Agreed that mulching leaves are good for the lawn. I have accumulated so many OPL that I have ran out of storage spots for them and mulched them in my lawn. Here is a snaped by my amused wife of me spreading OPL on my front lawn prior to mulch mowing them in. She kept asking if I was going to really spread leaves on my lawn that other spent hours removing from theres. I just smiled and said I needed to get to work! I don't have an after picture, but after three passes and alternative directions the leaves are all gone. I'm expecting another 6-12 bags this weekend from my freecycle friends and expect to do it again. Besides leaves, I feed my lawn mulched grass clippings from mowing, soybean meal, rabbit food, milorganite, cornmeal, compost and whatever else I can find (ideally for free). This is the third year for this lawn and it has always been feed organicaly. Prior to that it was a weed pasture. The straw bales (I was specific that no hay was allowed) and pumpkins by the lamp post will be used to insulate the top of my compost bins for the winter.

Hi Rhoni Ann, Lots of people are painting red/orangey-red brick homes nowadays. If you're a fan of the Fixer-Upper TV show on HGTV, you've probably noticed that Chip and Joanna Gaines have totally transformed the exterior of many brick homes by painting that red/red-orange brick in all sorts of lovely shades of gray, creamy white or beige. After they add new trim and sometimes shutters and window boxes (depending on the style of the home and the look they're going for), along with new landscaping, those homes look just as transformed on the exterior as they are on the interior. Keep in mind that once you paint your brick, assuming you are going with a lighter color, it will reflect heat and light, but I have found there are lots of plants which grow well on the hotter west and south sides of homes that what a person might expect. First of all, if you will amend your clay with compost or some other organic material before you plant, then your plants will do so much better that it will blow your mind and you won't have to water nearly as much. We have dense, thick red clay (the kind you could use to make clay pots) that had zero organic matter when I tested it when we moved here in 1999. When they dug the holes for our percolation test for our septic system when we built our house, most all of the water remained in the holes after 24-hours, which explains why we have a lagoon instead of leach lines. Along our south and west facing walls, cannas have done really well in only lightly amended clay. If you plant the tall ones that get 4-7' tall, they will form their own mini-wall along the bring wall, and they don't really mind the heat as long as you water them occasionally in summer. They die back in winter, but you can cut off the ugly dead foliage at the ground so you don't have to look at it all winter long. Cannas are very strong, resilient plants, fitting into my favorite category of plants that I describe in this manner: they won't die and you can't kill them. In front of those taller cannas, you could the short, compact evergreen shrubs of your choice so you'd have something green there year-round. Some of the shorter varieties of hollies would work, and hollies come with many different leaf shapes from the very small leaves of yaupon hollies to the larger leaves of other forms of holly. If you don't want evergreen shrubs on the west side of the house, you could plant daylilies, lantana, gomprena (aka globe amaranth), zinnias, cosmos and some perennial members of the salvia family. All of these do well in well-amended, well-draining soil and only need moderate amounts of water in summer as long as they are well mulched. Or, you could plant ground cover type plants that thrive in full sun. Purple wintercreeper is a lovely greenish groundcover that is low maintenance. We just cut ours back to the ground with the string trimmer once or twice a year. It turns purplish-green in the cold season. Its flowers are not very obvious but then they give you lovely little berries. Hollies, by the way, are one of my favorite plants for clay soil because once they are established many of them are really drought-tolerant as well as heat-tolerant. If you like crape myrtles they are very heat-tolerant and come in all sorts of sizes, from more tree-like forms that can attain 20-40' Crape Myrtle Trails--Varietiesin height to weeping forms only a couple of feet tall. Be sure to purchase named crape myrtles varieties so you can Google those varieties before you buy to ensure you're getting the right size for your area. Sometimes the ones sold at places like Wal-Mart don't give a variety name on the tag, so you have no idea what you're getting. There's nothing worse than planting a big variety of crape myrtle in an area that is only appropriate for a small to medium sized one because you'll spend tons of time trying to prune back the big one to keep it small enough. Depending on the color you ultimately choose to paint your brick, you might like some of the Black Diamond series of crape myrtles with their purplish-black foliage. They would look striking against a lighter colored wall and they don't get too large. To give you an idea of the many kinds of crape myrtles available, I'm going to link the page of the Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, TX, which is my favorite website for Crape Myrtle information. I haven't tried Rose of Sharon on the west side of the house, but it probably would be alright. I have several kinds of hardy hibiscus in the border around our large veggie garden and they are both heat tolerant and drought tolerant. They are growing in heavily amended clay in raised beds, but there's a couple of smaller ones at the lower north end of our heavily sloping garden and they are equally heat and drought tolerant, growing at grade level in soil only lightly amended. Another perennial flower (often considered a reseeding annual, but perennial in my garden) that doesn't mind the west side of a building is tall verbena, Verbena bonariensis. It is one of the most heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant plants I've ever grown and is a real butterfly magnet. I use lots of autumn sage (Salvia greggii) plants as they tolerate heat and plentiful sunshine. They are perennials and are semi-evergreen. Sometimes they bloom on and off throughout the winter here in zone 7b. I just shear them back pretty hard right before new growth begins in early Spring to keep them more compact and more manageable. There's tons of options for the west side of a house. Just avoid things like hydrangeas that must have afternoon shade in our climate and avoid plants that need perfect drainage. Good luck, and if you have more questions, I hope you'll ask them. Also, watch for the Master Gardener's plant sale in your county, which has a very active MG group that puts on a great plant sale in the Spring. This year's plant sale is May 11th. More info about it can be found on the website linked below. Pottawatomie County Extension Service Webpage The Master Gardeners have a display garden at the ag extension building and you might visit it to get some ideas. Dawn

