Hey, You guys are killing me ;-), As you know (most of you anyway ;-) , I donate all of my veggies to the FoodBank, and as of today's harvest, I am 100 lbs over my record of last year ,I am one month ahead WOO HOO , I am sooo blessed. Here is my breakdown from last year to this year. Last years harvest to 6-21-2010 496 lbs This year by today's date I have donated 498 lbs WOOO HOOOO ;-) 12 LBS of Early Onions 3-23-2010 25 lbs of Radishes 4-28-2010 125 lbs of Red and Green Lettuce 4-28-2010 29 lbs of Swiss Chard 4-28-2010 8 lbs of Spinach 5-5-2010 14 lbs of White Icicle Radishes 5-12-2010 4 lbs of Spinach 5-12-2010 6 lbs of Red and Green Lettuce 5-12-2010 2 lbs of Mesclun Lettuce 5-12-2010 12 lbs of Rainbow Chard 5-18-2010 42 lbs of Swiss Chard 5-18-2010 5 lbs of Snap Peas 6-5-2010 11 lbs of Swiss Chard 6-5-2010 3 lbs of Red and Green Lettuce 6-5-2010 14 lbs of Broccoli 6-5-2010 15 lbs of Cabbage 6-5 2010 24 lbs of Broccoli 6-14-2010 13 lbs of Green Cabbage 6-14-2010 6 lbs of Carrots 6-14-2010 5 lbs of Radish and Beet Greens 6-14-2010 25 lb Red Cabbage 6-14-2010 3 lbs of Radish and Beet Greens 6-15-2010 5 lbs of Carrots 6-15-2010 20 lbs of Broccoli 6-15-2010 12 lbs of Broccoli 6-21-2010 18 lbs of Cabbage 6-21-2010 8 lbs of Carrots 6-21-2010 6 lbs of Sugar Snap Peas 6-21-2010 24 lbs of Radishes,Turnips,Various greens Poundage to Date 6-21-2010 496 lbs This year so far is : 15 lbs of Onions����..� 4-18-2011 46 lbs of Broccoli�����.4-18-2011 70 lbs of Swiss Chard �� 4-18-2011 6 lbs of Spinach�����.�4-27-2011 10 lbs of Broccoli����.�4-27-2011 46 lbs of Onions����.�.4-27-2011 (193 lbs total ) 6 lbs of Beets�������..5-9-2011 27 lbs of Onions������.5-9-2011 45 lbs of Red Lettuce���.5-9-2011 (271 lbs total ) 5 lbs of Broccoli...

