OMG, now I'm going to be trying to find ways to use the word "snibbles". Did I spell it correctly??!!! I'm having a hard time typing because my laptop keeps shaking from the laughter! OMG, too funny!!!!! I would assume if you dry the Spanish Moss (you are talking about the stuff that hangs out of trees and not snibbles, right?) you could use it in place of peat moss. Peat moss is used so that when it deteriorates you're left with little nooks and crannies in the surface. If Spanish moss will react in the same way, go for it. Regarding imprinting leaves or embedding stone or glass: I fill the bottom of my mold and then start working up the sides of the mold. When I reach the height where I want the leaves (I usually put them from the center of the mold and up to the rim because if their lower you usually can't see them.), I place a leaf against the mold wall and slap a hypertufa patty on it to hold it in place. You can also put a little water on the front of the leaf, if you are using a plastic mold, and it will stick. Only a little water. I've only done a few embedded stone and marble pieces. I use a clear or frosted plastic mold so I can see thorough the sides if I'm doing a pattern. I fill the bottom and start up the sides. When I reach the height where I want the design I make sure the wall is packed tight. I roll out the hypertufa in hotdog lengths and place the stones or marbles behind the "dogs" and tamp to blend the hotdogs. Don't work too much or the stones will be pushed too far into the "dogs". If that happens you may have to use your snibbler to expose the stones. I don't have a snibbler yet so I use my wire brush and an old screw driver. OMG, long live SNIBBLES!!! I'm off to school, have a great night and a great weekend. Billie p.s. I'm still laughing!!!!!

Chlorosis is easy to treat and prevent. It usually means a plant is lacking acid. Many people suggest feeding them chelate iron but misusing it may be harmful to your plants. I have a bottle of iron which is several years old. I put a tablespoon of chelated iron in 5 gals of water and feed once a year. To maintain acidity, I used an azalea fertilizer. Between the two, I have very good luck. My cal sits in the greenhouse all winter and the humidity is high. The dew rises and falls in the greenhouse. I don't spray but humidity doesn't seem to be a problem for me.

1. Diatomaceous earth is not poisonous, it works like broken glass, the effect is physical rather than biochemical. It is supposed to puncture the skin of small pests (or the intestines, if they eat it). 2. No, there are many types of cat litter, few are suitable as soil amendment. Avoid everything that is clumping, made from organic materials, or crumbles if you squeeze it. The useful ones are very similar to products like Turface and Napa Floor Dry. All I have seen have been pinkish.

I can assume that the organic fertilizers (CGM etc) are not harmful in any way to dogs?? Has anyone had experience with dogs in their yard while the fertilizer is on?? They seem fine. I have three Bichon Frise all in the nine to fourteen pound range (Nikki, the little girl, is 9 lbs, the other two are larger bruisers). They have no attraction to soybean meal or Milorganite. I wouldn't allow them to eat rotting organics, however. One side effect is they seem to eat more grass and get sick from it a lot less often. Your breed may differ, of course, or your individual dogs may have specific issues. That seems unlikely, however. Best way to kill grass in a small area? I'm trying to save my pregnant self the extra work of actually digging out the grass. Congratulations! I can understand not wishing to dig with a separate burden to carry. You can use Round Up. Then, once the rainproof time is past (usually an hour, some are two), rinse it off thoroughly with the hose and *try* to keep the dogs out until it dries. Fortunately, Round Up has very low toxicity. You could smother it with a thick coat of soil, or kill it with a covering of plastic (tacked down) as well. Give it a week or three during summer and a good plastic cover will fry it out. If the lilac is really big and shadowing that too much it won't work well or quickly, though. I am attributing this to the wrong amount of watering, but perhaps I needed to apply the fertilizer better or something? It could be either, or too low a level of fertilization. Grass wants to be well-fed in May, August, September, and October, a pound to a pound and a half of actual nitrogen per thousand square feet at a time. Now that I've given the rule, I can tell you that I break it and apply a pound to 1.5 lbs a month, every month during the growing season from April through November. My soil is poor, so if yours is as well you'll probably want to increase that. Like you noted, water 1" at a time as rarely as possible. Can I hope reasonably that with the aerating alone that will encourage good microbes?? Unless your soil was drowned or severely poisoned (doubtful), they were there before the aeration. It will help the thatch decay by injecting microbes and soil right into the thatch layer. Organic feeding also helps, and seems to decrease the amount of thatch produced. You can consider compost, but given your current condition I wouldn't recommend it. It's rather back-breaking to get it down at 1/4" or so across the whole lawn. Unless the soil has been heavily poisoned or under water for a good clip, it's probably unnecessary anyway. It's available from your local garden shop, and big-box stores carry it bagged (I wouldn't dream of trusting that stuff, though, as who knows how long it's been there?) A lot of landscaping companies will deliver it (at a price), and perhaps some would even spread it (at a much greater price). have previously used Pro-Rich fertilizer by Richlawn. Is this concidered a chemical base?? Or an organic one? Define organic. :-) I'd definitely call this an organic fertilizer, given the poultry manure base, even though the poultry may not have had a purely organic diet (they almost certainly didn't, actually). Purists would say that the poultry need to be certified. I don't agree and happily use genetically modified soybean on my lawn. A protein is a protein, and any non-organic components diluted and decayed during composting to the point that I doubt there's any reason to worry. Particularly not if you eat chicken on a regular basis, or items containing GM soybean. Which I do. but maybe I should be sticking to something else that would be better for the lawn? If it's working for you, that's great. Name brands tend to be more expensive than the basic stuff, but are easier to find. Soybean meal, alfalfa meal, cracked corn, cottonseed meal, etc. all make excellent organic fertilizers. Finding them can be a nightmare depending on where you live--I have to drive nearly an hour to get mine, so I load myself down and only go twice a year. I'm presuming you're using the 10-5-5 plus iron lawn food. Using that, you should be applying about 10 pounds of lawn food per thousand square feet to get 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. You're also getting 0.5 lbs of phosphorous (kind of high) and 0.5 lbs of potassium (just about right) per application. Er, kind of high doesn't mean killing your lawn or anything, just that it's more than you need, really. If you have a 5,000 square foot lawn or so (I'm guessing as I didn't see any sizes above), that would mean using 50 lbs per feeding, four times a year (or more), for a total of 200 lbs. You'd actually need more soybean meal (the one that tends to be the best, overall, in my opinion) as it's 7-1-2. That requires 14 pounds per thousand square feet, times 4 apps per year, times 5,000 square feet, equals 280 lbs. The price runs around $13 for 50 lbs or so.