I have a compost pile where there are lots of caterpillars that are light brown (bronze) color, 1.5 inches long, smooth hard outside shell, and they curl up in a tight spiral when disturbed. Can anyone identify them and tell me whether they are beneficial to my compost pile? [more..]

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Its the start of my novel. This part, part one, introduces the main character Ana. Part two introduces Mae, who she then falls in love with and I won't give away any more. To read more of this story, go to:http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvyOO5GIJFzxYlcPA6lal17sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20090705120854AAuMISv The time of year was unseasonably warm for the city of Pallaidia. The winter’s snow usually fell like grey bricks on the aged buildings, coating them with rat-grey ice, until the spring thaw let them emerge, sometimes as completely new buildings. The Lord’s Houses and the Palace were the only buildings that ever stayed uncovered by the snow, due to the toil of thousands of servants. This was the time of year the vagrants of the city, who almost outnumbered those with secure homes, sought shelter in abandoned buildings, in porches or under bridges. That was why the bench in the Great Garden was unoccupied; save for a small brownish lump, which on closer inspection was a child. That was also how the Guild of Assassins found its newest neophyte. Two figures cloaked in shadow sat on another bench, conversing in whispers. “The child obviously has nowhere to go,” hissed a young, female voice. “We cannot risk another spy, Endra,” whispered a [more..]

Stone or "stone like" for garden. Something simple like the haddonstone.com scroll bench (but not that expensive) [more..]

Please pass this on to your email list. The Time is now. 1. Turn off lights when not being used. 2. Follow your local lawn watering ordinances 3. If you work in a clean environment cut down on showers. 4. Buy cloth shopping bags. 5. Use public transportation when you can. 6. Plan your car trips so that you can do several errands at the same time. 7. Separate your recyclable trash. 8. replace your lawn with nature landscaping. 9. Save rain water for watering plants and lawns. 10. Install solar panels, 11. Use drip watering for your garden. [more..]

For anyone accustomed to the notion that a vegetable garden must be a fairly large affair - its rows stretching fifteen or twenty feet at a minimum, the concept of crops pushing up from a small container or appearing to burst the bonds of a tiny patch of ground only a few feet square - it is almost unsettling.Yet growing vegetables in cramped spaces is not only possible but highly rewarding. One can grow tomatoes in tubs at the edge of a patio, strawberries in empty milk cartons on a windowsill, lettuce in a modest window box, watermelons along a strip beside a driveway or beans on a trellis on a small apartment balcony.A space no larger than a card table can supply you with vegetables year-round. The trick is to create a garden that has the right growing conditions and to buy seeds that are well suited to smaller areas.Many seed companies have started offering miniature, compact plants to meet the needs of people with limited space. You'll often find them in their catalogs or on their websites under categories like space miser, midgets or space savers.Producing vegetables on a reduced scale, however, is basically a different proposition from [more..]