I enjoyed the container related dog talk. I have 4 terriers(3 males, 1 female). One of them, Duffy, likes to pick and eat bell peppers. It doesn't bother me at all. I get a kick watching him. The dogs and me walk on leash virtually every morning. They are sometimes unruly and act nutty; they are terriers. But they are generally well behaved and they are an integral part of our family. I fully understand both viewpoints. The bitter apple suggestion is a good one. I've also used the stuff you buy at a pharmacy to stop children from sucking their thumb. It worked well. You might also try the product at pet stores that repels them from furniture. I'd caution against the white granules that people put out to repel dogs and cats. I tried that once to keep cats out of a flowerbed. The smell was absolutely horrifying. That year I had to nearly wear a gas mask to do anything near that garden bed. -Hal

Found it. Botanical name Erechtites hieracifolia, common names pilewort and fireweed (though there is another completely different fireweed). According to Peterson & Mckenney's 'A Field Guide to Wildflowers': A homely cluster of brush-shaped flowers with no rays. The white disk flowers barely peep from the swollen-based envelope of green bracts. Stem grooved, strong-smelling. Leaves 2 to 8 in., toothed, alternate; very variable. 1-9 ft. See also Fireweed (Epilobium), p. 224. Thickets, clearings, burns. Minnesota, Quebec, Maine south. July-Oct. I looked up the fireweed on p 224 and the flowers and leaves are entirely different. Forgot to retrieve the one from my compost pile, which I will do as soon as I get home, because one of our gardeners says they seed like crazy. Which, thanks to schoolhouse, we already know :-) ... anyway, I noticed one growing here on the grounds yesterday, so had a real live specimen to compare with the description and drawings in the book. Diane

Cardboard under the mulch is a much more reasonable solution. It decomposes, roots do not get tangled up in it, and can be replaced as necessary. Everything you've heard about the benefits of landscape fabric is a lie. Disturbing the soil is devastating to both the drainage and moisture-retention properties of soil, and to most of the beneficial life forms, although can be repaired over time, and is necessary to add plants to a garden, sometimes desired to incorporate OM into the soil. The only way to begin to replicate/repair that is to add OM to the soil. Adding it to the surface is how it is done naturally. Whatever comes along, when it comes along... grass from mower bag, leaves of course, trimmings of shrubs, pine needles, kitchen scraps (of fruits/veggies,) newspaper, anything that will decompose will add OM to the sand, silt, clay already there. That will moderate moisture levels in both times of excess and drought. Digging up grass is really hard work and so many people think it's necessary to start a garden but if they would just do the smother part when they have the gardening urge, simply waiting after that would provide "a bed." And it's so much better 'stuff' than what's left after grass is removed. It was probably not very good 'stuff' where the grass roots were growing, but it was 'the topsoil' of that area. Once removed, the best part is gone, and what's left is less fertile, more compacted, without any life, tilth, humus. Now is an awesome time to get started. By spring, you can get out your tape measure and install whatever grid of plants you'd like in your nice clean slate of a planting bed. Here is my newest spot of reclaimed grass, hardly anything in it yet. Covered (green) grass with large, overlapping (brown) cardboard, outlined with the landscape timbers, then very unscientific layers/additions of OM as available. Digging in too soon could be a disaster if the grass isn't really dead yet. Waiting longer = more certainty, more lovely decomposition. The filling was much higher inside the timbers but shrunk significantly while decomposing. I will install a few things I have in pots when it cools off a bit, and will have created a whole 'landscaping bed' without ever breaking a sweat. Plenty of room to stick some annuals in the spring too for a few years until the baby versions of larger things mature.

Tomato David, Congrats on your new property! Sounds like you will have some very nice soil by next year. My wife is looking forward to having a big chunk of wildflowers all around the house. Being Japanese, she is not as into having a patch of green grass as I am (although I just want a little one). 'Pup, I was thinking about the weeds, and decided totake a number of different approaches. One is to thin by cutting most of them off at the base and leaving them to rot in place. A second is to pull and mulch the desirable plants near them. The third is to cut, carry, and compost them. I am not too worried about bare ground, the vetch and other plants are spreading like wildfire. Now I have found some serious bamboo coming out of a few roots that got left behind. They are all pencil thin whips this year, but I don't want them to get established where they are now. I have a space set aside for them at the bottom of the hill, surrounded by a 50cm ditch. On the other hand, I have harvested a lot of cucumbers already! It was fun, walking around, then seeing a beautiful straight eight cucumber hanging from a vine climbing a lambsquarter! I found a lot more after that. But you really have to look for them in all that jungle. Eric in Japan Here is a link that might be useful: