I think my latest bonehead move was to plant every tomato plant I purchased (16 in all) along with all the other veggies in my new veggie garden. It's not nearly big enough to handle all this. It's become a battle of survival. Good Lord - I don't even want to think about the tomato harvest. I'll know better next year. We all learn from our mistakes. It's amazing what you forget in a season though. Plant markers are a great invention. I planted a bunch of new perennials last fall and if it weren't for those markers, I would have pulled them out thinking they were more volunteers. Ugh.

... acidic soils and warm humid climates ? mine is in alkaline soil and gets some water once in awhile and nothing else as it does not need it. For scale the man in the photo is 5feet 10 inches and shrinking as he reaches pensioners age This is the bigger of my two bushes I think about about 1 or 2 years ago. The canes this year reached the eaves trough you can see. It sounds from Cass that the grand champion resides in a cemetary in England where Karl Marx sleeps and is a tree. Unlike other species I have dealt with that do not belong here, this one gets vengeful when pruned and throws out new basals like no tomorrow.

Bee Awesome: You've probably seen them and not recognized them. The thornless varieties of honeylocust are among the most popular street trees planted nowadays. They have sparse fern-like compound leaves and look leggy. Major selling points are they are VERY salt tolerant, their sparse foliage means they are easy to plant under, and they tolerate being planted in tiny squares in sidewalks. Not known for flowers, and actually not great nitrogen fixers. You are probably thinking of Black Locust. (Which is a GREAT nitrogen fixer and invasive species) There is a theory that they evolved to use wild horses to spread their seeds...but then the early Native Americans hunted horses to extinction in North America. Nothing still extant and native to North America really likes their pods, but their pods are full of sugary goo that is believed to be trying to attract something. They sucker...if you post in a local regional forum you can probably find someone who will let you dig up unwanted suckers. What kind of locust? Thornless Honeylocust on the Tree Guide at arborday.org

Well, this is good new and confussing as well. I tried very hard to send some gourd seeds to a friend in the US. First I had it in a bubble wrapped envelope and told them it was gourd seeds. They would not let me send it because they said that Vegetables and any part of can NOT be sent to the USA. (Gourds are veggies now? Hummm...news to me!) So, Ok I don't give up. I then go home and put the envelope in a box with a painted egg. Go back to the post office and say this is a painted WOODEN egg for a friend. Guess what? NOPE...not allowed to send it. WHY? Because the box was ( Are sitting? ) TO SMALL! WHAT? Yes, to small. It was the right height and width but 1" to short. I just about fell over. So, off I go once again and put the envelope and small box into bigger box. Long story short, my friend said she had never seen such wonderful packaging for gourd seeds. LOL Penny