I am growing State Fair Mix zinnias. They have nice long stems with a mix of doubles and dahlia style with lots of colors: reds, light and dark oranges, light and dark pinks, kind of a magenta or watermelon pink, creamy white, golden yellow - they put on a show in the garden too - and just about every visitor asks what variety they are. I planted these from plugs but I am going to try my hand at saving the seed and trying get these to grow from seed next year. There is one odd pink one with a single row of curled petals that I hope to be able to save and see if it comes true to the original. I went to my local farmer's market this Saturday and there was one flower vendor at the whole market (this is the market they told me they had too many flower vendors). She was selling bouquets of mixed colors of zinnias with misty for $8 a bunch. She put the oranges yellow and white in one bouquet and the pinks, yellow and whites in another along with the misty. She had single stems of zinnias she sells to children by the stem and they seemed to enjoy picking out their own. She also had long single stems of procut lemon - didn't catch the price of the suns - as she got very busy and I didn't want to distract the customers. She also had some shorter stemmed very dark red almost black velvety petaled sunflowers I really liked - could have been velvet queen. She also said she grows hydrangeas under shade cloth (its very hot here) and I am going to buy some to dry to use in dried arrangements. Linda

TriangleJohn, I understand the message you posted. I think Joe may have been asking for input for classes for the young or otherwise entrepreneur. They may already get it. But, just for the sake of commenting on the market person who is already farming: session, conjures up visions in my head of planning meetings which by the way are usually scheduled during our busiest times: planting and harvesting. Some of us market farmers would rather have root canal work done rather than sit still for these meetings. Whenever there is a meeting with 35-40 farmers, there's probably going to be 35-40 differing views. Often the person in charge of the meeting works for the city. The percentage of their job delegated to markets if I had to guess, is one percent. They are generally busy, overworked people who may or may not have a concept what it is exactly the market grower does. Then, we need to add to this mix the resellers. Many markets have them. These would be the folks yelling the loudest that the city doesn't do enough advertising for the market, etc. So, you can see why many of us would rather look forward to a trip to the dentist rather than attend planning meetings. Most of us understand that the broader guidelines don't work for us; but, if we can take just a small piece of it, and, apply it to what we do, than it can and does work for us. You stated that economic fluctuations can completely alter a community where something that sold well a few years ago just doesn't work anymore. This may apply to the housing market and sale of certain goods; but, I just haven't seen it at the farmers market. Incidentally, my observation is quite the opposite. I think farmers markets do better in less fortunate economic times. We are always anticipating market trends. Sometimes we get it right; and, sometimes not. And, anticipating market trends, and, making adjustments would set a vendor apart. But, what exactly are the "special circumstances" to which you were referring?

I would say, just get an FD fridge without the in-door water/ice dispenser. You'll save a ton of space (not to mention, those in-door water/ice makers seem to be the most trouble-prone part of any fridge--so avoid those, and you avoid all that potential trouble). My aunt-in-law (is that a word?) has a big beautiful Whirlpool FD that she loves. I think it's this one: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/GX5FHTXVA.html The Frigidaire below (see link) is bigger, if that matters to you. And I haven't seen the Samsung you mention. But right there you have three options. There are also Electroluxes like this, but there are some iffy reviews on those and they almost never go on sale. The HUGE advantage of an FD over a SxS is that you can fit wide items in your fridge. Like trays and platters of food, those wooden baskets some fruits come in, pizza boxes, the Thanksgiving turkey and so on. You simply cannot fit those in a SxS because the fridge area is less than half as wide (the divider between fridge and freezer is easily 3" so you lose more than half the shelf width). Why "limp along" on something inferior when there are plenty of huge FD fridges available without in-door water/ice? It'll just cost you more money--it's not as if prices are going to go down. It makes sense to narrow it down to 3 or 4 fridges and then watch to see if one of them goes on sale or finds its way to eBay (some of the sales there include extended warranties)--but it doesn't make much sense to just postpone the decision indefinitely. Personally I also think it makes sense to get an FD fridge with as much REFRIGERATOR space as possible, even if it skimps on the freezer space, because it's a lot cheaper to get a chest freezer for the basement or garage than to get a second refrigerator. Here is a link that might be useful: Huge Frigidaire FD

2019: I will probably add more shrubs & trees. And add hydrangeas everywhere I can. I planted a lot of new perennials this Spring, some of them did not bloom this year, so I'm looking forward to their first blooms next year. I'll have to finish up a really large garden border started this Spring. I mostly added unusual conifers, and next year I'll add large rocks for structure, and ground covers for color. I ran out of mulch, and just did not feel like making another trip to get some more. Also, I have three wooden raised garden beds that I've really let go this year. I did not weed out once. I was still able to harvest asparagus & strawberries, but I need to make a decision, as it looks really unkempt. Should they stay or should they go...I would so love to have a veggie & berry garden that is ornemental as well (aka no rows). I'm spending a lot of time googling images & searching pinterest trying to find ideas, but I have not made up my mind yet. I like that we have plenty of space (27,000 square feet), but even though I've planted a LOT of trees, shrubs & perennials, it still looks unfinished. Maybe because everything is still so small. Also, one of my struggles is making design choices. This Spring, I planted a perennials-only garden in our front yard, only to realize that it lacked structure. So I moved a lot of plants, and added spireas. I find that it now looks ok when you're up close, but lacks that "wow" factor when you're looking at it from a distance. I recently won a one-hour consultation with a local landscape designer. I'm looking forward to his visit, in order to get a professional opinion on what should be changed.