I'd like to chime in. I don't have experience using this method over areas with previously growing trees but it sure worked for some things that were pretty tough (like giant wild blackberry bushes, vines with huge underground root systems and lots of tall woody-stemmed field weeds). In fact, this forum was the first place I learned of this method. Cardboard. I now use it ANY TIME I am creating a new bed or I just want to get the weeds under control in certain areas without spending a fortune on brush killer. No longer do I try to dig up or spray weeds before planting. I just smother the entire area in a layer of overlapping cardboard so no sun gets through and then pile topsoil on top of that if I'm going to turn it into a flowerbed. My current project is an 80-ft. x 6 ft. patch of land in between my daylily field and the gravel road. The weeds were so tough and tall here you couldn't see the daylilies in bloom beyond it. I'm not making this a flowerbed but I don't want it a weedy mess so this summer I covered the entire strip with heavy-duty cardboard and covered it with a shallow layer of mulch to keep the cardboard from blowing away and so it looks nice. EVERYTHING underneath has died and is staying dead. Every so often in the beginning a straggler will poke out around the edges trying to reach the sun and then I spray it a couple of times with some weed killer and it's a goner. I've told everyone I know how effective this is. This process may take a month or more to kill the weeds for good but I just do it a little at a time as I collect the cardboard (which is free from any Walmart, big box store, etc...). Now that it's dead I can take off the mulch and re-use it elsewhere or just let it continue to decompose there and improve the soil. After 3 months the cardboard is like paper and the remnants can simply be raked away or dug in when the area is planted. AWESOME TECHNIQUE and my thanks go out to whoever made the post where I first read about it. Danielle

We overseed with rye for several reasons, but primarily for winter fire protection. We live in a rural area where winter wildfires are fairly common, or at least they have been ever since 2005. Prior to that, we never had them. Our DS is a professional firefighter and also a volunteer firefighter and my DH is the chief of our local VFD, and also is a certified professional firefighter in Texas for the last 32 years. (I have to point out he primarily works as a law enforcement officer but at the time he was hired, they all went through the fire academy and the police academy so that they were cross-trained and had the flexibility to do both jobs.) Because we understand the rate at which wildfire can move and because we often are away from home at wildfires elsewhere in the county and are not at home to protect our own home from wildfire, it is important to us to maintain a green envelope around the house and detached barn-style garage. It isn't that green grass won't burn, because it can and it will....but just that it will not ignite as easily as dormant bermuda grass. Our hope is that when a fast-moving grass fire comes this way, the green rye grass will slow it down and keep it from reaching the structures before a fire truck arrives. Most years, the worst and most fast-moving fires have not been in our specific portion of the county very often, but one year we had 4 separate wildfires within about a quarter-mile of our place in a two-week period and I was pretty much a nervous wreck after that....especially when friends call me on my cell phone when I am gone to a fire somewhere and say "Are you at home? It looks like your place is on fire?" At least having the green grass on the acre around the house and other structures gives us a little peace of mind. Secondly, I hate, hate, hate bermuda grass. I'd rather have bare ground. It is horrifically invasive and will creep and crawl into every garden bed of any type. We did not plant the bermuda grass here. Whoever owned the farmland we purchased likely planted it as pasture grass. When we bought the land, it looked like your typical mix of tall and short prairie grasses mixed with forbs and a bit of invasive brush. Then, after we mowed the grass down short right before the builder started building the house, we saw the bermuda popping up all over in the absence of taller grasses to shade it out. One of our old-rancher/farmer neighbors noticed it one day and said "Oh, great! You have bermuda. You won't even have to plant any." I said something like "yeah, great" but I was thinking something else entirely opposite of that. Part of the deliberate overseeding every fall is to weaken the bermuda so that it will be slower to grow and slower to move into the flower beds, shrub beds, etc. My main weapon in the battle to defeat the bermuda grass is to shade it out. We've been here 14 years, and the trees and shrubs (we have planted many, many, many of them) are shading out the bermuda grass now in some parts of the yard. When they do that, I plant ground covers in the bare spots. I won't be happy until it is all gone though. So my goal is the opposite of yours. I hate it and want to get rid of it, and you want to grow it. We have red clay...the kind of clay that breaks shovels when you try to dig in it. That sort of red clay in combination with bermuda grass is a horrible combination. When the soil is dry, which is most of the time in this state, you cannot dig out or pull out the bermuda grass. Did I mention I hate it? If your soil is red clay, you need a real tiller. A big rear-tine tiller. A really strong, sturdy, rear-tine tiller. We have a Troy-Bilt. Those little cultivators/tillers (we have a Mantis and a Troy-Bilt in that size and the Mantis is far superior in performance) are great for well-enriched and well-amended soil that is not strongly compacted or for native sandy-silty soil that is not overly compacted. We've been breaking ground out back for an additional vegetable garden plot, and I used The Mantis for most of it. It has worked just fine on most of that area. When I hit the red clay at the north end of that future garden plot, Tim rototilled it with the Troy-Bilt rear-tine tiller. Now, in the future, since it has been initially broken and will be well-amended, I will be able to use the Mantis to work organic matter into the soil, but when I tried to rototill the dense red and very compacted clay with it last week, both the Mantis and I were bouncing all over the ground and barely making a dent in it. We normally only use the big tiller the first time we break ground. The cultivator is great for mixing in amendments, but I'm even trying to stop doing that regularly because any sort of tilling (or digging) is not necessarily good for the soil tilth. You don't have to buy a rototiller and, in fact, I wouldn't buy one if I just wanted to use it for one project. I'd rent one for the day. Or, if you check the garden section or the handyman section of your local paper, you may find ads for people who own rototillers and who will come rototill up a spot for someone. Around here, they usually charge a little less than it would cost to rent a big rototiller for the day. If the soil that was dumped into the place where the pool used to be is fairly loose and not heavily compacted, then the smaller cultivator might handle it just fine. I love my Mantis cultivator but it is not up to the task of easily rototilling very dense and very compacted clay. It's great for everything else. Dawn

Stonesmama, I don't think wax would work too well on our plastic slides, it would more than likely leave a very unsightly white swirly residue on them (same thing happens if you wax plastic car parts that aren't supposed to be waxed). The slide came with a little packet of stuff that all of the hardware was supposed to be coated with before installation, did your PB not use it? I used it on everything and so far the hardware is showing no signs of corrosion at all. Are you seeing rust spots or corrosion? All the hardware is stainless, so it shouldn't ever rust. It might develop some surface corrosion if not treated though.

NHB, I will say once again, I love your home! We don't have the arches that you do, but a fair amount of architectural detail in our home. I understand the desire to "soften" the windows in the dining room. Here is what I did: I have French Doors that lead from my dining room out onto the veranda. The designer I chose wanted me to put Roman Shades on the windows because of the millwork but mostly because of light switches on either side of the doors. I wanted something to soften as well as the ability to close the drapes when entertaining or just enjoying a romantic dinner with my husband. I decided to go with plain panel drapes stacked to the side of the doors with batons for when I wanted a more intimate feeling in my dining room (it's open to our living room too). We like a lot of light because much of this room is north facing plus we have the large overhang. I put the cordless cellular shades up on the windows (from Penny's they are great!) and my drapes were installed last week. I'm glad I went with them instead of shades or just blinds, and the designer did agree with me that it was the best choice. Of course, your home has more millwork than mine does and we don't have the large capitols over the window as you do. I love the look of the simple goblet panels though. Whatever you do, as others have said, will be beautiful. You have great taste! Susan