Hello All,

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)

Thank you all in advance for your time.
Lindie

In article ,
(Lindie) wrote:

Hello All,

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)

Thank you all in advance for your time.
Lindie

Good lord I'm glad my neighbors like me.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

"Lindie" wrote in message
om...
Hello All,

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)

Thank you all in advance for your time.
Lindie

Multi-part question. Please answer them separately with lots of white space
in between.

1) Where do you live?


2) Why didn't you call the police INSTANTLY when you saw your neighbor
placing the substance, and have them accompany you to the neighbor's house?


3) What sort of interactions have you had with your neighbor that might
cause them to place something harmful in your garden?

Remember: Edit carefully and answer separately, with lots of white space.

"Lindie" wrote in message
om...
Hello All,

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)


You put something that you suspect to be a herbicide into the fridge?
Odd. Truly odd.

Why not just ask your neighbor what it was.

Snooze

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)
Sounds a bit like the water-storing polymers that are used in some potted
plants, but I can't imagine why your neighbor would be adding them to yours.
sed5555

"Sed5555" wrote in message
...
For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)
Sounds a bit like the water-storing polymers that are used in some potted
plants, but I can't imagine why your neighbor would be adding them to
yours.
sed5555



There is a contagious lack of civility in neighborhoods these days. People
should know that they shouldn't set foot in your garden without your
blessing.

"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message
from "Doug Kanter" contains these words:


"Sed5555" wrote in message
...

Sounds a bit like the water-storing polymers that are used in some
potted
plants, but I can't imagine why your neighbor would be adding them to
yours.

Kindness, or helpfulness because he too enjoys her potted plants?

I think you based your remark on the previous theory that someone may have
deposited a watering aid. In fact, we haven't seen proof of that yet. But,
even if the stuff turns out be an attempt at helpfulness, I still don't
think it's appropriate for anyone to fiddle with your plants unless you've
had a chance to size up the person first. After all, how often do people
return from holiday only to find their houseplants looking pathetic (or
worse), and wonder about the friend who agreed to keep them watered?



There is a contagious lack of civility in neighborhoods these days.
People
should know that they shouldn't set foot in your garden without your
blessing.

How dismal, Doug.

Perhaps your garden has pathways. My situation consists of a big front lawn
with a deep border against the house, and people are welcome to come close
and enjoy it. But not step in the beds or deposit anything, unless someone
crazy feels like hanging money from the branches. :-)

Then, there's my new vegetable garden, which I will set up like my previous
one: There will be 18" square stepping stones, just wide enough for me to
kneel on. It would make me very uncomfortable to find an unknown individual
in that garden.



On the other side of the coin, I've occasionally come home to find
people wandering or sitting in my gardens, just enjoying them.
Neighbours sometimes bring their visitors for a look-see.In summer, I
don't fill the birds' peanut feeders; but every so often, they are
mysteriously filled up with fresh nuts.. and new plants are anonymously
left on the porch. I don't know who does those kind things and rather
like it that way.

Janet. (Isle of Arran, Scotland).


I had a few neighbors like that, Janet, and I enjoyed it. But, they all
sought some kind of affirmation that it was OK to get intimate with my
garden, before they set foot RIGHT in it. Actually, the children were rather
charming in this regard, but that's because they're so much smarter than
adults. I ended up transferring ownership of two rows to them because they
wanted beets, and more carrots than I was already growing.

But, you have to understand something about the Untidy States of America. A
rather significant portion of our population is exquisitely ignorant and
holds the belief that god has a special place in his heart for chemical
companies. Therefore, there is no way those companies would EVER sell
something harmful. If you believe otherwise, you're an atheist, a communist,
gay, a hippy, and all sorts of other awful things. I lived next door to such
a person, and literally stepped in front of her lawn care guy, who was
seconds away from hosing down my vegetable garden with a spray that was not
intended for use on food crops. I won't go into the discussion that ensued,
except to say that the bewildered cops stood there with handcuffs ready
until they figured out that the chemical guy was in violation of the law.

So anyway....if *I* saw someone placing strange gelatin-like blocks of
something in my garden, there would be trouble. Subtract evil motives and
what's left is simple: There's a 50/50 chance that the person doing it is
just plain dumb.

In article , Janet Baraclough..
wrote:

On the other side of the coin, I've occasionally come home to find
people wandering or sitting in my gardens, just enjoying them.
Neighbours sometimes bring their visitors for a look-see.

