Thank you Fetters. Really good post. Quite timely for us as DH has suggested putting in a garden pond. My first question was, "What about the mosquitoes?" I was intrigued by the mention of Lemon Eucalyptus. E maculata sounded somewhat familiar so I assumed we call it something else down here. I googled it and this is what I found. E maculata is known as Spotted Gum or Honey Gum (good for bees). E citriodora is known as Lemon-Scented Gum. And there is a hybrid E maculata citriodora. Recently these particular gums have been reclassified from Eucalyptus to Corymbia (useful to know in case the nurseries change the labels). I debated whether to mention the next bit. In some areas they are getting a reputation as an invasive weed. It's hard to know when such a reputation is truly warranted. (I have some birch trees, which are most definately not indigenous to my area, and I do get seedlings coming up, but after all these years my birches haven't taken over the nearby bushland. Or is that because they have no chance against the Patterson's Curse, which was once an introduced garden flower.) I suppose all I can say is do some research if you're thinking of planting one. Perhaps conditions in the areas of the US where they are grown are such that they are happy enough to grow okay but not so happy that they get out of control. And the good news is if you change your mind after you've planted one, it apparently makes really good timber. Hello OzOrganic. Sorry to hear about your landlord issue. Don't get me started on that subject. Hope you find a solution soon.

The Mosquito Dunks are not to blame for the lotus dying back. I know Joyce uses them in her lotus pots as do many others, myself inclued, they are a bacteria that is only toxic to larvae.

I had a whole bunch of larvae growing in one of my broms and no matter how many times I tried flushing the cup, they would come back, all the rain we were getting didn't help either. I eventually put some used coffee grounds in the cup and around the lower leaves that retain water late one evening and the following morning all the larvae were dead. I got that tip from the "Bromeliads for the Contemporary Garden" book. Here is a link that might be useful: Quote from Book

Merryheart, We only had about a half-inch of rain in the gauge when I emptied it yesterday. Today it already has almost that much in it again. It has been raining but the sky is lightening up to the east, so maybe we will have some sunshine in a while. There are so many bugs around right now that my guineas are working themselves into a stage of exhaustion. When they get tired of chasing and eating bugs they put themselves in their house or pen and I close the door. Before the bugs were so abundant, they would stay out until dark, searching, searching, searching. Now they are usually back in their pen or house by 2 or 3 p.m., and sometimes even earlier. The chickens, on the other hand, will stay out until the coyotes start howling around sunset. Consider yourself patted on the back for waiting out the rose problems without resorting to pesticides. Pat, pat, pat. Vickie, Isn't the humidity awful lately? For us, it has been quite a while since we have had to deal with much humidity. During the drought of the last couple of years we had extremely low humidity, but we are paying for it now. Dawn