Hi Marla, only just read your posting as i have only been here for a while ,Aniesam and I live in a high rainfall area and this last 6 months my plants have been halveway flooded 6-8 times ,have lost 2 small pups only,but we grow in a bark mix (composted)thats meant for orchids so its free draining yet holds moisture , a good test i did in my orchid days (for Cymbidiums)was to fill an 8 inch bucket pot to within 1 inch of the rim ,then using a shower type fitting on the hose you turn the hose on to medium flow and try to fill the pot,if you can make the water flow over the pot the mix is to dense and will root the roots during prolonged rain, if it does not? well its free draining,make sure you use pots with side drainage as well and yes if possible use pepples etc to get pot of the ground,the fact that you grow "mushrooms" in the pots is a sure sign its not good for your broms ,most peatmoss today is of very poor quality and goes muddy ,i would not use it,any mix recommended for orchids will do well as they also need aireation round the roots,trust this may be of use .

Yep, they were in the pics, they would be on the left hand side of the pics showing the grouping of trees. I find it way too easy to laugh as fozzybeth... way way too easy. shes just... lets say unique ;) thanks for the comments thought :0 we'll see what the pics look like in a month or 2 heh the Pom doesn't look so good anymore... it has lost 80% of its leaves now :( ahh, the mess will be soon over and all the remaining trees BETTER keep all their leaves!!! I am really worried about WLD. I am NOT wanting to go through it, but... being I have alrady moved them in, I should be ok I think. the leave drop is due to the change in temp, and then... I just hope I am ok on it. no bugs so far on any trees... so hoping to be safe! Make sure fozzy beth knows how crazy I think she is, and how much I apreciate all she has done... and that I am waiting impatiently on haircuts hehehe

Question 1: You can make essential oils. The plants do that. What you have to do is extract them, and you'll need quite expensive equipment to do so - not to mention LOTS of the herb! However, there's a fun experiment you can try at home. First, gather up enough leaves to cram into a saucepan, add some water, put on a lid, bring the water to the boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for maybe 20-30 minutes or so, or until when you lift the lid you can see tiny droplets of oil floating on top of the water. This is the oil you're after. Syphon it off carefully, or skim off with a spoon, trying not to take up any water as you do so. You'll need to work fairly quickly, because the heat makes the oil evaporate. If you get a teaspoonful, you'll be doing very well indeed. It won't be pure essential oil, because it's inevitable that you've contaminated it with water, but it's the right stuff, nevertheless. Question 2: I know nothing about fishing, but suspect that any herbs that would help you catch fish would be poisonous - would kill or stun the fish, making them easy to catch. Sorry, this is a job for internet-searchers! The link below gives some information about using Artemisia (probably wormwood, although there are lots of different Artemisia species, including southernwood, mugwort, French Tarragon to name a few) - but not much! Question 3: I know that a tea made from the leaves or wormwood can be used externally as a wash to treat wounds, ulcers, insect bites and skin problems (unspecified). Since you haven't said what condition needs to be remedied, I can't say whether wormwood might help or not. As far as I know, it isn't antifungal, so won't treat tinea, if that is the problem. There must be 1001 different things that can go wrong with the feet, so you need a proper diagnosis before any treatment can be suggested. Here is a link that might be useful: search result for 'artemisia foot remedy'

OK, having said not to be paranoid about bacteria, I have to add a caution. I know a little bit about apple trees, having lived with one outside my house for a few years (they were Cortlands) and also at one time in my life I was in charge of a fall festival at a nature center and we had a cider press and made cider. Plus I grew up in Michigan's apple country. I routinely made applesauce out of organic apple "drops" and it was no easy task because the apples were just full of brown spots and discolorations inside and out. Now these were old apple trees that got no husbandry whatsoever. But yes, good sauce in the end. But I actually washed, peeled, cored and cut them up individually, so I had a lot of control over the apple bits that got into the sauce. But as I mentioned, I'm more of a "boutique" canner than a "git 'er done" canner. I also got to go to an orchard that donated apples for our cider pressing demo, and we were allowed to pick up the drops. We did not give out many samples of the cider though, we bought cider for samples. There is a problem with dropped apples, and that is due to contact with the ground there is a risk that they will be contaminated with E. coli. (Short for Escherichia coli, the species name). Not necessarily the deadly super-bug strain of E. coli found in meat, but the kind that can make you real sick like from contaminated water. There have been cases of people getting sick from unpasteurized apple cider, there was a case in my hometown from a local orchard. The problem with the drops is that on the ground they can come into contact with animal feces, and if you have deer and raccoons and other animals foraging on those apples, you can bet that is possible. Now here's the part where others may want to chime in, because I know that acid and sugar in applesauce takes care of botulism, but I don't know about E. coli. I know that boiling for a certain time will kill the bacteria, I just don't know how the thickness variable plays out in applesauce as far as the boiling, because thickness will affect heat penetration. Since there are no specific cautions that I have found on these Cooperative Extension Web sites about applesauce and dropped apples, I would hazard a guess it is OK. It's not like you get some kind of guarantee that the apples you buy commercially have never touched the ground! I just know drops are not preferred for selling commercially, either as raw apples or for making cider. However, the longer the apples sit on the ground the more likely they are to get some kind of contamination. Maybe a good boiling will take care of that. I would call my Cooperative Extension Agency just to make sure, or maybe someone else can chime in here who has used drops. I peel and cut my apples because I can't afford organic ones and I know too much about what is on the peels to want it coming in contact much with my applesauce. Like I said, the method you are planning on using is fine, I just like chunkier, more "boutique" style applesauce since I give it away as gifts. I have not heard of any cases of E. coli contamination in applesauce, so maybe I am just being overly fussy. I would use them myself, but just not with the method you suggest. But maybe others here have done so with no problems. Whatever the risk I think it is low, and it may be non-existent, so I would like to hear what others have to say.