Re: Home and garden projects
 

Beware....Burning bush--aka eunonymus alatus--is on the Invasive Species list for many areas in the US, including New England, where I am. It can take over a property very quickly as well as jump to surrounding woodland & waste lots, because it spreads by way of roots as well as its many seeds (which birds eat & spread via their poop).

Just checked & it is indeed on the Invasive Species List for Missouri:
http://www.docs.dcnr.pa.gov/cs/group...cnr_010293.pdf

More invasive species:
Invasive Species


Here's a thread on GardenWeb Forum about how bad it can be, and some safer replacements to use intead....
Is Burning Bush really bad??

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Oh, that's not what I thought it was. I don't have any experience of that, and my comments above about burning bush should be ignored.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Coming from the NE and also having friends in VT and MA, I was curious why others where in favor of Burning Bush when I had heard that it should be dug up and eliminated whenever possible. Also down here in the south they are looking for us to eliminate the "popcorn" tree. The Forestry Dept. and the EPA are running commercials every day.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ree-population

Re: Home and garden projects
 

You are best off going to an area nursery and telling them what you are interested in, so they can advise what is both the size you want and good for your locale. For instance, I love hibiscus bushes, but if I put them outdoors here, they have to be treated as annuals, or kept in a pot and brought inside for the winter. Your nursery can tell you what fits your purpose (and you don't have to buy there -- armed with the knowledge you can look for what you want at the discount big box store!). Otherwise, you can glean lots of info on appropriate hosta on the web.

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Periwinkle is another invasive nuisance. Per the linked map the biggest problem is mostly in New England, but seems to really like Indiana. :blink:

English" ivy is also a menace, though not with quite as much periwinkle, but problem areas are spread over the east coast and south east, as well as a lot of the coastal areas of the west coast.

Curiously ivy is reported endemic in Indiana too, so expect some sort of battle to the death to break out in Indiana between periwinkle and ivy at some point. :unsure:

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I use periwinkle, ivy, and pachysandra as ground covers. The ivy grows the fastest, and has to be cut back from the pathways every year, but it covers really well and looks good despite being trampled daily by a herd of dog paws.

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I hate both ivy and periwinkle, and I am engaged in long-term guerrilla warfare with both of them. An elderly neighbour liked them both, and now there are colonies of the stuff scattered across my property. As ivy is primarily a climber it is easier to find and remove physically. Periwinkle is a tougher nut to crack, and doesn't seem unduly perturbed by weed killer, burning, or being buried under mulch or pine needles.

I think I will try a more aggressive burning strategy, using my gas burner, on damp days this winter, as a large patch of it is in a bed of irises and I don't want to kill them.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Eek, the Mrs really wants a knockout rose for our circular planting bed in the front yard.

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Periwinkle I can live with but not the dreadful "English" ivy. I have a modest patch of periwinkle holding up an otherwise erosion-endangered hillside, so I'm letting it live until I figure out how to save the hillside when I get rid (?) of the periwinkle. The odd thing about growing older is that I remember when a lot of these "invasive" species were treasured garden plants. I remember seeing periwinkle ground cover in a wonderful herb garden in Somerset decades ago.

But I cannot abide English Ivy! (just known as plain "ivy" in my part of England). I fought it for years on & around our British house, and it nearly won.... i.e. it grew so fast and aggressively it threatened to topple several oaks, and once when we left for a long holiday I returned to see it had jumped a 3 foot gap to reach the roof. The little footpads dig into whatever the ivy's climbing and can dislodge shingles, detatch wood trim, and even gradually crumble bricks and mortar.

And here my American neighbourhood has loads of the stuff! It was extremely popular a hundred years ago, and many of the old stone walls here are covered over with layers & layers of it. It's intertwined itself so strongly into our stone wall that I can't get rid of it without endangering the wall's integrity (and our wall is made of boulders!) so like the periwinkle I have to let some of it stay. But I ruthlessly eradicate it everywhere else, especially anywhere near a tree. It can & will kill huge healthy trees; the new young ivy layers climb right over the giant old ivy vines until all the tree's leaves are completely blocked from the sun, then as the tree weakens & fails the weight of more & more ivy will pull it askew until it topples. Horrible. :(

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Next house project: install a second switch for ceiling fan.

Our recepticals and lights run on the same circuit so makes it a little annoying when I open up the light switch box and find a bunch of wires and connections.

I'm really hoping the light and fan are just joined in the box somewhere rather than someplace else.

This is all assuming my ceiling fan supports this. :eek:

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I think you will find that the fan and the light are connected to the same switched cable in the wall, so the switch just makes the whole light-fan unit live, then the pull chains turn the fan and lights on and off separately.

The first thing to do is take the ceiling light-fan down and check to see if it has two supply cables, or at least a 3+ground cable, if not you're SOL. :unsure:

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Okay thanks. :fingerscrossed:

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The husband & I have managed to rake up all our fallen leaves, dethatch the lawn a bit, mow it all very short with the grass clippings going onto the mulch pile instead of dropping back on the cut grass, and finally overseed all the lawn. It took us hours, but the last of the overseeding was accomplished JUST as it started to rain. Somehow this year we're in tune with the weather.... :thumbup:

Now I just hope the leftover grass seed (from buying too much last autumn) actually sprouts. :huh:

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Mrs P tells me that there is now a dwarf knock-out rose, which may be suitable.

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I should have mentioned - it was the dwarf variation my girlfriend wanted! I was confused as to the growing huge comments as my girlfriends parents have knockout rose bushes and those are very small and manageable - turns out those are the dwarf variations too!