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the soil and does not harm the environment. We had a terrible time with Deadly Nightshade. It's a very prickly, invasive weed that has very deep tap roots. Bindweed is another really nasty plant as it grows at warp speed and you just can never get it all out. For this I use Round-Up.

I also use it for large areas of grass that has invaded my flower beds. Just be careful not to apply it on a windy day as it will be hard to control and you don't want it drifting onto your roses or other plants. It kills what it touches. If you have a large area of grass or weeds, you can use an old sponge mop to apply the Round-up. My friend also uses a long-handled paintbrush to apply it to the prickly weeds that spring up in her sedum ground cover.

WEED PREVENTION: Preventing weeds is helpful for the lazy gardener. In spring I pull weeds, trowel in a little bone meal, compost, composted manure and then sprinkle it with some Preen. Then I lay a layer or three of newspaper down and cover that with cedar mulch. I use cedar as it also repels insects and smells wonderful. Some of the mulch they sell these days smell awful. Cedar is also plentiful and native to our area.

Be aware that some plants like Foxglove, Hollyhocks, and Malva must resead themselves, so you'll have to give them their space and pull the weeds around them. If you use Preen, you won't have those anymore.

INSECT PREVENTION: I used to have a terrible time with slugs eating my Hostas. Each spring, when the Hostas reach about 6 inches tall I apply Diatomecious earth on and around each Hosta. Diatomecious earth is fossilized sea creatures and sharp - to bugs. It would be like us crawling over a parking lot covered with broken glass in order to get to a burger joint. Some may actually get through, but very few.

Put up bird houses. We usually have about 3 or 4 Wren families in our yard and they eat enormous amounts of cabbage worms and other bugs that eat my plants. I also have a snake shelter in the far corner of my back yard for garter snakes who eat garden pests as well. I never use pesticides as these are indiscriminate and kill good bugs, which outnumber the bad'. Hummingbirds feed aphids to their babies, so a hummingbird feeder is a good idea. I grow lots of nectar producing red flowers, so only keep the humming bird feeder out until the flowers start to bloom. Hummingbird feeders must be cleaned and filled at least every other day. This is too much work for a lazy gardener. Hummers send out scouts in early spring,

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