Don't worry about a couple of failures. It happens to all of us. Trying an easier rose like Karl recommends can help take some of the stress off since it will survive even with some neglect and ignorance. As for Barbara, try cutting into the canes. If there is a white center with a ring of green around the edge then that part is still alive. If all the canes are brown in the middle then the rose is probably dead. I'd go ahead and replace it. You should be able to find a nice big potted one (maybe even on sale) this time of year. If you post some pictures and tell us what happened to your rose we might be able to help you avoid whatever killed it. For instance, if it died from poor drainage you will need to fix that before you can plant another rose there. If it was the blackspot you will need to find a better fungicide or a more resistant rose.

Jo, I don't winter sow tomatoes, so someone else will have to suggest how you deal with them now that they've sprouted. No, your tomatoes are not confused---they are performing exactly as they are biologically designed to peform. Tomato seeds don't "know" when to sprout intellectually, but rather they simply sprout when the soil temperatures reach the right range, assuming they have enough moisture to induce germination along with the soil temp. Since it has warmed up early this year, the right temps for seed germination are a bit earlier than usual. To the tomatoes, it doesn't really matter if the calendar says December or Febuary or April....they will germinate when the soil is warm enough, provided it is moist. (In very, very dry soil they either won't germinate or they'll germinate and die soon thereafter.) If they were mine and I had them in vented containers, I'd leave the containers closed if the venting was cooling them off well enough. If I thought it was too hot and sunny, I'd open then up during the heat of the day and close them up a couple of hours before sunset so enough heat would build up inside to keep them warm all night long in case the temps border on being too cold. Remember that your containers are like little mini-greenhouses protecting the young seedlings. If I had wintersown tomatoes that had sprouted this early, I wouldn't move them inside but I'd throw a heavy blanket over the containers on nights the temperatures are going to get down near freezing. Moving them inside would sort of negate one of the benefits of wintersown seeds---that the plants are well-adapted to outdoor temperatures and light levels. Once you start moving them inside, you lose that advantage. I hope someone who actually does wintersows tomatoes can answer you questions about what to do with them because it is easy to say what I'd do with them, but since I don't wintersow them, it is a hypothetical answer to your question. I only wintersow a few flowers and herbs, generally only those that need cold stratification and, since they need cold stratification they don't germinate too early anyway or, if they do, they are pretty cold-hardy types by nature. You might check the wintersown website to see what they suggest. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Wintersown.org

Once you stop using chemicals the beneficial/good bugs will return and keep the bad bugs in check. I haven't needed to put any insecticide on my lawn/landscape since I started feed my lawn organically. Frogs, Lizards, Spiders, Paper wasps, Big eyed bugs and other will take care of most of the harmful bugs. For example, Before I started organics, I would remove Paper Wasp nest from under my eves and palm trees. Every year I would get sod webworm damage. Then I found out that the Paper Wasp feeds heavily on caterpillars, flies and beetle larvae. I stopped removing them and I have not had sod webworm damage again. I see them all the time hovering just above may grass. I also notice 2 praying mantis on my grass one night. For the organic approach to truly and easily work in your favor you have to take all things into consideration. CGM is hit or miss for weed control. It will only help control weed seeds that have not yet sprouted. I would personal skip it because of the cost$$$. If you do use it apply it at 20lbs per 1000sqft. Water it in 2 times in one week then water very very infrequently for the next month or 2. A good starting point with any spreader is 1/2 open. There is no rule about the number of time you have to run the spreader over the lawn. That usually applies to synthetic fert to make sure one gets even coverage/avoid burning. Usually you would start spreading In a North/south direction and when your finished run back over in a east/west direction until the hopper is empty. With an organic approach you are going to have some weeds in your lawn. The best thing for weed control is proper maintenance practices. 1. Mulch Mow High with a shape blade. 2. Water deep - 3/4-1" of water per zone and infrequently - no more than once a week in summer. To determine how long to run your sprinkler system to apply this much water, set out several tuna fish cans at random in each sprinkler zone and see how long it takes to fill them to the desired depth. Be sure to check your irrigation system for uniform coverage at the same time. Hope this helps and welcome aboard.

As to that question about dog/cat manure. Most people are cautioned about using those in their compost or worm bins because of some dangerous pathogens. There is no guarntee that all pathogens will be eaten up and made safe by the worms . I don't know if much study has gone into how well worms deal with pathogens and even if what passes through the worm is rendered "safe" there is little to guarntee that every scrap of material taken from the bin has gone through the worms and not been touched by anything "not safe" after. Therefore most people don't put dog, cat, or human manure into their worm bins. Cow manure can also carry one of the bad types of e. coli but time usually will take care of it (but that is where the problems with lettuce and spinach crops may have come from, non composted or aged cow manure being applied too close to harvest time.) If one wishes to compost dog, cat, or human manure, they should make sure they are doing very active hot composting and letting the compost age sufficiently. See link below. Composting these materials can be done safely but it takes some management. By the way, the real dangerous part of handling cat poo is not the compost made from it but simply emptying the litter box. This is why pregnant women and imune suppressed people are not supposed to do this activity and anyone who does do it should make sure to clean up and was after. Ya know, like you are supposed to wash your hands after using the toilet, in this case cleaning the cat's toilet. Here is a link that might be useful: Humanure Handbook