Linda ~ I also am sorry to hear of the loss of your baby, on top of everything else. May this new year be filled with good things for you. Below is a little piece that helps to sooth our sore hearts when we lose our pets. We will be reunited some day. FlowerLady ****** Rainbow Bridge Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.... Author unknown

Babalu/John: your set up is exactly the same as mine except mine is two per every two houses. It's never going to be a beautiful 'zen' garden...but, come on, people! It doesn't have to look like a dump, either! Plus, I have found that the worse it looks, the more people have no problem just leaving crap next to the dumpster. Like you, I am usually the one throwing it away. Good for you in 'training' your neighbors! ;-) The problem with the crushed shell is a) the cost, b) the heat they generate. I cut some of the 'sucker' parts of the scheffelera and found a dead branch with scorch marks. Scary. Like it had caught on fire, but, extinguished on its own. Thank goodness! The scheffelera grew from a discarded house plant. It's easily 25 ft. tall now. I'm at 10 years now -- am fed up enough to just clean it up myself. Yes - 10 years seems like an awfully long time to tolerate it, but, you never know if your neighbor will get angry at any attempt to clean it up. Plus, I have the time available now and didn't before. Grrr....

Thanks for giving me some pointers, I think I will try again next spring, it is probably to late to seed them out now, right? * Posted by: Mearth z8PNW B'ham . >>Try backing off on the fertilizing, and add sand. I've found that my root crops do best with that combo. I add lots of yummy compost in the fall, then nothing until the first crop is done in the spring. Do yours put on lush top growth? Mine tend to look unimpressive until you pull them.The soil where they grow is really loose and get's good drainage, but I might try to just not fertilize them before I sow the seeds. Not sure how much foliage is lush, they seemed to have a normal amount of foliage. But maybe I just don't remember how much foliage they are supposed to have. It's been a long time since i grew Radishes last. >lol> >>Posted by: Carol_Ann Radishes like cool weather so if you're planting them after it really warms up, they won't do as well. They don't like summer heat. Also, my first thought was that you might be heavy on the nitrogen, as mentioned, but radishes are quick growers and like some fertilizer. You mentioned making your own fertilizers but didn't say what you add to the chicken manure (heavy on N) already there. If your additions are heavy on N, you might want to modify what you're doing.I don't think I planted them to late, actually the first ones I planted in late March, when I planted the peas, but they didn't sprout, so I planted again in early April. The chicken compost might be the problem. Also I got the planting soil from Lane Forest products and the more I look at their compost/soil mixes the more I think there is just too much woodpulp in it. That could cause fertility problems, right? I am using the fertilizer mix recommended by Steve Solomons Book 'Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades', I highly recommend the book for people new to the area (I am not through the book yet, but so far I think it has lot's of good info). He says that our areas soil needs lot of lime, because of the rain so he mixes 4 parts seed meal, 1/2 part lime (best to mix equal amounts of agricultural lime and dolomite), 1/2 part phosphate rock or bone meal(steamed or raw), 1/2 part kelp meal. >>You mentioned water on a timer -- think about how often that supplies water, and for how long. Once the seed has germinated, you want to really soak the bed well and then let it drain and get nearly dry before the next watering. Frequent, shallow waterings or too much water too often would hinder radish development.Because it is a new garden area I wasn't sure how much to water and how long, because it all depended how that new area draines and if the water stays in the soil or dries out quick. I am using a 1/2 gph dripper line, in the beginning, when I planted lots of seeds I set it to water for 25 min. early in the morning and another 25 min in the afternoon. Later in the year, after all seeds had sprouted I watered only once 40 min. every day. Since August I only watered every other day. Maybe that was to much water in the beginning? Anyway many thanks to the ones who responded with so many pointers. I will try again, next year. You're right eventually they come out right, I shouldn't give up so easy. What kind of Gardener gives up after just 3 years >lolgreetings Isa

Hi, I'm new here. I've been looking online for ways to cope with living with a very sloppy person. It seems nearly impossible to change a slob. I found one site about living with a sloppy partner. I have read such sad accounts, couples that marry (I guess totally unaware of how the other really keeps house), and end up divorcing. I notice that mostly, the tidy, organized person, the one who prefer to live in a sanitary and orderly house, ends up having to change, ends up having to relax their standards, ends up having to back down, and having to live in silent frustration. It seems so unfair, how slobs are able to have/take such control. They dictate how things are going to be, how things going to look, smell, etc. Slobs don't see a need to change how they are, all they have to do is drive the clean person crazy. My daughter and her child and I share a rental since she split up with her bf. Every day I wake up and cringe, dreading what the day will hold. It starts with my daughter never waking to my gd crying and screaming. I have to go in her room to wake her and I dread it because I just know I'm going to have an out of body experience. The smell of her room hits me as I open the door. This sets me off. She doesn't bother to flush her toilet. She lived in poverty with her bf for several years and developed some really bad habits, like half the time they didn't have tp, so she doesn't always bother to use it. Her floor always has junk thrown about, clothes all over, clean mixed with dirty, who know which is which, dirty silverware and drinking glasses she has repeatedly been asked not to take to her room, pop cans spilled or half full and just waiting to be spilled by her child. A big stinky mess, squalor. And there she is snoring away, none of this bothering her, not even a bit. Sigh She makes a mess in every other room, has to be reminded to clean up after herself, or she won't do it. Her cleaning up after herself barely qualifies as cleaning. She works full-time and goes to school, so she is busy, but she uses this as an excuse every time we get into it over her piggish ways. We get into some big screaming matches, and I'm always the loser. Nothing ever changes. She might go to her room and make an angry attempt at straightening out, but not really cleaning, slamming things and yelling so I hear her. I feel like I'm living with a child, not a young adult. I'm having to parent her, and should not have to. I'm near retirement age with my many joint pains, it was a struggle to keep up with my own chores when I lived alone. and now I feel like I work nonstop and get nowhere. I'm sad and angry over all of this, and when depression sets in, it really affects how I feel and what I'm able to do. None of this filth bothers her. Her brand new car, the new car smell has been replaced with the smell of rotting food. She is so gross. I sometimes lose my mind, especially when the smell from her room makes it's way downstairs. I have simply lost it and have started cleaning her room while she's at work, because I just can't take it anymore. I have found dirty diapers tossed in the cabinet under the sink, pads with dried blood thrown on the floor by the toilet, scum with hair, dried toothpaste and makeup on every inch of her sink. I can't understand how someone can live comfortably in such an unsanitary environment. Disgusting. Thanks for reading my long vent about what I'm living with. Thank you for your comments.