I have had a totally different weather pattern so my observations aren't pertinent to your question, but perhaps they'll be interesting in themselves. It looks as though we're going to have a third drought year after a second year of Zone 9 winter temperatures. I'm looking at my garden and wondering what qualities are due to the heavy soil, what to the lack of water, what to the inherent character of the roses growing there, what to the difference between grafted and non-grafted varieties. The Teas and Chinas on the Rose Road, planted at the beginning of 2005, are mostly 3'-5' high, but perfectly healthy and sturdy looking. The one year they grew significantly was the first year they were in the ground, when we had a decent amount of rain. The Gallicas are mostly unhappy roses, in very heavy clay and (unfortunately) full sun; they're grafted, unlike the Teas and Chinas, which may make a difference; and they've never had a good year of rainfall. The grafted Teas also are less thriving than the own-root Teas, though that may be due to other factors (drought and soil). I'm just going to have to see how the roses behave when we get another year of good rain, and heaven knows when that will be. Also, I'm forced to buy most of my roses grafted (on Laxa, I think), and have to propagate them from cuttings and grow the offspring to see what the difference is between grafted and ownroot rose behavior. Most of our roses planted 2002-beginning 2006 went into poor ground, while the last two years we plowed beds in moister and more fertile soil, which all the roses except the Teas and Chinas like better. I made large orders of once-blooming old roses last year and am looking forward to seeing how they do in the new beds. Possibly my most interesting discovery is how many old roses react to poor soil and drought: not with weakness and death, but by staying relatively small but healthy and floriferous. This is true not only of the Teas and Chinas, but also of 'Alberic Barbier' and of the Bourbons. The latter ('Variegata di Bologna', 'Zephirine Drouhin', 'Honorine de Brabant', 'Gros Choux de Hollande') are in a sunny, windy, dry area, and while they aren't large, they're sturdy and healthy. My impression is that they're just waiting for a wet year to get bigger. They're also more or less once-blooming in a dry year, though rain in August or September would probably induce a fall flowering. While I've said my roses are generally healthy, last year for the first time I had several roses suffer dieback from disease, and this may have been the result of drought-induced stress, as I hadn't seen it in earlier years. The traditional weather pattern here, unlike in the eastern U.S., is wet weather from mid-fall to mid-spring, with a period of dry cold in the middle of winter, and dry summers. Roses like this just fine. Two years ago (?) we got an unusual strong rain in June, and 'Golden Celebration' was just covered with blackspot, normally a problem I see on the DA roses only in later fall. Lately it has been too dry: four months without rain in 2007 and 'Safrano' actually lost some growth; but a couple of dry, hot, sunny months would, I think, be perfectly satisfactory to my roses. I have no problems with a period of rest. It becomes part of the natural cycle of the garden and it's pleasant in its own way to see the roses shut down and then come into flower again with the fall rains. But the last few years have been too dry. Melissa

When RRD first came into this area, I sort of decided that the single adjective "Aberrant" covered how odd it was. And that simply means that it looks different (really different) from the other growth on that same rose or on the same cultivar in other parts of your (and others) gardens. Then I had aberrant growth show up on what were left of roots of a multiflora in the middle of a drought. There was NO reason for all of the growth. And there was a lot of growth, but that rose had had no rain for two months and there were cracks in the earth around the stem with the EXCESSIVE AND UNEXPECTED. And that way I got two more adjectives to describe the disease. Our best way to catch RRD is to know what's normal. The reddish growth is normal on teas in the fall and spring. But you'll get a feeling for how long it stays red and when it should start to turn green. (Take a look at the American Pillar linked below. The color stood out on it because it didn't look like the same new growth on any other cane on a really big rose.) Finally, when I've decided it's aberrant growth, I look for three different kinds of aberrant growth. Here is a link that might be useful: American Pillar's RRD (pix at bottom)

