Rhizo; Some of my squirrel problems my have been blown over by yesterdays's tornado many of the giant oaks in my neighborhood were blown over. The one in my backyard that would have blown over onto my house was not Sheerly by dumb luck. Two weeks ago Lowes had stepping stones on sale I bought 114 of them with no idea what I was going to do with them and when I stacked them around one side of the base of the old oak tree just to have them out of the way lucky for me it was on the side in the direction from which the storm came. The stepping stones weigh over 20+ lbs. each you do the math. I use a modified for the south / poorman's version of Al Tapla's 5-1-1 mix which is similar to your bonsai mix that I mix myself. What is the brand of potting medium that you are using I would love to find something good already mixed???? I agree watering is also an art to be mastered if one is to be successful in containers my problem is that I have added so many additional containers each year that it is starting to get out of hand and with the hotter and drier summers we have been having. It is my fault I never met a flower pot I didn't like I also will be getting alot more sun on my gardens this summer and I was just starting to really like Begonias and they seemed to like me. I guess roses my have to take their place. My tongue in cheek joke used to be if I ever wrote a gardening book it would be titled " Gardening in the shadow of a giant oak" LOL It has taken me 20+ years to figure out how to use the shade to my gardening advantage and how to deal with the root intrusion into my beds. In a matter of seconds four of them lay toppled like dominos. Family

I can hear that you're very frustrated, but I don't understand why you want to take such drastic measures, lol. Though, I have thought about scrapping the whole thing from time to time. I'm a first time gardener. I have to tell you that we had snow on May first, lol, so it sounds like we have similar areas. If your squash are otherwise healthy, you shouldn't get flowers until now anyway. Spray the evil bugs off with your garden hose and then give em a real good spray with soapy water. I was a little freaked out over a few different kinds of good bugs in my garden (ex: pill bugs eat compost). Are your cucumbers small because they've just formed? Or do they need to be pollinated? If they're healthy, they'll just keep producing more cukes until a few get pollinated correctly and one grows to full ripeness. If you planted in mid-May, most tomato varieties won't be ready to produce yet, lol. I have two romas that are two feet tall. Every other plant is four feet tall or taller, but those romas I started a bit later (mid-May, btw) and haven't started their real growth yet. One of them has decided to keep up with the Joneses and is trying to produce, and that has it's own set of issues. Overall, if your leaves are green, you're doing just fine. Toss a bit of compost on those squash and get rid of those bugs. One word of caution is, if those little bugs you found are squash bugs, I understand they'll saw right through your stems, so you should take immediate, decisive action. It doesn't sound like them from your description. IMHO: you're doing just fine, you're entering the home stretch, don't give up just yet. Grace, Carolyn P.

A pruning saw (or any small saw) will cut through roots too thick for pruners. A small spade will cut better with your weight on it than a large wide one (the stiletto heel principle). Then rock the plant from side to side- and cut more roots underneath it. How about inviting some friends round for a gardening party (a bit like a paint party when you get them to help decorate the house), and you provide the refreshments. Tell them it's a "green gym".

I'm not sure mulch is much of a deterrent :-) I have nasturtium seedlings popping up in 4" of pea gravel that fills in between the pavers in my patio. They are very persistent little buggars and don't require much fussing to germinate and thrive. If they are not interfering with traffic circulation on the patio, I leave them, as I do other, free-seeding little plants. The trick to getting nasties to do well is to leave them alone. All they need is sun and a bit of water now and again.....not too much. And no fertilizer. If they flowered and seeded enough to be an issue now, they must have been doing OK before they got ripped out.