On Mon, 25 Nov 2013 08:51:30 -0800 (PST), Kalmia
> wrote:

>On Sunday, November 24, 2013 2:50:53 PM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>> On 11/24/2013 12:57 PM, Kalmia wrote:
>>
>> > I just caught up with a thread in which you said to bury banana peels around shrubs etc. What's the purpose of that?
>>
>> High in potassium, an ingredient in fertilizer.
>>
>> A woman at work has the nicest garden in the area. Banana peels, fish
>>
>> heads, coffee grounds, egg shells. House plants she waters with a tea
>>
>> made from compost.
>
>I'll have to try it around my holly tree.

Compost tea is a good fertilizer but uncomposted organics will cause
all sorts of disease, for plants and animals. Any benefit derived
from burying fish heads is offset by the diseases it spreads as it
rots. That someone has a nice garden is due to other reasons, not
from burying uncomposted organics, and especially meats. Also banana
peels are best omited from composters, all the composting literature
will say so, banana peels do not compost for many years, neither corn
cobs.

>Now, can you tell me how to keep squirrels out of an oak tree?
>They are chewing off all my tiny branches. I think they are trying
>to get them to the ground so they can get to the acorns. I'm
>finding 15-20 ends of branches on the ground every morning. The
>tree will be down to the trunk pretty soon. No, don't suggest poison
>or guns, please. That's out.

There's nothing to be done, squirrels eat acorns. Anyway they are
doing you a favor, they are pruning your tree (do you have any idea
how much an arborist would charge, and the squirrels are doing a far
better job than any human can) and they are limiting how many acorns
sprout all over your property. The squirrels are a benefit, just rake
up those few twigs or hit them with the mulching mower.