one of our layer hens who outlived 2 hawk attacks but decided to quietly succumb to the night before turning a year old (moment of silence) kitchen scraps mad-science experiments found in the back of the fridge 5 gals. chicken manure one nearly fully-formed chick and its egg remnants (1st-time broody hen isn't the smartest and squished the poor egg 2 wks before hatching) too many egg shells to count UCGs a few wheelbarrows full of weeds, mostly thistle a few wheelbarrows full of soiled chick bedding 20 gals. pizzaria kitchen prep and leftovers one ground squirrel who couldn't outrun our dog a lot of rain shredded leaves from last fall to cover the odors We saw a bear last week on the other side of the property. Last night some beastie was poking around the house/garage/compost; dogs were barking in middle of night then excitedly following many-a-scent trail this morning. Now I'm wondering if I buried everything "deep enough". Doh!

A short reply from Chicago -- visiting family! Your Castilleja is a parasite, Jennifier. When you plant the seeds plant them next to a native grass or something like that. Or they seem to like Artemisia too. That'll help improve your chances that they'll make it. With the perennials, I cut my ratty looking ones all the way down to the ground. Anything that's finished blooming, like the mums, or anything that just doesn't look good anymore, I cut down to about an inch above the ground. You saw how far I was cutting the shasta daisy down. It's grown lots of nice new foliage again now that should look good most of the winter. If you cut your mums down all the way, they'll start to form new foliage at the base, if they haven't already. IÂd cut the catmint all the way down too. Anything thatÂs naturally evergreen, like your geraniums, you shouldnÂt need to do anything at all to. And since you should probably have snow cover most of the winter, you really shouldnÂt need to mulch anything. Snow is one of the best mulches there is! My garden is pretty much closed down for the year. The tomatoes are cut and hung in the garage. The squash, cukes, and "hot" eggplants are cut down and cleaned up. The only thing left is the beets, carrots, and parsnips that are waiting for their winter covering of maple leaves---as soon as my neighbor rakes their's up and I get them! And my leeks are still out in the ground too. How long can you leave leeks outside? This is the first year I've grown them. I covered them when I left on my last trip--just in case, and I'll be back home again by Tuesday, so I can cover them again or dig them if I need to this time. When you dig them, they need to be stored in the fridge, donÂt they? My perennials I'll cut down slowly over the winter, on nice days, unless we get another blizzard winter like we did a couple years ago. That year they didn't get cut down till spring--when I could actually see them again! The things that finished blooming earlier in the year were cut down then and are mostly looking pretty nice again for winter. My roses will get cut down to a little over a foot, but they're still blooming like mad. It looks like we're gonna get a hard freeze this week, so I'll cut them whenever I get around to it after that. Oh! I dug my sweet potato vine to bring in to try to keep over winter again this year. Have 2 in pots and got a couple nice big tubers that I'm gonna dust with sulfur and try keeping in the garage this year. How do you store all your dahlia tubers over winter, Digit? And I managed to get a little chunk chopped off of my purple fountain grass and have it in a pot to save me having to buy more of that expensive stuff next spring too. And I have Perilla magilla (sp) cuttings rooting in water to stick in pots for some starts for next spring too. Sure wish I had more sunny windows to keep stuff it! My short reply got long! WhatÂs new! Gotta...

My husband was in michigan this week and that was one of the flights he thought about taking on thursday night. He flies a lot and it just hit close to home. Clarence is not far from where we live. We are a little more out in the country. Big sigh of relief. When the news came on at 10pm they announced at the end of the broadcast that a plane had crashed by the airport, but they didn't know anything yet. By the time the 11pm news came on, it was not until after the weather that their news crews made it to the neighborhood and they announced it was a commercial plane. WIVB broadcast without commercial break until I went to bed at 2am. When my husband called to say he was alright i was so grateful. (wipes tears and sniffles) Fran, Could i have the blanket flower, please? BTW, DS#3 watered my keyboard once, its still a little iffy. We set it in from of the blower on the woodstove for a week. Just FYI those of you sowing in the keys LOL! Thank all of you for the prayers. Families here are esp. close knit and things like this are difficult for anyone. Praying for your FIL, too Nichol. Fleethart

There truly are a lot of seeds here, and this is only half. It's still two weeks until the Dec.15 mailing deadline. Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can spread out upstairs and start dropping seeds in everyone's bags. That is the fun part. Then comes the more challenging part: deciding what to put in the bags of those who did not receive as much as they sent. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and is ready to tackle the Christmas season. I've tossed a couple of Christmas pillows on the sofa, and that may be all the decorating I do. With six in and out cats, including three young ones, not many decorations can survive their curiosity and rambunctiousness. One year I bought silk balls that would not break. They do ravel, however, and strings of white silk were all over the house. The cats had a great time, and the mess was not too difficult to clean up.