I initially tried gasoline (bad idea.)

Was shocked at the initial flame when I lit it.

Other than that, it just burned for 15 min and didn't do anything.

What did work was charcoal from my grill.

After making dinner on the grill, I'd put the still hot charcoals on the stump.

Did that three times

and it ate away most all of the stump.

Cheap and effective!

Fire is a great idea.

I highly recommend it.

I had a stump in my yard a few years ago and a friend lit a small fire on top (enough to burn for an hour or so) and just left it.

The fire burned out the stump and all the roots which subsequently collapsed.

There was a bit of a hole to be filled, but it was gone within 48 hours and about 20 minutes of light labour.

No digging.

No special equipment.

Obviously there are dangers to lighting fires in your yard

so take resonable precautions.

Also don't do this if the stump is above gas mains...

Fire is super underrated for stump removal!

Other people will give answers like, "spend 15 hours digging it out" or "spend hundreds of dollars" - bad ideas.

Burn it!

I concur with the comments that grinding is the best route to go.

Chemicals are overpriced for what they are and toxic to the immediate soil.

hauling them out with a tractor or bobcat works but leaves a huge hole in the ground that must be back filled grinding allows you to set how deep you go and provides that instant "problem solved" look Of course there is always the procrastinating gardener approach... tree stumps provide valuable nutrients and a home for insects and animals

they are not really that unsightly if you put a pot of flowers on them just wait twenty years and your problem is solved with no effort on your part!

I've chipped the main roots and stump with an axe to speed the natural decay.

Micro-organisms can infiltrate the cuts ans colonize the wood.

Indeed rotting happened in 3 years.

You can go to Home Depot and rent an easy to use tree stump grinder for $70 for 4 hours...

trust me this is the way to go.

It'll be gone in no time with no burning or digging.

Afterwards you have free mulch that you can recycle.

Good luck!

If you leave the stump to dry out it will be easier to burn.

The amount and type of sap will also determine your success.

Stumps can take days of burning before the fire burns out, so make sure you put some rope or something around it to avoid injury.

My favorite (but not in too much hurry) method is a simple pile of manure completely covering the stump.

It provides nitrogen, but perhaps more importantly also a damp environment to promote rotting.

Most stumps are well-broken down within 2-3 years via this method.

If feeling some slight sense of urgency I'll pickaxe them (breaking up the partially rotted bits and exposing the un-rotted parts) and add fresh manure every 6 months or so.

You can pull them out with a car jack.

You need to secure a chain to the jack and the stump and have a thick board for the jack to sit on.

I've heard of this to take out fence posts.

I have never tried either, but it makes sense theoretically.

This worked well for me.

First DON'T use Gas.

Diesel or Kerosene much better with higher flash point.

Now I used a 1" diameter auger bit in my drill and made some core holes about 4 inches and about 14 inches down (my auger bit is 18").

Fill the holes with diesel and cork them.

wait a couple days and fill them again.

Come back after another couple of days and you light your "candle wick" stump.

Usually took 24 hours to burn out.

Hope this helps

If you have deer in your yard... Drill holes in stump as deep and as large as possible.

Fill holes with table salt and water in with warm water.

Put salt lick (block) on stump.

Wait for deer to find it.

Continue adding granular salt to stump and dissolving it with warm water.

Wait a little longer until they are frequent visitors and enjoying the salt lick.

Remove the salt block.

Deer will "discover" salty stump and decide it is as tasty as the salt block AND that it adds fiber to their diet.

Continue to apply salt and water into stump ( or dissolve salt and make brine water...).

Adding some molasses anywhere along the way to the water/brine mixtures involved will make it both sweet and salty.

If you successfully recruit a deer herd, you'll be surprised that (with a bit of patience and a little motivation) deer hooves are great stump grinders).

At some point it may be necessary to fill the hole with soil and that will work only if the deer are not finding much salt in the hole.

Move salt block to next stump and repeat process, the herd will figure it out!

A case of beer (a 6 pack does me)

A Saturday night Campfire over stump Smores are a nice add on Repeat as necessary

Question: I'm looking for the best way to get rid of tree stumps.  I have so many on my property that digging them out by hand is almost unreasonable, and I can't get a truck into the back to pull them out.  I've looked at  this question , and grinding would probably work well but I'm looking for a less expensive option (it costs about $300 a day to rent a grinder around here). Does anyone have experience with burning out tree stumps?

Should I burn out my tree stumps?

If you leave a stump to dry out, it will be easier to burn. They can take days to burn. Grinding is probably a better method or try putting a pile of manure over it.

Leave the stump to dry out and then burn it. Stumps can take days of burning before the fire burns out, so make sure you put some rope or something around it to avoid injury. Grinding is probably the best route to go.  You can also cover the stump with manure.

Leave the stump to dry out iand then burno it. Stumps can take days of burning before the fire burns out, so make sure you put some rope or something around it to avoid injury.


Earwigs like to come out at night when you're not looking and eat flowers and new growth.

Remove mulch like bark or piles of leaves from the immediate area.

a thin layer of diatomaceous earth around the basil will discourage them.

However this will have to be redone after a rainfall Longer term solutions are consider where you have planted basil as your "trap" area.

Plant more basil that you want to keep in clay pots or other containers in a different area.

encourage natural insect eating predators such as frogs.

They need water, shelter and lots of insects to eat.

Last year we grew chives right next to basil in our square foot garden and had absolutely no pest problems near the chives.

I am not sure if chives repel earwigs though.

I did find this article however.

You might try what I did for the same problem with Asiatic Garden Beetles - make covers for the plants out of window screen material.

Row cover might be easier to use, but overheating is an issue unless you can find some really lightweight row-cover.

It was quite a revelation when I discovered an earwig in my basil plants.

The leaves had been developing "holes" overnight.

Since then, I've been spraying the basil plants twice daily with a 10% solution of dish soap and water.

I'm partial to the Dollar store brand -- don't ask what that brand may be.

I know that its an amber colored soap.

I give my plants a thorough spraying both on the upper and lower side of the leaves.

The nymphs are similar in color to the plant stems and difficult to see.

The eggs are dark green and brown.

I spray them all and leave a soapy, foamy residue around the stems and leaves -- as much as possible.

Not sure if the soap kills them outright, so when they fall from the plant, I try to remove them all from the vicinity.

The soaping makes the leaves nice and shiny, too.

I thought I had slugs, so I set up a few beer traps.

In the morning I had 4 earwigs, so I guess the traps are at least partially effective against earwigs.

Question: Last night I found that earwigs have been eating my newly planted basil plants. They have only been in the ground for a few days, and it didn't take long for the earwigs to find them.  The planted ones are lost. I have read  this question  about millipedes, which mentions removing debris, so I'll start with that.   Is there anything I can do to prevent earwigs from eating any more herbs that I would like to plant?

How can I keep earwigs from eating my basil?

Remove mulch or bark from the area around. Encourage natural predators like frogs. You can alos try growing chives right next to basil.

Remove mulch like bark or piles of leaves from the immediate area and encourage natural insect eating predators such as frogs.  You can also grow chives next to the basil or make covers for the plants out of window screen material.

Remove mulch like bark or piles of leaves from the immediate area.

Encourage natural insect eating predators such as frogs.

Last year we grew chives right next to basil in our  square foot garden  and had absolutely no pest problems near the chives.

You can make covers for the plants out of window screen material.

Spray the basil plants twice daily with a 10% solution of dish soap and water.


In the west water rights were acquired by the states to encourage expansion westward.

Over times most states have enacted laws/regulations permitting rainwater catchment.

For a full list of these laws, please refer to: www.harvesth2o.com/statues_regulations.shtml

Utah still prohibits RWH outright, but I haven't heard of anyone being prosecuted for doing it on their homestead.

Louisiana, in New Orleans, still has a ban on cisterns because of an old law dating back to French rule that was a response to mosquito outbreaks.

California just adjusted their policy, in spite of Governor Brown's veto of a law that would have established guidelines.

Los Angeles county passed legislation to support RWH there.

Most states have permitting and/or permission restrictions when a RWH system is installed in a service area of a public water supply to insure no cross-connections or backflow problems exist.

For more information on rainwater harvesting in Texas, go here: http://www.rainwaterharvestingtexas.com

Rainwater collection can refer to different aspects.

There's agricultural use, there's home and garden use, there's

storm run off prevention, etc.

As for collecting water for personal household use, Colorado has had a history of not allowing it , but in 2009, they passed new legislation to allow homeowner rain water collection (as well as well drilling): http://www.flxxrainwater.com/resources/co-laws/

It appears Washington still has restrictions, though has relaxed them on minimal amounts (such as rain barrels).

This article also talks about Colorado's issues as well: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/the-legalities-of-rainwater-harvesting/

I'm not aware of other state's restrictions, though there very well may be.

Washington state removed the restrictions on rainwater harvesting for homeowners.

It is not against the law now, in Wa.

state to collect rainwater for personal use.

That changed in 2009.

Find the info here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2011/016.html

Of course, if you set up a massive dam and store millions of gallons of water, that is another story, particularly in Eastern Washington state.

This is fodder for some extremists who have tried to prevaricate the situation by misrepresenting the facts, and spreading hate and discontent.

This is totally wrong.

The average homeowner can collect and store rainwater in Wa.

State.

It's no longer against the law -

however it was for 90 some years before 2009.

Here's an up-to-date resource concerning the legality of rain collecting across the U.S. states since this question is often asked.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was contracted by the United States Department of Energy to produce this publication: June 2015, “ Rainwater Harvesting State Regulations and Technical Resources ”:

The U.S. Department of Energy contracted for the compilation of state and local laws and regulations concerning rainwater harvesting.

The above map is an excerpt displaying States based on applicable regulations, lack of regulations, and/or governmental encouragement/incentives for rainwater harvesting.

