three rows of 10 plants 3 rows is a narrow band and can easily result in poorly formed ears. 5 rows of 6 would get you better pollination. Square is always better than a long rectangle for pollination. Small ears is a nutrient problem unless it was a small ear variety. You don't give the variety name and you don't mention what you used to feed or at what stages of development you fed. Corn needs very high nitrogen feeding and only a few common fertilizers gardeners buy are high enough in nitrogen. And application time is crucial. How tall were the plants, what color were the leaves (how dark green)? "Gumy" like ceth said is usually a harvested too late problem. Dave

I live in NW Tenn & repotted my ferns about a month ago. Didn't have enough pots for them all so I stuck a couple of leftovers in the ground in my compost pile. It's rained & snowed since then, and they actually look better than the ones I repotted & put back in the greenhouse. They can tolerate cold really well. I've put out about half my potted ones & they are fine. Can't help you with the other stuff. Still have mine along with seedlings & cuttings in the greenhouse. It's been pretty cold here this week. The impatiens are going out soon. Gotta get them repotted. Kim

In most zone 5 regions, you still have time for containers. In fact, what you really should do to minimize weeds, is to cover the area you want to effect with a thick layer of compost and mulch to smother the grass and other weeds. Then you can dig down to the soil in spots to plant the sprouts from your containers. What you need to do is give the flower sprouts a head start and handicap the grass/weeds. If you just throw seeds down, the weeds already have strong root systems developed and the seeds/sprouts won't stand a chance. You could also cover the weeds with black plastic as soon as you have a day without snow. The plastic will help to warm the soil and start the weeds growing. But, they won't have any sun and they'll die. No matter what you do, I'd recommend mulch between any desirable plants. It will prevent seeds brought in by the wind from sprouting, and it will make pulling undesirables much easier. As far as the compostable containers, they have certainly been tried. Many report that they dry out too fast because the container tends to wick the moisture from the potting mix. The newspaper idea has also been tried. Many like to make smaller newspaper pots and put several of them into a milk jug to increase the number of types of seeds per container. Again, there is the drying issue, but it works well for some. One of the fun parts of wintersowing is trying different systems and finding what makes it the most fun and convenient for you. Hope that helps. Martha

Even though someone else might be liable, I would question whether their insurance company has the right to deny their claim. Their insurance company would pay the claim and then would then go after the company (or their insurance company) who WAS liable - which might take a court to determine. After your folks receive a written denial, I would call their state Insurance Commissioner and file a complaint. Most insurance companies do NOT want the Insurance Commissioner involved. Most every state has free legal services for people over 60, regardless of income, through contract awarded by the Area Agency on Aging and Legal Services Corporation. However, the services are very limited and might not cover this type of problem, but it is worth a call. While most Legal Aid's are prohibited from suing for damages, they might take a case where an insurance company is shirking their coverage. Click on this link and put in their zip code and select legal assistance from the list. Then put in their zip code again and you'll see what services are available. I linked to the first page because there are lots of resources available, and thought maybe some others might be interested in seeing. Here is a link that might be useful: Finding Legal Assistance