Janet. (Isle of Arran, Scotland).

When I'm home I don't mind when kids knock on the door to ask to play with
the rats or look at the salamanders but it's alarming to come in from
gardening to find the neighbor kids already in the house. Or neighbors
bring visiting family members to circle my house exploring the gardens
whether or not I'm here. It has kind of creeped me out to come home from
an errand & find a neighbor launging in the yard, or getting the crap
scared out of me coming around a corner only to encounter someone from
down the block is standing there. Once I heard strange noises & went
outside to find a half-dozen visitors who claimed they knocked first &
thought I wasn't home, so invited themselves out back -- when I first saw
them I thought the house must be burning down or something or why would so
many people be gathering around the place.

I don't complain but it's not a comfortable thing to have happen. It's
rare enough to not make a big thing of it, & I'm already always struggling
against a misanthropic nature & have to stick to this effort to not
discourage the neighbors from liking me. I guess as I've aged I've come to
be seen as the neighborhood's harmless old aunty; I miss being able to
scare people with a glance, but a gardening outfit with sun-hat doesn't
have the same impact as my old leather jacket with chains.

I find it bewildering that people think they can open a gate, circle
through gardens to a very quiet fully enclosed obviously private area, &
just sit there for a while like it was a public park. Worse, at least one
unknown visitor stole blooms. Well, my most common visitor is a bit addled
& has mistaken me for her best friend, but that group-visit was
astoundingly bizarre to me. It would not be within the realm of
possibility for me to trespass uninvited into someone's back yard, let
alone pick a bouquet for myself as I was wandering through. People are
just nuts, even friendly well-meaning people.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

It sounds like you live in a truly wonderful place. Here we have a neighbor
who wants to kill the hedge between our yards just because they don't like
it. It's been there for over 30 years and was turning into a lovely small
tree border when they lopped it of to 3 foot tall (it had been 12) They
asked if they could "trim" the hedge. And one of the other neighbor's kids
is a junior thug-in-training and likes to put chunks of concrete through car
windows...

Hmmm I think I'll look into moving to your neighborhood

Shell


"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message
from "Doug Kanter" contains these words:


"Sed5555" wrote in message
...

Sounds a bit like the water-storing polymers that are used in some
potted
plants, but I can't imagine why your neighbor would be adding them to
yours.

Kindness, or helpfulness because he too enjoys her potted plants?

There is a contagious lack of civility in neighborhoods these days.
People
should know that they shouldn't set foot in your garden without your
blessing.

How dismal, Doug.

On the other side of the coin, I've occasionally come home to find
people wandering or sitting in my gardens, just enjoying them.
Neighbours sometimes bring their visitors for a look-see.In summer, I
don't fill the birds' peanut feeders; but every so often, they are
mysteriously filled up with fresh nuts.. and new plants are anonymously
left on the porch. I don't know who does those kind things and rather
like it that way.

Janet. (Isle of Arran, Scotland).



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.762 / Virus Database: 510 - Release Date: 9/13/2004

Once when we lived in New Mexico in the mountains a whole family came up to
our house and were looking in the window. Faces pressed against the glass
while we were having dinner. My dad went out to see what they wanted and
they actually wanted to come inside and look around. They were tourists
whose brains must have gone to Alaska for vacation while they went to New
Mexico.

The only thing worse was when we came home from work to find about 7 guys on
our roof. They claimed we called to get a roofing estimate. Only problem
was we hadn't and their company didn't exist when we checked. Very
disconcerting.

Shell


"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , Janet Baraclough..
wrote:

On the other side of the coin, I've occasionally come home to find
people wandering or sitting in my gardens, just enjoying them.
Neighbours sometimes bring their visitors for a look-see.

Janet. (Isle of Arran, Scotland).

When I'm home I don't mind when kids knock on the door to ask to play with
the rats or look at the salamanders but it's alarming to come in from
gardening to find the neighbor kids already in the house. Or neighbors
bring visiting family members to circle my house exploring the gardens
whether or not I'm here. It has kind of creeped me out to come home from
an errand & find a neighbor launging in the yard, or getting the crap
scared out of me coming around a corner only to encounter someone from
down the block is standing there. Once I heard strange noises & went
outside to find a half-dozen visitors who claimed they knocked first &
thought I wasn't home, so invited themselves out back -- when I first saw
them I thought the house must be burning down or something or why would so
many people be gathering around the place.

