Rhizo, I pay little attention to the fertilizing of them as I have stated yes, but to the watchfulness of insects your wrong. By my posts, I would think you would could see what I am like the minute I bring them indoors! I am more vigelant, even overboard, when it comes to the insects though. Ask the people that live with me. I spend hours looking for just one mite or pest. I even bought a 80 dollar magnifyer last year. Everyday, I mean everyday, I was looking at my plants for insects. You could say obsessed. Read last winters posts..lol No matter what I did, they came back EVERY day. I rinsed them, sprayed them with neem, ordered natural prdators, over 200 dollars worth, tried to create the perfect enviroment for no pests, then sounded like a fool going on this site every other day frustrated with the pests that haunted my plants like a plague everyday not going away until I was finally able to put them outside. Now they are all PEST free, I hope, because I was quite vigelant with that, but not so with fertilizing I did admit. So, I have this fear that all that hard work to keep my plants clean, not fed, will only be corrupted by a lack of proper proceedures for bringing them back indoors. I want to do what's best for them. I will say that you have been of great help. Also thanks for the concern in your response to someone else suggesting I spray chemical. The problem is, is that I can not even handle the slightest infestation, not an explosion. It was my worst winter last year with insect, even with my vigelance!! The problem was caused by infected plants I brought home from a greenhouse last November. I know better now. But I pretty much know how to keep the population down. I just want to make sure I am doing all I can, and just want to, I guess, be told that I will have no pests if I use the correct pesticide. I am begining to see that there are no guarentees and that is the world of indoors plants, even if never brought outdoors. These pest could be in the crevices of our floors for petes sake. I guess no matter what we do, the chance of mites or any stupid critters sitting on our plants is part of the game. If we don't want any at all, then quit the hobby right? Thanks rhizzo for everthing, you make alot of valid sense. Remember though,this is me, and you know that I am not only "parinoid" of pests, but very vigelant at catching even one. That is my problem. Fear of just one. Just seeing one, kills me. That's why all the fuss. I would hope after all this great advice I might not even see ONE with my 80 dollar magnifier. In fact sometimes I am afraid to use it. I start from the day the first plant comes in. Mike

This has been a very odd year for gardeners in Texas. We have had above average rainfall after going through a drought for years, especially in my area where many large trees and shrubs died. Hot and dry is the norm for my area of Texas, 4 years ago I was hauling dishwater out to water my trees and shrubs just to keep them alive because there were water restrictions. Our rain has more or less stopped so I'm back to dragging hose all over the yard to my various gardens daily. Thank God we have had only one 100 degree day...a very odd year for Texas! Last year is was over 45 days of temperatures over 100 and our water bill was skyhigh with me trying to keep things alive. Mildew is the norm this year with all the rain. The squash vines, zinnia and my husband's grandmother's poor lilac is so sad looking. But even with the mildew one squash vine just kept on growing even with me whacking off damaged leaves, it was probably 8 feet long and produced quite a lot of yellow squash for us. I put it all in my compost and have never noticed any problems using the compost. Right now I'm battling aphids on the 4 pecan trees, hackberry tree and several of my crepe myrtles and milkweed...one poor milkweed is covered with them. It is not pleasant to sit outside what with everything being sticky from honeydew and the mosquito eating me! Peggy

If this was my project, I'd lay down a few layers of newspaper. Then I would rake up leaves and shred them alond with the dead plants you just pulled, lay them on top of the soil. Then I'd add any kitchen scraps I had (except for meat and dairy). I'd toss some soil or compost on, too. Then I'd let the autumn rains and the winter snow work magic and turn those beds into brown gold by next spring. This is called Lasagna Gardening. It will keep the weeds down and build up your soil so whatever you plant next spring will be very, very happy.

Sorry for the delay getting back. I have a vacation condo in Rockport so we have been dealing with hurricane debris and salvage. The initial problem was improper watering. When roots get a fungus and rot away, the plant above dries out making it look like it is not getting enough water. Truth is the plant is not getting enough water, but the cause was too much water. Watering dead roots doesn't fix it. At this point you have to hope some of the roots were not completely dead and will return once things dry out. Adding fertilizer stressed the situation rather than fixing the situation. Of course watering after the fertilizer was necessary to dilute the fertilizer, but the yard already had too much water. What I would do is to buy a bag of ordinary corn meal at your local feed store (call around for availability). Scatter that at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. And don't water it in. If the soil has already dried out and the corn meal does not start to look gray in a couple of days (a good sigh of decomposition), then lightly spray over it with a hand held spray nozzle. All you need to do is moisten the corn meal. Corn meal will help feed the soil microbes and, hopefully, kill the disease microbes causing the roots to rot. If you don't see any green up after 3 weeks, then the lawn is likely dead. I would not water it again for at least a month to be sure the soil is drying out. Here is some information about deep and infrequent watering. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. That is what you should have been doing instead of watering every other day. In Houston while the climate is unbearable in the summer, the problem is humidity and not the actual heat. Humidity keeps the water from evaporating, so rather than watering once a week, you might be able to water deeply once every 10-14 days in the summer.