That sounds like wonderful mulch! Unfortunately I have never seen it for sale anywhere around here.

Ken - yes, I have been planting other trees on the assumption that sooner-or-later (likely sooner!) the ash will die - either from old age or EAB. DH insisted on treating it; I was prepared to let 'nature take its course'. What will be interesting to see is how much longer the ash survives after the green ashes succumb - they certainly seem to be going first! There is a reasonable-sized red oak in the backyard and two middle-aged white pines, so the loss of the ash won't totally remove the shade canopy, but it will certainly affect the scene, particularly in the fall, for a long time! The trees I've been planting so far are all smaller ornamental types as a substitute 'generational' tree needs to go roughly in the area where the ash is now so can't be planted until the ash dies. At that point I may reasses the design for the backyard as a whole so may not want another tree in that spot. We shall see.......

Rick, I understand completely where you are coming from. I have very large gardens and spent a couple years mulching it all. Now they all need it again and I'm wondering if I will move forward with all that mulch again. First, have you checked the following places for cheaper mulch, the city, any of the tree removing companies? I have a tree removing company that will come out and dump one of their large trucks of mulch for $42. You are right, it does not go far. I did what you've come to the conclusion of. I worked one bed at a time, mulched it, planted it up and then moved on to another bed. I think that is a terrific plan, if it were me, I would not waste the amount of time it is going to take you to place ground covers in all your beds, it is GOING to be more work. They do still get weeds under the plants and especially because it takes 4 or 5 years to get any real growth on them. Regarding your method of digging in your grass. I'm a little worried about that because you don't want grass to grow up through your conifers. Grass roots are pretty aggressive. I have clay soil too, when I started I hoed my gardens and seriously broke hoes from the cement the rain created (this was before I learned about mulch). Here is a cheap suggestion for you. It may not look as nice but it was very cost effective for me and a great way to get started when I was still spending TONS of money on plants to fill in my large gardens...Take your grass clippings and use them as mulch. Put it on real thick and that will also mat down during rains and assist in weed control AND most importantly it provides wonderful tilth to your clay soil. Also, during the Fall, I collected tons and tons of leaves and placed a thick layer of them on my gardens too. I don't know about your area, but in town they people will rake or mow and place their bags of leaves and grass the curb, I would come buy (in the cover of darkness because I was a chicken) with a pickup and trailer fill it up and spread it on my gardens. People would tell me if they used weed killer it would kill my plants, I never lost one plant. Also, they say you should chop the leaves up but I did not do that it worked so well for me. Once you are no longer buying the number of plants you are now starting out, then you can concentrate on purchasing wood chips and come back around and place wood chips over your grass/leaves. I think you are doing an awesome job making sure you know where all your beds will be, how they will meander around your yard. If I were you, I would just keep mowing the beds as you currently are until you get one bed at a time done and start using the free mulch you already have on your property :). I think you are going to have one beautiful yard once everything grows. Keep moving along, I love how you are so forward thinking and asking those questions up front. I wish I had done that as I would have eliminated a LOT of mistakes. Good luck.

It sure does sound like lacquer thinner would damage the lacquer finish on the cabinet. If it's down in the grain, it's going to be tough to get out. You might consider touching up with some white lacquer over the spots. They do have spray lacquer cans. But try it somewhere out of sight first, as it may not match.