Hello. I am a HSC student in Australia currently suffering the same problem. I live on a farm and put up with the ducks daily dips in my pool at early hours of the morning and evenings, and even when we are not home. i am currently studying Design and Technology at High school and have decided to construct a scare sculpture that will deter ducks, i would love it if you people could fill out one of my surveys for my project. I will let you know how my duck experiments go and how my final design gos'. If you have any ideas or any more stories please send them to me cause they are great help. Regards Imogen

I have a Cub Cadet BC509. It comes with a string head and a brushcutting blade. It is a 4 cycle engine so you do not have to mess with preparing the gas oil mixture, and more importantly the gas does not evaporate and leave the 2% Oil to mess up the gas jets, and other critical areas of the fuel system. Once you pump the gas through the system it starts as instructed. It cost $230 or about the cost of other brands of string trimmers in the same class. I use it for all trimming jobs in my 3/4 acre yard. I performs well as a string trimmer around the flowers, house, and similar areas. Change to the Brushcutter blade and you have a weapon to attack those tall grasses, small shrubs, and low hanging limbs. I use mine routinely to cut back the 4' weeds on a vacant adjacent lot, cut blackberry brambles, greenbrier, grape vine, poison ivy, and other brush that collects around the yard and in the woods immediate to my lot. It can accidentally cut of a 3 foot tall holly tree that you did not intend to cut down, and the small pines that come from nowhere. Based on my experience with the Cub Cadet BC509, it would quickly take care of things like pampas grass, and other ornamental grass.

lime green is roughstalk bluegrass until proven otherwise. Unfortunately, yours is seeding already. I would definitely hit that area with roundup using a glove--especially if you let it grow taller than desirable grass, as in your picture. Pre-emergent in fall is useful for areas that have heavy infiltration. I'm afraid mulch mowing and core aeration can spread stolons everywhere. I find spring roundup the best way of control when it seems to be growing faster than anything else, so is easy to identify and kill.

Fungus is best prevented rather than treated. So you'll want to start early next year, maybe mid-April and keep it going through the summer. Headway G is great but very expensive so I would suggest looking into purchasing propiconazole and azoxystrobin in gallon jugs to use. They will pay themselves off in 3-4 apps(vs Headway) and then you'll have fungicide to use for many years.