Since Miracle Gro soil products - and most especially the potting soil - are not well recommended by anyone familiar with better quality soils (just review some of the discussions on the Container Gardening forum), the solution is pretty simple. Just opt for a different product!! Personally, I wouldn't touch any MG soil product with a 10 foot pole.....regardless of the price! It is just a very inferior product with a very good marketing campaign.

First, I figured you would not answer any questions and about 8 years ago I did have a blower test and ESP test done and the manual J performed and none of them would show me the results except to say, I needed a 4.5 ton unit which is on the fence, right? And all said they would have used the same duct work and the blower test was 34 out of like 50 (whatever that value is, I just don't remember). He said not bad and usually sees a lot worse, but could be better and they wanted to gut my duct system and go to all metal duct and both companies pricing was about $6,000 to $7,000 again, about 8 years ago. I had other estimates too, but I don't trust most A/C companies around here as I used to do the repair business years ago and it was mainly window units back then and I know how this business overall operates and you and others online are the exception rather than the rule in residential work. Which is great, but surely you know how bad it is? It is way too competitive and other things I know, I'll just say is very embarrassing to say the least. So, as I do the manual J and D calculations myself I am coming up with between 4 and 4.5 ton system, which you are right, so I see it is going to be oversized. But, I will say we had upper 80 degree days last week and the humiditiy was in the mid 40 percent range in my home as did my 4 ton unit performed and was still comfortable. But, I understand the tighter I make the system, doing as designed will bring the temperature down more quickly and will not be able to control the humidity as well and may become more uncomfortable and cycle more often making it less efficient. Your link is what has made me do what I am doing so far and I thank you for sharing some of your knowledge to the public, I wished I had seen it before I made this move. I know this is not a good excuse, but we had two 14,000 btu portable units in the house this summer and still couldn't keep the temperatue in the house from climbing to 80 degrees during peak outdoor temperature and the central system still would run until midnight before it would shut down briefly. I understand between the leaks and being undersized on return I was losing ground from day one as we bought this model home new. It just seems these portable units would have helped a little bit in keeping the temperature reasonable in our home. I even had a third unit ready to install, but we sweated it out through the end of the cooling season and so, how many would it have taken, 5, 6, or 7 units? Thanks.

Hi again Jimbg, I imagine that you've had some interesting thoughts regarding your retirement nest egg during the last half year or so. I hope that you have not been so smitten with fear of the stock market that you've decided to stay out of it. There are losses suffered from time to time, which can be substantial ... but over the long term, carefully chosen stocks, ETFs, etc. have produced well for their owners. As have mutual funds ... but, despite their substaial claims to superior performance, about 85% of mutual fund managers are unable to produce a higher rate of return than their chosen portion of the market. As you encourage your friends to start a retirement plan, you can follow a savings plan that's specifically geared to setting up a payout system during one's retirement, but many choose to carry investment accounts that are not geared toward retirement, as well. If one chooses to build a regular investment program, with a view to having it available to fund one's retirement, though unwilling to be tied up with the restrictions that govern retirement accounts, there's an extra benefit that can be used during one's lifetime. When I own a number of stocks or mutual funds, I can have the certificates issued to use as collateral when I make loans, often allowing me to pay a much lower rate of interest that if I must use other kinds of collateral. For example, if I want to buy a car and use the car as collateral, if the lender wants to repossess it in case of my delinquency, there's a hassle to collect it, then advertise it for sle, or go through a brokerage, which charges fees, etc. and they must wait for their money ... plus, if I didn't take good care of the car, they may not be able to collect all of the amount owing, plus costs. So they usually charge high interest rates on such loans. If, however, one has some stocks or mutual fund certiicates to use as collateral and isn't able to pay, it's fast and easy to liquidate the stock or mutual fund collateral, so the borrower almost always enjoys a much lower rate of interest on the loan. Should one have an emergency, it is a great help to one's financial and emotional well-being if one has some assets on hand to either liquidate or, perhaps more frequently, use as collateral to make a loan to cover the need, and the interest rate will be advantageous. Such a cushion helps a great deal in case one suffers long-term layoff, as many have experienced in the past few years. When one uses money that one had planned for retiremen for either an emergency, or to fund one's living during long-term layoff, one should make a strong effort to replace the money withdrawn, plus allowance for inflation, when one's financial stability is restored. Good wishes as you proceed with your plans ... and encourage others to do the same. On the day that you began work, you had brains and hands at work ... but no money. On the day that you retire, you have brains and money at work ... and no hands. If you've set aside a substantial amount regularly over the years, and learned how to manage it for a reasonable rate of return, plus some tax savings, you may well have developed enough assets in order to provide you with sufficient money to retire early. Good wishes for increasing skill in managing your income and assets. ole joyful

Yes Carol, I did err when I said 2013. I meant that it was founded in 1913, which is pretty hard to imagine. I love that this family-owned company has remained family-owned all that time. Bon, The important thing is to just get them planted to the best of your ability. You always can address feeding them later if they appear to need it (clay is fertile and you haven't gardened in yours for very many years so it might still have plenty of nutrients available). Hazel, I hope you enjoyed your snow day. Sometimes they are nice for mental health and catching-up-on-real-life type days. Carol, Maybe your snow will be melted soon, and the ground will be nice and soft and moist for planting. No actual snow here. We got about 0.8" rain and a tiny amount of that fell as freezing rain, so all the plants, power lines, fences, etc. sparkled and twinkled in the sunlight during the few brief minutes when the sun snuck out of the clouds and we could see it. It wasn't even as cold as forecast, so I guess I have no real complaints about the weather. It could have been worse. As long as I stayed home here in our little low-lying creek hollow, I didn't even realize it was windy and the wind chill was awful. Once we were up on the higher ground, I was thinking it would have been a good day to stay home. I hope to be mudding in my onions into the ground in a couple of days.