I live in a condo and when we first moved here I wasn't into gardening at all but now I've gone hog wild. I've built 4 medium sized raised beds using retaining wall blocks and one huge one. As you can guess everyone thinks I'm nuts putting this kind of work and $$ into something I don't legally own. I even built 2 walls for my neighbor so that I could have more room to grow and this year I had to help her out with her plants in the front on my dime of course. No one but my closest neighbors know that I compost or they would probably freak out saying I was just drawing rodents and other strange creatures. I was out collecting leaves off the street today so I'm sure someone saw me and was wondering what I was doing. But hey they all enjoy the show during the spring and summer so what can they say. Strouper

Where are you in Canada? I'm in Vancouver and I often have things shipped to a receiving office in Point Roberts (called The Letter Carrier). There is a similar service in Blaine and I'd bet in every other American city close to a border crossing. You have to pay duty when you cross the border, but shipping is usually vastly cheaper. There is also a nominal charge for parcel receiving. Since I can drive down to pick stuff up I haven't looked into this, but I think they also do mail forwarding. In all the times I've done this I've only once hit a real snag, and that was when the seller wouldn't accept a Canadian credit card. That time I had to get the boots I wanted elsewhere at a higher price! Recently I even found that a website that advertises "we do not ship internationally" and whose website only allows entry of US addresses would accept a phone order from Canada. So call them, tell them your predicament, and perhaps they will go the extra mile if you can find a US address to ship to. KarinL

nicole, the link to the ad is in my first post, if hubby is interested! He's asking $100. Oh, nanny2a, There is NO doubt whose couch that is. I paid for it, but the dogs are on it (on top of a blanket) more than I am. I'm glad they welcomed it so readily. I KNOW that lamp would freak them out and there would be lots of barking, as they do when they see anything 'unusual' in the yard. They'd probably want to protect me from it.

Ok, I'll try to be brief: Forget the fertilizer. Early August completely nuke it all with round up. Kill everything: the weeds, grass, all of it. Scalp mow after a few days at your mower's lowest setting, bagging the clippings. Water to see if any more weeds pop up. Kill them too. Try to remove as much dead material as possible. First week of September, put down top soil (some might say skip this step) seed and apply starter fertilizer. Keep it moist (water 10-15 minutes 3x a day for the next couple of weeks until germination then slowly back off on that.) There are much more detailed threads here going into detail of what I just briefly described but that's the general idea. Good luck!