Note the map displays only Colorado State as being “Very Limited.”

Within the Continental U.S., the majority of States actually allow, if not support, rainwater harvesting, not ban it’s use, but very local health/law codes should always be checked.

Colorado is the only state with extensive law restrictions applying to rainwater harvesting, and even then, the action is only limited and is due to water scarcity within the region and a sensitive environmental balance that is trying to be maintained for many reasons.

Question: Does anyone have an up-to-date list of which US states require a permit or otherwise restrict land owners from harvesting water? I know Washington, Utah, and Colorado were on the list at one point.

Which US states restrict rain water harvesting?

Louisiana prohibits cisternes due to a mosquito outbreak. Colorado has overturned a ban on domestic collection. The same can be said for Washington.

Utah still prohibits RWH outright and Louisiana, in New Orleans, still has a ban on cisterns because of an old law dating back to French rule that was a response to mosquito outbreaks.  Los Angeles county passed legislation to support RWH there.  For personal household use, Colorado has had a history of not allowing it , but in 2009, they passed new legislation to allow homeowner rain water collection. It appears Washington still has restrictions, though has relaxed them on minimal amounts such as rain barrels.


Some ideas: Hang the empty seed packet over a stick shoved into the ground on the end of a row.

This will usually fade by the end of the season, but at that point the plants have grown large enough that you know what's what.

Use blank dog tags and a stamp set to create metal labels.

Write in pencil on the back of strips of scrap vinyl siding .

I've seen small wooden signs nailed to stakes that have the plant name painted on them.

Similarly, I've seen signs that appear to have been woodburned/carved.

If you want really cheap and easy, don't mind appearance much, and are willing to perhaps replace them halfway through the season, save your junk mail.

Cut envelopes open on the short end, write your label on the back with a sharpie and hang it over a stake as mentioned above for seed packets.

Write with a paint marker on an empty wine bottle , and invert the bottle over the end of a stick.

Carve the name into an flattened-out aluminum can .

Cut open cardboard milk cartons and write on the inside with a sharpie.

The plastic coating on the inside of the cardboard makes these very durable; they'll probably last a couple of seaons -- perhaps with a refresh on the marker.

Not a direct answer, but I was reminded by @Rob Forrest's suggestion that I should mention I've had good luck with planning my plantings so that I have a map of what is supposed to be where.

Of course nothing ever goes exactly to plan, so I make sure to update the map after reality strikes

and then I have a record of what is growing where.

I slice up plastic containers/tubs, such as one-litre yogurt tubs, with ordinary scissors or kitchen shears, into strips about half an inch across and 6 inches long, and I write on them with a grease pencil.

Just the plant (eg lettuce, green beans) - the specific type etc are recorded in the garden book, not on the label.

I write in the top half of the strip and then just stick it in the ground.

I've had the same grease pencil for over 20 years.

I may need to replace it in the next decade or so.

I keep the tags in the fall and reuse them if I am planting the same stuff later (and most of us usually do plant the same core things all the time.)

Where I live, we can recycle those tubs, so any strips I don't want any more can go in the blue box.

As an extra bonus, some of them are written in the "brand new to writing" handwriting of then-small children (now grown), giving me a little nostalgia as I look through them to find the one I want, a bit like putting kindergarten-made ornaments on my xmas tree.

One grower we buy from uses cheap PVC Venetian blinds.

You can cut the slats with scissors and they are virtually indestructible.

Label with grease pencil or indelible marker

and you are good to go.

This worked well for me as we had a few sets of these blinds in the garage and it was better than throwing them out.

Used plastic forks and knives, save them up from lunch, then write on the black ones with silver sharpie and the white ones with black sharpie...

Re-using garbage is awesome.

I heard a great suggestion on Gardeners question time.

Instead of sticking in a label that invariably gets lost, fades so that you can't read it, or just looks plain ugly; why not take a photo of what you've planted and name that photo with the name of the plant.

You'll have a record of exactly whats there.

I used popsicle sticks and a sharpie for plant labels this year.

It worked really well for all of our seed starts.

If you want to save time, you can color code them so you don't have to write out the same thing dozens of times.

If you have open fires in your home you're likely to have a supply of kindling/starters.

If so, you're either buying them or, better still, making your own out of old pallets/demolition timber.

They make great plant labels.

In my case I just rob from the kindling stack whenever I need labels.

Easy to write on with a Sharpie.

Return them to the kindling pile when they're old and worn and faded at the end of the season.

Question: I would like to put small plant labels in my garden so that I don't forget what exactly is sown where.  Can you suggest plant labels that:   are made from non-toxic materials  can have arbitrary text written/carved in them  are relatively easy to make  are made from materials easy to obtain  are made from materials that are durable outdoors for at least one growing season

How do I make plant labels for outdoors?

Hang the empty seed packet over a stick in the ground. You can also use blank dog tags, scrap vinyl siding or a flattened-out aluminium can.

The simplest idea is to hang the empty seed packet over a stick shoved into the ground on the end of a row or you could do the same with an envelope or a cut up milk carton. Some more interesting ideas include using  blank dog tags and a stamp set  to create metal labels, scraps of vinyl , flattened aluminium can or small wooden signs nailed to stakes. Or why not write with a paint marker on an empty wine bottle , and invert the bottle over the end of a stick.

I slice up plastic containers/tubs, such as one-litre yogurt tubs, with ordinary scissors or kitchen shears, into strips about half an inch across and 6 inches long, and I write on them with a grease pencil or save up used plastic forks and knives, then write on the black ones with silver sharpie and the white ones with black sharpie...


I suggest thick gardening gloves and a disposable paper suit you sometimes see landscapers or painters wearing.

Once everything is stuffed into composting bags, throw out the suit and gloves (or be sure to clean the gloves appropriately if you want to reuse them).

Oh, and cover your face so you can't absently wipe your face with the back of your sleeve... :)

This may sound crazy, but one way to do it is to get a goat and let it chow down on the stuff.

Goats, and pretty much everything except humans, are immune to the effects of poison ivy and they are notoriously voracious.

Of course they will also indiscriminately eat the rose bushes next to the poison ivy too, so this is only practical if you (1) Can get and contain a goat; and (2) Don't have any plant life you want to save (including trees) near the poison ivy.

From my personal experience, what Stefan Mohr said is the basis.

Only differences are what I use, which is: a heavy duty mechanics overall, the long sleeved, fully closed kind, legs of it tucked into also heavy duty work shoes, comfortable ones long sleeved socks, NOT worn outside the overall but inside as a second safety layer, the overall sleeves tucked into WELDERS HIDE GLOVES, that is, those that goes well up the forearm a sombrero if needed, to deal with ivy that is already up trees or up whatever, safety goggles, if not so, safety lenses can do a bandana put under the sombrero, hanging on the back of the head and neck and falling overlapped on the back of the overall, foreign legion fashion

If there is a really bad infestation, if there's a thick masses of the ivy, it can exudate or if is mixed with already dried up parts that can crumble and make dust, a basic workshop mask or if things are not so bad, another bandana set over mouth and nose is always advisable as it protects from any sprig that could lash against the face when pulled down or up.

Removal

If the ivy is not too thick, carefully pull it up from the soil or down the tree if this is not practical, then with a short machete cut, but cut, gently.

not try to chop, pieces of the weed mass that are then manageable with the gloved hands.

Then make a loose bunch of the cut and pulled off weeds and let it get dehydrated for a couple of hours under the sun

then I mix the remains with either builders lime or gypsum (plaster if no gypsum available) depending of if the soil there is acidic or alkaline, so the weeds getwell mixed with it, then allow it to dry more under the sun mixing at times for a day or two, covering with a plastic sheet if there's much or hard wind, or rain, uncovering the heap when there's sun dig a little shallow pit and set the mix there, adding some more lime or gypsum along with sand on the top.

This way there will seldom be left any viable seeds for next rainy season, and if some were left they can easily be spotted and cut or squashed as soon as they begin to sprout in that little contained space.

I do this last part as I do not like at all "exporting" problems, as can happens if I just get the cut weeds into a plastic bag and send it to the garbage bin, but for who can't or won't do the lime or gypsum mix and bury of the weed remains, is a valid option, I guess.

After the gear is used: I would put some lime or gypsum and rub the gloves and shoes, as well as step on it, before taking them off then would peel off the sombrero, bandanas and then the overall letting all for the rest of the day under the sun and rain if any (not the gloves!).

Then rub the hands gently with a bit of lime or

gipsum powder take away the goggles or safety lenses (better goggles) again clean hands with some of the clean lime or gypsum from the sack.

I find better to leave this powder on the hands for a while than to wash immediately with soap and water.

If you are wary of remains of uroshiol in your wear gear, wash it after letting it to dry under the sun, mainly the bandanas.

I have done this about two dozen times and haven't had any problem.

Ah, a basic thing is to be patient, to do the work calmly and ponder all things, and this will avoid any error that can lead to contact of the naked parts of the body and the ivy.

Take a good pee and poo before starting, so you don't have to be messing with it in the middle of the work, better safe than sorry.

We use Roundup on poison ivy.

It is restricted for sale here in Ontario, but poison ivy is a permitted use.

We don't gather up the dead plants - or in fact notice any.

Over the years I have developed a strong sensitivity to it, so I don't participate in getting rid of it, but I have no problems going places that poison ivy used to be, suggesting that the Roundup-killed plants and their oils go away after some number of months.

The less you touch it the better, so any form of pulling it up and throwing it away is going to be problematic.

The Roundup approach is not particularly easy - each plant gets an individal spray - but it does work.

Go to the pharmacy and buy some TecNu.

It removes the oils from poison ivy, etc.

from your skin.

Tecnu Original Outdoor Skin Cleanser

I own property with a lot of poison ivy, I first discovered it by triming brush and found myself standing in a field of it.

