Good thing none of you accidently kicked the camouflaged Sargeant as you were taking your seats! I wouldda needed to be excused after getting any kind of rounds fired at me. Clean-up in Isle 13. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* When Mike and I lived on St. Kitts, we'd go to the various beaches on Saturday or Sunday and hang out. We'd go snorkeling or just beach combing and afterwards we'd pop into any one of the many little restaraunts dotting the beaches. One of the little resteraunts was near Frigate Bay where you could get a burger and fries or lobster. All pretty much the same price. This little place also would rent boards for windsurfing and we'd do that sometimes too. (Good thing I'm a very good swimmer! LOL!) We were windsurfing one Sunday afternoon and saw several other people having fun doing the same. There was one guy who seemed farther out than recommended but he'd whip that sail around and come flying back to shore and then out again. He seemed to be testing his skills and racing abilities. He put on a very good show for everyone with his twirls and effortless jumps over the waves. Time to go home so we packed ourselves up and took a last look at the ocean and the few windsurfers that were still out there. Hmmmmm. The very skilled guy was *really* kinda out there but was coming in closer. We told the restaraunt owners that one surfer is waaaay out in the ocean. They knew. That's what he always did. We went home. The next day ... lots of activity in Frigate Bay. There's a windsurfer missing! Eeeeeekkkk! That's the guy we saw! There were literally HUNDREDS of small fishing boats and catamarans as well as official boats looking for signs of the surfer. Nothing! :-( The United States Coast Guard was asked to help in the search. Mike told someone where we last saw the surfer. The maps and all were pulled out and there was a grid search made of the ocean as well as volunteers were combing the beaches and rocky shores in search of a body that may have washed up. Day 2. Nothing! No body. No board. No sail. Plenty of shark in the waters though. :-( Day 3. HOORAY! Waaaaaaaay out in the middle of no where, a recon. plane spotted something in the water. The Coast Guard went to investigate. It was the surfer laying on the board. He had been caught up in a strong ocean current and was about 400 miles off shore! He had taken down his sail and tried to protect his horrible sun burned body from getting more sun burned. But he was alive! He had severe sunburn and beyond. He was also severely dehydrated and spent about 5 days in the hospital. Somehow he managed to not get eaten by the ever present sharks. He told us that he had a school (if that's the right term) of dolphins around him all the time. They had protected him from the sharks! He said he had been watching sea turtles swimming and he wasn't paying attention to time or where he was going. By the time he realized where he was ... waaaay far off shore ... it was too late and he wasn't able to get the board back to land. What a frightening thing to survive but what a cool experience to tell the grand-kids one day!

Unfortunately, I am not parting with my Black Bamboo. I've been growing it for about 15 years now. A couple of years ago when I moved, I took a clump of it along with several other species of Phyllostachys (aurea, vivax, viridis, and nidularia). I like black bamboo (P. nigra) and P. viridis "Robert young" best. The latter has very colorful, sulfur yellow culms. And although both are runners, neither seems as aggressive as P. aurea (common "Golden bamboo"). Nigra may show some leaf burn in your zone, especially the first year or two before it really gets established but in my experience this lessens with the passage of time and as the grove establishes itself and expands (creating its own little microclimate almost). Fargesia rufa and other species are locally available and cultivated but as zudzu says, they would have to be planted as separate clumps (and the expense of that really adds up). But to be frank, I really don't think any bamboo is going to deter the deer (which they NEVER seem to even consider eating). In fact, if I were a deer I would seek out the quiet shelter of an established grove of bamboo (how cooling on a hot summer day). Good luck with your grove! P.S. I also live along area dense with deer.

I'm a bit late for the original poster, but I just had to take the time say hello to a fellow Santa Cruzian. I live in Santa Cruz proper-- right off Branciforte. Haven't logged in for a bit, but after 2 years without one, I've got a yard again and I'm just gearing up to plant. I've got a difficult site (it's a hillside, with eucalyptus trees at the top, and poor/no topsoil), but it's big, and the sun is excellent. I've been stockpiling compost all winter and I can't wait to get going. I know I can get some strawberries, tomatoes and herbs-- at the very least. Whoo hoo springtime!

slo garden, I agree that the Russian varieties do well here (between SF and San Jose). I got a lot of tomatoes from Black Krim last year, but it acted like a determinate: lots of tomatoes in July and early August, then it stopped producing. Many of the larger tomatoes behave that way here. BK was one of my favorites last year, but it produced so much that I gave a lot of them away!! It has thin skin and doesn't keep well. But toward the end of its season, I discovered it's also rich and luscious as a cooked tomato. I tried Caspian Pink a few years ago, and the squirrels got almost all the tomatoes (bit into each one before it was ripe!), so I planted cherry tomatoes and mostly colors other than red/pink for a few years. The one I got to try was creamy and wonderful, so I'm trying it again this year. I've also grown Stupice, but though it produced a lot and the flavor was ok, it wasn't spectacular enough for a repeat, given the hundreds of others I still want to try. I didn't find seedlings of other Russian varieties I wanted to try, but I did get a Russian 117 (an oxheart), which I'm eager to try. I was tempted by Marianna's Peace, but since I already had 20 or so plants, I didn't think I'd have room for it. I cleared some more space in the garden today, though, so if the nursery still has one tomorrow, I may cave in.