Marti, I agree that one of the problems is having to rake and clean up the area after it freezes back in winter. But what really made me remove it was that it grew over the walk so quickly after trimming. I was looking for a picture that I took of Purple heart hanging over a wall at the S.A. Zoo, but instead found this one of where I had it planted. It really looks great in combination with lime green plants. That's a coleus in the pot and a Margarita sweet potato vine in the background. At first it did get water from the run-off in watering the plants in the pots, but later when I didn't replace those plants it grew like crazy even without extra water. Well, there is something positive to be said for that ability in these dry years we're having.

I don't know, I haven't had that happen to me. The Helpful Gardener site said something about if you don't post more than once that they will delete your account for being inactive, which seems extreme to me. I just logged into my account there (same name: tanya117), I didn't have any problems so far. The way that they treated you seems very wrong. You might try emailing them at: admin@helpfulgardener.com to see if you can get them to restore your account.

Maybe in 6 months things will be better. @peabody1 - as I said above, it will take about 2 weeks. At 2 weeks it was plenty long enough, but Idk where you are getting 6 months. I was advised to try Affresh, which is a dishwasher cleaner that has a lemony smell. I cannot fathom why you would want to use another dishwasher cleaner on top of the one you have just used to add another smell to what you are suffering with now. Who "advised" you to do this? And, if you are taking advice from someone or somewhere else, why did you post here. This is ridiculous. Jeez, just wash the dishes. @wdccruise - it does not sound like you have used dishwasher cleaner like Cascade or Finish (not dishwasher detergent, a dishwasher cleaner). Please use one of those, and come back here and tell us how you got rid of the smell from the cleaner by just washing the dishes. I swear to you, it is not going to work.

If they are small ants, inside looking for food and water, I suggest that you look at Terro Liquid Ant Bait stations. As long as you follow the simple directions, they work perfectly. I had a bad infestation in my kitchen and bathroom years ago, used a couple of the stations and never saw an ant again. Baits are much preferable over contact sprays because of the toxicity of the latter as well as the ability of ants to take a bait to their nest and subsequently get rid of the whole population. If they are the large carpenter ants, then that’s another conversation.