My favorite and preferred way to get your soil revivified is to apply LOTS of either composted manure (horse, goat, etc) or straight rabbit manure, composted or not. I achieved a startling change in my front yard from pavement-feeling clayey stuff to an incredibly springy, almost turfy feel by distributing the waste from my 100+ rabbits and then adding redworms. The resulting texture brought in the rest of the native worms, who took care of integrating the top with the old soil, and now I have a yard I could grow pretty much anything in if the dog would quit trampling it. :) My roses and other established plants get frequent doses of fresh rabbit manure and worm castings (rabbit manure won't burn but you do want it away from the stem about an inch for air), and my Queen Elizabeth generally gets pruned down from its habitual 8-10 FEET of height about four times a year. :) BUNNY POWER RULES! :)

Goodness!! 50??? I am having a hard time keeping up with the 18 I have, lol. (last 2 eggs hatched today) apparently, every single egg I found was also fertile, and they all seem to be thriving so far. I am so glad all of these eggs hatched at almost the same time, I think it will be easier since they will all be so close in age, and hopefully size. The other 8 cats I have, are at all different stages, and I have had to move/separate them so many times it is ridiculous, some of them seem to be bullies, lol. The largest one of the last bunch is now in a "habitat" by himself, because he would not stop picking on the smaller cats and taking their food, and they weren't that much smaller than him. I have one small one who bullies cats WAY larger than him, lol, I had to move him after I saw him slither up to one of the big cats and try to bite them, or at least that is what it looked like he was doing. I have figured out how to tell if I need to give them more food, they "wander" when they want new, or more leaves, or at least these do, because every time i have had one wander away from the food, if i put new food down, they come back. The largest one will start eating the leaves before I even set them down in his cage, lol, he bites them and starts tugging on them. I am hoping everything works out for all of them, and that they all keep eating and growing, so far so good though. And as far as the food situation, the lady who lives next door to my aunt, does have a safe host tree, yayy!! So I am going tomorrow to cut some more leaves for them, and my safe dwarf tree is getting new sprouts of leaves in several places, so they should be big enough to cut soon, so it all seems to be working out in their favor so far! I too am interested to see when these two that pupated decide to eclose. The 1st one pupated on sep 18, second one on sep 23, I was able to move them into the reptarium cage I bought without harming them or disturbing them, so I am not so worried about them eclosing when I am not home now that they are in the mesh cage. what have the temps been lately in your area? The high was 95 here today. Supposed to get cooler this weekend though. Was it you who said you had a GST chrysalis turn black before eclosing? I have been checking them for any signs of change, but they haven't changed one bit.

it has a conventional (ancient school) halide element. I have been using Venture Pulse Start Metal Halide, they actually are full spectrum, but completely not needed, because HPS alone is GOOD and CHEAP!!! I donated my 775W PSMH to the Federal Canal Park greenhouse, although if you are into big time growing, that lamp is ferocious! - both by the results! and by my PAR meter. to grow large bushes, i have the 575W PSMH Venture, which is fabulous! for PAR, spectrum, and growth. currently, i'm actually into LED. I make my own LED panel, 2x4' panel, using 660 (4 x 11) 630 (4x10) 600 (2x10) and 440 (3x14) working with LED is tricky, you can buy them from ebay, look for the 3w ones that are labeled XP-E. I measure each one, for forward voltage vs current, and toss the outliers. the XP-E however, is very consistent, and you only toss about 2 or 3 out of 25. after that, be prepared to do a lot of wire stripping (i use 24 guage stranded). it is VERY time consuming, but that is my hobby, however, I have done the "mistakes" for you benefit, so you can learn from my mistakes. my first prototype was just using 630 and 440, but the results were NOT as good as fluoro - growth was very fast, but foliage was not the super dark green that i was getting with overdriven fluoro T8, so I scraped the LED's off, and started again. right now, i have a new board completed, as described above, and I'm testing it out with tomato seeds, one set of seeds with the old board (630 +440) vs added 600 and 660. my new board is also slightly higher powered. I learned do NOT use cheapo power supplies - you can get good used Meanwell supplies, on ebay, if you keep your eyes out. I use 48v supply for the 440, because they require more voltage, and i use 24v supply for the 660 630 and 600. each color needs its own supply, the supply voltage is adjustable, and you're looking for 0.7 amps for each string of LED. not for the faint of heart. if it was not a hobby for me, i'd stick with fluoro, HPS, and PSMH - cheaper, and much much easier, also the results are proven. -overdrive.

I got some rain!!! YEAH!!! Not a ton but enough to make my hostas ALL start poking their noses through! Aside from those...there is a bunch of things all about 1-2" up...name a few..... Astilbe Rudbeckia Lady's Mantle Sedum Assortment of Iris's Tulips - of course Daylilies are not like 6" tall Fern's Liatris A few more but I can't remember! Seems like the SUN part of my perennials are more on the up and up! Even my PARADE rose (a little rose!) that I got last year for my flower boxes was put in the ground and mulched heavy and is already showing green shoots!! I got it for like $5.00 a piece at Walmart...they bloomed little roses/like in a little bush with little dollar coin roses all summer and I thought they would not make it but obviously did!! The Snapdragons I planted last week are doing FABULOUS and so is the morning glory! I am impressed! I live in the Minneapolis area..Hennipen county...can anyone tell me...if I am DARING do you think I can put some cucumbers or squash out there? I started them indoors (I always do!) and theyare like 8" tall (squash-zucchini) and have multiple leaves, and like 5" tall (q-cumber)! They are soooo ready to go out there and keep asking me but I was scared....they will go in in the same area/sort of, as the snapdragons up against the fence/trellis with no wind! Anyone think I can drop them in this week???? Weather looks like 50 will be the night low after Tues.!!!! I am anxiuos I know!!!! Also...can anyone tell me...we are going to move my veggie area to a few NEW raised bed areas....it will be like 12" deep....what do you recommend me using for filler?? I know I need soil, compost manure, and maybe some sand? Anyone know what amounts of each?? Is there a ratio?? Also....I can't use TOP SOIL so should I just bite the bullet and buy all bags of the expensive potting soil for the "soil" part? Thanks much in advance! Becca