I'm hoping that these instructions will help you in uploading pictures to ImageShack as well as showing it to the members of GW. Here are steps. 1. Take a picture of the object 2. Move the picture from camera to computer 3. Goto http://www.imageshack.us 4. Click Browse button and find the picture that you copied to your computer in Step 2. 5. Click the "host it!" button. You can resize the picture by checking the resize checkbox and select the size you want. Ideal size for webpages is 800x600. 6. After clicking "host it!", your picture will be moved from your computer to Imageshack's computer(I.T. folks call it server farm). See image below after "host it!" was clicked. 7. Once you see that kind of screen, page down or scroll down until you see the "Direct link to image" just right of the rectangle. Actually, it's the last choice. 8. Highlight the whole line as shown in the picture starting from http upto jpg. TIP: gif is ideal for flat colors like a capture of an application software window and jpeg is ideal for photorealistic pictures. 9. Once the text is highlighted, on the keyboard press CTRL+C or you can click Edit menu above on your webbrowser then click Copy. Now, the text you highlighted is on the clipboard(I.T. folks call it memory address, hehehe). We can now start posting the image to Gardenweb. Type the following. Make sure that img and src have a blank space in between them. Also, the src will contain the link to our image that is enclosed by double quotes. Put the blinking cursor in between the double quotes and press CTRL+V. The CTRL+V is Microsoft's paste command. Another way is by clicking with mouse the Edit menu then Paste. The one you are typing should look similar below. You can now click "Preview Message" button so you can check if you are able to see the image you uploaded to ImageShack. If you are happy with the result, you can click "Submit Message" button. Voila!

When should i Round up the lawn? It all depends on when you are going to drop seed, and if you are going to fallow for a bit. In actuality you can round up a few hours before you lay seed, but that isn't too practical for home lawns. For a home lawn, 2 weeks is probably the least amount of time I would suggest, since after about a week you should know if you missed any areas, and you can reapply. Also when applying it, it is important that everything is green and growing. Dormant, or sluggish grass/weeds won't absorb it, and they can wake up during the renovation. So most people recommend watering a few times a week before you apply round-up, and afterwards as well. Which type of RU? I saw blue and green cap ones. Just use the straight round up or any brand that has glyphosate as the main ingredient (I use Ortho's from Home Depot, it's a little cheaper). The other kind has another chemical that makes things turn brown in a few days, but I don't see the need for it when renovating, plus it costs more. Should i drop the Calcium lime before i drop seed or after? Drop Potassium sulfate before or after? Your next liming should be 90 days after the one you did this spring. If that coincides with seeding then I would wait till your grass has been mowed a few times. When seeding I would use a half app of starter fertilizer at the time of seeding, and the other half after it has been mowed once or twice. So then lime 2 weeks after that starter app. The starter is high in K, so that will count towards a K app. Would it be smart to fallow the lawn? It's not a bad idea, especially if your weed pressure is/was high and you don't mind having a brown lawn for a month or so. Better to do a TTFF/KBG lawn or just KBG? It all depends on you and your lawn. If you have a good amount of shade, TTTF is going to do better. KBG makes the best lawn in my opinion, but it has a longer establishment and maturity time, so don't expect a full KBG lawn to be really nice next spring. It really hits it stride in its third year. TTTF/KBG is a nice compromise, but there can be some issues with color matching and growth rates. For the TTTF cultivars, those are all good. I would definitely use Bullseye, it is one of the best. LS 1200 is good, but it does poorly in shade. For the KBG: Bedazzeled: A good choice, not too dark, good spring green up, not sure about it's disease tolerance. Prosperity: A very dark cultivar, might not blend well with TTTF due to color, but I can't say for sure. It also has some disease issues, might not be the best if you are just using one in a mix. Moonlight 2: Not sure about this one, check the NTEP's and it's tech sheet. Emblem: Not a good choice. Seed on the market is old as it's being discontinued. A very aggressive cultivar, might dominate lawn. Also very dark. Has a very long dormancy period as well, i.e. slow spring green up. Blueburry: One of the darkest cultivars you can get. Might not blend well, and it might have disease issues. Moonlight SLT: A good cultivar, supposed to have some shade tolerance. Check the NTEP and tech sheet for mixability. Award: A compact midnight, so it's going to be dark, and might not blend well. Does OK in shadier sights, but not great. There are a few others to look at. Bewitched: A dark cultivar so be warned, but does well in shadier areas, not too aggressive, and has good disease tolerances. Unique and Apollo. Not as dark as some, good shade tolerances. America: An old standard, has been around for a long time, but still performs well. Has some shade tolerance, not as dark as others. Orfeo: A very fast one to germinate and establish. Blends well with TTTF, but is aggressive, so it can take over. In reality, color might not be as big an issue as I make it out to be as KBG really needs good soil high in iron to reach it's full potential while TTTF seems to be less finicky to iron levels. Many of the growers say a lot of their cultivars blend well with TTTF. If you are really worried about it though, then just go with all TTTF or KBG.

