I've always heard that Bt is the solution. Or kittens (they chase the moths and eat them) You can also do "minister of death" patrol and squash the little yellow eggs on the undersides of the leaves. Planting very early helps too -- since kole crops are frost hardy, you can plant early (I sometimes plant seedlings the first week of April in Zone 5, and cover with some AG fleece until things warm up a little). Probably too late to start seedlings from seed now for a really early start, but maybe you can find seedlings to buy at the end of March (I sometimes drive to a slightly warmer area--as in south or lower elevation-- to get seedlings as early as I want them) If you use netting, obviously it has to be very small openings, and no gaps. Those moths will find any little slit to get through -- I've watched them! I've been known to go running around my yard with a butterfly net catching the moths. I don't recommend this, as more moths just fly in, and it looks very silly. Good luck-- I hope it works for you this year! Elisa

Hmmm. That is sort of a tough spot. I wonder if a coppiced smoke bush might be happy, although with the purple ones, the color will be best early in the season, before the cottonwood starts throwing serious shade. Why not more peonies? Or a tree peony? Tree peonies like partial shade, and the herbaceous ones are ok in shade--they just bloom less. I used to have most of my garden in dry shade. Most of the height ended up coming from shrubs, not perennials. Of the perennials that were cottage-garden like and tallish, dicentra spectabilis fit the bill (though you may not like the summer die-back). Some dianthus barbatus were pretty tall, but not three feet. Monarda might be nice, but it can't be too, too dry. I've found that some verbascum can bloom well even in pretty deep shade. I like salvia koyame too, but mine sort of sprawls and doesn't get all that tall. Some of the thalictrums might be nice for you. And some columbine get pretty tall, at least for a while. The tall phlox bloom ok in shade too. When I think back to my shadier yard, and I think the asiatic lilies were perhaps the highlight of summer. They don't like me nearly as much now that we live in a sunnier yard. And what about a honkin' big hosta? Sum and Substance gets enormous!

All of my dry goods go into either these: Lock and Locks or these: Click Clacks I found a set of large lock lock (or some knock off equivalent) at Costco that will hold 5-10+lbs of flour, rice, cereal or sugar when I buy in bulk. I use the round cannisters of various sizes to store sugar, flour, rice, pasta, beans, bread crumbs or anything else that the moths used to get into. I also occasionally put out some of the those sticky moth traps. The traps have been empty for awhile now. The only problems I've really had after using the containers: -flour mites: even in the container I got an infestation of flour mites. As some indicated, this means they were in the flour to begin with. The nice thing was that the mites were contained in the bin so I just had to dump it all and clean the bin and they weren't all over everything else in my dry storage -beetles: when I buy bird seed for my birds it often has beetles and/or eggs. If I don't freeze these first they'll multiply and become evident in a short period of time. However, the containers WILL prevent flour moths and beetles from getting into your dry goods if they aren't already in them.

Vith, very nice! But the problem I and the original poster have is the current drain cover getting clogged by leaves/debris, which prevents rain water from draining properly and inevitably backs up and leaks into the basement thru the basement door. If you look at the pic above, you'll see there is a drain already in the concrete floor outside the door. What contributes to this problem is the design of that landing in the first place. Between the rise of the first step, the rise of the doorway lip, and the 2 brick walls, you essentially have a concrete tub. When that drain clogs, water fills that tub up in no time. My walk-up landing is designed the same way (most are). I have a drain in place already that flows into our sump. We've had it scoped by a plumber and it's in perfect working order and does what it's supposed to do. It's just those little doorway "pockets" are perfect catch-alls for leaves...especially this time of year. I don't know why the design of these types of landings hasn't been reworked. My husband and I were looking at brand new home models last week, and every single house that had a walk-up basement had this exact design in one form or another - a doorway lip, 2 walls, concrete steps, and a 6" drain smack in the middle of the landing. I asked one of the sales people how they kept water from coming into the basement and they said they just make sure to keep and eye on the drain cover and make sure it doesn't clog with leaves. That's all fine and great if you are home to keep an eye on it every day, but if you travel or for some reason forget, then you are gambling with a water leak if you get a heavy rainstorm. If it were up to me to design, I'd put a drain on a side wall at floor level of the landing with the drainage pipe at a slant into either an underground drain field or sump.