I just thought I'd revise this thread since we are in the depths of spider mite season here . . . again! I've grown dahlias for years and the mites are my worse problem. Oh yeah, the earwigs eat holes in the leaves and then wreck the petals but the mites have even killed my plants! This is a hot, dry part of the country and the Colorado State U website TrowelGal recommended comments on the problems with mites in those conditions. Also, they say that Isotox is effective. I've been using that pesticide weekly and still the mites always show up in a major way. (Suspect that Cheryl would NOT want to risk her toads to Isotox for good reason.) I once worked in a rose greenhouse and the head grower was convinced that washing the plants did nearly as much good as spraying them with a miticide. But, it was in combination that the system worked best. Blasting the mites off the plants with water, allowing the foliage to dry, then spraying was most effective. It works fairly well for me also probably because the mites on the ground nearly always get sprayed whereas the mites under the leaves may be shielded. Contrary to what may have been said about my aim - I can hit the floor with both my hat and the bug spray. My question, is there anything else I can be doing? Unlike Lola, my experience using neem was absolutely unsatisfactory. And Cheryl, did you give up on dahlias? Look, I've battled the mites on dahlias for well over a decade and still put out hundreds of tubers each year. I don't think a self-respecting toad would come anywhere close to this arid landscape so I don't have them to worry about but, gosh, seeing those bright, beautiful blooms every year is worth an effort. Steve

What a tease! Although, I must say, for you, this must be such a relief. I only have my cabinets, faucet, sink, fridge, range, oven, floor selected and I'm over the moon. I still have counters, sink, tile, DW, paint, and....to go. Whew...what a job!!! Really looking forward to the see your vision all come together. You really are in the home stretch...patience is the key. Good luck!!!

My daughter brought the two grandsons down for a 3 day last hurrah visit before school starts. They are 3 1/2 and 6 1/2. The 6 year old starts 1st grade next Tuesday. They were so happy when they arrived to find a tree that was being cut down and turned into firewood in the back yard. The older one just loves playing with sticks. They rolled the large logs around to construct a "truck" and had a delightful time till the workers returned that afternoon. They left today, and it is nice and quiet. My daughter is a cheerful, patient, lovely mother. Her boys are happy and well behaved. The younger one will start preschool in a month. The older one impresses me with the reading skills he developed in kindergarten. More reading in first grade and I am guessing lots of adding and subtracting too.

Xentar, yes I will definitely be doing some vertical gardening, in fact, at the northenmost end of the garden, right past the patio area, I'm going to put up 6 ft high trellises of beans and cucumbers to shade the patio, which is in full sun all day, which really makes it hard to enjoy. The sun comes from the South, so that tall trellis won't shade anything important. I'll have other trellises against the wall that gets all the afternoon sun, probably beans, since they do well with less direct sunlight. I can plant pole beans with bush beans at the bottom in 2 feet of space. That's a lot of beans! I'm also going to trellis tomatoes and squash to save space. I trellised tomatoes all the time in SC -- just put up a strip of hog wire and tied them right up. They did so well like that, and I was able to grow a lot of radishes in front of them. In the summer, I'll replace the cucumbers and beans with malabar spinach and lima beans, or I may grow sweet potatoes and trellis their vines to use the leaves too. I've seen people do that on YouTube. On the shady west side, I'm thinking of putting up those PVC growing towers for lettuce, if I can get someone to help me build them. I want to eventually plant berries on the sunny wall, but that's a future dream. Of course, none of this will be started until fall, because I have too much to do until then to get things ready. My courtyard is a disaster right now, and I don't have time to do anything about it, so I'll be torturing myself this summer trying to get it done.