hardin: Thanks for the kind words. I will never let my lilies go for over a year now that I know what I know. How's that song go "If I knew then what I know now...." lol Sandy: I knew better, but thought I could outsmart the koi. Some of those root balls were more than 1 ft wide. They were so heavy I could hardly lift them. I figured six large root balls at least one would have a chance. I have six large koi and they must have each picked one to tear up. Sort of like a dog with a new chew toy. If I could only train them to jump through hoops I could charge a lot for admission and become a millionaire. lol Lisa: Little rascals is too polite. Oh well, what can I do, I haven't seen the little stinkers all winter so they probably could come out of the pond and eat the plants growing around the edges and I would still love them. Don't think my pond will ever clear up now. After digging around in the top pond and now them tearing everything up.......oh well! that's ponding for ya. Looking forward to Friday. Of course it's supposed to rain. I must bring it with me. lol Jenny

Hi I have the great pleasure of looking after a garden designed by and mainly planted with David Austin Roses in U.K. with both informal and formal beds and hedges totaling some 900 plants. Due to the size and time constraints involved I have introduced a pruning and deadheading regime mainly using handheld hedgeshears. The hedges are reduced from 6/7feet to 2 feet every Dec.,A 50 metre hedge takes less than an hour to prune; and shrubs by approx. 50% around the same time. The plants are then speedheaded with the handshears after the first flush is over. This induces an exceptional amount of new growth. The results have been spectacular; the hedges flower top to bottom with generous sized blooms, the borders are a riot of healthy, vigorous exhibition quality flowers;and dieback and other disease problems are almost non existent, as a regular spraying program is employed. I am very happy to state that from a hands-on, practical point of view the hedgecutter pruning/deadheading option works for me! I will be pleased to supply more info. if needed. Mikgreen.

I too encountered a problem like this, only it was in real life. My church organized a one day only of classes you could choose from to learn basic but classic lessons you should know how to run a house. They offered free classes such as, Knitting, Basic Pie Crust Making, Mending, Sewing, Couponing, Canning Jam, ect.. I chose Canning Jam sinceI had watched my Mom can when I was a child, but wanted a refresher course. The lady told us she was self taught (Red Flag #1), that she red up on some of the older methods from our local Library (Red Flag #2) and by this time I was concerned and uncomfortable. Then when she hot packed them and said to leave them on the counter for a couple hours to "seal them" (Red Flag #3), asked if it was safe (full well knowing it wasn't), she said no one in her family has gotten sick yet and that her grandmother did it that way for years. I was upset and sick about this. Here this woman was endorsing an unsafe method to 20 women who didn't know any better. I tried asking her if she was sure that this was safe (in a wussy nice way) saying I remembered my Mom HWB canning them to seal it, but she brushed me off saying if I wanted to I could, "just to be safe". That is where I SHOULD have said "No, it IS safer. The Extension Offices say so and so do all of the new canning books" ect. But I didn't and even my best friend was sucked into the open kettle method. I took her straight to the web and my newest and latest BB canning book and showed her that it is never safe. I feel so bad and awful that so many could hurt their families even though they were just trying to do some good. I am now a total fan of just speaking up and saving some one from being very sick of botulism or worse.

Hi manhattan42! Thanks so much for all the information and another perspective to consider. The rowhouse is a 2 story end unit. The roof being removed was a very old black roof (excessive deterioration) that had been silver coated. The shingles were also in bad shape. No rafters or insulation was replaced but I do not know yet about the details (roof scuppers or odd-to-house construction requirements)until I receive the detailed written work from the roofer. As I said, this company has been in business for 30 years. Everyone I spoke with was professional and courteous. I do not doubt that there actually was damage that needed to be taken care of or that they actually did the repair work. The weather forecast for Philadelphia that particular day called for torential downpours and an additional crew (total 12) was called in. My personal sad experience is that I did not think ahead to ask for an estimate for the worse case scenerio. It was a very costly mistake. I really do appreciate the additional information about there being no private independent roofing companies in Philadelphia since they seemed to pop out of the woodwork after the fact with statements of "it should never have cost you more than $8,000" and on and on. The roofing company did insist that they treated me fairly and were in line with any other union roofing company in the city of Philadelphia. Thanks for taking the time to shed more light on the situation. Marion