I really appreciate all of the replies that I have gotten. It was so nice to get some advice and encouragement and I can't wait to read and chat more with everyone. First of all, I was really surprised by the Round-Up stuff not working. It was the pre=mixed stuff and it surely did not work. Not only that but I went out in the front yard today and the dandilions are even bigger and taller now! I would like to get most of them out by hand, that is not a big deal, but a lot of them are in between my tulips and hosta plants in the front yard and they are surrounded by landscaping rocks so I may have to just remove those by hand with a smaller weeder. I was so happy today! I had my yonger brother and sister (17 and 14 respectively) and my little sister's boyfriend and my mom over and everyone helped me with the yard today! My brother mowed my lawn (he loves to mow for some reason) and my sister and her boyfriend helped clear out the leaves and junk off of my concrete patio while my mom and I raked the lawn of all the nasty decomposed leaves, twigs, branches, etc. And when all of that was done, my mom and sister and I planted a bunch of Morning Glories and Moonflowers along my privacy fence and then we put Impatiens along the back of the house, planted a couple of Dianthus Raspberry Parfait plants in pots in my back yard. Also in the back we planted bulbs for a couple of kinds of flowers. In the front my mom and I planted Begonias and Moss Rose plants. While my mom and I were planting those in the flower boxes in my front yard, some lady walked by with her kids and said, "Oh kids look at the pretty flowers!" and I was so excited. FINALLY my yard is looking nice enough that people are complimenting it. That hardest thing though is that my road is very busy and I get a lot of trash in my yard. It's so frustrating to try to keep up with getting the trash out of the yard. I think I might get an extra (small) garbage can to put by the fence so that I can just pick up trash and dump it in there. I really appreciate all the suggestions and feel better about everything now that I have made a substantial amount of progress and that I know I will not be able to get rid of all the weeds right away and that not all of the work is going to get done immediately. But the fresh air and exercise is good for me and the sun is good for me too according to my Dr. :) It was encouraging, too, to hear someone say that they got some good exercise gardening and congratulations on your weight loss! It must have taken some hard work! Thanks again and look forward to posting more soon!

I love Jackmanni clematis! Jackmanni is the clematis I always recommend to people who want a really easy, big, tough clematis. Mine is about 10 feet tall right now. But, I've found some other really easy, vigorous clematis in recent years. One is Polish Spirit, which I gave to my neighbor and she loves it. It's a deeper purple. Another is Venosa Violacea. This is a very young plant of Venosa Violacea:

I just had a beatiful Welch juniper removed because it turned from robust green to sickly yello/brown within 2 two weeks. It was such a hostel for the nastier birds...like grackles and redwing blackbirds. Many raised their babies in this tree right on the perimeter of my patio and near the feeder. Now, because I have heavily wooded side beds those same blackbirds are everywhere! Looking for shelter. I suppose that I should love all birds and wildlife equally. But I don't. Still, I would never not plant shrubs, trees and plants on the perimeter of my small yard, just because some of those nasties moved in. Somehow, it all works out in the end. I am just so pleased with the responses of Kathy, JG Jan and Puff. We all have to our best to build shelter islands for wildlife. It is just amazing how many 'wild'animals live and thrive within your city limits. Love to you all; Pondy

Oh wow, I am sorry to hear that. They should at least give you a discount if you end up replacing the beam. I would go with smooth cedar if given option over again since the stain on so much more predictable. We are building our house and have rough cedar beam indoor and cedar headers outdoor trim...so I just ordered yet another stain today called light walnut and hope that it works out. Lol... For Exterior cedar I am having an even harder time than my interior cedar beam because they don't offer many samples for exterior stains so have to buy the whole gallon as sample (multiple gallons) ....boooh. :(. I have about 3 weeks before they begin staining mine so we will see. Well I will let you know if I find the one and good luck to you! I'd love to see your finished product.