Hello again . I do not live in a town that has leaf collection but our county landfill does make compost .The land fill is about 30 miles from me , however, kinda a long haul. The Farmer whose property is next to mine had over 100 round bales ( Approx 1200 pounds each) wash away in the flood. About 20 of them ended up on my property. He said I can have the bales for mulch. My problem is I do not have the equipment to move the bales or unwrap them. When I get them moved, I plan to use them for sheet compost on the worst damaged areas. I am also going to save 3 bales to mulch between my asparagus rows ( Ihave 500 plants). I am not sure if the asparagus is still alive although there are still fronds where the bed was. My ad on Freecycle has netted me 4 manure piles free for the hauling and my farmer neighbor will drop off and spread cow manure over the composted haylege once its spread. I may be back in business!? I have had two customers tell me they will take all the cucumbers and melons I can produce next year. You can't imagine how that makes me feel. At least I have some loyal fans. Thanks for your help. Its nice to be able to share the burden with others. I felt so alone when this crises first happened. Linda

Some bamboos like Ph. Atrovaginata will have no problem... Can't say about others. It definitely isn't good to have most bamboos in standing water. If you are buying the property anyway, give it a try. But if you are buying it solely to create a bamboo nursery, I think you have a high risk business plan. Plus, what if there is an "every 20 years" type event where the flooding is more severe... It could kill off your whole business. Pretty sketchy.

Auntfer, what the tag refers to is that you need to get a second almond tree, of the variety "Non Pareil" to provide the pollen to pollinate your first tree. Almonds are not self-fertile--that means that the pollen from the almond can't pollenate itself. Non Pareil is very common in California (I got a bareroot one at Home Depot in January), and blooms at a certain time different from other varieties. To get good pollination, you have to have both trees flowering at the same time. The other fruits--apples, peach, etc--are different species, and species generally can't pollenate different species (or you would get a hybrid). Just ask for a "Non Pareil" almond tree at a nursery. There's a good summary of almond varieties and pollination issues at http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/1214/12407.pdf David

I wish you could share your problem. We have had less than .5 inches of rain since June 3rd. On June 3rd we had a 1 inch rain. We are bone dry. 1/2 inch to 1 inch cracks in the yard and garden, the yard is crispy brown and dry. We have been keeping ahead of the watering with drip and plastic mulch helps retains the moisture. Enough about my problems. I would leave the water alone, it will soak in. Of course I don't know how severe the standing water is. We put in all our beds across the hills to "Terrace" the water in and to control run off. This way we keep the water and get it to soak in instead of running off. Is more rain called for? If so, it might be a good idea. But I don't know how much damage it would cause to your ground. Sorry I can't help much. We just haven't had that problem, wish we did. Jay