I've tried a variety of composting methods over the years. My first was a 3' circle of chicken wire (all I could afford). The side aeartion was nice, but I kept getting the pitchfork tines stuck in the chicken wire. After that, I made a compost garden. That was an 8' octogon raised frame bed with a 2'diameter chicken wire in the middle. I dumped compostable stuff in the chicken wire, never turned it, and let nurients leach into the surrounding soil to feed cucumbers up the chicken wire, tomotos outside that and bell peppers and flowers and the outer ring. Worked well actually. More interesting, I happened to drive past the old house and, 20 years later, the octogon is still there (but with roses)! When I moved, I tried a plastic cylander that you filled up, waited a few weeks, lifted up and moved to the side and refilled from the old pile and with new material. It actually worked OK, but it was a pain to move. I finally build a real double compost bin. 4x4x3'H. I got tired of turning the compost from 1 bin to another and they both ended up being filled. That meant I had to fork everything out of one bin onto the ground, move the 2nd bin into the 1st, and move all the outside stuff into the 2nd. And the rich supply of melon rinds, carrot and potato peels, etc from the kitchen waste was attracting critters. Well, if they were eating the best stuff, it wasn't doing me any good. I decided to re-think the whole process... I started to leave my grass clippings on the lawn (free fertilizer). And I decided that the trees needed the nutrients from the decomposing leaves, so I merely shredded them with the mower and left them in place. That way, they wouldn't blow away, and any blown-in leaves would add to the nutrient pile. But I still had kitchen waste and weeds to compost. So I got an aerated closed tumbler to use for the rich critter-tempting stuff. The built compost bins get all the weeds and old flower stems and such. With an occasional shovel of fertile garden soil, that stuff breaks down eventually. The compost tumbler doesn't make compost worth a darn, but it does hold the kitchen waste nicely until it is too far gone to attract critters. So then it goes onto the old compost bins (turning it in once a month isn't much trouble). The other half of my new system is to get free mulch from the County recycling Center. It is lousy mulch, but only becuase it is way too decomposed for mulch. It does however make great compost after it sits for a year. It is as good as the leaf compost available commercially. I even let all my chicken bones dry out in the basement, pound them into pieces, and toss them in the kitchen waste tumbler to break down (free bonemeal) So the lawn keeps its clippings, the trees keep the fallen leaves, the critters can't get at the tempting kitchen waste, the old compost bins slowly provide some compost with little effort, and the year-old "mulch" is good as soil. I'm actually accumulating more than I can use. Guess where it is going? On the lawn! I have one of those pushable mesh barrels to sprinkle compost over the lawn. Anything that doesn't fall out through the mesh goes back onto the compost bin. :)

Cultural factors? CULTURAL FACTORS??? I've heard soil, light, and fertilizer but now we have to worry about cultural factors? OK, so be it... I'll dress my Kary up in a Tux tomorrow :-) That will make him look impotent, or is it important?... darn English pronunciation :-) The Kajang was the FIRST carambola to literally stop me in my tracks on taking the first bite. Kinda like the Lemon Guava did. Jeff, Thanks for the FSHS pdf link it's very well done. Though if I had to rate the three and burn two to the ground I would have to keep (so far) the Kajang. If the little Kajang keeps giving me the extraordinary taste of the first one I'm going to be one happy camper. Anyway, murahilin I bought the little Kajang at HD in east Hollywood (Fla.) for no other reason than it had hundreds of blossoms and my Kary and Bell seemed unwilling to flower. This is the only Kajang I've ever seen anywhere. Most of the retail stores have Arkin or an unnamed variety. For the $25.00 (IIRC) I paid for it, the tree was well worth the risk. If it gets cold out there I'm going to fabricate a little tent around it! The Kary and Bell will have to fend for themselves, they're three to four times larger. When this little guy gives up the next harvest I'll bring some to you Jeff. As usual you're welcome to take cuttings from it when I go to trim it.

