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So it's stall cleanings... most often (I have worked at a lot of horse barns, and boarded/ridden/trained/hung-out at many many more) stall cleanings are typically VERY heavy on shavings compared to the amount of manure and urine content. I've seen some people clean stalls such that it the stuff...

Not if used as mulch. It *will* if you actually mix them into the soil, but not as mulch. Really really. If you're only going to mulch very thinly, you could do it as soon as you need to. If you want to put on a couple inches or more, I'd try real hard to let the stuff sit for as long as...

I don't see any particular point in combining the two unless you simply want to consolidate into a single pile. Left to their own devices, the sod (stacked upside down in a pile covered with upside-down old carpet) will relatively quickly go back to topsoil -- if your covering has been...

The only tip I can offer, as someone who *sucks* at growing cukes, is that one very predictable way to ruin them is to let them dry out seriously (to the point of wilting, or a few leaves yellowing as a result the following week) *even just once*. They do not have a big sense of humor about it...

I would suggest a dedicated patch of ground that is reasonably far away from anywhere you'd be likely to plant OTHER umbelliferous plants (fennel, anise, carrots, etc) just so that you do not have to figure out which tiny sprouts are carrots etc and which are self-seeded dill :) Pat

Because it's really windy here and I'm always skeptical that a linear trellis wouldn't blow over (although I might try this year...), I've done all my pole beans since we moved here on teepees. I use probably 6 poles per teepee. I guess they're probably 7-8' long? (combination of scavenged...

Last year I used well-composted tree chippings on most of my potatoes, and it worked just great. For some I used LONG-composted horse manure and that worked fine too. You can't use fresh cow manure. Composted, yes, but your cattle farmer friend may not have any of that (he may store it in a...

Do some young mint leaves that way too, they're at *least* as good candied! :) Pat

Very, very definitely a lilac :) Pat

IME you are never, ever, no matter what, going to get rid of that grass if it is a perennial, without hurting the tree. Well, MAYBE with careful repeated painting on of Roundup, but certainly not through any other means. Because it will be all underneath the roots (where yo cannot pull its...

Beans have perfect flowers (both kinds of parts), there are no male and female. Also they are virtually 100% self-pollinating, so there is just no point at all in worrying about it. Plant them as you normally would, save the seeds, and I promise they will come back the same kind of beans they...

No problem. It will not in any way affect the tomatoes you harvest. If you are planning on saving seed, they will still be "more or less" true to variety b/c tomatoes don't outcross much. An extremely perfectionist person who wanted to keep a particular strain very pure and true-to-strain...

The purple shading says "physically stressed" to me, whether by drought, waterlogging, too much light, or nutrient deficiency. I don't know about the paler areas one way or the other, but personally I would not hesitate to put 'em out into the garden. Good luck, have fun, Pat

AFAIK all bean flowers are edible. The only ones I've actually tried are scarlet runner bean flowers and the ones off whatever bush lima beans I grew last year. THey were nothing to write home about but could be decorative in a salad I suppose. You know what I like? Chive flowers, you...

You must have smarter lilacs than me :P Here, the blooms get zapped by frost maybe every 4-5 years as far as I can gather (from combination of personal experience and talking with others who've lived here longer). Very irksome. IMO they don't, not really. What phenological events tell you is...

Yup, best to lop it off before it gets any bigger, just saps the plant's strength (unless you have way too much rhubarb to begin with, and just enjoy the oddity of the flower :)) Oftentimes flowering is a sign that it's gettin around time to divide the plant one of these days; if you go too...

There is an easier way for the math-challenged to figure how much area a given volume will cover to a given depth. A cubic yard is exactly that, a cube ("square box") in which each of the sides measures 1 yard. So its footprint is 3x3' (one yard square), and it is 3' high atop that footprint...

Mulch. First, because it gradually breaks down and gets mixed into the soil as worms etc do their work; and second, because it protects the surface of the soil from rain and drying that cause it to crust over. And if needed put some small flat rocks (or whatever) at strategic places in the beds...

I have almost exclusively ever used hand tools (although since two years ago we have one of those stupid little Mantis tillers that was given to us, but I believe it has only experienced maybe 15 minutes of running time and that was mainly just to see how it'd do :P) There are two ways to do it...

You are correct. So either the instructions are poorly-worded, or were written by someone who knows nothing about garlic, or are the generic copy they put on all packages of bulbs sold by that company ;P Good luck, have fun, Pat