I have a hard time with beets too. I planted them last fall for the first time, and out of prob 20 -30, in the end I only got 9 tiny little beets. This year I planted them in-between turnips and carrots, all on the same day. At first they seemed to germinate really well, but since they're clusters, they were too close together and so I thinnned them. They didn't seem to like that at all, and the remaining ones got droopy and a bunch died. Now you can see from the pic below, how great the turnips are doing, and even the carrots - with wimpy tiny beets in the middle, plus several empty spots where they died: From Garden 2009 I don't know what the problem is, and it is so dissapointing b/c beets are so yummy! Here is a link that might be useful: grow peace and dance in the garden blog

Milehighgirl, it often happens that the bark is NOT slipping during spring grafting- which is why spring grafting emphasizes cleft, whip and tongue, chip, bark, or other methods not dependant on slipping. I ALWAYS try to graft a dormant scion to actively growing wood- you want the rootstock to be able to provide moisture to the scion before the scion wakes up. I don't know how severe your spring frosts might be but here I usually try to be done grafting well before the last frost is expected. I think you'll probably be OK in that regard. I noted in one year that I grafted around April 20 and that we had frosts the first week in May. No damage that I know of to the scions. (Scions are pretty tough, and their buds haven't emerged, so everything gets a chance to harden off, as it were.) I like to wait to graft until the tree I'm grafting to has leaves that have opened up to "the size of a squirrel's ear". Bud grafting (T-grafts) are done later in the summer, and depend on the wood slipping. The buds for those grafts are typically collected from the current years growth. This confused the heck out of me at first, so I'll outline it in case it isn't clear to you, too. Not all buds on 2009's growth will emerge- a fair number of them will be dormant. Collect budwood in August 2009 from 2009's growth. Make the T-cut, open it, and insert a freshly-excised dormant bud from your budwood. Wrap it up with a budding rubber (many people use ordinary wide rubber bands) leaving the bud exposed, and, if you're confident, call it good. The tree will heal over its wound but the bud will stick out. A wrap with poly strips or with parafilm will help if you're not confident. (I'd probably wave some incense or dance around the tree at the full moon or something.) The bud will remain dormant until forced the following spring, which hopefully happens when you cut the branch off just above the bud just like ordinary pruning. It's not too late to prune and trim. To find out about slipping bark just take a sharp knife out to a finger-sized branch . Make a T cut, and gently try to pry the bark from the branch with the tip of the knife. It may not come away easily, and so would not be "slipping". You'll know when you see it. The tree will heal the cut easily. I have the same kind of nervous every time I start grafting in the spring. I guess it's part of the fun. Have fun, ay? :-)Mark

I think the sheets would be fine, they are sensitive to cold. Mine behave like regular potatoes and if there is cold damage, the tuber will start a new plant when it gets warmer.

We had the bike ride yesterday. While we were waiting for the riders to get there and sign I was chatting with some of the other ladies in the club (also sewers). I showed them the areas of the quilt I was unhappy with and they both said "that is nothing, you should see some of the thing my machine does". Then it turns out the winner was her husband (purely luck of the draw with rider numbers). She was very happy with it. Then while chatting with some of the riders when they came back in, I found out one of them was familiar with long arms. He agreed with my assessment of my machine and just getting caught up in the transition of ownership. He said a good internal cleaning should help, but since they are coming out with a new Voyager perhaps a deal could be struck for a new one. That was encouraging. beverly