Big box stores sell bat houses for backyards. They are with the birdhouses. I saw some at Lowes here in Florida not too long ago, and they have them listed online too. Jeep Good luck with going organic. I have gone mostly organic. Miracle grow for containers is pretty much it for chemicals. I use scrounged leaves for organic matter for the lawn and garden beds, and new this year, alfalfa pellets for lawn/shrub fertilizer (switched after three years of milorganite which was a replacement for years of chemical fertilizer). Going orgaqnic for the lawn has been the greatest. The lawn looks better each year. My success in the vegetable garden is hit or miss. Going organic has made little difference for me. Something does great every year, while other things don't. Weather, watering habits, plant location, etc. all have an affect, and I am learning bit by bit. Luckily I know where the grocery store is, so I garden for the experience, not survival. I hope that I can become a master organic gardener in time, but until then, I can be happy knowing that I am dong less damage to the environment while learning. Over the last four years, I have not bought and used 200 lbs of chemical fertilizer for the lawn! Yay! Think of the pallets and pallets of chemical fertilizer in the big box stores. ALL of it is going straight into the ground. Soon. As a matter of fact, every single chemical concoction on the garden center shelves in every big box store in this counrty will end up out of its packaging and into our environment this year. And then the shelves will be restocked to do it again. Everything you don't buy is something that will not have to be restocked. Having faith and taking a chance is hard to do. Nature works. I did a bunch of reading, got excited about the possibilities and did it. I get about the same results (slightly better) while buying almost nothing in the way of chemicals. I am very happy with the results of my going towards organic.

I tried concentrated fish emulsion before & PHEWWEEE It stunk up my GH for days. Even outside it was stinky, plus if you don't use up the mixed solution it goes bad I got some concentrated seaweed extract bonus when I ordered from T&T this year. Now that is good stuff, 15 grams & boy does it go a long way. Don't stink, don't burn plants & 2 days later they took right off.Here's a link to it, they sent me the dry concentrate You can get it from Lindeberg too, with free shipping if you order $40.00 or more Here is a link that might be useful: concentrated seaweed extract

My first iris opened yesterday, but I don't think it's quite right . . . I think the frost caused a problem for the bud, because the petals and falls are all twisted. Of course, I just moved to this house and inherited these irises, so maybe that's what they always look like, but I doubt it. I've already killed all six broccoli that I raised from seed, by leaving them uncovered for the hard frosts, and damaged the 4 that I bought to replace them by forgetting to water them for a few too many days when my brand new sprinkler broke. Sigh. We might still get broccoli this year . . . On the bright side, the orchard is looking nice. All the little trees that I planted about a month ago are looking happy, with either buds or flowers on all the apples except two (well, three including the one that I killed with too-fresh manure, despite innumerable warnings), buds on the evans cherry, and saskatoons that look like they are planning to set fruit, even though they're only 2.5 ft tall. The bleeding heart is finally getting sizable buds, it took so long that nobody (including me) believed that it WAS a bleeding heart. Most of the veggies are happy too, the peas were completely unperturbed by the multiple frosts since I planted them on May 4, and all the corn and beans that were up seem to have survived with covers. Some of the corn even survived with no covers, it's a good thing it was only 1 inch tall! Three days ago I was pretty depressed, but now I'm ready to forgive and forget . . . as long as that's the last frost until fall :) It's nice to hear from other gardeners going through the same things I am, I think I like this forum! It makes me feel better, and I pass on the feeling to a friend who just moved from Vancouver to Saskatoon . . . this is her first spring there, and she's trying to start a new garden, in this crazy spring. Thanks for the support, everyone!

Well, that answers all of our ????--- thank you- thank you-----spray - spray- spray-spray...... sure nice to know it IS possible here in BS - chili-thrip heaven, makes me feel so inadequate, however.... guess I'm going to have to do some re-modeling of my garden, if I want better-looking roses....put all the bee-butterfly-bird plants in the back yard and get out that sprayer, or get a spray-man.... do any of you other rosies plan on changing your life-style? and thanks to the kind folks who did all the foot-work on this query, bless you......sally