Composted manure every few years and shredded hardwood mulch every spring right after I prune even when I use manure. Never take out the old stuff, just pile right on top of it. Only fertilizer I use and the roses love it. I started with clay soil you had to use dynamite to dig a hole and I can now dig with a normal shovel 18" straight down. Every new rose just takes off as soon as it gets its roots in the good stuff. You can certainly supplement with a fertilizer but try to stick to organics and whatever you do no all in one granular fertilizers with fungicide/insecticide in it. They will sterilize the soil you just spent so much time and energy bringing to life.

sjhockeyfan - I rinse them out and drip dry them before they go in the bin. Keeps everything cleaner and a bit less smelly. You could practically eat out of my recycling bin! Not so much off my floors, unless you come over one minute after my cleaner leaves. I think I mentioned before, trash is serious business up here in NS. Compost, trash, paper, recycling, cardboard are the five separate things our city mandates. Then I have another compost going for my compost pile and I separate out my refundable bottles and cans so the pickers can take them without rooting through my recyclables (a few mornings picking up recyling all over the street from a ripped open bag teaches you that trick). Without a garage it's hard to keep it all tidy. This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, May 1, 14 at 15:51

Well, even if revived by a spammer, it's still a useful topic. I find I'm incapable of making that "multiple designer pillows" look work. I've tried, but just can't pull it off. But we have multiple pillows because we actually use them. We read in bed and/or watch TV together, almost every night, in our MBR. When we decided to redo the MBR, one of the most expensive things we put in was a built-in storage headboard between the custom bookcases. After 25 yrs of stacking pillows on a bench I was tired of it. I wanted a slanted front where we could stack pillows 3-deep in comfort! This is the headboard unit right after it was installed (I replaced the crappy window blinds with a beautiful plantation shutter unit that I'm soooo happy with). It is sized for a CA King bed: The two storage compartments are identical, just reversed. The wider compartment fits a king-size pillow perfectly. Each will hold 2 fat pillows plus 1 smaller bedroll pillow. The smaller compartment is a great little cubbyhole for keeping little-used stuff accessible but out of sight:

This is one of those broad "categories" I prefer to break up and store by use. Hence parchment sheets are near baking center, but parchment roll is near prep where I might be making up packages for steaming veg or seafood. Similarly, microvable wax paper is near MW, but waxed paper sandwich bags are stowed with the brown paper lunch bags. (I don't make up lunch bags very often, nowadays.) Foodsaver rolls are near foodsaver machine. Aluminum foil is near oven with parchment roll. Clingfilm is near the fridge, along with my ziplocks, though I am trying hard to use reuseable glass containers for leftovers, which are stored in the same place. Freezer bags and butcher paper are with my food preservation supplies. I am working hard to get over my tendency to lump sets (dishes, pots, implements, spices) together rather than disposing them around by where they get used. I figure that even if it's more steps to place them in their storage positions (i.e. putting soup bowls in a different cupboard from the cereal bowls) at least those steps aren't happening just at the moments I need them for cooking or plating. L