A little fungicide couldn't hurt! I had some funk on one of my tomato plants and sprayed a couple of weeks ago. All plants look good now. More rain coming tomorrow :-)

Ah Don! Reminds me of the time that one of mine managed to drop a small comb into the bowl. It wedged sideways in the drain which allowed flushing liquids and smallish stuff down, but blocked larger things. The usual plunging didn't do a bit of good. After a while, the mystery of why it only worked sometimes was solved. Husband had to uproot the toilet. By pushing his hand in as far as he could, he managed to find the comb.

I cut my fattest garlic scapes into little pieces, blanch them in steam until they change colors, and freeze in little bags so they are ready to use from the freezer. I like them better than either onions or garlic in egg dishes, and my newest trick is to include them in buttered breadcrumb toppings on casseroles. The skinny little scapes from my smaller varieties we use fresh. They will keep in the fridge for a month. Do cut off the flower end, which is too tough to eat and can make refrigerated scapes lose their crisp texture.

Hi, I know this thread is 6 years old but I wondered if the OP tried mulch etc. And wanted to ask how it worked for them? We have a property with small strip of woodland at the base of Mt Beacon about an hour north of New York City. We've lived here three years. When a tree in the shallow soil on the hill fell over in a storm and smashed our shed, the guys removing the tree did us a "favor" and removed a bunch of the scrubby undergrowth back there. By doing this they appear to have spread poison ivy throughout the area. I'm attacking it here and there by snipping, raking, and a little herbicide, however the whole area is so overgrown it's just hard to tackle it. We have a preschooler and it's actually the only shaded area on our property, so I really would love to make better use of it. The local "natural" landscaping company I hope would help us, keeps not showing up. They came once for an initial consultation, then never followed up, then didn't answer my calls. I actually saw them again recently working on someone else's property. They came over after my neighbor's job, suggested using heavy mulch to get the area under control, then never followed up again! I'm starting to think about going to the city dump and getting load after load of wood chips on my own, and seeing what happens if I weed whack and just try to create a path with the chips. Anyhow my search for ideas brought me to this forum. Open to feedback! On a budget but very much interested in planting native species over time.