When the grass is too long to mulch, it's often so long that it would create a large volume of bagged clippings. In some areas, disposing of a large amount of grass clippings is a lot of trouble (i.e., the local municipality requires clippings to be in brown paper yard bags in order to be collected at the curb). In a situation like this, side discharging is a better option than bagging. Hope this helps.

Oh, no--another Susan bitten by the hydrangea bug! I've had an Endless Summer for a few years, but all of a sudden this year I became rather hydrangea-obsessed. I planted a Little Lamb (paniculata), a species oakleaf, and a Sadie Ray (macrophylla). Then I started lusting after Limelight (paniculata). I gave in and bought it today. Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with all three of yours, although I often see Nikko mentioned on the Hydrangea Forum. I agree with Carol--you're likely to get a good response on that forum. Susan

Ignore the above post I pressed the wrong button, this is the one you are meant to read. Re green water, if this is to be a wild life pond then live with it, it wont last too long and if the plants get established before next year I doubt you will have any next year. I would also sprinkle an inch or so of soil on the floor of the pond and plant your rooted oxygenators directly in that. Dont use the 'lead' weights, if they wont stay down as a new planting, form a small ball of clay around their base or start them in pots and once they have a root system de-pot them with their soil onto the pond floor. Dragon flies etc like vertical stems so yellow flag iris, reeds and rushes are good. Caltha palustris Marsh marigold (not the double which is small for me so far), bog bean, greater and lesser spearwort, flowering rush, are all good but take a few years to see the full benefit unless you buy huge amount to start of with. Water hawthorn is a good deep water aquatic and would take the place of a lily in a wildlife pond. Lilies may not like the early in the year competition for light, waterhawthorn seems able to cope. Floating heart, frogbit, water violet are other useful plants. Arrowheads and pickeral from B&Q are £3.71 for 2 at the moment, I think the offer finishes today, normal price £4.98 they also sell flowering rush and iris at that price, I am not sure is yellow flag is available cheaper. DO NOT buy their arum lily I have yet to get one to grow Fish, stickle backs and minnow. Also have a look at http://www.puddleplants.co.uk/ I have just bought from there and was well pleased, have a look at page 4 of the thread "Plant suggestion please" in the pond and water garden section of the forum fishcrazy. I started my wild life pond in autumn 2003, last year I/it grew blanket weed and azolla for the whole of the UK this year now the proper plants are established I dont have any to speak of. Oh I used normal garden soil, you will probably have a shorter algae bloom than me. If you would like a load of hornwort and any other oxygenators I find and think suitable email me your address, I wont send elodea canadensis??. I pulled a load of hornwort etc from my fish pond before the spawning season started so it should be fry free, you would probably get snails in there as well. You might get some blanket weed and azolla mixed in sorry, you wont be able to get rid of all the BW but if you dont want azolla push everything underwater, agitate it and hopefully the azolla will float to the surface, then net it ALL off and COMPOST it, do NOT through it into a natural waterway. If you want an armful I would be grateful if you would return the postage, the last big lot, a 9" cube, I sent was £5 postage. BTW I dont want owt for the plants just the postage if it is significant, dont send a cheque it isnt cost effective for me to go into town to bank, it paper cash would be best. DO NOT buy Tillaea-recurva/swamp-stonecrop/Crassula-helsii,...

Crabgrass will die completely with the first frost. It only returns in the spring from seed. There are two requirement for crabgrass to return. First it has to have direct sunlight (thin turf is enough sunlight) AND if it gets water on a daily basis for several days. If you can grow a dense turf you should never see crabgrass. The second requirement is nearly continual soil surface moisture. If you can prevent yourself from watering more than once every 2-3 WEEKS in the spring and prevent Mother Nature from doing the same, then you should not see crabgrass. So the question to ask is why was your turf thin enough to allow the crabgrass to get in? The answer could be that you have a fescue lawn instead of KBG. The way to make it a bluegrass lawn is to seed in KBG now and let the fescue die out over time. A healthy bluegrass lawn should keep crabgrass out. If you want to fertilize I'm always going to suggest organic. Why? Too many reasons to enumerate, but for you the answer is that there is no guess work as to when and with what. Organic fertilizer can be put down any day of the year with no fear of hurting anything. You can apply at double the recommended rate with no fear of hurting anything. I would not do that, but at least the grass won't burn up. My favorite organic fertilizer is ordinary corn meal, but I like to apply alfalfa pellets at least once a year, too. The application rate for most organic fertilizers is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. If you buy it at the feed store the cost will be about $4 per 1,000 square feet which is competitive with chemical type fertilizers. Here is a picture of an organically fertilized KBG lawn that is watered once per week in the hottest heat of summer compared to other KBG lawns that may or may not use organics but they are watered daily.The picture was taken in July several years ago, so it was hot.