Try cleaning the sludge out of the tank with paint thinner. Rinsing it with mixed gas is not very effective. While you have it apart, thoroughly clean the carb and install an overhaul kit. The diaphragms are likely hard and brittle. Good luck.

Pompom, If there is life in it - there is hope. Cut the roots and the stem up to the healthy tissue. Remove almost all leaves - leave just a row or 2 of small ones and put it in your pill bottle with water without fertilizer and hope for the best. If some of the leaves you will be removing are still healthy - cut them off at an inch from the leaf blade and do the same. When the small roots will start showing - you can plant them into the light soil (1;1;1 peat perlite vermiculite) and bag them. If your violet expired - do not get too upset - there are so many beautiful varieties of AVs in the world - you will try with something else. It is the only way to learn - and even the most experienced growers lose some plants from time to time. If you know the variety you like so much - you can get another starter or leaf. Good luck Irina

Renee, what a wonderful opportunity! Yes, it does look like it was once a garden. I'd try to ID anything before tearing it out. Do you know what those shrubs are? It looks like there's shade there cast by something other than those trees; is it always shady or is there some sun? I can't tell what kind of trees they are, the one in front looks like an evergreen of some sort ... holly? I think you can do a lot more than you think in that spot. Looks like there's already a bird feeder - something like that (feeder, bird bath, sundial or bench) is a nice feature. You will have to find out whether the trees are shallow-rooted varieties or not. If they're not naturally shallow-rooted, some soil may have washed away and you could build it up ... perhaps a raised bed? (It needn't have walls.) It's hard for me to say what would be right for you, but just to give you an idea, here's what I have growing within the same distance of my trees, most of which are tall, deeply-rooted oaks, but there are a few shallow-rooted understory trees also: Shrubs: forsythia, privet, pieris, mock orange, rainbow leucothoe, azalea, rhododendron, boxwood, variegated weigela, yew, hydrangea (nikko blue and lady in red). Perennials: anemone, astilbe, achillea, bugbane (cimicifuga racemosa 'hillside black beauty'), bleeding heart (winter hardy), scotch broom ('burkwoodii'), candytuft, caradonna sage (salvia nemorosa 'caradonna'), columbine, coral bells (heuchera 'palace purple'), coreopsis (zagreb), daylilies, ferns, foxglove (digitalis mertonensis), hardy geranium (crane's bill), hellebores (Christmas rose), hosta, mayapple, Montauk daisy, primroses, spiderwort (tradescantia 'sweet kate'), tree mallow (lavatera olbia 'barnsley'), turtlehead (chelone lyonii 'hot lips') and an unidentified volunteer salvia of a glorious vivid blue that appeared late this summer. Still within that range, but at the farther edge: clematis 'ramona', coreopsis 'heaven's gate', bearded iris, spanish lavender, russian sage, tree peony 'feng dan, herbaceous peony 'Sara Bernhardt' and English roses 'Miss Alice' and 'Tradescant'. Bulbs: Allium, chinodoxa, daffodil, dutch iris, lily of the valley, snowdrop, tulip. Groundcovers: pachysandra, ivy, sweet woodruff and goats beard. All of the above get varying degrees of sun/dappled shade. I just make sure to enrich the soil like crazy when I plant, and moderately each spring and fall thereafter. If I run into a root while planting, I just work around it, push it aside, or, occasionally, if necessary, cut it out ... nothing seems to have suffered. Tuberous begonias do very well in dappled shade, some rival roses and peonies in beauty, but I have better luck planting them in containers than in the ground, where they attract squirrels/chipmunks. And you must dig up the corms and bring them inside before frost. I see woods off in the background - if there are deer in the vicinity you'll want to look for plants that they won't feast upon. Otherwise, you've got lots of options, many more than I've listed ... and a whole winter to pore over catalogs and make your plans! I've found that many plants that prefer full sun will grow very happily with some afternoon shade, especially in areas with hotter summers. Good luck, and I hope you'll have fun dreaming and planning ... and renovating that garden! Diane

Whatever colors you choose, get a sample pot and paint a large piece of board or cardboard in that color. Look at it at different times of day since the light changes. We see too many sad posts on Houzz where people have been disappointed in the way a color looks over larger areas, and in outdoor light. When you do your plants, make your beds at least 6 feet deep. That may seem huge, but you need to have the first foot along your house bare, so you can access it for maintenance. Then, any decent size shrubs will probably be about 4 feet wide at maturity. (Check your tag on online where you'll see this information. ) That leaves you a foot in front of the shrubs if you want to plant any annuals. When you plant a shrub that's 4 feet wide at maturity, the center of the planting hole should be 3 feet from your house (2 feet from the center to the edge of the mature shrub, plus one foot space to house.) Before your shrubs are mature it may look a bit bare. Just plant self-seeding annuals in between and you'll plant fewer every year as the shrubs grow. I like annual white sweet alyssum which doesn't have deep roots and won't interfere with the shrubs' growth. Or use native plants that behave the same way. (We don't know where you live.) It's less expensive and more beautiful than mulching a large area with bark chips, and it will come back from seed next year. Google "green mulch" and you'll see what other have to say about this idea. If there is someone in your neighborhood whose front garden you admire, stop by when they are outside and ask about it. I have given so many cuttings and divisions of my garden plants to people. https://www.houzz.com/magazine/new-ways-to-think-about-all-that-mulch-in-the-garden-stsetivw-vs~25100660