HI Lindy B, Well, something must be funny if I'm up at 2:30 in the morning!!! LOL I think I can sleep now, but maybe I should relay a story if I can paste it here. One story is a forward I got on a garden snake. Now if anyone that would laugh at a garden snake story would have to belong to the Garden Website. Haha. Here goes: If not, then the little green snake swallowed me up! Be sure to read to the END for my snake story! Cheers! Garden Snakes are DANGEROUS! > Author Unknown > > Green garden grass snakes can be dangerous. > > Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes. A couple in > Sweetwater, Texas had a lot of potted plants, and > during a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a > lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible > freeze. It turned out that a little green garden grass > snake was hidden in one of the plants and when it had > warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go > under the sofa. She let out a very loud scream. > > The husband, who was taking a shower, ran out into the > living room naked to see what the problem was. She > told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down > on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. > About that time the family dog came and cold nosed him > on the rear. He thought the snake had bitten him and > he fainted. > > His wife thought he had a heart attack, so she called > an ambulance. The attendants rushed in and loaded him > on the stretcher and started carrying him out. > > About that time the snake came out from under the sofa > and one of the Emergency Medical Technicians saw it > and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the > man broke his leg and why he is still in the hospital. > The wife still had the problem of the snake in the > house, so she called on a neighbor man. He volunteered > to capture the snake. He armed himself with a > rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the > couch. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, > who sat down on the sofa in relief. > > But in relaxing, her hand dangled in between the > cushion where she felt the snake wriggling around. > She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under > the sofa, and the neighbor man, seeing her laying > there passed out tried to use CPR to revive her. The > neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping > at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the > woman's mouth and slammed her husband on the back of > the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out > and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed > stitches. > > An ambulance was again called when it was determined > that the injury required hospitalization. > > The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she > saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife > bending over him, so she assumed he had been bitten by > the snake. She went to the kitchen, brought back a > small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the > man's throat. By now the police had arrived. They saw > the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed > that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to > arrest them all, when the two women tried to explain > how it all happened over a little green snake. The > ambulance arrived and took away the neighbor and his > sobbing wife. Just then the little snake crawled out > from under the couch. One of the policemen drew his > gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the > leg of the end table that was on > one side of the sofa. The table fell over and the lamp > on it shattered and as the bulb broke, it started a > fire in the drapes. > > The other policeman tried to beat out the flames and > fell through the window into the yard on top of the > family dog, who startled, jumped up and raced out into > the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it > and smashed into the parked police car and set it on > fire. Meanwhile, the burning drapes had spread to the > walls and the entire house was > blazing. Neighbors had called the fire department and > the arriving fire truck had started raising his ladder > when they were halfway down the street. The rising > ladder tore out the overhead wires and pulled out the > electricity and disconnected telephones in a > ten-square city block area. > > Time passed... > > Both men were discharged from the hospital. The house > was re-built. The police acquired a new car, and all > was right with the world. About a year later the > original couple were watching TV and the weatherman > announced a cold snap for that night. The husband > asked his wife if she thought they should bring in > their plants for the night. > (Said this to a BIL)---- I finally have read the snake story. Very funny, but oh so true. Hehe. When I was a little girl, about 3 years old I was play ironing with my mother. I had my little ironing board and she had hers. While playing I saw a snake go by down the hallway. This was in San Jose and we had brown tiled floors. I told my mother and she thought it was the telephone cord lying on the floor. In the 50's usually one phone and a long cord. I said "No." as a little girl could say, my mother must have believed me cuz she put me on a chair or stool and called the police. When asked where I thought it came from, I said, "The bathtub." The bathroom was at the other end of the hall. The room we were in faced the living room and the entrance into the hallway and the bedroom doorway where I was at and the other bedrooms that went down a long hall. Anyway, we figured the snake went down into my mother's bedroom. The policeman did his duty and gathered the snake into a brown paper bag. Away he went to put it somewhere, I assume since I was a little girl. We figured that it must have been a Gopher snake that had traveled from the prune orchard behind our backyard fence and slithered down our sideyard sidewalk and creeped into our tiled kitchen floor and continued its way down to the hallway where I saw it. I don't know why it would be in our house except for finding protection from the summer day or maybe it saw a GOPHER. Hehehe...hahaha...heh,heh,heh... Another thing is that the story earlier isn't too way off as I bring in my water plants too, and I have been known to be surprised by these little green snakes wrapped around the water lilies. They quickly wriggle out of the waterlily pot and slither up the waterfalls and out of the pond to avoid contact with my attempt to trim the water lily leaves. Heh,heh. Karalyn PS--They never do get into the house, Knock on Wood. hehe

We grew your Santorino's this Fall....Right now I'm growing buckets of your "Brocciflower".... I imagine that's Veronica-ish ? What-goes-around.....One container "Brocc" went to RockledgeNursingHome....wheelchair bound Paula likes to garden but had nothing but flowers....add a RedCabbageBucket and a heading Cauliflower! WHO brought that lovely Cuban Oregano cutting/start...I wish it would grow faster....the SMELL.....PIZZA ! And seeds?....WHO submitted the 4 O'clocks? We've been feasting on Silvia's BroccoliRabb....I'm always snacking in the garden they hardly make it to the kitchen....the Artichoke is visually stunning....gorgeous Red Cabbage in pots..... Anyone?.....What happened with the Staghorn/pups.....any success stories ? doug

Pieter, Nematodes do travel through wet soil and hibernate in soil. They do need plant tissue to live. This is why I suggest that when hostas are determined to have a virus that "nematacides" be used in conjuction with killing the plant (removing the required source of food). Perhaps a better way to approach the problem would be to perform the nematode testing to determine whether they are evident first. In many cases Nematode damage is readily determined by characteristic elongated brown streaks. If there is no nematode infection then using an insecticide would still be a good idea as it would be difficult to determine the thrip or other insect population and spraying would be "cheap insurance" to prevent transmission to other plants. In any event a combination of a non-HVX virus with nematode or thrip infection would be a difficult situation. I think these are the only practical ways to approach the problem. Extensive and expensive laboratory testing may or may not determine the virus or other disease involved, but that still leaves the problem of treating it when the plant is in a bed which you are trying to preserve. I don't know of any other prudent next step other than killing the plant, in situ, and ensuring it is completely dead. Killing it before taking steps to address nematode or thrips first or concurrently will speed up the spread as we know that nematodes or thrips live on tissue and killing / removing the plant alone will simply cause them to go elsewhere. If the action where taken with ground freezing immenent, then your suggested scenario of hybernating nematodes infecting new plantings may be possible. I think this would be a very unusual and improbable situation as hostas would be dying off before any real ground freezing. There are no over-the counter approved nematacides, however cholinesterase, the ingredient in Bayer Systemic is listed as a nematacide and might work as well as anything available to the homeowner. Of course bleach and ammonia will kill them undiluted, but the problem of how much to use and preventing damage to neighboring plants is a big problem. Spraying with a 10% solution of ammonia is done for slug control, so this might be an option to help. I simply don't know of any sure-fire nematode control other than professional treatment. Jon

I agree -- get it changed. It would drive me nuts! Partly the appearance, and partly I'm sure I would always be reaching to open the lower ones the wrong way, especially if I'd just opened a top one! It was either the error of the KD (assuming there was one?) who needed to make sure the door swing (hinge side) and finished side were correct for your layout, or the error of the cabinet company (who may have done it wrong). I'm assuming your "cabinet guy" didn't make the cabinets, he's just installing them, right? If he can switch the doors (might have to drill new holes for hinges?), he should. Any associated cost (if new doors are needed, for instance) should be the KD's or the cab company's, not yours.