You are getting too many opinions. Asking here will just add more confusion until you are completely paralyzed by information overload. At least my opinion comes with written explanation you can check out for yourself. You will also get opinions after this which may contradict mine, so that isn't going to help. KBG will not do well in shady areas. That is the main reason many people get a fescue/KBG mix of sod or seed. Seed is out of the question for this time of year, so sod is your choice. If you have a lot of shade, then 100% KBG might be a nightmare. For shady areas, fescue will predominate. You can overseed these areas with more fescue in the fall if you want to improve the density and help keep weeds out next season. I believe compost is overrated. Since it has been the preferred choice for organic gardeners since the 1930s, there is a lot of resistance to my opinion; however, there are a lot of lawn folks who are very happy with the use of alfalfa, soybean meal, and milorganite. The best way to improve your organic matter is to get grass roots into the ground and to feed organics from the top. You have realized a weakness in a full organic approach. Once weeds are established, it can be overwhelming to get rid of them. Sometimes a one-time spray with herbicide can save you hours of time and weeks of frustration looking at your slow progress in de-weeding. But if you continue on a full organic fertilizer routine, you will quickly overcome any negative effects of the herbicide on the soil microbes. Just because you use a chemical herbicide does not cancel out your organic history of fertilizing. "Going organic" has as many definitions as does "vegetarian." Most of the lawn gurus I know follow a mixed approach of using organic fertilizer all year long until the last application which they use a high nitrogen, fast release chemical fertilizer. Along the way they might spot spray some clumps of weeds which have gotten a start for some reason. Generally that is minimal, though, due to their diligence in the lawn - these folks really are lawn nuts. By spot spraying they are not subjecting the entire lawn to herbicide. Tupersan is a preemergent herbicide. It will have no effect on your dandelions. Usually dandelions are most affected by a product like Weed-B-Gone spray. Weed-B-Gone is a selective type herbicide which only kills broad leaf plants. It has no effect on grassy weeds. Get it in a container that connects to your hose and spray the plants individually. You only need to moisten the leaves of the plant, not drench the soil. There are some handheld spray hose attachments which allow you to screw another hose thread attachment on after the hand valve. I would use one of those to control the application of the herbicide. Or you could use Weed-B-Gone and pour it into an dial-type hose end sprayer like the Ortho brand available everywhere. If you do not use all the product in the Ortho sprayer, you can pour the remainder back into the original bottle. The Ortho has a flow control trigger built in. As for the heat in MIl, you don't have to worry. There are limits but I think you're fine. If you use the spot spraying approach you should be able to do that with no effect on the turf. My opinion of corn gluten meal as a preemergent herbicide is that it is worthless. I applied CGM at a rate well above the suggested rate every month for a full season and seem to have as many weeds then as any month or year at this house. However, as a fertilizer, it is the best organic fertilizer you can get. Unfortunately the cost makes it out of most people's range especially considering alfalfa is so much less and seems to work about as well. Proper watering and mowing are much more important to control weeds both pre and post emergence. I've never heard of waiting a full year to do anything following any type of spraying. If you kill the weeds now, Mother Nature will fill it in for you by next June. For your area with the new soil and no existing grass, you can use RoundUp, a nonselective herbicide, to kill everything. Spray it once, water for a week to induce any new seeds to sprout, and spray again in a week to kill the new sprouts. Wait a day or two and you can put the sod down.

This is such a good topic. There's so much debate of the definition of terms: native, weed, and invasive. And it varies from botanists to horticulturists to taxonomists to agrarians to... It really warrants discussion. While you may eventually find an equilibrium between an introduced species and its new habitat, it's doubtful that an equilibrium would establish between the introduced species and the native species it supplants (bad pun). So many microniches and urban and suburban borders make it more difficult for the spread of native plants, and much easier for the introduction of foreign ones. Each microhabitat in which a native species is 'successfully removed' represents a loss of genetic diversity within that particular species, and of course, the more limited your genetic material, the more vulnerable you are to disease and predators. As an example, if you are a plant species with a slow maturity and/or reproductive cycle like Maryland's native persimmon, living in a very specific environment (brackish swamp), and a well-adapted invasive, like the common reed (aka 'phragmites'), comes along--without intervention your resources are going to get used up and your population will have a difficult time recovering. I've heard arguments that this is just accelerated 'fittest of survival,' but as Springa7 mentions, our scale of international trade and potential for introduction of species is unprecedented. Researchers have found that islands are terrific models for this line of inquiry and there are several books on the subject. One of my favorites is Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in the Age of Extinction. It's not hardcore data, but more essay format. **In reply to Botanybob's comment that 'all noxious weeds are introduced,' it seems to depend on which group you're asking. I recently read that natives can be considered noxious--for instance, in a recently disturbed area. Cattails were given as an example. Got the info from this website on plant management in Florida wetlands: http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/invplant.html --Sara

