Years ago, I had just spread a bunch of purchased compost all over the flower beds when I saw a couple of slender leaves emerging, pretty things, & I gently dug around until I found that they were growing from teensy little bulbs. I was a sort of new gardener, & I was (& still am) very excited by the sort of serendipity or happenstance or feral nature of garden surprises, so I watched the new little bulbs to see what kind of flower they made. I watered 'em, I mulched 'em, I guarded them like they were solid gold. One day, before I got any flowers but after they had popped up all over the place, a neighbor looked at my little experiment & asked, "what are you going to do about all that nut grass?" I stammered out what had happened, including the mulch/water/compost, & he thought for a minute & said, "Well, it *is* a very healthy-looking stand of nut grass."

ali, what about putting an arbor in and growing a honeysuckle up it? From the edge and in from the driveway to the tree, I'd edge out the grass from that area and curve slightly to the end of the concrete pad in front of your home, the patio area. All the way to the end. Let's give you some curb appeal ;) Put the middle of the arbor in front of the edge of the concrete pad where the car is sitting, about 3 feet in. From the middle of the arbor to the drive and then going up your house, you could create a path that would curve over to the sidewalk and to the front door. For right now, using newspapers and a 5 gallon bucket filled with water, cover up all grass with layers of newspapers you've plunged into the water. Lay them down, overlapping as you go. I typically use about 10 layers of paper. The more, the better. If you can create your path first, either using stepping stones or gravel, lay down something like visqueen and lay the stepping stones or the gravel over to create the path. Remove the grass where the path will be so that nobody trips over stepping stones or gravel. Take out a V shape where you're going into the lawn from driveway to tree and up and over to the end of your home. Remove the dirt and the grass from the V, so that you've got a drop off of sorts and lay your wet newspaper to curve down into the area where the dirt is. Cover the area up with mulch or mushroom compost if you can get your hands on some, except for the path area. By next year, the newspaper will start to decompose and the grass will be dead, but it adds to the organic matter of newspaper and the dead grass. Worm heaven. From now and thru winter, study up on various perennials and possibly a few shrubs that produce berries for our other feathered friends. Next year, push back the mulch or mushroom compost and dig holes to plant. There should be enough room to the right of the path up to your front door, to add in a shrub. Then the other shrubs could go in front of the poles, under planted and going out to the edge with perennials. I prefer natives. They're adapted to our weather, our soil, they make up our ecosystem. Find a list of native plants for your area, and research those plants as to what hummingbirds like and also which ones make seed that other birds will like to eat on. The native plants won't require dead heading, don't need pruned or cut back so they look better....I just prefer them over all. Now an iris in there isn't going to hurt anything ;)...or a peony....both left by the previous owner that I decided to leave and a friend of mine from TN also gave me a beautiful iris that is sentimental to me. But again, those 2 are easy plants. Hummingbirds will love to sit and rest a spell on shrubs you provide and give you a closer look at their beauty. Too much?? Where do you live? Zone 5, but where? lovefornature, you're doing a wonderful job! It's people like you who join GW that make it an enjoyable site to visit. If you like butterflies and are interested in attracting some of them to come to your yard, you could plant a Aristolochia tomentosa or Aristolochia durior. Another plant I love that I don't know draws anything in, but blooms in late summer, is Clematis virginiana. Another neat native clematis is Clematis glaucophylla. I also answered the e-mail you sent, I hope you got it.

