Based upon what you're telling me it's feasible to plant warm weather veggies now, cucumbers and green beans. In fact, based upon what you've told me now is the ideal time to plant them. You also told me that it's possible to plant Romaine lettuce, carrots and turnips in July. My question is although you've recommended planting carrots, turnips, and romaine lettuce now, will the weather be too hot for them to grow and survive? Do you know of any tricks/tips to cool cool weather veggies down in hot weather? Essentially although you say I can plant them now, should I hold off and wait until later in the summer when it'll have cooled down, or will it not make a difference whether I plant them now or later towards the end of summer? I want to plant radishes and cabbage too, however would now be a bad time to plant them? Would the weather be too hot to plant them? Many of the seed packets say that you can plant cool weather veggies in mid-to-late summer, but I've no clue what constitutes as mid-to-late summer in Michigan, as I haven't lived here in years. Would it be too late to plant cabbage now or is it too hot to plant cabbage now? My concern with planting in later when it gets cooler is that it won't have enough time to mature before the snow sets in. The reason being is because it takes 70-90 days for the variety I have to mature, which doesn't include germination time, which is 7-10 days. I'm afraid if I plant cool weather veggies too soon, they'll just die due to weather being too hot and if I plant them too late then they won't mature until after winter starts, which at that point, they'll die due to weather being too cold.

Well it looks like this it the finally list: TODAY'S UPDATE and FINAL LIST OF MEMBERS: 01. ncgardengirl-Fran***** 02. medontdo-Michele 03. markcase1964-Mark***** 04. lgslgs-Lynda 05. misskimmie-Kim 06. conniesc-Connie***** 07. heatherbon-Heather 08. dirtdiggin-Toni***** 09. gardeningbingo 10. grolikecrazy-Chris***** 11. douglasls-Lisa 12. beverlysc-Bev 13. aphroditelaughs-Ellie 14. sissifriss-Myriah***** 15. chellflower-Chell***** 16. mary_grether-Mary 17. poisondartfrog-Alana***** 18. grovespirit-Iris 19. lindaruzicka-Linda***** 20. angelady-Angela***** 21. dimples31312-Dorothy 22. strmywthr3-Barbi 23. smokymist-Cheryl***** 24. jas_il-Jasmine 25. kristlindgren-Kris 26. ishareflowers-Lisa***** 27. purpleacres-Tracy***** 28. countrygirl_sc-Gail 29. fleethart-Fleety 30. hmacdona-Heather***** 31. echinaceamaniac-Clint 32. lakedallasmary-Mary 33. diana_lynn-Diana Lynn 34. smitties 35. ashle999 36. yotetrapper***** 37. mcbdz-Pattie 38. graanieb-Bea 39. sassybutterfly_2008-Wendy***** 40. threeshyacres-Jodi***** 41. blue_ivy-Tola 42. ibartoo-Linda 43. jaleeisa-Kathy***** 44. molanic-Molanic 45. rane_grow-Iris 46.gardenmom2-Nichol 47. southerncharm1-Kathy SC1 48. kilngod-Tina***** 49. luvgardening2-Nancy***** 50. rbrady-Rhonda***** 51. dessieb-Dessie I will be emailing out my address shortly IF you do not have an email from me PLEASE make sure you email me for my address. Thanks so much I am sure we all are going to enjoy this swap. :) Fran

Sahoy: Be sure never to get in the position I am in - ordering 1000 crickets every other week!! I have special 12" tweezers made for picking up crickets. They don't hurt the crickets at all (unless you squeeze too hard!). I only use them to handfeed certain animals, but you could definatly use them to avoid touching the crickets. If I were you, I would go to petsmart once weekly and buy a few dozen crickets. You could keep them in a plastic critter cage and use the tweezers to transfer some to the the frogs' cage daily. When you run out of crickers, you could take a day to clean the cage with hot water and then re-stock your supply. I honestly don't know why everyone makes such a big deal about the crickets. Yeah, they're gross, but it's not rocket science. In my experience, you just need to keep the crickets alive in their cage with plenty of food and water, and then clean and re-stock the cage when you run out. It's that simple. BTW, my firebelly eats up 3/4th inch crickets, has no UV light, and is has been going on strong for 5 years now.

Some of these responses are hilarious! I've just finished wiping up the spewed coffee... Send me that lamp JNM! Serenity - I just don't think I could deliberately bring myself down to that level of making myself 'gross' on purpose. By accident - sure! But on purpose? Too many years spent trying NOT to do that... BF is very direct and never avoids a confrontation if there's a problem to be solved. If she was hurt by Jack's actions, rest assured Jack will definitely have heard about it already. And if she thinks I did anything wrong, I'll hear about it too! If I were to talk to her about it, she'd definitely chew Jack a new one and take care of the problem right away. But I don't want to give the issue that much credance with her, IYKWIM. Even though I suspect there is a bit of a crush going on, I'd never want to tell her that, and if I don't add that crucial bit of information, even mentioning it as "something that makes me uncomfortable" blows the whole incident out of proportion. (Her logical response would be "He was drunk - It didn't mean anything." To which I could say either "I know" or "Yes it did". Saying it bothers Hubby but I know Jack didn't mean anything by it could come back to Jack as "Sweeby was OK with it but her husband wasn't." As for saying how much of a 'one man woman' I am -- honestly, I think that would backfire. It's already very well known in our circle of friends how happy Hubby and I are together and that Hubby's the only man for me. (The special looks, smiles, hugs, honeymoon glow.) In fact, I think it's our mutual devotion that makes us each attractive to others, if you know what I mean. People who see that closeness want it for themselves -- and mistakenly assume that it comes with the person, not from a relationship that has been carefully nurtured. Hard to explain, but if you've felt it, you'll understand. The more I think of it, the more I think that may be the heart of it all -- so the more I show/say how committed I am to Hubby, the more attractive I would seem to Jack. Odd, huh? And FWIW, BF is very attractive, keeps herself in great shape and has a lot of energy and enthusiasm - so I think Jack would actually be disappointed! So what would make a man like Jack want to 'test the waters' when he absolutely knows what the answer would be? (Because I do think he was doing some of that.)