Hi there, Sorry no one has answered so far, awfully quiet around here. Sorry too, to say that tho' I grow a dozen or so different Sans. plants, I know of no way to cure/fix scarred or damaged leaves. Personally, I'd cut them off but I see you mentioned it's 50% of the leaves, yeah, that's a lot. Then again if you cut off a few of the most damaged ones, you could probably still use 'em to start new & healthy plants.

<Peter (6b SE NY) said: Gumby this is like the third time I have seen you refer to yourself in the third person. Are you serious or are you forgetting which account you are posting from?> Now Gumby is wondering if Fastink is really Peter? Why else would Peter care or know anything about having a different account? Re:<But I'm gonna say I doubt that you can post a link to where you think you saw that.> Peter is one who thinks you should only water tomatoes only once a week to avoid cracking. Gumby thinks Peter needs to learn how to worry about Peter and stop worrying about anyone but Peter. Regis said Gumby is gonna be alright <smile>

I put layers of paper towels on some of them. Not toilet paper. They are a lot thicker:) If I put somewhere it is toilet paper, that was a typo, it wouldn't do much. The units are very far from each other, opposite sides of a room and one is on my porch, a dark northern covered porch. Little room around them to put plants, thus the violet are under the lights, they only hold like 4-5 plants. Wish I could put some-kind of bigger 'board or something under the lights, to put a lot more plants under them, to grow around the edges, and move the violets around. Then I would have a lot more bloomers. Oh, I dont have a way to measure the light. I just know the AeroGrow garden seed pods won't grow under them,....that was months ago, they need VERY strong/new lights,so they are much weaker now.

Forget testing the soil for moisture. That's a waste of time. Let the grass tell you if it needs water. You were not very specific about your location, but I've had occasion to visit SF many times on business and vacation, so I think I'm familiar enough with the climate. As they say, the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. If GardenGal sees this post, listen to her. She's in the PNW and has a lot of good suggestions that don't always apply elsewhere. I'm going to suggest that you change your watering. With sand you get a lot of percolation, but with temps most of the year below 70 degrees F, you don't need to water that much. You don't get evaporation like everyone else. So I'm going to suggest you transition over to deep watering only once a month for the months you do not get rain. By deep I mean 1 inch all at one time. Put out some tuna or cat food cans and turn on your sprinkler. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That time is your new watering time. Once you do that test you have started the deep and infrequent program. See if your grass can go a full week without more watering. If it does, then see if it will go 2 weeks. If you have been watering more frequently than once a week the lawn might have trouble going 2 weeks, but watch the grass (not the clover). If the grass blades fold together like a book, it's time to water deeply again. The idea is to put water deep into the soil/sand so the roots will grow deeper to get to the moisture. It will happen in a few months. Also reset your mower to the highest setting. You won't mow any grass for awhile, but once the grass gets tall, magical things happen. Roots have to go deeper to support the taller grass. Weed pressure is reduced, color becomes deeper green even without fertilizer, and the soil health improves. I have used only organic fertilizer since 2002. My current favorite is plain alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). I get it in 50 pound bags at the feed store and apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Here are all the feed stores near you. Call them to see if they have alfalfa pellets in 50-lb bags. Cost should be $15 or less, but certainly not $30. Fertilize as often as you want to with organics. Monthly is fine. Alfalfa is about 35 times more effective than compost for fertilizing and costs 10 to 20 times less for the same coverage. You may not want to hear this, but I would also suggest using a herbicide like Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis killer. You can do that now in your area. Spray conservatively to mist the weeds, not to drench the soil. It takes 3 weeks to see full control, so be patient. Clover is hard to get rid of because it seeds so readily. This product is different from 'normal' weed b gon. Here's a pic of the bottle. If you need to spray again in September, do that to help keep it from returning next winter. Once you get it controlled, you should not have to use it in the future, so the good news is you should not have to spray the poison but a few times. The tall grass, deeply watered, and fertilized should keep the weeds out.