for yard cleanup, I just use an old canvas tarp as a ground cloth - easy to drag around holds a ton of stuff, and I could pile 'compost to be' on one side, and branches and stuff on the other. branches I don't bag, I bundle - cut them 3 or so feet long, then stack them on top of baling twine a few feet high, tie off one end, tie off the other end (kneeling on the pile compacts it a lot) and tie the loose ends together to make a 'handle' - makes it easy for the trash guys (or the landscaping scavangers, who shred the stuff for mulch) to pick up and toss around.

Hey, anything that would get rid of slugs this year would be a good thing! I hope August is really, really dry, otherwise the slugs will completely take over. Many of my garden tomatoes are getting big holes eaten into them as they ripen -- I've been blaming birds, now I think it is likely slugs. Slugs gotta eat, just please not in my garden.

So.....Yeah....I'll be taking orders for "linty towels" to get enough dryer fuzz to form into ropes to wrap around all gazillion hostas...? Yeah!! Right! Sluggoooooo!! Come Sluggoooooo!

1. Plant a row of runner beans. 2. Wait until they are coming up. 3. Try to pick off scads of tiny grey slugs before they totally defoliate the plants, eat off the growing points, and send the vines to bean heaven. I find if I put down some newspaper or plastic next to a plant bed, I can go back and pull it up and find a number of slugs underneath. I also use the Iron Phosphate slug bait, but it must be replaced after rain which makes it rather useless now, but it is especially good for protecting new transplants under row cover in spring. I still haven't tried beer, does that work for you?