In response to DaMonkey "what's best for the plant, not the grower" idea, I have learned that it is NOT best for all plants to require watering more than once a day. There is a level of moisture/nutrient retention that will give you optimal growth of the plant. If the mix dries out faster than that, you won't get better growth even if you water 3X a day. The gas exchange turnover is less beneficial than greater absorption of water/nutrients. To the OP, I've had a similar problem but with the gritty mix drying out far too fast for some of the plants I was trying to grow in my climate (roses, citrus, mandevilla). For these plants in MY climate, moisture retention is an advantage, not a disadvantage. I have a rose in a pot of "retentive" bagged potting mix with 30 big gorgeous blooms on it right now, while a more vigorous rose (when I bought it) in gritty mix is growing poorly and has only produced 3 or 4 blooms, when during spring flush it should be more than 30 (and was more than 30 when it came in its growers pot!). Don't hesitate to use a "retentive" mix if that's what your plants, climate, and watering habits would do best with. You might also consider setting up a drip irrigation system. I have one set up just for the pots on my relatively small deck, and I so love not having to water manually. There is good info on irrigationdirect.com on designing a system. Actually, I set mine up so I could go on vacation in hot July or August without my plants all dying (and no one, no matter how good a friend, wants to come water all those plants every day, let alone twice a day!). But I was surprised to get home from vacation and see my drip-irrigated plants doing better than when I watered them manually. I'm using RainDrip components, but my impression is that they are all pretty standard (1/2" mainline, 1/4" tubing, plugs, various style emitters, etc). I have not tried any of the fertilizer dispensers to add to the automated system. However, there are growers on gardenweb that have set up auto-fertilizer-dispenser with their drip systems, so you might want to search for info if you'd rather go that route. I plan to try Osmocote Plus (24-8-16 with complete nutrients) in conjunction with my drip system this summer, rather than manual fertigation, which is work I'd rather not do. My main problem so far is that I can't find Osmocote Plus in stores (just the regular NPK-only Osmocote).

Thank you Linda Lou, I knew minced was small, diced was cubes but didn't know size (I think I've seen "1/4" dice" but wouldn't know if that was on the large or the small side), and "roughly chopped" would be really big, but I don't know what "chopped" meant. I will cut onions and peppers to app. 1/4", Annie said she quarters tomatoes to make it chunkier so still want to know her consistency. Lisa, yes I do know 16 oz = 1 C fluid. I just assumed that paste should not exceed sauce, and it's easier to pour 4 oz out of a sauce can (to get 12 oz of sauce to equal the paste) than to spoon paste out (unless I measure it in Tbsp, then thoroughly scrape the spoon out). I'm not even sure how much I scraped out of the 12 oz can. But that brings up something I never thought of - the 12oz can is sold by weight, not volume, and I assume the recipe is referring to volume? So who knows how much I *really* got out of the 12 oz weight can? Of course, I could measure it next time, but if 12 (or 16) oz volume comes out to weigh more b/c paste is so dense, then I assume that wouldn't be safe either, the salsa would be too thick. Now I'm *really* confused. I did find on the Canadian Fight Bac website "cooked type (salsa) and not processed, it can be refrigerated for one month." - now, I did process these, opened 2 jars (1 hot, 1 medium) yesterday to taste and will use today at a BBQ. If I open the others and stir to oxygenate, will they last 2 weeks to a month? Or should I freeze them? http://www.canfightbac.org/cpcfse/en/cookwell/ask/where_how/#1684

Maddie sure has grown a lot. She looks healthy and happy and that must be such a blessing. You sure have some good looking little ones.

Those are beautiful! You can tell the time and effort that went into those - I'd be at it for hours trying to get the letters *just right*, lol - you did a great job :-) april