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    Last year's sage-- What do I do with it?

    Yup, in the North, whatcha want to do is leave it alone until you can see where regrowth is sprouting from. Then cut off all the dead parts above that. It may resprout from last years' branches (low down, near the main stem) or it may have got killed off all the way to ground level but it is...
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    Suggetion For pest for Vegetables?

    Honestly IME the single best thing you can do is get your soil in superb shape -- fertile, loose, water-retentive, well-drained, weed-free. The better your plants are growing, the less they are apt to 'catch' diseases and pests, and the better they can keep producing despite some level of...
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    Is there something odd going on with mint this year?

    If you just want plain ol 'hey it's mint', surely you will run across someone with some to give away -- does your town/region have a garden club or horticultural society or suchlike, where you could meet people maximally-likely to want to give away mint? (Anyone who has it, generally is HAPPY to...
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    Can you put a weed barrier in the bottom of a raised garden?

    You can use a weed barrier if you want, but it will stunt your plants' growth and not play any great useful role, so I would suggest not :) IME edging does not stop grass. It may slow it down a bit if you do it right. But it doesn't stop it. Nothing stops intrusive grass. The kinds of grass we...
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    Designing the Perfect Pet

    It's an extraordinarily cool and informative study. Originated more or less by accident as byproduct of trying to "improve" foxes for the fur industry. It has shed tremendous light into the likely history of the domestication of dogs. Selecting for tamer temperament in the foxes -- not selecting...
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    Manure Question

    If it was composted before you got it, its nutrient content isn't likely to have changed *that* much in the past 6 months, even uncovered. If it was fresh when you got it, it will have lost a significant amount of nitrogen, so that the nutrient am'ts/ratios will have changed... but it will...
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    Picked up some mints

    Mine dies back to the ground every winter, which is a good thing, or it would be the only plant on the property here! It is almost worse than catnip for me, and that's saying something. Mint extract (the cooking type) is just a whole lotta well-washed mint leaves crushed and squooshed into a...
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    Most Inconsequential Weed

    I like the orange hawkweed that's all throughout part of our lawn. Not for any medicinal use but just because it is so *purty*. We mow around a large patch while it's blooming, just so I can see the bright orange-yellow-purplish flowers whenever the sun is out :P Pat
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    My teenaged son found this in the woods over the weekend...

    I'm going to say Atamasco lily? I do not know of any lookalikes and that is sure what your pic looks like to me. Are your woods by any chance rather wet and boggy? I think of this as a borderline-swamp plant... although probably biased by having spent a lot more fieldwork time in the SE in...
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    low growing purple mystery flower

    Absolutely 100% beyond doubt that is tradescantia (spiderwort). T. virginiana, presumably. It is a wildflower in many parts of the US including the o.p.'s state; although there are also showy garden cultivars that have been developed. It is not Tillandsia (an epiphytic bromeliad sometimes grown...
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    Forcing tomatoes to set fruit?

    Yup, there's no possibility of setting fruit til they first set FLOWER ;) If you are supposed to get night lows in the 40s then if it is possible to bring them in to somewhere slightly warmer -- dunno as I'd bring them into household warmth, but perhaps a closed-door garage? -- it would not be...
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    HELP Commercial weed killer sprayed in raised bed area

    Yeap, it depends HUGELY on what was used, you just have to find that out first. Pat
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    Why do you garden?

    You mean it's possible not to garden? I am not sure I believe that :lol: Certainly never seriously occurred to me not to garden! Veggies I do partly out of habit and mostly because there is no other way to get a PROPER tomato, and lettuce and beans are waaaay cheaper and easier if you grow...
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    Indoor Planting Tomato's

    You mention the top is wire mesh, that is a good thing. I did not realize those were incandescent bulbs though. You are just not going to get NEARLY enough light that way -- at least not without frying the plants, as you say. Rather than going to compact fluorescents (your 'swirly bulbs')...
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    Indoor Planting Tomato's

    Honestly I think you'd be best off taking them out of the tank altogether (it isn't adding anything at all, unless you need protection vs cats and in that case you can make a cage of some other sort to put the plants and light in). And possibly replacing your light too -- is that just a single...
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    How much soil does grass need?

    What is "iteam 4"? Some sort of aggregate? If it is freely-draining, you may have trouble growing grass on top of it unless you have a fair bit of soil. I'm not even going to *guess* at a number because it depends on HOW freely-draining, where the water table will usually sit, what your...
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