I have been using tecnu for many years and have not gotten the poison ivy rash.

I take a bath with it.

The hard part is washing it off with cool water.

Tecnu is also good for fire ant bites.

I buy my tecnu from Gemplers in the 32 oz size.

Question: What is the best way to remove poison ivy from a yard or trees without getting it all over yourself? I figured that even with an herbicide that the dead poison ivy would still need gathered up, and the oils would still cause problems

How to safely remove poison ivy

Use think gardening gloves and a paper suit. Cover your face as well.

Wear thick gardening gloves and a disposable paper suit you sometimes see landscapers or painters wearing and cover your face so you can't absently wipe your face with the back of your sleeve. A great way to do it is to get a goat and let it chow down on the stuff. Roundup and TecNu can also be used on poison ivy.

Roundup and TecNu can be used on poison ivy.


Goats are browsers rather than grazers.

That means that they prefer to eat woody shoots and stems of trees and shrubs (including your flowering plants) over grasses like hay.

In this regard goats are more closely related to deer than to other domestic livestock like sheep or cattle, which are both grazers.

Like Tea Drinker mentioned they also like variety and will try pretty much anything if left to their own devices.

Some goats are immune to electric fences.

I usually chase my goats out of the roses and various other plants with a stick.

I have also resorted to waving my arms and rather ugly words.

I never touch them (well today I whacked the female for the first time)

she had just finished off the last of the newly potted plants, in our enclosed anti-goat terrace.

They are lovely but the male goat pisses on the children's toys.

Yes, he is a goat, not a dog.

I have a 3 foot wooden fence and it is just something fun to jump over.

I also have a four foot electric fence that deters all other animals but goats.

My advice is to love your goats more than the plants because they will eat all your favorites, perch on everything like parrots, bleat early in the morning and their mating habits are not good morning material.

Sure: a 6-foot high fence.

Preferably with some electrification.

Given that goats will, on occasion, eat things as diverse as cardboard, newspaper, clothing and cat food, nothing you can spray on your plants is going to dissuade them.

Good quality electric fence will do the trick.

It only needs to be 32 or 36 inches high.

It will also keep them from standing on your car.

We have goats on our farm.

Larger ones and small, Dwarf Nigerian ones.

One things is true about animals in a fence, they'll test the fences.

Horse, donkey, pig

, goat... they'll test the fence and if the fence has a weakness, they'll likely find it.

We use goat/sheep fence to keep the goats within their fields.

This is a woven wire fence with 4" x 4" openings.

The woven wire is more expensive than the welded wire

but it is considerably more durable.

Our goat fence is 4' high and that is certainly sufficient to contain a goat as long as there is nothing nearby upon which it can climb.

We utilize electric tape to encourage the larger animals to respect the fence (a horse can put tremendous pressure on fence posts) but the goats tend to be happy with their pasture.

To keep them off of a particular area, I'd think step-in posts with electric netting and a sufficiently powerful solar charger would be a good choice.

Try applying fresh cow dung or goat dung on leaves.

The stinky odor keeps the goats away from them.

Check the type of plant before spraying it.

Sometimes it might harm the leaves.

A tea of goat dung has been use since before I was a kid that was 65 years ago

and my grandmother told me about that

and she passed at 87 abut

40 yrs ago they lived and didn't get diseased and the tea helps the plant to thrive.

secondly after raising a herd of over a hundred goats I've found that a 39 inch woven wire fence with two strands of barbed wire with a strand of electric wire between them and one half way up on the woven wire does good also if you can rotate them bi-daily and into areas that has some brush that seems to entertain them and they aren't so apt to want to got out as quick.

Question: I have a couple of goats I like to let run around my yard, problem is I have a few flowering plants out there too. The goats seem to target these heavily, I was wondering if there was some way to keep them from eating specific plants/groups of plants? They get all the free choice hay they want at their pen, so I know they're not starving.

Keeping goats from eating my plants

Goat prefer to eat woody stems than grasses. Apply some goat dung to the leaves or put up a high or electric fence.

Goats are browsers rather than grazers. They prefer to eat woody shoots and stems of trees and shrubs over grasses. You can simply chase  goats out of the roses and other plants with a stick. Nothing you can spray on your plants is going to dissuade them, except perhaps applying fresh cow or goat dung on the leaves. A 6 foot high fence or step-in posts with electric netting and a sufficiently powerful solar charger would be a good choice. In the end you probably need to love your goats more than the plants because they will eat all your favorites.

Goats are browsers rather than grazers. S1: They prefer to eat woody shoots and stems of trees and shrubs over grasses.

A 39 inch woven wire fence with two strands of barbed wire with a strand of electric wire between them may work.


I suspect the answer is still no, they're not suitable for your compost heap.

There is currently a programme in action at Imperial College in London which is making good progress on producing plastic bags and the like made from degradable polymer, which should be compostable.

However, most 'biodegradable' plastic bags currently are polylactide based, and these need high temperatures of the sort achieved in industrial facilities to ensure breakdown rather than what you might achieve in your compost heap.

The current crop of these plastics otherwise requires sunlight and air to break down - placing in landfill or in the middle of a compost heap means the breakdown process will be slow or non existent.

This polylactide product has metals added which help it to biodegrade, but according to a Swedish study recently, the process is also halted by cool or cold, damp conditions.

Since that description applies to most of the Northern hemisphere during the winter, 'biodegradable' in this case appears to be a very loose term indeed.

Given optimum conditions, polylactide based plastics should, in theory, biodegrade within 3 years -

in reality, that is not what's happening because they're not in optimum conditions.

There is also a big question mark over the metals they contain and what happens to those within the environment, never mind your compost heap.

So on balance, I'd not recommend putting them in your compost heap unless you are sure they are polymer based and, so far as I'm aware and have been able to ascertain, these won't be available for another 5 years or so, unless someone out here has already perfected the process and has marketed them.

UPDATE

14th September : sorry only just seen your comment that the cup you have is made from PLA - PLA is polylactide, not polymer (vegetable origin)

so I wouldn't be putting it on my compost heap.

Although you could try one, I'd love to know if/how long it takes to degrade, and whether you have fragments of plastic in its place rather than a whole cup.

Which is what I'm betting will happen, no idea how long that'll take, I suspect 3-5 years, but it'd be interesting to see.

Unless it is made from something organic like corn or hemp, I would say no.

Plastic (other than from corn, hemp, etc) is made from petroleum, and those plastics advertised as biodegradable or compostable are simply petroleum processed in such a way that it breaks down faster than regular plastic.

When petroleum-based plastic breaks down, it does not turn into something organic, it's just smaller bits of petroleum.

All petroleum-based plastics will break down in this manner eventually, and they will build up in the environment -

a good example of this is the ' Great Pacific Garbage Patch ' - creating a toxic environment for local flora and fauna.

In short, unless it's made completely from materials you would put in your compost in their raw form, I wouldn't add it in

it's processed form.

I wouldn't add crude oil to my compost, so I wouldn't dream of adding plastic made from crude oil to my compost either, especially with it's links to cancer and other nasties.

Unfortunately industry has done a poor job of educating the public about compostable 'plastics'.

It all started with Sun Chips who have since eliminated their 'PLA'/Compostable chip bag campaign.

PLA/

Ingeo/Earthfirst or other PLA 'compostable' plastics do not compost in a residential compost pile and must be commercially composted.

While Europe has done a great job of establishing hundreds of commercial composting facilities to deal with the deluge of compostable 'plastics' the US has fallen short in this area and, to date there are few commercial composting facilities available to the public.

A recent (2015) study on additive based biodegradable plastics shows they don't biodegrade very well: Additives to make plastic biodegradable don’t cut it.

Hardcore version: Evaluation of Biodegradation-Promoting Additives for Plastics

(Abstract only, but with nice graph).They tested two plastic types with five different kinds of biodegradation enhancers, sadly not named in the abstract, and found:

The results of the experiments can be summed up very simply: we found no evidence that the additives we tested resulted in any significant biodegradation of either the polyethylene film or the PET sheet in the environments we used.

There were no significant differences between the samples with and without the additives, and no evidence of substantial biodegradation of any of the samples.

Maybe you'll get lucky, and the bags your grocery store gives out will turn into prime compost within months, but as of 2015, the odds seem against that.

Your home compost will likely never get hot enough to compost the plastic.

These are intended for industrial operations.

Just a few corrections to the above:

PLA is a polymer bioplastic which is made from starches (mostly corn in the US), so in theory, assuming it doesn't contain any harmful additives, it should be "compostable" However, it's not likely to get hot enough to compost at any reasonable speed (if ever) in your home compost heap.

As far as I know, here in North America there aren't really any facilities accepting bioplastics for composting or recycling (though I could be wrong), so the reality of it is that it's just eco-chic, and probably just making a different kind of plastic garbage.

Question: A couple stores I frequent now use, or are starting to use, plastic bags and cups that say they're compostable. Are these safe to add to my compost pile or are they just more environmentally friendly for landfills?

Is it safe to add compostable plastics to my compost pile?

They are still not suitable for composting. They still need very high temperatures to decompose that your heap will never achieve.

Your home compost will likely never get hot enough to compost the plastic.  Most 'biodegradable' plastic bags currently are polylactide based, and these need high temperatures of the sort achieved in industrial facilities to ensure breakdown rather than what you might achieve in your compost heap. Unless it is made from something organic like corn or hemp, I would say no. Plastic is made from petroleum, and those plastics advertised as biodegradable or compostable are simply petroleum processed in such a way that it breaks down faster than regular plastic.

I'd not recommend putting them in your compost heap unless you are sure they are polymer based.


For a relatively small fee, I think it's easier and gives better results to send it to a lab for testing.

If you're in the US, your state university's cooperative extension can give you pH and basic nutrient content for $10-20.

Did you try your Local Extension Office?

Ours offers free soil testing.

