Buy some fly tape at your local hardware store. Cut a couple 1" square pieces from the fly tape and put on surface of the soil. This will catch some. They're hard to completely eliminate but you can reduce their numbers. Be mindful not to overwater. You might want to try some neem oil. Find it at a garden store or order it on the internet. I like Dyna-Grow. Mix according to instructions and spray all over your plants until they are soaked. Water with it as well. The gnats lay eggs in the soil, the eggs hatch and the gnat larvae eat the plant roots. The neem should help control the larvae and it will shine the plant's leaves as well. Try these things and let us know how you stand in a week or two. The good thing about the sticky fly tape is that you can monitor how many gnats you have. Good luck and be careful about cutting the sticky tape. Use old scissors and try not to get it on your fingers. It isn't toxic, but it is ridiculously sticky and difficult to remove. Try alcohol or some M-30 found in the laundry isle. M

Organica, Wanted to thank you for this suggestion, I used mosquito netting to stop the crickets who were eating my seedlings. Everything would come up great, then the next day, I would have just a stick with no leaves. Mosquito netting did the trick. Now that they are a bit older they can handle the crickets.

Good points, all! I agree, the price is too high for anyone who can sew a straight seam. I, at least, can do that much. Great idea abut finding a good price online, Bodica. Thanks! Your idea about using velcro is a good one, too, Threegrad! That stuff is a godsend to people like me who love to design, but hate to sew. ROFLMAO Carole! But, you make a good point about trying to sew that stuff. I still have nightmares about sewing a chenille pillow for my DD! Squirrelheaven: thank you :~) Good point about obscuring the view with netting. Hmmmmm Jen, I've always wondered what it would be like sleeping with mosquito netting on beds. I hadn't even considered air circulation! My walled garden can get pretty hot during the summer. This is something I really need to think about. Thanks for mentioning it. Polly & Cooperbailey, yikes . . . those mosquitos sound horrid! I feel for you both. I don't get bitten very often when we're vacationing in Michigan, but my DH and kids get big welts from them. Well, again, thanks for all your thoughts on this thing. You've given me a lot to think about. If I do decide to try one, I'll be making my own. I'm too frugal to spend that much for one myself. Lynn

DUDE. Ken. Last year, some of the smallest hostas, which are on the top shelf of my wire shelving units, started to get sunburned and had to be moved to the second shelf. So, there is definitely room for a 3 gallon bucket of mini crape myrtle on each of the 2 shorter wire shelving units. Purple Velvet is supposed to max out at about 4-5' high and wide (Purple Velvet Crape Myrtle). Berry Dazzle is a tad smaller, maxing at about 3' x 3' (Berry Dazzle Crape Myrtle). They certainly don't arrive at the house that size; that is after several years. The plants you get are more like a foot or two high at the time. By the time they would get to their mature size, hopefully I'll have my little house and a yard to plant them in. It's just that none of the little houses I'm interested in have come up on the market yet. I'm ready to rock and roll when the right one (i.e. in good shape and having a flat yard to garden) comes up on the market. As for the hostas, I carefully cut back virtually all of the dead leaves last fall, to rob vermin of any overwintering places. So the hosta containers look very neat, and I'm waiting for May pips. I also trimmed away all the dead foliage from the window boxes. I noticed that last year's lantana and callibrachoa were extremely susceptible to wilting if I didn't water every single day, so I think I'm gonna go with deep pink geraniums and maybe varied purple petunias this year in the window boxes. The heucheras are already forming teeny baby leaves at their centers. Of course, the gorgeous Night Eyes fuschias died during the winter, but I want to repeat their splendor as soon as the local frost-free date rolls around, which should be around the first of May. I am really looking forward to having an actual yard to plant my beloved plants in. I will see if there is also room for a Rising Sun redbud in my eventual yard; they are so beautiful. Of course, I have been babying my 40 houseplants all winter, to keep my hand in. If you want a baby spider plant, I know where you can get one cheap...