Natural equivalent? Rain water wets entire plants not just roots. Rainwater is mysteriously more effective than normal fertilization. Rainwater is usually ionized through lightning. You are thinking in terms of liquids. Leaves have evolved to be able to extract oxygen, nitrogen and C02 from air directly. Water was its first domain and most of the plants still have the ability to do so. Green algae have no roots. Aquatic plants or halophytes have roots but nutrients in the form of ionic solutions donÂt need to reach the roots to be absorbed. In aquatic plant keeping you will learn that you don't need to circulate your water (that has nutrients added) through the substrate, even if the substrate has no nutrient base at all. The plants sucks nutrients out of the water equally as fast, there is no difference. Some halophytes you find in aquatic plant keeping you wonÂt find growing in water when you go look for them in the wild. The only differences between a halophyte and a non halophyte plant is that their skins are adapted not to dry above water or to be able to access dissolved gasses below water. The one adaptation messes up the other ability. So in my opinion, plant foliar feeding will vary between plant species. Tough waxy plants will be less effective while soft fast growing, higher humidity or "higher plants" will be more effective at utilizing foliar feeds. Controlled studies exists but is probably so old you won't find them on the net. It's common knowledge in my opinion. Maybe someone should post some fresh studies.

Enjoying nature, I never have tried pruning hollies to a certain size. I let mine get to the full size and shape that they're meant to attain. You probably could prune them to any size and shape you want, but after a few years you end up with big thick branches with leaves sticking out of them and it looks unnatural unless you like tightly pruned hedges. I still can hear Neil Sperry's voice in my head on his radio show saying that if you want to prune shrubs into square green boxes, why not just go out and build a plywood box and paint it green. (grin) Who am I to defy Neil Sperry and try to prune my hollies to a certain arbitrary size? So, mine were spaced as far apart as they needed to be in the first place because I had a good idea how big they'd get and they are fine now---roughly 12' tall and 5-6' apart. Those are the Burford hollies on the south side of the house. They shade the south porch from the summer sun, which is precisely what I wanted them to do. On the east side of the house, which is where the front part of the wraparound porch and the front door is located, I planted Dwarf Burford hollies in 2011 and they seem more like the size you'd want. I wanted a naturally shorter shrub there so we could sit on the porch and look out into the yard somewhat at least. Mine have really had to struggle through drought (i think I planted them in April of 2011 and it stopped raining soon thereafter and didn't rain for 90 days that summer) so they have grown relatively slowly for hollies, but now are about 5' tall and about 3-4' wide and they haven't reached their max size yet. I expect them to top out at around 8' tall and 4' wide, but time will tell. They are a loose informal hedge, which fits with our country Victorian house....all relaxed and sort of cottagey. It is your house, though, and they are your shrubs, so you should plant what pleases you and maintain them in the way that makes you happy. I'm a firm believer that a person's landscape plantings should reflect their tastes and anyone who doesn't like it can just go mind their own business. Well, except, I still have Neil Sperry's voice in my head and I agree with his comments about picking the right shrub to begin with so you don't have to prune your shrubs to an unnatural size or shape. That's just me, though. Some people love formally pruned hedges and they should have what they want. All those years of reading Neil's newspaper columns, his magazine and his books when we lived in Texas (as well as listening to his radio show and attending his Garden Shows) trained me to be a certain way as a younger gardener, and I have his voice in my head the way I have my dad's voice in my head, even though he is long gone. Scott, We have native possumhaw hollies and I love them, but they sucker like the devil and we've got one in the front yard we're going to take out. I hate to take it out because it is the bird feeder tree where we hang the feeders, but we'll just move them somewhere else. It just suckers endlessly and I'm tired of dealing with it. We'll leave the ones on the edges of the woods because it doesn't bother us if they form thickets, and the birds love the berries in late winter and early spring, though they won't touch them until all the other berries are gone. When the cedar waxwings are migrating through in spring, they get pretty much drunk on those fermented possumhaw berries. I feel like pretty much everything we plant has one poisonous part or another, so I plant what I want. If kids are around, I keep an eye on the kids, and teach them not to eat plant parts without checking with an adult first. No child has poisoned themselves on anything we grow yet, so I try not to worry about it. (And I grow several types of brugmansias and daturas, but the spiny seed balls are so hideous that I don't think I have to worry about kids getting hold of them and accessing the seeds.) When we were kids we ran all over the neighborhood and played and we all knew to go home immediately when our parents turned on the front porch light. None of us died or ever got seriously injured or ill. It was a wonderful childhood, and we had a woodland, a neighborhood pond, rocky cliffs to climb, etc. I appreciate that we got to be kids with no one hovering over us too much. Times have changed. And, just so you know, most poisonous plant parts have a bad taste, making it less likely kids will eat them. Or, they will cause you to throw up if you ingest them, so kids are not that likely to eat and swallow them. (However, some dogs will eat anything, so that is one thing to keep in mind if you have dogs.) It is a sad commentary on life in this century that kids cannot play tag. No wonder so many children have a weight issue. It is hard to stay physically fit if you cannot do anything because you might get hurt. That is just sad. Dawn

