple of Wicheta Junipers (shoved three together in a row, crouched behind them to see how much we could hear the highway XD ) and they seem to be good candidates. Pricey, alas... Thanks for your help, all! Its muchly appreciated. (where's Luv2gro, i'd've thought she'd've pounced me by now XD ) Le meas -==- Katzedecimal

Sorry for the lack of info--I was afraid of getting too wordy :) Open cell insulation 6" of foam in walls 8" minimum in the ceiling The vapor barrier is on the inside of all drywall. Masked off with the red construction tape. I live in Minnesota where it is humid and we have a lot of snow. And NO, the cracks are not from snow load. We had 22 inches in a weekend our first winter and nothing. The house is basically a rectangle box. The center beam that supports the house is in the direct middle of the house. This is where the cracks (one on each side of the beam--aka, each side of drywall covering it) first occurred. We had a drywalled in and he installed a control joint in that space to alleviate the push and pull.....now we have one 15' away, so..... They seem to have happened in the fall and spring when the humidity values change and so when the drywalled mentioned that he hadn't seen plastic done on spray foam before, I wanted to check more. Thank you for your help so far guys! H

For shade trees I'd recommend Sugar Maple. They give nice shade are beautiful in fall, and in only 30-50 years you can tap them for maple syrup. Other maples also will give you sap, but there's so little sugar that you spend twice as much time cooking the sap. For fruit trees plant what you eat. Most folks know what apples and pear varieties they like. peaches are sold as peaches. So picking a variety is a challenge. I planted 5 different blueberries from Stark. One won't grow the others are doing fine. I'd suggest the larger blueberry plants, Jersey is one, you get more berries. Pick strawberry varieties that specify excellent taste or flavor, I'd suggest you look at Stark and Fedco as suppliers. Fedco tho sells lots of apple on M-111 rootstocks which If you have that foot deep loam soil I saw around Columbus will grow too big. Pick a smaller rootstock unless you have clay. I'd suggest you consider Cox's Orange Pippin and Canadian Strawberry both of which Fedco sells. The Cox's is considered one of the best tasting apples worldwide. They say it's hard to grow but there's a mature one here that is at least a foot in diameter. It's the only apple that DW and I both like. It's not grown commercially because it russets. If it does they say your soil needs boron. Rome apples are big in your area and Evercrisp was developed by the Rome Growers in your area. For pears I'd suggest Shenandoah which is new and developed by the USDA for a FireBlight resistant tree, but I like it because it's also precocious which means it produces pears much sooner which is rare in pears. If you grow a Bartlett pear the Blake's Pride pear flowers at the same time so is a good pollinator. For peaches I bought a Hal-Berta from Stark because it grew a large fruit. Mine produced about a 100 peaches the 2nd year. Since then a late frost got most of the blossoms. Some blossoms bloom late so there's still a small crop. I like the tree though as it grows fast but wants to grow horizontally instead of up. My other peach wants to only grow up. The Hal-Berta tree hasn't been available since. If you want more get freestones and trees that produce thru the season. Stark has a July4 ripening tree but I don't have one. I wouldn't recommend hedge row trees on a lot. I'd go with something that provides multiple benefits. If you do plant some evergreens don't pick Spruces. My Norway Spruces are all dying, as are the neighbors. I have 20 that are dead, other are dying. My neighbor across the street told me she has 15 that need to come down. Neighbors to the north and south have already taken out a lot.