Hi to both Marys. Last year was my first time winter sowing. Had mixed results, but am back again this year with about 200 jugs planted thus far. Started in late Dec. and am still planting every time a trade or round robin comes in. It's not too late. Everything sprouts at it's own right time. I will start planting my annuals soon as our weather settles down abit. We are still getting snow and hail squalls here in Washington. Talk about your crazy weather. There's no sign of globle warming here. I have about 20 gallon jugs sprouted thus far. We are not crazy. Unless we're crazy like a fox. I will have at least 100 new types of perennials, shrubs and trees this year all for the price of some potting soil and a few stamps and bubble envelopes. Imagine what it would all cost if we bought those plants at a nursery. Connie

We have 2 small ponds at our house. One day I walked out on our deck to check the one by the house out and saw a snake slither out into my daylilies behind the top waterfall section. So of course my hubby wasn't home and there was no way I was letting that thing stay so close to the house so I decided to find him and trap him. I slowly pulled almost every rock away from the pond form and couldn't find the rascal. When hubby got home he was not very happy about the condition of HIS pond, and we ended up having to rebuild the whole top part again. Oh well. I love to poke and prod and dig and .... I was that way as a kid and always will be. Yesterday I was down at the other pond. A backhoe took a couple scoops out when we built our house and the hole was spring fed until it stopped running a couple years ago. It still gets water to it by way of underground piping from our downspouts and rain runoff but this summer has been hard on it since it's been so dry. We had put feeder fish in it two years ago and there are tons of frogs so I decided to go down to it and scoop as many as I could with my daughter's nets. To my suprise, the first thing I saw was a SNAKE! Yikes! I had no idea where it went so I stood on a rock in the pond and scooped out every living thing I could not seeing him again thank goodness. I think he was a harmless water snake but they still give me the creeps. Today the water was gone but we pulled out all of the big fish and at least 100 frog tadpoles. I'm not worried about the frogs down there, they'll find a new home and once it rains the pond will fill back up. PS: Do I want to do this when I'm 50?

Thanks Barb! It is nice to sit next to the water and I have had the goldfish long enough that they will swim up and take food from your fingers! nami-Dave did the plumbing and he is really handy at alot of things but I don't think it was that complicated since he did it all in about 30 minutes. There is a drain in the bottom of the tub and he adapted it to the outflow of the submersible pump in the bottom of the tub. He used regular garden hose from the pump to the drain. He then used PVC pipe to raise it above the level of the ground. He then used more garden hose to hook the line into the filter then lead it to the pitcher pump. The filter is a piece of PVC pipe [6 inch I think] that has caps on each end with quick release couplings on them. Inside I have both course and fine filter pads and a charcoal bag. It usually keeps the water crystal clear but as I said earlier I am having problems with algae blooms right now but think it is too much sun. E mail me and I will get Dave to send you more exact instructions! nova

good eye, Heyj... that is the hillside waterfall/stream at the Benededict display garden at Hidden Lake - that's where our bus stopped for lunch - and a couple of us came away with some nice discounted troughs from the gift shoppe. I like the way volunteers care for the Benedict garden, but I was disappointed to see a number of the hostas mislabeled. Still... good that people care enough to maintain it... and Phil... I'd give my best trowel to have enough hillside drop to have a "pondless waterfall..." - an ideal recycling waterfall for someone in your boat...