Some of the accomplishments laid at the feet of the rusty nail myth are, plants will always profit from an extra kick of iron - they'll be greener and healthier, spruce will be bluer, green trees greener, a lower soil pH, better and bluer hydrangea blooms, more fruit on fruiting trees, ......., none of which actually happen. Rust is iron oxide, and it's essentially insoluble in soils. The problem is that the iron produced by rusty nails is iron oxide, an essentially insoluble compound. Being insoluble, it's unavailable to plants. Even if you grew in a bucket of rusty nails with a little container medium to fill in the voids between nails, it won't work. Only rarely is iron not found abundantly in garden soil, soils with pine bark have plenty of iron, and the low iron of peat-based media is easy to fix by way of basic fertilizing. If your soil pH is north of neutral (alkaline), iron will likely be fixed tightly to soil particles, in which case it's wise to consider lowering it or using an Fe chelate to ensure iron's availability when you see an iron deficiency's tell, interveinal chlorosis ......... even though iron isn't really what you're looking for here. You need aluminum for bluer hydrangea blooms, which is also normally very abundant in soils but sometimes unavailable, which is a good thing because it's toxic to most plants at even low levels. Like Fe, Al can be made available by lowering soil pH, so powdered sulfur or aluminum sulfate would be the go to chemicals for bluer hydrangeas. If there is a pH-driven insufficiency of aluminum, aluminum nails will simply add to the supply of unavailable aluminum, so that brings us back to soil pH. Too, finely powdered material is significantly more desirable than big chunks of aluminum or iron, as you would have with nails. Al

Outsmarting the tree rats (squirrels) around my house is a full time job. This past spring I hit on a new idea. When I plant a container I invert an empty wire hanging basket over the container and the plant gets sun and can be watered but the squirrels can't dig in it. Another idea: I bring in a lot of plants to "over winter" under lights in my garage. I have so many that it is hard to reach my hand under the lights (4 shop lights) to the middle for watering. So I bought a pump sprayer with a long wand and it works great! In late winter I add a little liquid Dawn detergent, few drops, to each gallon of water and not only does the soil get wet easier but the worms that are waiting to hatch into distructive pets just don't hatch. Don't know what it costs me to run those four shop lights all winter but I don't care. It is a small price to pay to be able to "garden" every weekend in the garage. Many people have mentioned that they mark their outdoor plants with a "permanent Sharpie". In my experience there isn't a "permanent Sharpie", they all fade and quickly too. A grease pencil/china marker or expensive "no fade" garden center marker are the only markers I have found that won't disappoint you by fading. Eight years ago I decided to learn about gardening so I tapped into my local library. I checked out nearly every book they had on gardening and learned so much. The Gardenweb forums are also a wealth of information and entertainment. There is always something new to learn and I appreciate all of you who take the time to write in your ideas. One last idea from me...I keep a small notebook on my computer table and jot down any idea I find that's new and I will want to try. Little pieces of paper get lost but I always know where my notebook is and also use it when I order "on line" so I will remember the name of the company and the order date. Tina or Trowelgal

Where water is alkaline, you can experience a buildup of salts in the planting mix. Your container should be flushed approximately once a month when highly alkaline water is used, every three months were water quality is good. Fill the container to the brim with water several times over until water is running freely out of the drainage holes. The recommendation for containerized hydranges is to put a gallon sized plant directly into a 15 - 25 gallon container of a bark-based soilless compost. Fertilize in Spring, again in July...it's better to err on the side of too little than too much, I will generally use about half the amount on container directions when it comes to fertilizers. Your hydrangea does not need to be moved indoors for frost in your zone. Mine in the ground sailed through 4 days of record lows the last week of February after they had begun to leaf out (22F) this year...no damage to stems or flower buds.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038071706005190 Trace and nutrient elements in manure, dung and compost samples in Austria Although the high amounts of K and P were beneficial, there were some high concentrations of Na in biogas residues and pig manures. Intense additions of Cu, Zn, and Se are reflected in high loads in the respective excrements, as Austria is a low Se area. Composts and sewage sludges were higher in Al and lithophilic trace elements than were the excrements ... Factor analysis traced phosphates as the main source of Cd. Cr in processed matrices was significantly higher, and abrasion from tools should be considered in future investigations" *** From Straw: antifungal trace elements, listed in the order of most potent: Silver, Mercury, Copper Cu, Cadmium Cd, Chromium Cr, Nickel, Lead, Cobalt, Zinc Zn, Iron, and lastly calcium. Selenium is also a strong anti-fungal agent. My personal experience for the past 6 years: horse manure and chicken manure together works better than applying lime before acidic rain. Have really bad experience testing Encap compost on pots, due to the quick lime. Aluminum is toxic to plants (Milorganite sewage sludge was bad for both my lawn and roses), and I'm glad that chicken manure is high in zinc, copper, and boron. http://www.ontariosoilcrop.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/V2Gen1.pdf "Zinc and Copper are included in monograstric (swine and poultry) diets at much higher levels than minimum requirement for "normal" performance since when fed at higher levels they promote growth. Horse manure samples in the study were particularly high in chromium, nickel, aluminum and iron. The source of nickel and chromium is not clear, but race harness bits used in the industry are often nickel or chrome plated and may have contributed to the concentration of these two metals. " I also checked for trace elements in oyster shell lime: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/18465435_Trace_Metals_in_Oyster_Shells " Measurements using atomic absorption spectrometry have established the prescence of Pb, Hg, Cd, Zn, Cu, and Cr in shells of the oyster Crassostrea virginica in amounts considerably higher than their concentration in sea water." BOS LIME is made from Ocean Shell, (Bluff Oyster Shell / Kina Shell). Trace elements and micro minerals such as Potassium Oxide, Magnesium Oxide, Colbalt, Zinc Oxide ." http://www.boslime.co.nz/pages/products_001.html