I would suggest getting a mow lawn. Did you look at all the pictures for the no-mow lawn? The only reason they call it that is because it happens to flop over and becomes unmowable when it is too tall. Furthermore, I would suggest getting a mix of Kentucky bluegrass (for full sun) and fescue (for shady areas). Of if you don't really have shady areas, then just go with KBG. KBG has the advantage of never needing to be reseeded (like fescue does), but it comes with the disadvantage of turning brown in the winter. Having said that, Marathon III is a very compact (dwarf) variety of fescue. That might work for you. Never till to prepare for a lawn. There, I saved you a couple hundred. If you want to soften your soil, try spraying it with shampoo. First test the hardness using a screwdriver. From what you say it won't even penetrate 1/8 inch. You'll need a hose end sprayer (Ortho red and yellow model is about $10). For 13,000 square feet you'll need about 40 ounces of shampoo. The hose end sprayer holds 32 ounces, so fill it up, take the screen off the end of the down tube, and start spraying. The setting doesn't really matter. You will need to spray as evenly as you can until you have used 40 (or more) ounces of shampoo. I suggest generic baby shampoo from Walmart. It has to be clear like baby shampoo. Spray that and then come back and apply a full inch of water with your sprinkler. Measure 1 inch using small cat food or tuna cans. Time how long it takes to fill the cans so you'll remember. Then wait a week to water again. Water again the following week. The second week after, repeat the shampoo and water. That should do it. If you get runoff before you can apply a full inch of water, then stop watering for 15 to 30 minutes and resume after the water has soaked in. If you get runoff again, stop and wait again. Repeat until you get a full inch into the soil. Since your soil is acting like clay (there are may reasons why a soil might act like clay), it might take more than 2 applications of shampoo to soften it and get it to accept moisture. A week after the second application of shampoo, water an inch again and test the penetration with a screwdriver. What the shampoo does is allow the water to penetrate much deeper into the soil. When that happens the beneficial microbes in the soil will come back and soften the soil for you. You can help them along by adding organic fertilizer periodically. My favorite is alfalfa pellets. At a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet you would need 6 bags of rabbit chow type alfalfa pellets. That size will go through a broadcast type fertilizer spreader. Then stop using whatever other fertilizers you were using because that's all you'll need. I use alfalfa on the federal holiday schedule. They are easy to remember and I am home those days. More specifically, for you in KY, first app would be on Memorial Day, then 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. Living in the south I also apply on Washington's Birthday. You were correct in saying why your soil is "compacted", but you were incorrect about it being compacted. It is simply hard for the reason you said. Compacted soil requires mechanical means such as cattle plunging through soggy soil near the edge of a pond or playing football on saturated soil. The soil has to be saturated first or you cannot compact it. Oh and do all this seeding in early September when the summer heat is beginning to back off.

Gary: Window AC's are cheaper than portables, but require a large cutout in the polycarb, while the portable ones need only a 4 - 5" hole and we could add one next to the existing heater vent, where we reinforced the walls with aluminum sheet metal. Then, sealing it off for winter would be simple. Dcharch: The only live plants in my GH in summer are aquatics and they are under lights anyway. All of the tank lights will soon be connected to a single timer with a built-in bypass swtich, so I'll be able to turn them all off/on during the day if needed, with a single flick. So giving my GH a lot of shade in summer won't be an issue for any plants, and closing it all up if I really feel the need for some genuine chill, would be as simple as turning off the the power to the intake vents and exhaust fan and sliding the storm panel up in the door. When he installed the lines for the vents/fan, my husband put a switch on the main line, to avoid the need to fiddle with the thermostat. The roof vents would of course, remain open, because I can't reach them without a ladder, but with the ceiling fans pulling cold air up, it wouldn't take all that long for them to close on their own. As long as the cold air is directed at the smaller tanks, which are set above the big ones, even if just for those few hours on the relatively few days each year they might need it, could be just that extra edge- and if just one small tank that doesn't overheat has a spawn of a particularly valuable species in it; alive and growing, they would pay for the AC and the cost to run it all summer, let alone at most- 150 hours a year. In any case, the lattice shade fence is under construction and will be up by the end of the weekend, just in time for me not to especially need it this year. The portable AC will very likely be bought anyway. My husband was looking at them with me and mused about how nice it would be to AC the curtained off section of the garage where parks my rival for his affections. Another good reason to go for a portable: they are on wheels, and even I can roll one out of the garage and into the GH, all by my old, arthritic self. So it's likely there will be a portable AC here anyway, just in case. But I really am so close to not needing one. Again: all I can do is see how well the extra shade will do the job next summer. But I admit that having the ability to chill it would be a nice security blanket. Kind of like the stand-by generator. Always gratefull when it's not needed, and even more so that it's there, ready to crank up when it is.

Carrie, I dug up one out of five footings for my plant sale earlier this year and was wondering if I had made a mistake. The plants were just limp in the pots, but I kept watering them and in a few days they recovered. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) this was not a big seller and I have six which need to be placed back in the gardens. These photos were taken last year with the crummy camera and the Scabiosa is 'Butterfly Blue'. Note: I find that sometimes these have to be divided just to bring back the high number of blooms to the plants. The flower. The plant.