I believe most offer this service, but you may want to call and check.

Some apparently have stopped offering soil testing (budgetary issues).

Tell them exactly what you want to do and what you want to plant.

They will recommend what to add (or, in your case, what not to add).

I was in a hardware store last week and saw a PH testing kit.

I was around $10.

Or if this is the sort of thing you want to do regularly consider getting a Ph test probe .

Just stick it in your ash (or soil or compost) and it will give you a (moderately) accurate reading.

No batteries required.

A quick and dirty way is take the ashes and mix into a sample of your garden soil in the proportion you intend to use.

Then sow some lettuce seed.

Lettuce is sensitive to contaminants and will not germinate well when exposed to them.

I use liquid regent aquarium test kits to track my sail parameters.

I keep an aquarium so they may not be worth the price if your just using for soil (still only a few dollars).

First you establish a base line by testing the water you plan to use.

then you mix a little bit of your soil in to water in a bucket, let the dust settle a bit and test the water from your bucket.

Then by comparing the readings of how the soil affects the water you can deduce the affected parameters with reasonable accuracy.

Sounds as if you want to check the current ph of the soil itself, before amendment with your ashes.

Either way, a ph test probe is probably easiest, but I've found it's important to take more than one sample for testing.

Any areas which may have had something dropped on them, or added to them, (bird poo, old potting compost, an area with a bit of peat or manure in the soil already) will possibly give a different ph reading than an area even just 2 inches to the left or right, so I generally took several samples from different areas to get an idea.

I should add that the one I used (Rapitest ph meter) was supplied with several boilable test tubes to which soil samples were added for testing.

Question: I have a large pile of ashes from burning leaves, wood, limbs, pine straw etc, and I've read that ash can be helpful to plants if my soil pH is not over 7.5.  How would you recommend that I test my soil, and what tools should I use?  I'm looking to test my soil soon and want to buy the necessary tools/equipment.

What are the best tools for testing soil?

You can buy testing kits in hardware stores. A pH test probe is probably the easiest.

A ph test kit is probably easiest, but it's important to take more than one sample for testing. Some are supplied with several boilable test tubes to which soil samples were added for testing. You can use liquid regent aquarium test kits to track soil parameters.


Plants need approximately the same wavebands of light that we humans see in; from violet to deep red, and on into the non-visible near infra-red (380 to 720ish nanometres - nm).

Normal incandescent bulbs deliver much of this, although special bulbs for plant growth are better - different spectra affect different aspects of plan growth, e.g. blue light can affect stem growth.

LEDs by contrast only emit light at very narrow peaks, and normal plant growth often needs a wider spectrum.

At a push plants can get by on red LEDs emitting at 690nm with some supplementary light in the blue around 450nm, which can be supplied by some white LEDs.

Many white LEDs emit in the approx.

range around 450 to 550nm, which will not be enough alone to enable plant growth.

Check the image: the green lines are where you want your plant to be, so you can see that by relying only on white LEDs you won't be growing good berries.

Supplementing with a few red LEDs (sorry I don't know how many you'd need, but look at the paper " Design and fabrication of adjustable red-green-blue LED light arrays for plant research " for information), and it will help a bit.

There is very little good information about the actual wavelength spectra and intensity for household LED bulbs and they may differ by model/brand and color temperature (ie. 3000

K vs 5000K) to some degree.

But if they are white (soft or bright) they do emit in RGB - Red Green and Blue.

If it was too slanted toward blue (or another color) you would find household colors to be strange indeed.

On a spectragraph for a particular bulb that I found, the most intense emissions were in the Red 625nm range with a smaller spike in the Green 535range and an even smaller spike in the Blue 470 Range.

Here's a possible problem: for this particular bulb there was next to nothing in the Violet range being emitted.

On the positive side you can put the LED bulb right into the plants without burning them with heat.

So light intensity will be as good as it can be.

Here's what to do.

Plant some seeds and try it.

If it doesn't give you what you want you will not have chewed up too much electricity.

And you can use the bulb to read more about LED grow lamps.

I use led lights for a planted fish tank, and all of the plants have very high light requirements, and it works fine.

Mind you-

each fixture (I have two of them), costs around 175.00 dollars, but if led's can grow plants in 20 inches of water in an aquarium, I am sure that for regular plants- led's will do fine.

You can grow plants with white LEDs.

The bulbs sold at hardware stores are slightly more efficient than 23 watt CFLs, however they are less efficient than T5s or metal halide bulbs.

I have tried LED grow light but got better results and longer bulb life with T5s.

The new ceramic metal halides are even better.

Many makers of expensive LED grow lights (black dog, platinum and others) claim that plants can only use 40% of the light produced by white LEDs, and the fact that it takes 2.5 times the photon flux density to produce photo inhibition in plants with white LEDs than with natural sunlight would seem to support this claim.

It seems like CFLs or fluorescent tubes would be a better option.

That's what most people use and they provide the broadband blue-violet and UV light that LEDs can't provide.

I have multiple 28w LED "grow" lights.

They work wonderfully well to keep leafy-green and succulent house plants robust in -very- low light situations.

Plants used to die in the same locations.

However, the purplish color is somewhat annoying.

I would much prefer to use a 'normal,' 'cool-white' 60w-equivalent LED.

The reason for use of LED single bulb is to place a single plant under a table lamp in other rooms of a home.

If what is called 'daylight' LED bulb could be used

then this would be an inexpensive option for keeping a decorative succulent on a table in a living room.

However, I did find a full spectrum bulb which fits into a standard socket of a contemporary design table lamp which has an adjustable arm for height and direction of the bulb.

There's a company which makes this bulb, and you can find it online at many stores .

Perhaps this helps folks trying to keep decorative plants happy in the home.

Question: I live at a fairly northerly latitude where we have limited hours of daylight during the winter. Low-wattage (5-8W) white LED bulbs seem to be becoming more common as a household light source.  Do these LED bulbs provide suitable light for growing plants indoors over the winter?

Are household LED bulbs suitable as supplemental light for plants?

LEDS emit light at narrow peaks which are not wide enough for plants. You can try using white LEDs.

LEDs only emit light at very narrow peaks, and normal plant growth often needs a wider spectrum. You can grow plants with white LEDs. The bulbs sold at hardware stores are slightly more efficient than 23 watt CFLs, however they are less efficient than T5s or metal halide bulbs. Many makers of expensive LED grow lights claim that plants can only use 40% of the light produced by white LEDs


You've said its on a windowsill which has full sun exposure (if there's any sun at all that is).

Can I ask if there's a radiator beneath the window, which is currently hot during the day?

Do you have double glazing?

Do you draw the curtains at night, leaving the plant between the curtains and the window?

What size pot is the plant in and how long has it been in that pot, and how tall is the plant currently?It's

just this still looks like cold damage to me - if the plant is in a heated room during the day, and is exposed to sun, then it's in very warm conditions indeed.

But overnight, when the heating is off, and it's dark, and particularly if its on a windowsill with curtains drawn, that's a very cold place to be indeed, even with double glazed windows, and our temperatures are unusually low in the UK for this time of year.

In my opinion, it could be a too calcareous soil, that causes chlorosis (leaves become white, then dry, then the plant dies) Try to give to it some Sequestrene iron chelate .

Very important to any type of plants, included cacti.

We don't have enough information to provide a definitive diagnosis.

Close up pictures would help.

Here are some possibilities: thrip

are common in greenhouses and indoor plants.

The adults are the size and shape of an explanation point !

They have wings and can spread from plant to plant.

They do the usual insect thing and suck juices from leaves.

But the kids..they do damage typical of what is seen in the photos because they live inside the leaf and tunnel through the tissue.

The adults leave black spots called "frass" on the underside of the leaf.

You should see frass, and if you do not disturb the leaf, you might see adults.

I have never managed to cure any plant of thrip even when I used systemic insecticides.

They are too hard to eradicate and the plant should be destroyed.

some kind of virus is a possibility but ipomoae are not known for this.

I could only find one reference for the sweet potato which is in the same family, and would not normally be susceptible unless the plant is weakened and there is source for the virus nearby

So, check for evidence and put up more photos please!

This is caused by excessive drying.

I have seen this happen when Morning Glory vines found their way into a house and grew up to the window.

Even though the temperature didn't go under 65 degrees Fahrenheit (it was summer), every leaf inside the building developed the dead areas on the leaves, but outside they were fine.

I thought it was a humidity issue, but discovered a few red spider mites on the plants.

The drying effect of the mites plus the low humidity (they usually come together), causes the dry dead patches to form.

Note: The pictures below are of cold damage, not excessive drying.

Cold damage on morning glories comes as a blackening leaf collapse.

See the pictures below.

I have similar problem with my chili plant.

Its seems like a fungus problem in the soil if other leaves are also getting the spots.

Change the soil entirely and check for root roth.

Question: What could be the reason to cause this discoloration of the leaves? The discolored parts you see here get thicker over the time until the green color disappears. It does not seem that the leaves dry out as the right one on the photo feels quite wet.

What is happening to the leaves of my Ipomoea (Morning glory)?

It could be a fungus problem in the soil or that the room is too cold at night. The soil could also be too calcareous.

Its location could be too cold especially overnight, when the heating is off, and it's dark, and if its on a windowsill with curtains drawn. On the other hand, the soil could be too calcareous, which causes chlorosis. It could also be too dry or it may be a fungus problem in the soil if other leaves are also getting the spots.

The soil could be too calcareous, which causes chlorosis.


I'm thinking too that now would be a good time to transplant it into a larger container.

In my experience, cukes don't do very well when they get root bound, and it looks like that is a definite possibility for you.

What you have is classic Chlorosis.

Leaves dark near the veins, yellowing in the areas between.

Basically, it's the equivalent of anemia.

The chlorophyll in plants is related to hemoglobin in blood in that it requires iron.