You don't have to cook foods for 30 minutes. It's 10 minutes or 20 minutes at a rolling boil, depending upon the density of the food (for example, canned creamed corn is very dense). And that recommendation applies only if there's doubt about the safety of the food itself. So I don't worry about boiling any low-acid foods like that because I'm confident about my processing times and procedures. Pickles are an acid product (assuming she followed a standard recipe) and shouldn't be a problem, at least not a botulism problem. They might have listeria or some form of spoilage. If your cousin is too impatient to wait for the pressure to come down naturally (+10 minutes wait time after the regulator is removed) then I wouldn't trust anything she pressure canned because the processing time is shorter than recommended. The recommended time includes all the time required for the gauge to reach zero + the required wait time after that. Anything less doesn't meet the standard. Her unwillingness to wait for a true zero also means it's highly likely liquid expels from jars (i.e. siphoning) which is why you're seeing beans with gel but no liquid and potatoes the same. The starch that forms naturally isn't a concern but routinely popping off the lid of a canner before the pressure is fully down can create all kinds of problems (not to mention a certain risk to the person). The glass jars can be boiled and re-used. It's not really the jars that are the issue. It's handling all that food when you're not sure of its safety, removing it from jars and possibly contaminating your kitchen or perhaps if you're putting it on a compost pile, putting chickens or pets or such at risk. That's why it's recommended that you leave the food in the jars and just get rid of it. To add to what Dave said about the lids, if lids come off, the likelihood is there's less risk of botulism rather than more because botulism doesn't like air and clearly a jar where a lid is popping off probably had air seeping in. You can check seals by turning the jar upside-down over a bucket. The seal should be strong enough to hold; if not, the bucket catches the mess. Really, in your situation I'd be wearing a hazmat suit. But your cousin's had a very rough year already with so many losses; it's great that you're helping. I'd do what I could to encourage safe canning and disposal practices, but I might not push too much. She's already dealing with a lot. Carol

Hi Sheepie! Lots of rain has been falling north and northwest of us--has it been raining at your place the last couple of days? Hank, I've never used dental floss, but then I cage my tomatoes and don't generally have to tie anything. I just poke the ends of the branches back inside the cages when they try to "escape". I use various types of material in the garden to tie plants to fences, stakes or other supports, including jute twine, cotton twine, green velcro ties bought in a roll at the garden center, and old panty hose. I am a little concerned that something as thin as dental floss might cut little grooves into tender green plant tissue, though. Sheri, I think I will do another post on bugs in the garden in general, but let me say a couple of things quickly here. 1) Spiders are the absolute best thing to have in the garden because they are there for one reason and one reason alone and that is to eat insects. The spiders are your friend! Well, one year I had black widows in the garden, and I had to get rid of them, but other harmless spiders took their place and that was fine. 2) If you have a lot of pest bugs in the garden, you need more bugs and not less. Are you seeing any lady bugs or green lacewings? If so, that is great. Like spiders, the lady bugs and green lacewings are there to eat pest bugs. I bought those little bags or cartons of lady bugs at nurseries several years in a row and released them into my garden. I now have a healthy population of ladybugs and no longer have to buy any. The ladybugs and the green lacewings (I only had to release them one year to build a good population) leep most pests under control. 3) Most ants in general are good for the garden. They scavenge and remove dead bugs, bug eggs, etc. Some of our tiny native ants prey upon imported fire ants. I have two harvester ant beds right outside my garden and they are a huge help to me. I do treat with Safer organic fire ant bait for fire ants in the garden. Try to think of ants as an important part of the natural pest control system. 4) If your tomatoes have obvious insect bites on them, I would look for green tomato hornworms (I have had one monster-sized one strip an entire plant bare this week, including eating most of 4 tomatoes that were the size of tennis balls) or for stinkbugs. It is just about stinkbug time here. 5) Crickets and grasshoppers are a very complicated problem. I'll go into them on a separate post specifically about them, so it will be easy for someone to find later on if they are doing a 'search' of this forum. 6) Flies are a nuisance. I have never worried about them or tried to get rid of them, but then I am in horse and cattle ranch country where the flies outnumber the humans about a billion to one. 7) Caterpillars are complicated. The easy way to deal with them organically is to use Bt, a bacteria that kills any caterpillar, moth or butterfly that comes into contact with it. Bt is an organic product and is often found in products labeled 'Caterpillar Killer'. Because I love the butterflies and moths, I quit using Bt several years ago. Whether to use BT or not is an individual choice and I respect anyone's right to use it to rid their landscape of caterpillars. I prefer to not use it on our property, though, and just handpick caterpillars that have become a problem. It is easy to see bugs in the garden and get panicky and want to get rid of them all. I understand that. I have been there myself. When I was a young child, my dad sprayed DDT and other poisons to rid his garden of bugs. When I was a teenager, my dad sprayed religiously with Kelthane to get rid of the spider mites on his tomatoes. When I was a young woman in my 20s, with a family, home and garden of my own, my dad used Sevin dust as a multi-purpose bug killer. I tried his methods when I was in my mid- to late-20s and found they really didn't work. I started looking for a better way. It took me a few years, but I finally got it right. I'll describe it in the post I write in a few minutes about bugs. I'm not saying my way is the best way, but it is the best way for me and for all the critters who share this piece of land my family calls home. Dawn