Despite the original posters overly extensive post, with certain questionable content, the central point is still quite vaild. We as a nation spend more money on grass than on any other crop. That by itself should be reason enough. Read up on the history of lawns and you'll find that they were orginally created as a means of demonstrating wealth (aka, I have this big area and I can afford to do nothing with it except grow grass I can't eat) Regarding the comments of junegem13 and zachslc, you might want to read up on the legal history of this movement. As it turns out, most weed laws (ones based on hight, not on noxious weeds) are unconstitutional. Nonetheless, if you are in a city or subdivision and decide to do a wildflower meadow where there is not an reasonable ordinance, then you should notify your neighbors and the city about why you are doing and the legal preceedants. The EPA has all this information. Regarding property values, that was the original complaint neighbors made against one landowner when she converted her lawn into meadow. When they were unable to demonstrate an actual decrease in property values, the city ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Afterwards, the neighbors decided if they couldn't beat her that they'd join her and replace their own yards with meadows. Property values in that one neighborhood are now some of the highest in the city (Specific names and places, are available if you want them). Time and time again, lawn alternatives done correctly have shown to raise values, not lower them. In Charlottesville, VA local government is working on an ammendment to exclude native meadows from our weed ordinance. Other cities are doing the same very quicky, especially since the weed ordinance as written by many localites constitutes a legal liability to local governments.

We try to manage our health through diet and natural supplements I'm an advocate of this too, wholeheartedly, and especially as a parent and one who has chronic conditions. I'm not a doctor and many people are put off by my subversity. But I have had such success with alternative treatments that were more cost-effective and safer than pharmaceuticals. It takes time and research but I have found really good alternatives. The most recent incident is with one of my sons who developed really bad acne during puberty (it was awful... his face was riddled with inflamed cystic acne). We tried all the creams and washes and nothing was working. A few friends recommended antibiotics and Accutane. When I researched these, both came with warnings that pregnant women should not take them because they could cause birth defects. Again, I'm not a doctor... but I couldn't get past why I would give my son, whose going through a significant growth stage, medicine that pregnant women cannot take because it could harm their fetus. It just didn't make sense to me. Is a developing fetus and pubescent kids comparable? I don't know... but my gut told me this wasn't right. I continued to research and found a couple of safe supplements that, along with some dietary changes, have made a significant difference in his acne. Within a month, the cystic inflammation was gone. His face looks great and we are so happy for him. I know this is off-topic and I apologize to anyone who's offended. I'm also not advocating dismissing pharmaceuticals entirely because they certainly have their place. I also encourage working with a licensed, board certified alternative care practitioner because the supplement industry can be dodgy and unregulated as well.

kilian, I'm between Ann Arbor and Ypsi and the lack of birds lately is really bothering me. My husband reminded me that our Cooper's Hawk may be the reason so tomorrow morning I'm going to move my feeders away from my windows and closer to our huge conifer lot line, where I had them last year. I, too, got more birds of all types in Spring and Summer. However, this year I am not feeding after June 1 and not before November. I said that last year, but hope I follow through this year. I do think the lack of snow and very cold weather recently is a contributing factor. I feed safflower in one feeder, BOSS in another, a mix in another, and 2 or 3 suet feeders. 2 of my neighbors also feed, but I haven't talked to them about their business. In this drab weather I am really disliking the BOSS shells piling up on the ground. I wish safflower seed was not more expensive because I would put it in all my feeders as House Sparrows here didn't eat it. The millet in my mix just stays on the ground and I rarely see a Junco or native sparrow anymore. Even the chickadees are rare. I want to feed everything that comes to my yard too -- one can keep so-called bully birds with a mix in its own feeder away from other feeders if one wants to. Squirrels will go to a mix on the ground too. I don't understand the lack of birds either, but we'll see if moving the feeders makes a difference. I have baffles on my shepherds hooks, and 18-inch domes on feeders hanging from my eaves to keep the squirrels on the ground. I want to feed the doves and squirrels but I want them on the ground. I can't help you, kilian. I think the weather is a factor for you. I will keep you posted and you do the same. We're really lucky with our weather, compared to other parts of the States, so I don't really want to complain too much. Pat .

Bart: I do not know if there would be anywhere near my home where they sold horse food and could buy some sack of alfalfa (dry grass cut). I do not know if dry would be effective for this end of the basal shoots. I guess so. But two years ago I put as a padding of the orchard terraces spikes of dry cereal and cut into small pieces. It was terrible, thousands of seeds began to germinate and all the vegetable patches were filled with buds. I'm afraid to use alfalfa in this format for possible outbreaks. My desire is to find it in the form of a pellet. And while I find who through the web you could buy, sell in amounts that it is impossible to take even in the case of a very large garden as mine. lxxfcp: Thank you very much for taking the trouble to look for the link. Yes, fortunately I was able to open it. But using the Google translator ... ajajjajajajja is amazing, translated into Spanish, you can not understand anything. By the way, has come into my head what you should read what I write once google translated my Spanish to English jajajajajajja must be horrible to read me. As I have suffered when visiting that page. Thanks anyway. Really thank you very much!! I keep saying in any case that I think that it is easier to do with very young plants. Otherwise, the rods become very rigid, very woody and I doubt that some of my shrub roses like that resist bending without breaking some reach. The images of that link are of a climber. In that case, yes, I see it more possible because many climbing roses emit flexible buds. nikthegreek: I'm sorry to disagree with you. I am convinced that the grafted roses, take much longer and do so to a lesser extent to emit basal shoots. On the contrary, the fact of burying the knot or graft point, as Bart says, encourages the rosebush to issue its own roots on the rootstock. Having a good sized root ball made up of its own roots undoubtedly facilitates the emission of these basal shoots. Years ago, when my rosebushes planted with the graft point on ground level or my rosebushes did not emit enough, also they took enough to form basal shoots. On the contrary, in this garden, where all my roses (about 120/130) are buried their grafting point, most have basal shoots. In addition, these buds appear very early, it is not necessary that the rose be very adult. Yes, I agree with you that the fact of eliminating the oldest buds encourages the rose to emit new ones from the ground to replace the eliminated one. In any case, I think it is really important to make things easier for our roses to form a large root ball. A well-fed plant, healthy and with a good root system, will undoubtedly have fewer problems to come to sprout new basal shoots. Thank you very much everyone for your interesting opinions. I am very happy for your participation.