Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / May 2008

I've got some sort of bad insects chewing up my vegetable garden. I have 6
raised beds. 1 bed has tomatos. 2 bed has peppers, and some butterfly weed.
3 bed has some recently emerged squash plants. 4 bed has onions. 5 bed has
some onions, cilantro (flowering) and roses. 6 bed has ...

I've got some sort of bad insects chewing up my vegetable garden. I have 6
raised beds. 1 bed has tomatos. 2 bed has peppers, and some butterfly weed.
3 bed has some recently emerged squash plants. 4 bed has onions. 5 bed has
some onions, cilantro (flowering) and roses. 6 bed has ...

I am trying an experiment in making a deer repelling device.
I saw some plastic vials in a garden catalog with a price of 20$ for 25
of them.  You are supposed to hang them on plants.
I had some of the mainline drip watering hose left over and some of the

I was intrigued by the recent posts here of the use of Clearys 3336 as a
systemic fungicide, so looked for a source of it on the web. It seemed to be
available only in quantities for large scale application at costs ranging
from $69 to hundreds of dollars.  Then I discovered that ...

We have a large amount of long grass in out orchard and around the
heges and fences. I have just bought a new Stihl petrol strimmer with
the nylon line cutting head. It can also take the blade type cutter.
Which is quickest for cutting large areas of grass please? I have

Has anyone heard from him (Chris) he has not posted for a long time,
the last time he emailed me was when he was in Portugal for Christmas
and was then going to Barbados for a while.  When he is travelling the
World, he always posts on group, wherever he is, I'm a bit concerned

I just had a horrible mess of weeds  dug up on the roses path against
the S. wall of the house.  Did half myself and had gardener
do the rest*.  REALLY tenacious deep-rooted grass.  
This path leads into a roundish area containing a Princess plant, the

Been a while since I was on these forums.
My Plum tree is in full blossom...and its snowed and seems likely wil
do so again.
Should I cover the tree (about 12foot) and any tips for ensurin

Please recommend a weed-puller for stand up use by a person who has
back problems so can't work in bending posture.
I looked at Amazon and various brands had their fans. We can afford to
pay any reasonable amount for one, but can't afford to experiment with

I just bought a new John Deere Ride on mower (24 hp) and I can't get
it started. I attached the battery cables (light turns on okay),
checked the charge (greater than 80%), pushed in the rod at the back,
pushed the park brake up into locked position (I'm assuming it's just

with carpet etc, to stop weeds.
I've got a feeling that this will not work in the long term.
I think that the weeds will just lay dormant under said
carpet and may take the opportunity to develop stronger

I have just bought some young plants (tomatoes, red chilli, swee
pepper, courgette, french beans) directly from the growers o
www.plantconnection.co.uk, but have a dilemma. We live 1000 foot abov
sea level and are facing the incoming atlantic winds.

I have grown scorzonera for years and only recently discovered that if you
parboil for a few minutes, you can peal the roots so much easier.  I used
to peal them raw and cut away the outer skin (which can be thick). Now it
works just to scrape off the black skin of the parboiled veg ...

My local community garden had some soil delivered by the city, but
there is some concern about the potential that the soil is not safe to
grow edible plants.
Is there any reliable way to test if soil is appropriate to grow

On a recent trip, I saw a papaya variety that made large fruits, but the
plant itself is what I'd call 'dwarf'- the full size fruit were about 5-6
feet off the ground, and the whole plant was maybe 8 feet tall. The papaya
I'm used to grow 30+ feet tall, making it harder to ...