Thank you stonesriver and everyone else for the kind welcome. Yes, I think I may have been a bit bitten by the "gardening" germ. Granted, I am nowhere close to where most people on this forum probably are. I am mainly a "decorator" who feels that a house without any indoor plants is sad, dry and too much of a sign of our rushed times. So I decided I HAVE TO get some reasonably elegant indoors plants established. The only thing close to caring for a plant I've done before were some geraniums. They did OK, I managed not to kill them and they bloomed quite a bit over the winter even if they did get leggy. Oh, well. Now I took them outside and I decided that they will go in the basemenent for wintering when times comes. I will no longer keep them in the house because they are not really elegant, gracious plants. I like their bright colors outside in the summer but that's that for now. So I decided it was time for something finer and elegant to go with our classic/traditional living room as well as my busy schedule. I also knew this was going to be harder than a geranium which are quite hard to kill anyway. So off I went to Pikes and I grabbed some plants I had heard were not hard to care for and would do well on our Eastern bay window. A Peace Lily, four AV-s and two yellow begonias. (I did kill a begonia last year but later, after more reading, I realized I was making mistakes with it). A real gardener I will never be - not with a full-time academic career and two small children; but By God, these few plants must stay alive, do well, and even bloom nicely - this is all I hope for. I don't plan to do any complicated wick watering (at least it sounds complicated to me) or much propagation or anything - I just want to keep my living room looking as pretty as it is now, with lots of healthy blooms, if this is not too much to ask. Since I've heard so much about how important the soil is, I think I am going to change the soil the plants came in pretty soon; at least for the AV-s, I don't know whether I should do the same thing for the begonias, but probably should. Having a month between waterings sounds like a lot to me. These are small pots (4" I believe) and I think all moisture would evaporate altogether from such a small pot well before the 1 month mark; especially if I change the soil to something more airy. I did fertilize the AV-s when I watered them the first time - with some 5-7 drops of liquid fertilizer from MIracle-Gro, as indicated on the package. I am a super novice so I just did the novice thing. I guess changing the soil will also change the present routine. Some of the flowers on my AV-s are starting to fade now- they are starting to have little burnt patches on the petals, but I assume this is the natural cycle of the flower - as I bought them with quite a few blooms from the nursery and it might just be their time to go. I am just hoping they will continue to bloom for a while. Thank you again for the kind welcome, I wil certainly be around because I have been clearly "bitten". :-)

There has been a long thread going on in the Compost and Mulch Forum about what time of day to water. Somebody started the thread with the old wives tale that it is bad to water plants in the heat of the day. Several scientific types provided evidence that this is not true. One guy, who seems to be in the know, said it is important for some less sturdy plants, or young plants, to receive water mid-day when temps are really hot. The thread is entitled something like "Things My Mither Told Me". They all discussed overhead versus ground watering. I've long been a believer in ground watering. The reasons given for not using sprinklers, or watering from above, don't have anything to do with leaf burn. I have to water mid-day twice a week because of my schedule. I have seen no ill affects. By the way, desrtlvr, the Conchas are growing. There has been some leaf yellowing. I didn't know if that was a result of too little, or too much water. I opted for believing the plants needed more water. Seems to have been the right choice. Lorna

jstropic, I think with this particular plant that the Haddock roots (main heavy roots) are very thick and would easily split right up the center toward the caudex. Not worth forcing it and the foam would most likely get squished over time with the roots growing. Most times when you use a piece of rigid foam, it is to keep roots growing in a desirable direction (like if they where crossing) then removed over time. It seems that the roots would grow tight together, but not fuse and become one, as you see with some older Vines. Rick

That having been said, for overseeding, you're going to have to water more often to get the seed to sprout. Seed that dries out is seed that dies. Regrettably, lawns that stay wet are lawns that get fungal diseases. You see the problem here. For seed, it will need to be watered about three times a day (even if under most coverings) to keep it appropriately damp. Underneath compost, that may be less often, but more water--depending on the compost, of course. Two would be the floor number. One is not going to be acceptable under most conditions, but there are certainly some exceptions. For how long that's required depends on the seed. In good conditions, rye usually sprouts in a week or so. Fescue, 10 days to 2 weeks. Kentucky bluegrass can be up to a month. Since you're talking about fall seeding, you've implied you have a transitional lawn and use northern grasses. Southern grasses will differ and are not generally fall sown. Of course, that can be even longer if the temperatures are particularly hot or particularly cold, and the clock also stops if the seed goes dry (this will also quickly kill germinating seed, as mentioned above). Post all that, cut back the watering slowly to let the new baby roots grow in, and let your adult lawn grow in roots it hasn't had to grow yet. Cut back to daily watering, then every other day in a week or so, every third day a week after that, and so on. See if it'll handle weekly watering the next year. Some lawns will, some won't. It does depend on your soil, the organic matter levels (OM hold water like nobody's business, it's like a sponge), and the lawn. I haven't watered since 2017 and mine looks good. Right now, we're 12 days with no rain and it's just starting to look dry in places, but my soil is tuned well for resources, the organic levels are kept very high, I keep it on the long side (short northern grasses are thirsty northern grasses), don't cut when it's dry (bleeding grass is grass that's losing water), and have bluegrass (one of the least drought-resistant grasses, actually, but it'll just go dormant if it does get droughty and come back when rains resume).