An alternative thought: test plots. So you've got a pretty big back yard? Or, for all of that, a pretty small one? Stake out an area, even using non-stake markers ("....everything from the pool, over to the fence...." to pick out less than all of your lawn, but a manageable area, and put your preferred seed into it. With luck, you might even get a little neighbor conversation.....Yes, Harry, I put in a little Mag-3 for this year, I wanna see how it works out....of course, I'll let you know. Oh, and if it doesn't work out, I may put just Midnight, and Bedazzled, on the other side of the pool next year. Well, you never know, with all the crazy weather we've been having..... Are you serious? Why do we (and I'm guilty. But I'm also TIRED, man...) have to bite the BIG bullet with this renovation stuff? The whole darn lawn? At once? Who said so, actually? I've seen a few pics of some VERY nice colonial homes, with attached garages, on this forum this year. Why not one side of the drive, and not the other side? Somebody else has a very nice spread, obviously non-subdivision, with a good-sized patch in the front. And another good sized patch in the back. Oh, and another good-sized patch across the driveway, up to the trees. We're going to do all three, at once? Honestly, are we nuts? Why not just one? We can do it again, next year, with just one more patch? Hmmmmmmm. Food for thought. For me, anyway. So I thought I'd share. Comments welcome. I may not respond. I'm to tired to do much other than read. And I have to add ('yes, dear. Yes, Dear. Yes, I really do believe it will look much better in another week. Yes, Dear) that it has been made quite clear to me that this operation had better actually work.

What an interesting and informative thread. Strawberry, I am particularly interested in your assertion that pine mulch is useful for holding water. I have a rose bed in my front yard that is in direct sun all day. It also sits on the highest site in the yard and is pretty much sand and gravel underneath. I dug the bed 11 years ago and completely filled it with triple mix, which is equal parts soil, peat and manure, to 24 inches. I planted 18 roses as well as perenials such as Delphiniums and Salvias in the bed. That bed was a show stopper for the first nine years when there was lots of rain, including heavy thunderstorms each summer. People would frequently stop to smell the roses and tell me how much they enjoyed walking by that bed. Well the last two summers have been very hot and record breaking dry. Last summer was an official drought with only three days of precipitation between June and September. Many of the roses died outright, the rest declined to mere sticks barely hanging on in spite of my daily watering which was arduous, expensive and obviously a waste of water. When I dug up a couple of the dead roses in late summer I noted that the peat fibres and soil were bone dry, even with regular watering. The roses that succumbed were varieties that had not done well even in cooler years. The hot sun was litterally baking the surface of the bed in spite of heavy surface mulch. The daily dose of water was evaporating from the surface and obviously percolating right through the topsoil, all 2 feet of it, and draining through the gravel below. I had already decided to dig the whole thing up this spring and put in new triple mix and manure. With your insite into composted pine mulch and its water retaining properties, I think I will add a good portion of that as well. As gardeners, we constantly must adapt to changing conditions. The climate in my garden has changed drastically in the past two years, who knows if the change is permanent or an anomally. Hopefully, I can find a way to increase the water holding capacity in that bed and restore it to its former health and glory. Perhaps a good dose of composted pine mulch and composted manure layered deep on the bottom of the bed will help. Good thread Ingrid. Thanks for the discussion everyone. Cheeers, Rick Here is a link that might be useful: The Myth of Pretty Mulch - Washington State Universtiy

Read an interesting article.....trying to find it to post about the rubber mulches and possible problems. There are a whole slew of chemicals used to make the rubber. The study found that the chemicals leach out of the rubber as it oxidizes and enter the soil. I remember that one was arsenic. Even so, I tried it in one area and the smell of rubber just didn't fit well in the garden. Kind of reminded me of walking through an auto recycling yard. My neighbor just had the "faux grass" installed in his back yard. I have to admit it's pretty impressive. A little $$$ until you factor in the cost and labor of maintaining grass of which I have waaaaay too much. I'm waiting for summer to roll around to see what the temperatures are like with the artificial turf in place. They said it doesn't get hot and you just hose it down and it cools off the area it's in. I would think that it would turn the area into a sauna for a while though....

My favorite thing to do in my garden (besides garden!) is to sit in my aidirondack chair under an awning and look at my garden (very small but cottagey backyard garden that I proudly created from scratch!). My 4 year old son loves to run around and pretend each little section of the garden is a different animal habitat (the shady area with raspberries and climbing hydrangea is the "jungle", the wisteria is the "rainforest canopy", the blue spruce is the "coniferous forest" and so on...) This absolutely delights me because I want my son to appreciate nature (instead of watching TV or playing video games). I'm so proud that he notices when a particular flower is opening or when he sees a plant from our garden in someone's else's garden and says, "Mommy, we have that plant in our garden." He even knows the names of some of the plants. I like having someone to share my love of nature with. We also have birds nesting in our birdhouse, in a notch in the wisteria right above my son's sandbox, and last year, a bird tried to nest in our mailbox! All this in the very small space of about 1/4 of an acre! Jill