Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / September 2008

Can I shred Ivy and put it in the compost? I mean is it likely to grow
again from little bits like ground elder?
I've been down the tip with six estate carloads so far! There's masses,
making  the hawthorns at the bottom of the garden,top heavy.

I just recently got a lawn tractor and was going to buy a core aerator
attachment, since it's been years that the lawn was aerated.  But is it
also necessary to dethatch first?
Recently on Ask This Old House Roger Cooke rennoavted a lawn by first

Updates available.

I hate people who over water plants!
I have been going to visit a lady 3 times a week for what seems like a
hundred years, and in that time, her houseplants have been given the most
appalling treatment.  They get water whether they need it or not, they are

When is the best time to pick apples for storage?

Some times people give me eggplants.  What is the easiest recipe using
only the microwave and as few other ingrediants as possible?

Ray thinks this is some form of Impatiens but which?  It has the spur at the
back and the leaves are oval and slightly serrated.  The flowers are a deep
coral colour. I'm sorry the photo is so poor but it was sent to us in the
post and arrived looking rather sad!

I have had siome very serious problems with downy mildew during this
and last years wet summers.I have plant onions from sets and seed
grown on the same patch for 21 years previously with little sign of
trouble,but the last two years have seen the crop crippled with downy

I bought:
128 oz. Fish Emulsion  = $17.99
1 gal. Hi-Yield Liquid Iron = $16.99
32 oz.  Bonide Insecticidal Soap =  $15.99

Greetings all. This spring I attempted and succeeded in sprouting a
rose seed from a very old bush ( 1976 , at least ) The plant is indoors
and grew well to about five inches but has now stpped growing . Would it
be going into winter dormancy ?

http://www.ng2000.com/fw.php?tp=orchids
McLEOD (AP) - Someone has been trying to kill western prairie fringed orchids, apparently under the mistaken belief that the protected prairie plant would restrict land use, officials say.

http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/4343/1/1?TopicID=1
headline:
EPA Withholds Pesticide Information While Bees Die
A conservation organization has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection

I am looking for advice in keeping mini cyclamen over the winter
Will they survive in the open during winter. I live in Pitlochry Perthshire
Or should I keep them in my unheated greenhouse?
Blair

Kew has Bulbo as the preferred botanical genus for all of the Cirr.  But so
many are listed horticulturally as Cirrhopetalum.  Being recently interested
in these, I am wondering which way the pendulum swings: toward which genus
and away from which?  Why... when...

http://www.ilmiogiardino.co.uk/home/eggs.jpg
Monday morning I went out to feed the birds and noticed to patches of yellow
on my lawn. That evening they were a blue/grey colour.
Yesterday morning the lawn was clear but this morning there's the same