Well, spent till dark fighting the good fight. Digging away, hand spade by hand spade. Each shovel was looked thru on a big white plastic bag. Where there is one there are always two.. probably more. All dirt was moved into a bucket. I'm going to keep doing this till I have done this bed. I'm going to remove what plants I can and rinse the roots. I know I can't get them from in the stand of tall iris, and I don't want to damage my Maple tree, as I grew it from a seed and it is almost my height now. I am going to try and screen the soil best I can and re-fill w/ this and garden soil. It's at least worth a shot. Mad_Gallica, I totally agree that knowing what it is doesn't help! I can't believe that it has been up your way for that long. I have never, ever seen it before, yet I have been told on many occasions I am extremely observant of things. I have begun to see it everywhere now. My method last year: long, thick screwdrivers, used to get between perennial roots and deep under the stands of bulbs. I'd pry a bit and then get my gloved hand underneath somehow and discard the whole lot filled with bulbs. Needless to say I have lots of low spots now. Oh, and I lost several screwdrivers that way too. LOL! Borrowed my moms metal detector twice to try and find 'em. Unsuccessfully, BTW. I just told Dear Boyfriend that they would turn up come fall or winter! PFT! I'll have to look into adding an asparagus fork to the arsenal. Camp, I'd stay clear of these for sure. So many better choices out there. Catspa, how did you find the reference to the 1935 thing? Was it somehow on that site? I know, it's sad to see escapees like that. I don't envy your plight either. I've been hesitant to dispose of these things myself. I imagine a landfill topped with fields of Pinelllia! But honestly, I see no other way than to bag them up in recycled grocery bags (always check for holes in the bag first!!) and send them to the city dump. I keep reading they regenerate from rhizomes, too, and root systems, but I think it is the bulbs only. I try and not leave any roots behind, but they are short and don't break too easily. Either way, I'm afraid of squashing them and trying to compost. No Way!! They are so prolific I can only imagine every squashed bulb producing multiple, mutant squash-up shaped new bulbs. SHUDDER! I only gave away one tub of Black eyed susans last year to the across the street neighbor, for fear of spreading them. I took hers from a "safe" spot and tried to go thru the roots for signs of it. Before I gave them to her I called her over to point out the nasty stuff and give her the run down to be extra careful if she sees anything like it pop up near the BES's. My due diligence, I guess. Best I could do.

It's possibly starving for fuel. If it has an O.E.M. inline fuel filter, you might try replacing it with an automotive filter so you get greater capacity for storing the stuff that a fuel filter catches before becoming "stopped up". I like the clear plastic kind so you can see if it has trapped water. I think you probably have 1/4" fuel hose so getting a nice, robust filter at a local parts house or even Wal-Mart is no trouble. Pay attention to the directional arrow pointing the right way to install it. Don't worry if you see a pocket of air in the top of the filter that won't go away, that's normal and does not mean your are sucking air or anything. The reason I suggest it may not be getting enough fuel is that you say it starts well and runs well until you try to cut grass. If it isn't acting strangely otherwise, it might not be getting sufficient fuel to meet the engine's needs when the real load is handed to it. Go out there and try to mow some grass the way you did before. Do this for about 15 minutes and then cut off the engine right there (so you can read the evidence on the spark plug tips without running the engine without being loaded) Let it cool down a bit and remove the spark plugs to inspect the tips. If the tips are dark black and sooty looking, you are getting too much fuel and/or not enough air. In that case start looking for a restriction in the air induction system (air filter and check any ducting leading to the air cleaner for foreign material, like a mouse nest). If the tips of plugs are white in appearance, you are not getting enough fuel and the engine is running too lean.

I love pushing zones. Both ways. hahaha :) Let me define my microclimate... I live in North Tampa. The USDA says that my house sits exactly on the line between 9a/9b. I'm about 8 miles from Tampa Bay, and about 20 miles from the Gulf. This neighborhood sits among little hills and is dotted with lakes. I am two streets over from a decently-sized one. Elevation is about 45 feet here. We get 2-3 freezes each year. Half my herb garden probably should not grow here. I've worked out a place with good filtered light that does not bake them or starve them. My yearling Bodhi Tree survived last winter in the 20's without hardly a scratch. It is officially rated as hardy to zone 10b. Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries like partial shade and do produce. I have Clematis 'henryi' on an east-facing trellis. It has been doing well for two years, but looks stressed during the heat of summer. We'll see how my new fruit trees do. Just this year I've planted Strawberry Guava, Sugar Apple, and Surinam Cherry. Growing here should be their northern limit. Nature is fun to mess with sometimes :)

The Dying Light by Alison Joseph. This isn't a slam-shutter, more of a heavy-sigher and a "Can I bother to read anymore of this?" Trouble is it turns out to be the third book in a series about Agnes, a French nun working in a women's prison in a less salubrious part of London, so I don't know her 'back story'. I find I am not interested in her many problems, one of which is a dislike of her dying mother. I care nothing for the 'inmates' who are violent, abusive and foul-mouthed . . . or whimpering in corners and waiting to be abused and sworn at. The prison-staff and convent sisters are holders of deep secrets and are tight lipped or hollow-eyed with private grief. Agnes spends her days feeding sandwiches to an elderly priest, walking the corridors of the prison unlocking/relocking innumerable cell doors, making cups of instant coffee and visiting shady nightclubs talking to the boyfriends of the 'cons' while consuming large quantities of wine and whisky. I am halfway through the book and have yet to uncover any sort of plot or care what, if anything, will happen next.