Here are a few tips about weeds which have helped me to at least feel like I'm ahead: 1. Don't water them. Of course, you can't control when Ma Nature does it, but you don't have to help her. Since I've started switching from sprinklers and soaker hoses to plant-by-plant drip irrigation, I've noticed far fewer weeds in un-irrigated sections of the garden. The same goes for feeding. If you broadcast fertilizer, in any way, you're feeding weeds as well as plants. You only need fertilizer in the rootzone of the plants you want. Be very careful with foliar feeding, and only use it when you can be sure you're restricting it to the leaves of good plants, and not hitting weeds as well. 2. Don't compost the weeds you pull. A couple of years ago, I Started collecting this stuff in large plastic bags, and putting it out as yard waste, which is picked up and hauled away by the town. Lacking that service, I'd probably burn them. Unless your compost is really hot, viable parts of weeds, including seeds and rhizome sections will reappear in the compost, and wherever you use the compost. 3. Hoes are great tools, and I use a few regularly; a scuffle hoe and both a long and short-handled circle hoe. However, I only use them as a stop-gap, to halt the growth of weeds until I can collect them up and dispose of them. If you leave the hoe-cut weed parts in the garden, they'll grow back in short order. I cut them down with the hoe, and then rake up the debris, including the soil they were in, and toss it all. Apart from all that, I weed all day, every day. I stop and pull weeds everywhere I go in the garden. I have little piles of weeds in one corner of each bed, which I gather up a few times a week. I do the same thing with rocks. My native soil is full of rocks, in sizes from Pea to Potato. As I dig and plant and till, I pick up any rock larger than a marble, and stash it in another corner of the bed. Once a week, I schlep a 5-gallon bucket around and gather up all of these little piles. Eventually, I'll have enough to mulch my entire succulent bed.

Welcome back Tigerdawn! Nice to see you posting again. Nice and healthy hoyas you have there. Its hard to stay away from this forum for long :o) Hi Brad, I have to say that I can see how some people can find a certain fragrance a "bit much". I've had to take my Lacunosa and my KP/KQ outside when I have several blooming at the same time. For me it can become very strong and overpowering. As a matter of fact I grow most of my larger hoyas outside most of the year due to space and the overpowering scent when they are all blooming at the same time. It can give me a headache,lol...

There was a good thread on this called "If Miele breaks the budget...". I'm posting what Mindstorm said because I can't say it any better. She loved her Bosch 700 but thought it wasn't on the market. However, you might be able to get it on eBay or Craigs List. From Mindstorm: I have a Bosch oven. My two finalists were the Miele Novotronic and the Bosch 700. I eventually chose the Bosch for a variety of reasons (price difference between those two was small at the time - perhaps about $200 if that). I absolutely ADORE my Bosch oven - just I as I know I would have the Miele (I've cooked with them and really like them). My oven is dead-on precise in temperature, very responsive, very even and I love its convection functions. BUT that was then. If I were in those shoes today I would not get a Bosch on the market today; I would suck up the couple misgivings I had about the Miele 27" and go with it. I wouldn't bother with ELectroluxs and GEs and KAs and whatever else. Here's the reason - I have my Bosch installed undercounter also. The Bosch 700 ovens (the one I have that is no longer on the market so probably not an option for you) as well as the 27" Mieles are about 24" TALL. That means that you can install it just under teh counters about 6" above the bottom of the cabinet. That 6" makes a world of difference - you can get a drawer under the oven and furthermore, you won't be kneeling on the floor to get things in and out of it. Here's a link to a picture of mine - hopefully you can see what I mean. Its a very practical 5 or 6"! Now the new Bosch as well as all these others are full 30" tall ovens and personally I think they are all dreadfully awkward for an under cabinet installation. Only the Miele 27" has retained these sensible dimensions so if I may be so bold, I'd say to you that your options for an UC installation are - well, the Miele 27" w/ self-clean or the Miele 27" w/o self-clean ;-)

I had never heard of this before but read about it a couple of weeks ago. Last night I watched the first two episodes of the marathon and taped the rest. It is definitely stange but intriguing. This may end up being one of my new favorites.