I posted this in another forum, but I read your thread here and am wanting to try your method. I am very green at this I will say at the start. I have planted some flowers and shrubs before but I just planted them and said now grow and I walked off. Some did grow. Now we have moved into a small town and I am building a backyard garden. I am pretty good at building things. My "Hardscape" is nearly done. Now I am having to learn how to plant and take care of plants. The names are killing me, I don't know one from the other. I planted some Encore Azaleas last year. Some of them nearly died that I put under two big Oak trees. The guy at the garden center looked at them and told me to cut them back. I did and 3 died, but 12 are doing well in my greenhouse. I took the cuttings, maybe about 4" long, put them in root tone and planted about 250 two months ago. Some, maybe 20, are still green and seem to be putting on new growth. not a very good percentage. I had some Holly at another house where I had to trim them back. I tried the same rooting thing and none are going to live. Today I cut back some Lavender plants plants that I cut back. I have put root tone on cuttings that are about 5" long and planted them. Maybe I will have better luck with them. I don't know what I am doing, but it's not costing me but time, I am retired and I am learning. So I am looking for suggestions. I also read another thread about "misting". I am guessing that plants that are being rooted must be kept in a more humid environment than I am using, but I am not sure from what I have read so far. I don't drink anything from 2 liter, but I do drink a lot of Gatoraid from 20 oz bottles. And I drink Sunny-D, maybe either of those bottles would work. Here is my question, is this bottle method providing the increased humidity and how ? Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden

Greetings fellow dirt lovers. I have the opposite of a green thumb. Orange? Black? Not sure but, I was lucky enough to grow up on Hawaii where the gardens simply grew all around me. I never put a thought into how they got or stayed there. I moved to the mainland when I was 17 so never had my own garden. Now, as an adult, living in northern California (I think it's zone 9? Not sure...Humboldt County), I have NO idea how to grow anything with gusto. Well, I may have gusto, but, my poor flowers usually only make it a few months at their best. I am lucky, lucky, lucky enough to have inherited a beautiful garden with the home we bought last summer. Roses in the front walk, Lillys, tulips, daisy's, and....ummm....many others that I have no idea the name of. I have many questions, but, my first begins with::::::WEEDS. When we bought the house, it was pristine, of course. Now, fall has fallen, winter has frozen, and spring has sprung. The lilly's and roses and flowering vines are SO beautiful. And surrounded with weeds. How can I deal with a full acre of this without breaking my back?

Dan, you are right, those mug rugs from Melissa are fantastic! I took the short class on Cotton Theory today. I am always happy to learn something new, but I doubt I will get hooked on this technique. It's one of the quilt-as-you-go things and as you join sections of it, you get these little seams that are loose and need to fold them towards the center by doubling them over and then use a wide stitch to catch both sides. With the fabric and batting in there, it gets really thick and to me, it's easier to just quilt the regular way than to go through all that to attach the sections. I might try it one day with larger seams and less batting and see what I think of it that way. LOL Here's a short explanation that I found about it online in case anyone is interested in reading about it. http://www.quiltyard.com/whatiscottontheory.phtml My initial thought was it was cotton theory because you use cotton fabric, but it turns out Cotton is the last name of the quilter who teaches this method. Time for a swap update: sandlapper_rose will send to quiltingfox (received) quilting fox will send to bev2009 (received) bev2009 will send to sandlapper_rose (received) hazelnutbunny will send to dan_the_mailman (received) dan_the_mailman will send to lindaruzicka (received) lindaruzicka will send to gmom2-6boys ** gmom2-6 boys will send to hazelnutbunny (received) ** I believe this has been mailed. Can you confirm that, Linda? I think gmom is traveling, so it may also have been delivered. If I hear back from Linda that it has been mailed, that completes our swap. Great job getting these completed and mailed. They all turned out so great, too! Give yourselves a round of applause. Jeanne

If people are growing supersonics today after 35-40 yrs they are going to be around for a long time. Maybe heirlooms in the making? I'm cutting edge again.way ahead of all the heirloom snobs ***** Not all who grow heirlooms are snobs. Many grow both OP's and hybrids and in my experience posting online since about 1989 about tomatoes most folks come to heirlooms after growing nothing but hybrids. And not all who grow exclusively hybrids are snobs either. There's no reason for anyone to judge others in terms of what others choose to grow. And when a hybrid was bred has nothing to do at all with the properties of those hybrids b'c what some look for is taste and taste is dependent on specific genes from specific varieties. So it's the specific parentage ( genetic input) that matters, not when a hybrid was bred. Is Hybrid X released in 2008 better than Ramapo F1 bred back in the 60's just b'c it was bred later than Ramapo F1? Not in my opinion and I'm sure in the opinions of many other folks. And no variety, hybrid or heirloom, has any significant tolerance to foliage diseases which are the most common tomato diseases in the world; there are a couple of hybrids with moderate tolerance but aren't really of use to the home gardener but there's some new ones to appear that appear to have better Early Blight ( A. solani) tolerance. Some of the earlier hybrids for home use might include: Big Boy, with one parent being an heirloom Better Boy, with one parent being the same heirloom as above Ramapo F1 Moreton Hybrid Supersonic F1 Jet Star F1 .......and I'd give a lot to be able to grow Starpak again, which was another earlier Harris bred hybrid variety that was discontinued many years ago. Most folks I know grow both hybrids and heirlooms and I think that's just fine b'c each type has something to offer depending on what the grower is looking for. So can we move on here? Thanks. Carolyn, who threw away her abacus and sliderule last year and is doing just fine without them, thank you, but also misses them. LOL And who also notes that there are several professional hybridizers who are now using heirloom varieties in their current tomato breeding programs.