Yes, if you have true compaction, shampoo will not work any better than water. If you had that I'd go as far as to suggest rototilling (I know...I said it. Mark this day on your calendar). The problem with true compaction is all the air has been driven out of the soil by mechanical action when the soil was saturated. When it dries all the particles are locked together. You have to get them separated and then let a new soil structure form. Tillers are good for that. Of course in the future you would have to come back and relevel the lawn. Sandy soil does not need shampoo. Usually it does not need it to begin with because people with sandy soil never complain about it being "compacted." Compost has its place, but not for grading. Being organic compost will soon completely "evaporate" as it decomposes. If you need to level or regrade, use sand or topsoil. And please do not reseed or overseed bermuda into a hybrid bermuda lawn. If you are sure you have a common bermuda lawn, then okay, but hybrid bermuda is a different plant from the seeded varieties.

This is my first year growing tomatoes. I grew Sun Gold, Black Krim, Black Prince, Cherokee Purple, and Jaune Flamme. I grew several Sun Gold and Black Krim plants from seed at the end of March and bought 4" starts of the Black Prince and Cherokee Purple. I transplanted them all at the end of May under plastic tunnels, watering weekly and adding Dr. Earth tomato fertilizer once a month, and left the plastic on until the beginning of July, when one Sun Gold grew tall enough to touch the plastic. The Sun Golds, Black Prince, and one Black Krim started setting fruit while under plastic around the end of June, and the Cherokee Purple and other Black Krim had fruit set by mid-July, when I added a Jaune Flamme from a 1 gal container. I also put 1-2 2L bottles full of water around each plant for a little extra warmth. The fruit on most of the tomato plants grew about 1/2" to an inch per week. The Sun Golds finally started breaking at the end of July (~30 days after fruit set and ~70 days after transplant), and the larger tomatoes started breaking in mid-August (40-50 days after fruit set and 80-90 days after transplant). We've harvested hundreds from the 4 Sun Gold plants, and they're all still producing 40-50 tomatoes/week while we get about 2-3/week from the Jaune Flamme. We've harvested about a dozen each of the larger tomatoes, all between 2.5-4" in diameter. We would have gotten more, but I was paranoid about diseases and pruned them to a single stem since I'm staking them. Next year, I'll prune to 3-4 stems, so we can get a higher yield. The larger tomatoes stopped setting fruit after the first bunch in July, but now we're getting a second crop setting on the Black Prince and Cherokee Purple, but they probably won't mature before the rain and cold arrives for good. I posted photos of the plants on this thread: PNW Post Your Tomato Pictures 2011

Hi Everyone, Enjoyed a lovely dinner last night and cards with our dear friends. I ate Shepherd's pie (crustless type), biscuits and ice cream. Yes I went over my daily limit but I am not worried. I do the WW program and actually just used up my weekly freebie points or calories. Today and tomorrow I am in recovery mode to compensate. So what does my day look like? Cottage cheese 1%, home made barley soup loaded with veggies for lunch, apple for snack and dinner will be a full plate of steamed zucchini, squash, onion and a cooked egg. I will literally load that plate and put a spoon of margarine, salt & pepper. Of course water, water, water today. Why am I telling you this? Because you can deal with a meal event. I faithfully logged how much I had last night and noted the points/calorie values. I know where I stand. I am not deterred at all. I continue. Did I have a large serving? Yes, honestly and honestly two biscuits. Today I am quite happily puttering away at little jobs around the house and enjoying my healthy food choices. So don't despair when you have these moments. You dust yourself off and carry on. If you know a meal event is coming - plan a head. Reduce your calories a day or two ahead and then a day or two afterwards. Don't beat yourself up. Don't regret, feel bad - just do your best and keeping putting one foot in front of the other. You can do this. You can persevere through these moments in life. That is part of living a healthy lifestyle. Just be honest with yourself. Over the coming weeks I want to talk about planning ahead and then staying the course. There is a major meal event/weekend coming up in November for those of you in the US and I'd like to open the communication lines on how to deal successfully with it so you can enjoy your friends and family. Focus on the joy of the fall season. We'll get through that time together I promise and you will continue with your goals. That's what I wanted to say today to everyone, even those silent friends we have out there reading but not posting. I'm reaching out to invite you to come back and read our posts, share our journey. You don't have to share on here to be a part of our journey together. Just come back. If we can help you stay true to your dream then that is all I'm trying to achieve. Lets have a wonderful day today and tomorrow. Cheers, Peggy

HOLY CRAP! Little miss smarty pants here only got ...*gulp*...40%. I missed the fact that all the the presidents mentioned were left handed...I thought Ronald Regan was a righty...the cat question...the football question...the advice to the Obama girls...the Slumdog question and the one on the peanut butter. geesh... sooey