Thanks for the reply! I am in south florida about an hour north of Miami, so it's very hot and humid right now. It is a fenced in back yard so no deer or rabbits, but I do see possums, iguana's (once), my dogs (but i keep them out), and lots of squirrels. I am not super worried about the cucumbers because it is growing very rapidly and healthy, but I do see snails on it occasionally which is what I think the holes in the leaves are. To clear up, I did not put borax on the plants, I just put it in a cup next to the plant (like an ant 'trap') so I don't think that affected the plants. I didn't notice any difference after putting on the sevin dust either, but it also didn't improve anything. The confusing part with the wilting avocado is that I never see animals/ants etc on it, and it was very healthy not long ago, but something seems to be stopping all it's new growth, wasn't sure if all of this is normal for south florida heat? Also I did start the plants later than I should have around early to mid June, which is when it's getting hot, I'm guessing not ideal for growing. On a positive note, my banana plants, mango, star fruit, tomatoes, mint, and basil are doing really really well! Just cant get any peppers good, and dont get me started with strawberries! Thanks for any input!

Absolutely. Leaf-footed bugs are not your friend. If you learn to recognize and kill them while they're young, they won't live long enough to do a lot of damage in your garden. I'm going to link a page that has a photo of the immature leaf-footed bugs in the center near the top of the page. When you see a bunch of little bugs like that clustered together, they generally are leaf-footed bug nymphs and you're doing your garden plants, especially tomato fruit, a big favor by killing them all. If you see a similar-looking bug that is alone on a plant, that usually is the nymph of an assassin bug/wheel bug that is beneficial. I always leave the lone ones alone because they're the beneficial ones, but I kill the ones I find in clusters. Usually I start seeing the wheel bug and assassin bug nymphs in May, but I usually don't see leaf-footed bug nymphs until June (or even July in a really good year, and this was not a really good year). With pests like squash bugs, stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs, I try to kill all the young ones I see early in the season in order to keep their population growth slowed down. Stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs are incredibly damaging to tomato fruit, and you know what a tomato maniac I am. I'll share my garden space with lots of pest insects and leave most of them alone, knowing the good garden helpers like toads, frogs, lizards, birds and beneficial insects will get them, but I never miss a chance to kill a squash bug, stink bug or leaf-footed bug. Leaf-Footed Bug Info

We seem to have a few of them on our block some are as big as mini helicopters, others are just nice sizes and some are beautiful colours I have tried on many occasions to take photos of them but they must know I have a camera hanging around neck because as soon as they see me they are off though I did take a few of a blue one not long ago I will look it up and put it on the Gallery.. They are such a beautiful insect and I like that droning noise they make also I much prefer them to those hundreds of caterpillars I spend hours squashing every morning...Why do we have to have them just because they turn into pretty butterflies that is one insect I don't want in my garden, even the resident birds wont touch them. I tried feeding them to our chooks and they wont touch them dead or alive not that I can blame them..... Cheers..MM.

Well, I thought I had purchased ' variegated sweet flag'. I wasn't aware that there might be differences. I do note that both listed varieties are called variegated. Mine don't go dormant; at least not the ones directly in the water. I note that your link showed an individual offshoot. I got mine as a big clump of perhaps 25 to 50 offshoots all growing together in a gallon? pot sitting in water at a garden/pond store. Originally, I just put the pot in a few inches of water at the edge of my pond. Eventually, I divided the pot into 4 or so sub clumps and sunk them into areas of my recycled stream. I now just lay a rock (like one or three of yours) on top of some of the root clump to keep roots underwater and they take off from there. The real issue is to keep them under control. In your pond, they would probably expand everywhere, under and over rocks. If you left them alone, you would probably have a hard time getting them loose from entwined clumps of rocks, roots and more rocks and roots. Just keep an eye on them and do some separation. They will grow on land that remains moderately damp. The land clumps may go close to dormant, but not really. My guess is that your link is simply wrong or is focused on the zones closer to 4 rather than 7 where I am. I like it because it grows very well but you still need variety. If you get significant shade you will find that impatiens and Hosta will both grow directly in water but are probably better in wet pots. Elephant Ear like a BIG pot in water too and can probably take much more sun. The hosta and EEs would also grow in the ground; go dormant; and re-emerge next year. I don't think the EEs would overwinter in the water.