I keep a running list of new plants I want to try next year (or the year after that). New plants I hope to get next year are: Amorphophallus henryi Cyrtosperma Johnstonii (aroid) Puya berteroniana Snowbush AKA Snow on the Mountain a lime green copper plant and one with a lot of black coloration Rhoeo bermudensis ** Tradescantia spatha ** VARIEGATED Variegated pineapple Passiflora coccinea King's Mantle (syn. Bush Clock Vine) Thunbergia erecta Red Twig dogwood Dogwood 'Wolf Eyes' Blue Glory Vine Blue Sky Rambler Bauer's Dracaena Hibiscus paramutabitis Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar' I also have several variegated phlox on the list to try next year, as I surely enjoyed the one I got this year.

bpgreen, thanks for helping me remember what RTF is. Steve said "...She'll eat some pie, but it's all about the crust for her.... I have to eat a whole pie myself!" Sounds like torture. I'd suggest you keep making 'em. Maybe one day she'll acquire a taste for it. I used to be a crust person myself. I discovered that I have 'superior' taste buds and now love the pie filling too. I just use much less spice. It was irritating to me to eat apple pie that tasted like cinnamon instead of apples. Many recipes call for too much spice, IMHO. I have a good no-sugar-added pie filling recipe.. I adjusted the spices to suit myself and, this year found a good low fat crust recipe. I'd never realized before having fruits fresh from my own trees, just how good they would be. The apples from my Fuji are different than those from a grocery store... more flavorful and even crisper. Don't rub in my lack of nectarines, Steve. :-( The thought of a juicy fresh nectarine or peach (or even frozen in a smoothie) sounds delicious! One year we got a box of nectarines fresh from a friends tree. Great fresh, needless to say, and the low sugar jam I made from them was fabulous! Parrots: Part of the reason I grow organically on my property..... I mostly have African parrots but also have a couple of Blue & Gold Macaws and a flight of 3 older cockatiels (2 well into their 20's). The "Psittacine" in my online name means 'of or pertaining to parrots'. I was a 'psittaculturist' (raised and studied them) for almost 30 years... retired from the "raising" part a few years ago. They definitely aren't for everyone because, if their needs are truly addressed, most are higher maintenance pets than a dog or cat. I've raised many species of parrots, or have studied them. I've also raised barn swallows, a killdeer, sage thrashers, humming bird, magpie, a starling (fun bird! much like a Magpie) and a common sparrow (Twiggy, one of my favorites)and maybe others I've forgotten. Have never been able to save a common robin, though. What species of conure was yours? Steve said: "Always wanted a falcon, though! Maybe someday..." Not an easy thing to get a raptor license. There is a guy that lives a few blocks from me who is a falconer and has a raptor rehabilitation license. His golden eagle died of West Nile Virus last year, (he now has a new one for his education program). They are beautiful animals. Crystal

Are you on antibiotics? I always take pro-biotics too -- want to avoid 'other' problems. Hope you'll bounce back fast. I came to Maui with a sore throat Jan. 4 and also waited until I had a little fever to go to a doctor. No strep, just rattles in my lungs. We played with Prednisone for a week; no improvement. I took my last of 14 Leviquin yesterday. Seems I've had pneumonia. Hoping the cough doesn't return now that I'm off the antibiotic (which was a Big Nasty).

