Here's a study. "Bite Blocker (Consep, Inc., Bend, Oregon) is a plant-based repellent that was released in the United States in 1997. Bite Blocker combines soybean oil, geranium oil, and coconut oil in a formulation that has been available in Europe for several years [97]. Studies conducted at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, showed that this product gave more than 97% protection against Aedes mosquitoes under field conditions, even 3.5 hours after application. During the same period, a 6.65% DEET-based spray afforded 86% protection, and Avon Skin-So-Soft citronella-based repellent gave only 40% protection [98]. " Here is a link that might be useful: Mosquito Info

Hi, I'm new on here, But I've been growing Iris for over 12 years I have over 18 Colors. I live in Wyoming and was always taught when splitting them to cut the leaves back to 3 inches, and I'm sorry they stop blooming when they are rhizon bound. You just dig them up in the fall cut em back and replant. If in really bad shape it will take up to 2 years to see blooms again, extra plants can always find a new home. I have a waiting list from my beds. BUT they will all rebloom.

FWIW, our range was on site when the counter templaters came and I asked them to leave exactly the amount of space, and they would not---they insisted that it have 1/4" clearance on each side per their policies. They were probably right from the logistical perspective of getting it in and out (especially as we have an old range that is likely not 100% even in its dimensions), but it is really frustrating to have the gap. (We had the same range before, but no counter adjacent to it---while I adore having the counter there, I live in fear of dropping something into the gap!) There are several good older (and one quite recent) threads on various solutions to fill the gap, though, so it's certainly a problem that many people with freestanding ranges have. Caulk seems the most effective if your gap is small but my husband wouldn't let me use it for ours b/c he thought the space was too big. Other suggestions were using shelf liner or window screen folded and tucked into the spot so it catches things that fall but isn't visible aesthetically. I think I'm going to try the screen and see how it goes for us...

Amending the soil is definitely top priority. Not much grows here so there isn't a lot of stuff I can use for composting. (My garden is 2500 sq. ft. so yea it's going to take a bunch.) I do have horse poo and probably access to a lot of leaves this fall from a friend in town so I'm working on a plan to start as soon as I start pulling up things. I was over reading in 'Soil, Compost & Mulch' last night and hurt my brain again so I came back here. Thank you so much Peter for taking the time to provide more information on bacterial diseases, it is appreciated. I'd like to try to avoid the copper if it will eventually build up and hurt my soil (it's bad enough already). Very interesting about the bacteria not over-wintering and probably coming in on transplants or seeds. The plot thickens... The tomato plants are all my own starts. These seeds were purchased from local big box stores - Better Boy from Ferry Morse, Ind. Day from Livingston seed, Rutgers from American seed and the 4OJ was from Burpee online. I don't think it came from the seeds, here's why (and of course I could very well be wrong). On May 30 I planted 16 plants that showed no spots. About 3 weeks later they had spots. I clipped most of the bad branches (some plants still had spots but I had to leave some leaves) and mulched. I gave 3 plants of different types to my neighbor in May. I was just over there yesterday and none of hers have spots. I still had 4 plants left so I planted and mulched them in a different garden on June 30; 2 Rutgers, a 4OJ and an Ind. Day. None of these have spots. I may have an idea but it's sort of far-fetched. My potatoes are right next to my tomatoes. I planted reds and whites that are my own stock (this is the 3rd year they've grown in my soil) and some russets. The russets came from a random stand I noticed when we were visiting in MN last May. The russets all have tiny spots on the leaves. In June I noticed how far behind the growth of the russet plants were. I saw the spots and the leaves were sort of curling. In the last month the plants have finally grown more, are blooming and aren't as curly but the spots are still there. BTW my reds and whites are fat and happy without a spot to be seen, weird. While it seems possible the russets are the culprit (because I think I read somewhere that potatoes and tomatoes can share diseases) it seems so odd that within 3 weeks of planting and the potatoes only up for 2 weeks all my tomato plants were infected. Could bacteria really spread that fast?