Here's what is left Marguerite Daisy - Yellow (2) Forget-me-not Anise Hyssop - Agastache foeniculum Datura - White Chives Datura metel - Lafleur Lilac Basil - Napleotano Bolloso Allium - White Mexican Hat - Ratibida columnaris Love in a Mist - Nigella damascene False Sunflower - Heliopsis heliantoides Aster - Pink Powderpuff Heuchera - Dales Strain Digitalis Grandiflora - Foxglove Black Eyed Susan (2) Brown Eyed Susan Echinacea - White Swan Rudbeckia - Amplexicaulis - Sunkeeper Rudbeckia - Harvest Moon Rudbeckia - Prairie Sun Buddleija davidii - Deep Purple Echinacea - Pink Marigold - Orange Allium - Purple Crocosmia - Lucifer St. Mary's Milk Thistle - Silybum marianum Nemophilia - Penny Black Alchemilla erythropada Feverfew Red Beebalm Burgundy Beebalm Ornamental Pepper - Embers And, these that are out of my garden Black Hollyhock

Potted trees are lots of work and don't think I'll go that route... yet We had a longer cold winter then last year...about the same low temp. of around minus 32C which is the critical temp. for flower buds to die off. More fruiting buds died off then last year. On the Lapin I have a double leader...one completely died back, the other is alive all the way up with all fruiting buds dead, only some lower branches have some fruit on. The other trees are all green to the top but most of the fruiting buds got winter killed also.

That is a great article and I am familiar with it. Jeff McCormick is the founder of Southern Exposure Seeds, the seed company I predominately grow for, he is also the founder of another company " Garden Medicinals" a member and promoter of the Carolina Farm Steward association, and just recently he has started another seed bank for Southern Heirlooms in conjuction with Seed Savers Exchange called "One seed at a time". I meet Dr. McCormick at last years Fall Harvest Festival at Jefferson's Monticello Tifton Farms. The Festival is sponsered by Southern Exposure Seeds and Jeff was the opeing speaker. I will be there again this year First saturday in September. There is a great lineup of speakers including Jeff and Graig Leheuller, who is probable the best authority on tomatoes. If you do a web search for Jeffs site on the "One seed at a time project" there are several resource publications by Jeff for various crops such as cucubrits, cole crops, beans and tomatoes. On pea crossing Jeff mentions they are less likely to cross than common beans or Limas. I have planted peas side by side many years ago and saved seed without any noticeable crossing. The pea flowers are much larger and harder for the bees to open resulting in less crossing. (Bumble bees and carpenter bees will chew into the base of the flowers for pollen and necture). I usually follow the rule of 150ft on peas same as beans, but peas are relatively fast producers So I can get 3 crops in a season with time isolation so I can grow 9 varieties a year and have good isolation.

We are having wind in the high teens with gusts to 25mph. It is snowing right now (may be graupel or just go straight to styrofoam). This is a little better weather than yesterday and certainly better than Friday & Saturday. Tuff spring weather and it just seems like winter won't let go. . . David, your roof story reminds me of working on the big glass greenhouses back in my youth. Surely, you can find a younger person to get up there and do that work. During a windstorm, it seemed hard to decide whether it was safer inside the greenhouse or outside. Certainly, you'd want to be upwind of a large structure made of a single layer of GLASS! Of course, they'd often lose glass and if it got very bad - out we'd go with roof ladders, caulking guns, and replacement glass. Whoa!! You never realize until times like those that you can hold on, not only with fingers and toes, but with knees, ankles, elbows, and wrists. All the while, pinning a loose piece of glass down with your forehead, nose and cheek . . . I enjoyed something called "bouldering" during those days. It was just kind of a natural evolution from roof work. I mean, anything was more reasonable than climbing where your safety net was thin wood glazing bars and glass. . . . malfunctioning autoimmunity put a stop to all that, before malfunctioning self-preservation did. Steve