I too have been suckered in the past by the easy sprouting seed packs of cacti at WalMart. I think the answer lies in what you are willing to do. I have scaled back on the bigger cacti as I run out of room at the sunny windows, and I'm not willing to spend money on lights and greenhouses and so on. I've had a Cephalocereus senilis since the eighties, but his life hasn't been a bowl of cherries. I've cut his cephalo off several times and rerooted a small piece as he just gets too big and heavy for me to carry in and out of my house. It's brutal. My neighbor about had a cow when he saw me cut the top off. It was such a cute little plant when I got it that reminded me of what my dh looks like when he wakes up in the morning. One thing I do is I don't water my cacti at all when there isn't enough sun to support good growth. If you are into cacti for the long haul, I would try to buy ones that stay small longer. My favorite one of mine is a gymnocalycium that has a jillion little off sets all in a tiny 3 in pot, and it blooms for me every year. Perhaps someone here knows of a smaller cactus that would be as cute as a C senilis.

Wildflower- So now what do you do with them? I'm relatively new to starting Brugs from cuttings- what kind of environment will they go into now- i.e.- indoors or outdoors- under lights- darkness- and what would the temps be? I'm struggling to start some this very minute- they are on my potting table outside- I took 4 inch cuttings, dipped them in rootone- then into soiless potting mix that I made (peat moss, perlite) They are in dappled sunlight, @ 2 weeks old now- It's been getting pretty cool at night 51* tonight- 75* days. I hope they don't rot! I checked one- no roots yet! Any pointers- anyone? I really like Suetrain's idea with wrapping cuttings in newspaper & then placing them in a plastic shoe box. She places a small flower pot on the bottom so the water doesn't touch the plants, then lays them in there.- I think she places the top on lightly, I'm guessing.... & I think she said she puts them in an unheated garage... Suetrain- if you're reading this- could you give us more info? Thank you! Kasha77

Hi Verena :) Last year I tried sugar snap peas for the first time and was hooked. I love eating peas shell and all, and those snap peas really are a snap to grow. They're earlier than the shelling peas so it extends the pea season some. I tried two varieties and both were really good but off hand I can only remember one name - Sugar Ann. The year before I tried snow peas but didn't care for them as much - not sweet like the sugar snap. I'm with NAF about the pole beans, too. I grow both bush beans and pole beans, both Blue Lake varieties, with the hopes of extending that season, too - pole beans are a little later than the bush beans. They do need very good support - I use 10' lengths of rebar sunk deep into the soil on an angle and then bound at the top in a teepee formation. 3 plants at each leg are a bit too many - this year I will thin to 2 plants per leg. The pole beans don't go woody as quick as bush beans, I find. They're longer, too. I second Kioni's recommendation for SunSugar tomatoes. Wm Dam sells a cabbage - Tiara Hybrid - that they refer to as Lettage - a tender, mild and early cabbage that is just excellent. I absolutely love it for coleslaw and last year, trying to use it up, I made cabbage rolls which turned out really, really good. It really is a very good cabbage variety and if you try anything new this year, you gotta try this cabbage.The heads do have some staying power in a cold location after cut from the garden (spare fridge, cold room). Skyphos Lettuce is a really excellent variety well worth a try. My seeds for this year are still backordered and I'm hoping that they will be available Northern Supersweet Corn - yummmm!!!

The tennis ball sized lettuce sounds really neat as an edging plant. It sounds like each one is a single serving salad. I'm also trying some edible containers. I grew a lot of extra tomatoes and peppers including a supposedly very colorful chinese 5-pepper and some mini-tomato varieties. . I found 4 new containers without holes in the bottom and turned them into self-watering or SIPs with a water reservoir in the bottom. I finally got to planting them out this week. The poor tomatoes and peppers were pretty root bound and will hopefully start perking up soon. My goal is to not buy any plant packs for my containers this season.