Nice to meet ya rosepedal. Phoenix thanks for the nod on my new Harlot x Mon Amour. It's still too early to pass judgement on her yet I need to see a true flush before I will give her the final release. I have several more seedling that will be blooming for the first time within the next couple of months. One cross, Peanut x Rothkirch has me really excited. I sure hopes she pans out. She definitely has the genes behind her to produce something nice....but I've seen my share of disappointments with seedlings. All you can do is start with good stock parents, feed them well and hope for the best!

"Root Cellaring" by Mike & Nancy Bubel. This book teaches one how to incorporate a root cellar into a year-round feast from the garden. They individually discuss many vegetables, pointing out the ones both above and below ground, that could stay right in the garden throughout the winter. The book also covers many fruits, nuts, and other food items. One section of the book details storage conditions necessary for the different foods: cool & dry, moist and cold, not quite so moist and cool, etc... They teach you how to design everything from a full-size walk-in cellar to how to use hay bales or old barrels & other items to construct places to store vegetables. Also included is a menu/calendar of what a typical family might eat through the year, broken down into categories of: fresh from the garden, from the root cellar, canned, and frozen. I presume the book is written from the point of view of a USDA Z6 gardener since they are from southern PA. After reading the book, I've decided that I can probably get away with storing most of my root vegetables right in the garden since our soil rarely freezes for long here on the border with zone 7. What I DO need to come up with is a coolish dry place to store: garlic, onion, sunflower seeds, grains, nuts, winter squash, etc... The book has also encouraged me to try growing some greens right through the winter. Overall, the book was very enlightening. I would recommend it to anyone wishing to extend the time in which they feast from their own garden.

Now during migration I dont think hummers are all that picky and uses all the flowers that I have that bloomed. I too have a space problem so I have to take of advantage and use what they like best, it is also hard to pick and different areas will have different flowers that work well and it is also hard to pin it down to one or two so I will list my top 5. #1. Coral Honeysuckle 2. Salvia black and blue/green and blue 3. Agastache tutti frutti 4. Coccinea lady in red/ coral nymph 5. Cuphea Shumannii [orange cuphea]

The tool I seem to be picking up the most this year is my trowel. I bought a new trowel two years ago at Lowes. Oh my, I love it! I bought two of them. They are stainless steel and have a comfortable grip. I used to go through trowels pretty quick, they would all rust when I would forget to put it away, but this stainless steel looks as good as when I bought it and I leave it out in all the weather every day. Kitchen shears...I have taken to putting them in my back pocket..probably not a good idea. [g] I use them for deadheading and they work better than other scissors I have tried and are sturdy. They did a great job on cutting back grasses in the spring. We bought an edger last year, again at Sears, that is one of those half circles. We had a lot of beds that needed edging and it made quick work of it with little effort. Another favorite I wouldn't be without are the quick connect hose attachments. I wonder what we all did before those came on the market. I couldn't leave out our two wheeler. We used that a LOT this year. Usually it gets used to move pots into place, unload materials from the van, but this year we were also constructing a patio etc in the yard and edging a border with heavy rocks, and it probably got used every day we were in the garden for months. Hoses, nozzles and reels seem to be my annoyance as they are every year. I have had a hose from Sears for many years. I bet it's going on 10 years. It has never given me any trouble with leaking or splitting or kinking. It may be a rubber hose? I have two complaints with it though. One is that it is black and if I pull it along and it rubs against my pots, the black will come off on them. So I have placed a lot of hose guides to avoid doing that, but I still have to be very conscious of it. Second it seems very heavy to me when I am pulling it..lol. I suppose they all are. I would replace it if there was something better. I would love a nozzle that would stay on and not have to be held open. Patty, I don't have an Ocean State Job Lots near me, you don't happen to know the brand name of the one you bought do you? I am very interested in the reels that use water pressure to roll up the hose. Terry, and Triciae did you buy them locally at a big Box Store or did you find it in a garden tool catalog? We seem to be leaving our hose out a lot. We have a hand crank reel, but just not using it.