Catsrose and I did, indeed, have a wonderful Saturday afternoon -- touring the garden, visiting, and just getting to know one another. (We decided that she wasn't a day early, something cosmic must have happened and she was supposed to be here then instead of on Sunday.) I'm up for a trip to her place, whether anyone else is invited or not. Buford, my friend, we missed you. Are your germs all gone now? Robert, I forgot about Aviateur Bleriot. It's not a Barbier, though -- it's from Fauque & Fils. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must add that I have Silver Moon and American Pillar anchoring the very end of the fence where it turns the corner. My handy-guy had his son and his friend out in the rose field yesterday afternoon digging holes with the ground auger. (This speeds up planting like you wouldn't believe, mainly because I don't have to spend time breaking up the soil to refill the hole once I have the rose in it. Digging the hole itself is no big deal, because I have really nice soil.) I had spent the morning running the irrigation lines to the second half of the field. As soon as he finishes the holes this morning, I will start the final push to get the rest of the field planted -- 120 more roses, or so, that I won't have to keep watered in the driveway. This will add 3 rows of hybrid perpetuals, 2 rows of hybrid teas, and a row each shrubs, hybrid bracteatas, and floribundas, and 1 row left over for overflow smaller roses. I still have a few spots left in the first half of the field -- mainly among the once-bloomer rows. Belle Isis, Rosa Mundi, and La Belle Sultane (thanks, Jim) are going there. If you are visiting central Virgiia, and you'd like to come see the garden, let me know. As I said earlier, I love having company. Connie

Pomegranate?! *green ears perk up* oh wait, supposed to be a green-thumb, right? I'm working on that next! *thumbs up* You can grow Pomegranate trees in Memphis?? Does it actually produce edible fruits?? =0 Hi, I'm the newest 'newbie' here but definitely shooting for attending this event. I'm busy studying up on perfect soil mixtures as I'm going to try my hand at container gardening this year (a first for me) - trying to make sure I get it right and don't fry or drown my garden! I will have a few things to contribute to your plant-swap and definitely don't mind helping out with the church grounds donation / cleanup. Thank you so much for organizing this, I hope to learn a lot from native Memphians and veteran gardeners! -jules

You are really asking two questions (1) should the water to the fridge be turned off and (2) should the water to the house be turned off. Only Samsung can tell you about its appliance; however, the poster who told you to be sure that the automatic icemaker isn't going the entire time is absolutely correct. But I don't think that you should shut off the water solely to this refrigerator. You should shut off the water to the house, why? Because if something springs a leak (and there is no reason a brand-new refrigerator line should spring a leak but many older pipes may spring a leak) only the water in the pipes and the hot water heater will drain into the house, something between 30 and 100 gallons of water, if the mainline is on literally thousands of gallons can drain into the house.... Here is a link that might be useful: Pre-vacation checklist

I think for this and everything, you should help them grapple with how much social media is designed to grab your attention with high impact, high conflict kinds of ideas. Even worse than TV considering how small the screen is of a phone, etc. I seriously don't think this is having a very good impact on people's lives, and I think children should be encouraged to limit their time on social media and live more of real life. I've been involved in social justice almost all my adult life, for me it is more than the meme of the day, and I would hope it would be so for my kids and the kids I mentor. Also hopefully you are living your values so your kids can work through this with you as you are coming to terms with it too. I grew up with race riots happening around me, this is nothing new but no less sad. I had my consciousness raised in the 1960's and what was on TV was awful then too. I still managed to come out of it with passion and hope and that was probably due to my parents encouraging me to reach out to people of different faiths and cultures, and to just be a nice person, period. I was trained to be a "mensch" by my grandparents, which meant to be a nice kind person, despite what was going on around me. The world is full of mensches too, kids need to be made aware of that. All that negative drama is very toxic, I would work pretty hard to keep it out of my home. I know SO and I have to work at it, to not become angry and jaded.