Anna Hutchins

I know this thread is really old, but I just wanted to confirm that I'm almost positive Denise is right in her diagnosis. I think those little dots are actually round bugs called scale.  Once they're adults they never move again and just drink sap from your tree.  If there's not very many of them the best thing to do is just squish them. Some ladybugs like twice stabbed ladybugs will eat them, so if you just blanket spray sometimes you kill really unusual ladybugs.

https://hortsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu/fact-sheet/apple-lecanium-scale/

While I don't recognize the exact variety of bush honeysuckle, I'm sure it's one of the extremely invasive ones. In the midwest we have something called the Amber honeysuckle, (Lonicera maackii), that will actually form a true monoculture under trees and kill all natives where it's established. They are bad news.  Normally most non natives have some benefits and aren't as bad as people say, but honeysuckles are an exception.

Anyways, I have a tiny property and I literally just prune them off with normal pruners. If you keep doing that they eventually starve and die.

M.J. Wayne wrote:Not sure what this is...
(Southern Missouri between Black, and Current Rivers).

I'm pretty sure that's a dobsonfly.  We were just looking at pictures of those in my daughter's bug book.  The larva are aquatic and the pincers are for mating, not biting.  I've never seen one in person so I'm jealous.

Thanks for sharing! I love gnarled, sprawling, ancient trees. There's something greater than the sum of their parts there.  They're not just bigger, with wider trunks and branch spread.  They have gravitas and personality thrown in.  Maybe you can just feel their age.

Courtesy of my brother.  

Baking soda dissolved in water and sprayed on plants is a fairly common fungal remedy. It makes the pH high enough that some fungus has a hard time growing on plant surfaces.  I remember also hearing a guy say that you should put molasses in the soil because it activates a whole bunch of microbes. I don't know if brown sugar would do the same thing? Honestly mixing them together sounds counterproductive. I think you would want to do either one or the other since one you spray on the leaves and one you use as a soil dench.

That does sound yummy!

Out of curiosity, what do you use dehydrated rhubarb for?  Is it for pies and you just rehydrate it? Or do you use it ground up as some sort of seasoning?  I'll need to know this if I can ever get even one rhubarb to not die in my garden.

https://ask.extension.org/kb/faq.php?id=136009#:~:text=Expert%20Response,Thanks%20for%20asking!

So this is interesting. Apparently Siberian elms are not that allelopathic according to this person. Chinese elms are allelopathic and people get Siberian and Chinese elms mixed up all the time. Now that being said, I'd love to know this person's source material. I have seen monocultures of Siberian elms around my area.

A beloved woman passed away who was survived by her husband and three best friends.  Her friends were a brunette, a redhead, and a blond.  

At the funeral her husband shared eloquently about their life together then asked if her friends had anything to add.

The brunette came forward and said....

"Plethera."

"Thank you," said the husband.  "That means a lot."

Then the redhead came forward and said...

"Bargain."

"Thank you, that means a good deal," added the husband.

Finally the blond came forward and said...

"Water pit."

"And thank you," said the husband.    "I know you meant well."