First of all, congratulations for the fruiting of your ice cream. I have had mine for 3 years now and it's doing nothing for me. One thing I've learned about bananas--when they want to fruit, they will fruit. Sometimes bananas will fruit when they go through a shock or a stress like sudden change in weather. Maybe your removing the leaves kind of sends forth a message that it's survival is being threatened, so it's going to do it's swan song ... ok that's just my theory :) Whatever it is, I were you, I would leave whatever leaves left intact. With regards to how soon the bananas will ripe, I'm guessing 3-4 months if not longer. Some people here suggest writing the date on the trunk on the day it blooms. As for me, I usually pull out my camera and snap a picture. That way, I can always go back to my computer to check the date it first bloomed. I also go to check on the bananas regularly to see its development and toward the end of 3-4 months period, I will take a closer look at it to check for signs of riping. If the weather gets down too cold, sometimes I would cut it down even if it's not quite ready to prevent from freeze damage. Bananas will continue to ripe when it's being hung up in a dry and room temperatured place. As to your concerns whether to throw in some fertilizer to your fruiting banana, I'm having the same question. In the end, I've decided not to because fertilizer is supposed to help the growth of the plant. To me, since the plant isn't producing any more leaves, there's no point in fertilizing, but of course I might be totally wrong here. So, I hope others here might have the correct answer for you. As with your rats problem, I can understand your plight. I had the same problem when one of my bananas was fruiting. I solved the problem by setting up a rat trap. One fat rat got trapped and end of the story. If there are more rats, then set up multiple traps until they're all gone. I don't know if this helps and I hope your ice cream will produce some yummy fruit for you soon.

Actually, plantlady, Dahlias are a lot like potatoes. The Aztecs used to grow them for the tubers, which they harvested like potatoes and cooked with like potatoes. I have taken cuttings even with no roots and they root within 3 weeks if kept moist. Last year I made a whole collection of 80 plants of about 50 varieties for my mother starting with little or no roots. The plants still grew to full size and, remarkably, had full tubers at the end of the season. There was no way to tell the difference between these and the ones planted with full tubers. Dahlias are extremely forgiving and resilient. You should feel free to experiment if you want to make more plants. By the way, I didn't even chill my tubers this year. I left them in grow bags full of soil and stacked them up in the back of my heated greenhouse and didn't water them. Out of 213, only 2 have yet to come back--they began sprouting in March when the temperatures in the greenhouse turned tropical. They are all about 2 - 3 feet tall now and it's getting crowded in there. I think there are a lot of myths surrounding the the care and handling of the tubers. Stories get handed down and everyone forgets to experiment.

