I've used the Yesterday's News litter and a corn based litter (don't know the name of it!) for my bunny in the past. It's expensive stuff but goes right into the compost pile. It was about a year or so ago that I heard you could use wood pellets for litter. I used it for 1/4 the cost of the other stuff bought at Petco or wherever! The wood pellets were around $4 or $5 a bag, the biodegradable litter was closer to $20 (a few years back). I would try using the wood pellets in one area (I wouldn't actually dig a bed for the cat!) and try to get the cat to go to that spot each time. I know my dog is trained and we didn't even train him to do this, but he has a small fenced area at the bottom of the deck stairs where he does his business. There's a gate on the other set of stairs so he doesn't take off. When he's allowed out in the yard without a leash (only when I'm out there) he will wander the yard, but if he has to go, he runs back up the steps and down the back ones to his area to go! Maybe you can train the cat to go there where YOU want :) And, I'd treat it just like an indoor litter box and keep it clean! Good luck :) dj

Here is some info from North Carolina State University on the subject that I think is particularly good. (Link below for full article.) "Aminopyralid, clopyralid, fluroxypry, picloram, and triclopyr are in a class of herbicides known as pyridine carboxylic acids. They are registered for application to pasture, grain crops, lawns, certain vegetables and fruits, and roadsides. They are used to control a wide variety of broadleaf weeds. If these herbicides are used on a pasture or hayfield, they apparently donâÂÂt harm the animals grazing on the pasture or eating the hay. But some of these herbicides can be persistent and may remain active in the hay, straw, grass clippings, and manure, even after they are composted. Some of these herbicides have a half life of 300 days or more and aminopyralid has been reported to remain active in compost for several years. A problem sometimes arises when these materials, particularly manure and compost, are applied to fields and gardens to raise certain vegetables and flowers. The herbicides of greatest concern are picloram, clopyralid, and aminopyralid. The garden plants that are most sensitive to this class of herbicides are tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, beans, dahlias, and some roses." "Some roses." Not sure what that means, it certainly would be good to know. Most of the product labeling for these types of herbicides says to wait 18 month before you plant sensitive crops where it has been used. I think porkpal is right that aminopyrolid is the longer acting one. For the others 18 months is not a long time for manure waste to sit around composting--and waiting for the chemical to go inactive. If I had access to lots of high quality compost that I though might be tainted I would seriously consider a small test garden with sensitive plants to experiment with the compost in. I think it could be well worth the effort. For those of us in the U.S. 2-4,D is still the predominate herbicide used for livestock hay production and it doesn't pose this problem. There are issues with this though and there is a small risk when using manures you don't know the background on. Fortunatly more people--farmers, livestock operators etc. are becoming aware of the issue. Here is a link that might be useful: Manure/herbicide Info

Linda, Thank you for asking. Yes, I confess. I love cannas. In my climate, there are only a few people I know that can leave them in the ground year round and I consider them magicians with microclimates. The rest of us must store them over winter somehow. I prefer not to dig mostly out of laziness. You are exactly right about the bubble pack and brown paper. Brown paper for darkness and bubble pack to provide some insulation since my garage is not heated. Once they all green up, I will pull out all the brown dead leaves from last year and clean them up. In late May, they will be able to stay outside all day. For now, the canna trolley it is. I also gave them some kelp water about every 3rd water. And this year, I gave them a sprinkle of milorganite because I read that it can give you huge cannas. I don't know all the variety names that I have. I never really kept track. I do know that I have Bengal Tiger which I bought last year and a yellow one called Harvest Yellow. I actually found that out by posting on this forum which was so fun! I have a red one, a hot pink one, and I have a dwarf variety as well. The pots are pretty full and I should probably divide. I did divide the yellow one last fall so I'm waiting to see how that turned out before dividing others. I don't have the best pictures of mine, but promise to try to get better photos this year. Harvest Yellow - photo taken August 2016 (this one blooms really late)

We recently lost a couple of pines to borers and my aborist instructed us to remove the trees and immediately get them off of our property. According to him, if we kept the wood on our lot, the borers would just find other trees to destroy. Our County transfer station (dump) has a place for yard waste, which they turn into free mulch (not aged, they warn) for residents. I will never get any of that mulch out of fear of bringing borers back onto my yard.