jlt37869: The rod I ordered is in ORB; but looks black. I wanted it to coordinate with the black on the task lamps. Glad to hear you like them as I am trying to give the vintage pieces an edginess too it so it doesn't look old-fashioned and frumpy for DS when he is there. fripper/ghostlyvision: Sorry I didn't explain better; RAF=Howard's Restore-A-Finish which I used along with their companion product, Howard's Feed 'n Wax to seal in the restored finish. It's a product that can be used on older furniture where the finish is still intact, but it has some surface scratches, water rings and years of dirt and dust. It cleans and perserves the existing finish and can often be done instead of stripping and refinishing furniture. work_in_progress08: DS was fine with his existing room; though for most part he's more preoccupied these days looking forward to going to college. He did say that the bed is much more comfortable and I think he is happy that I have found a way to display his pottery (or at least the best pieces). There are some of his early attempts from 1st semester that I have boxed up and plan to talk to DS about tossing it or donating it. They seem to have unlimited access to clay and some pieces are BIG! I'm not sure yet what to do about the desk/hutch or when to phase it out; hence why I had been considering if I should gel stain it darker. My younger DD has a kneehole desk and it's great for storage so a similar one should work just fine for summer and laptop use, etc. At some point, I just would box up the trophies, but some of them he won recently up to a few weeks ago; so the time is not yet. Long term though, I feel the artwork has more meaning to have out as it shows his creativity. dlm2000: Thanks for the support for this project. Small spaces are often a challenge to decorate as I've experienced with all my three kid's rooms; but they can still be made to look nice and comfortable. I suppose I should just sell the torchiere on CL at some point as it's more a mission style which I don't have in my house. I have a whole garage full of stuff now I need to sell on CL which I should do next. The headboard is rather low-profile which I knew when I bought it and was one of the things that attracted me to it for when it goes below the window. I even bought a low profile boxspring for this bed, but it still sits up high as the slats start a few inches higher. Bonus is, more room for underbed storage. Which I forgot to add, the more boring part of the room make over is that I added two under bed storage boxes to store both the guest bedding plus his old twin bedding which goes on the aerobed for when he gets displaced from his room. My brother and mom may be visiting this weekend for DS's 18th birthday so I'm anxious to hear what my brother thinks of the new bed as I typically have him sleep in this room and at 6'2" I don't think he found the old twin too comfy.

I also bookmarked that page too, makes me wonder what is possible. Casey you are very talented and knowledgeable about all things wood, I have followed your kitchen and waterlox floors for the last couple years. Thanks for answering. I feel like this is confession time. This whole table thing did look lighter and more orange in my dining room than I planned, and I had been toying with with darkening it a bit but really was in no rush...then I found the most FABULOUS re-sale shop with rooms and rooms of estate items at can't beat prices. So now I have run into a darker mahogany or walnut table (will be checking tomorrow) and I already have a mahogany china cabinet I need to shuffle around into the dining room for the holidays, and thought hmmm, why not move it there permanently and build around it since it is family piece and I love it. Yes, this is a V8 moment arriving a bit late in the day, after acquiring the oak set, of which I never wanted the chairs anyway (DH said to get them in case I ever wanted a matching set, which of course I don't) and I've known that all along! So now that I have sinned and Moonshadow has forgiven me, and knows I may sin again....:) let me continue on with this very boring table problem. I do have to say Nicole, that pedestal looks terrific and now I'm wavering again. If a bit of hard work could work out, should I take the chance? I will paint anything and have, but wood makes me nervous and I was going to do a gel stain 2 step glaze (1st a brown, and then a mahogany) over the existing finish and then poly, exactly against Moonshadow's recommendation. Now I think I am talking to myself, but you all can listen and add suggestions if you like! I will first check out siren table tomorrow, because it may be too dark, and being Goldilocks I might not like it, so I could come home and still consider the staining project. Maybe oak grain is okay if it is a brownish red? Or is mahogany colored oak table tops really ugly and Nicole's piece is just teasing me? I just don't know if now the grain of the oak might read zebra, or it might just be fine.