Hi Tiffy I thought I had posted to this yesterday, but something must have gone astray. I usually start my dahlias indoors under florescent lamps in mid March to early April, dependent upon my work schedule. I have them ready to acclimatize in early May, pinch back where needed, and they are well established for planting by late May, early June dependent upon the weather. You could readily follow these dates for your early sales. :) Good luck.

What a fun thread. I'm so glad that it has been bumped up. We are still laughing at some of the names and you have inspired us to try to class-up our little corner of heaven with a name too. Our city repair people "fixed" the street in front of our driveway so that it is quite a bit lower than the driveway and water accumulates there with every rain or snow. My DH teases with the neighbors on our flat street, far from any lake, that they're jealous because we have Lake Front property. So, of course, that leads to the name "Lake Front Place" - nicely pretentious for our unpretentious street. But now DH has come up with, "God's Little Acher" and leaves me to choose my favorite. What a conundrum! Are we entitled to a separate name for the house and the garden? I plan on using "Allee View" for the backyard as it seems to be a source of interest to people driving down the alley peering through the fence.

Hi everyone. Peppers: Leave them alone. I used to hve trouble with them too and then last year I planted a zillion b/c I always have so much trouble with bell peppers. Well, I did not amend the soil this year and I really did not water as often. I think the biggie is that before I treated them like my tomatoes. I watered the same and fed the same. Last year it dawned on me that these are a southwest native. In other words, they LIKE a lot of heat and can be on the dry side. Let them be. Esp. if you are getting lots of lush foliage but not fruit. This means you are feeding too much or the bed is too rich. This was m exp. last year and when I planted zillions, I did not need that many. I still have baggies in the freezer of them. Carrots. I have trouble with them too. I can gro beats and radishes like a magazine picture. But for some reason my carrots don't tend to do much of anything. Last year I actually had long skinny root but they did not grow like supposed to. But that was better than previous years when they sprouted nd then went kaput.

Hi seemit22 As posted above, The Newbie Seed Swap is season and runs Winter-Spring. We are soliciting for seed donations for this year's Newbie Seed Packs. Without all our generous donors, we could not do this! Please note; For all those requesting newbie seed packs, we will ask for 6 Forever or 49 cent stamps and a mailing label with your name/address. We provide the bubble mailer. I Just took over this Newbie Seed Project this summer and hope to help alot of newbies. When I receive enough donations to offer the seeds to newbies, I will post under a new thread and let everyone know I'm going to start mailing these out. I cannot promise for fall planting, as this is generally a winter project when i will have more time. This thread is misleading as the heading is "newbie seeds available", but it's an old thread from Jan 2015 and I dont want to mislead anyone.