Rjinga, Regardless of what you do to your area, that kudzu factory next to your property is going to be a pain until it is cleaned up. So, were this my property, my goal would to be to make my area so beautiful the owners of the kudzu factory would be shamed (hopefully) into doing something about their area. Until then the battle will be uphill but possible. Based on my experience with soil and weeds such as you are the proud owner of, I will answer your questions in this manner: 1. The weeds will always grow, that is not the focus. What we want is for the weeds to not grow in our planting beds and paths. The main benefit of lasagna beds it that the bed offers the best growing medium for our plants in such an area as you have now. Once the area is covered with the beds/mulch the new problem for the weeds is to find a way to grow through the barrier that now covers the weeds. Those weeds that make it through can be easily pulled regardless of when you actually plant in the beds. 2. I allow my plants to dictate when they need water, not on some imagined time schedule. I definitely would never overhead water that area, only the beds would get water by way of soaker hoses or some other drip watering system. IMO, compost alone does not provide enough nutrition for vegetables, thus I always feed my microbes extra nutrition to feed the vegetables. 3. Yes, you really do not need to remove the plants/weeds before making a lasagna bed. I would cut them down as low to the ground as possible before building the bed, however I would leave all the cut materials in place to add organic matter to the soil. Something fed those weeds/roots to make them grow, why remove that food only to have to replace it later? Trust me, you will need lots of leaves or other brown material to reach your goal. Again, the goal is not to get completely get rid of the weeds (impossible to do), but the lasagna beds and mulch will slow them down to such a rate of growth management will be a lot easier. With some types of weeds you have, yes, they will be eliminated as long as one doesnt get the bright idea to have the area plowed/tilled to stir up dormant weeds in the ground. And too, there can be weeds/seeds in the compost you acquire or the soil you have at the ready to spread later. The purpose of a lasagna bed and the use of mulch are to cover the soil with a layer of mulch so thick nothing will grow through it unless it is planted by the gardener. The lasagna bed will create a dynamic living organic growing platform that will allow maximum plant growth and a barrier for anything that is already within the soil below the bed. In a case such as yours to build a bed only twelve (12) inches or less is a waste of time, the weeds are too strong; a bed of at least twenty-two (22) inches or more is better insurance. The bed will shrink, but by that time most of the weeds will be dead below it. And too, the paths between the beds will have to be thick (at least four (4) inches to start), with more mulch at the ready if weeds grow through that barrier. The kudzu not on your property is out of your control, however, you can make sure there is no fertile ground for the kudzu to root; that is the purpose of the mulch. You are starting with very fertile soil, evident by the healthy growth of the plants (weeds) you now have. Adding organic matter in such a way as to allow one to choose what will grow is the ultimate goal. I trust what I have offered will help in some way Blutranes

This was in the business section of our newspaper today. Pitfalls of PayPal can touch off a reversal of fortune for eBay sellers James Derk-Scripps Howard News Service I have been using PayPal, the online payment system, for more than seven years. In the industry you hear all kinds of horror stories about every Web site, but my personal experience with PayPal has been rather calm. Though I am not a terribly active eBay seller, I do use PayPal to sell signed copies of my new book, so I am using the Web site quite a bit to accept payments and print mailing labels. Recently I did sell a Playstation game console that developed some issues; maily I place it on eBay "as is" for someone to use for parts or to repair. Someone with zero feedback on eBay bought it and promptly paid with PayPal. I gave him good feedback on eBay and shipped the device. I forgot about it for a few weeks until I sold a book and had to go into PayPal's site to print the mailing label. I noted on my list of transactions that my account had been debited and the Playstation buyer now had a "reversal" near his name. Turns out he had received my console and reversed the charge, something I didn't even know was possible. So he had the money and the console and positive feedback on eBay. A pretty good scam, I thought. This will be easy to reverse. So I called PayPal. Representatives told me the issue was my fault because I didn't respond to three e-mails they sent me. I check my inbox and didn't find any e-mails. PayPal then told me to appeal. "I am sure they will rule in your favor," the clerk told me. I appealed and 24 hours later received a form letter stating that the issue was my fault and I was out of both the money and the equipment. This dance of annoyance went on for days and could fill a couple of columns, but I want to share with you what I have ultimately learned. First of all, e-mails from PayPal are among the most "phished" in the world, meaning many "fake" ones come to your mailbox hoping you will log in to fake PayPal sites and give away your info. Windows Mail, the new mail program in Windows Vista, does a great job in filtering out what it thinks are "phishing" e-mailsllltrouble is it also filtered out these real e-mails from PayPal. So I never got mine, as I get hundreds of spam mails a day to that folder. Michael Oldenburg, a PayPal spokesman, told me that the vast majority of users on the site are happy with how PayPal works and many of those are focused on fraud prevention. When disputes are filed, he said, "they are usually worked out amicably during that process." My recommendations are simple: keep very little money in your PayPal account. If your account is hacked or a transaction is reversed, there won't be much money in there. Also keep checking your PayPal account and don't rely on e-mails to notify you of anything. It is up to you if you want to avoid the platform altogether (if you read the complaint site PayPal Sucks you'll never wan to use it again) but it has become ubiquitous on eBay (PayPal is owned by eBay). Just be careful out there.

We commenced a month ago in preparation for an across the country move in April/May this year. At least a quarter of my beautiful basement floor is currently occupied with large bags my wife marked for charity; they will surely be bringing a large truck. As I stated in another thread, this is doing little to reduce my move volume and weight (34K+ lbs), of all the 'must-have'/'must-move' pieces here. Similar to cz_crap, we will rent a large home (I'm going to hate it) while we build the new home over 18 months. I am grouping and placing items in categories, many in open boxes, for movers to pack and mark them accordingly. I did a similar and successful move several years ago from UK to USA whence 90% of my home was in storage in the UK for a year and shipped days before and arrived precisely on the day I closed on the new house just built; while I was signing title documents at the title company, the 40' container truck arrived from NYC port, at the new home, where my daughter was waiting; truckers only had to wait less than ten minutes before before we were permited to move contents to the new property. This time it will be different, since I'm my own GC and intend to build enough to get a CO; the county is fine with that so long as the area is sealed off from the remaining constrution zone. It will be harder to get a CO from my wife who does not want to move into a 'construction zone' again. She suffered for six months while I finished my basement (6hrs/day and weekends), when I moved it's entire (1000sf of 1500sf) to the home above. I'm not dreading the move but it will surely be challenging, very expensive for home and three vehicles.

Hey Ted, I have had great success with feed and feed places compared to your retail stores. There stuff is fresh and rotates out pretty quick so a new batch comes in pretty regularly. I would stay away from any online stuff unless you getting a good deal online and picking it up at the local store. At this time you may be getting last years stuff online and you just don't know if it is old or maybe it got wet. Just some things to think about. For the best all around fertilizer since you have no preference would probably be 10-10-10. I use this unless for just a good feeding in the landscaping and lawn. Hope this helped. Jack