Re: REF: help - ideas?

Thanks, all, for the suggestions.  Will try to write something about all
the topics I know something about.

Anner, I know others suspect or have demonstrated benefits from
companion plants - habitat for beneficial insects, disease reduction,
shade.  But about all I have noticed is that where I have a companion,
that's one place another weed can't grow.  I do see adult ladybugs
crawling around on the Matricaria (daisies), but have no idea if that's
just because they are there, or if that is actually a benefit to them.

I do notice a big disadvantage - makes tillage difficult.  Can't
cultivate between the rows when the companions are alive and beautiful.
Once the Matricaria is dead, the plants make a tangled mat that clogs
the tractor drawn cultivators and would stop a tiller dead.  Cosmos are
brittle and don't pose a big a problem as Matricaria.  Annual larkspurs
form winter rosettes in the fall, so it's difficult to cultivate in
winter without destroying them.   If I try to leave them only in gaps in
the rows between iris clumps, they fall over between the rows and cause
just as big of a mess.  Except for the winter rosettes of larkspurs.
But the larkspurs have been the most difficult to get going in
abundance.

So I make compromises - kill some here, spare some there.

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

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