Seasun, a south window is great, but 5 feet away is too far. You are not giving your phal enough light and it will decline into death if you leave it where it is. Orchids take some time to die, so you'll think you're doing fine, doing ok, maybe not growing like it should. Oh NO!!! What happened to my beautiful orchid???? Here's how where to put the phal figures: phals need about 1000 footcandles of light to grow and bloom. *Outside* at high noon = app 10,000 FC. You are never getting anything near that indoors because of the ceiling and roof of the house cutting off that directly overhead sun. All you are getting is the slanting sun, of much less than 10,000FC. Cut in half by the window glass and screen. Cut in half again *for every foot away from the window*. At 5 feet from your south window you are giving it *100FC or less* by my fairly generous estimate of what your south window actually lets in. In St Louis, I can keep phals *in* a south window with no damage, just far enough from the pane for a shade to slide down. Start moving it closer to the window. The first day move it to about 2 feet from the window. Leave it there a day or two, feeling the leaves where the sun falls on them (if it does). If they are hot, it's too much light, move at least 6" further away. If barely warm or cool, move closer. Repeat above, moving it 6" closer to the window every couple of days til you are at the place where nearer the window = leaves are hot (or it's in the window). There's been a lot of discussion with newbies about how much light to give phals here lately. Mostly newbies wanting to argue for keeping it on an inside wall in a bookcase where it looks great, more experienced growers arguing for more light, LOTS more. Your phal will love you if you do a search for these threads. Use the search function and put in something lilike "phal + light". If you leave it where it is and it dies in 6 months, put it down to needing to learn things the hard way. Actually that's how most of us learned this lesson.

Thanks, Guys!!! Glad you enjoyed the swap. Ian, I didn't keep track, but I would guess it was somewhere between 200 - 300 different varieties of peppers sent in. I think there was around 650 packets of seeds exchanged. Greg, we spent big bucks putting in sod the year we moved here, and I've spent the last 4 years gradually removing it, to make more room for flowers, and edibles. Grass is highly over rated! Three more of my peppers are starting to sprout. Still tempted to plant more though ...

Good Morning, Everyone! Smoke, thank you for the photos and info on those peppers. I hope you don't think I was trying to discourage anyone from trying them, I just felt bad that I couldn't give them any information on them. Wouldn't it be neat if we could name one of the peppers Smoke's Mystery Pepper, or Smoke's Russian Roulette Pepper? You would be famous : ) BTW, do you grow your own Mexican Oregano, or buy the dried leaves somewhere. I have a perennial herb bed, and grow lots of annual herbs in pots, but haven't tried to grow that one yet. I do know that my dried herbs taste waaaay fresher than what you can buy at the grocery store. My husband bought a smoker a year or two ago, but I hadn't really given any thought to making my own dry rubs before. He can't tolerate much heat, but maybe I can come up with a blend that incorporates some milder peppers as well. Thank you for the inspiration!!! Thank you, Tanya and Randy, for the kind words! Even though the swap has been kind of time consuming, I have learned so much from all of you pepper enthusiasts, and have been able to try a few new varieties, so I think it has totally been worth it. I hope you guys will feel that way too, when you get your packages back. Tanya - The Naga Morich is gone, but I've added the following to your package: Bhut Jolokia Cascabella A Smokemaster mystery pepper Randy - The Volcano is gone, but I've added the following to your package: Black Pearl Quadrato Rosso D'Asti PI 260250 PI 438638 I'll check back later today. I've got to run to the post office to drop off the first batch of packages. Bonnie

Very nice. I hope mine will look half as nice. What material did you use for the walkways. I havent chosen my material yet and am intrested in the pros and cons of did path materials. Also i like your fencing material. Any do/donts in using that stuff?