Hello, I have lots of seed if you want to send me a sasbe- some are previous years crop, but I sow them myself and they do fine- have been kept dry and cool let me know best wishes, growing from seed is SO much FUN! Linda

Outsmarting the tree rats (squirrels) around my house is a full time job. This past spring I hit on a new idea. When I plant a container I invert an empty wire hanging basket over the container and the plant gets sun and can be watered but the squirrels can't dig in it. Another idea: I bring in a lot of plants to "over winter" under lights in my garage. I have so many that it is hard to reach my hand under the lights (4 shop lights) to the middle for watering. So I bought a pump sprayer with a long wand and it works great! In late winter I add a little liquid Dawn detergent, few drops, to each gallon of water and not only does the soil get wet easier but the worms that are waiting to hatch into distructive pets just don't hatch. Don't know what it costs me to run those four shop lights all winter but I don't care. It is a small price to pay to be able to "garden" every weekend in the garage. Many people have mentioned that they mark their outdoor plants with a "permanent Sharpie". In my experience there isn't a "permanent Sharpie", they all fade and quickly too. A grease pencil/china marker or expensive "no fade" garden center marker are the only markers I have found that won't disappoint you by fading. Eight years ago I decided to learn about gardening so I tapped into my local library. I checked out nearly every book they had on gardening and learned so much. The Gardenweb forums are also a wealth of information and entertainment. There is always something new to learn and I appreciate all of you who take the time to write in your ideas. One last idea from me...I keep a small notebook on my computer table and jot down any idea I find that's new and I will want to try. Little pieces of paper get lost but I always know where my notebook is and also use it when I order "on line" so I will remember the name of the company and the order date. Tina or Trowelgal

do you have friends or people that send you those emails with the long list of everyones email address still listed on them? And do you ever forward those emails on to others? If the answer to those questions is yes then you likely just provided the answer to why you get spam mail. Those emails where people do not bother to protect the email addresses by using the BCC feature are like a present for the people who send out spam they gather up those emails and harvest all those good email addresses. In fact many times those cute ones that are sure to be forwarded are started by the spammers If you do not use BCC when sending email to multiple people then start doing it now it is simple courtesy to help protect privacy and email addresses.

Oh, thank you, Owbist, but I found Windows Live Essentials listed in Add/Remove and told it to "repair" itself, but the messages on startup have not gone away, and in fact, I did not see anything like Search Enhancement or Choice Guard in the list of elements in WLE that was displayed after the repair job, so it seems as if there is some other program I need to install. If only Microsoft would TELL us the name of whatever program needs to be installed in cases like this! In a cruel twist of fate (lol), this morning I found to my dismay that in my attempts to remedy my problem, I have somehow added the Windows Messenger sign-in box to all the other junk that I have to click and remove every time I start my computer. I suppose, since I once before managed to get rid of that, I will find a way to do it again, but I am beginning to think I am fighting a losing battle with Windows Live.