I have a set up similar to Zenmans (though MY basement is nowhere near so neat! impressive!). About six weeks before my last frost date, I start taking cuttings of salvias, tibouchina, durantas, and a few other plants that I want to overwinter. I do it as much because I cannot count on finding new plants every year as for the purpose of saving money. I start the cuttings outside under my deck benches and only bring them inside to the lights when the plants begin to show damage from cold. (It doesn't even have to frost for some things like durantas to be stressed.) I spent $10 a set for shop lights, not counting the bulbs, and bought inexpensive plastic shelving. The shelves and light units are each long enough to hold two flats. Be sure your shelves have slats or are open in some way because you want to hang the lights from chains. Using S hooks, you can then raise and lower the shoplights over your plants. (You'll want extra S hooks.) You'll notice from ZM's photo that he has his plants in trays. This prevents runoff onto the light units below. I bought cheap cookie sheets at WalMart and filled them with a layer of gravel. My basement floor has a drain in it, which is really handy. I just drag a hose into the basement once a week to water and/or feed. I learned fast that once a week water is plenty. And that regular fertilizer is very important. The cuttings are joined in late winter by seeds that I start for my beds. In my climate, if you want color in July and August, you need annuals. With advice from fellow GWers, I have gotten pretty good at the seed thing in just a couple years. Once you get your shelves set up, it's not especially time consuming to care for your babies and it's nice to have plants to work with through the winter.

The rain has been pretty intense here in Middle GA - everything is growing mildew. It's 1:45 pm and it has not rained yet today and I'm constantly checking the radar... it's supposed to be dry. It's hard to believe. My raised beds have been an enormous benefit - usually they dry out so fast, I spend much of the summer hauling hoses and changing out what got shorted on water so I could water something desperate. This year I'm hearing squooshing sounds when I walk between garden beds. My tomatoes are so sad - lots of disease, tho they are still sort of producing. Hardly any bird damage this year. The okra is pitiful. The peppers are worse and I have no idea what is wrong with the eggplant other than too many flea beetles and too much rain. My beans are growing by leaps and bounds, but almost no flowers on the limas and no pods. The rattlesnakes are growing, but even they are looking sad and are slower than usual. I'm hoping that the predicted dry for a few days will help me get some harvest. My corn mostly collapsed and is growing horizontally. (First year growing it for me.) This is the first year that I have had tarragon actually live tho. And I had a bumper crop of garlic and onions.

I had bad dreams last night about this Garlic Cheese fiasco. I was going to every store I could find looking for Kraft garlic cheese roll because I HAD to have cheese grits for dinner. Lord luv a duck, what a night. Meldy, I've made the grits with garlic powder when I was visiting yankee cousins and they requested them, it just wasn't the same. That old cheese roll (previously put out by Kraft) was just the right thing when you added cheddar to it. Suzy, thank you for taking the time to send me the link to the Amish store. I checked out the site and later on today when I get a chance, I want to order some other things also and of course get the cheese. If it works out for my grits, Kraft will be forever in your debt. I fired a warning arrow across their bow this morning. A BOYCOTT by the genteel southern ladies casserole brigade if they don't fire up that garlic cheese vat pronto.:0)

Pitimpinai and I agree - grow your own from seed or cuttings. WS is really fun, and you will learn so much through different techniques of propagation. Join the local botanical garden or gardening club and go to the plant swaps. Or wait till the fall sales and clearance tables for the $1 plants. Our local arboretum has a class on propagation from cuttings and you go home with 10 cuttings to grow on by yourself. RE Landscaping and the idea of investment. I'm going to try to say this so I'm not misunderstood. I think of perennial gardening as more of a hobby, not landscaping or investment. I say this because most people's taste in form, color, etc is different and new owners are likely to change what is there over time and make it over into something that they like. The last house we owned was bought by a guy whose father in law was a builder, and they promptly tore out all my hosta garden, mature clematis, really most of my perennial beds and planted some easy care shrubs. They had small kids and Mrs. didnt' care about the yard - definitely a C'est la Vie moment when I saw that. I really like foliage and lots of colors. My Sis-in-Law I don't think has ever done anything outside the pastel range in 40 yrs of gardening and hasn't got the first red or dark leaved anything in her garden, not even the bold hostas in her yard - we choose very different plants and combinations. I think hardscaping and shrub and tree installation really is more of "landscaping" for the long term because it should incorporate the total view of what you see, not individual plantings. All this is to say - don't think of your $300 or $500 of plants as an investment because the next owner may not like them at all. Maybe think of them as your creative hobby and ask yourself what you'd spend on a hobby. If you're comfortable spending that on your hobby - go indulge yourself and don't get upset if they die or the next owner removes them. If you can learn more and get more plants by propagating, wintersowing, bargain shopping or swapping plants - its really about fulfilling your creative instinct. If you invest in a nice tree or shrub, then its placement is more permananent in the total landscape - besides the fact that they are usually a lot more expensive too. I think trees and shrubs are also an investment in landscaping because they grow more slowly and are not as easily moved. 5 years is a long time - I look back and realize how much my own taste has changed in the garden. What you buy and grow today may bore you in 5 years, or it may die out and you replace it with something else that caught your eye. Actually that is one thing I love about doing containers for the summer - every year I do something totally different to accent the perennial beds. This year I'm doing dark red cannas with dark dark foliage in jade green pottery containers around a large planting of Japanese Blood Grass. Last year it was chartreuse potato vine and red verbena. Ok, I'm rambling on, go have fun and don't spend more than you would on a hobby is my 2 cents worth.