This plant needs to be in a much larger pot with some actual soil in it.

Potting soil while fluffy and great for getting plants started, is often nutrient poor when the plant is past the stage where it's expended its seed nutrients.

Plants displaying Chlorosis in new growth leaves can be recovered with the use of iron sulphate solution which gives off enough free iron to give the plant what it needs.

In the case of cucumbers, not a whole lot as having too much iron can bind other nutrients.

Chlorosis can, in plants like blueberries be an indicator of both magnesium and iron lack, the acid soil they love harbors bacteria that release these elements from the soil particles.

In older leaves, chlorosis is an indication that the leaf is spent and occurs as sugars and starches build up that the aging leaf cannot move to the plant.

These being older leaves, probably are a good indicator that a transplant into a pot with healthy soil is more likely to be the ultimate cure.

Check if the back of the leaves hides little parasites.

Check if it could had had too cold or changes of temperature.

Give manure and sequestrene (iron), maybe it has grown too quickly and has used all the nutrients.

They need to be watered 2 times a day, only on the ground and not on the leaves.

If everything you checked is good, try some anti fungal, it is very difficult to make a quick diagnosis only from a photo.

Your plant seems to be into a room.

It needs more light, sun, heat.

It needs to be transplanted, since the pot is small.

Your clima is a bit to cold now, so wait for better weather.

OK it's food, green leaves at the top, leaves yellowing at the bottom and working its way up, until the leaf goes brown, drops off or you cut it off because it looks ugly and makes the plant look sick.

THE CURE Magnesium sulphate 100% in Epsom salts from your chemists, 2 tablespoons full in 1 gallon of water, soak the leaves in it, not using a watering can, but not when the sun is on the leaves, because cucumber plants like heat but not direct sunlight, which is why they are usually grown in greenhouses, in their own container, then pour some onto the soil and the plant will store it for later.

doesn't look like nutrients...

usually the old leaves would still be green and the new ones would be chlorotic...

Looks honestly like heat stress, was it in a hot window?

Calcium deficiency.

In addition to the answer about chlorosis being like anemia, that's really not as far off as it may sound since anemia is in essence a shortage of Iron.

An iron deficiency can be the root cause of multiple nutrient deficiencies, even when those nutrients are in the soil and available to the plants.

Iron is what allows a plant to absorb many of those other nutrients.

If there is not enough iron in your soil, an addition of chilated iron to the soil can help the plants uptake the other nutrients the plant may be deficient in.

This isn't usually the case for plants growing directly in the ground, as there is usually plenty of free and available iron in top soil so long as the pH isn't too high.

Since this is not a potted plant it is perhaps not worth getting the soil analysed, but if you do, then don't ignore values for Iron or Calcium.

If you need more iron, this is introduced in the form of chilated iron.

Tossing iron shavings into the soil won't do diddly squat in the short-term.

I like to say that Calcium is perhaps one of the most valuable yet overlooked nutrient, and I have to say that Iron is too, however in most circumstances you don't have to worry about iron deficiencies unless you are doing hydroponics or constantly reusing potting soil without refreshing the organic nutritive content from time to time.

You can do that best by tossing your potting soil in the compost heap.

Calcium on the otherhand is consumed by the plant and then reaped when you pick your fruit and veg.

A lot of calcium goes into those fruits and veg you eat.

Question: My cucumber plant's leaves are turning yellow.  Could it need nutrients already? It only germinated 24 days ago, but is my biggest plant already.

Why are my cucumber leaves turning yellow?

This is called Chlorosis, which is a calcium deficiency. It is probably a good time to transplant into a bigger container and give it more heat, sun and light.

This is classic Chlorosis. This plant needs to be in a larger pot with more soil in it and it needs more light, sun, heat.

This plant needs to be in a larger pot with more soil in it.


No products are currently registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use as woodchuck repellents.

Studies in Connecticut have shown that some commercial deer and rabbit repellents, as well as some insecticides thought to have repellent properties, were generally ineffective at preventing woodchuck feeding on crops.

Predator odors may be a useful repellent for woodchucks.

For example, bobcat urine sprayed on the base of apple trees has been shown to reduce woodchuck gnawing by 98 percent relative to untreated trees.

In addition, bobcat urine used in combination with electric or rope fences reduced damage to cabbage fields in New York.

In this study, electric fences alone or electric fences with cloth strips sprayed with bobcat urine were nearly 100 percent effective at reducing woodchuck damage to cabbage.

A single-strand rope fence sprayed with bobcat urine reduced woodchuck damage by 90 percent and is a simple, low-cost approach for homeowners.

Experiment l.—Consumption of leaves of acorn and zucchini squash treated with HotSauce Animal Repellent decreased 16.2 and 20.2% respectively, relative to pretreatment levels.

However, these reductions were not statistically significant, and >2/3 of treated foliage was eaten (Table 1).

Experiment

2.--Consumption of Romaine lettuce was not reduced by application of Hinder, Cygon, or Sevin (Table 2).

It appears the best bet may be predator urine, such as bobcat.

I wonder if domestic cat urine in used cat litter would work?

There are also various recipes online containing cayenne, garlic, mustard, urine, soap, etc claiming to repel critters, but nothing that is proven to work.

A search around youtube revealed a news broadcast with tips on controlling groundhogs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlGFcyl4J4s Note that its illegal to trap and relocate in many states.

Check your state laws.

Groundhogs are pretty easy to trap.

They have regular routes.

Sometimes, you can see the grass matted down a little where they run.

If not, I'd set it alongside (parallel to) the garden fence.

I put 6" high boards feeding into the trap opening - like a funnel.

No bait.

That said, are you sure it's a groundhog?

My understanding and experience is, they're not nocturnal.

Deer, OTOH ...

Though, I'd think you'd see footprints in the garden soil in that case.

And, a word of caution - you can catch some interesting things, esp if you leave the trap set overnight. Skunks and possums in particular.

We struggled with groundhogs at our local community garden for several years.

We were not able to remove them, as the land owner would not allow it.

We tried every solution we could find on the internet including cayenne pepper spray, creating a perimeter for the garden with ammonia and used kitty litter, shiny pinwheels and other moving objects to scare them, fences including an underground barrier.

We even tried feeding the groundhogs outside their burrows with discarded produce, thinking they might take the easy food and not bother getting around the fence.

No deal.

Honestly, I think removal is the best, and maybe only, option.

It’s crazy putting time, energy, money into garden prep & planting only to have the little critter eat leaves, blossoms and the veggies.

We have groundhogs.

Wire fencing works.

No rabbit fencing b/c the groundhog knows to jump above the closely spaced wire.

My husband watched him do this.

I had to hang 1/4” plastic fencing where the wider spaces started.

Next to solve the burrowing under the wire,cut orange snow fencing about 18” wide and lay it directly on the ground butting up to the wire fencing.

Use garden staples or ties to attach the bottom of the wire fence to the plastic snow fence.

Finally,lay weed barrier cloth on top of the plastic fencing.

2 fold reason, #1 weeds wont grow up thru the plastic fencing #2

it’s easier to pull up for winter.

Well worth the effort!

Take that you rotten groundhog!!!!!!!

Good luck folks

I am trying some substantial white, plastic mesh, bunching it around the base of the tomato plants.

Using 6" metal staples to hold it on the ground.

I think animals get tangled up in it...

Also, the white cloth that you can place over vegetables to keep bugs away, might work?

I am stapling that over new little beets and lettuce seedlings.

It is always something.

Last year,chipmunks by the dozens.

This year none to be seen. ?

Question: I woke to see my zucchini, yellow squash and sunflower leaves "gone". Are there any proven suggestions on how to keep groundhogs away? I do have a 3 ft chicken wire fence around my garden area. I don't know where the groundhog's home is. I have a trap set but would like some suggestions on things to spray or put on leaves or in garden.

How do I deter a pesky groundhog from eating my vegetables?

Try using predator urine or a repellent like mustard, soap or garlic. You could also try putting up a wire fence.

Predator odor or predator urine, such as bobcat is an idea. There are also various recipes online which include cayenne, garlic, mustard, urine, soap and such which claim to work. Wire fencing also works, but the best option may be removal as they are easy to trap.

The best option may be removal as they are easy to trap.


Sawdust for Composting

First I would make sure the wood has not been chemically treated.

Check a cross section of the wood for the distinctive ring of green color around the first half inch or so.

If it has been chemically treated, it will contain chemicals like arsenic, chromium, and copper — not suitable for composting.

Make sure sawdust (and other carbon-rich "brown" materials) isn't more than about 80% of the material you are composting.

That's just a basic guideline.

You need some nitrogen-rich "green" material (living organics like leaves, fresh grass clippings, and other kitchen scraps) for decomposition.

Ideally, add the green materials and then spread sawdust on top of them.

Sawdust for Mulch Sawdust is sometime recommended as an effective mulch for acid-loving plants (e.g. rhododendrons, begonias, impatiens, blueberries, etc), but for anything else, you will have to manage the acidifying effect as the sawdust decomposes.

Wood chips and saw dust will rob soil of nitrogen as it decomposes, but since saw dust will decompose a lot faster, you may have to compensate the addition of nitrogen.

Keep in mind that saw dust can also compact severely over a single season, so you have to be sure to break it up periodically.

Some people recommend a combination of straw and saw dust, but you have to watch for excessive water runoff nonetheless.

I have used it as a mulch for the path ways.

A thick layer does a good job of keeping out grass and weeds, if they do grow they are easily pulled off the top of the sawdust.

If used on pathways you don't have to worry about it taking nitrogen from your plants.

I wouldn't use the sawdust if the wood has been treated with any chemicals.

I wouldn't use it in a food garden anyway.

It won't hurt the plants, but who knows what chemicals are on the wood and if they will get in your food.

Otherwise, you can use them however you want to use them.

