Hi pyroboy, Dandelion is very nutritious, with the young leaves & all parts edible. Dig a knife around a dandelion plant from some place you feel is OK. Wash dirt off root & trim/pinch off the stalks, baby buds & older leaves. Replant the root with 1 tender leaf & it will send up new growth; don't worry if you cut the root when handled it or separated rootlets.

I got this in an email from BHG. The Magic Milk Jug For sheer versatility in the garden, nothing comes close to the humble plastic milk jug. Save both half-gallon and gallon sizes to create these garden helpers. 1.Seed flats. Starting your own seeds is the easiest way to cut your gardening costs to the bone. And it's the only way to get many of the newest varieties. To save space and bother, start seeds in shallow trays filled with potting soil, then transplant the strongest seedlings to pots later on. To make free seed flats, cut off the bottom three inches of a gallon milk jug and punch a few holes in the bottom with a nail. Fill with potting mix, and use a pencil to create two or three shallow furrows for sowing. Then plant your seeds according to the packet directions. 2.Mini greenhouse. In northern zones, young transplants and seedlings are easy prey for spring and fall frosts. Protect them with their own personal greenhouse. Just cut the bottom off a gallon milk jug and, when a cold snap is in the forecast, place the jug over the plant. You can regulate the temperature somewhat by putting the cap on or taking it off. Just be sure to remove the cover on warm, sunny days to prevent turning your greenhouse into a sauna. 3.Flexible scoop. This simple scoop is fashioned from a half-gallon plastic milk jug. It's great for distributing fertilizer granules or potting soil in tight spaces. To craft it, make two horizontal cuts on the sides adjacent to the handle, and two forward-slanting diagonal cuts in the other sides. 4.Liquid fertilizer distribution system. Okay, the name might be a bit of a stretch, but this idea is a winner. Use plastic milk jugs to mix up liquid fertilizer, then punch a hole or two in the cap with a nail. Use your "system" to deliver a dose of plant food to even the smallest pots or plants. 5.Protection plus. If you use a cold frame to extend your growing season, line the inside with plastic milk jugs filled with water. The water be warmed by the sun, and will help reduce temperature swings inside the cold frame. The result: a lower chance of frost damage at night and overheating during the day.

Labels for the photos of April 9: Photo 1 has 3 large shrubs, front to back: Fat Albert Blue Spruce, Coppertina ninebark, Shadbush of some type. Lower growing, back to front: Amsonia hubrichtii has the feathery leaves and very pale blue flowers; the bright pink flower on a low bush in front of the blue spruce is a rhododendron, I think Independence Day; The bright purple is a Salvia, but I don't remember the type, and the one sort of between the rhodie and the salvia is a Hellebore seedling. Photo 2 has two Rhododendron Olga Mezitt with a combination of green and bright red leaves, one on the far right in front of the dark green arborvitae Techny and one in front of the bright yellow spice bush. The yellow tinted arborvitae between the Rhodie Olga Mezitt is Sunkist. The red, yellow, green shrubby thin between the Sunkist arborvitae and the right side Rhodie is one of the same varieties in the first photos, Amsonia hubrichtii in all its fall glory. The blue-green low groundcover in front of the Sunkist arborvitae is Greystone dianthus AKA pinks (though it is white flowered) and the rambly out-of-control groundcover near the front left is Nepeta AKA catmint. There are a couple of the same Fat Albert blue spruces, one to the left of the yellow spicebush, and one just peaking out to the right of the Sunkist arborvitae. Here are some photos from earlier in the life of this bed when it was in its third growing season. I deliberately left lots of room for the shrubs to grow, so there is quite a bit of mulch showing. Since then I've also added a few plants here and there as I could shoehorn them in. From June 2010 This covers much of the same area as photo 2 above, and though the trellises shown here are still in the same place, they are not nearly as visible now as they were in 2010 when this photo was taken. The Techny and Sunkist arborvitae are smaller as are the Fat Albert blue spruce. The purple flowers are the Nepeta AKA catmint, and the white flowers are the Greystone dianthus AKA pinks. The feathery plant to the right and slightly behind Greystone is the Amsonia hubrichtii in its first season. To the right of that in front of the blue spruce and also in its first season is one of the Rhododendron Olga Mezitt. From June 2010 This is a close up including the blue spruce, Amsonia, and Coppertina ninebark (plus a tiny bit of the rhododendron's leaves at the bottom) from the first photo in my earlier post. And here is a photo looking down the bed to give an idea of how relatively sparse it was in its third season. From June 2010 I spent a bit more money than I often do on the evergreens to get reasonable sized plants, though I did buy them at the autumn sales in 2007, since I wanted medium-slow growing evergreens. Many of the rest of the plants have been added as quart pots, or in the case of the hydrangeas in this bed as, rooted cuttings in 4" pots. I knew that the hydrangeas, clematis and perennials would get larger faster than the evergreens so the smaller plants would catch up. Here's a photo (taken from a higher vantage point so things look a bit shorter than they are) of the whole bed from the end where photo 1 from April 9 was taken. This is one of the quietest times of year in this bed, after many of the spring and summer bloomers have stopped, but before the fall color erupts. There are still a couple of hydrangeas not very visible in this photo, some asters, colchicum bulbs blooming, and the white fluffy seedheads of clematis along with varied foliage texture and color.

Hmm, I really like bare wood. We have a reclaimed wood dining table and I don't generally cover it at all. Partly because I do like the bare wood and partly because it is where we eat all meals and with a two year old at the table, keeping up with any kind of cloth just is not going to happen. So much easier to just wipe the wood off. Interesting about the cleaning. I googled and found a suggestion to clean things like this with water, rice and dish soap. I guess I will have to decide whether it is worth the risk to use it with water. I mean it's hardly one of a kind and I paid only $45 for it. Not that I want to throw my money away or anything, but there is something to be said for using things the way you want to as well. Thank you all!