Doris: No we don't get much snow where I live. Up north and Scotland get snow more often.
Like you it is a big deal here too. The country just does not cope when we get snow.

crosseyed: Do you get a lot of snow there?  We had snow Friday...about 3 inches...It's almost completely gone now.  It's always a big deal here because it rarely snows.

We have snow here in the UK. Nice to look at but that is all.

Carnie:

Dates don't lie

ketchuplover: Thank you for that. It is in next door's garden that is empty and it is very annoying as in winter all the white feathery bits gets into all my plants.

Cut it as close to the ground as possible then apply herbicide treatments as necessary. No guarantees expressed or implied.
Wishing ye great success.

Does anyone know how to get rid of Pampas grass?

Marshmud: no Marshmud there has never been anything growing in that spot ever and about 6 feet or more away is a meyer lemon thata is laden with fruit :(

does anbody know what sort of orchid this is???...is it a Cooktown orchid?

Marshmud: I have liberally spreead citrus fertiliser all around the darn tree about a week ago and cannot see an ounce of difference....the fruit is still dropping off :(

ScarletRose: If it is a true "navel" orange it is self pollinating. Many fruit trues are.

Bernice:  I know how frustrating it is.. one year Dan was having to get out in the mornings and pollenate the squash plants.. I learned a lot that year.. 

ScarletRose: thanks Cathy :)........Im really baffled :)

Bernice:  They aren't being pollenated.. if you don't have enough bees and other flying insects that would pollenate you would need to get a can of polenater usually found at your Nurseries and Farming stores.. it is usually in spray bottles.. if that isn't the case then you might not have enough male orange trees around.. funny as it sounds that might be another solution.. I know plum trees need the male tree around to produce.. 

can anyone help.


I have a Navel orange tree..it would be about 5 years old...It has never had any fruit only a few flowers than never amounted to anything.

This year it is absolutely smothered in flowers and fruit are setting BUT after about a week or so they all fall off :(...any advice please?

skipinnz: Damn.. I have to sacrifice some good of the good stuff!!

I can handle it *sniff*

(V): I've found the darker bees(malt) are more to the slugs taste but they'll go after a good european lager. :-)

skipinnz: Beer I'll use, making it 'investigation safe' is easy enough. Yet I am finding (after finding various articles on the net) foil and copper are not to slugs taste! As a point blank deterrent it's discouraged all but one little salad muncher. Though that could have been through proximity to a low wall.

Google

(V): I make home brew and I find the tailings in a small pot are excellent, and to make them child proff you can place it under a pot as long as there is acess for the slugs.

Just a quick question on slug and snail control...

I'm trying out using aluminium foil as a deterrent rather than using slug pellets. Can anyone advise on the effectiveness of aluminium foil v copper, as I've heard good things about it as well.

Or, if you've not found them effective as a deterrent, can someone recommend a good animal and children safe alternative?

Cheers :)

Dan and I finally got the garden in today.. What a chore this year has been.. lots of good stuff.. we still need to pick up a few more things to put in.. jalapenos and green peppers.. along with yellow onions and some cherry toms'..

If you buy a whole celery and cut the base off it, put it into a bowl of shallow water and leave it for about a week. ...it will grow....there will be a couple of new stems sprouting from the middle and there will be roots growing from the bottom....can be planted in the garden and kept moist until it really gets away :)

Vikings:Hosta is so hardy you can hardly kill them....they can be split up at almost any time as long as they don't get tpp dry after transplanting.  Water them well and they should be fine

skipinnz: I've talked to enough people now that the plan is to split them up in another month, that way the 90 degree heat would have broke and there would be enough time for the roots to establish before hard frost

Vikings: If it's any use I split my when the flowers have died back.

Bernice: thanks

Vikings: well they are a member of the agave family, and they will grow from a leaf.....so I guess the same applies. Try a leaf and see if it roots

does anybody know if hosta's can be split up and transplanted in the summer or fall?

Finally it's warming up,snow is all gone.Flowers are peeping thru the dead grass.

It has been 8 weeks since we had a cyclone rip through our garden. I am absolutely astounded how much the garden has grown since then...Of course I had to cut everything back as it has been ripped around and was looking so straggly...now everything is looking so healthy and attractive. The garden is looking fabulous.

Bernice:  It's a pretty little thing.. although, it looks similar to one we found up at the Ranch a  few years back when we were painting the house.. I was doing the bottom section and the back side of the house where the basement windows were.. I jumped back the dang thing was huge for a spider around here.. Dan just laughed at me and said it wasn't anything to worry about.. then he came down to it and grabbed a piece of wood letting it get on the wood he moved it to another location so I could finish painting the one section.

Pedro Martínez: thank you Hun...that means I don't have to be so damned scared LOL

Bernice: The site below says:

St Andrews Cross Spiders ...low risk - non-aggressive

St Andrews Spider

Venom toxicity - the bite of the St Andrews Cross is of low risk (non-toxic) to humans. They are a non-aggressive group of spiders.

Bernice: I googled “yellow striped spider” and the first link it brought up was the USA Spider Identification Chart. And there it was easy to identify your little friend.

Pedro Martínez: I found that this afternoon in my passionfruit vines.....I cant see if it is poisonous tho...

Pedro Martínez: well I will be blowed....how did you find that so fast....that is exactly what it is....thank you so much....

Bernice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aetherea

what the name of this spider is??

Foxy Lady: it is 34C here hot and humid.

It's 38 F here in CNY.

rod03801: yes I planted from a young tree, but the lemon came on straight away with hundreds of fruit, and the orange has just sat there.................thanks anyway.

Bernice: I have read before that it can take up to 5 years for a planted young tree to bear fruit. (I assume this is what you did)
If you planted it from seedling, it can take 7 or 8 years.

I should add, I'm no expert. LOL. This is just what I had read somewhere, in the past.

ScarletRose: lol i thought of that so i planted another one.

I have a navel orange tree in my yard for the last 2 1/2 years....it has only grown slightly but has no signs of bearing any fruit....it is next to a meyer lemon that has more fruit on it than you could imagine. any suggestions as to why this has happened?

Foxy Lady:  Dan is wondering how many you have? and do you have both the Male and Female plants.. One of the species really doesn't do much but act as a polenator. I remember our neighbors had a plum tree.. we would get a good crop of plums every other year.. since there was only one plum tree around.

skipinnz: You better cover them or the rabbits help themselves also.lol

ScarletRose: I know but i have one bush thats not doing well.