I don't complain but it's not a comfortable thing to have happen. It's
rare enough to not make a big thing of it, & I'm already always struggling
against a misanthropic nature & have to stick to this effort to not
discourage the neighbors from liking me. I guess as I've aged I've come to
be seen as the neighborhood's harmless old aunty; I miss being able to
scare people with a glance, but a gardening outfit with sun-hat doesn't
have the same impact as my old leather jacket with chains.

I find it bewildering that people think they can open a gate, circle
through gardens to a very quiet fully enclosed obviously private area, &
just sit there for a while like it was a public park. Worse, at least one
unknown visitor stole blooms. Well, my most common visitor is a bit addled
& has mistaken me for her best friend, but that group-visit was
astoundingly bizarre to me. It would not be within the realm of
possibility for me to trespass uninvited into someone's back yard, let
alone pick a bouquet for myself as I was wandering through. People are
just nuts, even friendly well-meaning people.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.762 / Virus Database: 510 - Release Date: 9/13/2004

Doug Kanter wrote:


"Lindie" eccentricccmessage
om...
Hello All,

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)

Thank you all in advance for your time.
Lindie

Multi-part question. Please answer them separately with lots of white
space in between.

1) Where do you live?


2) Why didn't you call the police INSTANTLY when you saw your neighbor
placing the substance, and have them accompany you to the neighbor's
house?


3) What sort of interactions have you had with your neighbor that might
cause them to place something harmful in your garden?

Remember: Edit carefully and answer separately, with lots of white space.

I wonder if Lindie lives next to Doug? Doug sounds just eccentric enough to
do something like that.

--
The Hawke

"Bill" wrote in message
news:lOUdd.225147$wV.210114@attbi_s54...
Doug Kanter wrote:


"Lindie" eccentricccmessage
om...
Hello All,

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)

Thank you all in advance for your time.
Lindie

Multi-part question. Please answer them separately with lots of white
space in between.

1) Where do you live?


2) Why didn't you call the police INSTANTLY when you saw your neighbor
placing the substance, and have them accompany you to the neighbor's
house?


3) What sort of interactions have you had with your neighbor that might
cause them to place something harmful in your garden?

Remember: Edit carefully and answer separately, with lots of white
space.

I wonder if Lindie lives next to Doug? Doug sounds just eccentric enough
to
do something like that.

Have the right number of experiences with crank neighbors over the years,
and you become wary. That's appropriate.

I
don't fill the birds' peanut feeders; but every so often, they are
mysteriously filled up with fresh nuts.. and new plants are anonymously
left on the porch. I don't know who does those kind things and rather
like it that way.

Janet. (Isle of Arran, Scotland).

That's it - I'm a movin' to Scotland. Sounds like the neighbors there are
much friendlier than in my neck of the woods.

Cheryl (IL)

"Shell" wrote in message
m...
Once when we lived in New Mexico in the mountains a whole family came up
to
our house and were looking in the window. Faces pressed against the glass
while we were having dinner. My dad went out to see what they wanted and
they actually wanted to come inside and look around. They were tourists
whose brains must have gone to Alaska for vacation while they went to New
Mexico.

The only thing worse was when we came home from work to find about 7 guys
on
our roof. They claimed we called to get a roofing estimate. Only problem
was we hadn't and their company didn't exist when we checked. Very
disconcerting.

Shell

.... and I won't be moving to New Mexico...

Cheryl (IL)

On 20 Oct 2004 20:09:56 -0700, (Lindie) in rec.gardens
wrote:

Hello All,

For two days I have found small pieces of clear jelly substance
(imagine small roughly diced pieces of agar-agar, although one piece I
found yesterday was as big as a fist) lightly burried around the the
edges of my seedling pots (basil in particular). I actually saw a
neighbour putting them there. I suspect it to be a weed killer of
some sort, but I cannot find anything on the 'net along these lines.
Any advice on how to research this? Any suggestion on what this
substance could be? (I have saved some in the frigde)

Thank you all in advance for your time.
Lindie

Have you tried it on toast yet?

It could be seed stock of "arborus jellus" (jelly tree).

FACE 'scuse me, I gotta go shake the grit bush for dinner