Flushing just means watering a LOT, to the point that water is freely draining out of the bottom of the pot. This flushes out salts, anaerobic/anoxic decomposition products, and returns new air to the root system. Most of us are used to watering a small amount at a time only because our soils collapse, drain slowly and have a perched water table... so we've been conditioned to only put in as much water as the plant can quickly use up. If you use a freely draining mix and thus don't have a perched water table, you essentially cannot overwater. This lets you "flush" the pot from time to time (or even at every watering). It also greatly decreases the amount of salts that are left behind by evaporating water.

Michael, coming from Irish stock, the potato is close to my heart (and stomach) and has been a staple carbohydrate on these shores for over 300 years.....and yet, for the past decade, it is impossible to buy a potato which can be made into crispy chips. Yep, we grow many varieties, both floury and waxy so why this should be an issue, I honestly don't know. I suspect the supermarket (and public) fetish for clean spuds is behind this travesty because the days of buying a brown paper sack of unwashed potatoes seems like a distant dream. Varieties such as King Edward, Maris Piper etc, have always been grown (and still are) yet they are either kept in cold stores or somehow kept for mass consumption throughout the year and now make for miserable soggy, tasteless chips. Why? Are we all so used to microwave, reconstituted 'fries'? I couldn't say but here, digging the first Kestrel second earlies has something of a treasure hunt about it. Kestrels are lovely potatoes, often seen on the show bench, but never in the shops (yields are not massive) but the taste is like no other - a straight down trip to childhood, where we all ate plain boiled 'tatties' with a knob of butter.....or sauteed them, or made layer bakes, or potato cakes....but best of all, chips. And then, to compound the nutritional sin, we often doubled our carbs by filling non-nutritious soft white bread with as many chips as we could hold (doused with salt and vinegar obvs) and dipped the fatty but delicious treat in ketchup (and those of us who had been 'on the continent' might even add mayo). Of course, growing veg is a battle from start to finish - my allotment is an obstacle course of old timber, various netting, fleeces, mesh, wires, strings and other critter deterrents (the hateful pigeons are my bete noir) and, if left alone, we would have nothing - certainly not a single fruit (but the blackbirds would be fat) or green leaf to be seen. As for sweetcorn - a short-lived but delicious treat (although the much lauded 3 sisters method is a bit of a joke) - we tend to grow a shorter variety and eat the fresh ears rather than tall maize ground for cornmeal. Also, I never bother with ridiculous crops (for the UK) such as okra (vile anyway), sweet potatoes, tomatillos, goji berries, or bitter oriental greens, nor do I crave mangoes, pineapples and avocados (when we grow the best apples, plums and cherries in the world).....but I have fought a bitter (losing) battle against the horrible peach leaf curl and do without peaches, nectarines or apricots.....but my son and I are grafting vines next year and planting mulberries (although I probably won't be around to eat them, my grand-daughter might). And then there are almonds, filberts, walnuts...........

I have seen this vine in several different shapes. As a shrub, as a trained tree (about 6' tall), as a vine being grown up a wall, etc. I am training one into a 6' tree but it is still staked after several years. I guess it depends on your preference. Whatever you choose, you will have to do quite a bit to train it. Congratulations on being able to root it however. I've heard that it is extremely difficult. Never rooted for me but have many seedlings.

This post cracks me up! Oh yes, those magazine photos are lovely, but let's get REAL. Tables cluttered with antique goodies, lamps, picture frames etc, well they would've survive one wag of my 70 lb furrkid's tail. Ha! White carpet, what are they thinking? Not everyone can check their shoes at the door, what if you're outside and oops, an emergency potty run? And I'm gonna get beat up about this, but I cannot imagine that horrible stainless steel in my kitchen. My GARAGE maybe! You want to see what it looks like after some use? Go in your local box store and take a look. All those prints and nastiness on it. Ewww! But that's fine, the cleaning lady will deal with that issue. Not to mention, uh oh, a few years from now, whoops, it's dated just like the avocado of the past. What about the bright airy kitchens with no window treatments where the sun shines in full blast. Well that's fine and all but in reality you'll see every little dust particle in every corner of the room 24/7. Not to mention the fading that sunlight will do to your floors as well as your hardwood tables. YIKES! And yes, those open cabinets, I have to dust weekly, I cannot imagine something open like that where you don't dust weekly. And that brings to mind those pot racks too. I have one I don't use. If I have to dust weekly then what are my pots getting on them? Not to mention the dead bugs I'd find. Who wants to wash dishes before using them? Not I. I'm into being practical and REAL. Yes, all these "looks" are trendy and all, but the practicality of the matter just flew out the window. But like I said earlier, it may just be the cleaning lady and the personal chef who are dealing with this issue. Ha!