Kale and collards do very well in my zone, and it is true, they benefit from a frost (which we are getting already!). I did plant the green glaze collard after our little bit of frosty wheather, and they still tasted good, this is why I mentioned them. A nice green that does really well in warm weather is amaranth. There are several varieties and some have leaves that are sizable to use as wraps. However, because of the oxalic acid they should be cooked. There is also New Zealand spinach, but the nutritional profile is nowhere that of collards (or kale). So yes, people in z9-11 still want to grow the Brassica oleraceas, because they are the most nutritious! and some of us eat primarily out of our gardens, summer and winter. Or what passes for winter around here. I just call it warm season and cool season gardening. Mauirose I want some of that chard! Happy, I took my kale out and planted a bunch of onions on that bed, to try to discourage the squirrel. It figured out it (they) like chard! Now they are 'planting' pecans all over my beds to try to store them for the winter, the silly things. Because of them we get pecan 'trees' sprouting all over the place in the spring.

I live in Northwest Arkansas and I haven't seen any Berkleys around here. Most of Arkansas is rabbiteye and southern highbush country, so if they're not available here, it'll be hard to find them elsewhere in-state (there are a few nurseries a little south of here that I haven't been to). The way I grow mine is similar to Scotokla - I dig a 2 1/2' wide planting hole, about 12" deep in the middle, then fill it with a mix of 50% peat, 50% pine mulch (sometimes I add a small amount of cotton burr compost). I then mark the holes and build over it with a 3' wide raised bed, about 8-10" high in the middle, flat on top with steep sides. I then mulch over it with a heavy layer of pine straw to prevent it from floating off, with a total height of about 12-14" after I've added mulch, etc. The depth is a bit of overkill, about 2' below the crown, but I find the extra depth helps a lot with internal drainage (a major problem on heavy clay) and provides a nice pH buffer zone (native pH is 7.0). I plant my blueberries about 60% in the raised bed, 40% in the top of the planting hole. This hybrid-combination of a planting hole and a raised bed gives me most of the better qualities of each - it doesn't dry out as fast as a traditional raised-bed (much less a container) but has vastly better drainage and maintains a stable pH better than an at-grade planting. It's somewhat expensive & time consuming to plant them like this, but it pays off with a very low mortality rate. I've found that using a soil-less mix is hugely beneficial - people who amend native soils often seem to struggle with growing blueberries. Keith at Backyard Berries gave me the idea for the soilless mix, planting hole and slightly raised bed; my soil is so poorly draining, though, that I adopted the above method for planting using a much larger raised bed. For watering, I recommend putting in a good rain barrel system - I've recently expanded mine to 720 gallons, used mostly for my 29 or so blueberries. I also use a lot of sulphuric acid acidified water to keep the pH right at 5.0. If you plant them right, keep them from overproducing (lots of gardeners try to get too many berries, too soon, to the detriment of the plant), avoid using nitrate fertilizer and manage the water, growing blueberries is pretty easy.

Technically an electric heater model delivers a "dry" heat versus a gas or propane heated model. The reason is the combustion process of a natural gas or propane model gives off H2O (water) as a byproduct, the thing you are trying to evaporate from the clothes load, and has a discernible difference on drying time required ( like 2 to 3 percent, literally seconds over the length of a drying cycle). That said, with the crash of natural gas prices due to the huge supplies now being tapped in North Dakota and Canada, natural gas is almost always the best for overall operating costs. It's hard to tell if this will be a long term trend or not, as big power plants are switching over to natural gas, replacing coal fired plants and causing the realy retirement of several nuclear plants. With rising demand, price is sure to follow eventually. Reliability has always been slightly in favor of electric, there are just more parts to go wrong (igniters, flame sensors, contaminants in gas, pressure changes, etc). Overall, the gas firing technology is as good as its ever been. It should be better than a 20 year old machine. Steve

One of my favorite subjects. It's all called shotcrete. If it's pneumatically applied concrete it's shotcrete. It gets broken down into two different processes called wet mix or dry mix. The word Gunite comes from a shotecrete equipment manufacturer called Gunite that came out with a type of "gun" for dry mix shotcrete. Like the previous posters said they are two different processes although they are both equal. It does not matter which one you use. Do not let any friend ,neighbor or pool contractor tell you otherwise. If any of the other builders disagree with me I would like their explanation why. If you properly apply both you will have the same result. I've seen to much water added to both types with the same result. You can screw both up just as much as you can make both come out good. Read up on articles that the ASA (American Shotcrete Institute) puts out. If your worried about your applicator than ask if his nozzleman is ACI (American Concrete Institute) certified. I would try to hire a shotcrete company that does bridge, tunnel or retaining wall work. They are usually more skilled than the pool only shotcrete companies. If you use wet mix make sure your contractor is on site checking batch mix tickets to ensure time has not expired on the mix. Make sure they do not add water unless specified by the mix ticket. On dry mix rebound is a huge problem. Make sure they dispose all of it outside the pool. Ensure the gears are changed in the mix truck to match specified p.s.i.. The ACI states that all pools shall have a compressive strength of 4,000 p.s.i. after 28 days. Make sure your builder meets that requirement. You must hire a deputy inspector to get that test done. Hope this helps.