Some will tell you that all ants are beneficials, do no harm and are your friends. I say B.S. Fire ants in particular are bad. Even those little black ants have killed any number of my plants by making a nest amongst the plant roots. They did not eat on the plant, but tunneled out all around them so that they could not take up moisture and nutrients, basically starving the plant to death. Some varieties may do little more than be a nuisance in stinging you if you stand too long in their area or trying to get into your house. There are any number of insects that eat the surface off leaves leaving the veins and in some cases looking like you describe. You would just have to inspect them closely a few times per day, or until you find which ones are doing that. Good luck in identifying and handling your problem. Bill P.

Yes, as I understand it, Aspidistras are a common landscaping plant farther south. Maybe they are more affordable when sold as landscape plants, but up north as houseplants they are very expensive and almost impossible to find for sale. Apparently last week was Aspidistra week for me because right after my friend gave me the gift, my local store got some in (I had asked if they could get some in a while back)... so of course I had to buy one from them, too... At its coldest it gets into the 30s in that room. 40s are more typical for most of the winter, though. The rest of the house is generally in the 50s. As to why I keep it so cold, I have oil heat. Aspidistra is the classic Victorian houseplant. It ought to work out for me, since I have a Victorian era house, complete with authentic Victorian era cold drafts. Your palm really does look great. I love house palms. (I used to live in Florida) Do you know which kind that is?

Don't worry about the bare spots. The grass is still growing, and there may be some seeds of certain types that just haven't germinated yet. I had my lawn hydroseeded last June with a mix of basically what you have, and it really didn't start to fill in until September because some of the grass was slow germinating/slow growing. Even this year, the spring came and the back yard looked spotty compared to in the fall, but after a few months and growing it tall, watering, and fertilizing, they started to fill back in. I'd personally wait until next year to see how it comes out, and then you can overseed if you have to. But you may even just want to give it until the end of August or beginning of September, and if you really don't see any improvement and those spots are still pretty obvious, you could overseed. But just remember that spots like that over time will continue to fill in little by little for the most part. I'm no expert, but just my experience from my recent new lawn growth in the past year.

From the research I've just been doing on my early blight, which is what I see on yours (not the dreaded late blight), you need to get ALL of the affected leaves off there, because the spores are easily transferred from leaf to leaf, and yes, continue spraying. Serenade is an organic spray that's often recommended, and Daconil is also very popular (I don't know if it's organic though). And when you pluck off all those leaves (very carefully, so as not to spread the spores even more), you should bag them up very carefully and tightly, or burn them. Don't compost them, because you'll just be incubating the spores into your compost, which will cause further trouble. Good luck! We're in NJ and were nailed by the same rainy weather you probably had, so it's been quite the uphill battle for us too.