I agree with kimpa. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Let your friend walk in your shoes before condemning your approach. Back in the 60s, before Weed-b-Gone products made it easy to kill clover, bags of lawn seed always contained clover seed. The seed was a mix of several grass types plus clover. Nowadays Scott's and others have marketed the perfect lawn as one type of grass species which is completely free of alternate plants. It is a matter of perception. Just for grins I'll post a picture of my lawn on the edge of the Texas desert. It is a St Augustine grass lawn, but your friend might take issue with the height. That grass was about 25 inches high when the picture was taken. It's up about 10 more inches since then. It has not been watered or mowed since last October and has not been fertilized in years. Temperatures run in the high 90s to low 100s every day for the past several months. We just received 2.5 inches of rain over a 3-week period. Prior to that the last rain was in April. The color is good, there are no weeds, no insects, and no disease. This is an experiment to see if I can reach a state of zero-maintenance lawn in the desert. I think it is doable.

Pardon me Engima, but seeing as how zoysia is considered a southern grass, what made you think it would do well in southern Pennsylvania. I am aware that your area might be considered a "transitional" zone....meaning areas across the country from the coast westward enclosing the states of W.Va, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee.....that area, can use a warm season and/or a cool season type grass, even combining them where thought viable. But, being a warm-season grass, what made you think zoysia would be the grass for you. The attributes of that grass aside, like how it is able to stand up to drought, that ability would only apply if your area of Pa did not receive adequate rainfall. I don't think that applies. So why zoysia. You quoted three varieties of Kentucky Bluegrass. Was this recommended by someone in the know. My own thinking on what makes a good grass (and a good lawn) is to plant for whatever nature throws at you in the area you reside. In northern zones thus, a combo of K.B., with added fescue and ryegrass is considered a good idea. Each gives its best when situations arrive. Fescue is good for shade, kentucky blue for sun, ryegrass for standing up to rough treatment such as heavy traffic. To depend on one type of grass has its own set of rules. If something that goes against the K.B.'s happens, then you are 'up the creek' sort of. Instead of believing tha Lowes or Home Depot does not stock good quality grasses, why not speak to a nurseryman about what grasses do well for a home's lawn in your vicinity. Then compare what they have and whether you can buy that particular blend (or not a blend) in the other stores. Usually, one person has a bad experience with what has been bought at the box store, and then makes a most definite opinion that the stores only stock poor grades of grasses. Stores don't usually go out of their way to sell to patrons that which will not invite them back again. Stores deal with suppliers....the same as how some nurseries do. Grass, for the most part, depends on how it is taken care of. There are, however, good quality seeds as well as poor ones. The quick grasses do not usually stand up well to heat of summer or drought that happens irregularly. The good quality grasses can take the heat of the kitchen and bounce back when conditions get better. The other stuff dies quickly. So whatever grass you do buy, buy the best you can afford. Grass can be encouraged to be lusher and thereby stand up to adversity when it happens. But grass will not grow if the soil does not welcome it. So enrich your soil, make the grass want to stick around. Every fall, put a 1/2" - 1" layer of compost or good topsoil over the lawn. Do an overseeding, whether you believe the lawn needs it or not. The more lush you make the lawn, the better it can put up with what can attack it...including grubs. But grubs pretty soon will be going south (deeper) for the winter. The time to take up with them is in the spring when the larvae from this season's population come up for air. In the spring, put a layer 1/2" - 1" of compost (or good topsoil) over the lawn and let it grow up through it. Do this early, as soon as the frost has left the ground. The fall/spring ritual of putting down this layer of topsoil should be considered one of the things to do EVERY YEAR. Winter takes a lot out a lawn..so whatever you can do to enrich the soil the better your lawn will grow. Fertilize regularly---but not too often. Fertilizer can feed the soil and what grows in it.....but do it too much and it will cause short stubby roots, over nitrogenize and otherwise cause poor growth instead of pushing it. It does appear you have a job to do to change over your zoysia to something else....and you may be not making a good choice of change. I'm curious what your neighbors have done --is everybody in your neighborhood growing zoysia and what is their thinking of it. Reading about it, it does appear it has a lot going for it....and a lot not going for it. Generally it is for more southern areas....not particularly suited for where the snow flies.