I understand venison is really good paired with apples! A shotgun might fix your problem permanently! I'd love to know how you hooked up that barking dog recording. We do have a chain link fence, and although deer are in these hills, something else is eating our fruit. Something big enough to squash down a chicken wire fence around a tree. Our critters leave the growth alone (other than gophers, rabbits and voles), and go for any fruit that starts to ripen. Suzi

I think there is some confusion as to what "compact fluorescents" are... they come in many shapes and sizes, both the "twists" like you have at home AND they can come in tubes as well. Irina is right that long tubes are the most economical. People do use the twist compact fluorescents, it's just they're more expensive long term because the ballast (power supply for the tube) is built into the base, so you have to buy the ballast when the tube burns out. Where as with the long tubes you replace just the tubes and keep the ballast forever... Plus like Irina said, you can fit more in a 4' long tube :) Compact fluorescents as a technology are very similar to tubes, basically they're folded back on themselves, so instead of having the pins at 2 ends, they are both at the same end... As a general rule of thumb, the smaller the diameter of the tube, the more efficient it is. We have the standard T12 tubes which are 12 x .25" around or 3"(circumference), then T8 bulbs are 8 x .25" around or 2" lastly T5 bulbs and Compact fluorescents are typically 1.25" around. T12s being the cheapest, T8 almost the same price (and the standard these days), and T5s and Compact fluorescents being the brightest and most expensive. Hope this helps. Here is an example of the Tube form of Compact fluorescents: Here is a link that might be useful: AH Supply

Well that's Jeff's bulb identified. I suspect the OP is referring to the monster 150W ones? Anyway, a quick lesson on CFLs. Stands for Compact Fluorescent Light. All it means is that the big straight tube is bent up into a more compact shape. The technology is the same, although the tubes are generally thinner, T4 or T5 size. Sometimes they come with a built-in electronic ballast and you can just screw them into a standard bulb holder. This type is often labelled with the wattage of the equivalent incandescent bulb, ignore this information for plant purposes. A compact fluorescent spiral bulb is fine for growing seedlings, it is convenient for lighting a small area such as inside a propagator. But you are correct that the light needs to be spread out somewhat because it is such a compact bulb. I use it about a foot from the seed trays inside a white propagator so the light is very even over all the trays. For providing moderate light intensity over a larger area, straight-tube fluorescents are better since a wider range (of colours and spectrums) is available, they are cheaper (for the same temperature and spectrum), they last longer (roughly twice as long), and they are more efficient (the best T5 and T8 bulbs produce about 50% more light for the same power).

If you think that map needs updating, you should get in touch with the administrators. I see in this study, of actual dates of last frost, that in the last ten years four years have seen last frost in mid-May. Not completely clear where on LI this was done. Presumably on the eastern end. http://longislandsoundstudy.net/indicator/early-and-late-frost-indicator/ But my point was that mid-May was a perfectly good time to put stuff outside. If you just put seeds outside, yes, in June things will be kinda tiny. If you have a choice of whether to direct-seed or put seedlings out, that choice turns into one of how big your seedlings are going to be come mid-June. Nothing untrue or misleading about that. Let me say that I do not garden there, but I have friends who do.