I absolutely do not mind the ads that appear on the top and side of the screen here at CF/i-Village. I totally understand that they underwrite the FREE services here. I often shop and purchase products from the advertisers. I don't mind commercials on TV either, within reason. What I don't understand is why someone would think that an ad (the same ad over and over mind you) popping up every single time you open a page here, in front of the screen and blocking the use of the Web page is a positive PR move for your firm. I feel the same way about commercials, while I don't mind them, at their current level they have gotten out of hand. I have actually been driven away from TV viewing by it, I only get PBS on my antennae tv and after a brief flirt with cable have settled on Netflix along with YouTube and other video streaming services as an alternative. And yes, they have ads, even PBS. It's not the ads that bother me, it's their delivery.

"And recently we actually shocked a cashier with all of our fruits and vegetables"! "Last summer while I was shopping the produce mgr passed by, looked in my cart and said, "No produce??" in a mock horrified way." "When I got to the checkout, the clerk commented that I had all "fun" stuff in my cart." "Any checkout clerk that makes a comment about what's in my cart other than "hmm, that looks good, have you tried it before?" gets a good case of the hairy eyeball. Ring up the blasted groceries and cork it, twinkie." Clerks are suppose to be trained not to comment on the purchases of customers. They would get more than just a hairy eyeball from me. I remember well the clerk who surveyed my load of veggies and cheese, who exclaimed with shock and disdain "Do you eat this stuff?!?!?!" I told her "No. Of course not. I am using this for a tablescape. My trunk is filled with Hot Pockets and Ding Dongs." I think she went deaf after I said it loud enough to embarrass her in front of everybody. I recently had a customer in line right behind me who LOUDLY proclaimed "Lady don't you think you're taking this vegetarianism too far?!?" when he scanned my load of fruits veggies and cheese on the check-out conveyor. I really blasted him because it was none of his business what I was buying. He wanted to make me look like some kook who didn't know that I should be buying what "everyone else buys" because that is what the television commercials tell us to buy - Popscicles, Fritos, GummieBears, oh and 'power drinks' to keep from feeling "run down" from a poor diet. (And BTW I am not a vegetarian. I just don't buy my meat at that particular store.) "Simple fact is that soda, chips, candy, hot dogs, sugary cereal, frozen pizza, white breads and anything made with corn, are the cheapest things to buy." That is absolutely not true at all. It is NOT a "simple fact". Soda has zero nutritional value just like plain water. If you wish to "quench your thirst" - Drink water. The cheapest things to buy are always going to be unprocessed foods. Things like dried legumes, and cruciferous vegetables, grains. Fruits and berries 'in season' are reasonably priced. Buy canned when they are out of season, and it is still better than buying CANDY BARS. Paying a buck-fifty for a candy bar for lunch, is not the cheaper option. You were kidding about the candy bars, right? Instead of eating potato chips, just cook a potato. Waaaay cheaper, and a microwaved potato will retain most of the vitamin C and nutrition. You can buy ten pound of potatoes for what one little bag of chips cost. Hot dogs are $3.99/lb in the store. You can instead buy decent meat for that price. You can get chicken for $.79/lb and even taking into account the bones in the weight you are still better off both monetarily and healthwise. Sugary cereal is cheaper than a bowl of cooked oatmeal?? Your kidding right?

Oh, that ad. I have it ad blocked so I can't see it here. But I did see that somewhere else. What? Just because a sight is called GardenWeb, us guys don't exist here? Um, what about all the guys in the trades from plumbing to tiling and everything in between? Or how about the lawn and lawn tractors? That's what drew me to GW in the first place. I don't think it's that big a deal, given the non-fictional subject matter.

These are not in mulch at all. They are growing in the soil where a tree used to be and I believe are growing on the old dead roots of that tree. The tree died some time ago, it was a lilac. I planted a butterfly garden around where the tree was. Unfortuantely some of these plants are now in danger of being lost because these things are popping up. I have some special plants in there (fern leaf peonie, peach maltese cross, unusual coneflowers etc.) that I may not be able to get again. I am being very careful about pouring the vinegar because I do know it will kill the plants but my hope is it will kill any spores that have dropped into the soil. I haven't had a chance to check out there yet today as I have been at work. I will when I get home later. Thanks again for all the ideas/help.