Dorothy, You're welcome. I'm always happy to spread the word about Eliot Coleman's books and, also, about his wife's books. And that reminds me, Barbara Damrosch's wonderful book, "The Garden Primer", was updated and re-released in 2008 and I need to get a copy of it. It has been many years since I originally read her books but I remember that I enjoyed The Garden Primer and her Theme Gardens book immensely. Wait until you see his greenhouses (giant hoophouses really) on movable skids. They are amazing. It sounds like the cold finally reached y'all. I'd try harder to do some winter gardening, but I don't like cold weather. I finally lost the rest of my castor bean plants this week when the temperatures dropped into the low 20s. They had been killed back bit by bit with each successive frost. Having attained heights ranging from 8 to about 12 or 14' in height, they were gorgeous. They froze from the top down, but I left the ugly frozen leaves on them (although some eventually dropped on their own) because those leaves protected the still healthy leaves beneath them. I noticed Friday, though, that every one of them is now totally frozen out. In the garden, though, I still have lemon balm, sage, mint, rosemary, oregano, sweet alyssum, a few Laura Bush petunias in both pink and purple, and dianthus. Everything else is done. Every meal I've prepared this week has incorporated several items raised in the garden...that's how I keep my garden "alive" all winter long....by eating from it. I suppose we need the winter down time to rest and recover from a long garden season. Even as I lament the freezing weather and the end of the garden, I'm also looking at the 2010 calendar and starting to plot out my planting dates. LOL I do still have several pepper plants in pots that are producing peppers. I drag them into the garage at night (aling with the brugs) and back out during the day. It isn't exactly like we need more peppers....as y'all know, we harvested about 4 times our usual amount this summer. I think I keep the peppers alive as long as possible just so something is still green and producing....because I really miss the 'green' in the winter when most the landscape is brown or tawny gold. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: The Garden Primer, Second Edition

Thanks digit and Skybird! When we bought the house, I did check about the legalities, that's where I got that I can irrigate however many thousand square feet it is. I know just enough about water rights in the west to never assume we've got a right to any, lol. The pump would need to be replaced I'm sure, as it's an industrial sized beast. Our neighborhood has 108 homes, and from what I understand, it supplied them all. The seller's realtor, being thorough, uncovered that the well had not been decommissioned (which we pretty much guessed since there's still a pump sitting on it). She contacted the city (we live in the county but use city water now) and they said it either had to be decommissioned or there had to be a backflow preventer installed in case we ever tried to hook the house to the well. Since the backflow was cheaper (upfront at least- we have to pay for inspections) that was the seller's preference, and having the option of using the well was something we wanted to hold on to, so that's where we still are. Part of me would like to put a pump with a hand-pump option, just in case there was some reason for a major outage (we do live in earthquake and volcano country, though we should not be in a volcano path, Who knows what could happen). Either way, it's not that high on the priority list right now, but I was curious about berries' experience. I'll pop back in to say hi again one day. :-)

Just a reminder. The plant swap is this Saturday from 9 to 1. Come early most of the swapping is completed before 11. Here is a list of plants I am bringing. I do not want to take any of these plants home so come get them! Banana plants (two over 6 feet tall), three types of prickly pear cactus. Mock orange plants in three gallon pots. Three full size lantana's that I don't want any more. Purple mums (6 1 gallon pots that are starting to bloom. Black pepper vine (one gallon and 4 inch pots.) Rooted pineapple. Passionflower "incense". (11 pots all with viable roots.). Passiflora foetida (two rooted pots). Mexican petunia (ruellia) three pots. Butterfly weed. (two pots), brugmansia cuttings (white and peach). Rose cuttings (white lady banksia and climbing cecil brunner). Hope to see you there! Yadda out.

Barbra, just saw you're planning on being at the park early. Thank you, that's the biggest concern. I'll be there to help "spread out" and hold the tables too.