LOLÂ I am not laughing at you, but with you and the story. Being a lawn care pro and sod farmer I have heard this conspiracy theory before, just not aimed at Centiweed. Ok you may have overlooked something very important about Centiweed. It is an extremely niche special purpose grass. It can only thrive in extremely acidic, sandy, infertile poor a$$ soil, that gets lot of rain in warm climates. ItÂs optimum soil PH (acid) range is 4.6 to 5.5. To give you an idea that PH range is one with fumes rising out of the ground and will melt your shoes :>) The soil must be very low or absent of phosphorous. In other words Centipede grows where nothing else can possible grow. If the soil PH is above 5.5 to 7.0, then everything else will out compete with Centipede and take it over, or if the soil is fertile other plants will take it over. As far as what the box stores are telling you, keep in mind these guys are not professionals, and are only giving generic general advice. I know SC around the coastal area in general have sandy acidic soil which is perfect, but not all areas meet the criteria. So relying on what some ole retired fart told is like depending on the Government to take care of you. It is not their job or place to do so. It is your responsibility to investigate, do your own homework, and decide what is best for your application. First step is a soil test and the results will tell you everything you need to know to make a decision. But here is the part I find funny: I think somewhere along the line all the lawn care professionals got together and said "Let's re-label this crappy Centipede as the lazy man's grass, so everyone will buy it and have tons of problems with it so that they will have to keep buying our weed killers, fertilizers, etc. forever! And we'll reserve the good stuff (Bermuda and Zoysia) for the businesses since they are easier to keep up." As a lawn care pro, the last thing I want to sell you is a grass that requires no fertilizer or herbicide to speak of (you would likely kill if you did), and only needs mowed once a month. I would want you to have a grass like Tiff-419 that requires monthly fertilizing, 3 herbicide treatments per year, and mowed twice a week. I can make money off of that.

I do a combination of WSing (Feb, March, into April) and then on Easter put up my unheat, pop up greenhouse (8' x 8') on my deck. I usually have 100 jugs or more of perennials out in the cold and start my annuals in the greenhouse. This way I can get a head start on flowers for spring. In the summer (the pop -up comes down on Memorial day) I continue sowing... both annuals and perennials in jugs with good ventilation. I will never again start a seed under lights or on a window sill. Everything started outside (either in a jug or in my cold greenhouse) is healthy and robust - not spindley like I experienced for years. I agreee that most people are "landscapers" - - lay out a few hundred bucks a season for their annuals and a few gallon sized perennials, pop them in, and often (where I live anyhow) once they are in, the person is done "gardening" - -they have the guy who mows there lawn weed the beds for the rest of the season. To me, that's not gardening. When people walk around my garden and say "I love gardening... but I don't know how you do all THIS" I know they are "plant ploppers"... Nancy

I was able to clear a large area of quack grass a few years ago by taking advantage of August drought. By spading up the entire area and turning the quack grass roots into the hot sun, they eventually cooked to death. The area is still free of that vermin today.

Posted by glenda_al "Are you married? tee hee" I know. I don't cook as well as many of you do. I must not be married right? LOL! Posted by Charcuterie "You food looks amazing! I love your plating and photography. The Asian serving platters is beautiful and fits perfectly. Do you have a blog or anything? If not you definitely should! The Char Siu came out incredibly delicious looking, I would love the recipe. When I make it, it's usually from a powdered mix at the Asian grocery store. The meat comes out radioactive red from the food dyes and the taste is rather meh. If you make it again save some to make steamed Chinese pork stuffed buns aka char siu bao. " Thank you. The Asian platter was bought cheap because it is chipped. The char siu recipe is a typical recipe. Except I don't use red coloring. The sous vide makes it kind of pink anyway. I sometimes add a little balsamic vinegar in the marinate. I never seem to have leftovers for bao. LOL. No, I don't have a blog or WEB page. Haven't had the time at this point. Posted by bumblebeez "Beautiful as always but it's nice to see some carbs too. I don't recall seeing a pie from you before and that's a great design." Thank you. I make pie once in a while. I don't post the pies because I have not tried to make the dough myself like you guys.. dcarch