I'm only doing 12"x2" stepping stones and even keep them in the house and keep them wet and spray them in here:) This way I can keep at them in the evening until I go to bed. I still am reinforcing the middle because I want these to be walk on not just decorative. I've been playing with some castings of leaves but not the way you are. With my left over cement I've been sticking a leaf down on a mold free form or in a dish and covering with cement and then pealing the leaf out. My grandkids have been doing both with me. They think the leaves look like fossils:) Especially a Boston Fern. I was doing the stepping stones for myself but have been making more for Christmas gifts. In a hurry to finish to deliver them to family that is all together unexpectedly at Thanksgiving. Kind of hard and pricy to mail cement, LOL* I glad your daughter and grandbaby are well, that's the important thing. Husband is questionable. Have a girlfriend who's left her just at their 30 year anniversary. I don't understand men, I am sorry just the same. I know there is a lot hidden behind the words. Still think your work is terrific. Leslie

As I newbie I have no success stories but I can share what I have learned thus far.. 1. Newspaper is the best quick fix for a bed overgrown with weeds that is so far from the house that the notion of planting anything there is so far off the too do list that typing it onto my to do list hasn't reached the end of my fingers - not to mention the fact that is was an area I thought, for two years, was my neighbor's neglected mess! Much to my mortification it was really my mess - newspaper, mulch, forcythia and stella dora - beautiful, weedless, in a morning. And it still looks good nearly a year later! 2. I love sprouts! Period! They are growing!! I hope they live but right now I have my instant gratification. I seed green in those jugs! 3. A nice glass of wine, viewing my potential plants, is a lovely thing on a warm spring day. I know I look silly sitting with my feet up admiring a bunch of milk jugs but hey... I am over 30... well over 40.. who do I need to impress but myself! 4. I am so ready for planting! I bought 6 flats of flowers last weekend - I thought I wouldn't be buying any more 5. My design skills improve when I "pretend" to read a book while drinking a glass of wine and observing my gardens! With every glass of wine I have better and better plans! :) What I wish I'd learned.. 1. Why do I keep buying, buying, buying plants and seeds?! Why do they call my anem?? "Christy, Christy, Christy, we need you... you need us.... buy, buy , buy forget your husband... he loves you and doesn't really care if you keep buying!" Well... I am not so sure about that - at least my house isn't full of zip lock mini green houses... 2. When will my husband quit rearranging / adding to my gardens? I love gardens but last fall I split and replanted a bunch of border plants to edge a garden perfectly... they are now in the middle of the new and improved garden - which melded my perfect red and white garden with my emerging purple and yellow garden - what to do with that? (I net a pond in the production so I will quit whining!) 3. When will I figure out how to keep track of what I have planted, what it looks like, how tall it is, is it perennial....???? I plant, go and forget... I hate that I do this but cannot quit! buy, plant, buy, plant, buy, plant it is an addiction! Christy

I also have raised beds in Connecticut and have a couple of them (4 x 12 ft) covered with low tunnels, 4' high, made from 1/2" PVC pipe. I've used them for many years but only as season extenders. I was never able to get any crops to reliably grow during Jan and Feb because of the single plastic cover and no heat. I found that spinach is one of the hardiest crops to winter over if it is about 2 or 3 inches tall in November, but it didn't actually grow much until early March, then it took off like a rocket. I also used the tunnels to start seeds in early March of cold-tolerant vegetables. There was no provision for automatic venting on sunny days and that caused big temperature swings by the time April rolled around. Very heavy wet snows also caused structural problems since the PVC was only half inch. I had a coldframe for a few years with an automatic vent and that actually worked better because it was lower and had less heat loss, but it was not large enough. Last fall I build a large hoop house over two of the raised beds; it is 12' long and 10' wide and about 7' tall and is made from 1" PVC and 6-mil single-ply construction plastic. No heat. It has survived some heavy snow loads without any bending or distortion. I didn't have time to plant anything in it last fall because it wasn't finished until December but I planted lots of cold-tolerant seeds in early February. They were covered with Remay to get the extra protection that Coleman suggests. A min/max thermometer showed the temperature got into the low twenties at night. This week I expect the night temps to stay above freezing. The seeds I planted in early Feb are doing well but the ones I started indoors in late Feb and put in the hoophouse 2 weeks ago are doing just as well or better. I intend to remove the plastic in summer and replace it in November so I don't cook the plants. Temperature control is tough without fans and I really don't want to get involved with electric heat and ventilation (I might change my mind some day). I just built an automatic window this week and installed it yeasterday; it is 30" by 36" with a univent opener. I really needed it because the air temp might be freezing when I leave for work and get really sunny and warm by lunch time. I am working on the second one this week. This is a challenge with a PVC hoophouse because of the difficulties involved in making a window on a curved surface. This summer I am going to dig around the raised beds and put foam board vertically around them as far down as I can dig (about 18" in my stony soil). This should keep it warmer in the winter. I will also put low tunnels inside but I only need thin plastic covering because it won't have snow on it. But they will have to be well sealed especially at the edges of the hoophose where it is coldest. Maybe I'll give in and put a small electric heater in the low tunnel but I will use it to keep it from freezing rather than try to grow things like tomatoes. Then I will be ready to try real 4 season growing; I recommend the book because of the interesting ideas in it and will be looking at this forum for best crops to grow. I'll let you know how It turns out. Bob B.

Every time I read a post detailing escapees, I wonder what it is I'm doing/not doing that causes my worms to stay in the bin. With the exception of that one time this summer I fried a bin in the back of my van, I've never had a problem with herd stampede. I monitor moisture and heat VERY carefully including leaving the lid off the bins at times. I don't use a light to keep them in. Although I pipe in nature sounds of birds chirping and chickens clucking, and have pictures of fish propped in full view on all sides of the bin, I'm not sure of any deterrent factor, but..... As a matter of fact, I believe allowing the worms the opportunity to leave is a bin-monitoring tool itself, although I understand your dilemma and would do the same thing in the same situation. Your description of the stinky, wet condition of the bin might indicate too much moisture, however, I've had some pretty stinky, icky bins and the worms didn't seem to mind (although I suspect they don't perform maximally in those conditions). Do your bins produce leachate? It is my personal opinion that worms don't need as much water as everyone thinks. I base that on observations of healthy, surviving worms in 35 gal plastic trash cans I use to store "finished" vermicompost in. After 6 months, moderate numbers of worms of all stages of maturity, and cocoons, are present in those moisture-deprived conditions. (Probably just enough moisture to enable the compost to "clump up" when squeezed) On last thing, recently I had a BSF larva infected bin I was maintaining, and experimenting with, and because of the larva escape probs, I placed the 18 gal bin into a 30 gal one with only the 4 vent holes underneath the upper rim of the bin (which I covered with window screen wire). The BSF would crawl out of the inner bin into the outer one. I would retrieve and remove them to the great outdoors. All creatures inside the inner bin did fine, and the bin contents didn't exhibit significant anaerobic symptoms, with less than maximum, "free-flow" type, ventilation. So, go figure. There's a whole lot of art in this science of vermiculture. Chuckiebtoo