I am not having much luck with my older Thanksgiving Cactus blooming this year. They were a little neglected as we traveled a lot this summer. However, my Christmas Cactus is early and I have a few blooms on it. I also treated myself to a few new ones last Friday. Beach Dancer Maruska Pink NOID The lady at the nursery also gave me some cuttings of Christen (or Cristin). We also got a new kitten. Thus the plastic forks sticking out of my other plants. She was rolling and playing in them. So far the forks have worked. We also got a squirt bottle to keep her off of the table.

I'm curious. Why would you pull out the most successful turf grass in the south to replace it with something that is more persnickety? Rhetorical question because it seems the deed is done. In Texas I've seen untended St Augustine blanketing the sand dunes. How much less care can you give it? Don't do anything to the bare sand. Put the sod down first and then start applying stuff. The roots are what need the nutrients, not the empty sand. Horse manure stinks. You'll be kicked out of the neighborhood for doing that. In fact you'll be shocked how long it stinks. It stinks for about three full weeks. I mean noticeably stinks right up to the last breath (ha-ha). It also comes to you hot enough to kill your new lawn. Please don't make that mistake of spreading some stinky manure and then being rewarded with a dead lawn. Yes there is something a lot easier. There is a modern approach to organic lawn care that replaces horse manure and compost. Compost was king until the 1990s when they discovered why organic fertilizer worked. Since then compost is out and grain type fertilizers are in. Look at any bag of organic fertilizer and you'll see a list including wheat, corn, soy, alfalfa, cottonseed, sometimes animal byproducts, and sometimes other things. In other words, feed the soil with food. The more protein you get the better the soil will respond. An easy way to start is to apply 20-30 pounds per 1,000 square feet of alfalfa pellets (rabbit or chinchilla feed). You get it in plain brown sacks at your local feed store for about $12 for 50 pounds. The small pellets go through a rotary spreaders. That's much easier than shoveling horse dung around all day. Here is a picture of a zoysia lawn fertilized in one spot with alfalfa a month before the picture. This was posted here at GW last June. Note the improved density, color, and growth. It really works.

Sissy, lots of good advice for you so far. I hope your research included the www.sialis.org site as it has the best information and suggestions for how to protect your blues from house sparrows. I would add that, instead of the coffee can/plastic bag method of removing a trapped house sparrow from a nestbox, I use a mesh laundry bag purchased for about $3. I also use an in-box trap (I like the Huber and the Gilbertson varieties). Once I have the house sparrow trapped inside the nestbox, I put the mesh laundry bag over the entire box and secure it with the drawstring. I open the nestbox and allow the sparrow to fly out, then (wearing garden gloves) grab the house sparrow through the mesh and hold securely while removing the bag from around the nestbox. Though the process goes more easily with someone to help, one person can manage. One thing you should know about house sparrows is that they are much harder to trap a second time. They are quick learners and are very persistent. Your blues will not be safe as long as house sparrows are near. Kathy

Oh yeah I know how that is Angie! I'm not all that open about birds but my closest friends know I'm a bird watcher and seem to respect it. I'm still into a lot of other things for my age but I was born a nature lover and look to maybe have my 1st career being landscaping. And yes, they are awful birds. I've told others that I trap but I try to get them to understand that I'm only doing it for good reasons...:)...the 1st time I had euthanize a HOSP it was tough...real tough...but now, after seing what they do to our good, native, beautiful insect eating birds, I feel no contempt eliminating them. Whatever it takes to restore the balance and keep our good birds alive... By the way...read my post in the other thread...my neighbor owns a Martin house that I remove HOSP nests from.