I just recently found this discussion due to my continued attempts to stop whatever has been eating my sunflower seedlings. I checked the plants thoroughly, and I haven’t seen anything that may be causing parts of the leaves to be eaten off. I figured it might be a chipmunk since I’ve seen one hanging around here, but the small black ants crawling up and down the stalks have begun to draw my attention. At first, several of the plants went more or less unaffected, but now all of them have at least a few bites out of their leaves. I‘m pretty sure the ants have something to do with it, since there were no bites on one until they arrived. I know that ants take care of aphids for their honeydew, so I specifically checked on the undersides of leaves (as well as the new growth) for aphids. The variety is Mammoth, if that helps at all. I’ve seen small flies land on them here and there as well, but I doubt they’d eat leaves. Also, pretty sure it’s unrelated (since it‘s only on one of the eight affected plants), but I just noticed a brown mass of one of the leaves with small worms crawling along inside it. Wondering what those could be?

Join the club! It is a combination of Rabbits, Woodchucks/Groundhogs, and Deer... I've got driveway sensors aimed at my plants trying to catch what is eating them. When the sensors go off, there they are holding the stems and eating what they want. I've tried Havahart traps, but they are too smart! The deer just stand there and eat everything! Even the squirrels ate all my sunflowers! All you can do is chase them. I wait all year to see this stuff bloom, then the animals eat it! Paul

I think -- I'm no expert on this -- the leaves, flowers, and fruit are falling off right where they would naturally do so, certainly it's not something obviously wrong, like halfway down the stem. Mainly I fertilized them with tomato fertilizer, which is usually low in nitrogen for just that...hey, I have beans growing near them, could this be putting too much nitrogen in the soil? There's a gap of two or three feet between the patch of peppers and the thin row of snow peas and pole beans growing up the back fence. Newt: OK, if I can figure out where to get epsom salts, I'll add a little in case that'll help. The temps have not been falling much below seventy, so that's not an issue. I have seen places claiming peppers cross-pollinate, which seems logical, but I've also seen ones saying they self-pollinate, and thus don't need help. I take it this is false. Will simply tapping the flowers help, the way it does tomatoes? The ground around the peppers has not really gotten dry, which is why I was slow to water them. I am under the impression that it should start feeling dry when you stick your finger in it, or else you'll over-water. Was I mistaken?

You haven't bitten off more than you can chew. You'll do fine. I made floor to ceiling (almost) lined curtains in a large print (what on EARTH was I thinking) that had 15" pattern repeats that had to match not only each other, but across 3 windows because you can see all the windows together from anywhere in the house. Some panels had to be pieced because the windows were so wide. Patterns had to match exactly here too, or it would be VERY obvious that the panels were pieced. I also made sheers to go underneath. It was quite a project. The sewing wasn't hard. It was working with those BIG pieces that was a challenge. My suggestions: You need a large table/worksurface. It needs to be long enough to support a full panel if possible. What I did was use my dining room table PLUS the following: 2 saw horses with a 4x6 sheet of plywood laid on top and placed at the end of the other table. I stapled a flannel-back plastic table cloth to the plywood so as not to ruin the fabric on the rough surface. If the tablecloth rips a little, duct tape will fix it. I put the dining table on cans to bring it up to the same height as the sawhorse/plywood setup. It took up my dining room AND my living room. You need a helper. Your helper does not need to know anything about sewing. They just need to be willing to be told what to do and have a day or two free. Your friends owe you big, so get one of them to help. Having an extra set of hands makes working with these large panels much easier. (Hold this, straighten that, pull that over there just a bit, let's carry this to the sewing machine/ironing board, please get me a refreshing beverage, etc.) There is less drag on the fabric and you won't have to keep walking around the now enormous table to straighten the fabric. That alone will be a HUGE timesaver. My husband helped me after the first two weekends, and we got at least half the job done in 1 day. You need a few spring clamps. Go to your hardware store and pick up about 4 spring clamps. In case the link doesn't work, these are the ones that look like a V with a spring in the middle and you just squeeze them to open. These are GREAT to hold the fabric to the plywood and/or your table. Keeps the fabric from sliding off onto the floor. They aren't very expensive and I've found other uses for them since. Measure, measure, measure! Oh, and re-measure just in case. Both the windows and the fabric. Here is where it is good to have the full panel on the table. The part that is hanging is stretching more than the part on the table. It can throw off your length/hems. If you can, leave the fabric on its roll and roll out enough to cut. This will help keep it clean and from pulling itself off-grain. Pull a thread. In order to make sure that my cuts were absolutely straight, I pulled a thread across the width to get my top and bottom edges absolutely even. This can be a bit tedious, but will really help when you make the hems. Cut off the selvedge. You'll definitely want to cut off the selvedge edges. They don't stretch as much as the regular weave of the fabric and will make your side edges pucker up. Then the centers of the curtains will be lower than the sides. This really looks bad, and since your friends will be saying to everyone that you made them, well, your reputation will be at stake. ;-) See if your library has a book or two on making lined drapes. I checked out half a dozen books before I started my project. There was one that was written by a British designer that talked all about custom drapes with lining and interlining (hand-stitched in!!!) that I thought was really helpful. I didn't do it like they said, it was too complicated for what I wanted, but at the end I really knew how drapes were put together, and why certain things were done to make everything hang properly. It helped me figure out how I wanted mine. Have fun!! Well, those are all my general suggestions. If you have curtain-specific how-to questions, email me, I'm happy to help. I learned a lot while doing that project, but this post is getting really long.