lavender

Maybe, no definitely, they should let kids be kids. Kindergarteners do not need an in depth discussion of sexuality. It sounds like some kind of mental pedophilia. Let the little ones to play in the sandbox and not worry about which bathroom they should use. Some of them probably want to grow up to be horses anyway. 

Maybe, no definitely, they should let kids be kids. Kindergarteners do not need an in depth discussion of sexuality. It sounds like some kind of mental pedophilia. Let the little ones to play in the sandbox and not worry about which bathroom they should use. Some of them probably want to grow up to be horses anyway. 

If you are too dumb to get a voter ID and vote in the usual manner you are too dumb to be deciding which candidate should be elected. If I were a member of a minority group that was being insulted by being told that I couldn't manage to get a voter ID or go through the normal voting process I would take grave offence. I would take my insulted self to the polls and vote against any candidate or party that suggested it. Why doesn't this suggestion offend people of color or whoever it is being aimed at? It is a larger insult that the usual stuff that seems to offend people currently. 

If men ever manage to get pregnant all the rules are going to change. 

I am sure it would.  As long as you can keep at least 4 inches or more on top of the potatoes. Spread the potatoes out about 8 inches apart also to get a better and bigger yield. I know wayland farm supply has seed potatoes in stock as I got some from there this year. I should have had mine planted already they should all be planted by this weekend. I may go out and plant some today. You do not have to cut them if you do not want to. If you do cut them to split up the eyes let them sit for a few days to let the open area heal over. If not they will just rot in the ground. I am doing both whole potatoes and cutting them in half to see what yields I get.

That is certainly interesting. Thank you. We use chicken manure mostly for the compost pile. I have learned that with the shutting down of the coal powered plants there is less acid rain and you can over-lime your garden. 
Maybe you could contact 4-H  and find someone who keeps a cow or two for a project. I think most of the farmers aren't going to give it away. You can usually get horse manure easier. I've been told that it is full of weed seeds though as horses don't digest them. We've used it without any new kinds of weeds at least. Proper composting on a large scale isn't easy. It's heavy work.  Good luck! 

Our soil is too heavy to grow potatoes or any other root crop. We used to be able to grow beets because they form so near the surface but they haven't been good for the last 3 years. 

Cow manure is quite possibly the best fertilizer one can get for their garden but it can also be the worst.
Herbicides like Grazon are no joke, and they can be in your hay and manure.
If a field was sprayed with this herbicide and then hay was made off this field or cows grazed on it then you have a recipe for disaster in your garden if you use the manure from these cows. Your garden will just die off.
If you use cow manure make sure that the hay, etc was not sprayed with Grazon before you use it.
Just a little tip for those that may have had gardens but everything always died off. This could be your problem.
I have been using Black Kow manure in my garden along with mushroom compost.  I would like to find someone with cow manure they would like to get rid of to help my garden. I am finally going to try composting and I would like to add cow manure to it and let it all turn into black gold for my garden.
If you happen to know anyone who has to much cow manure and they don't know what to do with it well I can help them out.
 

There is always a price for messing with Mother Nature. Short term gain, long term consequences. 

Stinkbugs or parachuting spiders as big as my hand?  I think I’d rather cohabitate with the stinkbugs. 

Not only did my lilacs start to drop their leaves right after they flowered but the apple trees are dropping their leaves early. A large elderberry is almost totally leafless. While this could be some sort of fungus or bacterial disease my guess is it is stress. There are too many different varieties acting in exactly the same way for it to be a single disease.  We have had very high temperatures with torrential rains. Excess heat slows photosynthesis.  The trees are so stressed out that they can't support leaves. The apple trees are holding on to their fruit but the fruit is small. The trees are just shutting down to preserve the integrity of the main body. It's sort of like hibernation. Some woody plants are just less susceptible to climactic conditions or are growing in an area that protects them from excesses. My white lilacs are fine but they are very old, very large and are somewhat shaded by the house. 

If you are looking for privacy you might consider some tall grasses like the Miscanthus grasses. They do reseed and they grow better if you cut the dead stuff back in the spring. It looks as that might be dappled sunlight so you might try some understory trees like dogwood. Mountain laurel might grow there or Clethra alnifolia aka summer sweet might do well. I have summer sweet growing with elderberry.  That might work as well. There are native viburnums that like that sort of environment.  I would suggest that you research thickets that will grow on a slope. That looks as though it might be an ideal situation for providing cover and food for wild life and birds. If you don't want to fuss with it native plants are best. 
OK I just realized that you said the trees are mostly gone. Most of the stuff I suggested will take some sun. You probably need to decide how formal a look you want. Anything formal will be more work. I'd go for a more natural look with shrubs and ground cover. Clumps of tall grasses would probably work as well. I hesitate to recommend them because they are take over artists and it takes a backhoe to get rid of them. 

