I was looking into using a neighbors clippings to add to leaves in the fall for compost and was wondering if it would be ok. The information may be helpful. Some herbicides breakdown quickly, other's don't. One thing I read said you shouldn't use grass clippings treated with herbicide in compost or garden mulch all season long. This one indicates you have to wait at least 3 mowings another indicates that dicamba (Banvel is very slow to break down and that if grass clippings that were treated with dicamba are used in a compost pile, that compost should only be used on the lawn. Not trying to scare you, but it's important to know what was used before deciding how long to wait. In most states, you have to be licensed and take regular tests to apply these treatments so whoever applied it should be very familiar with it. I recommend you give them a call, ask what was used, how much was applied, tell them you are planning to hand pull the veronica and ask them how long you should wait. I thought most places required applicators to give you an instruction sheet after an application that would also indicated what was used. At least tell you when to take the little flags out :) I guess not every place is the same.

Zyperiris, I grow about 30 Of the Austin roses over here near Seattle. Mine were going downhill over time until in frustration I build two raised beds elevated 16" and filled them with 3-way garden mix and compost. In the 2 years since they have greatly improved in health and vigor! The only one I Can think of that I got rid of was a pale pink one that grew very tall and always balled from the moisture...will think of the name soon I hope (Geofrey someone?). Oh yes, I put my beloved Abraham Darby in a back corner because he just DID NOT show off well on the arbor down the center of my garden. His foliage was ugly and the flowers never last long then hang like old gray tissue. But when he is gorgeous he is phenomenal, and adore his pink grapefruit scent! At my previous house he climbed up into a flowering crabapple and was a traffic stopper! Jude the Obscure has done fabulous in the raised bed. and his color is much more yellow then when growing in our native soil. William Morris is a MONSTER...He wants to be at least 8' by 8' even when cut back hard! And the flowers do not last at all as cut flowers nor to they have a fragrance...but he sure is pretty when in bloom! Queen of Sweden is coming along now in her 3rd year. Munstead Woods...I Am WILD about the flowers on this one! Its one of my newest. Love Tamora, Sharifa Asma for their fragrances. Lady of Shallot and Lady Emma HAmilton were both pretty this year for first bloom then dropped their leaves and are regrowing them now. THey are both still settling in.So is Claire Austin. Her stems are pretty droopy still, but the white flowers are beautiful. I think in another year or two she will be a favorite. Graham Thomas, Teasing Georgia, And Windrush are other beauties for me. I really love Windrush when she blooms. I got rid of Othello this year...loved the fragrance but they nearly always had Vegetative centers and diseased leaves. I have other older ones I have lost the names to (Probably all pink ones) and especially since moving them wonder what the heck I have! Oh yes, I can comment on James Galway. I put him on a back fence and kind of ignored him and then am struck by the beauty of the roses when they bloom. THey shade from pale on the outside petals to deep rose in the middle...a lovely effect. Ugly leaves though. I do not spray any of my roses unless Hubby hits them with copper spray when he does the peach tree in late winter...didn't happen this year. Some have diseased leaves but are not planted in prominant positions. I visit them, enjoy their flowers and then move on. Benjamon Britton is another one who's flowers light up the landscape, a lovely deep coral raspberry. CHarles Darwin look a bit like yellow kleenex drooping on the branches. NOt sure it will be a keeper for me...maybe one more year to prove its worth.

My cool season grasses are well on their way, Calamagrostis Karl Foerster, El Dorado, and Overdam. Also, Deschampsia caespitosa and a couple Carex species. The warm season grasses still look dead as a doornail - Miscanthus, Panicum, Sporobolis, Schyzachrium, and a couple other native prairie grasses. Also I have a side yard that is all Zoysia grass (warm season turf grass). This looks so pathetically yellow and dead that every year people ask me what's wrong with the lawn? (And I asked the same question of the previous owner, hehe.) The upside is, once it greens up, it is a near perfect green carpet that is so thick and lush I have never fertilized or weeded. I too love to "poke around" in the garden in March and April - pulling the leaves back, getting excited when I find the new little shoots popping up. Trying to remember where and what everything was, and invariably confused about a few things.

Guessing,,, You have dnsCache disabled in 'services' perhaps. Or maybe admin acct rights are required to display it. In Vista, probably same in XP, its friendly service name is DNS Client. Set to auto should be its default. Many people do disable it - forget why one might want to do that though. If you're familiar with Services, right click myComputer, manage, then turn it on ?? I made a temp desktop shortcut I've been using to peek at it in a text file. Should work xp too; cmd /c ipconfig /displaydns > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\dnsnow.txt