That's a lesser of 2 evils situation in an organic garden...unless you happen to like mint taking over. Getting rid of the mint could be as hard (harder in some cases) to get rid of than the poison ivy. That said, getting rid of the mint non-organically is a lot easier than getting rid of poison ivy organically or chemically...so it is an interesting observation coming at it from a variety of angles. That said, mint does have an allelopathic effect (as well as a competition effect leaning towards the mint) on some plants...dunno about poison ivy, though. It wouldn't be outrageous or weird to find out it does. Some sages (mint family) are known to be allelopathic against a range of crops and wild flowers.

Paula: Seems no one is picking up on this. For what it's worth, I get most of what I need from the internet. That way you often can find multiple sources. Also, if you post photos here on the forum a lot of people can help you out on most ID's, also very good help available on the ID forum. I get most of my brainstorms on what to sow here on the forum too. Someone will post a photo and I know I gotta have it. I also browse seed catalogues (paper and online sites), then google it to see if it's a good choice for my yard. (e.g. wet or dry soil?, alkaline or acidic soil?, etc). Books are nice to have, but have to be stored, become outdated, don't have newer choices, and are expensive. I do have some garden books, but, honestly, I find the internet more useful than any book I've ever found. I'm so thankful that Al Gore invented it! Karen

I liked the It's All Too Much book. I've seen him on tv and thought he made sense as well as being understanding and compassionate, although firm in his ideas. There's also this book I checked out from the library a couple of months ago: ItÂs Hard to Make a Difference When You CanÂt Find Your Keys by Marilyn Paul. It's not as easy a read but it went into more psychological reasoning as to why people keep clutter. Here are some of my notes from it (her example questions/answers, not mine): "There is an exercise that I do in my workshops that I call Âchoosing a new habit. In it, you write down how you do things now, including your current habit, your current thinking, your current belief, and your current result. And you write down your desired result, the new habit that will get you the new result, and what you would need to be thinking and believing, in order to get a different result. Then you make a choice: Which do you really want? I encourage you to try this yourself, using the example that follows as a model. 1\. Choose one habit that you want to change and describe your current behavior in simple terms. When I eat a bag of popcorn and drink a bottle of water, I leave the empty containers in the car. 2\. Write down the thoughts that accompany this habit. IÂll come back later and get them. 3\. Identify the belief that underlies this behavior. It could be any thoughts you might have that support your current habit and sound true to you. Details are unimportant. 4\. What is the result that you get from this habit? Messy car. 5\. Now describe your desired result and the difference it will make to you. A clean interior and much more pleasant transportation. 6\. What new habit will help you get that result? I bring in everything from the car at the end of the day. 7\. What would you have to be thinking in order to carry out this new habit? I enjoy a clean car and itÂs easy enough to bring in everything right then. 8\. What belief (or beliefs) would support this new habit? (This new belief might be the opposite of the old belief, but not always.) Small details make a big difference. I am worthy of dignity. When you compare steps 1\-4 with steps 5\-8, you can see that you can make a choice. At this point, you will see that you will need to make this new choice over and over again until it is no longer a choice  it has become a new habit." After copying/pasting that, I think I need to do that thinking exercise with some areas of my life - it sounds really good, actually.

I would like to make it clear that the reason I don't have a coffee table is because of lack of space! I have gone for a nest of tables in my small sitting area. I used to have a lovely glass topped one which was given to me when I lived in the UK but I had to leave it behind when I moved back to Australia. I used it for pot plants and put it where it would catch the sun,,,so still no books on it! Woodnymph, you could be right about the glue. The worst dog damage I had was when one of my deerhounds decided to tear open a couch to make a nest of the filling to give birth!