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Bob Morris

Bob Morris

Bob Morris is a horticulture expert living in Las Vegas and professor emeritus for the University of Nevada. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com. Send questions to Extremehort@aol.com.

Bottling herb-infused oils too slippery a task

Garlic- or herb-infused oils that are contaminated with clostridium botulinum, the bacteria responsible for botulism, cannot be identified by smell, sight or taste, making it dangerous to bottle or store them at home.

Pests are price to pay for using wood mulch

Question: Following your advice, I am planning to replace all of the stone mulch under and around the shrubs in my yard and use bark mulch, which attracts roaches, I am told.

THE LATEST
Some palms slow to mold into mulch

Question: I was told by a landscaping company that the fronds from Mexican fan palms cannot be chipped and recycled into mulch because they are too alkaline. This was news to me! Your opinion regarding that palms-too-alkaline-for-mulch theory would be appreciated.

Gnats no big nuisance to outdoor plants

Question: Can you help me identify some insects on my grapes? They are quite small and devour the leaves of my grape vines, leaving them like skeletons. There are literally thousands of them in the summer. They stay until late fall and are very annoying. What can I do to get rid of them?