I think I'm the perfect one to answer this question. Yes, I am obsessed, really, with growing stuff. I overplant dramatically. I have a household of 3 people, a medium sized dog, and an increasing number of backyard poultry (about 2 dozen right now) that do clean up extras. I hope to add some rabbits yet this year. So, the question is -- does a family of 3 NEED the results of 3000 onion plants, 100 plus hills of winter squash, 400 plus tomato plants? Will I get enough apples off of the now almost 50 trees I've got going to get me through the winter? Will I get enough peaches this year from 20 trees to make jam? It's like my own little soap opera, I guess. Well, yes and no. I will be the first to admit that most years, I am rolling in excess, and some of it goes to waste in the sense it isn't eaten. But, none of it ever really goes to waste, because I compost it all, and that makes for the best soil. We do can and freeze large quantities -- this year, I need to do a lot of tomato products, and my goal is about 300 quarts total, including canned toms, salsa, tomato juice, spaghetti sauce. I have like 6 freezers going. It's definitely a lifestyle choice -- we almost never go out to eat, maybe twice a year, and perhaps once a month at most pick up takeout, usually something ethnic like Chinese or Thai or Indian that isn't as easy to do at home. We cook at home, from scratch, so we use a lot of our own food products and augment with things we cannot grow or make for ourselves, like meat, dairy, bulk flours, etc. And, there are "dud" years. Last year, I planted like 400 tomato plants, too, and got about 5 bushels for my effort. This was due to a combination of things -- a really awful, cold, and dry summer, lack of time to garden and properly tend to the plants as I caught up on some home upkeep and improvement projects. Luckily, I still had a lot of canned tomato products from the past year. I give a lot away, too, although there are mixed results from that as seen on other threads -- a lot of people stare at you with strange looks when you offer them produce -- they only eat from heat and serve containers and fast food places. But, I have some family members who still enjoy it, and they take a LOT (gave my one sister almost 100 quarts of blueberries in 2008 for her freezer). It is definitely a lifestyle choice. The neighbors think I'm nuts. A little more lawn dies every year, and I get flack from the rest of the family about it. I haven't left the state of Michigan in 20 plus years, and the farthest away I've been from my house is about 150 miles. Haven't spent a night away from home in over 10 years, and at that, it was in the winter. But I love my lifestyle and frankly wish I could devote 24/7 to it. I guess I was really meant to be a farmer.

There azre several brand name crabgrass killers on the market. All worked well for me, i.e. they killed the crabgrass. However, I suggest you try to do hand weeding. The dead brown spot the sprays leave is unsightly, and with fescue the dead spot is not filled-in until you overseed. The spray is fine if you catch the crabgrass just as it is emerging. Then he visible damage is minimal. This May I am trying a reapplication of preemerg like you suggest. Capt Tom

I have such a hard time imagining that people have a shortage of browns for composting, perhaps because I live in the country, and there are woods all around me where I can score all the leaves i want. I recently scored a huge load of rotten wood mulch that was so decomposed it looked like soil itself. My plants are loving it! Do you have any wooded parks? I'm sure you could help yourself to some browns there. Old construction sites are great places to score straw, they usually purchase way more than they need. Shredded newspaper is very easy to come by, but in my pile, the shreds tend to migrate together and clump up, no matter how many times i seperate them. I am beginning to think that newspaper is magnetic. The people who save me coffee grounds have just switched to un-bleached napkins, so I will be collecting those too, and let me tell you, they love me taking their "garbage" out for them. If you have a free-cycle program in your area, you could post a listing for stuff you want to get your hands on. Of course, I am working, very hard, towards joining Lloyd's elite group of compost wackos, er...i mean enthusiasts.

Or...you could order the impress aluminum labels from the manufacturer for a very good price at http://www.amekron.com I find that they hold up way better than the flimsy ones from other suppliers that have only a single hole for the stainless steel wire. Since I've been using the Amekron labels I haven't lost one. The old ones have littered my landscape as they inevitably fall off after a few years because the wire works its way through the thin aluminum. Charley