Wish I lived close enough to come to your sale! But, since I can't, here are a few suggestions. Call garden clubs, Master Gardeners, similar organizations near you (not just your town, but also nearby towns) and let them know what you have and when and where. Consider donating a portion of your profits (after you figure in the cost of raising the babies) to a popular local charity. That way you can get free publicity in newspapers and radio. Be sure to let the charity know, so they can advertise your sale in any newsletter or releases they put out. If there is a farm supply store, gardening supply store that does not sell plants, they probably will let you post a notice of your sale. After all, those babies are going to need mulch, fertilizer, etc. Good luck, and let us know how it goes in May!

I have gotten some really wonderful bonuses, and some that I didn't want. My favorite was a Munson like purple, and I think it was suposed to be thrown away not put in the box of plants I was getting. It was just a buch of roots, the fan had been broken off at the crown. I potted it up and within a couple of months had 5 fans. The way I see it a bonus is something extra, its always nice. I would usually rather have another fan or two of what I purchased, but then I wouldn't have MAKE BELIEVE MAGIC, DARLA ANITA, and a bunch of other things that I really enjoy. Ok sometimes you get SAMMY RUSSELL or PANDORAS BOX, but the little old lady down the street loves them, They have brought me more joy in her garden than they would have in mine. Najoba, HERO will be fine, it has been really dry here in Ohio, I am assuming the other Bonus plants sent were better. Your HERO still looks better than some plants that I paid for.

I am currently growing the Boston Pickling Cucumbers. For tomatoes I have Beef Master, Tumbling Tom, Cherry, and Bush. Most folks do not know that Cucumbers require hand pollination or some really strong air movement. I take a water color paint brush and play Mr. Bee. In order to pollinate the cucumbers you need to understand that the flower are male or female. The female flowers are the ones with the cucumbers growing on them and having flowers at the end of the cucumber. The male flower just grows from the stem, and does not have a cucumber on it. I takes a lot of pollination to get the cucumber to grow. Since it is a vine, it is also hard to see many of the flowers. I have a bad back, so I cheat a bit. My cucumber plants grow on a 3 foot high table in 5 gallon buckets. I have a hand made trellis behind the plants that I use to train the vines on. This keeps the vines and flower at easy reaching height. I then take my paint brush and carefully touch several male flowers in the center, then lightly the female flowers in the same area. It helps if you buzz too .... :-). In regards to tomatoes, try placing a good strong fan in front of your plants. It should shake and move them the entire day, especially the flowers. Do not over do it of course and be sure your plants are well supported. I never pollinate the tomatoes by hand anymore, I let the fan do it for me. The cucumbers however need hand pollination. Hope this helps.

I made some major changes to my garden in fall just because of winter. Here in the Colorado mountains, dull brown is the color for a good seven months. Why not put the energy and creativity into keeping those seven months green? My girlfriend thought I was nuts and obsessed. I was. Now, in the middle of February, I can look out at the mini-Christmas trees of dwarf Alberta Spruce in the denuded flowerbed, along with the pointy crisp leaves of mahonia and a sparkly Blue Star Juniper. Dwarf mugo pines anchor the small white-barked apsen tree. The small "Bakerii" blue spruce near the cedar fence matches the hues of the pincushion Blue Fescue grass "sea urchin." Against the jumble of rocks in a dry-stacked wall, a ball-shaped daphne pose a striking sihouette and waits for spring. In the dry xeric broder, native banana-leaf yucca provides an architectural element against the contorted branches of a dwarf siberian pea shrub and a Round-leaf Buffaloberry (Shepherdia rotundifolia), a wondergul evergreen -- or should I say ever-silver -- plant from the high-desert Colorado Plateau. It has fuzzy greenish-silver leaves on pipe-cleaner fuzzy white stems. In my driveway hellstrip, I was totally surprised at how dark red succulents can become in sunshine: hens & chicks, hardy iceplants and dragons blood sedum. Kinnikinnick is a cool ground cover, too. I went overboard with my purchases last year. But I just could bear the thought of a dead-looking, boring garden waiting for warm weather. Other than monkeying with the perennial bed, all of my gardening effort was specifically geared to create a winter-early spring show. Seems kind of nuts. There I was in the middle of summer, fussing and planning out a display for October thru May. The good thing about winter gardens to suplement summer gardens: angst and longing year-round, not just in springtime! My failures: Thinking holly would grow along a shaded fence (It's too hot and dry here... all plants were dead by July.) Expecting Feather Reed Grass to not be flattend by snowfall. It looks marginal but next week, it's getting the ol' early spring crew cut. The winter hardy cactus may have received too much winter moisture. Time will tell on that. Even though the winter garden looks good, I still love summer and can't wait until the flowers start doing their thing!