Check tire air pressures. they might look perfect on flat level surfaces, but when turning, a low pressure tire will squash down some, making a lower cut! And, if you are a heavy person, a higher than normal pressure might help, too. JMHO: Rustyj

I'll chip in because I've been fighting with my garden, and came to a few conclusions. For those of us in "rich" soils, i.e. clay or anything fairly high in organic matter, our drainage seems to be our downfall... I personally mix in mulch and peat to get a little organic material to provide a good starter soil for the bugs/worms to break down, then continue mulching to keep the organic material adding. Sand can be a solution, but more than likely we'll never be able to really improve drainage by just adjusting the top foot or two of dirt; the real action is down below and most of us (including myself) will never change that. So we have to deal with that top 2 feet and moderate our watering accordingly. The #1 most important thing with any plant that needs "sharp drainage" is Air. I know, you're thinking, well, duh... but if you think of it in the reverse, it makes more sense... water inhibits air, so balancing air is much easier if you know your water input. More than anything else, soil needs to exchange air. If you have a clay soil, organic material will be your best bet for the long term in fluffing. Until you hit like 30% sand by volume in your soil, it's not making much air space. Unless you're bringing in for beds, It's probably not worth the effort of adding because you'll need so much. Or at least this is the conclusion I've come to. Different soils and sands depending on their chemical composition can solidify into a hard pact material. A higher pH soil will run the danger of hard packing, or if your soil sometimes water logs. The ebb of acidic rain through high pH sand can harden the sand into a cement like material. If you're going to amend with sand, try to find some that is not calcium/magnesium based, i.e. no shells or anything that would bubble with vinegar. Play sand that is silicate based is usually fine. But the real thing I'm surprised about is that more people don't use an automated watering systems. I know in the west a lot of people do, and I get fantastic results with my drip irrigation system, even in my clay soil that I have ammended with peat and mulch. I find a small amount of water correctly placed on a regular basis can grow just about any plant. If you're placing just a small amount around the base of the plant, it can drain quickly and get air. Roots are more like lungs than anything. If you haven't looked at drip irrigation, it's hugely successful, and can mitigate poor soil by letting you apply water in a very targeted way instead of flooding the entire bed. Just my $.02 Here is a link that might be useful: Drip Irrigation Link

Jeremy, Hopefully, the guys who installed the sprinkler system for you, put in a quick and easy to access, method to turn off the main to the system, and then to drain out the water that's stored between there and the sprinkler valves, and in the backflow device. Assuming that's true, then you should be good to turn it on FOR A FEW HOURS ONLY, any time now. BUT... You MUST drain the water back out of the backflow valve etc. immediately after you finish watering. If you don't do it right after the sprinklers finish, every time, then you will forget about it, and a couple days later you will wake up in the morning to the sound of running water. Like me, you will wonder who woke up early enough to already be in the shower. Then later when you wake again, you'll realize the water is still running. Then you'll lay there and wonder...just where is that water running? Sooner or later you'll discover you have a new 10 foot fountain in your front yard. And it has a great big pool underneath it. If you're particularly unlucky, the back flow device is right near the basement window well, and your basement is flooding. Then, once you get the water turned off, you'll find out those 2 or 3 cute little plastic parts in that backflow device cost about 100 bucks if you buy and install them yourself, or I imagine twice that if you have someone else install them. Actually, it was my buddy whose basement flooded, and had the fountain. My backflow is pretty far from the house, and both times I messed up and forgot to drain it, it didn't actually do a fountain it just leaked out enough water to make the yard really muddy for a few days. Depending on weather and snow fall, I usually turn mine on, and water, and then drain it again several times each spring. I never turn it on and leave it on until Mother's Day, and even then, I keep a sharp eye on the weather, and I go cover up the back flow device with some thick blankets if we get a frost warning. Denver last frost is about the same as Fort Collins, so Mothers Day is probably a sensible date for you to go by also. Bruce

I think I posted on another of your threads that I have a 24" Sharp MW drawer and a paneled 30" KA WD. I enjoy having both appliances. I've never used the warming feature on the MW as I have the actual WD and am pretty sure I wouldn't use that feature even if I didn't have a WD. I'm not sure how the warming works on the MW, but I think it must turn itself on and off over and over. This would bother me for two reasons. One, the MW wouldn't be available for use for anything else. Two, and most importantly to me, the noise of the MW cycling on/off would be unpleasant for me. I'm noise sensitive. I don't like hearing my ovens or my MW working. I turn both off as soon as possible to avoid extra noise. The WD is completely silent. In fact, now that I have the ON light covered by my drawer panel, it's almost impossible to tell if it's on or not. Another important difference with my KA WD and MW is the WD's ability to keep moist food moist and crisp food crisp. DH usually doesn't pay attention to this when he plops food in the WD and sometimes ruins the food. Crisp waffles put in a WD on the "moist" setting makes.....well, moist waffles. Yuck. A MW drawer can't distinguish between moist and crisp food. You can accomplish most of the work a WD does with workarounds in other appliances. My Wolf ovens go low enough that they can proof, but I do it in the WD as its a much smaller cavity to heat and is therefore faster and uses less energy. One could heat plates in a regular oven, but you have the size, speed, and energy usage issue again. One of the reasons I bought the KA WD is the slow cook feature, though I have yet to use it. I just plain have never gotten used to crock pot cooking and, frankly, haven't been very impressed with most foods I've eaten from a crock pot. I can do better by cooking the same food other ways. BUT, I would like to try to find and learn a few quality crock pot recipes this summer to lighten my cooking load. As for the MW, I don't cook in it for food nutrition degradation reasons. Any dish, cup, or bowl I've tried to put in it has fit without issue. I appreciate the defrost and melt settings very much. I don't have time to do this for you now, but if you run an Internet search for this site and the name "Plllog" and the words "warming drawer" you'll find a few very informative posts. Plllog is a master at explaining appliances and her posts on WD's helped me decide which models to look for when I was buying. The bottom line is that most warming drawers are basically the same. The few slight differences come in the presence of moist/dry feature, presence of auto off, and the way the sides are constructed for access. It seems as if you've narrowed the features you want, and I agree with your list. I would now look for the best deal you can find on any of those models and buy. That's what I did. I found a great deal on my KA on ebay. I also purchased my MWD as a refurb model on...