Wow,llhbeck! I'm about the same distance east of Columbia as you are north and my Heritage raspberries survive by benign neglect. They are growing in what once was a raised bed of manure, waste hay, grass clippings and shredded leaves. In the fall, either DH or I mow them down with a tractor and it's not that common that I water them. It has to be really hot and dry for a long time before I'll do that. All I spray on anything regularly is compost tea to which I add some liquid kelp. If I have something like tent caterpillars in one of the trees, I will spot treat but with something fairly gentle like Neem oil spray or pyrethrum. I'm really surprised to hear about your problems with Heritage. I can empathize with you re: allergies although my problem is opposite. I grew up in the Midsouth and the Deep South--Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. My allergies will kick up here once in a while but for the most part, they are much better than they were before I moved up here. Go figure. Olpea, thank you for that link--very interesting. Until I moved to Missouri in '78, I'd never seen temperatures below zero or much above 100. Since we've been here, we've had -28o as high as 115 or 116o. Yep, just wait a few minutes, it will change. The saying I've always heard about winter is that there is only a barbed wire fence between Missouri and the North Pole and only one strand of the fence is still standing.

OK, there are a few ways to apply traffic to a stand of grass, and NTEP has three traffic locations (North Brunswick, Madison WI, and East Lansing MI). Here is a summary on what was done at each site: Traffic tolerance was evaluated at three locations in 2010, using different types of traffic simulators. The North Brunswick, NJ location (Rutgers University) applied traffic in May 2010, nine months after the last traffic �season�, using the "Slapper," which causes leaf abrasions but not soil compaction. The entries that rated 6.0 or higher (scale is 1-9; 9=best) after the May simulation include �Greenteam�, �BAR VV 0709', �Bariris�, �BAR VV 9630�, �Sombrero�, �Emblem� and �Julia�. Canopy fullness, expressed as a percentage, was evaluated after the initial 36 passes of wear on May 6th. All of the above entries plus �CPP 822� and �Barduke� had the highest canopy fullness ratings (51.7 to 71.7%). Compaction was applied to the Rutgers trial on May 6, and percent ground cover was rated 8, 22 and 49 days after the compaction and wear treatments. �Greenteam� had the highest canopy fullness ratings eight days after traffic, with �BAR VV 0709� having the highest canopy fullness ratings 22 and 49 days after treatment. Traffic tolerance was also evaluated at East Lansing, MI in 2010. Michigan saw much damage from the traffic, applied in fall 2009 and again in late summer 2010, using the Brinkman simulator, which compacts the soil as well as causing plant shearing. Cultivar separation as shown in overall turf quality ratings was not that large, with just over one-half of the entries performing statistically equivalent to the top entry, �BAR VV 0709�. However, as in the Rutgers trial, �BAR VV 0709� exhibited outstanding traffic tolerance by finishing with the highest percent ground cover in five of seven rating dates. Entries also showing high percent cover ratings on one or more dates include �Skye�, �Washington� and �Washington II�. The Madison, WI location used a pull-behind cart of water-filled drums with golf cart tires to impose traffic stress. This led to excellent cultivars differences, led by �SW AG 514�, �Harmonie�, �Sombrero�, �Greenteam� and �Dynamo�. Interestingly, most of the traffic tolerant grasses were also the best performers where no traffic was applied." Most of these tests simulate things like a football or soccer game, although the Madison location is more like golf course traffic, so these trials can be taken with a grain of salt. As long as you are in the top half I think most cultivars will tolerate a dog and a few kids running around, unless you have 18 kids like the Duggars. Rutgers gives a summary of some good traffic tolerant cultivars in this link, but it's from the 2000 trial: http://www.cpe.rutgers.edu/brochures/pdfs/athletic-field/Kentucky-Bluegrass-for-Sports-Fields.pdf Keep in mind you can't get every cultivar, unless you buy a 50 lb. bag from the grower or a distributor. I have never seen Barvette for sale, and most of Barenbrug's cultivars (names starting with Bar-) aren't available individually unless you buy a lot. Also the 2005 shade trial was a bust, and those numbers represent only one year of data. It was too shady and the test was stopped prematurely. The 2000 shade test is much better as it encompassed all 5 years, but unfortunately it didn't contain some of today's newest cultivars. The number one cultivar was Brilliant, which was discontinued due to its low seed yields. It's unfortunate as it is a really good cultivar. I have found one source if you are interested, but you will want to use a bit more than usual as germination percentage has dropped a bit due to age (70% as compared to 85%). As a rule most compact midnights have poor shade tolerance (Nuglade being an exception, but it's not in the top ten). Compact America's generally have better shade performance. Also cultivar techsheets often tout a cultivar's best qualities, and often shade tolerance is mentioned if it's good. Mixing cultivars is not about attibutes, but more about picking different groups of KBG to increase genetic diversity. There are many groups (compact, compact midnight, compact america, aggressive, mid-atlantic, shamrock, etc.) Here's a list of many cultivars and what group they fall into, although Prosperity is a compact american: http://www.sroseed.com/IdeasInPlay/PDF_articles/KentBlueClass.pdf For great lawns in sunny areas, most people do a 33% of the compact cultivars. This was and still is the convention, but some of the newer cultivars have enough disease resistance that some turfgrass scientists are not against planting just one cultivar, which will give a more consistent look (http://buckeyeturf.osu.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1067:kentucky-bluegrass-cultivars&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=170). As you can see, it can get pretty involved, and I know a few people that went the monostand route with no real issues, but they are a bit more involved with lawn care than most. My advice to you is to pick 4 or 5 cultivars from each of the major groups (compacts, aggressive, and maybe the midatlantics) that meet your number one criteria. Then see where they fall in your number 2 and 3 criteria. This will probably narrow it down so you have a few from each that you will be able to find for sale. Or you can just screw all that and pick one cultivar that performs well across the board and has good disease resistance. Whatever you do, don't buy anything from HD, Lowes or Walmart.

Hi, everyone! Mmmm, apple cider doghnuts. I've only had those once, and we ate the whole bag within 15 minutes of leaving the orchard. They're scrumptious! Ollierose, I try to know the botanical names for the plants I grow, (or at least list them with it) so I only look up botanical names that seem really familiar, because those may be seeds I can send in and I'm just not making the right mental connection. If I don't recognize it at all, it's not something I can send in. If you want to look things up, the fastest way I've found is 1. have the google toolbar 2. type the Latin and the word plantfiles 3. read all about it. That's also my first step in deciding if I want a plant, but I always look them up on a few sites, because they all have inaccuracies sometimes. I like to increase my chances for trades by making it easy for the trader to know that I have what they want, or they have what I want, by using both common names and latin. Except I'm sure I've neglected to do that completely :) It's another cold, grey day, and I have so much garden cleanup to do, still perennials to get in the ground, plus a couple hundred bulbs--but all I want to do is sit in front of the woodstove with my tiny kitten!

That quiz is cool. But it says that I sound like North Central. Don't know about that! When dh lived in NC the people there thought he was from Virginia. Apparently our Cdn accent sounds like Virginians....