I've been working with animals for a very long time. Maybe one of these ideas will work for you: 1. Uncrinkled sheet of heavy aluminum foil - cats hate the sound 2. Upside-down mouse traps under a little newspaper or tea towel is best, but not necessary. They fly into the air & scare the crap out of the cat. UPSIDE-DOWN ONLY for obvious reasons. 3. Carpet tack strips - nasty points aren't nice to step on 4. Ssscat brand spray head goes on canned air & uses infrared sensor to spray air when cat is near - sound alone works, but for stubborn cats, you can point it at them. 5. Set a shallow dish or lids of water on soil surface - cats hate wet feet. Add rubbing alcohol for unpleasant odor and sensation in eyes & nose. 6. Rolled up balls of masking or duct tape - even more annoying to have stuck to them than just double-stick tape. Tape balls stick and follow them around. Only trouble is the cat might pee somewhere else in its panic to remove attacking tape balls. 7. Bamboo skewers or dowels stuck into soil to form a fence, or stuck at all different angles so they're very uncomfortable to squat or walk in. Bag of 100 for $2 in Walmart kitchen isle 8. Scat Mat gives static-like shock - from Foster & Smith or any online pet store, maybe even PetSmart. 9. Infrared-triggered noise maker. Some are sold for this, but one of those cheap infrared doorbells or buzzers from Amazon that little shops use instead of a bell on the door will only cost $5-$10 & is good enough for most cats. Will also alert you to bad behavior so you can squirt kitty if noise doesn't do the trick. Soak some corn starch in Bitter Apple, Bitter Lime, Fooey (best) or other bitter product. Let dry. INSIDE A SEALED BAG, break it back into powder. Put 1/4" corn starch on soil surface & top with thin layer of horrible, bitter powder. When cat disturbs powder, bitterness gets in mouth & nose & (s)he will never go back. Save this as absolute last resort because it is unspeakably horrible. It works, but you can't avoid enjoying a bit of it yourself while making and cleaning it up, and when the cat disturbs it and later tracks it around the house. Every now & then some tiny bit will waft up from somewhere and you'll be gagging and spitting for half an hour. Your cat might also not want to bathe itself when it gets the horrible, bitter crap in its fur. Trust me, every other option is better than this one. For details, more help, or more ideas, email me through the site.

Howard, I've know, from reading this forum, that you're a teacher in orchid culture. My honor to have you talking to me about my orchids! I keep all my orchids in a "shade house", covered on top with transparent plastic sheet and on four sides with dark plastic net (?). So the plants get diffused light all day, all year. The temp we have here is lowest 60 and highest 80F throughout the year, no snow, no frost, humidity is about 75-85 (I don't have a meter so I cannot tell. I just "feel" the humidity on my skin!) I bought this big cym last year, in late November when it was blooming with 6 spikes. It was in a 12" cheap plastic pot and was looking like it would bust! So I put it into a bigger pot without disturbing its roots or anything after it finished blooming last season. Now I see 3 spikes on it so far! (The spikes are just beginning to emerge from the medium, but you know I'm so watchful I spotted them already LOL!) My other smaller cym bloomed in about August/September 2006. I repotted it (stupid me, I didn't know much then) in Spring 2007 and now I see one spike. So, I don't know if this is common or not but I'm very happy :-). I don't want to mess with them so that they might abort the spikes. Please educate me. Many thanks for your advice. Xuan

Well I stopped in October as suggested and they are still thick and green. Hmmm...hannesdp, it would appear that the calendar for South Africa is quite different than for Texas! In April-May mine are just coming to life - not going dormant, and if I pruned hard in July as suggested, I think they would surely die!

There is often debate over whether it's necessary to filter a pond, and always a few people who claim they have great luck with letting the pond "go natural" with no human interference. A man-made pond, though, is not a natural environment, and will only benefit from some form of filtration or at least aeration. Filtering keeps the water cleansed of organic wastes that can cause cloudy, smelly, murky, or even toxic water. It simplifies maintenance, conserves water by cleansing and recycling it, and can help create "gin-clear" water that allows optimal viewing of the pond and its inhabitants. If you plan on creating a water garden and keeping only plants in the pond, you should be able to get away with little or no filtration, depending upon the type and number of plants you grow. A small pump used with a spitter, fountain, waterfall, or similar feature, should create enough movement to keep the water from stagnating, and diligence in keeping dead plant life from accumulating in the water will help maintain water clarity. However, most people find that, once they've created the pond, they want to add fish, and this is when filtration becomes vital. The more fish you have, the more filtration is necessary to keep the water and the fish healthy. Fish produce ammonia from both their gills and kidneys. Ammonia is also produced from other organic matter decaying in the pond. Whatever the source, ammonia is toxic to fish and must be removed from the water. Frequent water changes and ammonia binding water conditioners will help temporarily, but the addition of a biological filter is the best and easiest way to deal with this toxin. Briefly, a biofilter works by creating a suitable living environment for certain types of bacteria which do the cleaning for you. As pond water is slowly pumped though the biofilter, Nitrosomonas bacteria consume the ammonia, turning it into nitrites (which are also harmful to fish.) Nitrobacter bacteria then oxidizes the nitrites into nitrates, which become food for the plants in your pond. Although these "good bacteria" are present on every surface in your pond, they are not usually there in large enough numbers to reliably cleanse the water of these compounds that are so deadly to fish, and so biofiltration is strongly recommended when there are fish in the pond. Mechanical filtration (that which removes solid waste) is always beneficial, but simply keeping the water clear of solids does not guarantee fish-safe water. Ammonia and nitrites can not be seen except through the use of water test kits. Ideally, water will first pass through some type of mechanical filter that removes solids prior to entering the biofilter, where the toxic compounds are oxidized to nitrates and sent back to the pond where the nitrates will be absorbed by the plants therefore keeping the pond healthy for both your fish and plants. These beneficial bacteria cease to function at temperatures below fifty degrees, so running the biofilter all winter is futile if you're in a cold winter area. The fish will not be eating and producing their usual amount of waste during the winter, so the biofilter will not be needed anyway. Once the autumn temperatures are below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, clean and store the biofilter until spring returns. If you're lucky enough to live in a warm climate, it should be kept running year round. Start the filter up again in the spring as the temperatures get into the upper 40s to low 50s. The nitrogen cycle takes about four to six weeks to establish once the bacteria begin colonizing in the warmer temperatures, so be diligent about testing your water for ammonia and nitrites if the fish are eating. It would take far too many pages to describe here all the types of filters available. Research and ask questions of more experienced ponders, and join several of the informative forums on the Internet. Do not always believe a manufacturer's advertisements, and if tempted to buy something being touted by a salesperson, research it before making an investment. There are many plans for do-it-yourself filters that are simple to make, produce excellent results, and are much less expensive than most of the commercial filters available. And remember - you can never have too large a biofilter! Ronaye, Steve and David