Mrs. G, In good years, doubles (siamese twins) are one of the first peaches to remove at thinning (that and peaches low in crotch angels). However, when peaches are lean, we leave the doubles on. Later, after they get some size, you can carefully break off one of the doubles. The remaining peach will heal, if the separation is early enough. The peach won't be flawless, but will still look decently attractive and will taste as good as any other.

The names Cypress Vine and Cardinal Climbers are commonly used interchangeably for Ipomoea quamoclit and I. multifida/sloteri. Most commercially available seed packets you buy at a place like Canadian Tire will be I. Sloteri. If you specifically want one or the other, you're best off identifing them by the botannical name. The two are very similar, and grow in the same manner, but in my yard, I have found that I. quamoclit does not do nearly as well as I. sloteri. In my experience, neither of the two will 'trail' in a hanging basket, they will both climb. If you want a somewhat related plant that hangs down, then you might want to look for something like an ornamental sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). BP

Dorothy, I'm inclined to think that the long, cold spring was hard on them. We still were having freezing temperatures sporadically as late as the first week in May, and I am willing to bet that had a negative impact on their population. Bird populations do fluctuate naturally on their own too, although I think that the cardinal population here at our place does not fluctuate nearly as much as the population of some other birds. Other possibilities would include: ---heavy spraying of chemical pesticides aimed at pests like grasshoppers in your geographic region, even if you are not using chemical pesticides yourself. When the farmers and ranchers around us spray their pastures heavily because of a severe grasshopper infestation, our bird populations drop fairly quickly, and I feel certain the two are linked. ---as odd and counterintuitive as this will sound, some bird populations drop during years in which there is big cicada hatch. You'd expect the population of birds to soar since there are so many cicadas to eat, but that's not what happens. So, if you had a large number of cicadas this year, they could be responsible. Discovery magazine had a blog post about the relationship between the cicada population and the bird population back in either the summer or the fall. If I can find it, I'll link it. I don't think it offered any conclusions about the relationship between an increased cicada population and a decreased bird population, but it was an interesting article. As for the question of diet, I put out a blend of several different kinds of seeds and have cardinals there eating no matter what is in that mix. If I only put out cracked corn for the doves, I'll find cardinals eating the cracked corn. If I put out sunflower seeds or a wild bird mix that includes sunflower seeds, though, I'll have tons more cardinals. So, I find it hard to imagine that they are staying away because you've been putting out only sunflower seeds. If I don't put out anything at all, they go to the chicken run and eat hen scratch. While they seem to prefer sunflower seeds, they will eat whatever is available. I've never had them disappear because all that I put out was sunflower seeds. We had a lot of cardinals this summer, as we almost always do, but seem to have fewer now. One odd thing I have noticed is that the males are feeding at a spot on the edge of the woods where I normally feed deer, rabbits and squirrels. The females are feeding at a spot just outside my kitchen window where I put out a general songbird blend plus extra sunflower seeds. They are not always as segregated by sex as they have been this fall and winter, and I don't know why it is occurring. I guess the male birds did something stupid (grin) and the females are mad at them and are refusing to be seen in public with them until they straighten up and fly right, pun intended. Some years when we have a higher population of small predators, like bobcats and foxes, the bird population really seems to drop I don't know that the bobcat and fox population is up this year, but the bird population seems like it is down a little bit. We're having more trouble with the population of predators that are larger than bobcats, but I don't know if those larger predators bother with birds. If they are not showing up to eat anything/everything you have out for them in this cold, snowy, icy weather, I am inclined to think the population is at a down cycle and not that they don't like the food you are offering. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Discovery Blog Post: Cicadas/Birds

I so agree, just do what you can, and experiment. That's the most fun part, actually, seeing what you can do with what you have. I couldn't find the ingredients for Mel's mix last year, so I did the best I could and the result was not so good. I almost gave up on the raised bed, but then found someone nearby who owned a horse and invited me to carry away as much composted stable sweepings as I wanted. So I replaced half the contents of the raised bed with pure horse compost, and it's doing much better this year. Although I went with purchased cedar wood for the first square foot bed, if I make another, I plan to use landscaping stone because it will last longer and be more economical in the long run. If I had enough rocks on my property, I would also consider making my own little stone wall raised beds. There is one advantage to a wood frame, however, and that is you can easily attach brackets to it for trellising. The PVC pipe and string I used cost less than 5 bucks for two trellises. I had them cut the pipe at the store for me because I don't have the equipment here at home to do it. They worked great to hold the tomatoes in line and I did not have to find a place to store big tomato cages afterwards. (The baby racoons in the picture were apparently just passing through and did not bother the garden.) Here is another picture of the tomatoes trellised using the Florida Weave method. The following is another way I found to save costs. Instead of buying glass or plastic cloches which allow you to plant veggies a little earlier, I made my own from big plastic water bottles and plastic grocery bags. I cut the bottom out of the bottle and poked the bottle through the bottom of the plastic bag. Then I taped the edges of the hole to the bottom of the bottle and weighted the plastic "skirt" down with rocks so they won't blow away.