If you're even asking, you're putting too much on. Maybe you should look into some organic methods. You don't really want Sevin dust blowing around your garden do you? It will kill everything it contacts, honey bees, ladybugs, butterflies, praying mantis - if you have anything like that left after poisoning your plants and soil. It will blow on you also and who needs an extra load of pesticide in their central nervous system? It will kill or damage the immune systems of salamanders, toads, frogs, worms, the mycorhyzae that hold your soil together, everything thats supposed to work in a microsystem together. Too much poison kills everything and you will be left with just sterile soil to pour your Miracle Gro on - which I assume thats the blue stuff you probably use also. Diatomaceous earth is also not a safe item to use in your garden. A lot of places have stopped selling it and I understand some states have regulated the sale. It is very dangerous to inhale that product and says so right on the container, it causes lung damage because it is ground shells of a calcium containing skeleton. To control slugs beautifully, and organically with no cost of life to other organisms, you use Sluggo, or Garden Supply sells their own brand of Iron Phosphate pellets. I use it early and then again on top of mulch - I've got no slug damage at all to hostas this year. I contacted the company to ask about what it does to amphibians since I have blue, spotted, red and tiger salamanders, American and Black toads, and tree, bull, and green frogs in my garden that clean up the little critters very nicely. The folks that make Sluggo said it won't affect any amphibians. The roses: you pick the Jap Beetles by hand, you spray any one of a number of concoctions for black spot - check Mother Earth news website or Gardeneweb archives for baking soda recipes, corn gluten, etc., or rip out the disease laden varieties and plant disease resistant. If you absolutely have to spray chemicals, find out which ones have the shortest half life so they decompose rapidly in your soil and cease harming things you didn't intend to. And use it sparingly. Please. I got bagworms in a 25 yr old specimen Corylus contorta last year. First I put some newspaper down on the ground below, then used a chemical spray by hand and spot-hit the worms directly. They died, I rolled up the newspaper and it went to the landfill, where at least its contained in 1 place. http://www.chem-tox.com/pesticides/

Ok Ruth ann, did get that it was the prolonged heat of this summer as to why they're shorter. I'm also having issues with budding, although all 4 are from cuttings. 3 from last fall, and 1 from Home Depot. I have 1 yellow that turns an orange with a really exotic beautiful smell and it has a china look to it's trumpet, shiny. That's the HD and it's beginning it's first flush of 15 buds, 1 pink that's 5' that has 5 small buds, 1 yellow with none even though it's 4' high and 1 that's not any higher than 2' though I'm grateful it's still alive as I know it had root rot while still in the house waiting for spring...it's a double orange cutting. I love these things...they've kept me busy in a way I really needed over these last winters and now it's so much more than I thought...next summer is gonna be something to look forward to. Thanks for all your help over the last couple of years Ruth ann, John and all who took the time out to share. Sincerely, Sandy

"On a slightly other note, it never really occurred to me that I had a "right" to be intimate with BF while his daughters are present in the apartment. The last time they were here that was 10 difficult days for me where everytime he tried to kiss me goodnight and our door was open, I was so tense I just felt angry. I am hypersensitive to being observed, and I knew they could see us. It's just not natural for me - I am a little uptight but also I'm just concerned to not do anything in front of them that they would be upset by/tell BM" It is my view that you should be affectionate in front of the kids. After they've seen the aftermath (and during-math, if that's a word) of a bad and/or dysfunctional relationship, they need to see what a good one looks like. They will learn from that example more than any talk. That doesn't mean you have to be perfect or that you can't even disagree. But, as I've said before, kids need an example of both how to love someone AND how to deal with a disagreement. Now, I'm definitely not saying that you should have a make-out session on the couch when they are there. But a short but sweet kiss or cuddling on the couch while watching a movie or even an affectionate nickname will show them that you are happy together and secure in your relationship.

The issue came up when we were discussing the hood (which I need to order this week!). At first he had told me that code required that the hood be between 36" and 42" above the cooktop. DH looked into it and could find only a requirement about venting, um, something I can't remember that doesn't apply to us. Sorry, still on first cup of coffee. Then when GC installed the 10" high soffit I asked him how we were going to meet code with an 18" hood sitting on a 10" soffit dropped from a 96" ceiling. So he told me I was measuring wrong and that I had to measure from the floor up, and that's how the whole discussion got started. So he measured the height of my Lacanche, found it was 35" and told me he didn't know if it would pass code, being 2.5" below the countertops. *eye roll* Fire inspector should be in his office tomorrow, so I will call then and have a little chat with him.