Now that's interesting. We get so used to hearing about P and K when it comes to root crops we end up neglecting N as if it's not needed at all. As it turns out, while I usually mulch over the winter with just shredded leaves, I kinda went Starbucks crazy this winter, and dumped a bunch of coffee grounds on top of the leaves. And of course, when I removed the mulch a bunch of grounds ended up in my soil. So many, in fact, that I was wondering if I overdid it. But I'm definitely in a carbon overload situation, and everything so far seems to be germinating normally, so maybe it won't turn out to be a problem. That does remind me though that I really should get some radishes in when the weather warms up again... I should also comment on chard. The past few years I've been hilling my potatoes with leaves and/or straw to combat the Colorado potato bug (works like a charm I might add!) Anyway, after digging up my spuds last year I tilled the leaves (which were essentially leaf mold) into the soil and then transplanted out some chard and kale into this area (without any fertilization). The kale didn't do much (but it was a dwarf variety and my first year, so I didn't know what to expect). It now appears that a good dose of N may have been in order. But my real point is that the chard went *gangbusters* - I had chard the size of bed sheets. Well, maybe flags :o) And as above, my lettuce always does very well as well... I guess the big question on my mind now is whether or not coffee grounds or seed meal will release their N fast enough to benefit radishes. I'm thinking that at this time of year possibly not. Might be time to pull out that gallon jug of fish emulsion I bought yesterday :o) Cheers, Tim

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lol... Poor jayco had no idea what he/she was starting with this thread llmao. I think I going to go make some borax/baking soda dish detergent and do a load of dishes since I'm out of dish soap and don't feel like wasting gas on a trip to the store to get more ;)

hey ..... a pic would really help ... but in my experience.. maple do that naturally.. and there is nothing you are going to do to stop it.. they lift the soil at the trunk.... and with their surface.. fibrous roots... right at the trunk.. there probably isnt any soil for you to remove.. if in fact.. i doubt you could get a shovel in there ... if you wanted to .... your base problem.. is that you want to force an aesthetic on the way a tree naturally grows ... why cant you just let it do its own thing??? if it were bugging me.. i would round up the grass... and throw some mulch over it.. and be done with it .. and quit trying to grow grass under a huge tree .. you know.. in nature... there are not lawns under forest trees ... just leaf litter.. aka mulch ... the short story is.. you are fighting nature.. its natural tendencies.. with trying to grow grass there.. so instead of growing the grass.. think about solving your dilemma some other way .... good luck ken

Thanks for the continued help! Yes, I saw that too! Fascinating to watch them 'climb the tower,' but takes more time. That's why the one plant was completely under water, the whole thing, foliage, flowers, whole thing. The ants were crawling around under water after 30 minutes. It got too dark to see in there after that, but the one plant that stayed in for 2 hours still had ants when I finally took it out. The ants seem to have no interest in anything inside, so I don't know if they're what you're calling house ants or not. I never saw this kind of ant in OH, or any of the smaller ones that take up residence in pots here, just much bigger black ones which were definitely interested in coming inside. AFAIK, plants don't have pests aside from the occasional aphid or white fly that any bunch of plants outside would have, which I dispose of/rinse or trim off. I look at every leaf at least 4-5x per week, almost every day. They're definitely not picking pots housing plants with pests as a basis for that decision. The pots that seem to have ants in them more often than not show signs of stress and slow growth from issues around the roots, not pests at the foliage. The primary issue is nests in pots. If I could isolate why they like some and are not interested in others, that would be awesome! I'd like to put a moat around the whole porch, sigh! Yes, there's a lot of pots, most of them hanging. The ants find those too. They can be temporarily thwarted by coating the hanging arms with veg oil, or backwards tape, but either method is short-lived, and messy or ugly. (Not that this conglomeration of cheap plastic pots is terribly attractive, but I'm working toward having the outside of all pots covered with enough dangling foliage to 'fix' that.) This is shady end of front porch. There are more pots on the back porch, around my potting area, hanging from several trees, and our dog's house.