Fall leaves are part of my garden care. I pile the leaves as heavily as possible in the fall. Then I forget it till spring. I have to fight the urge to remove the leaves early - if you can fight temptation, the leaves will act as protection in the late frosts of spring and the hosta will emerge unscathed. In the spring, I start moving the leaves away from the hosta, but still leave them in piles wherever there is space. By early summer, the leaves have disappeared. The bed is large and contains just under 100 hosta, plus other perennials and shrubs. Because of the leaves, weeding is minimal - less than two hours spring, summer and fall. And because of the leaves, I ended up watering the whole thing only once in the summer, despite the most severe drought I've ever gardened through. Slugs are not particularily troublesome. I have made an attempt to plant slug resistant varieties. Cleaning the leaves thoroughly from under the hosta is essential for slug control, but spraying a few susceptible varieties with an ammonia solution in spring and later if they need it is enough. For labels, I use stainless steel triangles, which I mark with a paint pen. This seems stable, though I do need to rewrite the labels every so often. Labels are always buried in the soil in front of the hosta and are for my use only. The labels are marked with the name and the date of planting. However, despite burying labels (which means that they are never in the way when I hoe), some still manage to disappear over winter. So I also keep maps, and a hosta database, which tells me when I acquired a plant, from which source, when I planted it, and my evaluation. I cull hosta I don't like and remove them from the beds and sales shelves. I like doing this because it allows me room to try a new variety. Because we are a commercial nursery, I also use signs to tell customers the name of the hosta and the date planted. I want them to judge the growth rate and the vigour of the hosta variety for themselves, which is one reason I don't worry too much about slugs. But then, we don't grow the kind of slugs here that you do on the west coast. In case anyone is interested, the labels are from a Canadian company called Perma Stake (www.FarmersMarketOnline.com/permastake). They don't rust or break and are reusable. I believe I use the 6" stakes. I have finally broken down and counted the number of hosta in my gardens. I just didn't want to know before. I have planted over the past 12 years some 245 hosta. I just opened a new bed a few weeks ago, which is very gratifying, because it had been invaded by vinca which a previous owner let loose on the property. It took me all summer, but I cleaned the sucker, and am now looking forward to seeing the new hosta next year. Leaves are garden gold. By all means, use them.

I rip them all off immediately . . . except . . . the one on DH's pillow. Our pillows are the same type, and he likes to think that sometimes I mix them up when I make the bed, and that my giant head is prematurely flattening his pillow. It is only by leaving the tag on his pillow and tearing it off of mine that he will believe there is no such nefarious activity taking place. You should see it. He lays on the pillow and just "feels" it has been compromised in some way. So then he sits up and reaches in the case and feels for the tag. There is always a hint of disappointment there when he realizes his own tiny head is responsible for the flattening.

Hey folks, I've been trying for a long time to find somthing that will get completely rid of "devil's spit" AKA "sticky4ever" AKA "modern, intentionally undefeatable label glue". I hated having a nice item with the label removed, but not being able to pick it up without having to pry it loos from my hand in order to set it back down. I'd tried several of the items/methods listed above and several not listed, and none of the ones I'd tried worked. Even steel wool and soap leave a thin glue residue behind. I was going to try Goo Gone, lighter fluid, WD-40, Ets, then somewone mentioned Pledge furnature polish. I didn't have any of the others but thought there might be some Pledge. No luck, but way in the back of a shelf loaded with odds and ends I found a bottle of, Old English Red Oil Furnature Polish. The bottle was half full and looked like a design from the earley 1950's. Anyway, what the heck, I tried it, it worked. With some rubing it removed every trace of glue from the fancy can I'd been trying everything else on without success. When finished, you couldn't tell there'd ever been anything sticky on the unmirred surface. So it looks like at least some furnature polishes do the trick. Of corse, there may be more than one kind of "Sticky4Ever" used under the labels.

Deeby, mules eat the same as horses but better a lower protein...like about 10% and less sugar....because too much sweet feed (molasses added to oats and corn, etc.) can make them hyper. I also have 3 donkeys and they eat about the same as the mule...lots of good quality hay and they are all on pasture as well. Mules are different than other equines. The old saying goes (something like)....you tell a horse, ask a donkey and negotiate with a mule. Mules are very smart and they can be easily ruined if badly handled. You really do need to form a bond with a mule....if they like you, they will do so much more for you. Mules are male or female, just like horses...except a boy mule is called a john and a female is called a molly. It is preferable to geld a john mule when they are very young (geld means castrate...neuter, if you prefer). They are a hybrid of a horse and a donkey and they are sterile. Only very, very rarely has one reproduced. Interestingly enough, there is a farm in Florida that raises Gypsy Vanner horses, which are a large breed, supposedly the ones that Gypsies used to pull their caravans. Often paints, sort of like a draft horse....anyway, they do embryo transplants from Gypsy Vanner mares into female mules. The mules carry the little Gypsy Vanners and raise them and are said to make superior mothers. The reason they do that is because Gypsy Vanners are very expensive and they can produce many more foals that way....by having the mare mules carry the babies. Male donkeys are called Jacks and females are Jennies. My donkeys are named Amos, Moses and Hobo. Cherry Fizz, I collect dice too....I have four big jars of dice and also those flat craft marbles....two big jars of those. I have all kinds of things in jars....cookie cutters, scoops, polished stones, little ornaments, weird odds and ends....little bones, teeth. I'm sort of a cross between a pet coon and a magpie.