Good luck. I am just getting back to a large garden after 7 years. My best suggestion is to start small so you can have time to learn about your plants..their amount of sun/shade, soil, bugs they get etc. You can also watch to see how much water they may require and if going organic, have time to pick/protect from bugs. I have 2 raised, intensive beds going this year so am in the learning curve myself having just moved into this home and not doing raised beds before. I have already found that the cabbage butterfly likes my broccoli and cauliflower and had a bit of a messy morning squishing caterpillars. Ok not really messy because they were really tiny but kinda gross all the same. If I had a much larger patch of the broccoli and cauliflower I probably would not have caught them so early and now I know they are around, I can keep a really good eye on my 10 plants. Since you are in S. Cali you may have shade requirements I do not get here in Michigan but on the really nice side, you have a much longer growing season than I have. You may want to check out the 4 seasons gardening forum to get information on growing year long in your area. Kim

I am interested in your yellow brugmansia seed. I don't have any of the seeds you are requesting, so I understand if you are not interested. let me know if you are interested in anything on my trade list. Here is a link that might be useful: my trade list

Oh sure, silversword, you have to recommend Gardenias and then give me that post to read. Ha! Ha! I only made it as far as the August 3rd posts, but I intend to read a little more at each sitting. Boy is it funny/eye opening. I, being a Gemini, get bored easily and can't finish things so I just skimmed a little to see how far the thread went. I happened upon the reply from "Jim" who was giving his wife a Gardenia bush for Mother's Day and then he was printing out the entire thread and writing "sorry" on top of it and running. That was so funny! I guess I am pretty stupid because even after reading all that, I am going to have to get a Gardenia at some point. I was sold on the description of the scent. I am just not sure I will actually try to grow one. I would probably do better to just have one and toss it aside like the Freesia. For some reason anything I try to actually put love into and take care of, dies on me, whereas anything I just neglect thrives. Perhaps my plants are suicidal too. The title of the thread reminded me of something Jerry Seinfeld says in his book Seinlanguage and it makes me laugh every time I read it: "I have no plants in my house. They won't live for me. Some of them don't even wait to die, they commit suicide. I once came home found one hanging from a macrame noose, the pot kicked out from underneath. The note said, "I hate you and your albums." It's so funny to think of plants as human. I'm screwed though because I am definitely a sucker for a good-smelling plant. The house we bought has some kind of lilac that blooms in the spring and fall. It is pathetic looking (not like back home) but I never grow tired of smelling it and reminding me of home. And I love the Freesia because it smells like Froot Loops (which reminds me of my childhood). The roses that I dug up were sad looking and not very pretty plus the fragrance was not that great. The funny thing is that I have NEVER been a flower person. My husband likes to do romantic gestures like buy flowers for me, but he won't buy roses on Valentine's Day because they cost much more than any other day of the year. So he likes to surprise me with flowers some other day. I am fine with that because we have a cat who tries to eat ANYTHING that looks like plant matter. I can't even have Easter grass in baskets because the dummy will eat it. So roses cannot be enjoyed because they have to spend so much time behind closed doors and I am not really one of "those" women who requires candy and flowers on Valentine's Day or birthdays, etc. I might give that Little John some consideration somewhere around the house because I adore watching the hummingbirds. :-)

This summer has made me :( from the heat. I just have no interest in being out. That said, I know it's time to get crackin and starting seeds for fall. I'm looking so much forward to fall it isn't even funny. We started pumpkins in June, moved them, they died and now I am going to try again. Right now the okra and corn are doing fantabulous and I am hopefully going to have some to eat soon! This year I'm going to do tomatoes again, swiss chard, mustard and collard greens, kale, carrots (though i still have some in pots, I wonder if they are still good?) and not sure what else yet.