Didnt get much help from my ilepa neighbor. Pesticides are not his speciality. He refered me to the local extension office. Its funny they can aerial spray imidan 50ft from your house, but you cant spray the tree in your back yard? Gowan didnt renew the license for private use, that is why you dont see imidan 12.5 wp at home depot or walmart. Maybe the sales were not profitable enough, maybe liabilty to high-who knows. It was not an epa ruling. There is nothing in the Epa's "final" guidlines to suggest you cant use in residential areas. The closest they come is 25'boundry from a house. I believe the "not for residential areas" is a gowan "cover my arse" much like how McDonald's puts "contents hot!may scald skin dont pour on lap and sue us for 5 million dollars 'cause now we told ya" It would not be illegal to pour on lap, but you cant sue because you were warned. That is why you see the 2 different wordings. 1)"Not for use in residential areas" is a warning, spray on a tree in your backyard and a dog or kid gets sick dont blame gowan. 2) "Use in park or recreational areas is prohibited" there are laws on the books and you will be bubbys little jail "friend" if you get caught. If this is not the case then why didnt gowan just say "use in residential areas and Use in park or recreational areas is prohibited" (that would make it very clear) really I think i would rather spray something with a long track record then some of the newer stuff that they know nothing about. Maybe my logic is wrong.

One of the reasons I grow roses is so I can photograph them. There is a newspaper writer that does a technology column in the local paper. I emailed him with the issue and this was his response: "It is typical of small cameras. The dynamic range (ratio light to dark) is limited. It is limited comparing film to digital, but even more so with a small sensor camera." I got a new Olympus e-pm1 on Amazon for $250 delivered. They are even cheaper on other sites. They can be found for 1/2 what I paid refurbished, but I generally like to buy new. The other lenses for the camera are very expensive (like getting a free razor, so you will buy the blades). With the limited pictures, I've taken, I'm pleased with it.

dave, I always look forward to reading your posts. Regarding the cost effectiveness of the EarthTainer, you are absolutely correct, that a raised bed or traditional in ground planting is far more inexpensive. Here is Silicon Valley square footage for gardening is almost non-existent. I literally have a 5' by 18' raised bed - - and that was all the tillable space I had. Last year I was able to grow a grand total of 13 tomato plants in this space. With the 'Tainers this year, I am able to use sunny deck space, and other locations in the yard that wouldn't support in-ground planting. So I am now growing 46 tomato plants plus 4 'Tainers filled with corn. As I travel sometimes for 2 weeks at a time, I needed a "hands-free" watering solution and the Automated Watering System from the folks at the EarthBox Company fit the bill perfectly. I haven't touched a hose since March 22 when I planted out. As this part of California is about to be put under mandatory water rationing, the closed eco-system of the 'Tainer has got to be the most water stingy approach I could think of. I have found other benefits such as spinning the 'Tainer 180 degrees every 30 days, as this has encouraged a more symmetrical plant with better yield. Also, I haven't had a squirrel or gopher attack the plants this year - perhaps they don't want to scale the container walls. The soil temperature of the 'Tainer warmed about a month earlier than the temp of my in-ground bed, so I have been harvesting tomatoes since May 25 - something I have never been able to do previously. In terms of cost, the cages and staking are a wash when compared to in-ground planting. So the $23.00 for the base container system is the issue. As the "innards" of the 'Tainer are not exposed to UV, I am estimating a 15 year service life for it. I so anticipate that the Rubbermaid outer shell should last 7 years with careful use like rotation from the sun, etc. The Rubbermaid costs $9.97 at Lowes this week so that would work out to be about $1.50 per year amortization expense. The (optional) AWS worked out to be $6.25 per plant - - and in my view, saving me hours of weekly watering, this is the best $6.25 that I have ever spent in the garden!! Everyone has to weigh their priorities and tradeoffs with land availability, ROI horizon, and so forth. Yes, I did go a bit overboard in building 28 of them but I am quite happy I did so. Alley Cat, Yes, I agree and would love to find a basket of 3" by 6" with a depth of 5", as my ideal size, but exhaustive searches at houseware stores, the Internet, Amazon, etc. have not turned up such a size. joytwo, I experimented with "extreme pruning" on my early Stupice and as you can see, the tomatoes were both early and prolific. Not a pretty photograph, but as one said in another thread "Do you eat the leaves....or the tomatoes??" Raybo

Carolmka, I will try searching the Organizing forum, thanks. I considered Elfa because it is a very nice looking, flexible system. We know from experience that we want half of the hanging space to have 1 shelf and rod and half to have 2 shelves and 2 rods, and it will cost less to have our cabinet maker or GC build and install the simple elements we want.