If you are going to erect barriers anyway, you might as well get a few chickens. They are good at keeping the bugs at bay and in my experience, they are a lot less messy than ducks. Chicken poo from healthy chickens dries and hardens into neat little blobs in about a day. You can pick them up intact and throw them at your neighbors poodle. Duck doo is like a large black slimey loogie that stays loogie-like for days, smells remarkable, and seems to spread out towards all the other duck loogies in the vicinity to form a loogie lake. OK, it may not be quite that bad but, deer flies are especially fond of duck doo on those warm summer days and I sure didn't enjoy having ducks. I was forced to find them a new home after a short visit to my yard. I have to admit though, that they all have personalities and it's really hard not to become attached to them as you raise them and watch them mature. And I liked my ducks, but there was just no safe place to walk between the loogie lakes in and around the coop when I went out there. I now have a large pen about 250' from the house, with just chickens. When we want them to do a bug round-up we let them out and lure them down to the fenced garden area. Cheryl

I'm definitely in agreement. It looks like something that will never be a problem. WRONG. I've seen it take over areas and obliterate everything else in its path. Bare ground with not a single thing growing except star thistle. Aggressive self-seeding doesn't begin to describe it. Who would ever think that a straggly, ragged thing could cause so much damage. But it does. I was mistaken about its size, since I've only seen it growing in dry fields or abandoned areas where it gets no water. Apparently if it's happy, it can top 5' in height. Our winter storms won't slow it down, since it's thriving in the severe ND and ID climates. People have talked about blister beetles in alfalfa hay. I don't even want to think about star thistle in grass hay, or any other kind of feed. You wouldn't dare use it in cured hay, although goats will eat it when it's green. The crop would have to be destroyed. Probably burned, to keep it from harming anything and to control the seed spread. It's nasty beyond words. I can't remember who said it's been spotted in OK, or where it was, but anyplace at all is too close.. This is what some of the universities say about it. "The Yellow star-thistle plant has the ability to create monotypic stands and habitats in the cultivated soil of fields, graded dirt sites, and disturbed natural ecosystem lands. Its colonization eliminates and prevents other plant species from growing, terminating the habitat's biodiversity. Extensive spreading monotypic fields of yellow starthistle are not uncommon. Its growth plasticity, competitiveness, preference for the Mediterranean climate, and a lack of natural herbivore enemies and co-evolved species, make it a very successful invader. The plant is an invasive pest in field crops, degrades native plant habitats and natural ecosystems, prevents the grazing of domestic animals in rangelands, and is a physical barrier to indigenous animal movement in wildlands." "Yellow starthistle has the potential to dramatically reduce crop and forage production, decrease native plant and wildlife habitat, poison horses, and cause severe economic loss in both crop and wildlands." "Since its introduction to California in the mid-nineteenth century, it has become a large-scale invasive species (noxious weed or invasive exotic) throughout twenty-three states. It currently dominates over 15,000,000 acres in California alone. By 1970, yellow star-thistle had reached 23 U.S. states. According to the USDA Forest Service, as of 2006 the plant has been reported present in 41 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states, with the only exceptions being Maine, Vermont, and five of the Deep South states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia)." That's 18 more states in only 25 years! It's so noxious that some states have asked farmers and gardeners to call in and report it if they see it growing anyplace at all. Some states have implemented no-cost eradication programs to help farmers deal with it. Here are a couple more photos of it. It doesn't look so harmful, does it? Guess again! Pat

Thanks for the reply Rachel. I had a couple great opportunities to meet some "power partners" in the last week. I'm working on getting my name out there and perfecting the short elevator speech. Next up is getting ready to do some short gardening "seminars" at the local libraries this month and next. I hope to attract some clients and give out some useful information on gardening, planting seasonal containers and "green" topics such as composting, organic products, rain gardens. I'm going to post flyers announcing the "seminar" at the library and around town. Anyone ever had success with a press release to a local newspaper or writing articles for a newspaper? As far as what makes me different from the others locally. I'm going to stress my horticulture skills and education, superior customer service and plant health care programs. Can anyone tell me what makes your service better/different from the rest? Thanks in advance!

I wear layers of silk most of the year, and work on a computer all day in a dry office environment. Sounds like a sure-fire recipe for static cling, doesn't it? And in fact, the first time I wore a silk shirt over silk undies and then touched a doorknob -- I learned you can actually SEE the static spark before your hand touches the metal!! A friend advised to use body lotion (on the skin not the fabric) just before dressing, and that does eliminate most cling. But I haven't had any problem at any time with static or cling since learning to wash the silk with shampoo and adding vinegar to the rinse water. I honestly don't know if there is an ingredient in the shampoo or if the vinegar is reason, but I will say I haven't had a problem with static for several years.