Last year, 3 cucumber plants gave me enough cucumbers for me, my wife, and my 4 year old. We always slice them and eat them as a snack. 6 tomato plants was enough and we even shared with the neighbors. 6 jalapeño plants kept me well stocked since only I eat them. I have a 10x20 "fool's square" (someone here called it that and I loved the term) but this year I am increasing the garden by using two additional parts of my yard. Up until last year, I had one peach tree but last year I planted two apple trees, one plum tree, one nectarine and a pear. This year I am planting a cocktail tree and a strawberry tree from a catalog. Also, I already put my blackberry, blueberry, and two raspberry bushes on the ground (all from Sam's). All in all my gardening efforts should feed all four of us fine.

Kathyjane, your writing of your friend gave me goosebumps. I'm so glad you found her again. Andie, LBJ was indeed a "piece of work", good and bad in about equal proportions politically I guess...but I couldn't have lived with the man. I always think of him as the archtypical Texan...am I wrong? Big heart. big ego, bit of a bully...fascinating to read about. I was always intrigued with his relationship with Bill Moyers...two such opposites. I enjoy Doris Kearns Goodwin's tales about him, and one of these days hope to find time to read more about him. If you've read 3 volumes by Caro,guess that's a recommendation, huh? josh

The critters that show up are often able to find a way into our lives and we have to take care they don't become dependent on us. When we encourage them to interact with humans we are not doing them any favors. Not long ago I had a big problem with a group of raccoon that someone had obviously been hand feeding. Its not always a human problem though. Right now I am having a nightly argument with our cat who wants the young possum in our back yard to come into the house. We didn't realize we had a visitor until DH mentioned the cat was cleaning her dish rather well. I looked, it was polished, I started searching. Sure enough, it was in the laundry room. It took 30 hours of trying to corner it while keeping the cat out of it. At one point when I was attempting to shoo it out a door, two raccoon came charging in to get the bowl of cat food I was using as bait. Fortunately I had my cane in hand and was able to shoo them back outside but not before they emptied the bowl. I was finally able to grab the possum by the tail after tossing a towel over it's head. I took it outside but an hour later it strolled into the living room. The cat had popped a different door open. This time the chase was not as long but I'm an old lady and I can't move as fast as I used to. Thank goodness that tail works well to control them. (I have a long history catching possum by their tails. I just wish DH was not so squeamish about critters). While a turtle doesn't move as fast and doesn't hide as well, they can be as stubborn as the possum and raccoon and their bite can be nasty. Try not to interfere if you can avoid it.

I used to have bird feeders, but not since we have had an active population of black bears. While I like having them around, I don't want to train them to think that our house = food. Although the bears hibernate, they are awake before there are many food sources for seed eaters, and I hate to habituate the birds to my feeders and then have to remove them in early spring. I do want to put out a heated bird bath for winter, though, and may try a suet feeder since about the time I would have to bring in the feeder due to the bears waking up, there would be insects available for the suet eaters. We do have a lot of birds, but they don't spend as much time near the house as they would if we had feeders. I do plant for the birds and often have nests in shrubs near the house, seed eating birds on plants where I've let the seed heads stand, and insect eaters in the shrubbery. Purple martins eat flying bugs, so that is one of the reasons folks put up houses for them. Since you plan to put up bird houses, read up about the requirements for a house that the birds will use, the preferred size openings for different birds, and how best to site them since different types of birds look for different set-ups. Here's some general information on bird houses from the National Wildlife Federation: http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Attracting-Nesting-Birds.aspx The link below is from Cornell University Lab of Ornithology's Project Nest Watch. If you go to the LEARN tab in the upper right part of the page, there are various articles about bird houses and landscaping for bird habitat that you may find useful. Until you have more shrubs or small trees near your feeders for landing spots, you can put a lage tree branch or old Christmas tree in a pot and fill the pot with rocks or gravel to hold it in place. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell's Project Nest Watch