In compost is fine or on the ground as mulch or mixed into the soil.

If you're worried about sawdust competing with plants for nitrogen, then compost them first or use as mulch.

I read something recently about using wood chips as mulch that might be concern for some people.

Since sawdust is just really, really small wood chips I thought it might be worth pointing out in case the same applies.

It seems wood chips used as mulch can attract shotgun

fungus which can shoot these tar like spores on nearby houses and cars.

The spores are very difficult to remove.

One university webpage I read on it compared them to super-glue.

I've never run into or even heard of this problem before.

I've only used bark mulch.

Just something to consider.

More info: Wood mulch, rubber mulch and other bad ideas Artillery Fungus -

Frequently Asked Questions Update:

Was looking for other info and came across this page that talks about sawdust (among other materials) as mulch.

Cliffs: Sawdust can be acidic

so it's good for acid loving plants.

As sawdust decomposes it can use up the nitrogen in the soil

so you need to make allowances for that.

Beware!

If you use any walnut sawdust and your tomatoes probably won't fruit.

My brother-in-law had his garden real close to a walnut tree and couldn't figure out what was up with his tomatoes.

When he researched it he moved his garden; problem solved.

Do walnut and cedar sawdust have the same effect?

I can only say that it would be best to avoid it near gardens.

On the other hand, this makes these sawdusts better for paths and areas where we want weed suppression.

Question: After sawing a lot of wood, we're left with quite a lot of sawdust. I have been using it during composting to ensure that the compost doesn't get too green and wet, but is there something else I can use it for in the garden - and is it ok to use the sawdust in the compost, as I've been doing?  The sawdust is from natural and untreated wood.

What can I use sawdust for in a garden?

You can use it on pathways to keep out weeds.

Sawdust can be used for composting although some advise not using on gardens.  Sawdust is great for paths and areas where you want weed suppression.

It is probably best to avoid it near gardens.


First year canes grow.

Second year canes develop side shoots with flower buds.

Third year canes may develop side shoots in a lot less quantity (diminished crop), but in domesticated Raspberries usually die.

Removal is the best policy.

Unless you're dealing with wild black cap Rasberries, this is the standard growth cycle.

You can propagate by letting the canes bend over in a U till the tip touches the ground in the second year.

They react by creating a "dragon head" which roots and clones the plant.

The new growth from this follows the same routine, but may allow for new growth off the attached cane to produce berries.

Domesticated Raspberries are prone to various fungal diseases and depending on the cultivar also do not tolerate Anthracnose virus.

Dispose of the trimmings, you don't want either to be serving as mulch for your new canes.

Trim the old canes close to the ground.

First, you don't want the plant to invest any of its energy into maintaining these old canes.

You want the energy to go into the new canes.

Second, if you leave them, they will dry out and may rot in wet weather.

With decreased air circulation, the rot may spread to the healthy young canes.

Another thing to keep in mind is older canes may harbor insect pests (borers, for example) and allow them to overwinter in your raspberry patch, making the next year's fight against infestation a lot harder.

So, not only prune the old canes, but REMOVE them far away from the growing site.

Where you specifically noted your everbearing variety of berry, I think some of the previous answers are missing something important.

While you won't get fruit a second time on the end of previous year's canes, you don't have to cut the canes to the ground after their fruiting season.

There are some situations where it's pretty much a must, but that depends on your local climate and when you want next year's crop harvest.

If you want a July fruiting (note that it will not be as full of fruit as your Fall fruiting)

you can cut back the canes to just below where they fruited in the previous Fall.

The same cane will produce fruit its second year from below where fruit was produced in the first year.

After that fruiting, cut the cane to within 2" of the ground.

This will delay your Fall fruiting by 1-2 weeks, so you have to be careful if you live in an area with early/cool/wet Fall seasons that it doesn't mean that you miss your Fall harvest due to things like fruit rot.

For more info, you can read this page by UConn Extension or this article by Fine Gardening.

The pruning-specific part of the Fine Gardening article is on page 4.

You've got Primocane raspberries there.

Those produce on this year's canes - as opposed to Floricanes which produce on the canes from last year.

Technically, there is no requirement to prune them back.

You could most definitely allow them to fruit next summer

but I believe the general consensus is that Primocane-fruiting raspberries are chopped back to the ground.

Here in Virginia, I'd cut the Primocanes back in January and I'd cut them back to the ground.

If you choose not to prune those canes, you'll get some fruit on those canes next year

but I don't think that's a common practice and

it, frankly, complicates an otherwise simple raspberry growing experience.

I think Primocanes are a great choice for the home raspberry grower from the simplicity standpoint.

The raspberry canes grow and fruit in the same year

then you wait until it's dormant and cut it back.

Next spring it'll send up new canes the process repeats.

Question: I just bought a Fall Gold Raspberry plant. It came with instructions to prune away canes that have already fruited because only new canes can fruit. What If I were to leave the old canes there? Do the canes serve any other purpose to the plant holistically other than fruiting? Will leaving the old canes there harm the plant, or even benefit the plant, or not affect the plant at all?

Are old raspberry canes required to be chopped off?

There is no requirement to prune them back but you don't want the plant to waste energy on these old canes.

Technically, there is no requirement to prune them back but removal is the best policy. You can trim the old canes close to the ground. You don't want the plant to invest any of its energy into maintaining these old canes. In addition if you leave them they may rot and may harbour insect pests. On the other hand if you choose  not to prune those canes, you may get some fruit on those canes next year


If you're having a drought, I'd say you'll be fine using it for a short period of time.

You mentioned adding salt; this will build up in containers every day you use it, and eventually will harm the plant.

Don't use for prolonged periods, and dilute it if possible, as far as possible.

Pasta water contains residue full of carbohydrates, so the bacterial activity in the soil will benefit, but it may cause a layer on top of the soil.

Also, be sure the water was well strained, because it's not best to leave pieces of pasta in the plants' pots.

The fact that the plants are edibles shouldn't be a problem.

The pasta water is non-toxic to humans, so safe to use on edibles.

I wouldn't recommend it long term but in the short term, it should be fine

EXCEPT it's salted.

Cook your pasta without salt while there's a drought and then use the water.

It doesn't really need salt to cook anyway, usually any kind of sauce you're using on the pasta is salted, so its not essential.

If you notice a difference in the pasta, return to using salt when the drought is over.

Best used on open ground rather than pots, but won't do any harm in pots in the short term (minus the salt).

I'm intrigued that you use salt at all when you cook pasta, frankly, I never do.

If you're like me, and use some vegetable oil in the water to keep the noodles from sticking together, you'll want to be careful not to get it on the plant itself.

The oil will heat up in the sun and burn the plant.

As for the soil, as long as there is good drainage, I think you should be fine.

I might consider not doing so if it's in a container.

I'm not sure what effects the oil might have if it sits around the roots, but I would imagine it would suffocate them if it was allowed to collect.

oil and salt in it might indeed be an issue if you are using just this water and in a container or a place where the drainage is poor.

I would not do it personally.

Also, the gain is low considering that you will need to make a pot dirty to gather the water and let it cool down, the water you saved is lost when washing that pot...

The other answers give good advice, but nobody is mentioning the one fatal error that could be lurking unnoticed: make sure the water has had time to cool before pouring it on .

While you might have thought of this, new gardeners might not.

The water is not lost when washing pot because if it's not salted and no oil is used, its fine to water non-potted plants with it, and therefore the water from the pot is re-used and the pot is just washed, versus if water was not re-used it would be wasted along with water to wash pot.

Question: We are having a drought in California, so I'm just wondering if I could reuse salted pasta water (after it cools) to keep the plants hydrated. Is this a good idea?

Is it okay to use left-over pasta water to water plants, including edibles?

You could use it for a short period of time and dilute if possible. The carbohydrates might even benefit the soil.

Pasta water is non-toxic to humans, so safe to use on edible plants.  Pasta water contains residue full of carbohydrates, so the bacterial activity in the soil will benefit. Don't use for prolonged periods, and dilute it if possible and obviously allow to cool first.

Don't use for prolonged periods, and dilute it if possible.

Make sure the water has had time to cool before pouring it on .


I Must Garden has a long list of plants "not usually eaten" by rabbits.

It's broken down into categories including: annuals; perennials and bulbs; woody plants; vegetables and fruits; and herbs.

Since you asked specifically about vegetables, the only one in addition to J. Musser's list is Asparagus.

gardening.stackexchange.com/users/7305/Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL

Really, rabbits are far less picky than humans when it comes to eating plants, so there aren't many that no rabbits eat, that we would.

However, there are a few that rabbits generally avoid (at least for me): Vegetable Beds: Tomato Squash Cucumber

most melons (they eat watermelons here) Corn (needs protection when young, but grows tall) Sunflowers (needs protection when young, but grows tall) Peppers, normally.

One time a rabbit kept eating the plants of someone I know, so this one's debatable; depends on the variety and the rabbit.

Potatoes Onions (usually, especially strong ones) Garlic Leeks Artichokes (only because they're spiny

; hungry rabbits will eat them if there isn't anything else

Many herbs Rhubarb Woody Fruit: The genus rubus (brambles) because of the spines.

Thorny gooseberries (trained high - rabbits eat the leaves) Juneberry ( Amelanchier )

I don't know very many fruit plants they won't gnaw, but some berry plants can be trained as a standard, and a vinyl tree guard (or similar) used to keep them from gnawing.

Where I am (and you aren't), you have to protect the trunk much higher than you'd think, because in winter (when they're eating bark), they can walk on top of whatever snow may be on the ground.

Again, probably not a problem in Texas, but I'm including it to be less localized.

I have a vegetable garden in Renton, Washington, with tomatoes, corn, peppers, squash, melons, peas and beans.

I also have a recently noticed rabbit.

It's not a wild rabbit; I can tell by the coloring (I once raised rabbits).

