JO, I'm with Norma on this one! What are you feeding them? LOL! What a cool surprise! And fun Christmas present! Tom, I just love these plants and have several. I don't think they are any more difficult than any other succulent. They are prone to mealy bugs though. I keep mine warm and dry in the winter and just moist in the summer with partial shade. Arms root easy to make new ones too. JoJo

I have heard of the flour thing I think. For squash vine borers, for next year, plant your zukes on plastic or weed barrier. I have used a variety of materials, even a cheap roll of vinyl upholstery. Lay it down, bury the edges, make an X and plant your zuke in the middle. The borers come up out of the ground from their eggs or whatever and they cant get to the vines with the barrier. This year I bought a cheap thin black plastic barrier film from walmart that had teensy holes for water/air to get through. The fruit stays clean too and watering is easy and lasts longer. I also grow my gourds and melon on plastic. If water pools, I just punch a hole in the low spot to drain it. tomato diseases- mulch mulch mulch to keep soil from splashing the plants. once its there, theres pretty much no cure. also water them regularly to avoid strss. I bury a pot, can or 2 liter bottle next to the plant when I plant it and water thru this daily if no rain. goes right to the roots, no splashes no evaporation. cuke beetles. arrghh. even with chemicals like sevin, once they were around my melons would get bacterial wilt every time. I never tried row covers though, for 2 reasons. 1 year I row covered my tomatoe to protect from a late frost. after a couple days when I removed the row covers flea beetles had eaten the plants to nubbins. I am afraid of trapping stuff under them. and 2, I doubt my ability to hand polinate. Have you tried insecticidal soap? I had some success with it, although I cant say I was thrilled. Also, even though you have these pests, are they doing significant damage? For instance, I have a few potatoe bugs taking a few bites of my beans and melons, but its not any problem for the plants. maybe the toads or whatever are keeping it in check. I also have a "trap plot". this is simply my salad garden freom spring, I let the radishes, lettuce grow and bolt, the bugs can eat as much as they like there. If all else fails, you have all winter to read up on controls for next year!

Jim, I have plenty of plants that don't do as well when I fuss, too. LOL. I've learned over the years to just ignore the hell out of my house plants because every time I leave for a week, they grow. When I'm home, they do not LOL! It also becomes glaringly clear when I come back and nothing outside died--in fact, some thrive if nothing is happening to them, including water. It's helped me cut down on pepper watering a LOT though I'm sure I still give them more than they need. But what I can't stand is ugly. Bring inherently lazy and hating the heat, I look at my overgrown mess and plan for DAYS just to go out and prune, tie and otherwise clean them up. It just annoys me. I may very well be slowing them down due to cutting off so many leaves but it is what it is. I have never had one die and short of this year when I got such a late, late start--I usually am sick of tomatoes in general by September. Of course, come January, I plant seeds again anyway, Walnut trees... All I can say is don't do it, The two black walnuts I had were massive, each being over 30 years old at the time, at least. The amount of shade they provide is ridiculous, but that's not the problem. It's the juglone that exists in every part of their being that kills off everything nearby....even my containers would suffer and in-ground was impossible. Other than the heavy canopy, the roots...omg, these roots would run through the lawn, under the house and basically everywhere. Because I had two on opposite sides of the property, everything in between the 100 feet or so in the middle was the dead zone. Therefore, all the way around the perimeter of the house was a small plot of land where I could plant. I suspect nothing had been planted there since the dark ages. Since I discovered this juglone issu late that first year, I bought two seedlings and planted them. This was back in....1998 or so, long before I knew any tomato is not just a tomato. I forget the variety...Big Something...but be it on account of the juglone or the location or something I did, those tomatoes were nasty. NASTY. LOL And forget about eating walnuts. You'll wage war on squirrels...and you will lose LOL. I have seen squirrels sitting on my fence eating walnuts and over time, probably because they knew I was terrified of them, they'd sit there and chuck walnut shells at me! Nasty, vile creatures. To this day, I just flat out hate squirrels. Hate. Needless to say, I do not miss that house. I shelled out over $100K on remodeling that house and my 3 month project took 15 months because of the worst contractor in history, during which time I washed dishes in the bathtub and cooked on ranges in the garage for my family of four. During the open house, the roof caved from the rain because the foundation on the new side of the kitchen/house started sinking. The squirrels still sat outside and laughed. I called an arborist once to cut down the trees and he tells me they're worth over $10K each, go figure, but that I could pull them both out and redo the entire lawn but the juglone would remain for at least a few years. Wretched trees, I tell you, Jim.

Bpathome, the rods separate from the middle (because they are expandable) so I slip off the curtains and neatly fold them, and store them with my linens and lay the rods along the drawer edge when they are not in use. I have a handheld laundry steamer, so when I want to pop them back on, I just give them a quick steam to look neatly pressed. The only sign of them when not in use, is a small (postage stamp size) magnet square that I permanently adhered to the doors top corners (because my doors are not metal). But I painted them white and they lay almost flush to the door (less than 1/8 thick) so they really do just blend right into the door.