Quirky: With regard to your comment "The slightest little thing will shade it (zoysiagrass) out.", I respectfully disagree. According to the experts at Patten Seed Company in Lakeland GA, the proprietors of Zenith zoysiagrass, zoysia is adapted to shade in hot climates, with shade tolerance superior to bermudagrass and centipedegrass, but less than St. Augustinegrass. Gil Landry, Extension Turf Specialist at University of Georgia says, "Some cultivars are second only to St. Augustinegrass in shade tolerance. In fact, in the Piedmont area (northern third) of Georgia, zoysia is one of the best choices for shady conditions." Growing grass in the shade is a challenge no matter where you live, but based on these recommendations, it appears to be a reasonable seed choice in the South, since St. Augustinegrass is not available as seed.

Always keep at least one basjoo inside as insurance for the six years I've grown basjoo. I bring mine in my classroom, set it under the normal flourescent ceiling lights, and it always does fine. Pretty tough, although mine have a little more spce between each new leaf, whereas outside they come in closer together. For mite I use soap spray or windex. I've even used the spray you use to clean dry erase boards which is mostly water and alcohol. I haven't had one left in the ground for two years now after rotting my 'big momma' so this year I've put them everywhere since I had so many new pups on my potted one. I'm going to cover a couple, but the others I'm not going to touch... just to see how they do. I'm even going to plant one at my school this spring for the kids to enjoy. Chris

Aloha Steve, Well, Wally's World (Walmart) seems to have cleaned up their act so I'm considering lifting my personal boycott of them. I've been through their garden area several times lately and not heard a single frog peep. The webbed stowaway in question is the coqui frog from Puerto Rico which is very invasive and spreading across the islands. It makes a really loud noise at night and they multiply in incredible numbers so if your area gets infested with them it is hard to sleep at night. I'm considering getting another invasive species, the Jackson chameleon established in my area so if the frogs do move in hopefully the chameleons will eat them. Maybe guinea hens too. They are used in places on the mainland when there is a tick infestation. Coqui frogs are about the size of your thumbnail and don't need water to breed so once they get established they are really hard to get rid of. The assistants at our local stores are extrememly friendly and as helpful as their sometimes limited database will allow them to be. It's just the little extras, such as the frogs, that I object to.

how many varieties/plants I grew this year: 9 varieties/20 plants  8 OP, 1 hybrid favorites this year and why: Togo Trifle  very, very tasty, vigorous grower, earlier than most of my tomatoes and extremely prolific. Unfortunately, the first hit by blight (most likely verticillium), but not until 120 days after planting in ground Opalka  great flavor, very meaty paste tomato, easy to seed and I thought, very pretty. I did have to be careful around the plant because the tomatoes fell off the vine easily. least liked varieties this year and why: Heidi, but only because I also planted Cherokee purple, Black from Tula, Amish Paste, Green Zebra, Brandywine red and Sungold and like those better. Heidi was the least tasty of the bunch, but still had good flavor. It also was extremely prolific, held on the vine forever, completely resisted the blight and is, in fact, still producing tomatoes as I type. what I did that worked: Raised beds roto-tilled (they were just made) with natural clay soil, lots of composted sheep manure (organic), shrimp compost (organic) and lime. Interplanted with Jolly Jester Marigold (grew tall, worked well), Tiger Marigold (too small), Borage, Basil and Cosmos. The whole garden was organic and planted with tons of pollinator/predator insect attracting plants. Plants were trellised or caged and I did not pinch back the suckers. I planted everything WAY TOO CLOSE (I didnÂt believe how big tomatoes would get on the east coast  now I do), but it worked this year by shading the tomatoes and preventing cracking during the rain and sunscald. I donÂt think IÂll plant that closely again  might be a recipe for disaster in a wet year. Problems: a)Planting all my seedlings indoors before I even had a garden! I overestimated how quickly I could build the raised beds and didnÂt have enough room by the time they needed to go into the ground. b)Blight (possibly verticillium) about 120+ days after the plants went into the soil. It damaged slowly, only hit some plants/part of the plant and happened after IÂd already had a huge harvest. c) Not securing the cages well enough. They blew over in the wind on top of my peppers. Luckily the roots didnÂt rip out and the peppers survived. surprises this year: How much bigger the plants grew than in California, how many tomatoes I harvested (lots!) and how incredibly tasty everything was. what I'll try next year: Expanding the garden to have a dedicated, securely trellised (away from all peppers) area for the tomatoes. Add more compost and possibly Rootshield for the blight. Also maybe plant some plants later if the blight is time-in-ground dependent. Varieties  all from this year plus JoeÂs plum, black brandywine, orange strawberry and definitely more plants of Opalka. Also, I will make more salsa with the Togo TrifleÂs. I didnÂt make enough.