Hey Igloo! Long time no see. Hope all is well. I am firmly a Katherine Hepburn. I have always admired her independent spirit. I wonder what all of us being willing to take this quiz says about us AND why so many seem to be Katherines. I love these kind of quizzes. I need to find the others I have & post them for fun. One is about what your dessert choice reveals about you. The other is your personality based on how you wear down your lipstick.

First, GMO's (or GEO's if you prefer) have NOTHING to do with soil amendments or fertilizers so let's just leave them out of the discussion. They are not pertinent and as they are so misunderstood by the general public (see above), any discussion here will only confuse the soil testing issue further. And let's also be careful not to get hung up on terminology. It is pretty unusual to encounter a "dead" soil - depleted, yes....dead, no. A dead soil is one where nothing grows. Nothing!! Heavily cropped agricultural soils are often depleted - lacking an appropriately populous and diverse soil biology, nutrient deficient and lacking in OM - but are rarely dead. And it is not just the application of synthetic/manufactured fertilizers that are to blame but also the frequent tilling and the lack of replenishment of organic matter. And allowing the soils to remain fallow periodically, so that rainfall leaches any lingering nutrients. btw, fertilizer companies are not in the business of doing soil tests. ANY reputable soil testing lab will make recommendations for nutrient adjustments based on your soil test - it is up to the gardener how and with what one addresses those adjustments: smaller quantities of fast acting, easy to access and relatively inexpensive synthetic ferts and amendments or significantly larger quantities of more expensive, slower acting organic inputs. FWIW, it is quite possible to maintain a healthy soil environment while using synthetic ferts. Just do not apply unless necessary and do not apply more than is necessary. And replenish OM by routine mulching at the very least. And the exact same advice is given when using organic ferts - apply only when necessary and do not apply more than is necessary. Over-application of even organically sourced fertilizers can create imbalances and wreak havoc with the soil biology as well. After more than 30 years of teaching soils classes and advising and consulting on home gardening issues, I can state with some assurance that annual or routine soil tests are seldom called for for a home gardening situation (cropping on a large scale or farming is a very different situation). Once a baseline test has been done and any deficiencies addressed, moderate application of a balanced fertilizer, either synthetic or organic - when deemed necessary - will not create any substantial alterations in the soil chemistry or throw things out of balance. And if you routinely apply OM in the form of a properly 'finished', diverse ingredient compost (as in a mulch or topdressing), then the instances of needing or requiring a supplemental fertilizer application are virtually non-existent. In 25 years of gardening the same plot of land, I can think of only once or twice I used a recognized "fertilizer" (organic or not). But I did mulch routinely with compost, which supplied or resupplied any necessary nutrients that were deficient or lacking, not to mention stimulating an active soil biology. My garden was lush and profuse, without any serious insect or disease problems and hosted a vibrant soil biology. New gardeners have a tendency to overlook soil qualities altogether or over-think them. The more you known about soils and understand how plants access and process nutrients the less one needs to focus on soil tests and fertilizing. It becomes more of an experiential thing and far less a factor of outside (soil test) input.

Hi ostrich! My 2 Korean maples are doing well. Here's pictures of them middle of June. They will get leaf windburn on the leaves later in the summer season and I had one branch die back on the second tree pictured below, but it sent a new branch out in same spot as the dead one and you can hardly tell anymore where I clipped the dead branch off. I have not had any good color to date, so I look forward to that. eta: I bought these as seedlings from Reeseville ridge plant nursery in Wisconsin and from what I gathered while talking to him, he ships overseas so call him, he might be able to send you some. https://www.reesevilleridgenursery.com/

It has been 26 years since we lost our Snuffy, a Poodle Schnauzer mix. She was a terror in the garden. Cucumbers were her favorite. She would go through the vines till she found just the right one and grab hold and pull till she got it loose. She would then carry off her prize and eat it in the shade of a nearby tree. Of course that meant broken vines etc. She also picked her own green peppers to eat in that shady spot. Snuffy also loved ice cream and knew the location of the 4 places we often indulged in that treat. She knew long before we were in sight of those places and would start whimpering . If we drove on by she would complain bitterly with barks and yelps. 5 years after we moved from Ohio to Michigan, she remembered those places on a visit back to Ohio. Snuff was 7 years old when she was diagnosed with diabetes. We still allowed her to have ice cream now and then. When we could, we avoided driving past the ice cream places she knew. At home in the evening while we were watching tv or reading, we would often hear her soft whimpers as she sat in the kitchen in front of the freezer desperate for her ice cream. Snuffy died at 13 years. Her ashes we still have, stored in an Edys ice cream carton