I have some news for you.... This from a Website Haskap berries only grow in North America, Japan and Russia. Besides having three times the antioxidant levels of wild blueberries, they also have more vitamin C than an orange, and are ready to harvest two weeks before strawberries. "And, at the end of the day, they taste good," said Cassells, adding haskaps tasted like a cross between a blueberry and a raspberry. They are sold mainly in Japan, where they're prized for helping maintain eternal youth. Haskaps sell $30 per 500 grams and are given as high-end gifts, either as a wine or jam. Hmn...looks like I have to grow more. Here is a link that might be useful: Haskap

I had to laugh at your post. Seems like this is the first year I have planted my roses so soon. So now I am looking at companion planting this year with a new interest. And hopefully my garden will be more beautiful for it. :) Of course, if I ever completely finished an entire bed, I would feel a great sense of accomplishment! Am I the only one that just can't seem to 'complete' a bed?

Sus, Oh but I've always thought that you had a lot of enthusiasm, so I don't think I have you beat there. You're nice to say that though. ;) I know what you mean about biting off more than you can chew. I do that a lot. Well, most of the time actually. I have projects galore that are sitting around waiting to get done. That's great that you're getting into birding too. I've been into that for probably close to 25 years and really enjoy watching the birds out at the feeders. I have bluebird boxes up for the bluebirds and have gourds on shepherd's hooks for the tree swallows. I also get wrens nesting here and other kinds of birds and lots at the feeders. I love birds and of course also butterflies. I'll have to email you sometime about birding. You mentioned sparrows, and I have some things to say about them and some other things. Maybe none of it would be new to you but I'll at least mention some things then. Isn't that odd how you have PVS one year and none the next two! Actually, that has fascinated me about different kinds of butterflies; I'll see them here and then not again for awhile. Well, I hope that you get PVS in 2010! Oh yes, I agree with your about those being like hyperactive kids. If you take the lid off the container, you'd better keep your eye on it because those critters move fast. I had one crawling on the table one day when I just walked away from the container for a short time thinking the cats would stay put. I might be imagining things, but they almost seem to sense when I take the lid off and want to hightail it out of there. Yeah, I raise a lot of Monarchs if you call hundreds a lot. The most I raised was I think in 2007 when I released about 520. This year was 350. It's a ton of work and I want to try to come up with a better way of doing it. You sure get to see a variety of butterflies there. I wish I would get to raise some more kinds. I only saw a Red Admiral here very briefly several years ago. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't have false nettle then. I actually thought I had it here because I have plants coming up here that resemble it but isn't that (don't know what though). So I planted some last year but didn't see any Red Admirals. I'm hoping that I will eventually though. I saw a Common Buckeye here for maybe a minute in 2008 but didn't get a picture of it (dead battery). I planted Verbena hastata in hopes of getting them to lay eggs but didn't see any at all this year. The one I saw last year was nectaring on the Verbena bonariensis. Unlike you, I've never seen any Tawny Emperors here, but I didn't have any hackberry trees here until this past spring/summer. They're not much more than a foot tall, but a Question Mark managed to find them and I raised a few of those cats. I think I've had American Lady cats here every year since I planted some pussytoes that some very nice person got for me. It's kind of hard to cut those leaves off to bring inside and raise the cats in here, so I think I'm going to make an enclosure with some boards and screen (any other suggestions are welcome) and put it over the plants. It will only cover a small portion of the bed. I was thinking I could move all the cats to that area and then move the enclosure as the food supply dwindles. I really don't know if it's a good idea or not, but every year I worry when I don't see the cats on the plants anymore. I think they mostly hide during the day and come out at night though, so I always hope that nothing gets them, but I'd rather be more sure of that with a covering to protect them from wasps and birds, etc. Of course, with as tight as those plants are, I don't imagine that it would be too easy for me to try to find all of the spiders that are on them to remove them. I don't have any overwintering BSTs like I did the past few years because the three that I raised eclosed in the spring/summer. I still have the GSTs here from last year when they overwintered. I think if they don't eclose in 2010, I'll probably take them out of the containers and give them up for dead. Only one of them eclosed out of about 40. I only have 5 out there (in another building, no heat) overwintering from this year. GSTs are discouraging for me to raise because a lot of them die. I feed them rue, but eventually I'd like to try raising them on wafer ash (I just started a couple from seed). I also have gas plants, but they are very small. I hope that my Wild Indigo Duskywings are okay that I have out there bunking with the GSTs. I fed them Baptisia australis and Lupinus perennis, which they are still on but not moving (as far as I know anyway). I've never raised any kind of cats before that overwinter (I mean that the actual cats and not the chrysalids overwinter), so it's making me kind of nervous wondering how in the world they'll be okay in the spring. I don't understand why they don't freeze and die. If they are alive, I hope that they quell their appetites until after my plants have some growth on them. You're absolutely right...every year brings a surprise and I'm so looking forward to this coming year to see what kinds of butterflies and cats I get!!! My head is always so full of plans! You've helped me and I really appreciate it! Cathy

But, the coons can't levitate...they have to be touching something when they climb over...probably the 4' wire fence. Probably the most important aspect of an electric fence is the grounding system...gotta have a good one. A six, preferably eight foot ground rod driven into the ground is minimal. A good, but little known way of driving a ground rod is to dig a small ~4" wide holeI four or five inched deep and fill with water. Let the water soak in for a minute, stab the ground rod into the ground and start pumping the rod up and down...the ground rod will slowly start to sink into the ground. Add a little more water as you go. It works nicely in areas of few rocks. Rocks can stop it in it's tracks. If you ever hit the ground rod with a sledge hammer or fence post driver the pumping installation is over with...you won't be able to pull the rod back up (most times). Another option is to run two wires up top...one being the "hot" wire and the other one attached to the ground terminal of the charger. Place the wires fairly close together so that the coon has to come in contact with both wires when trying to enter. Remember, an electric fence is only as good as it's ground...whether it's a ground rod or suspended ground wires. The idea is for the coon to "complete" the electrical circuit. Depending on how much you wish to spend, Parmak makes some very good solar and battery driven fence chargers. I have a battery driven one and it works great. Mine is running only a little over 1000' of poly-wire (four strands 250' each) to keep deer out. So far, so good. I bought my charger from Jeffers, an outfit in southeast Alabama. Good price and fast delivery. I bought the Magnum 12 UO and charge the Walmart 24DC battery running it every 6 weeks or so. With the solar you don't have to worry with that. I was mostly concerned with deer so I opted for the 12-volt charger...most folks said the 6v chargers didn't have enough juice to keep deer out. I'm not sure how the 6v would work for coons...it might do ok, but I don't know. Best wishes, Ed