Hey Jerry! The funny thing is that I use the gritty mix and they still died. I am not sure how long they can dry out for before a next watering. I can't get it right. I either may have let them get too dry and then when watered, the roots were dead before hand. Or, the temps were just too cold at 55 degrees and the mix that cold with moisture did them in. I hope I get it this year. Yours is very very nice. My ZZ plant did great in the same enviroment along with all my other plants. I think it would of been too cold for my Jades, even with any type of watering they would of required, so I kept those warm and under lights last year and they did great. Mike:-)

Nothing here. Second year in a row. There are very few butterflies in general. Can you send me some?? :O) Happy to hear they are in abundance in MI.

Larry, my favorite part of gardening is the eating, so perhaps we shall trade those tasks, hmmm? Just kidding - actually, I am not sure which is my favorite part, but I am certain it is not soil prep. I do like the planning, the day-dreaming, the planting and the harvesting. The only thing missing from my like-list is the weeding and watering and prepping. Lisa, the purple is onion as mulberryknob (Dorothy?) says - I'm sorry, I'm not good with forum REAL names but that just popped into my head. I have several bits where the onions seemed to shrivel and die last year before doing anything, so were not harvested. This winter they have popped back out, as little bunches of three or four sprigs where I had planted only one. Am letting them do their thing to see what happens. They should set seed, but I don't know yet if that seed will self-sow and I might get onions next year. Onions confuse me very much for some reason. Bulbs, sets, plants, seeds. Ugh. Just give me onions already! And Mulberry - the green stuff in the lower right is rosemary and it's weathered just fine. I have some I had in huge pots with cannas and hibiscus that I dragged into the garage in the fall, am hoping it will bounce back as well. There are a few plugs of garlic there, too. Dawn, it is very tedious (but strangely satisfying!) and I knew once I ignored it I was consigning myself to this task before I could do anything with it. I neglected to mulch anything except the paths last year, too, I was a busy/lazy gardener for sure. This year I will do better. Have plans to lay a path of bricks around the exterior of my plot, to create a "kill zone" for the bermuda. I am trying to keep from applying herbicides to the garden, but might do some judicious bermuda-cide in the two foot perimeter if needs must. We also had to cut down a wild sprawl just to the left of the photo that used to have blackberries, elephant garlic and some kind of onion or chives all over, as it was overrun with tall grasses, scrub trees and honeysuckle. We weed-eated it to the ground (except the elephant garlic, I found the leaves still green so we could work around it. Am hoping the blackberries will come back and I can start them on the right foot, and train them a bit, otherwise/in addition I plan to put in some new fruit trees/shrubs to create a more perma-scape than the usual veggie plot. Our peach tree is in sorry shape and DH cut it back severely so I don't know if it will do anything this year.

What's the coldest that your greenhouse gets at night? Mine dips into the 30s and 40s regularly in the early spring, and I think that's why having compost in my grow mix gives me problems. In warm, sunny weather, it does fine for me. But in cold weather I get damping off and stem rot, and lose a lot of plants. I have not tried worm castings specifically, mostly due to cost. I'm glad it's working for you though, great pics.