Ummm, What drawing? :0? Fran is confused cuz she missed something...lol. Thanks though Becky and Sunny for the congrats...lol. I'm a winner and didn't even know I was a contender....lol. I think at this point it isn't gonna matter either cuz I'm thinking kitteh will be wanting to killeth me REAL soon... :( hiding shaking with fright... not thinking hear kitteh kitteh kitteh, not thinking...shaking head NOOOOO!!! Oh LOOK there is a total of 8 (eight) of us...nice EVEN number...makes it REALLY easy to, ummm...umm...gulp, PARNTER US UP....it's not tooo late, it's not tooo late (remants of Dorthy in my head...oh toto, What have I done?) Fran:) Fran

I am so glad that you loved your stuff! I had so much fun collecting for this swap the last so many months, and now that it is over, I feel sad! Oh well, I will have to get my fix looking for tomato seeds! I hate how the stores and tv bring on Christmas so early, like the after Labor Day, and then as soon as it is 11:59 pm on Christmas night, everything just ends and there are no more Christmas movies on tv, the radio stops playing Christmas music, you see Valetines Day stuff out on the 26th, and that is depressing. They rush it here so fast, why can't they atleast hold on to the Christmas celebration atleast until New Year's. Anyway, my tree is staying up for a while! From Donna I got! Red Gold Winter Squash, very interesting! Queensdland Blue, Awesome! Sarah Black Tomato ( this tomato is like a "sexy looking one!) Morado Tomato(another black I have been waiting to try! Mayflower Bean (mmmm, sounds yummy) serpente di sicilia edible gourd ( I love Italian seeds!) Pionsett Cuke (almost like pointsettia) snowball cauli, we think alike Black Beauty eggplant, great for my eggplant parm! Evergreen Tomato, another I did not have enough to save for myself Burpees Jubilee Tomato, a nice orange one! Marina di Chioggia pumpkin (anything from Chioggia Italy is always great!) Snowbird Pea (yummy!) Listada Di Gandia (another great Italian seed) Blackberry Lily ( hmm, have to check this one out) Browns Jubilee ( now I have 2 jubilees to compare together) 2 neat ornaments on my tree! a big hearsheys bar that hubby attacked!and now he thinks my seed people are "cool" because of Donnas chocolate bar! an awesome bag of earthworm tea mix and some fertilizing pellets!!! Thanks soo much Donna ! Great mixed bag! Ok, from Nancy I got: Blue Jade Baby Corn (cant wait to try this!) Christmas Lima ( Soooo glad she got me this because I orginally bought some for myself too, then since I had 2 partners I gave my seeds to a partner, so now I have them againfrom Nancy! yeah!) Queen\and Blue Squash cool! Traviata Endive (needed some endive Fava Bean ( want to plant these since they are so hard to find fresh) Orange Master Pomagranite (a very rare and interesting one I want to plant! Cannelli Beans (my favorite dry bean, love my pasta fagiolla!) Mrs. Burns Lemon Basil, awesome! Pesto Basil ( which I make a ton of) lINTZ cHOCOLATE baR YUM! A bag of Seed Savers Exchange runner Cannellinni beans to cook, mmmmmmm! Like I said, my favorite bean, do you think I could save a few to plant? Would that work? Christmas Grapes Tomato, another I gave all mine away and had none left! Black Plum Paste! I cannot wait to make black tomato sauce! Rossa di Chioggia Radichio, probably my faovite! If you get a chance, take a look at how beautiful this one is on Pinetree garden seeds site! Thanks soo much Nancy! AWESOME seeds! Ok, I know I probably forgot a few to mention of each of you too, so many seeds! It was so cool to have 2 partners!!!!! BTW, did I give you guys the Snowflake pea? I also gave you guys the same amount of stuff, while trying to give you each your own wish list stuff too, I really hope you liked everything! This was so fun! I wish it was Christmas time all the time! Do you guys mind doing something like this for Christmas in July? I think that would be neat! Merry Christmas to everyone! And do not mind my sloppy spelling in this post! Christy