I am using two upside-down planters this year in the hope of extending my season. I am using "Sub-Artic Plenty" tomatoes, a bush tomato that was first developed in the 1940's to provide the US Air Force stationed in Greenland with fresh tomatoes. They have a unique ability to set fruit under cool conditions. I started them earlier than others, and already have blossoms. I am hoping that at the end of the year, when the weather turns colder, I can move these hanging plants back into my green house and they'll keep on producing for a while longer. I'd even be willing to run the space heater if we had a cold snap (as long as there was warmer weather in the forecast). Obviously, I can't afford to run the space heater all winter long! ($$$) I will be very interested to see how it all works out. Like Omega, I have the Gardener''s Revolution, so she has really given me a "heads up" to make sure the self watering part works. If not, I have those "watering spikes" that you hook up to either a 1 or 2 liter pop bottle (after you've cut the bottom out of the bottle), and I can water them that way. Hadn't thought of putting any plants in the top, but come to think of it, as long as they're not heavy feeders. that would be a way of keeping the soil in place and holding in moisture. Good idea. Thanks! MacThayer

A little skunk anecdote, which I will call "Summer of the Skunk." Last June a skunk started to visit us regularly (there is a reservation not too far away). This began a summer of almost weekly encounters between our Wheaten Terrier, Nevie, and the striped intruder. Terriers are bred to get rid of small varmints, so the first time the skunk squeezed himself through our fence and into our yard, Nevie headed for the skunk. In no time flat she was back at the door howling, covered with skunk smell. Clueless, we opened the door and brought her in (the number one rule of what NOT to do when your dog gets skunked). We knew right away, and at 11:00 p.m. my husband fled to Walgreens to get the ingredients for all-time-best skunk deoderizer, not to mention several cans of Febreze. Meanwhile the skunk smell had wafted through the entire house in no time, the kids were gagging and whining and when hubbie got home we plunked Neve into the bath. She was grateful. We stank. This happened five times in all during the summer. We attributed the last four times to either stubbornness on Nevie's part in protecting her family, or maybe that she is not the brightest dog in the neighborhood. We tried every natural repellant we could think of, kept the dog in after dark, said prayers and lit candles. We were afraid that maybe the skunk didn't leave at night but hung out under our deck (but we didn't see him and were too afraid to go under there.) The last time the skunk visited was in September, when we had a Danish exchange student staying with us. Her room windows were open when the skunk attacked. It was bad. No matter what we did the smell hung on. Our daughter, who brought our guest to high school with her each day, came home to say that all day teachers were asking if anyone else smelled skunk (?!) A wonderful memory for senior year. I'm sure our guest's report when she got back to Denmark included some mention of skunks. Just when we were about to bring in professional help (for us and to remove the skunk) the skunk stopped visiting. I guess his work here was done. Here's hoping we have no skunk visits this summer, but if we do, at least we've learned some lessons!:)

Lucky for me starlings are only an occasional problem in my yard. Hordes fly in, stay a week or so and vanish. When they come I use a recycled recycled plastic upside-down feeder like this: (from Suet Bird Feeders) I am loving the recycled plastic over wood, it's so easy to clean and you can even use bleach against mold. Don't think I haven't done a load of bird feeders in my dishwasher. BUT it's not perfectly starling proof - one starling will always figure it out. As an alternative I have a ground table feeder for starlings like this one: from Ground Table Bird Feeders. I use super cheap chicken feed cracked corn (was about $6 for a 50lb bag) and a super cheap millet/milo seed blend ($6 a 25lb bah) that I buy at a local feed store. The ground feeder is a lot easier for the starlings to use, plus they seem to prefer the corn food, so it at least keeps them busy and out of my other bird feeders to a great extent. They don't go through my pricey seed as fast. I've found offering starlings and grackle sort of birds alternative food works pretty well since they are going to be there no matter what I do. Jays also like the ground table.

You are probably correct about the corn and millet but my intended purpose is to photo document as many species of birds as I can. To that end I put out a large variety of foods that will attract all birds, whether they are consodered desirable or not. In fact,as long as I keep the feeders full I see very little actual competion between any of the species. Now I will freely admit that sometimes I have to refill the feeders 2 or 3 times a day and I scatter a considerable amount of seed as well as Bread, orange peels and apples on the ground but I get the apples free and 10 loaves of bread for a dollar, and there is an upside to this method. 1. The Squirrels actually prefer the bread.: . 2. generally the starlings and sparrows prefer to feed on the ground, here again, often preferring the bread to the seed, not to mention that there is a flock of 31 wild turkeys that come in shortly after daylight to get the bread and corn that is left on the ground. Even the Bluejays and Cardinals prefer to feed on the ground and often I see a half a dozen species of birds feeding right alongside a squirrel or chipmonk and on two oc occasions I have seen a groundhog feeding with the birds. Now I am sure that I could get a more selective clientele if I changed the menu but at my house Nobody goes away hungry.