Limas are very prone to rotting, especially if conditions are too wet and/or too cool. Because of my exceptionally cool wet spring this year, I started mine indoors, with great results... "King of the Garden" was 100%. When starting beans under lights, I always use peat pots (usually Jiffy strip 32's, or pots for the largest limas), sterile seed starter, and boiled water. This reduces the chance of the seed rotting, or damping off. I do not recommend the use of inoculant for starting beans indoors, since I have had some poor results using it. If you don't want to use seed starter, I've also used play sand for beans with good results. The drainage is excellent, and the seeds have no difficulty breaking through. You need to transplant them quickly though (or feed them) since there are no nutrients in the sand. Watch for drying too. If you are able to control temperature, 80 F. degrees is ideal for most beans. Bottom heat works well, if you can supply it. You can also make a small temperature-controlled germinator, with a box of sturdy material, a baseboard thermostat , and an incandescent bulb at the bottom as a heat source (be sure the socket is protected from water!). I modified a small "Germanette" greenhouse for seed starting, adding lights above the shelves & a small thermostatically-controlled electric heater. Beans sometimes germinate poorly in peat-based mixes. Adding a little nitrogen to the water used to soak the pots initially will give the best germination rate. A relatively weak solution is all that is necessary; about 1 tsp. of liquid fertilizer per gallon. If the fertilizer is from an organic source, boil it with the water to ensure sterility. Be sure not to use too much water; I soak the pots in a flat over-night, then pour off any excess solution in the morning. Once the beans begin to germinate, get them outside as soon as possible. They get leggy quickly under fluorescent lights. This also avoids the necessity of hardening them off before transplanting. As with all peat pots, tear off any loose edges before transplanting, and be sure the pot is buried completely.

My Catmint usually does open up in the middle when it gets loaded with blooms, but not drastically, more like gracefully. Once it does this though it's time to cut back to around 4" for repeat bloom. The soil they are planted in in sandy, gravelly infertile soil and they do best there. I have Nepeta musinii and although the base of the oldest plant is only about 20" in dimension when in bloom it is about 3'. If something is nibbling on your plants it may be cats. 2 of 6 of my neighbors cats take a bite now and again throughout the season. One cat, now deceased (so sad), used to like to take afternoon naps right in the middle of one. I'd have to fluff it back up LOL! BTW this is one plant you don't want to set-seed unless you are willing to deal with a gazillion seedlings each spring/summer. I thought I could harvest seeds from these my first year but it's impossible not to have 100 seed drop to the ground while you're cutting stems to insert in paper bags! ACK!! Here is Catmint on May 16th and May 26th. By the time I cut them back on June 5th the flowering spires were 2x as long and opening up in the center. From experience I know a ton of seed is beginning to form at this point :O Really don't have manu plants that flop to the point of unsightliness; at least not due to rain. If Blue Flax is in heavy bloom and it rains they will lay down until they dry out again...usually within hours. We did get some much needed rain over the last few days though; there won't be much more of that for the next 4 months! Wind is another story! I do have to cut back Maximilian Sunflower 2 times to get them wider and bushier than tall. I also cut back Heliopsis (False Sunflower) and Hollyhock. This year will be trying it on Aster laevis (Smooth Blue Aster), last year it's 2nd year it was looking really nice until winds made a mess out of them! I do have 2 dry sandy/gravelly beds and one partial dry and I keep it that way for dry heat loving plants: Catmint, Lavender, Salvia, Thyme, Carl foerster Grass, Sedum, Bearded Iris, Blue Flax, Echinacea, Hyssopus, Rose Campion, Shasta Daisy, Coreopsis lanceolata, Feverfew and Agastache foeniculum. Peony does well here too. This is a bed that faces south and is the south border of my one of my veg beds. Annuals that grow well in this dry bed are: Statice, Snapdragon, Larkspur, Moss Rose, Nigella, Sweet Alyssum, Cynoglossum, Gazania, Venidium, Coreopsis tinctoria and Verbena bonariensis. I've even had Wave Petunia thrive here. August 5th 2007

I hear you all. Don't know what these crazy plants like. I have 4. 2 new ones doing well in full sun but had buds when I bought them. One gets shade from 2pm on. Nothing blooming yet. Not even a sign of it. Died to the ground over winter. The last one gets sun from noon to sunset with a break from 2-3 pm. It looks as though it may have one bud coming. It has been in place for 3 years now. I bought it the very first year they were out. Dies to the ground every winter and has never got bigger than 12 inches in all directions. I am so disappointed and stupid enough to have invested in 2 new ones this year. What are the other continuous bloomers out there? I am new to hydrangeas It may be time to consider replacing the 3 year old.

Josephine, my Maytag (Bravo X, 700XL2) knows what to do with wet clothes. I use the rinse and spin cycle on DH's jeans most weeks, he can really get muddy. When that cycle is over (20 min) and the rinse water has spun out, I wash them using the 'bulky' setting with deeper water or it may not get residual mud from the inside of the pants legs bottoms. I would not put partially washed clothes dirty into my dryer to only have to clean the dryer. I freely admit he can get much dirtier than average laundry. (I've insisted he stand in the garage and strip more than once. No sympathy from me when he tells me he's worked all day and he's tired, he is not coming inside like that ;)) He's hiking off trail 4 days a week for his work in all kinds of weather through all kinds of terrain. Going through beaver ponds and falling off logs. My issue isn't dirty clothes not coming clean like I said above, it's only the amount of time laundry takes. We were at his sisters weekend house a while back and I put a load of towels in the older Maytag there, got to listen to the familiar sounds of laundry, big grin on my face. And 25 minutes later I was putting the washed things into the dryer, it was the first time laundry has been fun in a few years.