You absolutely need the rubber bands or SOMETHING to secure the graft, and even then all it takes it one misplaced elbow to destroy 6 months of nursing your little graft and break your heart. Nooooooo! Myself, I use the stretchy plastic green garden tape to both label my grafts and tie them to the rootstock tree and secure them until the wood has grown together. Carla in Sac

Hi Penmac1 here under my old name. Seems that I am having problems once again with this site and there are other's looking for me. :0) Ok, try this email kevin.macdonald5@sympatico.ca OR pennysheaven@mail.com either of these should get to you me. I'll check back later today to see. Penny

I think it is possible the SD does indeed keep caught in the middle of Mom and SM. I also don't think she 'lied' or told a half truth. At the time the discussion first took place, SD had not yet made plans for the summer break with Mom...after reading some of your previous threads, I can't help but notice there has been long standing feud over exact days/visits. The SD was wrong in that she committed and did not follow through on what she agreed to. The mother is wrong for pressuring her daughter to take 'a summer job committment' seriously and making a big ta-do over a day or day (something that this mother though has been known to repeatedly do). And you are wrong with withholding your relationship with the SD in a temper tossing hurt feeling mode. The girl really is stuck between the two 'moms'. One screaming 'be an adult' one minute while treating her as the 'child' the next. The other one still playing the same old games of rearranging schedules no matter who it affects in an all out path of having her daughter 'at home' as many days as possible (while still treating daughter as a yung child/early teen). In an attempt to keep somewhat harmony between the SD's 'moms' daughter ends up being indecisive, nonresponsibile and still kept very much the child while being told to act the adult. If I were the girl, I'd be tempted to remain where I attend school. Maybe visit for a a short spell with each side and work my summer at a job that would enable me to have something more than 'babysitting' for references. Because you are disappointed and your feelings are hurt you intend to punish the SD. You'll just after 15 yrs of being mommy #2 you'll just suddenly begin being 'her fathers wife'. And you'll label a 'test' to see if the relationship can withstand the 'test'. The first time SD expresed her newly found 'adult views' aka opinions (example, daughter's eating habits) you took a personal offense to it and again you're feelings are hurt and deny the SD who you say you want to start acting/thinking like an adult for her effort in doing so. The SD can't win here. Send LS to the daycare as now planned. Quite frankly you can read all the books you please on 'disengaging' and 'teaching assertiveness', but but until you start practicing actually raising the SD with the open mind that she is becoming an adult (even when her new found adult views annoy you), and continue to treat her as the child (both 'moms') it's just setting up more hurt feelings and keeping the girl a girl stuck in the middle. She's young, socializing with a whole new group of people, seeing different lifestyles and discovering who she is and what she believes. My niece as decided her new found 'thing' in life is to be a veggie,...she'd have a stroke to think you're LS eats skittles and poisons her body blah blah blah. LOL. Once 'kids' start expanding their social network, experiencing new groups and ideas, well they can be quite crazy in their new 'worldly views'. My 2 cents. Good luck to you. Sd has reached the age between childhood and adulthood and she's likely to say many more things that appear to be 'anti-you' (or mom or dad or the neighbor) while she opens those wings and begins to shape her own ideas.

One of the easiest ways for new gardeners who don't yet understand nutrients and fertilizers to deal with garden nutrient issues is simply to use MG All purpose Water Soluble fertilizer per the label directions and according to the manner of growing the plant (container plants cannot be compared to in ground plants). Frequency, amounts to use, etc. is all defined on the label. I am not saying that is the best way to go. It isn't. And it can be abused, used to excess without some care. But it is easy and it does work while the gardener is learning. But the gardener does have to learn, to read, to do research, to tap into all the info that is available on the different needs of different crops (for example tomato needs vs. bean needs as jnj mentioned above) and how those needs change as the plants grow and move into different phases of its life cycle. Also keep in mind that growth rates of plants are determined by many other factors besides nutrients. Most importantly, expecting perfection or using perfection as a goal in a garden is very unrealistic. It never happens. Dave