To WandaM1 you have to turn on your e-mail for me to be able to reply The swap is held in Aransas Pass, TX on the 21st of March at 1:30. E-mail me and include your e-mail address and I will be happy to send you the details or see details posting.

We had a great Meeting of friends at the swap :) I have been offline for many weeks due to my move from KS to TX THX to all who cme and shared friendship and fun :) Mudshaper you are the GREATEST :) Please know that Mudshaper is having computer probles right now and cannot reply at the moment. Feel free to contcat her at her e-mail address where she can check at her work. We will be planning another plant swap and fellowship very soon :) Thank you mudshaper for the opportunity to meet and share our love of gardening :)

Hi Tommie, Depends on the herbicide - but for the most part, I don't worry much about herbicides in compost piles since the microbes are not harmed by such, and those 'critters' have the ability to break down/change those chemicals to some degree, and any degree seems to change the herbicide into a form that is not harmful to plants no matter what the chemical 'shelf-life' is. There are two basic 'types' of herbicides: systemic and non-systemic. I do not have experience with the full range of herbicides, but your County Agricultural Extension Agent and local landscape companies should be able to tell you what herbicide use can be expected on various plants in your 'neck-o-the-woods', and the herbicide companies can tell you whether the product would/could still have any effect on plants after composting. One of the most popular (and powerful) herbicides is a brand of Glysophate (N-phosphonomethyl) glycine, in the form of its isopropylamine salt...Called ROUNDUP, which is sold in a ready-to-use form of 2% concentration per gallon. The strongest form of this Glysophate acidic chemical that I know of is sold as Catt Plex brand (Sanco Industries), used for control of cattails. It is a 53.8% Glysophate concentrate. Incredibly strong, because cattails are REALLY hard to kill. OK - now to partially answer your question: I compost grasses/weeds treated with glysophate and other strong herbicides, because I compost materials obtained free from landscape and lawn care companies that use herbicides regularly. I had concerns too - so accumulated plant refuse that I knew had been treated - composted that material, then set up several trials with vegetables grown in 100% of that compost - and did NOT seen ANY indication of new plant damage/stunting in compost in which herbicides were used on plant materials. The tomatoes and bell pepper plants grew better in the compost that had herbicide-treated material than the compost that didn't. My compost takes about 3 months start-to-finish, and I harvest about a ton of compost a month, so that kind of trial is easy for me to do. Systemic herbicides kill plants by being absorbed through leaves, and transported internally to roots, whereby the chemical interferes with enzyme activity - so basically the plant 'starves/dehydrates' to death. You could pour a solution of 2% RoundUp on plant roots and it will not kill the plant. According to RoundUp tech support, the product has limited viability after spraying. Catt Plex on the other hand, is SO strong (depending on the rate of dilution used), that the product literature states that the chemical could harm the plant if sprayed on green stems, exposed non-woody roots or plant fruit. Normal CYA verbage for a concentrate product with which they have no control over application methods. As long as any/all systemic herbicide-treated plant materials are fully composted through 2 or more screened turns, I personally do not have any concerns about it, no matter what the systemic herbicide chemical is. I'm sure there's some folks who think such chemicals "live forever", but they don't. Not even DDT and Sevin. Robert

I'm baaAck. Went offline for a(long)while but Hill Country Gardens website is back. When I started there wasn't much out there and now there are so many wonderful Texas gardening blogs. My blog isn't much and I have no photography skills. I'll work on it. But the website has alot of valuable information for Hill Country gardeners. I very much need input from other Hill Country gardeners; please visit comment and submit your ideas. Here is a link that might be useful: Hill Country Gardens