Hi Al and others, I would appreciate advice on saving sick/dying Picea glauca, in pic.1, please. I bought it on post Xmas sale and it was ~50cm tall, looking healthy, with very bushy top. I repotted it without much root cleaning to keep most original soil with fungus, which I read Picea, like other pines, needs. I planted the rootball with old soil into gritty mix, mostly pine bark fines with seramice, with a bit of gravel, see in pic.2 very "gritty" indeed :); trunk is ~1/2" at the bottom). I used a biggish pot to let it grow freely for a year or two. I also cut the top to encourage lower branches growth but it never happened. Water it when the pot feels light, ~ weekly (it is early autumn here in Sydney) by bottom watering in a bucket, then drain well by keeping the pot at ~45 degrees for a while. Use diluted Nitrosol liquid plant food every two weeks. Keep it on sun for 2-3 hrs, then half shade. Despite all my care (or coz of it ? :), the picea never showed any new growth but started developing warning signs for last 2-3 weeks. Those few thin branches started dying. Their stem turns from brown to greyish-green and gets soggy before dying. See in pic 3&4, that branch in front which is dying now, with grey stem. Other branch died a few days ago. Only three normally looking branches are left. But I am afraid they are facing same fate. Anything I can do to rescue my future picea bonsai at all? Thanks and cheers, Sergey

It doesn't sound like you live too far from me (Laurel, MD). So I think I know what you're talking about when it comes to digging in what amounts to brick this time of year. My solution has worked well for me and I have both flat areas and steep hills in my yard. My solution is a raised bed about 10" high and let the slope of the wall follow the natural slope of the garden. The hard part is getting enough to fill the beds (you don't have to mix the fill with the native dirt.). I use everything I can get my hands on as cheap as possible (MG Garden soil, Manure/peat, shreded yard waste from anyone, etc) When you dig the individual holes for the rose that's when you can mix some of the native and commercial soils. In the long run what you will find is the native soil becomes more manageble because it stays wet longer. Lastly, I have use drip irrgation (the sweater hoses). I still get run off on my steaper beds but it's not bad. All I do is turn the water on when I need it. If you have anymore questions you can email me (dbarnabie@gmail.com)

After the deck is down I bolt the handrail posts to the rim joist after daping out the post 1 1/2'' x how ever wide the rim is. This way the posts land on the decking. The only other way is to install the posts in the frame and roof around them, this is just asking for a leak the chances of all the flashing/modidied holding perfectly are slim plus the width differance from the botom to the top if the posts are going to be wrapped. With all the black modified melted into the flashing it dosent look all that good so a person would want the posts wraped. To do this system a real good Roofer needs to be employed who will run a starter course just like using compo,slow down,pay attention to detail, deal with the fire danger,install all needed flashing, use a quality base sheet, and not tell you using mastic is just as good as torching the material down. In all the upstairs projects I have out we have had one faliure,it had to be at my house of course. While we were puting down the decking some how me or one of my guys droped a screw and steped on it pushing it into the roof. It took a year before the water damage showed up in the sofit plywood. Repair encluding deck removal,temp brace a couple of posts,soffit repair, a quick flash with the torch was done. Attention to detail is important for the Carpenters as well as the Roofer. J

I doubt the company is on here tryinv to get people to buy their product. On their website they state the excerpt below about ESHC hydrocarbon (formerly known as EC 1800): Please Note: ESHC was developed to remove fresh and aged petroleum hydrocarbons from both hard and porous surfaces. Earth Smart Solutions has not tested the effectiveness of ESHC to remove Thompson's Water Seal from wood decks and does not guarantee it's effectiveness when used for this application.