I found about 15 more rose hips that are fully swollen and red. Feel fry to look at my trade list, but I'm looking for: Vegetables and herbs that are SUPER easy to grow on virgin soil Any plants that will grow in partially shaded heavy clay soil that floods (half inch or less of water) Anything rare or exotic-looking

Too bad you don't have room for a species, because I'd strongly suggest the dog rose (canina). We did a hip tasting some years back in the cemetery. The big HT type hips were, at best, mealy and bland. We think it may be the R. gigantea genes, although we've never tasted the species. Eglantine wasn't really that good, and the hips are small. We have Rugosa kamchatika, and the hips are very big and taste ok. The very best - actu,ally GOOD - were from R. canina. Big, juicy, tart/sweet. We leave the hips for the winter color, and for the birds/squirrels, but had to cut off some canes to keep the rose in bounds. One of our volunteers collected the hips and made jelly - she said it is a beautiful dark pink and tastes and smells of roses. Our canina is a big self-supporting shrub, about 7 (high) by 10 (wide). If you need something smaller, try to find something that bears good-tasting hips. Anita

Not a nroken hip, but with aggressive Forestiers Disease I dare not mention lemy back, hips and legs have such severe pain that I take meds for the most severe pain available. For that reason I have gone to raised hay bail beds filled with compost and for potatoes, onions and such, beds with compost covered by deep hay beds. Most of my gardening is done while seated on the ground with 18" tools. Yesterday, I had to use a lot of physics and ingenuity to take all day raking compost from my truck into a pile. Today I am paying dearly. BUT, it can be done, it just takes more time and a lot more planning. No more tilling and long rows, and no more fighting the red clay soil. Now most of my gardening will be done above ground, but in raised beds. I call it therapy! It cost 85 per session three times a week for therapy that left my pinched nerves aching evene worst. Now, with every ligament and tendon turning to bone, every nerve is pinched, so this therapy of sitting in the sun is FAR preferable. My fifth book will be one based upon the lives of those living in pain..but really choosing to live!

I replied to your email. :) Basically yes, get the seeds out and cleaned, then you have the choice of winter-sowing, germinating in the refrigerator, or germinating in a cold frame. To use the refrigerator, rinse the seeds with peroxide (the medical supply kind) to kill mold spores. Optionally, you can try to score the seeds with a knife to encourage germination, but that's challenging to do without hurting yourself or damaging the seeds. Then put them in a damp paper towel in a ziplock bag in the fridge. Labeling and dating them is a good habit. Once they are in the fridge, ignore them for three months. If they get moldy, rinse in peroxide again and put them in a new paper towel and bag. Eventually the seeds will split in half and a tap root will come out. Plant this gently in a peat starter or sterile dirt (to sterilize it, soak with boiling water then allow to dry out before using). If the tap root is caught in the paper towel, don't try to pull it loose because the root is fragile, instead tear off that bit of paper towel and plant it.