I think this fits. If you want outdoor cats, then you'd better put up with your garden being a cat litter box. It is, after all, used as a litter box by all the other outdoor creatures there. Yes, Toxoplasmosis is often carried by feral cats, but it's also carried by the majority of farm animals, and lots of rodents and birds. How much squirrel poop do you have in your garden? Cook your meat, and wash your hands and your veggies. Just because your cats aren't using your garden as a litter box doesn't mean that your garden is sterile.

Yes, diatomaceous earth does seem to be somewhat effective against ants. They make some with bait mixed in that seems more effective than the plain food grade fossil shell flower against ants. I mix the food grade stuff with the pet food to help keep ants out of the feed bins. It is safe enough for us to eat (and we likely do since they use it in grain storage to discourage pests.) Only drawbacks I've experienced with DE is the dust, it isn't really good to breath it or get it in your eyes and it will have a drying effect on your skin which only makes sense as that it how it kills the bugs, by cutting their cuticle and drying them out. DE is safe even for the earth worms but avoid dusting it on any flowers since it would be bad for the bees. I've also used sticky stuff around the stems of some plants (like Okra) to stop the ants farming aphids or chewing on the pods and that worked well. We are in Florida and the ants seem to rule here. The other half has a steadily worsening allergy to ant bites so we have had to resort to to using some stuff against them. In the garden area we are trying some spinosad product and hopefully that will help. Here is a link that might be useful: www.TCLynx.com

A couple of comments on copper - 1. you can get it locally at Sloat's 2. Safer sells a brand that is about 1.5" wide with sticky backing - it won't stick long to wood, but is good around smooth ceramic pots. 3. Sloat's has a superior no-name brand of copper that is about 4" wide, 15' long, with serated edges on the bottom. 4. I used a staple gun, with heavy staples to fasten the copper to the walls of my raised bed - four beds were done in less than an hour this way. 5. I have read that the larger slugs/snails will not be discouraged by less than a 2" wide barrier - so if you use the Safer brand, you may need to go twice around, at an offset. I *really* wanted this - http://www.slugrings.co.uk/pricelist.html But they don't sell them in the US - and they couldn't suggest anyone who sells a similiar product when I contacted them - anyone know of these in the US? The Brits really know their slugs... But now I find I have a problem - the wide copper barrier is doing a great job of keeping out the snails in my raised beds - but I found that it is acting as a breeding ground for earwigs (or something like it). They like to hide between the copper and the wood wall of the raised bed. Not sure how to prevent this - it would take a lot of glue to completely seal the space between the copper and the raised bed wall. Anyone have any ideas? When I couldn't find any slug rings in the US, I checked out copper sheet pricing online. The copper flashing used to repair roofs is the perfect gauge - and readily available. You often can find it on Craigslist. It is too heavy to ship - so find it locally. Tin snips and a vise and/or pliers should do the job - if you want to make your own. So my latest thought, combining the things I learned above? Rip up my wooden raised beds, and replace them with copper walled raised beds, using a thicker gauge copper. Think of it as one of those slugrings - but *really* large (like 3'x6'!). That should solve both problems at once - plus I like the patina that copper develops over time. Not a project for this season - but I like to plan ahead for next...

Chandra, everything looks so nice. Some problems you may have is due mainly to excess pressure. If you are reading 140 PSI on your gauge you have hooked in to the line ahead of your regulator. Where I live the regulator is supposed to be just down stream of your meter. Here the main line pressure is 150 PSI. I have mine regulated down to about 40 to 45 pounds, (my son across the highway runs 150 pounds on his outside faucet to get greater flow to water the garden and fill the pool). In my opinion that is a mistake because it is too easy to burst hoses. I would like to adjust my pressure up to about 65 pounds but don't want the added risk of blowing a line in the house. The gauge not coming back to zero may because some gauges have a release button on them to let pressure bleed back to zero, although I have never seen one on a water pressure gauge. I would advise you go get a water pressure gauge if you don't have one. They cost between $5.00 and $10.00 at Lowe's of Home Depot. I used an Air pressure gauge for years but I like the water pressure gauge better. The threads are not the same on a water hose and a pipe. The water hose has a 3/4" 11.5 threads per inch water hose thread on it. All 3/4" plumbing will have a 3/4" 14 threads per inch pipe thread. I have many hose threads attached to pipe threads, but I doubt you can make it work because of the high pressure you are running. You can try to put an extra washer in the fitting and see if it will seal. (all hose fittings seal against a washer, all pipe threads seal because the threads are cut on a taper). Some very high pressure applications use a special thread, but nothing like that is used in a home. If you don't get the threads to seal, you can buy adapters. The plastic adapter cost about $1.50 each, the brass adapters cost about $3.50 each. If it would help you I could go out to the shop and take a picture of each. I have to keep them here because I have to drive 50 miles to get the plastic ones, the brass adapters can be bought about anywhere. If I can help in any way just let me know, just be careful about running too much pressure, you may damage some of your equipment. Larry