Hi, I have no idea what soil conditioner is, so no advice there. Makes it soft and manageable? :-) I don't buy anything to make soil, I compost a lot and scavenge other people's bagged leaves, get free horse manure, free wood chips, free old produce, etc. and just make layers over cardboard when I need to build a new lasagna bed. I have never put peat moss in a lasagna bed. It is completely unnecessary. It really helps to plan ahead to make lasagna gardens, since leaves are a great component in them, but mostly only available in quantity in the fall. Find out who in your area has animals, and get some free manure, the older the better. Ask at the store for the bag of corn husks when the corn is on sale. Get coffee grounds from Starbucks, etc. Be creative. For a lasagna garden, basically put down a layer of cardboard (I have abandoned newspaper for this purpose, cardboard is so much easier to work with and thicker.) Then build layers of various organic materials such as leaves, grass clippings, coffee grounds, finished or unfinished compost, wood shavings, manure, what have you. You can sprinkle on a handful of wood ashes but not much. If you have some spare soil, sprinkle that on the top. I am confused about the mound part, are you saying the soil between your rose bushes is a lot lower than where they are planted? Generally one builds a big area up as a lasagna bed and it is all the same level. If you just mound stuff up in various spots I imagine some of it will come tumbling down again. I never made lasagna beds 24 inches tall, just 8 to 15 inches, and seems to work fine. With roses you will have to topdress with compost and other organic material every year as the layers decomposte and get shorter. Wood chips decompose slower than other items so I like to put that as a bottom layer in my lasagna beds over the cardboard. I like to put horse manure on top of that to help the wood chips rot. Manure also goes well next to leaves. If you are planting big plants into it of course the manure should be aged a bit. Again, I stockpile that and let it sit in large containers and use it the following year. Marcia

We visited the Montreal Botanical Garden several years ago and talked with Claire LeBerge. In her old rose collection there was a rose that was dieing quickly of a wilt. She knew the disease and called it Flettriseur bacterian (I'd bet I've mispelled that) and what she does is remove the rose and replace it. You could ask a local plant pathologist or someone with AgCanada to send stems and leaves to the folks at Guelph who are the specialists to see if they can identify it. I wish I could be more specific. But if the info is out there, I haven't been able to pull it up through our library access.

Either owls or hawks would be most welcome and I know they are both in the woods next door (which does have big mature pines and other trees). In past years they've definitely patrolled the yard, so I'm not sure why they're not out in force this year. Maybe some encouragement would help--I can definitely put up an owl box and maybe I can get the neighbor's cat involved (outdoor and a hunter, while ours are indoors and totally impractical/useless as hunters). The trap has been a bust so far, although I still need to add some juice to the mix. The bait tray was picked clean again while the stuff behind it they've been ignoring--it does trip when tilted, but I suspect they're managing to get the food off without triggering it. This is the version recommended for rabbits--maybe there's some way to make it more sensitive? At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if the chippies and bunnies are colluding in theft. I have a net coming which should make for some entertainment for the boys and maybe they'll manage to chase these guys out of the yard and down to the lake and convince them not to come back if they are persistent.

Storebought frosting is often a little too runny to get a good, sharp design. If you decide to practice with it, you may need to add a little powdered sugar to stiffen it up a bit. Buttercream frosting works well for piping borders, writing, and rosebuds. Royal Icing is good when you want to make decorations like roses ahead of time. They will dry to a candy-like consistency and can be stored for quite some time until needed. Be sure, though, if you make Royal Icing, to use purchased meringue powder instead of raw egg whites (which are not safe). Secondly--get rid of the bag. Buy yourself some disposable ones. Better yet, if you're concerned about the frosting coming back out the top, use good quality, heavy, ziplock freezer bags instead. Cut enough off the end of your disposable bag or freezer bag so that the tip will extend through the hole, but not push all the way through. Turn the top of the bag down to the outside, propping the bag in a tall bowl, or heavy glass. That way it's much easier to fill. Press out all the air and twist the top (disposable bag) or zip (freezer bag). Press the frosting to the corner of the bag with the tip, and go ahead and practice. Marzipan, by itself is extremely thick--much to thick to pipe. You'd have to thin and soften it with the addition of other ingredients, I think, for it to be 'pipable'. 2 most important things? Practice and have fun!!!!