Digdauberza: they are texas tomato cages. Expensive but so worth it because we threw the garden together pretty quickly. This is my first year and my husband made 2 raised beds, a compost bin, and had to do all the hard labor since I am over 8 months pregnant. We were going to make CRW cages but we ran out of time. We are really happy with our texas tomato cages. They are strong and best of all fold up flat so during the winter they will hang up in the garage. The cages showing are only 1/2 height they will be. We will probably attach the top part of the cages next weekend. In addition they also sell extensions if you have very tall plants.

Kansas sounds like a challenging place to grow too. After an impossibly hot late summer and early fall, we had cold fog and rain which is ideal for fall vegetables, followed by a dry hot furnace type wind that could dry out 72 cell trays overnight. Luckily(finally) my gardening insights are catching up with our weather extremes and I got out of bed before the blazing sun came up and watered them.I also moved the kale and lettuce to the north side of the house for a wind block and some time in the shade. Now we are back to cool and cloudy...and finally my Fall garden is taking hold good enough to withstand the dry next heat. Dino Kale can be pretty bitter. It's neat looking and the name is catchy. Sometimes it is good. Mine got bugs and eggs laid on it at times when Red Russian was bullet proof. Dino was the first to start looking and tasting bad as it warmed up. Ironically again red Russian winter kept going longer. My favorite until something else happens, is Red Russian.

Oops, guess I haven't read this thread for a few days... northener - My lights are on 16 hrs per day (on a timer) from 7 am to 11 pm. Haha, I can tell you are from Ontario because when I lived there we always called electricity "hydro". Now that I'm in Alberta, it's called "power". Amusing east-west distinction aside, I've never calculated the power cost... but 4 bulbs x 32 watts = 128 watts. x 16 hrs/day = 2048 watts per day, or about 2 kilowatts. I think we are paying 13 cents per kW now, so that's 26 cents per day. (Usually power is more like 10 cents/kW, so it would be 20 cents per day). I don't know how that works for you with prices determined by smart meters and cycle demand. luisito8m - 5 or more years ago I was a member of the ICPS (International Carnivorous Plant Society) and belonged to it for several years. Along with my $40 annual membership I got access to 12 free packs of carnivorous plant seeds from their seed list (or maybe it was $1 per pack?... or $1 per pack after my free dozen?... don't recall exactly). Anyway, that's where I got my carnivorous plant seeds from, and I had the best success with the various Drosera species. Last spring I was cleaning up my gardening space in the basement and I came across a partial pack of old D.capensis seeds. The seeds are as tiny as dust so I held out little hope for them to still be viable, but planted them all, and almost a year later they've grown into what you see in the photo. So I recommend ICPS as a good source, but it does involve a $40 annual fee to join. Next in line I'd probably try ebay, paying careful attention to the feedback from the sellers customers. I tried various seed companies long ago for numerous carnivorous plants, but was almost always disappointed with the results. Stick with the little guy who grows the plants themselves.

How long? About 3-4 years. I can't remember. I let this ensete die because it was so big. I didn't dare take it outside during the summer months because the wind would break it off. Because of this, I couldn't flush the soil with water to flush out salt build up from fertilizers and other stuff in my hard water, so it eventually went down hill. I just put it outside to finish dying a week ago. However my other 3 that I put outside during Summer are down stairs in my unlit, unheated basement room in dormancy. In the Fall, I cut them down to 5-6' stumps, repot them in 15 gallon nursery pots, and stick them in the basement till next Spring. They have large thick "trunks". I do this every year and they come back to full beauty in the Summer.