Hi Socks - I set it up myself...well, my six year old son and 12 year old daughter helped a bit...pretty easy. Now, I am definitely not as confident in my ability to get it to pop 'down'...we'll see... I am mostly concerned about squirrels and chipmunks, I think. They just tear into everything around these parts. One summer they used every singly seat cushion on my deck furniture chairs to pad their nests! I really despise them. Maybe they won't be interested in this (I hope). Not sure what to do to keep them away, really. So, I am trying to extend the amount of time I keep a bunch of my cacti and succulents outdoors, rather than jamming them into my sunroom this year. That way, I may try to segue them into a dark dormancy in my garage instead of the sunroom - giving them a deeper sleep perhaps AND freeing up growing space under HID lights in my sunroom. They just wouldn't get the same dry cold in the sunroom that I think I can give them with the greenhouse - maybe end up with better flowering next year, too? By the end of November, I think they will all be indoors somewhere - either garage or sunroom. Then, the snows come...seems so far away with 90s forecast all week for us ;-). Josh - I see what you mean...just hope it doesn't get overtaken by marauding banditos! T

I missed that you had come back with a reply, Coach! It sounds like you have some species of Asclepias! One of the common names is butterfly weed, and people pay money for the stuff you're trying to get rid of! Like dandelions, the seeds "float" in the air, and my guess is that some neighbor pretty close has one/some they're cultivating to attract butterflies! The most common species is A. incarnata--but I really have no way to know if that's the species that's showing up in your yard or not. Some info at the link below if you're interested in more! In terms of getting rid of it, I recommend Weed-B-Gon. You can use that in the grass--it kills only broad leaf plants, and you can use it where there is no grass too. From my experience it works better than Roundup, and it's what I use anywhere I need an herbicide these days--works quite well at getting rid of cottonwood and aspen suckers in the grass! As far as I know all, or at least most, milkweeds have taproots, so the sooner you get rid of them the easier it will be. If you decide to try to pull them, you'll need to get all of the root out or they'll come back from anything you leave behind! If you have a place where you want to grow some to attract butterflies (it's also a host plant for the caterpillars), you can just deadhead the flowers before any seeds form to help keep them from "filling up your yard!" Can't help with "the neighbor" if I'm right that that's where the seeds are coming from! Skybird P.S. The "plant" you were getting into as a kid was most likely dandelions! Here is a link that might be useful: Asclepias incarnata

Hi, Lucky you to get a built in garden! You don't have to do anything to raspberry bushes, they grow fine on their own. Some people prune them and try to make them stay in a certain spot or grow between guide wires, but that isn't necessary. Just pull out or mow the ones that come up where you don't want them. Bugs don't really bother raspberries. Grapevines should have some pruning done to them every year or two, but if you ignore that for one year (sounds like your yard might be overwhelming) there really won't be a problem. Unless you have trouble with them they don't need spraying with anything either. Fertilizing around the vines with compost never hurts. The Fruit & Orchard forum is a good place to ask for advice about berries, grapes, and apple trees. For the apple tree, you should be spraying with something after the blossoms fall, if you want to prevent bugs from getting them all. I have an organic fruit tree spray (powder) I got from Gardens Alive! and a 1 gallon size sprayer that I got for about $5 at Menards some years ago. There is also a dormant oil that you can use to spray stuff on so it sticks better and suffocates the worms I think. Please don't kill any plants until you are sure it isn't 'something.' Offer plants you don't want to neighbors or on freecycle. The people who bought my house killed almost everything (10 fruit trees, raspberries, rhubarb, asparagus, thousands of flowers, etc.) They left one pear tree and the next owner took that down. It hasn't even been 3 years since I moved, sigh. Between the 2 sets of plant-hating new owners, they killed thousands of dollars worth of trees, shrubs, and flowers. I tried to talk to both sets of owners about the plants, they had no interest. If your previous owner is still alive, I am sure they would be glad to give you some helpful hints on what was where and how to take care of it. Try calling or writing them, gardeners usually love to talk about their gardens! You could at the least get some good plant IDs from them. Good luck! Don't worry too much, remember that nature is good at growing things regardless of your help. Marcia (hosting the SE WI plant swap on May 20th)

fwiw, I buy some stuff off ebay and in IE Internet Options / Privacy, under the sites button is ebay.com, and set as ALLOWED. I believe thats mostly for cookie handling. I do not have ebay listed under trusted sites as photos and other content on ebay pages will frequently come from other sites that would not also be in that trusted list. IE is trying to be protecting you with that pop up. My IE Options / Security tab ... settings are Medium-High and custom. Within that custom button is probably a setting; allow, dis-allow, or prompt .. Wording gets confusing in there for me usually, but the descriptions narrow it down somewhat and have found by trial and error, changing some of the sounds_like_maybe_its_this settings back and forth, one at a time, will usually find the fix you seek. From what you've described you do have ebay listed as a trusted site so you will get pop ups as some of the auction photo's will come from other sites that are not listed as a trusted site too. That's possibly one reason you get that pop up. You most likely could still turn off that popup from the Security Custom level. But might someday allow some other site to do a nefaurious something.