So far, I haven't noticed any nibbles on my veggies.

I even bought some food for him/her which hasn't been touched.

Oh, well, the deer will probably find it and dispose of it.

They don't like eating bitter stuff, either - and there's quire a bit of that.

Collards can be rather bitter - though delicious - and so can kale [though there is sweet kale].

Some heirloom lettuces are quite bitter - we picked some lettuce seeds up in Italy once that only could be eaten young since they got bitter as they aged.

So, the lesson is that "sweet" varieties of greens might be worse at keeping rabbits out than the older, more bitter heirloom varieties.

Pungent and aromatic plants also deter rabbits, everything from most herbs to geraniums to onions.

"Pungent" includes "hot," and that includes mustard greens.

I have some baby bunnies living in my garden now, and they are blessedly not eating much -

but the garden is mostly herbs, tomatoes, peppers, and greens such as collards and mustard.

They have nibbled the eggplant leaves, but not much

- I sampled a leaf and they are slightly bitter too!

Iv got a rabbit and she lives in my garden most of the time, as long as they are mature she avoids the strawberries.

When the plants are small she'll mow them off, but once mature tends to leave them alone, this seems to apply for dahlias too, once it's big

she ignores it but will eat new growth or shoots.

They never touch my Swiss chard.

That's a great question, and one many gardeners face sometime along the line.

No matter whether you think bunnies are cute or a total pest, it's important to safeguard against rabbits, because if you don't, they'll clean your garden dry.

If I were you, I'd think less about types of plants rabbits will avoid and more about your infrastructure...as in, how to create a rabbit proof garden that will allow you to grow whatever you want and look attractive in the process.

There are numerous resources out there that focus on improving your garden design and helping you to eradicate the problem before it even reaches your garden.

However, if you don't want to take this route, check out this great Better Homes and Gardens article answering your question.

It mentions some plants that rabbits tend to stay away from, including Alliums, anise hyssop, daylilies, bee balm, catmint, lavender, yarrow, and other plants that may or may not be edible, with details on each.

Question: I have an area for a few raised beds were it would be impractical to secure against rabbits. What can I plant there that they won't be interested in?  I'm assuming they won't eat any berry types, but what about newly planted tomatoes and other kinds of vegetables?

What vegetable/fruits plants will rabbits not eat?

You should avoid asparagus, tomatoes, squash, cucumber and strawberries. You should be fine with swiss chard and anything with bitter tasting leaves.

Rabbits tend to avoid tomato, squash , cucumber, Swiss chard and asparagus as well as strawberries. They generally don't like eating bitter stuff. Rabbits also tend to stay away from Alliums, anise, hyssop, daylilies, bee balm, catmint, lavender, yarrow.


Strictly speaking something like a sour orange is possible.

A lot of things are possible really.

Citrus hybridization can get very complicated.

There are four 'parent species' of citrus (Citron, Pomelo, Papeda and Mandarin).

A lemon is a cross between a Citron and a Sour Orange (which is itself a cross of a Mandarin and a Pomelo).

So that's 3 parent species in two generations to produce the lemon

you got your seed from, which only accounts for the female parent of the tree in your yard.

The male part (pollen) could have come from any number of other citrus trees that flower around the same time.

So, your tree will definitely produce some manner of citrus fruit, but what that fruit will be is anyone's guess.

If you want something specific, a graft would be necessary.

John McPhee wrote a very witty book on oranges, entitled, not surprisingly, 'Oranges'.

One chapter recounts an effort to grow limes from seed, due to the pervasive presence of a virus in existing trees.

Essentially, they grew hundreds of seedlings from limes, and got a tiny number of plants that grew limes.

All the others produced some other citrus fruit.

So, you can look forward to almost anything except a conventional lemon.

Your seedling will eventually get lemons if the conditions are right.

It could take 5-10 years.

Since you are growing from seed, it is impossible to know whether the lemons you get from your tree will be anything like the lemon from which you got the seed.

I planted sprouting seeds from our lemon tree about four years ago.

I kept one and gave the other one to a friend.

My tree is now about 8 ft. tall and is planted in our back yard.

No fruit as yet

but I'm hoping to see some blooms soon!

The tree I gave to my friend is also doing well but

like mine ...no blooms yet.

The tree we have in the front yard that I got the seeds from gives us fruit you wouldn't believe!

Lemons bigger than grapefruit that makes the best lemonade ever!

We live in Arizona so the trees get plenty of sunshine.

We also have orange trees in the back yard

so maybe when my lemon tree starts to bear fruit

I'll get lemoranges!!

The existing, great answers here about the fruit lotto (or Russian roulette) that one wins or loses when they grow from seed without grafting can only be added to minimally by my own examples of outcome, which were surprising and rewarding to me even having known about improbable success etc.

While I've had parents or neighbors with useless bitter orange, and all my raw citrus is thorny, I have had three elements of extreme success.

A lucky hit of my favorite tree yielding yummy, prolific, plump oranges that is blessed not only with fruit causing people ask for cuttings off its branches to graft on to their own bases, but it is blessed with a decent-sized (if not smallish but sturdy) hearty structure and a drought and disease-resistant system which has survived all commercial varieties, now standing alone.

Some areas even restrict sale or even planting of unapproved species because they want citrus in the area to be known to resist local blights, but I seem to have their regulated species beat.

I keep a watchful eye out and destroy sick citrus with fire.

The other one (and

I mourn its loss in a construction misunderstanding) was a weird, yellow fruit that looked like a lumpy, grapefruit-sized lemon.

The peel was impractically thick, but they were interesting-looking and the lemony inside tasted delicious

and I couldn't get over the notion they "made me feel good" enhancing my hydration with nutrients exceeding a simple ascorbic acid pill.

I'd welcome another.

I'll also note that calamondin always seems to yield come kind of acceptable passing-for-calamondin fruit good for preserves and drinks (if not with minor variations in size, tartness, and peel-ability

I've never known if was genetic or individual phenotype / environment influenced).

-- Jeff (the lay observer of what's in his yard & who was obsessed with planting saved seeds one year).

P.S. Citrus is very water and nutrient hungry, gets miserable-looking and sick without care, and makes for an inevitably sad and depressing item to just let fend for itself in every case unless one is very fortunate by chance.

They don't like to come back from poor health easily and all too often, if combined, poor state +

some diseases = forget it, even though it looked salvageable.

In fact combining random genes with neglect can more easily cause them to spread detrimental diseases to local crops when haphazardly planted and neglected, unfortunately.

Water, pruning canopy to give roots a break, and even watered-in or diluted urine can go a long way.

The best grapefruit in two come from the one the high school football team pees on each season (the elderly lady waters in the pee after practice so it doesn't sit concentrated).

She says they're not technically organic or steroid free, "It's all the natural testosterone makes the fruit grow", LOL.

I have a lemon tree grown from seeds 10 years ago.

No flowers/no fruits.

The seedlings NEED to be grafted in order to get fruits.

Native lemon trees are grown here.

They are short bushy trees that produce small green lemons unless they get lots of sun, being very sour and thick skinned.

Lemon trees are grown as a ornamental trees in some yards and they are normally planted where a person wants a tree about 6 feet in high.

They are used as root stock for grafting other lemon trees, so what type of lemon you have is hard to say.

Question: I have planted seeds of a lemon and want to know, if I have to graft the lemon plant so I can get lemons?  Or will they in time grow without grafting?

Will I get lemons from a tree grown from a lemon seed?

It will definitely grow some kind of fruit, but it's hard to know what. It won't be a conventional lemon.

Since you are growing from seed, it is impossible to know whether the lemons you get from your tree will be anything like the lemon from which you got the seed.   It could take 5-10 years to grow. The seedlings need to be grafted in order to get fruits.


Watermelons and pumpkins naturally grow as trailing vines across the ground.

A tomato plant grows upright, holding its fruit up off the ground.

They often need cages or stakes because the tomatoes get heavy enough to pull limbs or even the entire plant to the ground, potentially snapping the branches or stem in the process.

'Wild tomatoes' bear much smaller fruits that are easier to support.

Lots of breeding has gone into making tomatoes grow larger tastier fruit.

The ability to stand up under its own weight has not kept up.

Also relevant is the issue of disease and pests.

A number of diseases that can damage the fruit thrive in moist soil, letting the fruit touch the ground makes infection far more likely.

Also, a number of insects will attack the fruit much more readily when it is on the ground.

Another reason to cage them is if you leave them on the ground, they are more prone to fungal diseases, and you really don't want those in your garden because they are hard to get rid of.

I speak from experience.

4 years later

and I'm still trying to eradicate the blight spores that came when one of my trellis' fell over from a wind storm and I thought it would be ok to let the tomatoes sprawl.

In addition to the good points made by the other answers, at least in my experience, it's also important to keep the leaves and branches off of the ground, not just the fruit.

Branches and leaves dragging the ground (or even hanging low enough to the ground to be splashed by soil during rain) can get Septoria Leaf Spot , which will quickly kill off the foliage.

Image Source: Missouri Botanical Garden

It really depends on a lot of stuff.

In humid to somewhat humid areas, you're probably going to have a lot more issues if you don't stake, cage or trellis your tomatoes, because there tend to be more opportunities for fungal diseases and perhaps more harmful tomato pests in areas like that.

In my area, which is dry and has clay to clay loam soil (and pretty much just aphids, cutworms and whiteflies to worry about), it doesn't cause a lot of problems.

Bugs (such as pill bugs) will occasionally eat from tomatoes on the ground, but it's really not that common in my experience (in my area).

In fact, when the tomatoes vine on the ground, the leaves cover the ground better to retain moisture in the soil.

However, the tomatoes will be more crowded and may not look as neat, and they may crawl all over each other (or themselves) and fight for space and sun.

Tomatoes can be intelligently aggressive.

