you are a great person, ev...and i would LOVE it if you could possibly
contact me via private email...my earthlink spam go-getter will say HALT!
all spammers who go there...just request to be entered into my address book
and then we can communicate more closely without all the nuts. oh!! how do
you know that "I" am not a nut?? well...i am, sorta. i am a nut about not
adding any more chemicals to the waterways (one thing no one has happened to
mention). i'm also a nut against killing the birds, the bees, and any other
critter who was here before me (including white-tailed deer). so, if you
consider THAT being a nut, by all means, avoid me like the
plague...otherwise, dya think we could be gardening buddies?

From: EV
Organization: Bell Sympatico
Newsgroups: rec.gardens.edible,rec.gardens
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 04:42:21 -0400
Subject: Some of the reasons I don't spray pesticides ...

wrote:

that's beautiful. thank you.

My pleasure. The wonderful thing about gardening forums is that there are
others with common interests, who derive enjoyment from gardening in similar
ways. I'm a fan of both the flora and the fauna.

Your organic greenhouse sounded great. :-)

EV



From: EV
Organization: Bell Sympatico
Newsgroups: rec.gardens.edible,rec.gardens
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 05:31:15 -0400
Subject: Some of the reasons I don't spray pesticides ...

Every spring I notice at least one or two colonies of bumble bees living
in the garden. They do a fabulous job of pollinating in the early
spring, long before the other pollinators appear. They feast on the
Pulmonaria and Vinca from early April on, and then get busy with the
myriad, sweet-smelling blooms of the wild black currant in mid-month. No
blooms in the garden wants for their attention all season long.

A big clump of ladybugs hibernated somewhere at the base of the plum
tree. They marched out one sunny spring morning and got right to it.
Their children and grandchildren have been controlling the aphids, not
just on the fruit trees and the roses, but in most of the garden as
well.

I grow an abundance of flowers for bees and butterflies on the sunny
south facing slope ... and if you grow them, they will come. The
Monarchs are starting to show up now, fluttering among the echinacea and
the butterfly bushes. Sometimes, in the fall, I see them swarming
overhead before they head south across the lake.

I leave the seed heads in the wildflower slope up for the winter. By
early spring, all the seeds have been eaten by local birds and the
hungry migrants returning from places I'd rather be.

EV