36 degrees sounds lovely right now. Our heat index is 97, down from 110 last week. South Florida is a lousy place to live. I'm a native, so I've seen the changes for the worse over the years. It is dirty, crowded, hot, humid, insect-infested, expensive and the storms are enough to make you want to just give up.... People are stressed, tired, crazy and nearly everyone has a cell phone embedded in their head.. Traffic is HORRIBLE! Day to day living is a trial-just trying to get to work safely is a challenge. We are *still* trying to fix/replace what last year's hurricanes destroyed. And we were lucky compared to many. My house is closed up now, dark and cool, since Katrina threatened. The Heck with it, I'm leaving the steel panels up!! We are probably going to get slammed again.. We are losing all our big pine trees. All were injured by the storms, now beetles are killing them faster than we can take them out. I have over 100 mature pines that will need to be dropped, cut, stacked, and carried out - by two exhausted people.. After we get that done, I expect the canker folks will remove all my citrus since the storms have spread it. My citrus trees are fine, but that means nothing if it is found in the neighborhood. Colorado, Utah, Montana sound like heaven to me. With home prices so high now, we just might be able to flee this hellhole soon... Anyone want to buy a nice 3/2 on acreage in "sunny" S. Florida? Over 100 fruit trees on property and a lovely lawn. Quiet dirt road (except for the Harley rider next door and their Rap-loving son who has road rage). Oh, and the squirels eat all the fruit... Sorry, I just had to vent.... Lisa

Last week we got down to 38F with a frost warning for the next night. Prior to that we had gotten down into the mid-40's, but all the trees were acclimated, so I left them out. I was leaving on a business trip that day, so I brought in all my citrus trees, leaving the potted herbs to fend for themselves. It never got below that 38 degree mark and the following weekend warmed up into the mid-80's. So, I moved several, but not all, of the trees back out onto the deck. Four of the new trees, all one year old, are staying in the south-facing window on the third floor, where I kept my original trees last year. The Australian finger lime is in the new room I built on the south side of the house, where I temporarily moved the other trees. The ones on the deck will move back into that room, when we get another cold snap, probably in a couple of days. I'll keep moving them in and out, until the weather turns cold for good. It's not too bad now, since they are only in 12-inch pots. Will be fun, once I transplant them into larger pots next year. One thing I learned is that I may have to prune next year to be able to move them in and out. The older trees already barely fit through the door, and I knocked off a lime fruit in the last move (bummer). How do others move their larger trees? narcnh

