Thanks for the info velvet..aaugh! I didn't know that happened..OMG! LOL! Oh well, thanks for letting me know that one. Luckily I don't have any bad pictures on there, lol! Well, Chippy doesn't have any overt symptoms, what I am worried about is that he could be a carrier for some disease. I am basing this on the fact that the other birds that I had had (and died) had some sort of disease or diseases a few years ago. I just worry that he may be a carrier for something unseen. Years ago, when my new flock had mixed with my other flock of birds, I noticed that later on I saw symptoms of neck twisting in my new flock (that had been bought at a hatchery and were disease free). Also I had some hens that started laying eggs with weird shapes, ridges in them, stuff like that. Also a few eggs were laid with no shell on them. This is why I'm in a bind, as I don't know what those diseases could be. Chippy has never exhibited them, and as far as egg laying goes, he never laid an egg, lol!

Ok, Jon! OK OK OK. I'm not grumpy, seriously. Just confused here. Just sayin'. I'm in need of routine. What you do is outrageously kind and you have my deepest respect. To think that I thought I may have something to donate to our food bank here---it's laughable now. I'll keep trying, because I'm more stubborn than grumpy, but I definitely need something to work with. I ripped out half of my backyard, including lawn. I moved TEN yards of compost and garden soil from my driveway around the back gate and around another corner and distributed all of this into 14 raised 4x8 beds. And then I moved more of the soil into my used-to-be flower beds so I could plant rambling items there, like winter squash. I'm a tough chick but smallish. But I was serious, man. I've planted 9 fruit trees and have 5 potted figs, a lemon tree, 12 blueberry plants, 4 grapes, six thornless blackberries and a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting. None of this includes the vegetables, asparagus bed, sweet potato patch (purple of course), and the Partridge in the Pear Tree. I compost, I collect my rabbit's 'berries' and distribute them, I chop leaves from my yard and chip mulch from my prunings. I have 7 ducks and a chicken. I have 3 boys who have no interest in this but I still do it. Oh, I also live in the 'burbs in a normal house on less than a quarter acre and I am absolutely NOT allowed to touch the front yard but imagine their suprise when I secretly plant the six artichoke plants I have been nursing from seed since December of last year. I WANT SOME TOMATOES, YA KNOW? A couple squash, a bean, whatever... :) Whine. Whine. Whine. Angie

My garden is very limited on size and also because of it being my parents house I am limited to some extent on what I can do. If it was down to me I`d turn the whole back garden into a vegetable patch leaving paths where necessary. I could buy bigger pots but Ive already spent a lot of money on containers and compost this year and the total just keps adding and I have to stop with it somewhere along the line. The majority of my plants are in grow bags and the pumpkin plant was planted into the ground at the weekend even that was hard finding space for that. I wasnt planning on keeping the tomatoes I was going to sell the ones that are in 2l pots but I ran into problems with them which I have overcome now but I have no selling point, whereas I can give away as many tomatoes as I can grow. Im not to worried about yield with the 2l pots because I have a plentiful supply for myself and my family with what is grown in the grow bags. The large brown containers have onions in them and the smaller clay pots have leeks in them. This year is really more of an experimentation for me to see what plants best suit my garden, where theyre suited etc as I havent grown veg here before. I did have a large plot of land which belonged to a relative of mine but that has been sold now. Allotments are also very difficult to get round here and the waiting list is as long as my arm. Thanks for your comments, Mike

I didn't have trouble with mine except for germination, (and the 6 I left in the sun to long). Several things that I didn't need a lot of, I planted few seeds, and I got even fewer seedlings. I had trouble with jalapeno, Osage Market, and Red Marconi. Everythings else did very well. I planted mine late and put them in the ground a little earlier than normal. I have planted about half of mine and I don't see much additional growth but they all look OK and transplanting didn't seem to bother them. In fact, we had rain just after I planted the first bunch, I they looked very erect and strong after that light rain so that was perfect timing. I think my night are still a little cool for them to do much growing.