This year is the first time I've tried a lasagna bed and I think it's a fantastic idea, wish I had done it decades ago. I used cardboard boxes cut open and made sure the edges overlapped well and there were no holes. They can be covered with more cardboard pieces or many layers of newspaper. Then DH cleaned out the barn and piled the old straw, sawdust, shavings, and of course the sheep manure on top to a depth of a couple of feet. Over 3 months it decomposed to about a foot thick. He's just added more which hopefully will rot down by next spring. We've also used old coffee grounds we get from the coffee shop in town and grass clippings from the lawn. One thing I did was to water the lawn well first, then soak the cardboard, and water each layer. Occasionally over the summer I watered it when there was no rain. I've had to weed it but didn't want to cover it - heard on the soil forum that's a no-no. I'm planning to use cardboard between the plants next spring tho cause I think it's a weed crop waiting to happen. In the past when I wanted to turn lawn into flower beds DH had to dig out all the grass and that's much more labor intensive than this lasagna thing. There is a lot of good info on the soil forum here at GW: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/soil/ Here is a link that might be useful: lasagna gardening

I haven't been on the forums for a while so am a bit out of touch. I've been busy in the garden, but it is already 90F at 9am so am taking it in small doses today. I got carried away with purchasing and trading morning glory seeds this past winter and ended up like many of you with not enough fence lines to grow them on. I raise sheep and if they can get to a plant it is history! I made some trellises this year with refrigeration tubing rolled into a shape like a spring (about 6" in diameter) then inserted one end of the spring in the ground or pot and the other end in a section of copper pipe stood on end in the soil with the plants around it. The plants seem happy enough with this arrangement but it is actually a little short for most morning glories and they are overreaching the tops now looking for additional support from neighboring plants. Another idea that I tried this year is actually working better--I had a section of loose chain link fence that I could get anyone to take away for me so I used a bolt cutter to cut off the part where the wires are twisted together at the top and bottom freeing the wire to be twisted out of the fence fabric. They are perhaps 6-7' long. I tried various configurations in pots and ground using 3, 5, or 6 wires. I twisted the wire into the soil and wired the tops together making some teepee type trellises. The plants LOVE this wire and have almost no problem climbing the trellises. In some pots (smaller type vines), I pushed both ends of the wires into the soil and it makes a nice fat balloon shape that are very nice when covered with vines. My visitors have all been very interested and complimentary of these trellises/support systems You just can't get any cheaper than the salvaged fence trellises. I would bet that you could find pieces of this kind of fence at the local landfill or recycling center. Good luck, spiderwoman

Amex has always charged more than the other cc companies. Others have already pointed out that those mall cc purchases really hit small businesses hard. We have customers that are kind enough to be aware of that and write checks or use their debit card, or even, believe it or not, pay in cash. A lot of you have mentioned Costco. I've never shopped at one because they're just not convenient to me, but I used to shop at Sam's. I quit doing that years ago because they had an annual fee, and I didn't feel like I was saving enough to make up for that annual fee. Most of what I got at Sams I could buy as a loss leader at a regular grocery store. I've also not found coupons to be very useful, because they're rarely for real food, just processed food. After seeing several stories on the news, and listening to co-workers, I broke down and bought a Sunday paper several weeks ago for the coupons. Boy, was I disappointed. I spent $2.00 on the paper, and maybe found that much worth in coupons that I might use, (which I have to admit I've forgotten about), and then I had all this mess of paper to deal with. What a waste of time that was. Sally

Kalining from Canada, my point is that I have discovered that a lot of so-called Pro-Tech's are not aware of this helpful technique. They are used to fixed piston orifice metering devices, & many appear to be using the superheat method or NO proper charging method, some don't even follow the mfg'ers procedures which in many cases provide NO positive indication as to which metering device the system has. The tech needs to know that the airflow through the coil is within specs & then techs need to know which metering device the system has in order to use the correct charging procedure. As for service techs checking or cutting a hole in a plenum to check, forget it, ask the users how many checked to see what metering device was on the coil, or verified that in any way. When servicing, many are in a hurry to get to the next service call. I would love to see a survey taken on the issue of how many verified which metering device the system had. Because we would "do it right" has zip to do with whatr others are doing. I have witnessed them only checking the suction pressure & nothing else, & saying the system's charge is okay, when I knew it was way off as was the CFM airflow through the E-Coil. We had a mix of TXVs & cap tube systems in the mid 1970's, & needed to know what we were dealing with. - udarrell Here is a link that might be useful: Superheat & Subcooling Procedures for Optimal Charging