Thanks, Here's a picture of my trellis garden which I made out of recycled materials. The brick is actually cement from the inground pool that we removed. We had so much lying around that we had to find creative uses for it. So we flipped it upside down and stacked it to form the raised bed walls. I bought the trellis on the right for $1 and had to find a use for it so I built a frame out of recycled wood and got the paint free at a reuse center. I think that it turned out good.

I replied to your post, cjc45, a couple of hours ago, but somehow it isn't here. Usually that means the "Submit Response" button wasn't clicked, but I'm SURE I clicked it. Oh, well. Guess I'll try again. I'm glad you have been spurred into creating a pond, cjc. Every garden deserves one! I don't know why we went five years without one at this house...oh, wait. Money and time, that's right! We were going to put a larger, in-ground pond with a stream, and it was going to be VERY labor-intensive and costly. I'm glad we decided to go this route, or we might have been another five with no pond to enjoy! I've seen two ponds close to each other, with a "bridge between them, planted so that it looked like water might be connecting them. It was very effective. You could even just put some rocks between them, with broms on them, or a waterfall into one of the ponds, and it would give the same effect, I'll bet. I have been to Biosphere lots of times and have known Jim Thomas for over 30 years, but I haven't been out there in at least a year now. I need to get back over there. It's a longish ride from Sanford, but worth it. The last time I was out, the pond area was just getting going. I'll bet it looks great now. Anna, somehow I missed your post earlier. Thank you so much for your kind comments...coming from someone with a pond as beautiful as yours, it's especially nice. You have one of the prettiest big ponds I've seen, for sure. Yes, I expect I'll be getting tadpoles and will have to try to figure out if they are good guys or not. The doves walk around the rim of the pond and bend over to drink, but the smaller birds go to my birdbaths. Not quite as frightening looking to them. Potter stands on his tippy-toes and tries to drink, but I discourage him. He has his own water dish out there and doesn't need to be drinking pond water. He has also jumped up on the edge and walked around, looking in the water. *sigh* I will be very unhappy if he messes around and falls in! My yard is starting to have a bit of color in it again, after much very hard work. We had to tear out so much dead stuff, and I basically started over. I've put in a lot more things that are cold-hardy, and some natives, like Walter's viburnum and Simpson Stopper. I don't want to go through another devastation like this winter produced. A few things came back, but most had to be removed. I think I'll try to find time tomorrow to post some before and after shots, just to reassure myself that it is getting better out there. The pond helps!! Marcia

Gatormom, I have container water gardens all over the place. They never turn into stagnant, mosquito infested messes. Once you have the plants balanced (not hard to do) and a couple of guppies in them, they are good to go. The guppies eat the mosquito larva, and the oxygenating plants keep the water relatively clear. You can top it off every other day or so, or even run it over a bit, if you want to change out some of it. I never use pumps or filters on my urns and tubs that I raise pond plants in. Here are a few pictures for you to see what I mean: This is a large, galvanized tub that I keep taro, rush, papyrus and dwarf water lilies in. I add black food coloring to make the water look deeper and more reflective. It also keeps algae growth down. This is an urn I had a potted canna in last year. You can see that I had hornwort floating in the water. (You can buy it at any aquarium place, including PetSmart.) It is a good oxygenator, and it gives the baby guppies (and there are always baby guppies) somewhere to hide. Here is the canna I'm growing in the urn this year. It really is not as hard as you might think, and during the summer, it is especially nice, because the plants never wilt or dry up. I plan to add several more container water gardens around the yard this year. I'm going to sink a big black tub in the ground and grow a lotus in it. Marcia

Jay, From the very first time I tried it, Indian Stripe has produced well for me, and this year it has produced the biggest fruit, and probably the most fruit per plant ever. And, ever since I started growing Indian Stripe, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate and Green have just stopped producing here. It's like their feelings are hurt and they are retaliating by not setting fruit. It makes no sense to me. I'm really disappointed the Brad Gates' varieties haven't performed better. They started off doing really well, but once the heat hit (and it hit so early!), they dropped blossoms like crazy. I'd like to try them again if we ever again have a cool, rainy spring and summer like we had in 2007. This heat is wearing me out. I don't know how you work outdoors (and in hot engine rooms!) in it all the time. I get hot just picking tomatoes in the early morning hours. If my plants keep ripening fruit through the end of July, I'll be happy. It appears the Big Boy set several new fruit in the past two weeks despite the heat! I might put a plant or two in a container for fall, and wrap the cage with Agribon right after planting to try to keep the grasshoppers, blister beetles, spider mites and stinkbugs off the young plants. Everything I do from this point on depends strongly upon rainfall or a lack of rainfall and also on how many fires we have. If fire activity stays lower, I might have more time to fuss over the garden. Conversely, if we get real busy, I pretty much have no time left to garden. Gardenrod, I used to have trouble with birdpecks. So, one year when I put up the Christmas ornaments in the attic after Christmas, I kept some red ball-shaped ornamenets downstairs in a box in the coat closet. Once I had green tomatoes enlarging, I hung the red balls on the tomato plants. The way it is supposed to work is that the birds peck the hard 'fruit' and learn there's no water in them. Amazingly, it worked well for me....and the tomato platns looked so festive with those red balls. Nowadays, I just keep aluminum pie plates of water in the veggie garden for the birds and a bird bath in the flower beds. They leave my fruit alone most of the time, although I did find a pecked fruit this morning. I'll put it out on the compost pile tonight for the deer. I do have a turtle who lives in the garden and likes to eat an occasional low-hanging tomato. However, he seems to eat lots of bugs as he (or she? who knows?) patrols the garden daily, so he's earned his fruit. We have voles here, but my cats keep them out of the gardens and yard. Cats can be pretty good little garden helpers. Dawn