A couple of good dwarf varieties: 'Little Filip' This is a seedlingselection found by myself. It's yearly growth is half the size comparing to the the species which you can see at the left site. 'Mecki' This is a seedling selection from the Wittbold-Müller Nursery in Germany. It grows extremely slow and the needles are about 4 cm. long. A 3th good dwarf selection found between seedlings is 'Grüne Kugel' (translated 'Green Globe'). It's also found by the Wittbold-Müller Nursery in Germany. Unfortunately I don't have a photo availlable yet.

I guess it is quite a bit of work. However, it would not seem nearly as labor intensive, if I was successful. I LOVE gardening. I also have an outside garden using raised beds. However, I prefer the clean environment growing inside provides. I cant stand having to fight off blights, pests, PM, and the other outdoor garden maladies. Most of these problems came to the fore after consecutive days of heavy rain, or high humidity. I prefer having the ability to control the indoor environment. It felt fantastic having garden fresh cherry tomatoes for salads from January through March this past winter. I had great success with Sungold cherry tomatoes last summer. I absolutely loved the taste of Sungolds, and so did my parents, I would love to be able to surprise them with a decent amount of them this fall. However, I was not able to acquire Sungold seeds in time for the raised beds this summer. I have tried starting my seeds under HID light, HO T5, and standard fluorescent lights. That's why I am starting to question the cleanliness of the air quality in my growing areas. My starts stunt almost immediately upon emergence. They stunt whether close to light or far from light, fertilizer or no fertilizer. The problem looks the same every time. I have seen other threads and pictures on the internet with people having the same looking problem as mine. The consensus seems to be a P deficiency. It cannot be P though, I have used Bloom fertilizers upon emergence to try to give them adequate P. I have provided a humidity dome and heat mat to avoid cooling that could possibly have been occurring. I have made sure the water has been at least somewhat warm when irrigating. I am likely going to start some seeds near a sunny window in my home to see if it just the localized air quality of my growing environment.

Robeb, i agree. it is frustrating. :) I almost lost some onions recently becuase of that. I have all my seedlings growing in 72 plastic cells, split up into 8 sections of 9 cells each. When full of water, the cells are much heavier. When full and grabbed around the sides, they almost bounce back when wiggled up and down. And when dry, the meduim is a lighter color, much lighter in weight, and slightly pulls away from the sides. This is when I water. I bottom water and leave the cells in the water for about an hour. This ensures the water gets absorbed well and lasts longer (no air pockets). Hope this helps... Kim

Sounds like a few things going on. I don't eat out much; but years ago (80's); I don't know many people that did not take the jelly that was given. I don't know why it was taken except enough for each piece was given & some didn't use it so someone always grabbed it. They figured it was included with the price. With her & older people; it very well could be that buying their own jelly goes bad because they don't use it in time. I'm throwing out tons of food with my hub on the road. Seems every time I go to cook something; it's expired. I realize that she's now living with you; but habits are hard to stop. My ex-neighbor also takes Splenda. He doesn't make coffee at home; when he goes to McD's he grabs a few packs to put in his pocket in case he's at someone's house & they do not have Splenda (or whatever color packet he uses). Yeah; why doesn't he just buy a box? The box would go bad. Depending on what she's taking & from where; I wouldn't worry about it. Smaller places that are more mom & pop; yes because you know it hurts them financially but larger places like McD's- I doubt it puts a dent in it. We don't buy McD's often but if we do; they don't even ask if you want sauce for the nuggets & if they do give; most do charge for extra if it's not enough. I wouldn't even worry about sugar packets; how many people don't use sugar these days or take black coffee? Chinese never gives enough sauces; especially duck sauce. I'll leave the soy they give & exchange it for duck sauce. I've tried buying duck sauce in the store; not the same as what they give. I personally don't wipe them out but make sure I take enough for what I bought. With things like fern table decorations; I think that's just changing times & they don't get out much. All of my life; if there was a function; they always had one person from each table take the piece home. These days it's not the same. Taking the gift bags was out of line; if you do something like that again; keep them out of sight. You can also take her shopping with you to buy extra candy that she likes. It's "funny" that this is pretty common that as they age; they seem to regress to kid behavior. I'm pretty sure my neighbor pocketed a few things when he stayed here; my favorite nail file that I've had for years that never seemed to wear away. The grit was also perfect. I can't find a similar one. It was a freebie marked woman's center; I caught it in his pocket once; wish I could remember what he told me other then he was still using it; I took it back; it disappeared again.