S.O., I use traps that look like . They are very durable in the garden, some of mine are over 10 years old. All I need to do - other than bait them - is to clean the mud out of the mechanism if it starts to bind up. The only part that ever breaks is the plastic release tab... and sometimes the traps get bent (or go missing) if a predator finds the mouse before I do. The alligator-style traps that I tried never caught anything. The small traps that I use are not really strong enough to to hold a ground squirrel; if caught, they usually pull free (leaving a little fur behind). There are larger versions meant for rats (I have about a dozen of those) which will kill ground squirrels. The ground squirrels can be just as destructive as voles, if you grow anything for dry seed... a pair of ground squirrels "harvested" nearly all of my pea seed one year, before I caught them. The only reason that they might drive voles away is that they compete for the same habitat & food supply. If you caught more field mice than voles, either that was a reflection of your rodent population, or the bait you used was more attractive to mice. In my home gardens, I caught a lot of field mice early in the season, but by late summer, all I was catching was voles.The vole population always seems to explode when the late tomatoes begin to ripen. In my rural garden, I had a period this year where I was catching toads - about 5-6 of them. (!!!) Not something I wanted to catch, obviously... can't figure out what might have attracted them to the traps, since that never happened before.

Might be better off if you grow from true seeds, as opposed to using the dried ones from stores. Your garden soil requires a LOT of extra nitrogen in order to produce a good amount of any bean or pea type. Even for that, nitrogen in the forms like feather meal or fish meal are slow to release and are better for fertilizers than the strong short term chemicals like Miracle Grow. I also do foliar sprays of my beans and peas during the summer. The innoculents mentioned above also help the roots get more nitrogen into the plants. My last batch of limas were loaded with pods, and some were twice as big as the common Fordhook type. Check out Vermont Bean and seed for some fairly decent seeds. Irradiated seeds will fail to germinate in most cases. They do this to kill off any pathogens. Some years ago, the US had to ban the Asian peppercorn- Sczechuan (sp.) due to bugs. Now they do irradiate that spice so its safe to allow it into the US again. Interestingly, VT Bean shows a chick pea photo as being blue/purple color, but we all know they are a light tan. One important thing is they don't do well in colder northern climates below Z5. Here is a link that might be useful: Chick Peas/ Garbanzo bean

The roots go a lot further down than an inch, and it doesn't look like that pop bottle has any drainage holes. I still suspect they are too wet most of the time, and probably are not getting enough sun as another poster noted. Lavender is originally from the Mediterranean region, along the coast. Yes, they manage to grow a lot of lavender in England - it is still a Mediterranean plant, however, that grows best in dry, chalky, poor soils. I think the Brits just tend to be better gardeners on average than the average 'merican, LOL! Plus they have lots of chalky coastline ... think the White Cliffs of Dover ... Lavender does NOT do well in soil that is moist all the time. If they are doing "better" since you started daily watering, I shudder to think how they were doing before, because those plants are not doing anything like "well", especially given that you started those plants way back in the spring. Here's a picture of a potted lavender that is doing well: Potted lavender advice Lavender needs 8 hours of sun a day, at least. Full sun in the garden is what they are talking about there. I don't think your plants are getting near that on your balcony. It will only be worse sitting near the window there in your kitchen (or where ever you plan to put them over winter). I understand that you are in an apartment and have VERY limited access to light and space for growing plants. Lavender is a very challenging plant (so is rosemary) for growing indoors. I've never had any luck growing either plant indoors myself. I'm not saying it can't be done; but it is a challenge. Your setup is not adequate to the task at this time. You're not getting nearly enough light; the soil mix in your pop bottles looks too heavy (lavender does better in a soil-less mix, in fact I think potted lavender may be a prime candidate for some version of Al's gritty mix). There are no drainage holes that I can see in that pop bottle and you are overwatering if the soil is never allowed to dry out. Lavender also like an alkaline soil. Adding some lime could help. ESPECIALLY if there is any peat moss at all in your soil mix, or if you are using pine fines as mulch or a soil amendment. So - alkaline soil, allow the soil to dry between waterings - not totally since these are first year plants but it shouldn't be wet or even damp all the time; and it loves the heat but dislikes humidity (hence it does pretty durn well in our dry near-desert conditions in N. Nevada). However at this point in time I hold out little hope for the survival of your plants over the winter, given their stunted condition now. I'm not trying to be discouraging; go ahead and try, you've come this far with them. But you need to repot them in a soil-less mix more suited to the plant and be prepared to supply extra heat and light, else they will not survive. Here is a discussion and fairly clear description of how to make Al's gritty mix. Personally I have found ALL the ingredients difficult to impossible to find. Turface, in particular, I have never been able to lay hands on - and though it is the virtually same stuff as certain types of cat litter or adsorbent, it isn't ALWAYS the same stuff. For instance, Napa Floor Dry has been touted as a replacement - but there are TWO KINDS and only one of them is suitable for this purpose. And I'm too tired to go dig up the links that tell you which is which. Also, having to screen and discard large portions of your ingredient isn't exactly lending itself to being affordable - let alone easy. That said - for this particular instance, I think gritty mix is your best bet - if you can only find the ingredients and get them properly screened and mixed.

Hi don't throw your money away buy cheaper bulbs they work as good as grow lites and if you are only growing seedlings and not planing on fully maturing your plants,cool white or any of the others are fine just keepum close and watch for burning and most important be able to move lights easily, up and down without accidents.If you are shooting for full grown plants then by all means use High Pressure Sodium(4'x4'-5'x5'sq' area $100.00 to 175.00 400watt)this is high but it will do the job and if you are indoors and heat is a problem I have devised a method which uses hurricane chimney with a fan attached to force the heat generated from the bulb out of the grow room and also let's you get the light closer.Interested in this venture let me know and I will teach how to's.