May I make a suggestion? Notice in the photo of the arbor swing how the backdrop is tall shrubs? Now imagine a fence behind it. To me, it loses some charm that way. My suggestion is actually prompted in part by the angle of your photo. Also I recall you were looking for ways to increase privacy between you and your neighbor where the fence changes to split rail. Why not position the arbor swing at an angle in front of your magnolia bush? So in your first photo, the swing would be facing the photographer straight on, place at about a 120-dgree angle out from the fence. Then contine your roses, etc. along the fence if there is room. Be sure to allow enough room behind the swing for the magnolia bush -- I confess I have no idea of its mature size, so maybe this is not a good placement, but I thought it would relate to the patio, fence, and lawn tree better than squishing it up against the fence. DO consider either relocating or "dressing" your fountain up with more plants. It looks a bit naked and utilitarian showing so starkly against the fence. (Maybe things just haven't grown to fill in yet?) Just as with furnishing a room, there is a tendency among gardeners to put everything around the edges or floating in the middle of an empty space. Look at home decorating magazines where you'll see beds coming into the room at an angle and sofas arranged in small conversation areas -away from the walls- to break up a big room. That's kind of the idea here. I'm ignoring the trampoline because it won't be there forever. Right? Wrong? So that's my bright idea for the day. In any case, please show us a photo once it's installed. How nice of your father to build the swing for you! Hope he has fun with the project.

Sandsz, I suggest that you zoom out and possibly come from another angle with the picture so that we can see the context. There's not enough information in the picture to answer your question.

No expert here, but I'll try to help. 1) Use separate strands for the individual branches. You can join together more than one to achieve the length, but let them dead end up top. 2) Refer to the instructions on the box, which should tell you the maximum you can string together safely. My guess is the electrical strip (one made for outdoor use) will be necessary. 3) Personal choice. I'm a little white/gold lights person, myself. But if you are fond of the larger colored lights, express yourself! 4) This should not be a problem with a live tree. I have some lights running from dusk to dawn with no noticeable heat damage on plants. Decide how much you want to spend on electricity. : ) 5) Duct tape is helpful. I wrap all connections with duct tape, and secure the main plug to the tree (or other stable object) with it. Remember, the wind will blow, and you don't want to have to get out your ladder every other day to repair things. I tape down the one cord that crosses a walkway so no one trips on it.

Here is my feedback after 15 years of using various herbicides. Under normal circumstances, Glyphosate is just not going to have significant root activity. I have used it around the base of literally hundreds of plants with no ill effect. However, I once used quite large amounts, dropped into the stem cores of Pokeweeds that were growing right next to the base of an abelia. It would have been a massive nuisance to dig up the pokeweed, would have essentially dug up the Abelia too and replanted it. It was high summer so I didn't want to do that. It didn't wash out because there were several days w/o rain. The pokeweed died, but a week later it looked like the Abelia was dying back. I had put so much down there - maybe 20-30 ml of 40% concentrated form across several pokeweed stems, that it must have transferred through the ground into the base of the Abelia. So to give an idea of the equivalency, this would be like spraying a half gallon or more of a mixed for spraying dilution, at the base of a single plant. Under normal circumstances you would never do something like that. The Abelia struggled but survived. With a selective, all bets are off. Some of them are so powerful and persistent they have been banned from residential lawns, like clopyralid. Mulch from clopyralid treated weeds can damage plants. I have a vague memory of noticing magnolias were especially sensitive to those, showing some leaf drooping if I had sprayed a selective at weeds near the trunk and possibly gotten a tiny amount on the trunk. So are Fabaceae...which is why triclopyr is so good at killing clovers. A few small drops of triclopyr concentrate will kill a Robinia sapling up to 1/2" caliper. Done that several times...on purpose! And one has to be very careful about selective esters. One of my worst close calls ever was using triclopyr _ester_ on a cool spring night to treat lawn violets. It got rid of almost all of them...but alas...in spite of me understanding the dangers of esters, it was a little more still that night instead of windy. Wind is needed to keep the vapors of an ester from settling on non-target plants. A couple super rare plants had foliar injury, like Parrotia subaequalis. Luckily they too recovered. So can't say for sure what is going on here. I have seen a magnolia - Judy Zuk - do this kind of leaves go oddly limp thing, when I am sure I was not using herbicide in the area. I don't remember there being a lot of rain, but it was in a less than perfectly drained spot. I know for a fact a 'Savage Splendor' died outright during one of our rainiest Junes ever, with > 11" of rain. So they are certainly not immune to root rot and the attendant sudden collapse. I have experimented with a protocol for reversing extreme sudden root rot, but I think it would be so hard to get EPA approval and serves such a niche market, that there's little money to be made. (and no, I'm not going to tell you what the chemicals are except to say they are fairly innocuous) I have used this to save plants. For example a Rhodo 'Horizon Monarch' went into total collapse after a heavy June rainfall. This is how other rhodies have died in my garden, like 'Crapistrano'. (LOL. what Hank Schannen called Rhododendron 'Capistrano') New foliage completely limp as though sprayed with liquid nitrogen. 2 days after my treatment it was back to normal. I did double major in bio and chemistry and briefly worked in pharmaceutical research after college so I know my way around handling chemicals.