Hello, wanttogarden. You did not indicate what verieties of hydrangeas you have or include pictures of the problems so I will comment in general terms to each of the five questions. I hope this helps you. 1) Many newly planted (translation: 'young') hydrangeas have stems that cannot support the weight of the blooms very well. As the stems grow older, they harden and can support the weight. However, there are some varieties that are known to suffer, especially at times when you combine lots of blooms with a rainy day. A wire mesh cage installed when the leaves have dried in fall/winter should help with this problem; cutting the flowers will not. Be careful when doing this type of pruning though; deadheading the blooms is fine but pruning the stems can cause you not to have blooms next spring. The flower buds of hydrangeas that bloom on old wood develop in the stems starting around the month of August. 2) Newly planted hydrangeas will suffer from wilting episodes when the temperatures are very warm, when the weather is windy, when they do not get enough moisture or when they develop root rot. Provided we are not talking about a root rot problem, hydrangeas recover quite quickly on their own, usually by sun down, definitely by the next morning. I suggest that you try to control the urge to water as too much water can cause root rot. If the plant looks extremely wilted, water it immediately. Otherwise wait until next morning. To determine if you need to water, insert a finger into the soil to a depth of four inches and see how the soil feels. If the soil feels wet, check what caused the soil to be wet and take any appropriate action to improve drainage. If it feels moist, do not water. If it feels dry or almost dry then water about 1g for a small plant (more for taller/older plants). Repeat this procedure if the temperatures vary by 10-15 degrees and stay there. In the spring, water the plants with about 1g of water. At the start of the summer, you will need to increase the amount/frequency of water; at the start of fall, you will need to reduce the amount/frequency of water; and remember to water during dry winters if your soil does not freeze. Something else that will help is to maintain about 3-4 inches of mulch through or past the drip line. Plants whose leaves turn lighter green, yellowish or whitish could be suffering from too much sun. In your area and mine, hydrangeas should be in part shade which is defined 4 hours of sun or less (mine get about 3 hours). Leaves that turn lighter green or yellow but whose veins remain green are suffering from iron chlorosis and usually just need liquid iron chelated products and/or more Sulphur added to the soil to raise the soil pH Level. 3) I am not clear what caused the plants to loose their leaves but I am not surprised that the ones in more sun are performing better. Sunlight is required to produce blooms and the more any plant gets within reason- then the more a plant thrives and the more bloomage you can expect. Plants in denser shade would show the opposite: less vigorous growth and less blooms. The leaf problem appears to be either a fungal infection or watering issue. Common at this time of the year are leaf spots and Cercospora. Neither is lethal to the plants but they can look ugly. The fungus could have originated in the nursery or been already in your garden. However, I am surprised that things got bad enough where ALL the leaves fell off though. Fungal infections usually indicate that there is too much moisture in the area where the plants are located while lack of water can make all the leaves brown out and fall. I hesitate to suggest a fungicide at this point. It is kind of late in the year for that and I suspect you may be watering too much and making it easy for the spores to develop. For the next 1-2 weeks, manually check whether the plants need to be watered manually (as I described earlier). After a while, you will notice that you water on a certain frequency (every two/three/etc days). Set the sprinkler to water on that frequency. Try to water early in the morning and try not to get the leaves wet (water the soil instead). It is important to remove plant material from the vicinity of a planting. Dead material (leaves, flower parts, etc) that could harbor spores of fungal disease should be thrown in the trash, not the compost bins. Make sure you do not crowd the hydrangeas with other plants; you want good airflow around the plants in order to minimize the chance of fungal infections. I cannot 'see' the extent of the infestation; if you deemed it to be large then also consider replacing the mulch that you have with new mulch. I would not be concerned about the size of the leaves. The plants should be getting ready to go dormant so the leaves will dry off and fall off soon. Lack of sunlight and plant vigor causes them not to develop as large in late September. Another problem that could cause the leaves to brown out and fall would be lack of water. If a plant does not get enough water, you would notice that the edges of the leaves start to brown out. Eventually the whole leaf browns out and falls. I wonder if the plant suffered from insufficient water but now is getting too much water and that caused a fungal infection. Is there any chance that you could post pictures of affected areas or can you email? 4) Same comment as above in #3. Fungal infections Âusually- do not cause all foliage to fall. Lack of water would do that in a heartbeat. You should be able to eliminate lack of water as a cause if you check the soil daily as I described above. 5) Address the problems with some of the suggestions given here and keep us updated of what happens. Hydrangeas grown in just a few hours of sun a day should be able to do well in your garden. Locations that are densely shaded are not the best though; try to get indirect reflective sunlight from a wall or cement driveway, for example. If you cannot get any sun, observe how the plants thrive and bloom before considering replacing them. Because your plants are stressed, one final suggestion: no pruning and no fertilizing. Fertilize with ¼ to ½ cup of manure or cottonseed meal in early May and again in early July. When absolutely necessary, prune after the plant has bloomed but before August. Does this help you, wanttogarden? Luis

I don't know what you ought to do, but I will tell you about what our process has been to build on our own lot. We started by asking around for recommendations of builders. You could also go on the parade of homes to try to find builders. We took the design/build route and are building a custom home, but since cost is a big issue for you, I'd recommend picking among plans the builder builds regularly, because he can probably build those plans more cheaply than a house he's never built before. Then you can get quotes for the plan(s) you're interested in. Make sure the quote is as complete as possible-- if there's an allowance, price out what you want and make sure the allowance is sufficient. Then add in a buffer for whatever you and your builder forgot to account for. Once you've got it all worked out, you will sign a contract with the builder and apply for the construction loan. The bank will want to ensure 2 things: that you can afford the loan, and that the property (house+land) will appraise for what you will owe when it's finished. If you are approved, and appraisal is good, then you can go forward with seeking the building permit. Once you have a building permit, then you can start building. Payments for your construction loan begin as soon as your builder starts drawing money from it. There will be procedures in place to ensure that your builder only takes money as he needs it to build your house-- he can't take the full amount immediately. FWIW, I'd do as much as I could to clear out the old mess before getting the builder involved. The bank doesn't want to see any kind of construction having begun before the loan closes, but you could certainly clean up the lot. And that will probably be a good thing even if you decide that you're better off selling the lot.