Don... thanks for the enlightening response.. makes for much more interesting reading than the brief, do it this way..!... musingly, I suppose I don't rate things or experts much anymore. I've seen some incredible work done by people that have never had pruners in their hands (Jando etal) and some absolutely atrocious and hideous caricatures come from seasoned hands. Perhaps it depends on where one has been... The notes on the backgrounds of the gardeners is perhaps a live lead on a 3 year research project. Thanks. noting that these gardens are in northern Kyoto, the need of the gardens relates closer to 'mountain', therefore the gardens might reflect this in the training of the pine. Photo's would also help to see the differences. I would wonder if 'all' the pine in a garden were pruned this way. If they were in the south the shapes would change as they would from one persons garden to the next, whether there or here. Q2: Timing makes an incredible difference in N. America. Not so much in Japan due to the climate, humidity, soil etc. Here it is best to understand when the roots begin to grow and when dormancy actually sets in, if it does, whether by weather or drought. Both induce senescence and dormancy, in which needling directly effects the amounts of sequestered energy delivered for storage to the root system. Most often the needling regimen in Japan results in the restriction of the root system (natural root pruning). In turn the timing is noted by a variance in the green/black color of the needles/bark (black pine - red 'dulls' about 1/2 CMK down), rather than noting the change of color - browning of senescence, of 3 year needles in the normal tree. Same difference, just an earlier removal by 10 to 14 days that results in a decrease of about 20% of energy. Q3: I actually chuckled. For a moment an eyebrow crooked upwards and speculated whether you'd done your homework, only to be dismissed. I write pretty much as speak. The difficulty of attempting to describe a nuance in international terms is nigh impossible. ergo, I chuckled. nope, don't know which one you favour..., preferring to mutually understand that pine are pruned according to the required result for the benefit of the garden, from natural pruning to kado matsu and stiffly expressed, meant to get attention cloudlike disks... every job is unique. Q4: then if the plant materials are rotting, I would have to surmise that they are not properly xeriscaped.. since Japanese gardening IS xeriscaping. Many of the planting admonishments in the Sakuteiki refer to xeriscaping, taboos being the fast track presumably for not needing to explain the whys to youngin's that don't listen anyway. a last note to all interested in pine pruning in the south, a reminder that the San Diego garden has their pruning sessions happening soon. ...............edzard Don, thanks for the responses, I'm certain they assist many people that share this forum as they do myself in comprehending the variables of N. America. (--will email, though later, between hungry grizzlies, the eaten neighbors horse, just getting back & am leaving, have just a bit more travel-work to do - not enough time and mental ram space at the moment to hold an intelligent conversation.)

Doodle - in response to your OP: My situation with my SO is a perfect example of this. She cheated on him, left him, filed for divorce, moved back in forcing him to leave his home, tricked him in the divorce papers (yes, I know SO was stupid), married another man less than a year after the divorce, and got pregnant 8 months after the marriage. All of this before I even entered SO's life. I dated SO for 4+ years before we took a 6-month "break" a couple of years ago. BM was always okay with me being involved in their DD's life. I would help out with the all-consuming extra-curricular activity I've written of in the past, and she was always nice. I attended all concerts and softball games and birthday parties. She even used to invite my DS to the birthday parties. While SO and I were split, she even told him that she hoped he and I got back together because she had "no problem" with me. That all changed when we did get back together. She started demanding their DD come home early on Sundays, picking her up from our house on Saturdays and Sundays in the middle of the day for some impromptu errand that had to be run, telling her to lie to SO about something as small as going to Red Lobster, and then (the big one) moving 10 hours away and limiting her visits here. She will be here for only 2 days and this will be her first visit since Christmas. On top of that, BM is "bringing" her because they are on their way to a family vacation (BM wonÂt tell us if she will be available for OUR vacation). ItÂs been really hard for me. I truly love my SOÂs DD and have tried to forge a friendship with her. BM had no problem with it for a long time, but then she severed it and itÂs painful. This is a double standard, though. BM started having her call SF "Dad" when BM got pregnant. The excuse "They donÂt want to confuse the baby". Do you know how much it hurts SO when heÂs talking to his DD that he hasnÂt seen in 5 months and she accidentally calls her SF "Dad"? ItÂs a damn-near fatal blow every time. BM also has her buy FatherÂs Day gifts for SF and spend time with him that day, taking away time with SO. About a year and a half ago, BM called their DD at 1 PM to go home right that minute. She was at work and yelling at her on the phone. She wasnÂt even home! SF was. The gist of the tirade was that SO was doing something for a couple of hours and so I made plans with his DD to go shopping and get lunch. Not all day. Just a couple hours. KKNY said "In the majority of cases I know doodle, man leaves wife (got that wife, not GF) of many years for younger woman. Mom has primary physical custody." This is simply not true. I am the one that left my marriage and, shockingly enough, I had pretty solid reasons to get my son out of that life. And it didnÂt include me having another man, either.