In my experience with grow lights, I started with flourescent and worked my way up to metal halide. The trick I found with flourescent is to keep the lights close to the plants as they grow, this helps keep them from becoming spindly. I bought lights that were more for plant use than for normal household use, but in a pinch, cool whites could work as long as they are close to the plants. As for temperature, some seeds liked bottom heat to germinate. As long as the room temp was over 70F then I think one can get away with not using a heat mat. I have one and never use it. Sometimes when my seeds sprout and the seed head is still attached to the plant I try and gently squeeze the seed and hope it will pop off the leaf. 7 out of 10 times it does, the rest no. Try keeping the seed moist with a spray bottle of water and see if it will break down a little. I find starting seeds alot of fun and you learn as you go along. I started with a few pots in front of a window to 500 pots under grow lights in the basement. Good luck!!

MadPlanter, I haven't seen much Hakenochloa around here or maybe I just haven't been paying attention. The nursery where I bought it (huge, mostly wholesale) had hundreds of plants so someone must be planting it relatively close. Lavender, I bought a few Huecheras this year and while very slow getting going they are doing well now. I am sure I have room for some. I'll check HD, but locally they don't have good selections at all. Bernd, Buying rocks? What a strange concept??? My neighbor has some nice boulders that the builder set aside when their house was built. On their next neighborly visit over here I might hint how the boulders would fit very nicely into my gully. I will have to carefully disguise my lust for their boulders and not appear pushy. Jon

I'm new to this forum, formerly of the Earthbox forum because a few posts by some of us were about building our own boxes and designing homemade gravity fed watering controls. I understand their point ($$$) but some were really off the wall blaming us for the decline and fall of the free world so I thought this forum might by more friendly towards experimenting and new ideas. I have one Earthbox which really works well and one homemade of my own design but basically the some as EB for about a fourth of the cost. Had good results with my tomatoes but next year my homemade will have a float valve from an evaporate cooler (swampbox) to control a constant automatic gravity fed water supply. http://www.coolercenter.com/floatvalves.html I've found the most important thing is the correct soiless potting mix that promotes the best wicking function. http://www.fafard.com/pDet1.aspx?prodID=LTG This is what I will try to find locally next year, but had OK results with http://www.fafard.com/pDet2.aspx?prodID=PPM hi to all cushman350

I really need to get my basement sorted out. To do that, I have to scan a bunch artwork/schoolwork that the boys have done. That is a huge task. I should have been doing it this winter, but well, you know, Netflix was calling my name. LOL. Once I get that started, I can empty out a dresser that is falling apart and get rid of that. I can sort out the school supplies and such properly and get rid of some other stuff I don't need to be dragging around for years. I think I'll buy a couple of Ikea bookcases with doors on the bottom and then I can properly put stuff onto a bookshelf in the spare room down there. When I get that spare room cleaned out, I'll move all the flooring I plan on installing in the basement into that room. When I had the floors done upstairs, they were on clearance and once it was gone, it was gone, so I bought enough to have the upstairs and downstairs match. I have purchased the sink cabinet and mirror cabinet for my future bathroom reno. I need to price check the tile I like at Home Depot and if it's the same as a local shop, then I'll support the local shop. I want a 24" square tile for the floor and I might have to get that in the US. I'll have to see if we're near a tile place on Sunday when my son is there for soccer. I know the faucets I want but I'm undecided on the bathtub. I don't want to spend $700 on the one I like that is ultra plain. I saw one that is pretty plain and nice. It's $100 cheaper in the US. I'll have to figure exchange and taxes to see what is more worth my while. I'll check flyers too as this is the time of year they have all the home improvement sales. Once I have all that, I'll call the contractor and get an estimate and time frame. I didn't really answer the question. It seems I'm filling up the house not clearing it out. LOL