I have a plan to use Alaska Grow buckets in my green house next year. I have real problem with fusarium wilt in my garden, so a new green house and AGBs will I hope be an answer. Using the basic idea you could modify the bucket size to suit the plants. Here is a link that might be useful: Alaska Grow Buckets.

tammy - yeah.....we've had some mid 30's here in Palm Springs which is quite rare for November in the desert - this must be some artic blast we are getting! But the mangos I just planted last month are small enough that I stuck wire tomato cages over them and then plastic -mini hothouses - similar to your plastic house - didn't your hubby put that up? Don't be mad at my projecting into the future, but what will you do when your mango family outgrows the crib....or will you trim their arms and heads so they still fit the bed???? :) mangobeagle

We've signed the contract for our pool! We're very excited and hope to be swimming by the end of June. Below is a scan of the plans. A few notes: - shallow end depth will be 3'6", not 3'. - LED light in middle of the pool will be moved a bit to the left so it's facing more towards the shallow end. - anybody see a problem with only 1 skimmer in this design? It will be plumbed with the main drains for the reasons explained by my PB here: "We almost always plumb the skimmer and main drains together. Its basically used as a safety for the pump, if for some reason the water level were to fall below the skimmer opening the float valve will close and suction will only come from the main. If they are plumbed seperately the skimmer will continue to suck and starve the pump." Does this sound reasonable? What are the advantages of having them plumbed separately? - gas and electric runs are about 140' and will go along the left side next to the retaining wall (which is about 6' high) and then along the tow of the slope to the pad. Pad will be blocked off with some sort of fencing or possibly a stuccoed wall. I'd really prefer to have the equipment on the left side near the retaining wall but there's two problems with that. First is it can't be next to the house as there is only 7' of clearance and the equipment would prevent any bobcat's from being able to access our backyard in the future if needed. Second is if it was placed kind of in line with the section marked "P/A" next to the retaining wall, it would be unsightly and possibly too noisy being right next to the deck. Any other suggestions?

Of the tart cherries, the variety I am aware of with the lowest chill requirement comes from Iran; it is called Albaloo. It would be very happy in zone 9. (Supposedly good flavor but not the most edible flesh surrounding the pit) It is also possible to hybridize sweet cherry with tart cherry; the resulting mixed offspring will eventually develop fruit but the seeds inside that fruit will be sterile. (So what if you hybridized a low chill sweet cherry with Carmine Jewel?) You might also be interested in the cherry variety 'May Duke', if you can find it (the original one).