I agree a zillion times on the heat mats! I have 12 of them and need more of them. I do like the idea of using a heating blanket, never thought of that, it would be perfect size for starting flats of Caladiums this year, as last year I didnt have enough heat mats for them and it took forever for them to sprout. Lights are also vital for me, I have way way way too many of them in our home, occupying 4 different "grow rooms". Other gizmos, I use a large turkey baster for watering individual plants. The baster seems to let out just the right flow of water, as the watering cans seem to spill water into individual plants that dont need watered. This can be time consuming, but necessary until flats are all drying out at the same time. I bottom water all seedlings until they have been transplanted. I also use, well it isnt a gadget but it is a technique really, a gallon water jug where I mix my fertilizer at HALF STRENGTH with water, and I will use equal portions of this (as needed) with WARM water, which gives me a 1/4 strenght fertilizer for all seedlings/plants that get watered. As you know, you should never water with cold water, but if you mix a batch of fertilizer and then dont need to use it all right away (say, a gallon amount), it gets cold in its container. So, I allow the gallon jug to get cold and then just mix with warm water, whatever amount I think I may need. I just use a second water jug and mix equal parts. No fertilizer waste! I also use valve action markers in different colors that I use to right on my pots, so I know what is in them. I dont actually right out the whole name, such as Petunia 'Tidal Wave Silver', but I will simply write a small TWS on the pot, so I know what it is without using tags, because tags can (and do!) fall out. In the off season, after I scrub my pots, I use a black valve action permanant marker and mark over these labels so that the next season they are ready to go. I also have jillions of pie plates, muffin tins, and pot pie tins which I use for sowing seeds. These are the perfect depth for planting almost all seeds. Though, I am now beginning to use more commercial plug trays, I still use lots of the muffin tins for planting up to 25 seeds. I also use cut up sections of plug trays for "jimmying" up the different containers to reach the light. For instance, right now I have several containers with impatiens seedlings and several with petunia seedlings, which are about an inch difference in height. I jimmy up the petunia seedlings in the flat so that they are the same height as the Impatiens, and all plants are the same distance from the lights. My plants almost touch the lights! I also use little tiny baby toothbrushes for scrubbing plug trays and bottle brushes for cell packs and pots. My husband designed some "free standing" grow light racks for me for when my plants have outgrown the shelves. We drape several chains over a table and hang the lights under the table, and I can keep growing on my plants when they are quite tall. I can raise the lights up to two feet if I wanted to! Most plants dont get that tall though before getting hardened off, but the height is nice for getting containers going early. Anyone can build this, just get a good old sturdy table. I also do the wet toothpick trick! Works great for "smashing" pellets also. I like to smash my pelleted seed so that they all germinate at about the same time. Another thing to do with the toothpick--if any of you are like me and want to conserve every single seed that germinates, I get frustrated when I have a container of ready-to-transplant seedlings and I look closely and see several seedlings that had just sprouted. Especially with seed that was expensive, like impatiens! What I do is, I keep an eye on the flats and I will use a toothpick to remove some of those tiny germinated seedlings from the container, and move them one by one into a new container. Since they have just germinated, there is only a very tiny root system, so you dont hurt it at all by moving it. If I did not move them, they would get ruined when I transplant the larger seedlings to cell packs. I also keep an eye out for ungerminated seeds,in particular with impatiens or seeds that I spent a lot of money on. I dont quite understand why they dont all germinate at the same time, but it happens all the time! I will use a toothpick to pick up the seeds, put them in a new container and back under the domes for germinating. This also keeps me from losing those baby seedlings I mentioned before. Tedious? Sure! But I strive to get everything I canfrom what I spend on seeds! Anyway, those were my gadgets! Neat post!

I can confirm how cool it is to have an area full of wildflowers near your yard or garden! When I lived with my parents for a while, north of Philadelphia, their lot backed up to some electrical power lines. At first that land was farmed, but then the adjoining farmer sold to a developer, and thus the land next to my parents' lot (which was owned not by the farmer, but by the electric utility company) filled with whatever would grow (including more than a few asters and goldenrod!!) You should have seen the variety of tiny, native, solitary bees that used to feed upon my parents dogwoods when they were blooming!!! (If you haven't learned of the native, solitary bees, you really are missing out on some of the most beautiful insects eastern North America has to offer!! The vast, vast majority of them never sting humans, largely because they either don't have stingers, or are so small their stingers are incapable of piercing human flesh. They're cute, and often besides that ) Native solitary bees can be quite useful as pollinators in your yard. They don't live socially, with hives, and workers, and queens. Instead each adult female collects her own nectar and pollen to feed her own set of offspring, but even so when you have many of them (all largely totally harmless, cute, and beautiful) in your yard your flowers and vegetables get pollinated even if you don't have (alien) honeybees there. (Honeybees never existed on this continent until European colonists brought them here. They are only native in Europe, Africa, and Asia.)

Maureen, thanks for the report!!! Good to know it actually works. Not buying it, but good to know. Re cake testers, I love mine (just like Annie's, but I know where it is), because I used to use a bamboo skewer. The wire leaves a much smaller hole. The loop end is dipped in tool goop for an easy, cool grip. Costs pennies. Worth it, though you could make one--just wrap the end around a dowel and twist tightly, then dip and dry. I tried to find a picture on Amazon and found a whole bunch of overpriced, overimproved ones that are too thick and have fancy holder ends, that could, conceivably, come off. At least one was over $10!!! Ridiculous! There was one expensive one that would be sort of worth it: Food safe nickel silver with fancy bead and curlique end for $7.50. But, even though these are really cute, they're short and lumpy and I think the simple, loop ended one is more useful. Oh. Here's one.

Went today to BBB to get the over the sink roll out dish mat - the saleslady had never heard of it. I showed her the GW pic -she looked online & ordered two (one for my brother's new kitchen) with 20% off each & free shipping. She really liked it. I also got two Charles Viancin lids (20% off) & a replacement Oxo dish scrubber. I'll be ordering the Danish Dough Whisk & a few other things from Amazon. I have to track down Bpathman's recipe/menu holder. i also got the 4 piece Tupperware FridgeSmart set on Ebay. Thanks all.