hortense The forward/reverse control is stuck. Nothing happens when you try to move it. But even before the belt broke that control sometimes didn't work. The paddles wouldn't return to being "flat" until the tiller was tilling for awhile. Seems like the adjustiment for matching the height of the handles and the location of the end of the cable in the right hole was wrong. That is hard to put in words! I'll try your suggestions. Metal. It was really tough getting the TB up in the air. I would love to be able to use the TB for tilling and the JD for mowing.

I cannot imagine what sort of monster would be such trouble to maintain. If trimming it encourages new growth, well then trim it more often. Grass gets cut more than once a year, too. A shaky ladder on uneven ground can be remedied by having enough people on hand to steady it. It takes only a saw and some elbow grease to top the hedge or remove key branches. Can you post a picture of this behemoth? I am curious now. As urban neighbood gardeners, it's often necessary to roll with the punches and put up with light-robbing encroachments. That means rather than expecting "them" to do something about your problem (even if caused by their trees, hedges, cats, ineptitude), it's only you that can make the best of it. While painful, perhaps it's time to give up on the roses (or let them go into decline) and look to shade gardening, which is an extremely satisfying way to garden. Can you move the roses to another side of the house? Switch to climbing roses if those spaces are smaller? A compromise like that may, in the end, go a long way to making you feel better and maintaining your good relationship with the neighbors. At this time, you are as stuck on keeping your sun-garden as much as they are on keeping their hedge in this state. C. My neighbor, with an eye to selling his house, took an electric clipper to my huge cedar hedge that, so far, provided 100% privacy between us. It was growing through the chainlink but there wasn't anything on his side but grass, anyway. Guess he didn't realize that this hedge would NOT easily regrow (his side is north and cedar doesn't grow back well on old wood). So now, although still lush on my side, there are big holes and there is no more privacy. The hedge just looks dead on his side. What a way to reduce the appeal of your backyard! Wish he'd talked to me so that I could have done some selective pruning instead of shaving the branches down to stubs. (No point here, just ranting in response to Annette's tale of hacked forsythia)

Hi Seil: I'm so sorry that teenagers steal your efforts in roses. I like Roseseek's story of "poisoned melons". An electric fence might be expensive, something cheap would be an official looking printed sign such as: TESTING FIELD FOR SPOROTHRIX FUNGUS - Report any rose prick to emergency room within 24 hours before infection spread. TESTING FIELD FOR ROSE ROSETTE DISEASE - Report any virus transmission to human within 24 hours to CDC (Center for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov) TESTING FIELD FOR ROSE MITE - Any inflammation of being bitten should be sterilized with 90% alcohol, and any swelling and fever should be seen by a physician immediately. *** Seil: I guarantee you such signs should keep teenagers from picking your roses. It's like the true story of a old guy who got sick of teenagers beating up on his garbage can. So he put up a sign, "Please bang on my garbage can exactly 20 times at 7 am, and I'll pay you a dime." After that, no more banging, because it's no longer fun, it's sheer work for teenagers.

I asked some local growers - Johnson Grass spreads by rhizomes, so chopping it up or tilling in a cover crop just spreads it around - it's not as aggressive that way as bermuda grass but it's persistent. It is CRITICAL to keep the tops from doing what yours did, which is thrive and set seed. In fertile uncompacted soil, you have tertiary roots 20-30 inches down which are capable of sending up sprouts all summer. The vineyards use geese, which may be organic as heck, but impractical in a shared garden. They leave NOTHING behind that they think is edible. A "flame weeder" might work if you repeatedly use it on the new sprouts - the idea is to exhaust the root's stores of energy by forcing them to grow leaves faster than the leaves can resupply the roots storage. ==================== This OLD research explains the root development cycle and where to interrupt it: http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/ORC00000094/PDF They are in favor of repeated SHALLOW cultivation to force the roots to resprout to the point of exhaustion, and even (if you have repeated freeze-thaw cycles) shallow cultuvation in winter to expose and freeze the roots. They are also in favor of close mowing or grazing to keep the plants too small to support the big, deep problem roots, what they call the tertiary roots. ========================= If you are in the "organic" section, that limits your chemical options. You might kill it with repeated applications of "horticultural" vinegar (the 20% stuff, or a minimum of 10%) but it's nasty to use. Be sure to read the MSDS and wear appropriate skin, eye and lung protection. http://www.groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/help-johnson-grass  http://www.gardenguides.com/139610-organic-control-johnson-grass.html They claim this works: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Avenger-Weed-Killer-128-oz-Organic-Weed-Killer-Herbicide-Concentrated-AVGR-Conct-128oz/204336249 NOTE: the "organic" solution you see on Pinterest and other blogs, with vinegar, dish soap and salt is really bad for your soil and doesn't work worth a darn.