Yes, Katamari is the rolling stuff up game. Its really addictive for such a simple game, and theres three of them. The part I like the most is the amazing effort they put into the music. I found some of it on youtube and it ranges from techno to jazzy lounge music, swing music, Im pretty sure someone even snuck a gospel peice or two in there. While Iw as writing yesterday I stumbled across someone who had done an orchestral version of one of the themse that made my jaw drop. Video game music is constantly impressing me with every passing year. But anyway, back to gardening... Part of my problem with the space issue is theres a movement out here for the "Grow Biointensive" system. While I'm interested that they've managed to do so much with such small topsoil space, I've noticed all the beds dealing with the system need at least two feet of soil, dug down or in raised beds, and thats not what I have. My mum has been trying to push me in that direction, but I dont feel confident with it at this time since I wanted to get more of a feel for the general gardening situation since its my first time and all. Some plants still got pushed closer together than I would've liked but then none of us had seen some of these plants actually growing before. The cukes are doign better than I expected for being about 6 inches closer to each toher plant than I really wanted them to be, but we had such a huge amount of plants to deal with that I did the best I could. I think the funniest part about all this is while it is my first time growing a real garden, I've been growing virtual gardens since I was abotu 19, playing an online game called "Final Fantasy 11", which had a really complicated planting/gardening system most people didnt know about. That game system is actually what got me really focused on the seasons, when to plant, where to plant, when to fertilize, what plants grew better in what geological areas, and I even had a little notebook for a long time where I'd record the weekly cycle of my virtual plants in relation to the moon phase and exact time I made any modifications to the planting space. Even the gamers thought I was nuts, but I loved it! They'd even die off or give terrible results if I neglected them for too long, or give off better results if I got proper gardening tools, workbenches, and diffrent planters had diffrent effects too. Im getting better results with a real garden than I was in my virtual gardens though... Except for that one time I accidentally harvested 122 virtual onions. I can tell you, the cooks sure were happy with me.

I will tell my sister in law about it. They are living there while her husband builds a golf course. They move around all over the world doing that so we are going to visit while they are close enough to drive. She might like to see the ponds. They always visit the botanical gardens in different countries and areas they travel to.

Dean, that last photo just transported me cross-country! Such a restful scene. All the work is finished! I'm just loving the hosta here. Much happier than in OKC. Poor little things just begged to be moved! Last year I had 3 flower scapes on one that I thought turned into a giant! This weekend it sent up ELEVEN scapes! Photographs promised.

Merry Heart, We got down to 34 degrees last night, and had frost forming right about 3 a.m. and I DIDN'T cover up my plants. I wanted to, but the wind gusted hard all day and there was no way I could have gotten those big sheets of plastic out and over the plants. The plastic would have blown away before I could use something to tie it down. When the skies started clearing late in the afternoon, I knew we were in trouble. And, when the wind stopped blowing after sunset, I knew we were in deep trouble. I went outside at 3:30 a.m. and turned on the sprinkler, hoping to give my plants a chance of surviving what was rapidly becoming a very hard frost. I moved the sprinkler once an hour. I just checked on my tomato plants, and they seem fine. I'm not so sure about the beans and corn. They don't seem as fine, but I'll wait a few hours longer to see if they either perk up....or look worse. And, if you don't find Espoma anywhere in Ardmore, let me know. My DH will be picking up some for me one day after work this week, probably on Fri. or Sat., and he could pick up some for you at the same time. Once it is here at my house, we will figure out how to get it from me to you. You can come here, or I can come to Ardmore, or whatever. I know Carla would pick up some and ship it, but you and I are within easy driving distance of each other, and there's no need for y'all to spend money on shipping. Ilene, I used Epsom salts for a couple of years. I really couldn't see much difference in my tomato plants, but it made a HUGE difference in my pepper plants. The plants were large and green and lush. I didn't get as many peppers as usual those 2 years, though, and I haven't tried it since. I'm not sure why it didn't seem as helpful to the tomato plants as to the peppers. And I don't know if the Epsom salts had anything to do with the decreased pepper production or if it was just a bad year for peppers. Ilene, I've posted a link to Reinhard Kraft's website. He has photos of over 800 heirloom tomatoes in his photo gallery. Many of the ones he grows are the same ones we grow here in the USA. He has been active in promoting heirlooms for a long time, and has sent seed to gardening friends in the USA for trial and vice versa. And, y'all, we have just too much wildlife around here. When I was out during the night putting the sprinkler on the garden, there were raccoons on the porch (nothing there for them to eat, but that didn't stop them from looking), rabbits in the semi-tall grass along the fence line between our place and the neighbor's place, and coyotes.....at least one on our place near the barn, and one on the neighbor's place between their house and ours. The coyotes were howling back and forth. I know coyotes seldom attack humans, but it made me a little bit nervous. Hoping to work in the garden this afternoon after it warms up! Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Reinhard Krafts website and fotogalerie