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On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 20:08:17 GMT, Mike wrote:



He doesn't deliberately blast with the hose to wash off aphids. But I know
he doesn't believe that you have to avoid getting the foliage wet. He
thinks I'm ridiculous for going to "all that trouble" when I water. He says
things like "what do you think happens when it rains?" and "do you think
water is bad for roses?" When he waters his roses, the whole plant gets
wet. He waters most of his roses with sprinklers that are installed around
his beds, which shouldn't bother the aphids, but he does use the hose to
get to plants that are not within the sprinklers range.

I am SO with your Dad on this! Mack once said that deliberately
avoiding the foliage of a rose was like taking a shower but only
getting your feet wet. It is unnatural to NOT wash down the roses, I
don't care what "conventional wisdom" says, or what "everybody knows."
One caveat--I of course observe an anti-fungal spray program, so that
takes care of the black spot. The water washes away so many baddies!


Urp.

I have heard of your Dad's smelly, eggy, anti-deer concoction! Good to
know it works!

He never does. Field Roebuck appears to think one should accept
anything he says just because he says it. When challenged, one is
presented with the "fact" that this man has written a BOOK. He has
been wrong on so many counts, and has claimed so many patently false
things, I tend to discount everything he has to say.

That's funny because if you've ever been to his website, he devotes a large
portion of it to discrediting "The Dirt Doctor." He basically says the same
things about that guy that you just said about him. g I love irony.

G Any idiot who got past the eighth grade knows that you cite
sources, whether you are a scientist or a fiction writer or whatever,
when you are making claims. "This is what I do" is just fine. But "DO
THIS because I said so is stupid, and Roebuck does it all the time. He
is one of those who insist that use of Orthenex over time creates an
infestation of spider mites--never mind that I have never seen them in
my garden save on one plant that brought them from the nursery. His
anti-chem agenda is more annoying than enlightening. Unlike your
efforts, I must say.



I don't know, I haven't come across wild garlic here - wild carrots, but no
wild garlic. Wild carrots won't give up their root easily, either. I would
guess if it's garlic, it's an allium. Is it stinky?

Yep! It smells like the garlic I cook with! Long green grassy leaves
that look like chives before you dice them. I suppose it is wild
garlic? It is everywhere at the moment. I keep a messy garden, I'm
afraid. More on that topic in a minute.





T

It's a good thing. It helps me make up my own mind about all this
information where you can find just as many people on both sides of the
fence.

.did I just channel Martha Stewart? *shudder*

*sprinkling Holy water all around and fashioning a garlic necklace
just for you*

G




Mike
z8TX