The only ones we ever ate were called morstals? We called them pine trees as they grew straight up with wavy fin like sides. The others were called puff balls which grew to around a foot across. But they were if sliced too thick became slimy when fried but if cut very thin were tasty.

Hi Socks - I set it up myself...well, my six year old son and 12 year old daughter helped a bit...pretty easy. Now, I am definitely not as confident in my ability to get it to pop 'down'...we'll see... I am mostly concerned about squirrels and chipmunks, I think. They just tear into everything around these parts. One summer they used every singly seat cushion on my deck furniture chairs to pad their nests! I really despise them. Maybe they won't be interested in this (I hope). Not sure what to do to keep them away, really. So, I am trying to extend the amount of time I keep a bunch of my cacti and succulents outdoors, rather than jamming them into my sunroom this year. That way, I may try to segue them into a dark dormancy in my garage instead of the sunroom - giving them a deeper sleep perhaps AND freeing up growing space under HID lights in my sunroom. They just wouldn't get the same dry cold in the sunroom that I think I can give them with the greenhouse - maybe end up with better flowering next year, too? By the end of November, I think they will all be indoors somewhere - either garage or sunroom. Then, the snows come...seems so far away with 90s forecast all week for us ;-). Josh - I see what you mean...just hope it doesn't get overtaken by marauding banditos! T

Thanks Carol, sea myrtle sounds cool; think I'll keep it around. I found some packages of Ball freezer boxes awhile back in a thrift store; so I've been blanching and freezing green mixtures for a bit now. Need to do some more this week. I put greens in just about everything. Later this week I'm going to make a crockpot lasagna where I use layered green in lieu of pasta for the lower layers. I will let you all know how it turns out. I'm am so pleased to be having tomatoes getting ripe. Starting tomato seed in November turned out to be one of my better bright ideas. It was just a few pots so carrying them in and out wasn't too much. Having early tomatoes now is so worth it. The fountain is so nice, can't wait to get all finished around it. Hopefully today I will bring home a few small pond fish. I moved some of the bright lites chard over near the fountain. It was going anyway from being in full sun; so it will be interesting to see if it stays perennial in the dappled sun. And for now, it brings some color to the area. I've also got some Florida Variegated Collards that I'm going to plant over here and see how they do. They are also suppose to be perennial. Not that I think they would taste all that good in August. Thanks for the compliments everybody .... blush ~dianne

Yup that is a Coleus, I planted that one myself :) I was referring to the one towards its left