The spring fling is in the morning, I'm excited. I know I'm new to the forum and to starting my own gardens but I'm still excited about the gathering and getting to meet so many new people. I haven't really introduced myself, so I'll give a small bio. My name is Rachel,I'm 23 years old and I live NE OK, near Tulsa. I'm originally from CA but my father was in the army when I was younger, and well...this is where we ended up. I've been with the same wonderful man for the last five years and we plan to get married. We bought a house, a fixer upper, this past fall and the front and back yards are in desperate need of plants, lol. I grew up with a wonderful mother, who loves plants and gardening, so Im really excited about fixing up my yards. Also, I work at a Lowes, in the outside lawn and garden, so I spend just about everyday taking care of plants and helping people select the right plants. I was going to bring a painting and a stuffed owl for door prizes, but my friend really wanted the painting so I'll try to find something else. Also, I found the seeds that I collected from my mothers garden, from this past fall. I'll bring them incase someone wants some. That way I'll have something to trade, and won't feel like such a mooch if someone gives me something. : ) I hope everyone sleeps good tonight and I can't wait to meet all of you. -Rachel

Hey Josh! Good to hear from you! I'll tell ya, this gig is crazy. Good money, but man, I don't think that I'll be able to keep it up for more than a year or so. I think I'll just grab as much knowledge as I can and move on. Idk. Craziness. Speaking of CRAZY. The Florida weather IS crazy, especially way down here in the Miami. Fact is, we are a tropical climate here. The only such wet/dry season climate in the continental US. To say that it's a challenge is an understatement. It's either really, really dry and cool(er)(~meaning spring/summer for most~)....or really, really wet and HOT, HOT, HOT - not to mention the constant seasonal threat (and occasional reality) of tropical storms and hurricanes........ * * * A thought jogs his memory and he reflects: ".......I stood in amazment one late August afternoon, when my simple garden thermometer read 95 degrees with a delightfully refreshing 89% humidity, all this without a cloud in the sky.....the jungle.....it's just like the jungle here..." He remembers dark times long past: ".....Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away. He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some poor, wasted, rag-a$$ed renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who he really took his orders from anyway......." He snaps back to the reality of his computer screen and chuckles. * * * You'll either enjoy that APNow reference wrapped up in my garden reality, or wonder if I'm a serial killer....LOL ;) Anywho, switching gears.... DM, Ya know, I had the same epifany myself. My yard is wierd in the sense that I really only have full shade, or full sun. I mean, I do have some shade, but it's not optimal, and it's not in the right spot - it really just doesn't work for me. So I thought one day, "I'm going to make my own shade....and it's going to be mobile." The rest is history. I figure, if your not trying to make what you have better...you're just falling behind. Regarding the 12 month season: Yes and no. Many things grow here year round...many of those suffer during the summer and rebound in the fall. Few tolerate summer without some affect, while even fewer flourish during those months..but there are certainly those evolutionarily select few natives that love it here. Peppers, specifically the hot ones, are tropical in origin - so they can tolerate summers ~if~ you provide a mostly shade environment. They get crushed in full summer sun, I know this from experience ;) That being said, the sun is not the real summer enemy for vegetable crops here, specifically containerized ones, its the bugs, the rain, and the disease. So again, yes and no. The better you are, the better chance your plants have down here. That's the skinny, straight and narrow. Good to be back. Good. PJ

Win 7 Antispyware 2012, Vista Antivirus 2012, and XP Security 2012 are all names for the same rogue anti-spyware program. This family of rogues is promoted in two ways. The first is through the use of fake online antivirus scanners that state that your computer is infected and then prompt you to download a file that will install the infection. The other method are hacked web sites that attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in programs that you are running on your computer to install the infection without your knowledge or permission. Regardless of how it is installed, once it is running on your computer it will install itself as a variety of different program names and graphical user interfaces depending on the version of Windows that is running. Regardless of the name, though, they are all ultimately the same program with just a different skin on it. I provided a self help link, but strongly recommend a malware removal forum lkie Landzdown. Here is a link that might be useful: removal/remove

Thank you, Kate! What a great job you are doing to revitalize this forum. It had gotten a little slow. I plan to make a quilt (queen size) for my brother and his wife. He doesn't have any from me yet. And yes, I will share pictures of the finished product! Thank all of you for the congrats! Tamie