jacqueline cahoon wrote:
"Ralph D." wrote in message
...
I'm in the same general area... heading into the Laurel
Highlands... and I'll just say that you might want to be very
careful in these parts when it
comes to this stuff. We get a lot of false starts and spots in the
middle of
winter where we have mild weather for a few weeks only to be
followed with single digit F and lower temps. Poorly established
perennials and those that
are borderline between hearty and not often try to come alive in
the middle
of winter and then get walloped... often not making it.For
instance, I have
a row of dianthus that, if planted a few miles away up the
mountain, or further north near I-80 might be annuals...
nonetheless some nurseries here
sell them as hearty. I mulch them now as I got so used to seeing
them in that bed that I just had to put them in again when they
died. I know that there will be many here who sneer at this, but it
has
proven over time to be the least risk for me he I layer my
maple and ash leaves
heavily over marginal stuff in the fall. If it is a new plant that
I put in
while very young or if I look at the temp range and see it is
close I pile it on, generally. Until this year I saw two real
risks... hitting just the right window to take it off so as not to
subject them to one of our famous late-March 70deg stretches and
cook them under there, and still watch out for one of our famous
late April 20 deg or lower nights. I start removing the leaves
about now and then put a thinner coat back on. Sounds crazy... but
it seems to work for me. The other thing is fungus that can get
started under there, so I usually spray with a dose of Fungonil a few
times in the spring. Leave the leaves or some other heavy cover
handy... even if it doesn't look good until after Memorial Day,
just in case the last minute evening news suddenly calls for a
drastic and previously unpredicted dip overnight... and make
certain you are watching the evening news *every* night.

Seems to be a number three these last two years, though...
fricking moles. I'm not sure if you're in one of our rural areas,
and soon it won't matter,
but the area is under a severe infestation of the things. If you
are you know that there aren't enough havahart traps being made in
all of China to nab all these little *******s. I've been poisoning
and shooting as has everyone for miles around since the beginning
of last year and I thought that I had them seriously on the
decline where I would only have to stay on
top of new holes this year. Now that I have looked under the mulch
I know that not to be such a promising outlook. Won't be long now
until I can't put
any widely applied chemicals on the property due to run-off to the
pastures
the cattle will soon be moving to. More birdshot in an extra clip
or two and
scoops of poison in the individual holes is all there will be left
to try. I
understand that the geniuses are going to try something to
eradicate them...
but that generally worries me even more SHUDDER

At any rate... if you're new to this, it truly is a learn as you
go deal around here. Someone else replied to take notes... I can't
stress how important that is. Keep tabs on how certain things
respond to your location
in various scenarios and you will learn how to approach our wildly
varying climate from one year to the next.

Of course you could just plant only large healthy plants from major
nurseries with lots of hard earned cash... making certain they are
hearty from 110 above to 30 below. I find great sport in scouring
the garden club sales and garage sales and flea markets and out of
the way eclectic shops for small cheap and unusual oddities and
then give them everything I've got
to see if I can make them grow.




Thanks, Ralph. Your input (and Doug's admonishment to take notes)
helps a lot. I've actually lived in this area for 10 years, so
I've learned how unpredictable the weather can be. I remember
wearing a turtle-neck the first week of June a few years ago. I
hope as time goes on I'll get a better understanding of what my
plants needs, like you seem to have.
Funny you mention moles. I'm in a semi-rural area (small town
surrounded by farms, and I * have* noticed that the mole population
increased dramatically. I've been debating what to do about them. I
can't use any chemicals because my cats go out in the fenced-in
yard. One of them has made it her personal mission to eradicate
the little buggers, but she can't keep up.

I'm considering applying milky spore to control Japanese beetles,
under the assumption that destroying the moles' food source will
make them go away. However, I haven't seen many Japanese beetles,
so I'm not sure what else they're eating, and what an appropriate
treatment would be. If you fnd a something that works, let me know
(other than shooting them - I don't think my neighbors would
appreciate it :-)
Jacqueline
Carmichaels PA

Moles eat grubs and earthworms mostly. Unless you can crawl through
their tunnels it will be pretty difficult to shoot them.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5