So happy to report that only 1 container left with no sprouts. That container is also the only one that got knocked over and fell off the table. Everything else; tomatoes, peppers, Sun Flowers, Cosmos, Marigolds, cucumbers, beans and lettuce are all good size and in the ground or pots. I LOVE WINTER SOWING and am already saving containers for next year. My final count was 59 containers, next year I hope to have that many at both my house and my brothers. Lessons I learned - don't fuss with them don't over plant the seeds stop worrying- they will grow. (In the tomato bottles, I had way too many seeds that sprouted so there were several weaklings that went to the compost pile, next year will only plant 6-8 seeds depending on the size of the container.) Happy Gardening Everyone, Missy

This is such a good idea! I've wondered if some of you could have been my neighbors in the various places I've lived. Anyhow it's nice to be "online" neighbors now. GW Name - luckygal What does your GW name stand for? - I don't really believe in "luck" but I feel very blessed to have survived so well this long. Real Name - Katie Age - 66 Companion - same husband for over 42 years Children? - 3 nice adult kids and 6 wonderful grandkids Pets? - 3 indoor cats, 2 we chose from the SPCA and 1 who chose us - he just wondered by one day and needed feeding, and one outdoor feral cat we feed who keeps the mice under control. We're between dogs. Where do you live or used to live? - have lived in rural BC near the middle of the province for almost 20 years, originally from the west coast of BC, have lived in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Germany Zone? - 3b (according to the Canadian Zone Map) Do you work? - yes, but since I retired I don't get paid as much for it! Have been a jill-of-many-trades and master of a few. Companion Occupation? - ex-military, retired teacher Other interests besides gardening? - various crafts, sewing, knitting, crochet, reading, computer, yard saling, repurposing yard sale finds, interior decorating (DH calls me Martha when I get too obsessed), photography, traveling now that we are retired How long have you been gardening? - 60 years at least (difficult even for me to believe) - my parents were avid gardeners and I helped from an early age. Where is your garden located and what is its size? - we have a large acreage and the garden is near the house, sort of large city lot size but could be larger. Courses in Horticulture? - no, self-taught, but with many mentors What are your specialities in gardening? - propagating houseplants but I'm no longer doing that as it tends to get out of hand (who really needs 30 diefenbachia?), I like growing perennials from seed and nurturing yard sale plant finds, I like planning my garden then deviating from the plan. My DH would say it's leaning on my shovel and telling him what to do! Favorite Flower? - delphiniums, Lady's Mantle, geranium Vancouver centennial (more for it's foliage) are a few Favorite Tree/Shrub? - dogwood altho it doesn't grow in our climate What has been the best-performing plant/plants in your gardens? - shasta daisies and feverfew which are overly prolific self-seeders, irises, delphinium, Lady's Mantle, various poppies, Autumn Joy, and lots more - I'd have to think. Most Challenging Plant? - lavender, I started with 3 plants a few years ago and have one left which seems to struggle to survive every year. I think I need to create a mini-climate which is dryer and warmer but it's easier to just visit a lavender farm and buy some dried. Favorite Gardening Quote? - "I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error." ~Sara Stein, My Weeds, 1988 Favorite Garden Magazines? - have only ever taken Gardens West and Harrowsmith subscriptions but no longer - occasionally borrow from the library, there is much more info online Favorite Garden Books or resources? - have 4 of Lois Holes' books which I use, some old gardening books I seldom read, Richters herb catalogue which is fun to dream with, online sites and forums What is your favorite tool? - my little red wagon which I use instead of a wheelbarrow in the house yard. DH got me a second one, a green one to use out in the back-40 for picking sticks. Both yard sale finds $10 each. I also really like using our old cement mixer, it's like this huge noisy toy! We've made hypertufa pots, concrete rhubarb leaf stepping stones, and I like mixing my own garden-healthy mulch in it. What are you most comfortable in when gardening? - shorts, shell or t-shirt, flip-flops mostly or heavy workboots if I have to dig, if it's cold fleece pants and tops, same footware, cotton gloves changed frequently when muddy or rubber gloves occasionally, depending on what I'm doing. What has been your best garden project? - When we had a new water line dug they struck rock the entire way so DH hauled huge rocks in the tractor bucket and created a rockery on a slope near the house. It's become overgrown so I need to replan and replant soon but I love those huge half buried rocks. He also more recently built me a large decorative-only birdhouse out of old barnboard and it's in the garden all summer and on the verandah in the winter. Any projects in the works or planned? - started a lasagna bed this summer over part of the lawn and we're adding to it, hope it produces great veggies next year. Am thinking about a garden house, probably plan it over the winter. Would love to enlarge the garden area more but I think that might be biting off more than I can do. If you had an unlimited budget, what would you do with your gardens? - I've always wanted a bobcat to play with but with an unlimited budget I'd probably hire a landscaper and gardener also and keep them busy for awhile. Buy a hammock and watch them work! Cottage style all the way with gazebo, ponds, streams, bridges a la Monet's garden. If you could invent a plant, what would it look like? - hardy for my zone, resistant to all plant problems, long-lived perennial, very blue and it would look just like my delphiniums but smell like a spicy rose. Would that seem weird or what? Describe an experience with a garden pest that had you ready to throw in the trowel? - being "bug-phobic" I try not to think about them and the birds eat most of the bugs in the garden altho we have zillions of ants, also voracious deer, and pine, spruce and fir beetles in the forest. Plant pests are dandelions, wild yarrow, chickweed, and various pasture grasses that seed. I try to be organic but occasionally use ant dust around the perimeter of the house so they don't eat it! Otherwise it's live and let live here. Parts of the lawn are turning into yarrow groundcover which I may address, or not. Hey, it's green. What advice do you have for the novice gardener? - Join your local garden club, read everything you can about gardening - discover gardening forums and online sites, read library books, start composting, plan a bit, then just get out and do it your way and have fun. Don't waste a lot of money on expensive plants until you actually have good soil to plant them in. We learn more from our mistakes than our successes so don't be afraid to try. What is your motivation for gardening? - I'm incapable of not gardening, it's in my genes.