I advise a variety of plants. Seems like every year what did well last year fails and some new thing grows like a weed. Tomatoes in particular seems to be unpredictable for me... sun sweet yellow one year, early girls the next, romas another. I don't even know what survived this year other then I have a dozen tomato plants doing well. I planted beefsteak, romas, early girl, and a variety mix called heirloom. Whatever I get will be far better tasting then store bought. I plant 99% from seed. About the first week of March give or take some I start planting indoors. Pepper plants need the most time and tomatoes use up some weeks. Most seeds are good for more then one year so keep extras in a cool dry place for next year. Seems most people I know buy plants from a greenhouse so perhaps I doing it wrong... but then I don't spend a small fortune just to plant my garden. Peas go directly in the ground as soon as the snow is gone and the frost is out of the ground. It does not matter if they get some snow on them... won't hurt a thing. Plant a row every other week. I let the weeds grow up around them and they climb the weed stalks for support. Seems to deter the deer as they can't go down the row munching everything level with the ground. Onions don't seem to mind the cold either and I have 3 nice rows that were planted in early May. I have a hole in my garden where I dump all my organic scraps. Anything that goes bad in the fridge along with clumps of cat hair, coffee grounds (paper filter included), egg shells, vegtable ends, peels, hairbrush debris, grease from the frying pan... anything organic. I keep a bucket in the house and dump it every couple days. Have to cover the dump with a shovel full of dirt or the wild animals will come in to feed... they love egg shells. Nature wastes nothing! A side benefit is that I get volunteer plants. Last year I plucked out three onion sprouts to replant and this year I have a huge potato plant that sprung up from a hole I filled and moved on from. Free plants is free plants and they obviously like the soil they are in. Another benefit is almost nothing in my garbage bag can rot so my garbage stays stink free. If you can get someone to plow up your garden spot even once it helps. Once the sod is broken working the ground is much easyier. Lots of local people spray the top with a herbicide called roundup that kills all the grass and weeds. It breaks down in a few days and your vegtables won't be affected. I don't use it because I'm organic as possible about everything. It does really help with keeping weeding to a minimal level. For my garden I have a cultivator attachment for my heavy duty garden tractor. Most garden attachments require a 3pt hitch on the tractor. Tillers are an expensive attachment... the one made for my tractor is over $2k!... and I have to install a pto kit that cost $800 to make it work. Chump change to people like me that make $14/hr. ; ) The cultivator was not bad... the dealer screwed up when I bought a tractor and after several weeks he finally dropped it off at my home free of charge (book value is about $350). A single bottom plow is about $400 as was my 5' back blade. After the inital ground preperation I do most of my work with a hoe, rake, and shovel. After cultivating the ground I give is a good rake job to gather up all the grass and weeds that were uprooted. No point in pulling a weed unless you remove it from the garden... grass in particular can simply reroot stronger then ever. I rake them into a pile which seems to kill them pretty good. A good workout and I see why some people use herbicide for that chore. For tomato plants I dig a hole a foot deep and refill it with a mixture of compost and regular soil. This leaves a depression around the plant which makes watering easy. Squash has been a huge winner and almost work free for me. Last year a butternut squash plant just appeared in my garden... almost took it out with my hoe. It was huge and I had more squash then I could eat. One squash laid on the ground all winter long and this spring I ran it over with the tractor and let the cultivator bury the pieces. That created a whole row of squash plants for me. Summer squash I plant on filled in garbage holes which makes them grow to a huge size... they must like coffee grounds and cat hair. Probably obvious that I am not a master gardener. I just plant stuff and go with what comes up and does well. Finally got some asparagus to take root. As another poster mentioned some things like fruit trees only need one successful planting for years of produce. Rhubarb and raspberries are fairly easy to plant and produce year after year. I have enough land that I take advantage of natural "gardens"... black raspberries, wild stawberries, mushrooms that just spring up. I pile brush to create a home for wild rabbits then hunt them when in season. No garden grown or store bought stawberry will ever have the concentrated tangy sweetness of those tiny little wild ones.... and they is free for the pickin. Gardening for me is not just vegtables but an exercise machine, a place to get a suntan, an eco-friendly garbage disposal, and a puzzle to figure out. Hope you have as much fun as I do! A fair warning that the flavor of fresh tomatoes and other vegtables is highly addictive and life will never be the same without them. A happy discovery from these gw forums is that pepper plants live forever. I potted my cayenne pepper plants last year and was looking at the bright red peppers just this morning. My stupid cats will eat the pepper plants and bite the fruit so I keep them in an old rabbit cage in front of double glass doors for protection. Pretty much a constant supply of fresh hot peppers... soon as I pluck the fruit new flowers appear.... must self pollinate as most turn into peppers. One of my non-organic exceptions is that I stick a miracle grow spike into my house plants every three months. : ) lyra