You may also have to search through leaves to check for fruit more.

You'll likely never be able to pick tomatoes while standing up if you grow them on the ground.

This may make harvesting take more effort.

Some tomato plants may also grow more slowly if you don't stake them.

Determinate and indeterminate tomatoes behave differently, and typically the indeterminate ones are those that companies routinely recommend that you stake/cage/trellis (because they have a vining habit and grow indefinitely until it frosts or such).

Determinate ones are more bushy and plants normally don't vine around or grow forever.

There are also semi-determinate tomatoes that are somewhat in between (like Roma).

Different varieties of tomatoes behave differently, too.

Notwithstanding the advantages of staking/caging/trellising, I've rarely done it, although I want to this year, since I'm growing more plants in the available space than usual.

We get plenty of tomatoes when they grow on the ground.

So, it definitely can be practical to let them crawl on the ground, but not necessarily in every area or climate.

I put up inexpensive 5 foot screening from Home Depot this year as a universal trellis to hold: tomatoes, cukes, squash, peas, and brussles sprouts.

End of season summary: I got about 100 cuckes off one plant, have already harvested two winter squash, and will probably harvest nearly 1000 black cherry tomatoes off two plants; all growing up that trellis.

I cut back the Brandywine tomatoes a bit too much, but will still end up with about 40 off 4 plants.

Zucchini and Roma tomatoes did not grow up the trellis.

The tomatillos are tricky.

I grew them upright last and this year.

Last year I go very few.

This year I was getting few, but I cut the plant back to about 50% and some started to fill out the husks.

However, my daughter-in-law took one of my seedling and planted it in her pallet garden, mostly ignored it because she wasn;t sure what it was, and has harvested about 50 full size tomatillos to my 20 tiny ones.

The big difference is her's is sprawled out on the ground.

But tomatillos are hard and have husks, and maybe like growing more as a bush than a climber.

Youtube shows that Hunts tomatoes grows them on the ground—100 of acres of them.

I've grown indeterminate tomatoes without cages or support.

They take up a lot of ground space that way, and compete with each other at the normal caged tomato spacing.

Don't get many fruit, but that might change if you grant them the room they want.

Having met disaster, I've never done this second experiment.

Question: I am new to gardening and I am starting out with tomatoes. I keep reading that tomatoes need support like a stake or a cage. However is there a reason why they can't just grow on the ground like pumpkins or watermelons? Do wild tomatoes grow with support as well?

Do tomatoes really need support to grow?

A tomato plant grows upright. They need a cage or a stake to stop the fruit from pulling the fruit to the ground. They will also be less prone to fungal diseases and will grow more quickly than if left to crawl on the ground.

A tomato plant grows upright, holding its fruit up off the ground. They often need cages or stakes because the tomatoes get heavy enough to pull limbs or even the entire plant to the ground. Another reason to cage them and keep them off the ground, including the leaves and branches, is if you leave them on the ground, they are more prone to fungal diseases. Also some tomato plants may also grow more slowly if you don't stake them.  Also some tomato plants may also grow more slowly if you don't stake them.  You can let them crawl on the ground, but not necessarily in every area or climate.


Most spiders are friends to your garden, they eat insects, likely including pests you want gone.

I can think of one true spider that you might not want getting cozy in your garden.

Meet the Brown Recluse:

That darker brown fiddle-shaped marking on the head is suggestive of the species.

Their eyes are more distinctive, one pair at the center, two pairs to the side for a total of only 6 eyes.

At full size their leg-span is about the size of a quarter.

They are native to much of the southern US from California to Georgia and as far north as Southern Iowa/Nebraska.

They are hunting spiders, they go out looking for prey at night.

Their webs are low-lying and messy (not the classic web-shape) and used for shelter.

Their preferred habitat around humans is wood-piles, sheds and garages.

They mostly avoid contact with people, but if they're disturbed or feel cornered they may bite.

Most bites from the Brown Recluse are not dangerous , they turn red, swell up, then fade away.

There are some cases

however where the bite can cause necrosis (the tissue at the bite point rots).

Because necrosis is the type of symptom you don't mess around with, it pays to keep an eye out for spiders if your garden-work takes you near any of the preferred nest sites I listed earlier.

As for actively discouraging them, I wouldn't do much beyond keeping a few yards of open space between any wood-piles and my garden.

Trying to actively remove them is a good way to end up getting bit, better to just keep some space between your garden and their shelter spots.

Spiders in the garden are total GOOD GUYS.

The amount of insects they control is wonderful!!

They will not bother you!

Now Tagenaria aggrestice or the Hobo Spider, Aggressive House Spider, Wolf Spiders...

Brown Recluse

you DON'T WANT in your home.

If they bite you you will probably need antibiotics or the necrosis could turn into gangrene.

Not cool especially on the face.

They are 'tunnel

spiders'...

true

the males go out at night to 'hunt' but they make a tunnel out of web and attack insects that get stuck in their web.

But in the garden, these guys are worth their weight in gold!!

If I find these guys inside I trap them and dump their butts outside in my garden.

Black Widows could POSSIBLY make one very, very sick and in rare cases cause death.

They are akin to a tunnel spider but their webs look very messy and they are very shy.

People that try to use a pesticide or pesticide applicator and kill ALL INSECTS are in a world of hurt!

Pesticides just are NOT necessary!!

I hope this helps, I hope you don't kill your spiders.

My favorite spider is the Cat Face spider (the female gets a huge body) but as web builders and gymnasts they are spectacular.

I've ummmm, had a few as 'pets'...in and around the home.

If you have a question about insects or spiders please get a picture of said felon, what you believe they are doing and pictures of the damage/environment.

Never use a pesticide without KNOWING what it is you are using the pesticide FOR.

I am glad you asked!!

I wouldn't be too concerned about any spiders garden-wise.

There are some wolf spiders that dig holes all over the place, and that might scare you, but those spiders shouldn't be dangerous.

They're not brown recluses, although they look similar

(I've been told they were before; so, that's why I feel the need to disclaim this).

Brown recluses are supposed to go out and hunt (not wait in holes for prey to come by).

Wolf spiders that burrow shouldn't alter the appearance of a landscape with reasonable ground cover, but the holes can potentially be quite visible on bare dirt.

There are similar, smaller spiders that can abound on the ground, and their numbers may be bothersome or scary to humans, but I don't know what they are, and I don't believe they're dangerous.

If you have a storage shed, or crawl space, for your garden supplies, you might keep an eye out for black widows.

They can potentially be dangerous, especially for small people, but they won't harm your crops.

I hear they enjoy crickets, however.

If you have a lot of crickets, I would keep an eye out for black widows.

Hobo spiders are said to inhabit fields.

They have funnel webs and wait for prey, and they're virtually indistinguishable from lots of other spiders.

Their venom is potent, but they probably won't harm you or your garden.

Their bites are not known to be fatal to humans.

Off the cuff, there are two types of "spiders" that I would watch closely: tics for the well-known health risks involved.

The occasional tic is fine, if you have an infestation, you need to act.

spider mites because they can severely damage some plants.

But outdoors, they usually are controlled by beneficial insects, so acting on them is very rarely necessary - and often solvable without chemicals.

Both are spiders in a scientific sense, but probably not what you had in mind...

Also be aware of brown widows -- like black widows, but you know, brown.

Same distinctive round abdomen.

Spiky white eggsacs.

Around here (San Diego)

they are in every dang crevice -- especially empty pots or under the lips of plastic ones.

Question: I know most spiders are harmless and beneficial, but which spiders do I want to look out for and get rid of in my garden? (Midwest United States).

Which spiders should I allow in my garden?

Most spiders are usefu to the garden as they eat pests. Look out for brown widow spiders, that are dangerous, and wolf spiders that dig holes.

Most spiders are friends to your garden as they control insects. There are some wolf spiders that dig holes all over the place but those spiders shouldn't be dangerous and there are brown widows to watch out for.


Fast growing trees are lovely to create a mature looking space quickly, but .....

They then continue to grow fast when they've outgrown the space you've got for them.

You may then have a monumental problem of pruning, pruning and more pruning.

Grow something that fast to create a boundary whilst others mature more slowly, then cut down the fast growers leaving the more beautiful specimens behind to do the job you want.

You could also invest in large plants to start with which would give you maturity more quickly.

Choose wisely not impulsively for this one.

Lindens/Tilia have a medium growth factor ( 13 to 24 inches per year ).

With their large leaves they create a very tight shade.

Plus, the flowers release a very pleasant and sweet scent in the Summer.

Eucalyptus can grow extremely quick but their shade is sparse.

All species of Ficus grow very fast, however they have vigorous and invasive root systems.

If you want shade in a hurry maybe consider a clumping bamboo of an appropriate height.

You could then plant the trees you want long-term and eventually remove the bamboo.

I will suggest both trees to use and trees to avoid.

Maples are good in temperate climates.

Some grow faster than others.

My Japanese maple grew slower.

I had a maple that produced seeds twice a year.

Anyone know what that was?

Elm, but don't use elm.

They are considered junk trees and are the first trees to fall over in a storm, and their lifespan is fairly short.

As a matter of principle I pull up any elms I find as I find them.

Chinese Mulberry, but

I advise against it.

Very fast growing, but the berries are prolific and can make a big mess.

The area around my mulberry tree often smelled like a brewery in the warm summer months.

Question: I've heard there are many fast growing trees. Can  anyone tell me the fastest growing one suitable as a shade tree near a house? I bought a new house and need a super fast growing tree. I love maples.

What's the fastest growing shade tree?

Linden trees and ficus grow very fast. Maples are also good in warm climates.

Lindens have a medium growth factor of 13 to 24 inches per year.  In addition, all species of Ficus grow very fast, however they have vigorous and invasive root systems and maples are good in temperate climates.

All species of Ficus grow very fast, however they have vigorous and invasive root systems.