Jey - I'm local too and since I do landscaping professionally, disposing of debris (and a LOT of it sometimes) is a pretty routine occurrence. Here's what I'd suggest: grab a copy of the Little Nickle (at any 7-11) and call a few hauling services listed there for estimates. Be able to supply them with an approximate size of the pile you need to dispose of, although they should come by personally to give you an estimate. And that will include dump fees. They will take it to a yard waste recycling station or to Pacific Topsoils, as that is the cheapest way to dispose of it for them also. At least you'll be assured the stuff is being recycled. 1-800-Got-Junk works too but they may be more expensive. An alternative is to contact Pacific Topsoils. They also recycle yard waste. And they rent containers by the day with a delivery and pick-up fee that is a lot less than the county. And they have yards all over the county, so should be convenient to you. And yes, all of King County's yard and kitchen waste is recycled into compost - Cedar Grove Composting. But they don't give it away for free :-) I've broached this subject here a couple of times, but the recycling process and Cedar Grove in particular is cutting edge and a very large and high standard commercial composting operation. Certified organic Cedar Grove Compost is sold all over the county at nurseries, garden centers, groceries and box stores. Unfortunately, unless you have the means yourself via a chipper or truck, disposing of a large pile of garden debris is going to cost in this area. btw, King County transfer stations charge by the weight not the truck load, so other than a bit extra for gas, multiple trips to the recycling transfer center will not cost any more than one, single, massive load. Yard waste is $82.50 per ton. (good to know so the hauling guys don't gouge you, although they should be paying a lower, commercial rate). Here is a link that might be useful: Pacific Topsoils recycling

I live in the subburbs of a small city where everyone has the green green manicured lawns and everyone's keeping up with the Jones'. I once mentioned I'd like a more naturalized front yard like the one I had at my previous home and the neighbours told me straight out that it would "ruin the look of the neighbourhood". I really don't care what they think but at the time we had just moved here and I didn't want to start something with them upon just meeting them. To remedy this I made a 9' x 9' kidney shaped garden on my front lawn down near the sidewalk and each year by some strange occurance, that kidney shaped garden just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This hasn't escaped the notice of my bossy neighbours though... they didn't see my early morning digging in the garden and I skillfully smoothed the mulch over the enlarged portion so that it was not noticable but they still came to my house to ask if I had made the garden larger. *sigh*. Never the less, the kidney shape is more like 12' x 12' now and is taking up most of my postage sized piece of front lawn. We also have a sidewalk on our side of the street that cuts through our lawn and makes a grassy boullevard next to the street. I'd like to plant the boullevard but come to find the city only allows boullevard plantings that are in keeping with the desires of the city. You must petition the city for any single plant you want to place on a boullevard and the city is at liberty of veto'ing your requests. The greatest IRONY in all of this is that our subdivision is built INSIDE an old farm woodlot! Everyone in this neighborhood has woods in their backyards and to me it only makes sense to start replacing all the trees that were bulldozed down in order to make the streets and building lots. My next door neighbor's comment to me when I said I'd like to naturalize my front lawn was "Ewwwww! That would look awful!!! Trees belong in the WOODS!" I just shook my head and walked away. No offense to any true blondes reading this but I believe that my neighbor who said that was having one of the TRUELY GREAT BLONDE MOMENTS IN HISTORY. *double sigh* In all honesty, I don't want to be the neighbourhood pariah. I looked at the photo gallery at "Lose the Lawn" and still wonder how those people (gorgeous naturalized properties BTW) deal with their neighbours. I don't care really what they feel about naturalized "looks" of a property but I also don't want to make enemies with my neighbours either. I think by building the natural look slowly, I'm fueling the fire a bit less but it really is hard to keep everyone happy when you are trying to do a good thing like naturalizing your property when you live in a subburban setting where everyone else has the perfect cookie cutter lawns and ornamental shrubs. I guess one other problem I have is that my front lawn is attached directly to my neighbour's front lawn because our driveways are each on the far left and far right of both properties. It 'does' look odd to have an almost full grass lawn butting up against a more naturalized lawn. I'm curious how others create their naturalized front lawns despite the neighbours' views. Barb southern Ontario, CANADA

Ok we are back to the feral cats. What will eat the mice, rats, squirrels, and other things when the cats are gone. I believe I have read that cyotes are becoming a problem in many cities. We have resident bobcats, cougars, skunks, and lots of racoons in this area. I do not feed cats outside but am aware that in areas that have removed the cats others will move in to eat the expanding food supply. I would rather have the cats than some of the others. The catch and release programs have helped reduce the population of feral cats by neutering them. Something that the original owners did not do. If you have heard of a person releasing or dumping a cat normally with kittens have you spoke up? If not you are a major part of the problem. If more people spoke up the next time someone wants to show the joy of birth to their children with out a thought of what to do will the kittens less cats would be dumped. Even no kill shelters must cull the older and less healthy cats to make room for more. When you see a cat with the tip of it's ear cut off this is a sign that it was caught, given shots, fixed then released. To reduce the number of feral cats and give all cats a good chance at life humans need to become more active and vocal. I have wondered if a poll was done what animal's would people pick to replace the outdoor cats. Since removing the cats would create a vacuum and nature does not like a vacuum what would the posters like to replace the cats? I would like never to have homeless cat but know without outdoor cats we could go back to the middle ages when mice and rats were everywhere because people did not like cats and thought they were bad luck.

18 months after converting my patchwork lawn to just about 100% Tall Fescue (cheap/tough K31 at that). I have so few spots of CC I just hand pull it occasionally while mowing my lawn and at that it just seems like finesse. The seed is inexpensive and has gotten the job done with several overseedings after a scorching cutting. My strategy was to think "below ground." Kentucky Bluegrass, for example, has a shallow weak root system. One selling feature is the vigorous surface roots that enable it to spread in to bare spots. This behavior is essential identical to CC at the macro-level. Cheap K-31 grass operates in a different manner. The roots are very deep and the plant prefers to be a bit tall (usually 4" mowings for me) not creepy. I ammended soil pretty deep in areas of poor topsoil. It germinates quickly and establishs to a "bigger" potential much later. But once established -- it is harder to kill then CC. Thats how I eliminated CC. I let the K31 get strong then beat up my lawn pretty badly but with just a few moments of consideration just prior. Mowing it short in heat, mowing at varying heights that "didn't make sense", letting it get tall for some periods. K-31 if you want cheap, extremely durable, weed-free turf --consensus is just overseed it every other year. KGB if you aim to have a prettier but very high maintance lawn requiring extra water, chemicals/organics, and attention with less need to overseed for thick turf. My only question for some of the posts is what kind of grass and what kind of conditions exist and shooting for. Best of luck with whatever grass species!