Re: the rehab and what I did right or wrong.... 1) I would not install sod next time in the first place. I would get the exact seed that I want and call in a hydro-seeder. 2) Really make sure to scalp the lawn. I mean cut it really short! Nothing taller than 1/2". Anything taller than that and it mats down under the top dressing which means the seed won't take because the grass underneath creates an air pocket that kills the new grass, but KBG doesn't grow through like some of the warm season grasses. 3) With KBG I'd do it in May if I had a choice. There are going to be weed problems whenever you expose fertile soil, but it is manageable. Forget about the weed issues because there is an easy solution there with KBG. But KBG takes a LONG time to come in from seed. The one thing that doesn't help is if it starts to get cold before it really starts growing well. IOW, if you wait till Sept to avoid some of the weeds and it starts to drop below 50*F in Oct, it'll be till late next spring before things start to look good again. The important issues with KBG are moisture and soil temp. May/June is best IMO. 4) Do it all in one shot! If there are low spots that will require more than the suggested 1/4" top dressing, just go ahead and fill them in. Don't wait! Have your preferred seed on hand and get that thing level the first time. This work is too strenuous to be doing it more than once. Little touch-ups later are to be expected, but get it 90% done in the first shot. 5) Anything more than 4,000sf you should try to locate a mechanical spreader for the top dressing and drag the lute or chain link around with a lawn tractor. 6) This is a point of debate, but... Currently the Orbit sprinkler heads are much better than the Rainbirds. Make sure that your sprinklers are exactly how you want them before doing anything with the lawn. And yes, sand isn't great for them, but it is pretty easy to fix. There are probably more that I'll include later.

I hope this is considered within the scope of this forum. If not, I apologize. Each year I put out Halloween pumpkins on my open front porch, and each year rats and/or squirrels chew on the them. It's gross to look at and of course, it eventually spoils the pumpkin. I have tried amateur discouragement solutions like sprinkling hot pepper around them and spraying them with hairspray. These haven't been effective. I like having decorative pumpkins outside. Is there any way I can keep the rodents from nibbling on them? BTW, when I say "cut" pumpkins in the subject line, I mean that they are not on the vine, not that they are carved. This is in the San Francisco Bay area of California, though I don't see how that would affect the answer :-)

Hello Laura! Thanks for our reassuring. It makes me feel much better. I was just worried about it b/c I am really looking forward to seeing penang peach do it's thing. Yep, I have a heat mat, two to be exact (one on a desk an one by the south sunny window) an a plant lamp that throws off excellent heat (sometimes the lamp if placed in the proper place, will exceed 90F temps). When I had the lamp shining at the bottom of my bottles, penang peach got shiny claws within 2-3 days. Again, big thanks! :)

Mice! The house I rented before I bought this one had an unbelievable "infestation" of mice living under one corner of the house right off the back patio, and the yard, garage, and HOUSE were ALWAYS full of scurrying critters! I used to commute to San Fran, so I was usually gone for about a week at a time, and one time I came home and discovered they were building a nest behind/under the cushion of the CHAIR WHERE I SAT MOST OF THE TIME! Enough, already--but in the TEN YEARS that I lived there I never got rid of them--not even sure I made a dent in what must have been a humongous Mouse City under the house! I used traps--over and over and over, and I dumped whole trays of D-con down the holes outside, and then shoved pieces of firewood into the holes to keep any "domestic" critters from getting to it! NOTHING worked! So when I bought this house I was BEYOND mouse-shy, and have taken "preemptive" measures ever since I moved in here. When I first moved in here I put out some of my traps in the garage, along with a couple trays of D-con. In the beginning I caught a few of them, and the first couple trays of D-con were eaten in a month or so. Haven't used a trap for years now, and I do still keep D-con in the garage, but if any of it's being eaten it's so little that I can't even tell! Haven't replaced one of the trays for probably a couple years. I keep a couple trays out in my shed too, and, they too, seem to last forever! (I store my birdseed--40 pound bags--out there!) Compost pile! My pile is built directly on the ground, and when I was out there several years ago one time I saw a long tail critter (mouse, not vole) scampering away! After the catastrophe at the rental house I wasn't about to take any chances of another Mouse City developing, so I put a tray of D-con in a square pot that was just the right size for it to fit "snugly" into, and then I put the square pot--open end first--into a larger round pot and pushed it all the way in until the corners of the square pot went into the holes in the bottom of the round pot. That gave me a "mouse dinner station" that nothing but mice could get into! Since D-con is loose and little bits of bait could easily spill, and the outside pot was round, I carefully "bedded the whole thing down" on the edge of the compost pile (actually, it was against the fence that borders my neighbor's yard--where he stores all kinds of junk right against the fence!). I'm not sure exactly how long it took anymore, but by a month the tray of D-con was empty. Because the D-con bits were hard to work with without spilling them, after that I got some of the "chunk style" mouse/rat bait and I now keep a piece of that out--just put it in the empty D-con tray, inside of the square pot, inside of the round pot! I must not have very many mice around here--even around the compost pile, 'cause it takes a long time for it to be eaten! But, like I said, I'm not about to take anymore chances! No more mouse nests in my favorite chair! Compost tumblers! I had one of those--long time ago! The same as PopMama, I never got anything useable out of it! Here's a link to a thread where tumblers were discussed in 2010. Some people seem to have had some luck with them--others not! http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2126825/composter-advice And, if you're interested in a LOT of info about different ways to compost, here's a link to my 2005 Compost Tome! If you decide to read this, some changes I've made since '05! I don't screen my compost anymore--ever! Too much work! And I don't wait for it to be "finished" anymore either! I now use it when it's "about half done!" Any pieces that are too big when I'm mixing it in the soil I just pull out and throw back on the top of the compost pile! Using it half-finished seems to have a couple effects! With some Good Eats still left in the compost, it keeps and attracts worms to the area, but, as the unfinished compost finishes decomposing, the soil sinks down in and I need to go back at some point and fill the area in some. My compost pile is built directly on the ground, and I consider that to be very important! I didn't even realize this would happen when I started the pile, but worms migrate up out of the soil into the pile and "procreate" like crazy, so in addition to having a compost pile I also have a very effective "vermicomposting farm!" Whenever I use some of the half-finished compost I intentionally "transplant" as many of the worms as are in the compost--and as I can find and grab anywhere near where I'm getting the compost! Little by little by little my heavy clay soil is starting to improve! http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2127510/reflections-on-compost Probably more than you ever wanted to know about mice and compost!!! Skybird P.S. I was out digging in the dirt and came in to cool off! Guess it's time to go back out and "warm up" again!