i planted from new kbg seed on july 29th, and on labor day put the wrong kind of fertilizer 10-10-10 and burned alot of infant grass and up sprouted rampant poa annua. make sure u dont put the 10-10-10. a better option may be to put corn gluten meal which supposedly is very good fertilizer and has pre-emergent poa and weed properties too. this is what i shouldve done instead.

I'm not sure how the humidity is in your area but that might be a factor in growing certain bamboos. The bamboos will probably need more water than in higher humid areas. I personally would try one of the Bambusas, of which Punting Pole belongs, however, my Punting Pole Bamboo does not have really thick walls but then it needs a warmer climate than I have here also which could be a factor. Oldhamii might be one to look into if you want really thick culms and the culm walls are relatively thick too. The thickest culmed Bambusa I have grown is Bambusa pervariabilis 'Viridistriatus' but was sold to me as Bambusa eutuldoides 'Viridivittata' which is smaller but also thick culmed. B perv. 'Viridistriatus' is so thick you can use them as bats. Very thick walled. It is also a colourful bamboo but also a rare one so it may be a bit more expensive. One thing to remember about bamboo, and I guess any plant for that matter, the plants can grow very differently in different climates and soils. I have taken divisions from my original Textilis bamboo and they all seem to grow a bit different, even when planted only yards apart. Amount of sun, amount of water, type of soil, fertilizer, and surrounding plants all contribute to how your bamboo will grow. Kt

Its far from fall here today! It got to the 90s and there were thunderstorms, they just all missed my area, some just by 2 or 3 miles!! But right now you can see flashes of lightning in the distance and its really really humid out there. Humidity is at 98% and the dew point is at 73F which is really high since the actual temperature is 74F! The closer the dew point is to the actual temperature, the more humid. Windows are also all very fogged up. Tonight will be in the 70s as usual, but I do see some nights in the upper 60s in the forecast so it is getting cooler and there are some days in the forecast that are only in the low 80s. I have no doubt that it is starting to get cooler. I just hope we can enjoy the 80s for a bit longer. Some people tire of summer and long for winter, but I really wouldnt mind summer all year long!! Good luck! -Alex

Laura Lea, As a breast cancer survivor I know a bit about the vitamin D/survival connection. Adequate levels of vitamin D are helfpful in preventing a recurrence of breast cancer. One fairly recent study showed that what mattered was the vitamin D levels in a woman at the time of diagnosis. If a woman was deficient in vitamin D at the time of diagnosis, her cancer was 94% more likely to spread and she was 73% more likely to die within 10 years. At the time I was diagnosed, they were not routinely testing for vitamin D levels, so I do not know if my levels were adequate then. However, my cancer did not spread, and it has been over 10 years and I am still here. So, I am going to make the assumption that because I was diagnosed with cancer in my late 30s, my body still might have had adequate levels of vitamin D then and that might be one reason I am a survivor. The ultra-high dosage the doctor recommended for you has been proven to bring up your level more quickly than lower dosages of vit. D taken over a longer period of time, and it works for the majority of people who take it for a limited period. However, you cannot take that much for long and some doctors are not comfortable with recommending the mega-dosages. It surprises me that so many of us gardeners have vitamin D level issues because I bet we eat more veggies than the average non-gardener and we are out in the sun a lot. I do use sunscreen strategically (meaning I spend some time in the garden without it) because I want my body to absorb some sun in order to help with vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is vitally necessary for health and a deficiency in it is linked to many health problems, but it doesn't get a lot of attention most of the time---certainly not the same attention vitamin B or C or E get, for example. It puzzles me, though, that so many people are deficient in Vitamin D nowadays. A lot of organic food and alternative and integrative medicine proponents believe one reason is because so much of our foods are processed nowadays and also that conventionally-grown produce has much lower levels of all nutrients than it used to. I wonder, though, if something in our diets is interfering with the absorption of vitamin D. There is a new study out showing 1 in 5 children are seriously deficient in vitamin D and I bet we can blame that on diet. Dawn