I'm not throwing any rocks, Hortster, and I'm sure you are not alone in using purchased products to accelerate decomp in your compost. However, it's not something many of us want to talk about after having someone jump on us for employing gardening/composting practices that may be different than what they do. IMO there is nothing wrong with using compost accelerators altho I don't use granular urea because I try to be as organic as possible. I welcome donations of the organic variety. :-) In this zone 3 climate composting really only happens for 5-6 months despite some people saying otherwise. When it's -40C (that's -40F also) keeping a compost hot is something I invite anyone to come and try! I'll provide the hot chocolate and cozy indoor fire you can enjoy when that pick-axe gets too heavy and you've decided you're cold enough! ;-D Also we live in the boonies and it's not always possible to find enough components to compost hot - it means driving miles to find things which isn't ecological or easy. We're retired and sometimes also tired so aren't going to expend the effort in that direction. Have to pick and choose activities. As for using horse or cattle manure, sure there's lots of it around but haven't found anyone to deliver reliably. Most ranchers and horse people here are too busy and have their animals on pasture much of the year. No feedlots here. Those who have manure available expect you to bring your pickup and they'll toss in a bucket load with their front end loader. Since we have a new pickup we don't want to do that. Much easier to buy bags of alfalfa pellets to make tea and add to the compost. Just bot 120kg which should last awhile. Cost $60 which is less than many people spend on fertilizers. I've used blood meal and soya meal in the past but prefer alfalfa pellets. Don't want to attract predators with the blood meal and I don't like GM products much. The alfalfa we're getting is not GM yet. I picked up about 30lbs of UCG today at a local coffee shop so I do what I can when it works for me. My project this week is to pile up the remnants of my failed lasagna bed along with all the weeds and grass clippings, water it with some alfalfa tea, and cover with a black tarp. No more fooling around trying to keep the compost pile damp enough in this dry windy climate. If I lived on a 60'x100' city lot I could easily make enough compost by 'approved' methods but not here for this large country garden. I depend on 'feeding' the worms in my garden as well - they love alfalfa tea and my buried kitchen scraps. In turn they are making lots of worm castings which I understand some people actually buy! I think we all need to remember that there are many ways of improving soil and composting and not everyone has the same conditions to garden in. Making even small attempts at composting are commendable and deserving of encouragement, not criticism.

It may not make you folks feel better, but it's a comfort to me, at least, to know that other gardeners, GOOD gardeners, suffer from these problems as well. I'm in good company at any rate. The discussion was long on ideas and a bit short on prescriptions, at least for a gardener who was looking for a pill. We did have an expert from the Forest Service come out for our oaks, but he, and his diagnosis, were a bad joke. This is Italy, folks. He certainly left us wondering if he didn't cheat on his college exams (there was a big scandal about this recently in southern Italy). I think my next step is to go to the Italian gardening forum I frequent and ask where one gets a diagnosis for this kind of problem, because I do need to know. In the meantime I think I shall continue to prune away diseased growth and watch to see what happens. I appreciate the input and suggestions, will be re-reading and studying them. It probably matters that we are in our second year of drought and it is still very, very dry--we've had roughly five inches of rain since the start of July--so the plants are under stress for that. Our water supplies are limited, so we only water recently planted roses and true emergency cases. I suppose I can count myself lucky that out of three hundred roses there are only three or four that I know are sick. We had a lot of dieback during the summer but I think most of it was drought stress. Even with the drought, now that the weather's cooler the roses are leafing out timidly and replacing the growth they lost during the summer. Of course, new cases may show themselves. Thanks again to everyone. In a strange way it's reassuring to know that even when an ugly disease strikes gardening goes on all the same. Melissa

Hi @Tracy I used Sherwin Williams Pure White for my cabinets, and also used it on all of our trim, doors, and ceiling. The name 'pure white' is deceiving as the color is more of a soft/warm white versus a stark bright white, but it doesn't have a yellow tinge to it ... hopefully that makes sense? I must have watched a gazilion youtube vides comparing different tones of white before landing on 'pure white'! We used knotty alder wood for our stained lower cabinets. I LOVE white oak, but it was not in our budget as we also remodeled our primary bathroom, fireplace and outdoor area (I've attached a pic of our bathroom below - same color palette as the kitchen with agreeable grey on the wall and pure white for the trim and same stain as our kitchen cabinets). I showed our painter a sample of the post oak flooring and had him make up a few custom stain samples that would compliment it. We wanted to go with a more natural look, he ended up only adding a few drops of brown and white into a clear coat to land on the stain that we have. I wonder if you can ask your painter to try and do the same or go into a Sherwin Williams and see what they suggest. I wish it was a straight up answer for you ... unfortunately I don't know what color of brown or white he added to the clear coat or exactly how much of it. I hope this helps! There are so many stressful decisions.

Hi Melissa, when I was still gardening on my 100 square metre rooftop terrace in Rome, containing among other plants about 70 mostly OGRs and some Austins, I used to follow your always interesting posts on the forum of compagniadelgiardinaggio. What you said in this post has so many parallels to my own experience that I just decided to add my little comment. Losing or giving up a garden, even a pot ghetto, is never easy for an appassionate gardener as we all here are supposed to be, but I finally did it, out of concern for the professional perspectives of my two sons who didn't want to leave at first but were convinced by the impossibility to find a decent job as IT engineer and economist. Since 2012 they are building promising careers and are happy, one in my native Germany, the other one on the French Riviera. In the same area and similar climate as Rome, at about 50 km away, I was able to buy a small house with a big garden. Before selling my Rome appartment, I saved at least 30 of my most beloved roses, but some beautiful lemon and olive trees as well as a magnificient Chorysia sadly had to be left behind. The roses are now happily growing and many still blooming in the soil of Provence and 30 new ones have just been planted. My sons took both some plants from their old home too. Maybe this means good hope and continuity for my new garden as well.