Austin has some pockets of really truly cr@ppy soil, and some good stuff. Soil tests are our friends. Learning about the different solutions for amendment. I have heard that some people with red death clay have brought in some composted HARDWOOD native mulch and tilled 6" in and then not done anything with it for a year and let it rot. Others have loaded on 6 inches of compost and let the bugs cary it into the dirt. Sounds almost to good to be true. I used to live on clay. Not red death but a river cut bank with round river rock in it. Everytime I was out their with a shovel, I had compost from the Natural gardener to work into it. It got to be glorious dirt. I could grow everything. I thought I was a good gardener till I moved to 30 miles west of Austin on a high limestone hill with caliche and marl with mostly not much topsoil in the area around the house.. Many natives need to have the clay worked into loam by the bunch grass roots. that have broken it down. Find native grasses that want to break down the clay. Find a way to create structure in the clay. Gypsum, expanded shale, compost . Be aware the adding sand or decomposed granite has to be done in conjunction with more than equal amounts of mulch. One has to add at least 50% sand to have the clay not go back to cement. Research research research. I live on caliche now and I created raised beds in some areas where I grow vegetables because it was easier and immediate. I recommend compost tea. Geo Growers and the Natural Gardener for soil products. If you have a recurring bug or decease problem, step back and let the soil heal itself. I had to step back from squash because of the squash bug. I am giving my whole garden a rest this year and growing green manure. The arugala, leeks, kale and chard have not heard that I am not growing anything this winter.. When it is hot, I start vegetables in pots in the shade.

I realize this is an old thread, and at the risk of ruining my (new) reputation, I can't resist telling the word, under my assumed name, that in a moment of weakness and nostalgia and totally out of character, I did indeed order the dump cake book "which included a "free" dump dinner book, and a "free" ceramic frying pan. Laugh all you want . The truth of the matter is that the book is really kinda fun. My daughter used to make a couple of the dump cakes when she was first married in the early 80's, so I'm going to surprise her & her husband this coming Sat nite when they come for a leg of lamb dinner & serve a dump cake for dessert! What's that rumbling??? Oh, I know, it is several of you shuddering. Most of the time, our families "eat healthy", (including my 100 year old father!) but Saturday night we will sink into decadence, The cherries actually sound good after the lamb, peas, etc and I know they will get a kick out of it. You know, the book had several tempting versions of the dump cake, and over the years I will probably enjoy using some of them. The dump dinner cookbook was actually just a 39 page paperback, and haven't perused it yet, but would think the advantage of a dump dinner as opposed to a crockpot dinner is going to be not having to plan as far ahead. Sorry this is so late & so long; I just couldn't resist since no one (but me :) ) seems to have actually ordered it! I probably would not do it again, as the scottish side of me is horrified that I spent $27 on a whim, for a questionable cookbook, with "free stuff" which of course you are pretty much paying for in the 7.99 shipping, and probably inflated price of the cookbook. I hope they can stop laughing long enough Sat nite to eat & enjoy the decadent, quirky expensive cake.

Cat mom and all, no one's saying the cat WOULD become a biter but only there is a real RISK of aggression problems or other personality changes. Is it worth the risk when there may be options with a more certain or sure outcome? The point is you shouldnt think of it as a "last resort," because there is a real chance it would NOT solve the problem. How I manage a similar situation is to do sort of a time share - my old 20 yr old cat stays in the bedroom 8 am - 8 pm, then gets the run of the house 8 pm- 8 am when I put the new cats downstairs in the basement (there's couches and stuff downthere and I feed them when they go downstairs so they have pleasant associations. What makes this work is that its so highly routine - cats just LOVE routine and predicatability, same things happening at the same time each day. What was NOT working was just trying to keep them separate in random, unpredictable ways. Everyone has settled down knowing they each have their own space and own times for occupying the "common area." In the wild, cats often make these same types of arrangments to "time-share" an area. If youre not up for that.... do consider finding another home. Ive done it many times, found home for cat in an unfortunate situation. There is a way of screening people and making sure its a good home - I could tell you more if you want. There's always the long difficult process of getting cats used to each others smell, and build up their tolerance for each other. But Im thinking because the ragdolls are so passive and unable to defend themselves (are they? Ive never had one) that might actually be triggering the other cat's dominance and urge to drive them out of the territory. Nature and feline territorial behavior is not pretty sometimes. In my case I decided I just could NOT put my old 20 yr old cat, deaf and arthritic, through the attacks she was getting from the 1 young new cat I brought into the house. She could not defend herself and she was literally getting knocked down, clawed, bitten and terrorized and she started peeing out of the box she was so freaked out. Now, Im happy to report, she is feeling secure again and her old self.

My Chianti was about 6 ft high and about 8 ft wide. And constance about the same. And i had them up on an embankment and they kind of hung down over. Which worked well as the roses tend to "nod" on the ends of the canes. So you could look up into them. They could have done with a bit of support as they tended to have very long canes. I've just bought the wedgewood rose, in my new house, and have that similarly up on an embankment but have given it some support this time. That one repeats but is yet to flower so I don't know if I will like it as much yet. I loved constance to bits. What zone am I? I don't know the equivalents, sorry. It rarely gets colder than about 14 degree F in winter and we hardly ever get snow. And in summer it's around 86 F, but we have a few days that can top 100.