Gary, sounds like you've got your watering down pat. Sure beats having a hose to lug around. Thanks for the how to.

I guess there is no definitive answer. There are just too many variables--soil type, kind of tree (tap roots/surface roots), sun and wind exposure, high/low ground, mulched or not. . . I would think 3-year-old trees are pretty much established; however, a tree or shrub with a shallow root system will dry out quicker. The usual answer is an inch per week, but if your soil is sandy, that would not be enough; if heavy, it would probably be a waste. Probably a better answer is that, if a day after you water, the soil still feels wet below the surface--but isn't muddy-- you probably watered it correctly. Sometimes, by the time a tree is showing stress--leaves curling and feeling dry, it is hard to get them back up to speed, on the other hand, some shrubs respond almost immediately. You basically have to use your intuition and not beat yourself up for any mistakes. Hardy trees have amazing resilience--non-native plants will suffer first. Hopefully you received some of yesterday's rain. Guess they got seven inches in some parts of Wisconsin. My yard got 3 tenths. Sigh. . . a.

Julie, Sorry I haven't been back on here for several days, had company and various things come up. I hope you find this message. I think the DE that I buy at Atwoods is food grade, I do not currently have a bag, so I can't tell you for certain. I picked up a bag at horn seed co last summer I'm going to use now, that it is not food grade-for the yard only. Now, I remember a couple of years ago a discussion on here and someone said that their holistic vet said that DE was very drying on a "dogs" coat, some ppl said they had that problem, some hadn't. I applied some to my dogs coat last summer for the first time, and I did find that it dried their skin and caused it to be flaky, like it sometimes is after a bath, but no worse than that. If I try it this year, I'm going to go with an extremely LIGHT dusting of DE and see if that prevents the problem. For your cat you can use Neem shampoo for the fleas, it is all natural and it is actually sold in pill form as a supplement, that a lot of ppl like use. Neem is one of those miraculous plants, that has many benefits and uses. I have used it on 4 week old baby kittens that were infested with fleas, it kills fleas on contact and did not harm the kittens, just do not get it in the eyes. When we got our Boston Terrier puppy she had a poor immune system and ended up with puppy mange, and with every trip to the vet it was getting worse and worse, I finally realized all the chemical meds and pesticides were taking a toll on her immune system and thats when I found a holistic pet med site that I ordered a "kit" for her specific problem. The kit was more expensive than buying the herbs myself from the health food store,but worth it within 2 days problem solved- after months and months of vet trips and hundreds of $. After the kit was gone, I knew it would work so I just started the herbs from health food store. I also have a book of holistic remedies by Dr. Martin Zucker, that has been so incredibly helpful, I recommend it to every pet owner. I wish ppl knew the value and usefulness of herbal/holistic remedies vs. other measures. Mine is specific for dogs, but I think he was out for cats also. One more thing on the fleas, the neem also comes in an oil form, but I found the odor of it to be unpleasant, so I used to get the pill form, open the capsules and sprinkle the neem leaves into a small quantity of water, cover it and let it soak overnight, then I would take a cotton ball and dab it onto my dogs coat, just to give them some added protection in between baths, you could probably use a spray bottle if you could filter the neem leaves out. good luck! and sorry so long. Dawn, well that map reads 493 for us so......not looking to good here. We did get some moisture last night, but rainfall map indicated it wasn't much, since midnight anyway, didn't look at the other map to see how much before midnight. It seems like the Keetch Byram index might be the most accurate and make the most sense to consider. I was a little late in getting most of tomato plants in, and I know I'm not making it 3-4 days in between waterings. top 1 inch seems to be drying out much faster, and with sudden death of 90% of my tomato plants last year, I'm hitting the water pretty hard. Thanks for the link to the scale! I'm going to be watching it this summer.

v1rtu0slty, I would probably keep your young palm plant in the house for two or three years if you have a sunny window, until the plant gets a little bigger before planting it outside. Older plants seem to be hardier. Or find a larger plant at a local nursery or garden center in your area. Occasionally they will sell the Windmill and Mediterranean fan palms. I bought all of my outdoor palms as one gallon size plants and kept them inside for a couple of years before planting outside. The Windmill palm is supposed to be the hardiest, but the Mediterranean fan palms are almost as hardy. They have all survived outside with no problem. I don't believe light is required to get them to survive since they go dormant with the colder temperatures. The flourescent light bulbs that I use are for a small heat source. In zone 5, I'm not sure if an insulated box will work with no heat source. You'd be surprised how much heat builds up in a tightly made styrofoam box from the light bulbs. Good luck! Kevin