That being said, i wanted to take this opportunity to elaborate a bit more on "common bermudas". Common to me is just a term that indicates a bermuda that can be established by seed. There are however, improved common varieties that will tolerate mowing down to 1/2". some include Princes, Yukon, riviera, sahara, mohawk and there are others. Below i wanted to show you 4 different types of bermudas, from thinest stem to thickest stem. 1. Tiff 419 (Hybrid bermuda) 2. Yukon (improved common) 3. what might be Celebration 4. "Common bermuda" aka arizona common. Notice the thickness of each. The reason I'm showing you this is to help those out there understand why you typically mow common bermuda at taller heights. I never realized there was a big difference between bermudas until I had my own bermuda lawn. That previous picture i posted is made up of bermuda 3 and 4. I mow it at 1" with a reel mower 2-3 times a week. I have mowed it with a rotary mower as well and it still looks nice but not as clean cut as my reel. With the rotary mower it does tend to suck up the grass giving it a choppy look when i mow. Have in mind the more sun your yard gets, the denser it will be, that being said, it can scalp easier with a rotary when it is denser. SO.. In your case, i would mow at 1.25" or even 1.5" until you decide to go for a reel mower. Remember, if you do have a improved variety, you can probably get away with the lowest setting on your rotary mower once you have given it a scalp (below desired height) at the beginning of the season. I mostly speak from experience.....

I am new with this as well. I love Kabocha squash and I had saved some seeds from one I bought at the health food store a few years ago. I was late in planting, probably late July and it took them about a month to really get going. The male flowers came first followed by the females about 3 weeks later. It is now August 2 and we just hand pollinated our first female flower this morning. I am so excited! We don't have many pollinators in this area and I had read before that if you want to ensure you get fruit you should probably hand pollinate, so, that is what we did. I planted only two squash this year. We have about 10 more female flowers that are not mature enough to open yet. I check them every day because the flowers are only open for a very short time, so, the window of opportunity is very small. I can't wait to watch the babies grow. I am hoping I can get about 10 squash off of the two plants. I have read you are lucky if you get one per vine, but, with hand pollinating I am hoping for at least two. I now have 5 vines growing. They are very aggressive and seem to take over whatever is in their path. I have a second year carrot growing for the seeds and the squash seems to be taking it down, literally. I also have spearmint growing to the side and so far I have been able to detour the squash by simply picking up the vine and moving it away from the spearmint. If you move them as they are first growing outward they seem easily deterred. I didn't have to move them much, maybe only 5 inches. I love these plants and have gotten a lot of joy out of watching. I water them every night when the sun goes down. I planted them in a manure enriched soil I bought at Walmart. I have not used any other fertilizer on them and they are growing great. However, I did read that the key to growing these squash is Patience, patience, patience. They are not something that grows overnight. Also, don't be too anxious to harvest them. They are suppose to stay on the vine until the vine dries up and falls away from the fruit. In the end they stem looks like that of a pumpkin. I hope you are enjoying your plants as much as I am mine. I am planning to plant a lot more next year and in a place in the yard where they have lots of room to branch out without worrying about them taking over any other plants. Good luck to you. :)

I think each of us must do what is in our nature. Most people will give you a piece if you ask, and more often larger than the one you steal. I show my plants, and I would be really feel betrayed and hurt if gueast did that in my garden. How would you feel if I came into your garden and snitched a few pieces of a plant that you have been growing for 5 years and you prized it. After all a leaf fell off. Most nurseries would ask you not to return, and if your lucky not call the police. I hear them telling me that people often pick off the fuit on their trees that are for sell then they don't sell. Jeff has been to my garden and he know what I'm talking about. Now I have a list of people I would not invite. You are not welcome. Jeff I can't wait for you to stop by I have a big surprise for you waiting. Bring labels with you and a #2 soft lead pencil. You know I like giving away plants. Norma

We interviewed 5 GCs. First was sort of interested, but our job on an older home was different from the usual work he did building new and/or remodeling newer homes, and it didn't "feel" like a good fit, so we didn't pursue it, even though he seemed like a decent guy and his portfolio of work looked like quality. Second came to look, but when he saw significant structural work he wasn't interested - he was more a cabinet installer/internal design kind of GC than somebody to handle this project. Next one came HIGHLY recommended from a friend who had just done some similar work a few months prior. He came round and gave us some quite attractive rough figures compared to the previous and we wanted some time to think about his suggestions; called him a couple of weeks later to come back, we talked further and asked him for a written bid. Never heard back from him, although we continued to call him to try and get a formal bid. #4 was referred to us via a very bizarre chain of events: even though we got the feeling the project was stalled since we couldn't find a builder, we decided to close on the equity loan anyway since it was all ready to go. At the closing, the title agent started chatting to us, noted that we lived in the same neighbourhood as her family including her brother who oh-by-the-way was a contractor and did we have one yet? I took the number partly to be polite and partly because he was (literally) around the corner, but didn't hold out much hope. In the meantime, I already had an appointment scheduled with a fairly glossy design-build firm so I kept it - they said that we would need at a MINIMUM double our budget, so that was a short meeting! So... feeling somewhat trepidatious I called the guy around the corner that had been recc'd at the bank. He was out of town but we scheduled a meeting for a few days later. He spent 2 hrs at the house, and drove me to see some work he was doing on another property (beautiful work - sealed the deal from my point of view). He came back a few days later with his associate to have another look to see how they could manage the structural stuff, and emailed me a basic proposal a few days after that. We hashed out the remaining details by email and he started 3 weeks later. He CLEARLY wanted the job - he was interested in the house, he (as I later learned) was fascinated by the books on our shelves many of which reflected his own interests and he definitely wanted the gig and he just liked us as much as we did him - it was clearly a "good fit". I had seen his work, his licence and checked his insurance was ok (they all were, of course!), but other than the title agent had no personal references. The day we started work I was PANIC STRICKEN with "what if's?" - I was letting a perfect stranger cut my house in half, I had no human references and aaaaaakkkkkkkk... what was I doing! A neighbour reassured me that she'd seen his work in the neighbourhood and, that in fact, he'd turned DOWN a job she'd asked him to do, but even so - I didn't necessarily do this "by the book"! As those who have been following my renovation know, this guy has been AMAZING, transforming our ideas into reality at a more than fair price (in fact, I truly believe he undercharged us somewhat given the numbers I see other people throwing around for their work). And he, his wife and kids have become friends in the course of it all, so it has truly been "win win" even if we DIDN'T find him via a "conventional" route. Anyway, long answer. I guess the short version is if they follow through, they want the job... !