Although birds will sometimes clip off the stem of a young seedling, this typically occurs during the day. If it's at night, this is probably the cutworm, as others have already written. Alan Chadwick had a technique for dealing with these larva which I have not seen mentioned here so far, so I'll briefly describe it. In the morning, when you discover the severed plant lying on the ground, look carefully within a circle of about 6' from the stem. Most often you will discover a small hole in the surface of the soil (about 1/16' in diameter). Take a table knife (not sharp) and dig down abut an inch or two to the side of that little hole. Flip the soil up onto the surface and look for the cutworm. They are quite easy to catch that way. As one or two of them can do a lot of damage, usually there aren't very many of them to worry about. Just be careful not to disturb the soil around the stricken plant, so that you can find the little hole. Chadwick called these larva by the name used in England where he was trained: Leatherjackets. More information about his masterful gardening techniques can be found at the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Alan Chadwick garden techniques

Onionology is complicated. Will try to clarify a little: First a little background: "onion" is a huge catch-all imprecise category encompassing a highly diverse clan, allium cepa and other allium species as well. What we are talking about here are bi-annual bulbing onions, grown from seed. All varieties of bulbing onions ultimately derive from the so-called "spanish" onion. They fall into two rough categories, long-day and short-day, based on how much daylight there is around the solstices where the plant is growing. So bulbing onions are highly sensitive to photo period. The first most important thing to know is whether your latitude is "short" day or "long" day. As it happens, Kentucky is kind of in the middle, either might work though long day is probably more likely to do well. There are also a few hybrid varieties called "intermediate" day that might do best of all for you. Short-day varieties are sown in fall and come to full size in late spring. They require more than just low latitude, they also require a mild winter climate, about z7b or warmer, so some regions of KY might work and others not. Long-day are sown soon after the winter solstice and planted out in early spring and are full size in mid to late summer, depending. An exception is the walla-walla which is adapted to the PNW and I think there may be one or two others long-days that can be fall-sown in mild northern climes. So the infamous "sets" are small bulbs grown from seed and then planted to grow for the plant's second season. The plant really wants to bolt and grow seed rather than a bulb. Sets are a scam perpetrated by seed companies. They are mostly a waste of time and space. Buy plants grown from seed in texas next year, they come at just the right time for planting out and the results will be far better.

wiggie what is your electric rate? Based on your quotes, it appears you have been quoted five ton HPs, not four ton as you stated. You should verify with quoting dealers. I assume you have requested a load calc both cooling and heating-get it in writing. You plan on using oil furnace as backup heat? If correct, dealer should confirm the rated blower size on the oil furnace. You want a HP that has a good balance of both heating and cooling BTUs as well as good eff HSPF rating. Both Trane models are light on heating BTUs. I suggest looking at both Carrier Comfort 13 Puron model as well as sister model Bryant Legacy 13 Puron with matching evap coil. While pricing varies from market to market, I find the Trane quotes on the high side. IMO

Good Morning Katherine, I felt I should respond to let others who are reading understand more about the Fastlane. (Katherine called me yesterday afternoon and we had a discussion at length about the Fastlane). The Fastlane website shows many pictures of our retrofit Fastlanes because that was the product that we initially sold and have the most installed pictures of. It was only after a complete redesign that we started heavily promoting the wall mount (or new construction) Fastlane. The hydraulic pump for either the deck mount or the wall mount Fastlane can be placed by the rest of the pool equipment up to 200 Feet away. The wall mount Fastlane mounts to a bracket that is installed in the pool wall. It will protrude outward 18 inches at its widest point and thanks to the "step down" design, this occurs underwater and remains sleek at the top. The reason why the Fastlane must mount to the wall and not installed behind the wall is not only for functional purposes but for safety reasons. The bottom 1/3 of the unit is the intake. The Fastlane will draw water from 360 degrees around the base creating nearly 5 sqft of drawing space. If the Fastlane were to be installed directly in the wall then it would only be able to draw water in from the front of the machine, creating an entrapment hazard. The Fastlane needs at least 2 feet of open space on either side of the machine to not only work properly but to insure that the there is not an entrapment issue. There are pool construction techniques that can be employed to recess the Fastlane but it must adhere to our minimum clearance guidelines to ensure performance and safety. I understand that, for aesthetic purposes, it is ideal to have a swim system invisible in the pool. However behind the wall system's do not perform even close to the level in which the Fastlane does. The Fastlane is designed to be the perfect swim machine and if we made changes to accommodate this, we would sacrifice the quality of the current and integrity of the Endless Pools name. As for an installed price of the Fastlane. I can't speak on your final estimate for I am not a pool builder nor am I familiar with the particulars in the project. But I will make this statement. Do you want to buy a car that is from a fly by night manufacturer or do you want a car from a time tested, respected manufacturer? Good quality work, dependability, warranty and customer service go along way and in my mind, is worth the price of admission. Good luck in your pool journey. Hope to have you swimming soon. Best Regards, Michael