The problem, besides using the term magic (a usage that should send everyone running away) is that all fans have a varying flow rate (cfm) with pressure drop across the fan. Most fans sold separately are rated for the cfm they move hanging in the air (zero pressure drop). A quality fan manufacturer will measure and supply the "fan curve," a plot showing the relationship between cfm and "pressure loss". When a hood is sold with its fan, the flow rate will necessarily be less than for the fan hanging in the air. (A factor of 1.5 is a bit bold, though, in my opinion.) Very likely, if they aren't lying, VAH is claiming that if the fan were unrestricted, it would achieve 900 cfm flow. Of course, a 900 cfm Broan fan, put in series with a hood and reasonable ducting, might only pull 600 cfm also. However, I don't think VAH is counting any ducting, so comparisons are difficult. If VAH are tying to claim that their fan design has a more "robust" fan curve due to the blade design, then they should supply a fan curve that supports that intent. I doubt that a squirrel cage design is as good for that purpose as a backward curved blade axial fan, but I've been hopeful that VAH would some day provide useful information. (I'm also hoping to find a winning Megabucks ticket.) I think it best to consider other factors such as noise, cleaning ease, etc. VAH is often touted by appliance sales persons, and one wonders whether the mark-up is higher for VAH than for competing suppliers. kas

I posted this on the original thread, which you'd referenced in an email to me (sent through GW): docket, I received your email, but apparently cannot reply to it because you have not enabled the email option. Here's what you wrote: I am seriously considering going with cast iron. I like the fact that it strong, I do not want to worry about leaks. It seems that w/ acrylic it is prone to get damgaged. Tile you have to worry about the grout getting black. The picture looks great how is the feel. Is is slippery? You still happy with your decsion to go w/ cast iron. Why did you go cast iron did you look at other options? We've been using the guest bathroom for some months now while work is being done on our MB and hall bath, so can tell you first-hand about the Kohler shower pan. It's very nice! Feels nice and solid underfoot, and not slippery at all. We recently installed two Toto cast iron tubs (one in each of the other two bathrooms); one bathroom is functional. I've been showering in there daily and the tub is very, very nice also. I really like it. Also, not slippery. We chose the cast iron because we liked how it looks, we liked the sturdiness and durability, and we liked the heat retention for which cast iron is known (and it was cheaper than a tile shower floor, which for a guest bathroom, was a good place to save a few $). We originally ordered a Kohler acrylic pan, thinking it was fiberglass. When it arrived though, we discovered not only was it acrylic, but it had no non-slip grips, which was a deal-breaker for us. We returned it for the cast iron pan. I really wasn't interested in a solid surface material (e.g. Corian, Swanstone), so never looked into those. Two things to note. One, cast iron can be a bit colder than other materials initially, but once you runs some warm-hot water, it warms up right away. Our guest bathroom is on the ground floor, on a slab, so it was a little chilly to the touch back in March (when we started using it daily). But, like I said, it warmed up quickly. The second thing, is that the non-slip grips can and do discolor. Regular cleaning with Lysol Basin, Tub, and Tile cleaner doesn't seem to remove the discoloration (at least not too well), however, the Magic Eraser (I use Mr. Clean original Magic Erasers) cleans them with little to no effort. They clean up so well, the first time I used it to clean mine, I thought I had scrubbed away the non-slip grips they were so clean and white! If I can help with any other questions, let me know.