Hi, Toni. I know what you mean about not having enough space between shelves. Most shelf only can fit the pot not the pot+plant. The distance in between the shelves is not large enough. The shelf I bought comes with 6 shelves, but I only put 3 on to have a larger space about 2' in between each other. Although the top shelve will not get much sun. I can put some trailing plants on it so they hanging down to catch some sun ray, I hope. I am going to put a 4' long floracent light fixture right under each shelves to provid additional light. I will be careful when I work with electric. It is more dangerous than just put a wood stand together. The nails are for the wood light fixture stand. I originally was going to go with the PVC pipe. but it cost more to buy PVC pipes unless you have scraped PVC pipes on hand. To put one stand in each room, I need put together more than just one so it is more economical to buy those leftover wood to build them . Don't you love Menard? I go there almost every week... Check out their fall plants sale... their pots price is great... their cleaning suppliers... small applicance price is great after rebate... They start to carry food items now... I bought watermelon, apple, onion, potaotes there... strange , isn't it? Behind every visible color is the frequency of wave. The full Spectrum light is a light that is designed to provid full range or closer to full range of sun ray wave from warm color at lower end of freqency to whiter color at the end of higher frequency. It also extended into part of invisible wave such as UV which natural sun has. The plants growth, in general, responds to the light frequency they get, or requires certain light frequency to trigger either flower bud, fruiting, or just grow leaves. I am kind of lazy to figure out which plant needs which ( thinking about having to remember at end of the season and lable the light for next year before put in storage boxes... lot of works) so I just bought full spectrum to all the plants. But if you know what you want grow, just want grow foilage, or want grow fruits in the winter... a targeted color range grow light might work better. you can find most of common size and wattage lights at Menards. Again, I love Menards. I wish I could clean my plants before I bring them in. In reality, I just have too many pots to clean them all. I in general just inpsect the plants and outside the pots to make sure no slug hiding somewhere. I have a cat, so I can't put any ant poison out in the yard or inside house. The ant is a big problem for me. I do not mind spiders, especailly the jumping spider that doesn't wave web and it eat insects , It is very good at controling mites in winter time. I want them to come inside with the plants... My neighbor put his garbage can outside, and the rotten chicken smell draw quite few flies near and I saw the jumping spider got one of the flies in my citrus tree, amazing... I got the Fish Emulsion tip from one of your posting, thanks again for sharing this secrat. I spray my plants every week on schedule. squirrels seem dislike the fishy smell. I am going to pay closer attention to moth to see if moth likes the fish smell on my fruit tree leaves or not. Interestingly, I have never had mealybug problem, knock the wood. I have seen scale, aphis, mites, sometimes whitefly in the past but have never seen mealybug on my plants. I think I have parasitic wasps live somewhere nearby that takes care a lot of my bug problems. Yes, soap, garlic, hot pepper... all works or does not completely work ... neem oil also works for mealybug Toni, I must say that you grow your plants in much scientific way, no wonder your plants look so gorgeous, both yours and Mike's. I've never used a hygrometers just for plants. My plants get whatever the humidity I got in the house. I am probably lucky that I don't have a very humidity sensitive plant in my collection YET. Boiling some hot water certain a very good way to increas room humidity. It is a very cost effective and practical way. You are a such creative person. I hope you are willing to share more tips with me in the future. In general, I don't fertilize my plant, but my rule of the thumb is that if the plants are "sleeping", no need for food;If they are awake, actively growing, feed a little, water a little. Some of my plants are in and out now, but I am hoping I don't have to bring them all in for the winter till Oct./Nov. When are you going to move all your plants in? Mike, sounded like you and Toni is having a fun friendly competition. Frankly, you both grow beautifull, productive plants beyond the "zones". I certainly agree the FE is one of big secret for such lushes, healthy, pest free plants besides loving , tender care, fertilizer, and everything else ... I wish I could just toss my plant through the windows... The heavy ones might toss me through windows instead. How did you manage to keep people from steal your plants in your drive way while you are at work? My neighborhood is relative safe... we don't need to lock doors when we are out shipping. So far, I put some large , not attactive plants in my drive way but I am worried if I put nicer, blooming plants there, someone walks by and see the plants in the drive way, and might decide to take few pots with them home. As you mentioned the bug with a lot of legs, Do you know the bug called rolypoly, I thought this is its name, I might spelled it wrong...the gray bug lives under the pots. It curve into a ball when you touch it... is it a good bug, bad bug , or do-no-harm bug?

My lessons learned... aren't great, but maybe they can help. Probably silly, but I learned a lesson there somewhere. :) I have to second, third, fourth, and fifth the previous comment re: fridge. We didn't think of this in our last house and bought a big side-by-side fridge. Guess what. It went along the wall, so we never could open the freezer door any further than 90 degrees. NEVER even dawned on us before it was too late. If you will have built-in appliances, do your cabinetry choices allow for small adjustments? E.g. what if that great micro drawer breaks, and the newer model is 1/4" too wide? Have you specifiedvertical/horizontal installation of handles/pulls? This may sound really silly, but our first cabinet shop installed the cup pulls SIDEWAYS, so they opened to the long edge of the cabinet. What?! They claimed they were sure we had discussed that... and no where on my order had we specified. In addition to opening fridge doors, make sure you can access more than one appliance at a time (if needed, depending on number in family, etc.) Also make sure your walkways are ample enough that you can comfortably access your appliances without having to do the hokey-pokey around your island, etc. I've recently discovered the importance of cabinetry placement relative to dishwasher exhaust, or vice-versa, as my parents recently discovered their birch cabinets have bowed due to a side exhaust dishwasher. Ok, this one is more on the appliance side, but still something I just never would have thought about. Make sure you know the exact formulation of the stain that will be used, or if it is "proprietary", buy some to have on hand. Touch ups, future additions, etc. will be very hard to match unless you know exactly what you're dealing with. Sorry this isn't much help, and kind of all over the place, but hard lessons to learn! :)