We can try to control what we do, but the majority thinks that man is the not only the top of the food chain, but the master of the Universe and therefore knows better. Is it Dickens who said: the boy is Ignorance, the girl is Want and the boy is more dangerous because Ignorance is doom? I know it is not verbatim, but I don't have the book on hand.

It took me a long time to find out which roses worked for me, in an admittedly difficult environment, and then a rose that worked well for some years, like Burgundy Iceberg, suddenly decided to have blackspot and pass it on. I wish I could start over again with a clean slate and with the knowledge I have now. With roses being taken out or moved, I've often been left with spots to put new roses that are too close to other roses or not right for that particular rose, and glaringly empty spots. The whole thing strikes me as a hodgebodge which is further removed from my dream garden than ever. I hope that with six new roses to plant soon I can try to alleviate some of these defects. The bottom line is - roses are indispensable to me but they're not easy. Ingrid

Ye gads! I wonder why some of this stuff stays around. There is a difference between corn gluten (not gluton) meal and cornmeal; the corn gluten meal is the (somewhat effective) proteins plus other materials milled off whole cornmeal, and which actually contains no gluten. It does work as a pre-emergent herbicide in some situations. Do your research to find how, and rather than doing it the lazy way on most organic gardening forums, read abstracts from university research papers and university horticulture forums (I suggest the WSU Extension forum from Puyallup, WA). You can also find whole grain cornmeal at some better grocery stores. It has the corn gluten intact, if you want it. Corn meal is good food for snails, some rodents and insects. Cornmeal and corn gluten meal are both good substrates for growing some kinds of fungi for research purposes. Just get some moist, perhaps on a pot of wet soil, leave in the shade, keep it moist and/or covered, and see what grows. As a pre-emergent herbicide, cornmeal is not so effective, and under just the right conditions (look up elsewhere how to do it right) corn gluten meal is a good pre-emergent herbicide, even if a bit $$. There is not much guarantee that your corn gluten meal would be OMRI certifiable, for most of it is made from GMO field corn. After all, since most of it goes into animal feed, and the feed producers care mostly about the bottom line, why ask for non-GMO corn sources? net-net: do better research in finding the papers and abstracts, and read critically. Then you won't be panicking about where to find cornmeal or corn gluten meal for your garden. As for tomato spot disease, just try to find supporting studies on cornmeal for preventing that...you'll likely only find anecdotal reports from some home gardeners who have been successful one season, and attribute that success to the cornmeal, but have no control against which to compare.

This is too funny. One of my other lives is designing and creating one of a kind jewelry pieces. So today I did an outdoor craft show with a group I've worked with for nearly a decade. I usually sell between $500-800 worth of jewelry. Today? $71. However, I'll be out and working the beat in two weeks at another show. So this quote, the first on the list, really describes my attitude toward my life and work. The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come. James Whitcomb Riley Thanks, don!