Not to worry Mari. As others have said tilling is not necessarily needed. My tiller was never effective in this rocky, hard clay and usually just bounced all over creation so I stopped trying. I've been doing exactly what you did for the last two years with great results. I'm slowly reclaiming what I thought were impossible areas just by putting down a couple of layers of cardboard right overtop of thriving weeds and making sure it overlaps properly to prevent sunlight from penetrating. Then I cover that with a thick layer of mulch/dirt, etc... (heck, sometimes I don't even mulch if it's an area that isn't easily visible and won't be an eyesore. If there are already established plants in the area I just cardboard around them and pull whatever weeds may reach out around their bases. Otherwise I just wait until the weeds are dead before planting new things. Even if a few stray weeds or runners find a way through it's much easier to eliminate those few once all the rest are dead. I had an area that was completely taken over by wild blackberry vines taller than me. They spread 15 feet closer to the house in just one season! So I whacked everything to the ground and then blanketed with the cardboard in the summer and everything underneath is dead now(yay!) I have yet to find a chemical brush or weed killer that actually does what it's supposed to and kill the root of the annoying weed grasses, thorny vines, etc... This takes a little longer but will not waste your money or time like spraying. I also just borrowed a large rubber liner from a relative and I'm going to use that to try and retake my gravel driveway and parking area one section at a time. I have heard this "solarization" is not always recommended for areas where you intend to plant though because the heat will also kill the beneficial microbes & organisms that are in that soil. Weeds in gravel are an awful pain. I look forward to a day when we can afford to blacktop it. Sincerely, Danielle

Good to know, thanks. Everything was redone last year and the existing irises were divided and transplanted throughout the front of our house, I definitely noticed how large they have become this year so quickly compared to just last summer.

I've been following your threads and I feel for you. The whole renovation process can get overwhelming at times. I like your original design a lot - it has many beautiful features. I agree with what nancyjwb said about its functionality being not terrible, but not ideal. You could just move the sink off center and go with it if that's what you want to do (and you'd have a gorgeous kitchen.) But, if you want to make it function significantly better, I think you could make a few relatively minor changes. It would not require that you scrap the current design and start over. Here are 3 things you might think about tweaking, in order of importance (the last one being mostly aesthetic.) (Also, I think the recommendations you got in the other thread about the stacked cab heights and lining up doors were great - I'm assuming you're going ahead with those.) 1. Make sure all your aisles are wide enough. This probably means at least 48" on the two working sides of the island. It may mean you need to shrink the length of your island to about 9'. If your island is 9'x5', to get your 5 seats, it looks like you can put 3 facing the back wall and 2 facing the dining room. Check the distance to the angled window wall to make sure you have enough clearance there, though. 2. Move your cleanup sink to the pass-thru counter and put a prep sink in the island (to one side, probably toward the back window wall.) I think raising the back half of the pass thru to block the sink from the dining room is a good idea. If you are worried about only having 15" of space on each side of the sink with the current pass-thru design, I think you have 2 options: (a) move the sink off center to one side or the other so you have more continuous space on one end for putting dishes during cleanup (b) make the pass thru wider by turning the tall cabs on either side of the opening into glass cabs. These would be the ones in red, below:You would still have the tall cabinet at the left end of the pass-thru. In a big kitchen like yours, this would be a huge improvement in function and let multiple people work in the kitchen at the same time. (I am actually thinking of a similar design with the sink on a pass thru wall for my kitchen. More than anything else in my redesign, I want to be able to separate the cleanup zone from the prep/cooking zones.) With those 2 changes, I think your kitchen would function really well. 3. Like I said before, this one is more aesthetic than functional. There were a lot of comments in both threads about the weight of cabinetry on the back wall. I know you don't like the view out that side of the house and don't like the position of the current window, but you might want to think about putting in a pair of narrower windows on either side of the range like this: As others have suggested, you could use leaded or reeded glass to obscure the view while letting in light. You probably don't really need the storage of those uppers. This would address the 'heaviness' issue and brighten up your kitchen (see pic below.) But if you don't want to do it, then don't. Ultimately, it's your kitchen, and you should do what you want to. Based on the drawings, it is going to be beautiful!

Hi Philippe, do you think it is necessary/beneficial to sift out the finished compost when turning it? No, it's not required at all, but if the compost has broken down pretty well and it's time to do something about it, the first thing I want to do is to separate out the stuff that needs more composting. The stuff that looks like it's getting close will need to finish, or mature. A benefit of sifting through a screen is that it breaks up any clumps of compost, exposing it to air, and allowing it to finish Would it be worse to turn everything without sifting out? No, just turning will be fine. How long does it take usually before you turn? If I make a compost pile in the spring, using one of the first cuts of lawn clippings mixed with shredded leaves from last fall, that combination will heat up rapidly and cool in a matter of three weeks or less. I'll turn that when it cools to less than 100 degrees F. But if I haphazardly pile stuff together, it can take months before it wants to be turned. I've got a pile now where I just piled stuff up and left it. The winter rains helped it break down, the pile has settled and now it needs turning. I expect that it won't be nearly as long to turn this new pile for the second time. Do you use inner temperature as a guideline? If yes, what's your threshold temperature? As long as it's 130 degrees F. or more, it is quite active. Once it drops below that, it tends to cool quickly. If I can catch it at this time, it will heat up right away, but if I let it go too long, it takes some time to reheat. So, turn it once when it cools off. When it cools again, you might consider sifting. Otherwise, turn it and try to be patient. Don't add anything once a pile heats up the first time, just manage it until it's ready. The rookie mistake I've made is to mix it into the soil before the compost was finished. That delayed plant growth until the compost was able to finish decomposing in the soil. If I had just applied it to the surface over a layer of finished compost, it wouldn't have affected the plants.