arjo_reich

I have a 50-60 ft. tree in the center of my back patio and onto it I am training various types of morning glories and moonflowers (evening glories).

As these start to come in and fill the trunk of the tree with their green heart-shaped leaves and multi-colored flowers I'm wondering what I should plant in the rest of the border around the tree.

The area will be partial sun (3 hours) / partial shade (4 hours) and the soil will be moderately dry and well drained.

I'm open to all range of suggestions from flowers to ferns, I'm just trying to figure out what would look best.

I bought a doggie dooley, assembled it, and realized that this entire god-forsaken state (TN) is made of hard, red clay... To the point where digging is done with pick-axes and - in larger scales - dynamite.

I really wanted one of these damn things because bagging crap is no fun, and tedious at best but everything I read about them says that clay + dooley = disaster, bar none.

Advice, comments, opinions greatly welcome...

I was just wondering if it's ok to use a very diluted solution of TSP as a cleaning agent for walls if you're **NOT** planning on repainting them.

We are moving into our new home soon and we want to clean the walls - they're not obsessively dirty but rather than using using dish detergent I've always used TSP (tri-sodium phosphate, if i recall correctly) but in the past I've always done it as a step to clean the walls before painting however this time we're not going to be repainting...

<shrug>

Opinions, comments, alternate suggestions...?

Since I have to go through the trouble of knicking all of the seeds, does anyone know if morning glories are easy to grow indoors into seedlings before transplanting outdoors?

The real long and short of the question is because I don't move into my new house for another month and I have an fence I plan on turning into a wall of morning glories, and i'm too excited to wait a month, lol.

But I'm unsure how fast they'll grow or how quickly they're start vining once they become seedlings and I don't want them to get a head of me...

I'm not even talking about financing the "re-education" portion of it, I'm talking about trying to figure out how to afford the 50% or more paycut.

Right now I'm a Senior Software Analyst and I've been seriously considering going to school for education. Since I have no college degree at the moment, I'd definately be committed for the 4+ year stretch, but I can do it part time and pay for that as I go and continue working, that's not an issue.

The issue is that when I actually **** careers to education I'll be going from the highest paid to one of the lowest paid career options on the board.

I'm sure that seems completely senseless to some but you have no idea how agonizing it is to be forced to continue doing something you have no passion for simply because it's the only thing you can think to do that earns as much money as it does. And with the added requirement of a wife and children, simply "cutting back" isn't exactly a "long-term" solution.

:shrug: