The biggest issue is fungus gnats. Tiny black flies that love to live indoors or out and infest every single plant even if its in a pot. They are smaller than fruit flies. Outdoors, I use a form of Bt and also benefical nematodes as I used to get a LOT of these fungus gnats, they even get inside the leaf layers of brussles sprouts, which are not good eating when you see tiny back flies in the cooking water. Indoors, when I start seeds, I use a mix of seed starting soils, like Natural Beginnings from Gardens Alive, as well as a Jiffy mix that is sold by the bag through sevral web sites, and even shreaded coconut husk fibers called coir. These are all quite 'clean' and have little to no real soil in them. They help hold just the right amount of moisture too. The fungus gnats usually come from outdoor soils, lay eggs in the soil that turn into tiny maggots and these feed off the tender roots of any plants. Thats one reason you see house plants suddenly dieing for no apparent reason. To check indoor plants, I use yellow sticky traps that rest horizontally on the edges of the pots. After just a couple of days, these traps can become loaded with tiny black gnats! Outside is where I use a form of Bt and also water in the beneficial nematodes that live in soil and go after the fungus maggots. My garden soil here isn't perfect, but if I can reduce harmful bugs from killing plants, its a big help. I use scent lures and sticky traps for my apples, peaches, and even cucumbers. Each sticky trap has a scent lure that attracts the pests common to these plants. Some plants and trees are highly resistant to diseases and bugs. Asian pears, asparagus, and blueberries to name a few. It may be better to head to a nursery/garden shop, as Home Depot and Lowes tend to offer a very limited amount of organic supplies. Here, we have only a very few products that are organic and most are for bugs (Neem) and disease control (Serende). The bags of soil offered by Miracle Grow tend to be a bit harsh as they simply use chemical equivilents to the real soil nutrients. I have a small leanto shed that stores corn gluten, fish meal, humate, kelp meal, and a few others. I use these as natural nitrogen additives, or in the case of humate, many minerals and micro nutrients. If you do plan to spray for any bugs that might be feeding on the leaves, try Neem. I wouldnt spray any herbs with anything unless the bugs are chewing holes in the leaves however. Bt, is a liquid mixed with water and has several different strains, of which one is for the gnat control. Ever hear of squash vine borers? These bugs bore into the base of squash vines and destroy the insides which cause the plants to quickly die. I have used another form of Bt and actually injected it into the main stems of squash plants, by using an insulin syringe. The Bt attacks the borers and kills them. Imagine a garden thats a living thing like us, it just can't survive all by itself if you want good yields and quality crops. I have only 2000 sq. feet of garden space, and there is also areas all around the edges of my garden that have fruit trees, or some permanent plants like asparagus and horse radish, which I harvest every spring. For your pot of cilantro, add some seeds every 2-3 weeks, so they can give you more than 1 or 2 harvests. Only thing is, if they are clumped together, they are hard to seperate if there are two stages of growth within each other. Indoors, I start about 60 petunia plants, 60 or so impatien plants, peppers, tomatos, basil, and a few others about mid April. This year, seedless watermelons with a necessary pollinator, as well as a few cantaloupe types. Brussels sprouts again too, but will be covered with a light weight white plastic fabric to block out the bugs, then my big batch of corn, which I plant every other year. I have a small tractor and a big rototiller to turn the soil over every spring, and work in any soil ammendments needed. Here is a link that might be useful: Natural Beginnings

Finally got most of my fling finds planted tonight, including replacement broccoli (aka Dawn's urban north broccoli outpost), garlic and several ornamentals. Also my pepper seedlings went in the ground tonight, too. Still have a few fling heirloom tomatoes but need to add compost and manure to the new spot for them. I have something I was unable to identify. There were three black square qt(?) sized pots, and I believe they were labeled on the table underneath but don't remember the name. I recall they were some sort of shade item, green strappy leaves, maybe with lily in the name? I am having a hard time figuring them out, but picked them out thinking "Ah! Perfect spot under the elm tree for them." Now if I only knew what they were... If that sounds familiar to anyone, it'd save me from dragging the camera out. Thanks!

I've taken cuttings in the spring time, right before plants bloom. That's what I was told to do. I have done this more than once and have always had the same results.. The average success is way less than poor.. 3 out of 20 rooted. On the other hand, my neighbor cut off some of the side brances that kept poking her when she was mowing her lawn in August of 2005. I picked up 15 of them and decided to just stick them in a pot with just good dirt, no rootone either, cut them back some (12 inches) and pinched off the growing tips so there was only 3 leaves on each side shoot, watered them good and set them in the shade of one of my bigger forsythia. That's all I did. As far as watering goes, every time I watered my flower beds via rainbird sprinklers, these cuttings got watered throughly (5-6 hours at a time). This spring, 3 died and the other 12 are blooming up a storm and growing like crazy.

I order from Amazon also but ran into a couple of strange things recently. I ordered a whipped cream canister which uses CO2 cartridges to whip the cream or whatever topping you want to make (similar to what Starbucks uses). I ordered both and they arrived. The canister was missing a bunch of parts. I contacted Amazon by email and they said to return it. I did, no problem. Refund. I then asked for the label for the cartridges to return. They said they were restricted and they would refund my money but to keep the cartridges. I had ordered 150 cartridges which cost $42.00. I emailed them back and said I had no use for them without the canister and wanted to return them. They responded that they didn't want them back as they would cost more to return as they were worth. A few months ago I ordered a gadget which is a skin needle thingy. I had heard about them and decided to give it a try. When it arrived the directions were all in Chinese. I wrote Amazon and they said they would forward the email to the seller. Seller writes back that instructions were on a YouTube video and it would demonstrate how to use it. I wrote back that I wanted a refund. They wrote back that the postage back to China would cost more than the price of the item. They would refund my money. So, now I have a box of CO2 cartridges and a skin thing which is all in Chinese! They did refund my credit card. Jane