I have NEVER seen any fall color on silver maples here maybe a scant yellow for a day and then brown...Maybe you have a differnt variety there. I had one at my old house loose a limb and take out the neighbors garage that cost me pleanty I had my neighbors take out my fence .. we had one down the road take out the power for about 1000 folks. I have another neibor who lost half of his last wiointer the rest doied and it's 80 feet tall it will cost a fortune to take down now and have it cut up or hauled away you can't use it for fire wood it's to soft and crummy!! As Ia kid my father had several planted for quick shade and I spent most of every summmer taking care of falling branches ...As I said If you like 'em go for it .As far as seeds there were NO SM's withjin 800 yards of me 5 years ago and now except for the thousands that are popping up in any unmowed place in my yard ...they do FLY!!..But in the final result It's all a persoanal choice based on personal experiences ... Mine are obviously differnt from yours and from the posts here I have much more company than you as far as opinions on the silver maple but there is nothing wrong with having a minority opinion ...again good luck ..David

Where are you climate wise, city, etc.? Can you post a pic? How big i the bark you're using? Cymbidiums are generally pretty easy to grow. And bark is easy to modify with perlite or large to small pieces depending on grow conditions. What I do when in between sizes is fill bottom 3rd with Styrofoam peanuts packing material OR very large pieces of bark and then fill the rest with small terrestrial orchid size bark.

I’m curious, though: if picking the right color based on window or light orientation isn’t a sound strategy, why are there so many articles about it? Because it's lucrative. It depends on what you mean by "articles". There are scientific studies and white papers about azimuth, fenestration, cardinal and intermediate geographical directions and how daylight propagates through interior spaces. Also, lots of good stuff about how the eye adapts to light and dark illuminantion. If you're talking about posts on blogs, most of them are garbage. It's a lot of baseless, subjective opinion presented as expertise. Bloggers know they can make up whatever they want about color and no one is going to call them out on the bulls@t they publish - because there aren't that many legit color experts reading the crap they publish to call them out - or care. Most people have not one fat clue how color works but are intrigued, fascinated, sometimes romanced by color. Which makes it a hot topic and how color responds to NSEW light is Google keywords rich. So, whatever "systems" and "rules" bloggers want to make up, and sometimes slap a price tag on, innocent people who don't know any better are willing to gobble it up and adopt their color point of view as if it were gospel without question or vetting. Blogosphere is at best reductive when it comes to how color works and it's the last place anyone should look for information. The damage it's done to color literacy is actually quite sad.

We use Diamond Vogel opaque deck stains with good results. Needs to be renewed about every4-5 years. As bad as that wood is, however, I would not expect too much. Were it my deck I would set all the nails, rent a floor sander and try to get down to good wood before staining. To answer your questions: 1. Can anyone tell what type of wood my decking is made of? Treated pine 3. Can I wood-fill smaller cracks and splits instead of replacing? No. Wood filler is not for unstable environments like a wood deck. 4. Do I need to prep my railing differently than other surfaces? Only the top of the rail should be weather-worn. Sand it down before staining. 5. If I replace some boards, any tips for trying to blend the old and new boards? Blending is not really possible. The new wood is full of treatment solution and will take stain differently than old wood. The usual recommendation is to let new wood sit for a minimum of six weeks before staining.