Spikes such as every one likes to put in containers with begonias and geraniums are actually Dracena. Dracena is fairly easy to grow and nurseries love it when they are tossed at the end of the growing season. The so called Lucky Bamboo is also a Dracena, just a different variety. Just dig it up and rinse of the dirt to avoid any hitchhikers and pot them for houseplants. You would need a lot of tennis balls to keep a hole in the ice. If you did use them they should be corralled together. A large inflatable pillow would do the same thing which is to protect the sides of a pool from damage by the sideways pressure of the ice. It gets wedged in pretty tight so it wouldn't be of use for gas exchange. There are plans for a homemade deicer if you do a search. It is what I use. Sandy

Easy. Set up a bank of a half dozen 40 watt flourescent bulbs with mirror reflectors and gro bulbs and timer for long days.You could in fact grow them forever this way as you harvest seed and sow and restart the whole growth cycle year round. I doubt the seed need any rest period if you provide the light,soil, and water -their off... Would be fun.

Thank you for the holiday wishes and same to you, GarnerGarden! I think that the peppermint would have been happier, outside. The indoor air is probably too dry for it and my peppermint, and several other mints, do fine outdoors through the winter. Obviously, it's in a pot so that puts the roots more at risk to the cold. Perhaps, you could sink it, pot and all, in a hole outdoors. The rosemary needs winter protection. Some of the lavender does but I don't really know. Don't know about the proper care of the lemon, either ... Parsley is a biennial. I sow parsley seed every year for fresh plants. I think it will, more or less, be okay on its own. When I was a kid, we had a little parsley patch that always had some nice leaves. I think only some of the plants were flowering each year and that there were several so that they were always at different stages of development. About the rosemary, it would probably need to go dormant, or nearly so. I would lose as many as half my rosemary plants trying to keep them in a too warm basement over winter. I finally began keeping them on the floor of an unheated greenhouse and covering the plants when they would be going much below freezing. hope some of this helps a little. Steve

There are opinions on just about everything and someone to tell what those are. But in all honesty, you have to find what works for you. Your plants will tell you by their conditions and vigor what is good. And I agree with Floral. If you have to err, err on the side of too little water. It is so much easier to fix. Rotted roots, mold, fungus gnats, and sickly yellow foliage from overwatering is harder to deal with. FataMorgana