cfox248 I understand the frustrations involved in growing citrus trees. They are down right hard to grow but can be very rewarding. All of mine are doing very well. I did want to show you that other subtropical ( Hardy chicago fig ) fruits can be grown easily up north. My string of pictures show how productive they are. I was not trying to tell you to give up on citrus, I am not going to either. I hope others may be encouraged to go figs as well as citrus. After all, if you are not convinced in the citrus forum to try figs, you'll never go to the fig forum to be encouraged. The reason that citrus is so hard to grow is that it does not go dormant in winter. That is when all predator insects are gone and the light is so low the trees get sick. Figs shut down and hibernate. Go ahead and try one from ediblelandscaping.com as linked above. They go on sale for as little as $6.00 often. They grow fast, so get a small one. The tree above is 19 months old from a 2 inch cutting. JoppaRich I have given a lot of on topic advice over the years. I give 'out of the box' ideas through pictures on what I have done followed by instructions ( verbal and visual ) of technique that are low cost to free. I will continue sharing my ideas even though they wont apply to the majority. I would suggest that you look through my stuff and form ideas from it to what works for you. A pictures worth a thousand words. A video is worth a billion words click bellow for citrus growing tips and tricks Steve Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/citrus/msg0320572518736.html This post was edited by poncirusguy on Thu, Nov 6, 14 at 7:38

Unless you want to grow baby strawberry plants - nip off the runners. And, perhaps give a side dressing of fertiliser. You might get a crop (or a minor snack) later in the season. Some varieties do fruit twice. The chocolate mint - 'you'll be soorreee!' If it has thug tendencies then it's time to confine it to a bucket with the bottom taken out. Or a six inch deep hoop of plastic to stop it wandering everywhere. If you think nutgrass is bad - mint can add a nasty taste all of its own. Parsley usually lives for 2-3 years then naturally goes to seed. You haven't done anything wrong there. If you don't mind it seeding then you can expect plenty of seedlings for free later on. Probably spring. If the place where you planted the peppers and tomatillos had been previously composted for the roses then last year's crops probably capitalised on the remains. This year you could make up the deficit with liquid feeding every two weeks to hurry them along. Make sure the Nitrogen level is not too high or you'll have leaves instead of flowers. Tomato food could be best, along with a seaweed or fish brew. Use something with more Nitrogen for the basil as leaf production is exactly what you want. For next year - when these crops are out of the ground, or largely finished, then add plenty of compost this autumn to prepare the ground for next year. Apparently tomatoes don't mind being planted in the same place year on year. However, it's prudent to move them around to prevent a build up of bugs and diseases over time. And think back on the weather you've had. Sometimes lots of rain, cloudy skies, a late chilly spell, will very definitely delay warm weather crops such as those you're growing. If your area is prone to fickle weather then you might want to invest in some form of cloches (plastic row protection) to ensure your crops aren't checked by inclement weather.

My Feb. box from Em arrived today. As you will remember, I was MIA last month when it was time to send so she and I agreed that she should wait. Wellllll....EM, I am THRILLED with what you sent. Even before I opened it, the box smelled WONderful. When I actually opened it, the heavenly scents just wafted out. But first I pulled out the pkg. that was taped in newspaper. I could peek in 1 end, and when I did I was saying out loud, "oh my, is it really, is it really?" then I opened it and saw I was correct. Em sent 3 Brug cuttings!!!!!! I LOVE them and have wanted some for such a long time. I will have to take time and look up the pics for: Tequila Sunrise, U-Conn Treasure, and Frosty Pink. You must grow these? Thank you EVER so much. Now what smelled soooo good were: Yankee Candle tarts- Home Sweet Home, Island Spa, Autumn Leaves, Garden Sweet Pea, and Kiwi Berries. The other item that smelled so good are Lavender/Vanilla soap petals. You know, I have sent these to others before, but I have never tried them myself. This will be fun and so relaxing in our spa tub. Em also sent a "paint pen" to mark my labels, Valentine chocolates, seeds-mixed Barlow columbine, numerous viola mixes, LOTS of petunia mixes, streaked hosta seedling mix, hosta Fascination, hosta Thunderbolt, hosta First Frost, hosta Christmas Tree, hosta Great Lakes Gold, hosta Blue Belle, and Brug peachy/yellow. Em, I have never tried hostas or brugs from seed so I am anxious to see how they turn out. The hosta seeds are new varieties to me, too. WooHoo! Along with the seeds, Em sent a 10 peat pellet greenhouse. Perfect to try these seeds in this. Also, received CUTE butterfly-shaped sparkly notecards AND ladybug stickers. Em, I am just so excited and thankful for all that you thought of and for the lovely card. I smiled when I saw it addressed to 'ME." :D Thank you again and again. ME

Well, DH picked up SS last night and had a long talk with him on the way home. Apparently it was all about wanting presents. BM dragged SS around to various relatives who, caught off guard, coughed up some cash in lieu of gifts (this is typical after his birthdays and such). BM asked SS if it was his choice or DH's that he not come up for Christmas, and SS said that it was his, that he'd always spent Christmas at home and he didn't want to not do so this year. After she told him that he had spent Christmas with her before (he has not, how can anyone not remember if they've ever spent Christmas with their own child or not?!) she asked him why he'd come up for New Year's then? At which time SS informed her that he wanted to see if anyone got him anything!!!! DH made SS call BM to apologize for that comment. DH said that as much as it pained him to do so, due to some of the horrific things BM has said/done to SS over the years, SS was clearly wrong on this one (his honesty not withstanding). DH also explained to SS that it was OK to want to see his mother, or if he's truly afraid of his mother then that situation is what it is - but it is absolutely NOT OK to say that he's afraid to go - unless he might get a present. We can understand and sympathize with the mixed feelings about BM. SS is constantly hoping that things will change and she'll "get better". That had been and I'm sure will be a problem; he'd get his hopes up and usually they were dashed. But this whole thing was not good at all. After DH and I beating ourselves up for a while wondering what we've done wrong, it finally dawned on us that SS has always been very generous and giving before and it's only been recently that we've seen any signs of, well, where he's behaving exactly like BM and SS18. We've no doubt at all he's been exposed to comments about what they can get out of people as it's brought up in almost any conversation with either of them. (As an aside, we found out BM is on welfare and is quite probably committing welfare fraud. Explains the whole "free lunch" thing....) Anyway. This new and un-charming mentality is going to be cut off hard. Our volunteering is going to change to become more focused; I'm looking at volunteering opportunities involving children with health/physical/mental/emotional needs. As DH and I said last night, nothing puts things into perspective like helping a child who doesn't care what, if anything, they get for Christmas but are just hoping to not spend Christmas in the hospital again, or to be able to build a snowman one last time. As for the whole modification in process, DH is pushing onwards at this time. His reasoning is that they might as well get all of this one-time mandatory stuff out of the way now; at any point in the process if any agreement is reached they can stop it. DH will be speaking to SS's counselor to see if her opinion is changed at all by this latest. Unfortunately it is now obvious that SS does not have the emotional maturity (understandable, he's only a kid) to necessarily have any significant input at this time. Even though we can win a bidding war for SS's attention, LOL, that is absolutely not not NOT going to be allowed to begin; not fair to us, not fair to crazy BM, not fair to SS - and then I'll end up with an adult SS like some of you have with an insane sense of entitlement ("Mattie, do you really need to spend that much money on your parents' funeral? Can't you just throw the body into a dumpster somewhere? Because, ya know, that much money would buy me a nice vacation and I'm feeling really stressed right now from all the pressure of keeping my 1.2 QPA in my fourteenth year as an undergrad....") LOL!