Well for eating purposes: Idealy a raised bed with well draining soil in at least 5-6 hr. sun. Away from moist areas of grasses and such to reduce slug infestation. Amended with compost or manure, or some other fertalizing admendment. If you cannot make a raised bed then it is best to make a seperate area from the rest of a vegtable garden that is a permament area. Water regularly. Prune blooms til at least 5 leaves have developed, then you can allow for fruit to set. June bearing have laready bloomed for the season. They are known to set big crops in May -June time. They will send out runners in which you can obtain more plants for next year - Still keep the ones you have!. Cut runners off until at least 5 healthy leaves have developed. Life span for most strawberry plants is apporx. 3 years then fruit will deplete. when season is complete before frost mulch well to protect them for next year. Kathy

Another vote here for a soil test. Be aware, however, there are several difference types of soil test and many ways of interpreting their results, depending on the lab, test solutions, etc. The main test types are base saturation, nutrient maintenance and sufficiency level. Base saturation is predicated on the assumption that their is an "ideal" nutrient balance to promote healthy soil biota and, hence, healthy plant growth. Nutrient maintenance is based on applying what is need to grow the "next crop" regardless of what's currently available in one's soil. Sufficiency level is based on anticipated yield levels. For example, based on what's currently available in the soil, what is the likelihood that additional potassium (or calcium, magnesium, etc.) will provide a yield response. As a sustainable gardener (I don't strive to be 100% government-approved organic), I like the base saturation test. In my mind, it's geared towards creating the ideal growing environment-rather than focusing simply on fertilizing the plant. You can think of this as "feed the soil" vs. "feed the plant." Regardless of your approach, be careful of "chasing pH." The relative alkalinity (or acidity) or your soil is influenced by several factors. For example, a high pH might be due to too much calcium, magnesium, potassium or sodium. Conversely, low pH might indicate insufficient levels of any of these. Without a soil test, it's hard to know.

The trick to protecting plants from cold is not just to cover them, but cover them *including* something that holds a lot of heat. For example, cover them, and the ground under them. The ground holds a lot of heat, and will slowly release that heat during the time when the air is coldest, into the air trapped inside. If you have a tall potted plant, include the pot in the wrap. Same thing. Seal the edges. Don't invite the cold air to get in. If the edges of the tarp are on the ground, throw some 2x4s on the edges to hold them down. What is funny (and sad) is where I see people wrapping a *plant*. Just the plant. Like a tree in a pot with a tarp just around the tree. That's a sure way to kill the plant. What you've wrapped up has no source of stored heat, and the temperature inside will pretty quickly drop to the air temperature outside. A blanket around a person is warm because a person makes heat. A plant does not. Obviously, in doing this, insulation helps. For a really hard freeze, layer multiple tarps. I throw a sleeping bag over plastic tarps. For the worst freezes, and a few square yards of bed, put a 100W light bulb inside on the ground under the tarp, on an extension cord. I've kept some peppers alive this winter, and we've seen multiple hard freezes, with temps going down to the low 20s. Well, it looks like my three year old bananas bit the dust, but my TAMU Jalapenos will survive.

I have frozen scallops, fish and prawns that had been frozen before with no problem. It isn't that refreezing them makes them dangerous in any way, it's just that the quality suffers somewhat. Whenever you freeze meat or seafood, the ice crystals puncture cell walls, leading to juice leakage. Home freezers also do not freeze as rapidly or as solidly as commercial flash freezing, and the temperature fluctuates more, both of which exacerbates the problem. If you do freeze something as delicate as scallops, it is best to freeze them as quickly as you can, which means freezing them individually on a pan and then transferring them to a container with as little air as absolutely possible. Cooking them before freezing won't make any difference in terms of spoilage, but it will make it almost impossible for you to reheat them without them ending up overcooked. Here is a link that might be useful: Seafood Info