If you have an area where you can let a ground cover run undisturbed there are a number of things that might work. These are things that you can't kill and need no care which is what you want if it is a steep slope. There are other things that might look prettier but they aren't as hardy and will need care. Are deer a consideration? Check that whatever you plant isn't going to be fodder for animals. 
Creeping juniper....evergreen. There are various cultivars and it grows fairly fast. Likes sun or partial shade
Winter creeper......sun or shade  Kind of a woody vine. I have this one growing in full shade in what is basically shale fill. It's been there for years. 
Aegopodium or bishops weed.... I hate to recommend this because it is invasive but if you have a slope that you want to cover it will cover it. The variegated form is quite pretty and it will crowd everything else out. Be forewarned!
Houttuynia or chameleon plant......This is another aggressive one. I grow it in my shade garden. No weeds get through it. It does have to be pulled up once in a while to keep it from crowding out the plants. It is brilliantly colored in the sun. Not so much in the shade. Likes moist soil.
Cotoneaster........they come in creeping and more upright forms. Sun or shade
Vinca....sun or shade. little blue flowers. fast growing. evergreen
Pachysandra........likes some shade. fast grower
Lambs ears....fuzzy gray and spreads quickly. Flowers are not very pretty but the bees love them. 
I've grown all of these and know they will grow here. There are other things like tall grasses but you specified creeping plants. I've also got a sedum that spreads like crazy and something like that might be a possibility as well. Depends on what kind of look you want. 

Peppers and eggplant doing well this year. Planted way to much cabbage. Don't know what I was thinking. Both summer and winter squash off to a rough start. Doing better now. Broccoli and cauliflower iffy. I think our summers are getting warmer. 

Peppers and eggplant doing well this year. Planted way to much cabbage. Don't know what I was thinking. Both summer and winter squash off to a rough start. Doing better now. Broccoli and cauliflower iffy. I think our summers are getting warmer. 

wow that is interesting. Maybe they could get into it.  I have yet to see any near her place but that doesn't mean there never will be any.
I guess if they can predict the weather they can climb trees haha

Wish I lived next to your mother. I saw a groundhog up a tree here once. Thought I was hallucinating. I guess they can climb quite well. 

Just a reminder that the Down to Earth Garden Club plant sale starts Friday, May 21 from 7:00 am to 5:30 pm. On Saturday, May 22 it will be open from 9:00 am to 12:30pm. We have around 700 perennials of all sizes. Some of the plants have been in the pots for more than 2 years and are overgrowing the pots. We did not have time to repot them. They will be sold by the pot size so you will be getting the expensive, the exotic or the rare for the same price as the more common plants. Prices start at $2 and top out at $7 for 10 inch and larger pots. There is a nice selection of perennial herbs this year. There will also be some succulents that are appropriate for fairy gardens or succulent planters. They were grown for library programs that were cancelled due to Covid. The list is at www.downtoearthgardenclub.org  It will be finalized tomorrow although there will probably be more plants coming in the day of the sale. These plants will grow in your yard as they have been growing in our yards. Nothing is brought in from outside.  We have been promised some cuttings and other odds and ends that will be given away with purchases. 
Please do not ask us to hold plants as the people manning the sale changes every 2 hours and don't have the time to keep lists of what belongs to whom. If you leave plants that have been paid for it is at you own risk.
As usual all funds go to taking care of the beds, pots and window boxes that the club maintains in town, on the Beaver Meadow Walkway, on the embankment by Penn State and at Parker Dam or to fund programs for the community.   Email downtoearthgardenclub@hotmail.com with questions. 

Two questions:
If it can kill a horse why is it considered "non toxic" to humans?"
Why the timing? This plant has been in the country since around 1800 or so and has gone wild in many areas. If it has been killing birds and animals for 200 years in the US and presumably Chinese birds and animals have been dying long before that why has it suddenly become such a problem?
Animals generally stay away from poisonous plants. You get the occasional bear that wanders into a church parking lot and eats the yew and it makes national headlines. I'd like to hear the reasons behind the current warning.
 

Two questions:
If it can kill a horse why is it considered "non toxic" to humans?"
Why the timing? This plant has been in the country since around 1800 or so and has gone wild in many areas. If it has been killing birds and animals for 200 years in the US and presumably Chinese birds and animals have been dying long before that why has it suddenly become such a problem?
Animals generally stay away from poisonous plants. You get the occasional bear that wanders into a church parking lot and eats the yew and it makes national headlines. I'd like to hear the reasons behind the current warning.
 

They should be cut in the spring. The dried foliage protects the roots in the winter in that it collects snow that keeps the ground from thawing and freezing. 
Little Zebra is quite hardy but pink Muhly is right on the hardiness zone border line. It should be ok with the warmer winters we have been having but I'd put down some mulch this first year. Purple Fountain grass is very iffy unless it is something other than what we usually call Purple Fountain grass. The common one is only hardy to zone 7 and possible but not probable in zone 6. We are zone 5. Good luck with it. 
 

It looks like Bee Balm.
 

Cut off the bottoms of milk jugs and put them over your peppers when you first plant them. Leave the lids off. This gives them a fighting chance against insects until they get bigger. I do this with my eggplants if they are small and it saves them from being destroyed by flea beetles. New transplants have enough stress without having to deal with  being gnawed on by bugs. 

Looks great! Ideal solution for people who have clay soil and need loose soil with good drainage for things like carrots.

When I harden off my plants I do it in dappled sunlight. I'd never put them in hot sun until they go into the ground. Once they are hardened off they can go into direct sun. They go from my heated greenhouse into the large unheated one. I set them under the shelves so that the direct sun doesn't hit them. It gets really hot out there so they get accustomed to temperature changes.  From there they go to an elevated platform under a tree where they get used to less water and wind. You can see the stems getting less succulent. They are semi-shaded and up away from the deer. From there they go into the ground with a dose of weak Miracle-gro.
I used to just plant in Miracle-gro potting soil but one year it was contaminated with fungus gnats. Ruined most of my seedlings. Now I plant in a soilless mix. I plant in a number of different ways. Some seeds go into flats, some in mini-greenhouses and some in pots. I like to experiment.