Don't cut them back this late in the year. The leaf rollers really aren't causing as much damage as it may look like. Instead cut the vines back next spring if you want to get rid of some of the old wood. They will sprout back new wood no matter how hard you cut them back. Don't worry about killing them by cutting out old wood, can't be done.

Hi Mokey, haven't seen you around lately. Sorry to hear you have those terrible leaf rollers again. When I got them, I cut off the affected leaves then sprinkled sevin on the rest and also on the ground around the cannas. Seemed to work pretty good for me. Now, I make sure I cut my cannas back to the ground after the first frost and clean up all the dead foliage. Since I've been doing this, I haven't had leaf rollers at all. Hope all the plants you got from me are doing well for you. You should drive up to my place at Santuck sometime in the next few weeks, my dl's will be in full bloom around the end of May or first of June. I can probably find a few things to send home with you too. :) Good luck,with the leaf roller problem. Jan

Susan, I love spinach cooked or raw, but it takes up more space in the garden than I'm generally willing to give it, so most years I don't even plant it. The last year that I grew a big crop of spinach, I had it in a raised bed that was 4' wide and 30' long. We ate a lot fresh spinach and froze maybe a dozen quarts of it or so, but I just feel like I can get so much more of a harvest out of that space by planting something else there. It also is very time-consuming to wash and rinse it, wash and rinse it, wash and rinse it and then spin it dry in the salad spinner. Mulching well helps a little, and so does harvesting using the cut-and-come-again method since you're not yanking up roots and scattering soil, but it still takes quite a lot of labor to get the spinach clean. It is very labor intensive from the point of harvest onward and I just have other, more productive ways to spend my time. The only savoy types I've grown in recent years were Tyee and Nobel Giant and they were good. For a smooth leaf, we usually planted Bloomsdale Long Standing, America or Melody. In our garden, the smooth-leaved types do better than the savoys. Down here in southern OK, it can be very challenging to get a good spring spinach crop especially if we're having roller-coaster weather with temps varying wildly in March and April. Since both hotter temps and longer daylength contributes to bolting, getting a good harvest is highly dependent on having some cooperation from the spring weather. Spinach works a bit better as a fall-planted crop here in our part of the state. It overwinters well here probably 7 or 8 years out of 10. I don't know if that is true for the more northern portions of the state. I usually grow Swiss Chard as a replacement for spinach since it takes heat better and doesn't bolt, or sometimes grow malabar spinach or tetragonia. Lambs quarters is a good late winter/early spring substitute and my dad always grew it instead of spinach. I checked the OSU guide to see what varieties they recommend and this is what I found: Ambassador, America, Bloomsdale, Chesapeake, Coho, Fall Green, Grandstand, Melody and Ozarka II. Spinach germinates well when the soil is in the right temperature range (and when the soil is moist) but poorly if the soil is too hot or too cold or too dry. Tbe optimal daytime soil temperature for great germination of spinach is 50 degrees. At 50 degrees, you'll see about 90% germination in less than two weeks. At slightly higher daytime soil temps, you might get slightly quicker germination, but less of the spinach will germinate. For example, Tom Clothier's data base shows that spinach seed will germinate in only 7 days at 59 degrees, but only 82% of the seed germinated. At 68 degrees, you'll get germination in only 6 days but only 52% will germinate. So, you'll have the highest germination rate at 50 degree soil temps but faster germination at a lower germination rate at 59 through 86 degrees. Once soil temps are above 86 degrees, spinach seed goes dormant and won't sprout. That means a fall crop generally has to be planted pretty late. One way to ensure better germination is to put your seed in a cup of water in the refrigerator and let it sit there for 24-48 hours just before planting. Sitting in that cold water for a limited period of time speeds up germination by breaking dormancy. Dawn

Rhome410...why are you cleaning up?!! :-) With 8 children I'd think one of them would be cleaning up! I'm the oldest of 6 and when I was growing up we kids rotated having dish duty for a week each. My mom did all the cooking until she started working outside the home when I was in 6th grade or so (my youngest sister was in Kindergarten). Come to think of it, most of the chores were done by us kids...they were broken down into 6 sets of chores & we each had a particular chore set for a week. Cotehele...one of the advantages of drawers, IMHO, is that they have higher sides that help keep things from falling off when pulling them out. However, to each his own! We have almost all drawer bases in our new kitchen with the exception of the "Pet Center" that has 2 FE pullouts + drawer--we'll be removing the pullouts (was supposed to be full-height/no shelves or drawer, but KD ordered incorrectly), sink bases, and two 6" filler pullouts. I do think Jessie21 has a point though...I think the two pullouts flanking our cooktop do look better than if I had had all drawers on that side. (The other side is broken up w/DW, sink base, & trash pullout) Things I do not recommend: regular shelves (adjustable or not!) in base cabinets (obvious, I know!) shallow cabinet above refrigerator...even if you have to pull a 12" deep one out to make it flush w/your refrigerator, do it! not having a utility cabinet for broom/mop/dustpan/etc. We tried to fit one in, but couldn't so now I'm trying to figure out how best to put them in our step-in pantry. We had them in our previous pantry but they were always in the way. I'm trying to figure out a better method for handling them this time other than just mounting them on the wall next to the shelves or on the door (our door has a frosted glass inset so there's no place to hang them there.)