Ok, BIL, I'm inspired again. Thanks much for the encouragement. And one thing for sure - the view and the river access are not available in the city - not at that price. We'll talk more later. girlgroupgirl, I'm surprised that the vinegar/orange oil would not be considered organic. I know that the 20% vinegar is not something to handle lightly but I think our standards here might have more to do with how the product breaks down in the environment and from that standpoint, it should be considered organic. But 20% vinegar is topically toxic, that is true. And yes, termites are a problem here. In fact, you have to have a termite inspection done in order to sell a house. Carpenter ants are a problem. I have noticed that as the biodiversity in my yard has increased, the fire ants have decreased although I'm not sure if that's the reason. I used to get rid of them just by spraying the mounds with my water hose. Then they leave but they just go to my neighbors. But nobody around here complains much about them. I think they went to the 'burbs' of Austin where people use more chemicals. When there is a lot of rain and flooding, I do hear people complain that they all mound up together on floating wood, etc. and you'll see these floating fire ant mounds in the lakes and shores and you have to steer clear of them. Pretty funny, huh? Do y'all have organic pest control companies in Atlanta? That is really interesting about your friend's workmen not being as sensitive to poison ivy. We used to have a bunch around here but we've managed to get it under control in our yards. But our neighborhood park and creek are full. I was never allergic until I was in the landscape business and cleaned out a long row of Azaleas not realizing that I was pulling out poison ivy. Yikes! I was covered and have been allergic since. TECNU is the product to use. Very effective.

WEll of course there's the song by David Mallet song "Inch by inch, row by row - gonna make this garden grow - all it takes is a rake and a hoe and a bit of fertile ground." . . . But, I also make up my own songs while I am out in the garden. Here's one I wrote last year after finding deer tracks everywhere. A Song to Sing While Working in the Garden Stay out of my garden you mangey ole deer Your presence is definitely not wanted here I see your footprints in the early morning light So I know you visited my garden last nite. YouÂve been biting my beans and chompin my corn Your destruction is leavin me oh so forlorn! I planted this garden for me  not for you So you mangey ole deer  just stay outta here! Stay out of my garden you ole woodchuck you I definitely donÂt want what you came here to do YouÂve left holes in the rows I so neatly have sown Your destruction is making me we-ep and moan I planted this garden for me not for you So stay out of my garden you ol groundhog you. Stay out of my garden dear bunnies so sweet Go somewhere else to find something to eat I planted this garden for me not for you So stay out of my garden you little bunnies you. Stay out of my garden you ugly ol bugs My gardenÂs off limits to you thieves and thugs DonÂt want your destruction in my garden so dear So you ugly ol bugs  just stay out of here. If IÂve failed to mention all you culprits by name The message is still just one and the same I planted this garden for me not for you So stay out of my garden  yes that includes you! © May 23, 2007 Sherrieflower And sometimes I sing another I made up: Guardian angels guard my garden keep it safe from all that would destroy Guardian angels guard my garden so abundant harvests I'll enjoy. :)

My lady was having a bad day, and I brought home a live potted mini-rose in an effort to cheer her up. She decided she wanted to plant it, and we ended up starting to garden... in summer... on thoroughly compacted, sometimes poisoned, tool-breaking Georgia red clay... with nearly no money, spare time to labor, or energy. I knew compost is an excellent soil ammendment because my grandmother's been making it for decades (and it's a pity she's about 2,500 miles away, or I'd ask for a sample from her ancient, worm-infested compost bin), and I started doing my research to see if I could figure it out and bring that unmanageable clay to cooperative life. I discovered vermicomposting while educating myself about other kinds of composting (which is still ongoing), and found plans for a DIY stacking bin system from five gallon buckets. I had a couple of cat litter buckets, one with an intact lid, and plenty of paper waste and a small power drill, so I made one for myself. There's not much worm presence on my property (though there must be SOME worms, else the worm predator planarians wouldn't be here), so I went to a fishing supply shop and spent about $7 on two cups of roughly two dozen red wigglers apiece, and put them in the bin. This was about two months ago. So far, my worms are still alive... maybe I'll be one of the few that actually doesn't kill their first set of worms by accident. Because of the tiny population I started with, right now my project is more vermiculture than vermicomposting. I've seen some cocoons, and a few baby worms now and then, they're most definitely breeding in there. There is a lot more soil in there than I started with, and it looks a heck of a lot better than what I put in at the beginning. I feed them now and then, knowing they can just eat their bedding, but wanting the food to be plentiful enough to encourage lots of meeting and breeding. I do keep an eye (and my nose) on things to make sure the bin doesn't go too nasty and maybe harm the worms by overfeeding. I figure by the time the worms have expanded their population enough to be ideal for the size of the bucket they live in, most of the bedding will be converted to casts, hopefully with many cocoons waiting to hatch. I'll prep and set the second bucket, give the worms time to migrate upwards to new bedding and food, then take the vermicompost from the bottom bucket. I'll take a few handfuls to seed my outdoor composting areas with microbes, cocoons, and any straggler worms, and give the rest to my lady for her existing plot and container gardens. I hope to eventually have rich, fluffy black loam in place of this hard, sticky red clay (to the one who implied it couldn't be done: Challenge Accepted), a thick carpet of living mulch that continuously breaks down to nourish the plants while it insulates the soil and keeps it moist, bumper crops of fruit and veggies to supplement the household diet with cheaper, healthier fare, drastically reduced trash output, and unlimited free bait for fishing when those rare opportunities arise. If I can arrange to sell some surplus at the farmer's market, or engineer a self-cleaning cat litter box, or find any other ways to put the worms to work, that'll be a nice bonus. But, life is dynamic and ever-changing. Don't try too hard to predict it, just go with it and see what happens.

The most likely explanation is that what you took to be flower buds in the fall were actually leaf buds. These would not yet be growing. Vegetative growth in rhododendrons takes place after the bloom period. Red flowered rhododendrons such as Nova Zembla are medium to late bloomers and would not yet have bloomed in Z6a unless you've experienced an unusually early spring. if there really were flower buds, they may still bloom or they may have aborted due to any number of possible causes. Be patient. Nova Zembla generally does not bloom or grow in Z6a until at least mid May.