I'm having the same thoughts about the deeper soil. I know the original fill (put in November of 2013) wasn't great soil, and believe it came from a cemetery (just happened to be where the paving contractor got his fill). Coming from 6 feet down it probably is a pretty heavy mix. I thought last fall the landscape contractor had put down at least 2 " of topsoil, but who knows. He may have spread just enough to make it look good, then seeded and topped with straw before we could notice. I honestly don't think I would ever use an aerator back there. Not knowing how many tree roots, rocks or native stones there are (we have two old quarries less than a mile from us) would make me leery of using it. The chances of destroying the machine seem fairly high. Most of the stone down there is bluestone I think, but usually is in pieces no bigger than 1 foot. They didn't hit too much when they dug the fence posts, so I don't think a rock base is a huge concern. High levels of stone fragments in the fill dirt on the other hand might be a bigger issue. Should I think about slowly adding thin layers of additional soil (no more than 1/4 inch at a time) in the future? I have no worries about contour issues making drainage problems if I raise the soil level (I already have that). When do you think I should make the switch over to the less frequent watering? 1 month out? Also how long do you think I can push letting the soil dry between watering. Some areas will probably stay damp below the surface for several days, others might dry in a day or so. Only water in areas I find drying out quicker? I think I'm getting to the stage that always screws me up (i.e. leading to very thin shallow roots) so I'm trying to plan out better this time.

In answer to reeljake, I agree about the erosion mat. I've already seen in some areas where the wood shavings are gone. Just eaten right up by the fungi. However, I did the same thing last year and had no problem. I used it because my property is literally the lowest point in the entire neighborhood. I am at the end of a cul de sac with a stream that is my back yard property line. So the yard gradually slopes from the street all the way back to the stream. Last year and this year with bringing in so much new soil I was very concerned with it washing out in the rain. With the heavy rain we had I am positive it would have. My neighbor had some erosion issues also and just filled in with dirt, threw some seed down and hay and with the first rain it all washed to the back of her yard. The mat did a great job of holding in the moisture as well. It's just that with all the rain it did that job a bit too well. With my terrible lack of knowledge concerning potential of fungus I wasn't recognizing the symptoms as they appeared. If I had been prepared and knew then what I know now I think I could have stopped it in its tracks. Oh well, need to look at it as a leaning experience and go forward. I appreciate everyone's comment's.