Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / July 2009

I've had great luck with Japanese Maples  but failed with Dog Woods  
and others.  Seems the idea of  coppicing  is mainly for firewood but I
wonder in the practice can extend to other ornamental  trees. Any novel
success stories ?

I'd rather bludgeon my children to death with a hammer than eat there!

I have had this for 22 years, it has been cut back, repotted, leave
cuttings taken, and all in all been a good friend, but think I may have
killed it, I normally give my umbrella plant, and rubber plants time outside
in the summer, and this year thought I would do the same to ...

I have seen this question in another place but I was wondering what the
answer was because I am curious as its happened to my mother too. the
question is as follows
I have two lovely hydrangeas in my garden, which are about 30 years old. We

Had a look at the sprouts yesterday, and they had caterpillars on them!
How the hell can I stop that?
Alan

Hi,
I'm quite new to edible gardening and this year I have grown from see
some Californian Wonder Pepper plants and a Scotch Bonnet plant.  
noticed recently though, that they have a lot of black flies on the

I am about to repaint our concrete shed, along the bottom is has some green
growth - algae/moss or some other kind of crap
I had a Dulux masonry paint leaflet and they suggest using their product to
kill off this growth before painting

Despite the dreadful weather, our sweetcorn is doing extremely well.
Hubby wants me to make Chinese style chicken and sweetcorn soup (in large
enough quantities to freeze). Does anyone have a decent recipe?
Thanks in advance

Some have flowers on and I don't know whether that is a sign!
Alan

I have a 4 year old vic plum planted last year. some of the olde
leaves are turning yellow. Would I be right in thinking this is due t
lack of nitrogen? The tree is planted with grass right up to the trunk
so I thought I would use a liquid nitrogen feed.

There are several douglas fir trees in my lawn that keeps dropping pine
cones. There is no machine to remove them from the lawn; it requires manual
labor.
Is there some fertilizer I can feed the tree to make it drop fewer cones?

I tend to have very pale green leaf plants, which I believe are due t
deficiencies in soil content.  What should I check the soil for?  Wha
nutrients, preferably in natural form (such as composting) should
consider adding? Any other suggestions?  Thanks

My Acorn Squash (maybe Table Queen) look mature and size has stopped
increasing.  They are  large, heavy,  dark green with thick stems. They
have been that color and size for weeks. When to remove from vine is my
question. Vines still look healthy with large green leaves. No new

Unknown Plant folder.
http://tinypic.com/1r509n5u

Yee ha. Finally over 55F. Maybe the tomatoes will get busy now.