Your best bet is to build an insectary-- something year round that the good guys have something to feed on(and breed) until there are pests to eat. In colder climates, they would do much like the bad guys do -- lay eggs, pupae/larvae burrow, and in the spring come out with the bad guys. Borage, Bachelor Buttons, Corn, Sunflowers, anything in the umbelliferae family(Cilantro, Parsley, Dill, Alyssum, etc.) Wild Carrots and Queen Anne's Lace, Coreopsis, Black-Eyed Susans and anything else in the Aster family. Also, some ornamental grasses along with Alfalfa and Buckwheat. Onions and garlic supposedly repel some pests although making a spray from them would probably be more effective. I've read that Marigolds are also good but they ATTRACT aphids -- thus, keeping them off your veggies. Kevin

In an effort to convince son-in-law that the leaves from the trees was a really good thing to add to the soil, instead of raking, bagging, and throwing them away, I piled some leaves on the clay soil they have there around Columbus, Ohio one fall and the following spring he found that what had been a hard soil that a garden fork would not penetrate was now a loose, friable soil that the garden fork would, with no effort at all, penetrate to the handle. Lee Reich, in several articles he wrote in Fine Gardening, has strongly urged people to consider making soil like Ma Nature does, from the top down. Add your organic matter to the soil by piling it on the soil and letting the Soil Food Web move that into your soil for you. Much easier then any tilling you might do and much better for the soil since any tilling will harm the Soil Food Web.

Compost and celebrity? Well, here's a few examples of past connections made, from the MM files: * Lloyd (pt03) once snailmailed me compost, which is now in my garden of course, along with the healthy energetic Manitoban microherd it contained. * Annp (Annpat) once snailmailed me compostables, including lobster shells and homegrown chicken poop, which went immediately into the worm bathtub and thence into the garden of course, along with the healthy energetic Mainer microherd, etc. * At Annp's personal request, I once helped to re-enact the famous Hendrix-touching incident, for a small party of good friends of course, late one night in Maryland. * While this may not immediately appear compost-related, I once made Marshall McLuhan laugh. (The medium is the message.) All the best, -Patrick (madmagic) Here is a link that might be useful: Amusing Idiots You Have in This (i)Village

Rose replant syndrome is not a myth in many parts of Europe. This syndrome also affects other members of the Rosaceae family like apples and strawberries. But it takes time for the root nematodes or whatever it is to develop and I believe the problem is biggest in the really old rose gardens in Britain. I've had this problem only in my problem bed where I've changed the colour scheme several times in the last 15 years and removed and planted new roses too many times. Tagetes helped one year but I couldn't stand the awful colour crash with the pink nearby so I planted new roses in the same soil once more, amended, of course. Now visitors to my garden ask me innocently if these puny roses are my own little cuttings? No, I bought them dearly as good plants but they've unfortunately grown backwards. Roses grown long in the next bed, in the same soil, same conditions, have no problems. Next time I have to plant roses in that spot I'll try the South African trick of planting in a cardboard box full of good rose soil. Hopefully the roots will have become strong enough before the box disintegrates to be able to cope with whatever nastiness is in the soil. If you don't have this problem over there, consider yourselves lucky.