Dody, Blackleg does not survive easily in soil without potatoes to survive on. So, if you pulled out all the potatoes and don't leave any tuber or plant parts behind, the soil should be good to re-use right away. However, I wouldn't use it for anything related to potatoes (like tomatoes, peppers or eggplants) for a couple of years. When commercial growers have blackleg in the field, they just leave it alone because it can hit one plant and skip the next and so on. I guess they deal with it after the harvest is done, although I'm not sure what they'd do. I would assume that any seed potatoes sold somewhere like Lowe's would be certified....I think all seed potatoes sold as seed potatoes are certified no matter what. Some people (and I've done this and never had a problem) plant regular organic potatoes from the grocery store that aren't treated with any chemicals and they grow just fine most of the time. I just think you had the misfortune to purchase some infected potatoes, and then the weather didn't help because it got so hot so early, which was great for the bacteria though not for the potatoes. It is too late to replant potatoes for a summer harvest and expect a good harvest as they grow best at temperatures between 45-55 at night and 60-75 during the day, and need to set and size their tubers before soil temperature reaches 85 degrees. You can plant potatoes in late summer for a fall harvest, and if you choose to do that, it is better to plant early-season types so they can set and mature tubers before frost arrives. I'm sorry this happened to your potato crop this year. I hope your husband decides to stay with you anyway. : ) Okiepokie, When lettuce rots at the ground like that it often is from a fungal disease called botrytis. One sign of botrytis is a little bit of fuzzy gray mold right where the rot occurred. It is soilborne, but there are fungicides you can use to treat it so lettuce can be grown there again in the future. It probably would be best to grow your lettuce in a 3-year crop rotation to keep the fungi from getting the next batch. Dawn

MetroMom- FYI: There is a post on the remodel forum from someone who bought a home with a painted brick exterior. I remebered reading it so I searched and found it! You may want to read his post before you proceed. I know you mentioned something about a concern re: possible transfer in future. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/remodel/msg021538463187.html?9 Hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: ideas for improving exterior of this house

"Maybe they feel that's all the need for that market?" Why would you say that? This is not what you would call a booming market! Considering how much even "iffy" houses are talked up to make them sound far better than they are (9 out of 10 open houses I've gone to, the reality has been a disappointment compared to the listing's puffery), a listing that says absolutely nothing but "pretty good" comes off sounding like it's a real hole. "People that can't afford $700K have to live someplace. Perhaps, if a buyer moved into the area instead of just renters...the area would improve." Hey, we can't afford $700k either, never could, highly unlikely that we ever will unless we won the lottery - don't know anyone who could, either! Our small budget does not buy much even in that same town, about which people ask "WHY are you moving THERE?!" since it is well known for crime and drugs... and most of what we can afford is in the euphemistically-termed "undesirable" neighborhoods even there! (The ones in the somewhat nicer areas are either extremely small - and I'm a small-house person! - need lots of work, have serious "incurable defects", or all of the above.) I don't think that these locations are so totally rental-dominated that "a buyer" is going to make that much of a difference; owner-occupiers are certainly capable of letting their houses go to rack and ruin too, "pride in ownership" is far from universal. Maybe they can't afford to maintain or restore the property, maybe they're elderly or disabled and no longer able to do the work required, maybe they just don't care or think it's worth it in a neighborhood where everything else is dumpy too, the end result is unfortunately the same. I've lived in too many terrible neighborhoods and I figure if the town cops tell you they wouldn't want their family member or best friend to buy a house in a certain neighborhood, it's probably a good idea to look somewhere else. Especially if you've already been burned by the "nice house in not-so-nice location" purchase once! Let me note that I'm talking about meth labs and frequent robberies and "chemically and residentially challenged persons" sleeping on your porch or in your shed, not a lack of Land Rovers and soccer moms carrying Coach purses. (I've lived - as a renter - in a Land-Rover-and-Coach-purse subdivision, and frankly I'd prefer a nice blue-collar neighborhood of modest, middle-aged, and unfashionable but carefully-maintained houses.) BTW, the police blotters for that town are hilarious. Whoever writes them should get a job with Leno or Letterman. From last month: "On _______ Street, a citizen jumps up and down with a knife, which he later uses to stab a tree he has climbed. He is described as "wearing a hat." Whether this is all he is wearing, due to a wardrobe malfunction, is unclear. He slips through a police dragnet." Oh my. LOL Jane_d, "why pay rent??" is one of my teeth-grinders too. So is "not a drive by" and "must see" which we got inflicted on us. Rents are pretty steep here if you want to live in a decent neighborhood (meaning one where you can park your car and have a reasonable expectation that you'll go out in the morning and find all four tires and all the windows intact) without buying roach motels by the case, and it goes double if you have a dog bigger than the average handbag. We've actually talked about going back to renting for a while but it's hard to rent with a dog... we actually bought this house because we couldn't find a dog-friendly apartment we could afford - buying was only a couple of hundred more a month! (If we had known we were going to be moving again we would not have gotten a dog, but we had expected we were going to stay in that one spot for a lot longer.)

Guess I should check my spelling. Ha! "There" best seller. LOL How about "Their" best seller.