That is a good idea. I'm in zone 5 (can't get my page to update for some reason). Would it give winter privacy too? And how deep of a barrier do you need to install? I run into tree roots all through the area so it might be difficult. I went out into the woods the other day and dug up some weed shrubs (they look similar to privet). I put them around the last area where I cannot fence. I planted lots of little ones that can take a transplant and a couple larger ones for more of an instant privacy. I did this in the rain and it seems like the big ones are going to live. At least it is blocking the trash cans and the trash pile of food. You can step around the little ones but hopefully the hint will be taken. I might trudge back through the poison ivy woods and get a couple more larger ones. I don't want to be mean, I just want a my privacy back. I can take these out at any point but at least I don't have to wait for anything to grow. I would absolutely die if someone was watching me with binoculars. Especially in a swim suit! People have so much nerve.

I used to be under the impression that mushroom compost had to be excellent, sort of like the manure based composts I had made and used for 25 years in my greenhouse and nursery work. I am not a chemist and do not do soil sampling anymore. I do know what salts are and how high EC levels are damaging to plants When I used up to 1/4 of spent mushroom compost in my potting mix, plants did poorly and salts appeared. In addition our county agent in the local paper described the spent mushroom compost locally available as having high levels of potassium salts...he does have access to high quality soil analyses. Maybe they're using lots of potassium nitrate to feed the mushrooms...I don't know about that. Go ahead and punch holes in the bags if you like. I haul my soil amendments in the pick-up and do the best I can with local available ingredients...minus the peat moss and perlite I can't seem to replace.

@Toxc: I've certainly had a time or two when I've decided to bag/compost some because the amounts were prodigious - but more often than not it turned out the stuff I left behind decomposed on its own pretty well. (I 'experiment' by doing it differently when I feel like it or got tired of bagging or still had beer in the fridge). I very much like your point above that it depends on the lawn and its health - if it's thick and lush and well-established in good soil, taking a few bags out for other purposes once in a while when cutting the lawn is probably not going to affect it much. Going back to the original poster's question, along the same lines, it may also depend on areas of the lawn. I wouldn't say I am systematic about it, but I try to 'return' more organic material (like grass clippings) in areas of the lawn that are thinner or dry or whatever - and 'borrow' from those that crank no matter what the conditions. I have a patch or two that tend to get dry and thin, and some areas around trees - they get extra compost and clippings and mulch, and the well-fed bits of thick lawn get nothing and contribute to some of the others. Can't tell if any of this helps of course but it keeps me out of trouble.

Thank you so much for all of your beautiful examples � this site has truly been inspirational to me! I have been lurking for a while, taking in all of the beautiful kitchen improvements that have been created. I could really use some help from those who have been there! To make a long story short, we made some changes to this kitchen when I moved into it 5 years ago. It was so bad that I just wanted CHANGE, but did not have a budget to change everything and was in such a hurry to change it that I didn�t really think a lot about any of before doing it! Here is what we completed in the first year We removed the pink and blue wallpaper and painted the walls, removed the kitchen carpet (gross!) and replaced with laminate floor, replaced the almond colored appliances with black and stainless, replaced hardware on the cabinets, replaced the rectangular fluorescent light fixture over the island and added a few recessed lights, replaced the blue and pink speckled, wood trimmed countertops with laminate "faux granite" ones and tore out 3 plate glass windows to make a sliding door and built a deck outside of that. We later added a backsplash and just last month, we replaced the island with a longer custom island that has roll-out shelves and functional drawers. We put a granite countertop on the island. We are very happy with how the island turned out. Here is where I need some help. I am ready to make changes to the cabinets but again we are on a small budget and don�t want to spend thousands to make just a cosmetic change on this house that we plan to be in for only about 5 more years. My first thoughts are to paint the cabinets a lighter color and just leave the countertops as they are. This would still give a contrast to the island countertop and would contrast the cabinets with the darker island. Since the cabinets are oak, I know this is going to take an intense method of sanding, priming, sanding, priming, sanding, painting and painting again. We are willing to do this but have also thought about having some MDF doors made and just painting those. This would eliminate some of the sanding and would also allow us to have the doors made with full overlay so that we could remove the center stile on some of the cabinets. I have attached photo of our kitchen before the island was added. Trying to figure out how to add a second photo with the new island! Hoping I can get some suggestions for painting the existing doors versus custom MDF doors and also suggestions for wall colors. The kitchen opens up into a great room, so we would probably extend the wall color all the way into that room. The end of the kitchen where the counters and cabinets are does not get a lot of natural light, so we�re hoping whatever we do will help make it all look a little lighter. We are not completely opposed to also replacing those counter tops with something solid but we don�t want to replace the backsplash, so we need something that will work with that. Can you help?? Image link: