very well, and they hold there crispness better than onions, I feel. I gave away several jars to British Expats near me and didn't mention they where shallots, forgot!, they all assumed they where onions, but "the best pickled onions I have every had! when are you making more?" the secret I think is to make sure the brine is correct and they are in it long enough to extract as much water as you can before pickleing. Over here they pressure or Waterbath everything for home consumption, due to botulism, I think having researched it seems more previlant in the US than UK! but there are recipies out there for this. I didn't bother as quite frankly they where gone in a couple of weeks! the price of shallots is high but there was one week only in my area where they where really cheep before they shot up to $2.99 for 3!! I miss 64p a 1/2 kilo (about 1lb), from our old farm shops in Blightly 49p 1/2 kilo for pickling onions... Oh! no I have just had a vision of Fish and Chips in the paper, Salad Cream (my personal fav, although sounds strange) and a pickled onion.....NOOOOOOOO!

FLOWERING VINE: yes! i did plant a flowering vine: Wisteria frutescens 'Amethyst Falls'. it is native to north america and less agressive than the chinese or japanese wisteria. it is planted to the left of the gate and should climb to the arbor pretty easily since the sun comes from that direction. HEIGHT: i decided to not plant a tree in that area because there are two mature live oak trees toward the back of the property with beautiful canopies. originally a small flowering plum tree grew behind the fence but close to the house and front door. it had been very poorly pruned (emphasize poorly, and very) and was unhealthy so it had to come down. taking it down allowed this fantastic view of the two oaks and also let light into the bedroom, which faces northwest. all that being said, i have planted some taller shrubs in front of the gate for hight: 4 Rhamnus californica 'Eve Case' (up to 6 feet tall), Ceanothus Celestial Blue (up to 5 feet tall), and Rosmarinus officinalis 'Tuscan Blue' (compact 2 feet wide x 4-6 feet tall). then, the gate is flanked by 2 Ribes sanguineum âÂÂKing Edward VIIâ (deciduous and autumn color! at 3 feet wide x 5-6 feet tall. then the wisteria will climb over the arbor. i hope these shrubs - combined with the lower shrubs and perennials - will compensate somewhat for that missing tree and let light into the house from that open area. the complete planting list is on the website link i have posted -- the list is at the bottom of the page so probably lost to most viewers. i've included the link here again. FENCE: i would dearly love to paint the whole fence black like the gate. it is in poor condition and will be replaced it if/when i have the $$. the plants, of course, will eventually camouflage it somewhat but right now it is painful to view! Here is a link that might be useful: garden before & after pics

Hi Keiko, yeah, too little water or too much water, it leads to the same thing - the death of the root system, and the plant shriveling in that way, from the bottom up. Obviously Doug has the right advice and your plan is sound. You don't have to section the plant up into several cuttings unless you want to for insurance. I went through this with an elliptica this weekend and I just cut vine from the bottom until I got to a healthy section, where the vine wasn't shriveled and it bled well, and stuck it into my rooting medium up to the lowest node. I can't tell from your pictures if you actually have mealies. When you touched the white spots was it sticky fluffy stuff or was it dry and chalky? It just looks like dried sap to me. Yes, there are soil mealy bugs and foliar mealy bugs, but they are two different creatures from different families. (Technically, there are many different soil mealies and many different foliar mealies.) My point, though, is that if you see mealy bugs hanging out on your vines and leaves, these same bugs won't also be in the soil. Of course, you could have two infestations going on at the same time, but that would just be bad luck! The fungus gnats won't hurt your Hoya. Technically they do eat plant roots (as well as algae and fungus in the potting media), but they die off when you let the medium dry out, so they aren't a serious concern for Hoya people like us. But they are a sign that this pot has been too damp for too long. So, that's not good. You don't necessarily need to repot the healthy Hoya, since it's survived the ordeal, but you should let it dry out well and be watchful of how that decorative pot affects its water retention. Could be you just had a wonky period with your watering, or it could be the wrong setup. You just have to keep an eye on the situation and if that plant is routinely drying out slower than all the ones next to it, change the medium or the cache pot.

I believe that is one of bic9's golf greens. That is nice!! Modern organic fertilizers have no salt. Bic9 may be under the influence of the old style (Rodale school) of fertilizers made from composted cattle dung or even uncomposted cattle dung. That's not the case anymore, except for the Rodalians still clinging to compost. Modern bagged commercial organic fertilizer is practically salt free. If you buy raw ground grains at the feed store, those might have salt added to make it palatable to livestock, but not enough to make a difference. A few years ago morpheuspa tried to overdose his lawn with organic fertilizer by applying, if I'm not mistaken, 50 pounds per 1,000 square feet every week for the entire growing season. He has not mentioned any salt build up during that time, but it would be an interesting question to ask him. Definitely time to mow the tall bermuda. You'll scalp it at first, but that's okay. Take it down gradually, one notch lower every 3-4 days until you're at the bottom notch. Then raise it up one notch. Shampoo is used to soften hard soil. Core aeration is also used to soften hard soil. The difference is that core aeration seldom works, but shampoo seems to work every time. It works by breaking the surface tension of the water allowing it to soak in deeper and faster into the soil. The deeper moisture extends the time for evaporation which keeps the soil a little cooler over a longer time. That cooler and moister soil is the perfect environment for the beneficial fungi which do the work of softening your soil. It takes them a few weeks to repopulate the soil, but when they do, they redevelop your soil structure opening up bazillions of microscopic pores for air and water to penetrate. They swell when moist to push the soil particles apart. They shrink when dry to allow air and water in more easily. You asked, so sorry for the biology discussion. Shampoo is not a trick. Surfactants have been used for generations only on sports fields, because the only surfactants thought to work were very expensive. Well, when you boil it all down, shampoo is a surfactant almost identical to the expensive ones. Shampoo only costs you a few cents to try it. The rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Use any shampoo you can see through. Apply the shampoo and follow up with 1/2 to 1 inch of water. If it is not soft the next time it rains or you water deeply, apply it again. I applied to my lawn twice in 2011 and it still gets almost too soft to walk on after it rains. If you want to check how hard or soft your soil is, try sticking a screwdriver into it now, before you spray, and a couple weeks after you spray. If you do that before and after core aeration you'll find no difference, but with shampoo you'll definitely see a difference.