"That dark mulch you have is helping to cook the roots. It looks black. Is it?" Yes it is. I thought it was good to add mulch so that the soil doesn't dry up? And also to help insulate in the winter? I went ahead and deadheaded just below the flower, and also removed leaves that had a lot of brown on them. I'm not sure of my zone, but I'm in the Huntington area, bordering Ohio and Kentucky. Thank you all for your feedback!

A better name for The Best Home Furnishing Company is "The Worst Home Furnishings Company" when it comes to customer service and standing behind their products. Don’t walk away from this brand, RUN QUICKLY! My wife and I live in Minnesota, but have a park model home in Estero, FL. We purchased a Best Home Furnishings recliner in February of 2016 from a furniture store in Naples, FL. Our home in FL is only occupied for two weeks in November, and the months of February and March each year. When we arrived in November of 2018, we noticed that the fabric was cracking on the headrest. Our home is air conditioned all year round, has proper humidity, the windows are tinted, and we have shades that are closed when we are gone. Furniture could not have a better environment to sit in. I took the back of the chair off in November of 2018 and took it to Kanes Furniture where we purchased the chair. My goal was to simply replace the back. We were informed that model had been discontinued so no back was available. That should have been my first clue to how Best Home Furnishings handles a chair that has problems……just discontinue it. The next thing we were told is the chair is out of warranty. I explained that I understand there is a calendar warranty, but further explained how little the chair had been used. I felt that the company should stand behind it due to the little wear and tear this chair had actually incurred, and I was sure there was a problem with the material used to cover this model chair. I totaled up the number of days that anyone could have sat in the chair, and it was 189. We had two Flexsteel recliners in our home in Minnesota that provided over 30 years of trouble free service. Speaks volumes to the old saying, “you get what you pay for”. The furniture store at least listened to me and provided the phone number of manufacturer of the chair, The Best Home Furnishings Company in Ferdinand, Indiana. (at least this was where my call went) When you call with a complaint the first thing you will find is the people who answer the phone have been trained to get rid of you quickly. They have no intention to let you talk to anyone of authority. After a firm back and forth with the lady that answered the phone she finally told me “I am just doing my job”. Really? Discarding a customer with a concern about your product is your job? Fortunately, I was able to push through to someone up the ladder named Pat. Three voice mails and a week later Pat did call me back. From their website and years in business I was sure I would find Best Home Furnishings a reputable company that would be concerned about this product’s failure and would want to have a discussion and find common ground…... NOT THE CASE. Once on the phone with Pat, I repeated what I told Kane’s Furniture and assumed Pat would be familiar with this problem and work with me to find a fair solution……not a chance. Pat is very well trained to hear your concern and then repeat "sorry, it is out of warranty and we can’t help you” multiple times until the discussion ends. He made no effort to keep us as a customer. It was obvious he just wanted to discard us as quickly as he could. The lack of finding a phone number on their website should have been a excellent indicator to me of their customer service. If it is there, they have done a good job of hiding it. Speak with a customer, good heavens, that’s a concept from the 20th century!! The only manner of contact I could find on the site was to email them. Before you purchase any product made by The Best Home Furnishings Company from a furniture store, you may want to visit the Better Business Bureau website and read about them. The BBB shows 32 complaints about this company for various reasons. In addition, on Google they are only able to achieve a 3.6 star rating. I have been self employed for over 40 years, am 65 years old and do not make a habit of writing negative reviews. The Best Home Furnishing Company brags about being in business since 1962 and quality of their furniture building process. It is obvious to me that the original owners of this company are no longer active as I am sure they would have met this problem with a completely different attitude….the attitude that cared about customer satisfaction, quality furniture, and allowed The Best Home Furnishings Company to grow and prosper. Lastly, I will “venture a guess” the reason they took the “cut & run” attitude with me is there are probably hundreds or thousands of customers across America just like me that have a Best Chair with the same defective cover. Class Action Lawsuit time? Let's band together and send a message. When a quality company has a problem with a product, they either extend the warranty or have a recall to make sure people get taken care of. Not run from the problem like The Best Home Furnishings Company is doing. Most successful companies want repeat customers. Shame on you! Dave Nolander

It all depends on your current soil conditions and how big the garden is. A vegetable garden doesn't have to be tilled or plowed every year. If it has grass on it, the biggest job will be breaking that up. If the soil is poor - low in organic matter - you'll want to incorporate a lot of compost up front and more each year to maintain the levels and build a better soil. Sounds like you are ready to do that. I had my garden plot initially tilled by a guy with a tractor, not sure of the size (of the tractor) but it was finely broken up (tilled) rather than plowed. I would recommend a tiller rather than a plow for gardening. I don't know of any rock-removing implement. Your own two hands is pretty much it. If you pick a spot to toss them into a pile and do that whenever you see them, over time there will be fewer and fewer. I keep a small pot in the corner of each raised bed for rock pieces - mine are gravel about 1-2" across and there are not many at this point. Re planting, you don't HAVE to plant in rows. You probably do want to establish some paths to walk on and beds that you don't walk on. If you plant tomatoes, peppers or other plants that are not grown from seed, you can plant them in a grid rather than rows. You might want to start small with one bed rather than a huge area the first year. Expand it each year as you have time and materials.

Hi all i am new to this gardening business and i need help with todying it up. It currently has some flowers growing. daffodils, tulips and peonies i know of, Others i do not know if are weeds :/ really need some help in saving the garden, best i can. To be honest previous owner had LOTS of flowers growing, in a bid to simplify garden to how i want, i chucked alot of the bulbs away in a clearout :( like i said had no idea what i was doing. i just wanted it easy to lookafter with few flowers for colour. There was a small lawn at the front which i think i have managed to reduce in size. So i need help growing that back healthy. i have a vision of how i would like the garden, it involves building a raised bed along the back hedge for flowers and then grow lawn flat not on a slope. I will add some pictures. I live in the united kingdom. Thanks guys. This area i plan on getting rid of and levelling it to create seating area