Jean - I hope you meant the 25th (the Wake Forest market is only on Saturdays). Lets aim for Saturday Sept 1st. This next weekend is a big grilling festival at the market and I need to haul as many sellable plants as possible to make up for the lackluster sales these past couple of hot and dry marketdays. I will also go through all my various stashes of plants to find more goodies by Fall Swap. And next spring I should have even more after sowing seeds all winter. I have Rue. But the caterpillars on it are eating it down to the nub so I doubt I will get seeds. I plan on finding some seed somewhere and growing a bunch of it, so at some point I will have some available. I do have some parsley potted up and some Agastache (Hyssop). If you find any of the annual butterfly weed (Asclepias currasavica)(sp?), I have been able to over winter the roots and got bigger plants the next spring. I simply dig them up after first frost and pot them up and store them out of the way. They are easy from seed also. Pentas are a great nectar plant and they are easy from cuttings but they won't overwinter outside. Good luck

There are several interesting gardening activities for volunters being run by bostoncates.org. Some require attending an orientation session and all require registering in advance. It looks like a great organization. Here is a link that might be useful: volunteer ops at boston cares

There was a tsunami that caused huge devastation in the south-west Pacific and the Indian Ocean, what, about three years ago? Dozens of villages, even some cities, were almost destroyed. There have been recent earthquakes in Turkey, Pakistan and China that caused huge devastation in those limited areas, as well. Millions in southern Sudan are being kicked out of their area, their villages burned, because another ethnic group wants the oil that lies under their land, and many of the Masai herders, whose cattle are their wealth, are finding their cattle dying due to ongoing droughts in their area, the expansion of the Sahara. They were so much poorer than we are, even before they were overwhelmed by the disaster. "In God we trust" is found on some currency ... in case there may be a God ...does God care less for them than for us? It is not an easy task, separating the wheat from the chaff ... but, for some who claim to be religious, aren't we exhorted to be hard headed ... and soft-hearted. Don't the Christians claim that that was the way that Christ was? Good wishes for finding the important/worthwhile ways in life. ole joyful P.S. I agree that I find the interminable amd multiple requests for support somewhat off-putting ... and if they gave some worthwhile and specific information about what they've been doing lately, I'd find their messages somewhat less so. Many - including my churches - ask me to agree to monthly automatic contributions, and I've told several that I refuse ... for, should there be inadequate funds on hand to cover the $10.00 (or whatever) per month, for three of them ... ... 3 X $35.00 mounts up to $105.00 - which is what my bank will charge for three dishonoured cheques or preauthourized remittances. No ... thank ... you!! That said, I don't like the standing outside the door of the food store selling overpriced chocolate bars, to support some charity that I've never heard of ... but I explain my position courteously to the practitioner, for my quarrel is not with him/her. o j

I have an acquaintance, a friend of a friend, but I know her socially, who is extremely wealthy because of something her father invented that is in such common use that he (now his kids) get huge royalties each year. She is successful on her own and doesn't need the money (or most of it). So she just gives it all away and is always looking for creative ideas to distribute it (besides all the usual avenues). One year (or maybe more), she gave a group of her women friends each a fairly substantial amount of money for THEM to give away as they saw fit. Few people knew the original benefactor and she was A-okay with that.