Was spending a few minutes cruising through the Forums and this subject appeared again. So...here's an update on the 'aspirin technique'. First, let me answer Ellen's questions. I am using one 81 mg. non-coated, chewable baby aspirin tablet to a gallon of water. The best type of yucca (with no added alchol) to use is the commercial form sold by herbal companies. However, I have also found that the edible yucca root sold in grocery stores also works well although it is not as 'soapy'. Barb in OH reports success using it as have many others. It is cheaper to use. To date I have had no problems with phytotoxicity nor have any been reported to me. Growing conditions vary all over the country. I can say that the aspirin technique does increase disease resistance and this encourages better growth and blooming. Never content I have been experimenting with a new 'twist' to this idea. I planted a grouping of the low growing perennial Soapwort(Saponaria ocymoides)in a damp garden spot. This spreads quickly and the leaves also produce a soap. I trim off a packed cup of the top growth, add it to 3 cups of water, buzz this with my hand blender and let all sit on the counter for 24 hours. Then I strain it, restrain it through a coffee filter, pour in a gallon jug, fill jug with water, add one crushed 81 mg. aspirin tablet and when it dissolves, spray. I am very pleased with the results of this experiment, appears to be more effective than using yucca. It is possible to also use the tall growing form of Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), but the low growing variety recovers quickly from being closely trimmed. Some of you may want to try this method and let us know your observations.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I forgot to mention my 3/x5/x18" in-ground worm bin I strated last June. I have harvested 20lbs of castings so far and when I fed today there were thousands of tiny white babies throughout the bin. This is the EASIEST composting I do. Pam, advil is my friend and mixed with a couple of Redtail Ale's it is very effective for my lower back pain! Lloyd, grade school kids called me Cap'n Pete when I would visit schools with Smokey or give firestation tours. I am lucky to live in a mild climate about 3 miles from the Pacific 100 miles north of SF. I still have rose blossoms and a shasta daisy in full bloom. Beautiful dark red blossoms are showing on my tea-tree and come march my yard will be filled with pink fowers from the native rhoderdendrons. Sunny I will work on learning how to post photos. I am a "low-tech" guy with a rotary dial phone. This spring I must set up irrigation for all of this and quit dragging hoses everywhere.

I used to give my now 13 y.o. Border collie an aspirin occasionally when he was having a bout of arthritis and it did help but I wasn't comfortable giving it to him daily. As he slowly worsened this year and was having trouble even standing let alone getting up the stairs off we went to the vet. They suggested I try a newer product called Deramaxx that some of his clients had reported success with and so I did. It has been remarkable, the old guy is like a pup again, no stair problems, he can even jump a little not that he was ever that good at it in the first place, and he has no problems now getting up once he's laying down. The prescription is 100mg tablet of Deramaxx (my dog is 65 pounds). Initially one whole tablet, then half a tablet, then wean down to 1/4 tablet daily and if he does alright on that amount so be it, if not, back up to 1/2 tablet daily. He does great on the 1/4 tablet and that significantly reduces the cost. 30 tablets cost me $90 so at 1/4 tablet per day that's good for almost 4 months. It's a fairly new product even my sister who is a vet assistant at another clinic hadn't heard of it. Oh, and at the time I started the manufacturer was giving a free sample of 7 tablets to try before you buy.. not sure if they still do that or not.

I'm glad you were on the ball and noticed something not right.Most people would never think to question something like that. 33 years ago my cousin had a baby boy by C-Section and the valve in his heart didn't close.Turned out he was about 5-6 weeks early and the doctor scheduled the C-section to coincide with his vacation but that's another story. Anyway,he had surgery to repair the valve when he was 3 days old and was in the hospital for 5 weeks afterward.The hospital was in another town 60 miles from home.They released him with a prescription for a medication that slows the heartbeat so it can heal.They took the prescription by the pharmacy on the way home and had it filled.By the time they got home it was time to give the baby a dose so mom filled the dropper to the dosage on the bottle,fed him and put him to bed.He slept for 4 hours,which wasn't usual but mom wasn't worried.She figured he was just tired from all the excitement of the day.She checked on him again in about an hour and he was barely breathing and not waking up.They rushed him back to the hospital.Turned out the pharmacist had placed the decimal point on the dosage instructions in the wrong place and mom had given him several times more than the amount prescribed! Doctors said enough to kill an adult! He recovered after a few more weeks in the hospital and is a healthy young man.Until that happened I was never too cautious about reading labels and asking questions but after that incident I became a lot more cautious! Not long after that the owner of the pharmacy sold out to someone else.Makes me wonder if that wasn't the first time something like that had happened.