Has anyone had any success growing catnip in a shaded yard? I have a wooded lot that does get partial sun in the front end. Nothing seems to deter mosquitoes and I just built a playground for my son. I'd like to border his play area with mosquito repelling plants but the lack of sun is a bit of an obstacle (zone 7 ( Read more... )

A while back I saw an episode of Ask This Old House in which one of the men sprayed someone's backyard/forest with some sort of natural oil spray that he said "smothers" mosquito larvae and prevents (kills? repels? not sure) ticks as well. I thought it sounded brilliant, and I'd pass along the info to my mom who is ALWAYS battling ticks. Problem is ( Read more... )

I have two squash plants in the same bed that are being ravaged by squash bugs large and small. I've tried dish soap and water, neem oil and diatomacious (sp) earth. They almost completely destroyed my one plant over a weekend. How do I get rid of and prevent them from attacking another squash plant in a separate bed. :( So far, we've had no yield ( Read more... )

The cilantro and marigold companion plantings have done pretty much nill in deflecting insect predators. I actually plucked a cricket off the cilantro, as it was eating it! and crushed it between my fingers with vengeance ( Read more... )

any tried and true ways to steer these hungry rodents away from a garden? I know a million years ago my dad used to dump castor oil down the tunnels and this worked, but castor oil is apparently a precious commodity/controlled substance and is $6US for an 8 ounce bottle nowadays. (Maybe its to discourage wannabe terrorists from making ricin in ( Read more... )

Hello everyone, I've been watching this community for a little while now, and have really been enjoying it. I live in Eastern Pennsylvania in a very urban area, so my gardening ability is pretty limited: planters and pots on a postage stamp of a bricked patio behind my house. As long as I can plant some vegetables, herbs and flowers, I'm a happy ( Read more... )

My neighbor and I have an aggressive yellowjacket problem; they are always buzzing people and coming after us and our toddlers when we are outside. Its more of an annoyance to me, but my neighbor is allergic to stings. I don't want to kill off the real pollinators so I've been limiting any spray use and just spraying my house where I see them ( Read more... )

Last summer I posted about some bugs that were eating my rose bushes. (This is before the usual Japanese Beetles infestation). They are back this year, and I managed to get a close-up. Anyone have any ideas? I have been picking them off, but with the large amounts of rain we are getting up here in Maine, I've not been able to get out there everyday ( Read more... )

This morning I walked out my front door and stopped to check in on the tulips in our front garden, since they are getting ready to bloom. Instead, I found that something in the night had munched on a bunch of them instead. :-( I'm really bummed about it. So far I've been feeling pretty unsettled this year, and I was really looking forward to ( Read more... )

anybody got any ideas that work about preventing snails from snacking on hostas ( Read more... )