Hey, what a fun thread! I have only been visiting this forum for about 3 months or so, originally getting into Garden Web through the Canning forum. My name really is Rachel, and Ellen is my middle name. I am 47, married for a year and a half...my husband is 47 as well, and it is the first marriage for us both. Slow starters. ;D No kids. At the moment we have 2 cats, an old grumpus of a male and a sprightly, mischievous kitten (almost cat), having lost my 21 year old Suzu Badcat last winter. We have also recently acquired Outdoorcat, whom I started feeding when someone moved away and left him. I can't bring him in because the old grumpus would have a fit having another male cat in the house...so I'm currently looking for a home for him. I have been cooking since I could manage pouring things into a bowl. My mother was a truly horrible cook, but I bless her for teaching me the basics so that I was at least not intimidated by cooking. I moved in with a Chinese family for about 6 months when I was 17, and that started my life long love for and fascination with ethnic foods. I am an eclectic cook...my husband never really knows what I might put in front of him, luckily he's wonderfully open minded and willing to try new things. I learned the basics of Chinese cooking from that family and kept going from there. I had many Japanese friends as a teen and learned a bit from their mothers, and then worked in a Japanese restaurant for 8 years and learned a lot more. I was born in Southern Maine, but lived most of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I decided that I would like to some day move to a more rural area, I realized that what I'd miss most was the variety of foods available. So, I started to teach myself to cook the foods of India, and have gained sufficiency enough to slake my desire for dals and curries and their lovely vegetable salads and sambhars when the mood strikes as I now do live in the Central valley...many Mexican restaurants, a few Chinese, and lots of burgers. My latest project is to learn Thai, but I've just started that. In addition, I dabble with various African and European cuisines, and of course, there is always good old American food! I bake for other people (I don't care for sweets as a general rule) can lots of jams,marmalades, relishes, and pickles. I have a real passion for vegetables, but am too much a carnivore to give up meat...though if I had to make a choice I'd rather do without the meat than do without the vegetables. I was in the restaurant business most of my adult life, going from waitress to head waitress to manager in a foo-foo fancy restaurant (after the Japanese place) where the chef often hit me up for menu ideas...the menu changed every month, and he got tired of thinking up new things. We'd toss ideas around and get into arguments about what was feasible and what would sell, but we had fun and he was always good about giving me credit when he used my ideas or recipes. Now I'm in business with my husband, and mostly just cook for us. When my cabinets got filled with all my spices, various grains, legumes, flours, rices etc., my sweet husband built me a whole pantry worth of shelves in the garage...which are now full...dunno what the heck we'll do now. :O The problem with multi-ethnic cooking is that you have to have SO MANY ingredients on hand! I love this forum because very few of my friends even know how to cook, let alone have a passion for it, and I can see that many here do. I am also very impressed by how positive, encouraging and helpful all the posters are. With cooking, there is always more to learn and no matter how accomplished you are, there is always someone who can teach you something. And, no matter how experienced a cook or how inexperienced, burnt carrots are burnt carrots and cursing under your breath at the botched mess in a pan before you throw it out and make sandwiches for dinner is sometimes really therapeutic lol. One of my biggest cooking problems is that I very rarely follow a recipe exactly...in fact, I generally use them as sort of an "outline" to what I end up doing. Or, I do a lot of just throwing things together because they sound good. So when someone asks me for a recipe, I'm at a loss. Also, we have a running joke, my husband and I, that if he really loves a dish I make, he'd better savor every bite as it will never taste exactly the same again! Lately, I have started trying to write down what I'm doing as I do it with mixed success. Anyhow, nice to meet y'all!

Well ... I guess we can shut off the lights and close and lock the door of this thread: I'm to fly out of Detroit early evening Fri. Jan. 23 - fly out of Phoenix morn. Mon. Feb 2 ... just under $250. For folks who might be in or able to come to Phoenix, my email address is available here, and I can send daughter's address - don't remember the suburb - and phone. Got a card in mail Fri. Nov. 28 saying item to pick up at P.O., picked up passport Monday ... postmistress says it somewhat resembles me. She's supposed to have identif'n., but not too concerned ... I got out photo driver's licence ... she said she doubted that she'd let me into States on that - look too much like terrorist. Application went in Nov. 21, it was issued Nov. 26 - really quick service. I am disappointed that I'll not get to visit folks along the route ... but hope that I can meet several of you some time in the future: maybe a spring or fall trip (summer too hot). I hope also that you have the start of a fine week under your belt. ole joyful