'Let me know when someone designs a mower that's perfect in every situation, and I'll buy three of them!' It doesn't have to be perfect, just not aggravating most of the time. I concur 100% with the original poster - it was like he was talking about my yard and my mower. Personal Pace, Easy-Stride and Sensa-Speed all can be nightmarish in certain situations. Plus, the big point for me was you can't turn it off. Once I discovered 'Variable Speed' which is simply PP with manual bail control, I knew I had found the 'drive of my life', to coin a phrase. PP can be great under some conditions, but I don't know how many times I got enraged with mine. I came close several times to throwing it out in the street and shooting it until it caught fire. It's not about 'not liking new things', being 'set in one's ways' or not 'giving it enough time'. It's simply that PP is a marvelous drive system except under certain conditions. If you do not encounter those conditions where you mow, you may really like it. Even if you do have some of the problems, many people just aren't that bothered by them - others are.

When dividing hostas, the goal is to cut of as few roots as possible. Aömost all hostas to be divided should be doug up. The only exceeption to this rule is a Blue Angle, Sum & Sunstance or Blue Umrellas with 75 eyws or more. For monster plants just use a spade and chop off pieces along the perimeter. The only hosta I know of, that you may chop into pieces with a spade or an axe is plantaginea. All others again fall into two categories. The ones with a loseley connected root system (example ginko caig). Thses you can pull apart with your bare hands. The ones with a tightly interwoven root system you dig up, slam them on the ground to knock off a large part of the loose dirt, soak the in a bucket of water for an hour and then use the garden hose to loosen up more dirt. The goal is to loosen the dirt, but not to get rid of it. Inspect the foilage from the top and look for a natural division between eyes. Depending on the size of the plant cut down about 1 to 2 inches deep, using any kind of clean knife. Now grab the two halves and start twisting them in opposite directions, while at the same time pulling them apart. Manfred

peregrinekt, per your advice, i spent hours on the brug forum last night. it seems that your method of bucket cuttings is the simplest (wasn't that something- that elaborate illustrated system with the heating tubes and pump et al?) but many of the brug forum people talked of needing to frequently change the water, of stems going mushy, and it being better to pot them up asap after they root-so as to get the greater nutrition from the soil. plse tell me your simpler system works just fine?!

If you owe the bank a million or so ... ... you got a problem! If you owe the bank 100 million (or, maybe, a billion) ... ... they got a problem!! And when all of the banks owe big buckets of debt ... ... when they run to the government for a bail-out ... ... the government's got a problem (so they figure)!!! Can anyone (with a certain measure of memory) say, "Savings and Loan"?? When the profits are running - they're private. When there's blood about to hit the financial streets - then the big financial guys seek a government bailout. But it'd be terrribly gauche to call that ... "wellfare"!! That's for the little guys who would rather collect it than work. Smells about the same, to me. But they have to find a scapegoat ... so Bear Stearns gets a tin can tied to their tail ... ... and J P Morgan (that earlier ate Chase) ... ... gets a good deal. ole joyful