hengal: I am not sure I can help you the way you need, which is someone to do the weeding, but I can tell you it is easily possible to transplant the strawberry plants in your tower to a new bed. However, a new bed will only temporarily solve the weed problems. You can transplant as soon as the soil warms up and dries out enough to work in it comfortably. Just drive a hand trowel down next to a crown, lift it out, and plant it in your new bed. If you are able to do this early enough, you will get some blooming and bearing on the transplants, but, like all strawberries, they will produce best the 2nd year when the plants are established and winter over. Weeds are the biggest nuisance for most of us strawberry growers, and I have ripped out a dozen strawberry patches because of them. It is easy to let them get ahead of you, and, at some point, you begin to wonder whether it is worth it to do all the hand weeding that is necessary. There is quite a bit of discussion about strawberry mulches in a nearby thread. I am growing my strawberries on black plastic now, cutting slits for the new runners, but other experienced growers favor organic mulches. I wish there were an easy answer. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Hi, could you email me a pic of the trellisis please. Is there anything else you are looking for also? I have a bunch of goodies I could trade for these. Thanks, Erin

Carol, I do remember that year. It seemed you were ankle deep in mud and water all year. I think the leaves are breaking down so quickly because we have such a nice combination of warm daytime temperatures (at least down here we do) and all that humidity in the air. I don't remember the last time we had this much fog, sometimes lasting until almost noon, in December. Down here, fog is usually more of an April-May and October type thing. We remain below average in rainfall as well, although we have had continual drought improvement since June. Part of our county (not my part, lol) is back out of drought and now is only 'Abnormally Dry' but we remain in the 'Moderate Drought' category. I feel like 1-3" would get us out of that category, but the last 2 or 3 times that it has rained, the heavier rain has hit some parts of our county but has missed our part of it. It would be nice to make it totally out of drought for a month or two, but I don't know if it will happen. I sure hope it does. It is discouraging to see how dry the soil is in the raised beds, although the constant fog and mist have kept the top half-inch of mulch kinda moist. It has been perfect conditions for seedlings to sprout in the mulch, or in any bare areas where all the mulch has decomposed or where the digging/scratching of the chickens has kicked it aside. I haven't even cleaned out all of my garden beds yet because every time I go in there, there's bees, butterflies and birds all over the place and I hate to remove anything that they may be using for food or shelter. If we don't hurry up and get some nice cold weather, the larkspur, bluebonnets, poppies and other seedlings are going to grow too rapidly and then will be green and lush and will freeze back to the ground when it gets very cold again. Most nights we are staying 2 to 5 degrees above freezing. I feel behind, but it seems more important right now to let the little flying creatures have the shelter of the plants still standing in the garden. In January, it will start feeling more important to get the beds ready for planting though. I haven't received the BCHS catalog yet but when we were in Sam's Club yesterday, they had the 350+-page expanded 2015 edition of "The Whole Seed Catalog" on the magazine rack. Last year, when I saw it in there I said that I was not going to buy the bigger catalog when I get the free one in the mail every year, but then every time I was in there, I wanted to buy it. So, this year, when I saw it I just went ahead and got it. Wait until you see how much they've added this year! There's the usual new offerings in most categories but also a new section of vegetatively-propagated plants like their rare fig collection (3 small plants for $15) and dwarf bananas, and some other rare fruits (most would need to overwinter indoors or in a greenhouse), some perpetual (in frost-free zones, or in a greenhouse that doesn't freeze) spinach and a few ornamentals like some unusual taro/elephant ears and some Louisiana iris. I am so far behind. Not only have I not been out in the garden working on digging out those raised beds to line them with hardware cloth, but I haven't even ordered seeds. Usually my seeds are all here already and my grow lists are made, and so I feel incredibly far behind right now. I did finally clean out my and reorganize my seed box (who in the world messes it up every year?) last week and made a list of all the viable seeds I have, so I would know precisely what I was starting out with. That will help prevent me from ordering some varieties that I already have. Then, yesterday, I did my main seed order from SESE, and today I hope to do the BCHS order. Then, there's just a couple of odds and ends I need to order that are only available from other places and I'll be ready for the planting season. I had hoped to start tomato seeds indoors Dec 1st for my own very-early tomato plants instead of buying the early ones that hit the stores here in late January or early February, but my seed-starting shelf is jam-packed with canned goods, so that didn't happen. After I put together all the gift bags with canned goods (I canned approx 800 jars this year, mostly pints except for the roselle jam), that will open up a lot of shelf space again and then I can use my seed-starting light-shelf unit for its intended purpose. I ordered my gift bags, tissue paper and bows yesterday from ULine, and they shipped them from their DFW warehouse yesterday afternoon, so UPS should bring those today. That means I'll be busy with the holiday prep stuff for about a week to ten days, and maybe after that I can start some seeds for the earliest tomato plants. We have two new rescue puppies, about 12 weeks old, and a new rescue kitten from this past summer, and I have forgotten how hard it is to accomplish anything with baby animals in the house. If our Christmas tree remains standing upright until Christmas, it will be a minor miracle, and I cannot touch the seed crate without having the kitten get into it to sleep on top of the seeds. The puppies have been doing their bit in the garden by digging holes. I need to train them to dig out the raised beds for me.....and then all I'd have to do would be to put in the hardware cloth and refill the beds. We raised up the potato-growing bed and the sweet-potato growing bed to 24" in height when we put the hardware cloth beneath them last year, and this year I want to do the same this year with a longer bed so I can grow carrots, beets and turnips in it without having to worry about the voles eating all the root crops. I like the taller beds as they reduce the amount of stooping required when digging potatoes, but it seems harder to keep the soil moist. With beds which are raised that high above grade level, it is more like container gardening than in-ground gardening. I have so many garden chores to do, but the usual fall VFD, family and holiday stuff always takes priority. I told Tim the other day that I was excited about late-December, beginning with Dec. 26th. He was totally baffled and said "Why?" and I replied that the local stores immediately begin putting out the freshly-arrived bare root nursery stock, seeds and seed-starting supplies as soon as Christmas is over. How could he even ask why? How could he not know, after 30+ years of marriage, that for me, Spring garden shopping and seed-starting begins the day after Christmas? Other people may hit the stores for the after-Christmas clearance sales, but what I'm in the looking for is the early arrivals of garden center type stuff. Dawn

I did, as it was recommended. Pure acetone! I tried fine steel wool, tried everything. It came off in spots here and there. Where it came off turned dark like copper will, if I polished it the sections which it came off would sort of match the lacquered parts. Just a mess. Mine was similar to Annie's, but taller. I used it for stews and at Christmas time for a mulled cider. Looked beautiful on the table and with candle light, until the lacquer started wearing off. After my futile attempts to clean it, I no longer used it. It looked horrible! The smaller pans were cleaned professionally by William Sonoma where I bought them. Was not cheap! Maybe they have improved things since then. Hopefully! jane