Since I grow my vegetables in the containers, I use a potting mix. It's loose and light. I'm transitioning to a DIY potting mix next year so I'll see if my carrots perform better in that. I'm surprised that the carrots don't like loose soil! I thought they need room to stretch out. I heard if you left the carrots in the soil too long, the taste'll turn woody? I'm concerned about that. Oh, I do agree that West Coast is expensive. I prefer their company because they have excellent service and they're close to where I live. I do have the cheap, generic seed brands too, so I'm not above it.

A plant list, hmmmm, maybe next week when I'm not as busy. Kristin, the magenta dahlia is Formby Royale. It's my favorite, the color is always perfect and they have long, strong stems. I hope I never lose it one winter. Moonphase, the bed is about 50 feet long and 9 feet wide. I actually started by placing some small trees and dwarf conifers for winter interest. Then I made of list of whatever plants I had in dark purple, rose pink, light and dark violet. Then I place them starting with biggest, then favorites, and then fillers. Then rearrange the plan 10 times. Hopefully this will stop the 10 times of rearranging when they are in the ground :-) Weeds? In early summer I try to mulch everything once with finely ground wood chips. I never get it all done. That really takes care of most weeds. The second way I deal with them is by being tolerant of them. I always have weeds popping up later, and I do "spot weeding" if things get out of hand. (like spot cleaning) But mostly I just don't have time to keep my gardens immaculate, and a few weeds here and there are part of my gardening style. ShaSha - I buy lots of seed started plants in tiny 4-packs, 4 for $1. (delphiniums, lobelia, hibiscus, etc) Then I grow them out in my working garden, so that after a year I will know what color they are, and can place them accordingly. Memo - what am I working on this year? Too much!! Peony bed to line the front driveway. I actually prepared the bed and moved the peonies last fall from my working garden. But I still need to give the bed edges - brick mow-strip on the lawn side and low stone wall on the driveway side. And of course I need to plant all around the peonies . . . circular veggie garden I prepared the soil last year by adding and tilling truckloads of manure. Now I'm laying out paths with the same fieldstone and going to plant it up. It's more than a veggie garden, it will also be a cutting garden and tree nursery and propagation bed. I'm moving some of my working garden to here. barn bed Flowers to be seen from a bit of distance. Yellows and whites, golds and oranges. I've got a plan, just need to find time to implement it. front bed Last fall I finally decided on the shape of the front beds and laid a brick edge for mowing. ( a tedious, laborious job that took a really long time and one that I need to repeat for the peony bed, heavy sigh ...) Now I need to completely rearrange that bed, and plant it up. I don't have a plan yet, for some reason the front of the house stumps me. Too many projects. . . and then I need to maintain them all! Next winter I should post photos of these new flower beds.

Hosta Almost was entered in the cut-leaf show of the AHS in 2005. The pic I posted was copied from the Hosta Valley web site: Hosta Valley Here's a rough translation of the comments at that web site: "Hosta 'Almost' is perhaps the most mysterious and most impressive hosta which there is at this moment. This Arthur Wrede originating hosta is especially striking because of its red stems, which extend through the center of the leaves. In this way it is very unique. This hosta has been observed only by a very limited group of hostagrowers. Up to this point as far as I know, 'Almost' can only be seen at Arthur Wrede's hosta collection at his home. Hosta growers want to have as much red in the leaf as possible. Their ultimate aim is a red hosta!!!! Hosta 'Almost' is the best one he has at this moment (as far as I have observed). I know nothing of the origin of Hosta 'Almost.'" Don

You'll get something else. It will be close but not the same. I have not seen much variation for color with one exception (noted below) but I have seen variation for shape. I get three predominate shapes: (10:45 4/21 CST - I goofed in second picture and will change it by 12pm) The first type is a oblong cherry/plum. They can range in size of about ½-2 oz. Some have had pointed blossom ends like these and others dont. They will segregate for cracking - some do, some dont. The flavor is very good on all further lines I have (now at F4). The second type is a oblate large cherry/saladette. They are about 2 oz. Most of the interior is seed gel rather than "meat". Though they do taste pretty good - like a Black Cherry - I have not elected to pursue this type. Though this particular plant didn't. This is also the type I see the weird "spiral cracking" as opposed to radial (spider like) or concentric cracking [lines in a circle from the top ((( * ))) ]. Spiral cracking: The third type is a small beefsteak type. They range from about 4-6oz (a few got to 8oz). They have more to the interior and have excellent flavor. (I cut this a little too close to the top so more white core shows) The other things which have shown and should expect are some variation in striping (which fades) and yellow skin - which shows up randomly but often in more sun exposed fruit. Both of these traits come at least from Cherokee Purple (maybe Black Cherry too?). This "yellow skin" is curious because all the parents are clear skin. I suspect that Cherokee Purple must carry some kind of modifier gene which is switched on in certain crosses and/or environmental influences (light?heat?). Similar things have happened with CP crosses not involving Black Cherry. If you carefully pull the skin on a regular CP you can sometimes see some yellow skin at the stem end. So I suspect there might be some allele/modifier gene which regulates where and if this occurs further down the shoulders and sides of a fruit. So its possible that changes to the expression (like crossing) causes this to be expressed further down or all over the fruit maybe by some modifier genes. This could explain what I have seen in this cross and others and how Cherokee Chocolate possibly came about. I have also recovered all yellow skins from the Brandywine x Cherokee Purple cross when one of the brownish F2's was looked at by the F4.