My first garden was a row of carnival colored zinnias, bordered by clam shells each one with a letter from my name painted in fingernail polish. There was also a small evergreen in the front that had a few sparkly bits of blue Christmas ornaments under it. Those were my favorite things in my own yard. I do have a memory of seeing summer annuals for sale for the first time. It was on the roof top of a department store building near Washington, DC. They use to have parking up there and I guess sold plants there as well. It was probably a Sears and Roebuck, or Montgomery Wards. I remember the cobalt blue of lobelia and the charmed orange and mahogany of marigolds faces. I didn't know their names them, and I'm sure I was simultaneously being dragged away by my busy parents, but I still remember those colors on that hot roof top! Then later I saw marigolds again dotting a walkway into my great grandmother's regal house. I wanted to kiss each face of those flowers, but once again was being dragged along behind a parent. They were always too busy for flower kissing. Later, though, my mom taught me to save the seeds of marigolds, and I still do.

Late night snacking urges come from endocrine and metabolism imbalances. If you want to find out how to get rid of Cravings for good read the book Mastering Leptin. Or you can look up 5 rules of the leptin diet online. The most important thing is not to eat after dinner or 3 hours before bed. If you do the 5 rules, POOF go the cravings like magic. It really does work. If you just are so hungry for something sweet, try fresh lemon juice in warm water and see if your craving will pass. You NEED an empty stomach when you sleep so your liver can do its work releasing stored fats and repairing tissues and giving toxins the boot. You lose all of that great stuff when you snack.

It's said to be more useful if applied in the autumn Dan, for that very reason. Nutrients have all winter to break down. Part of the ideal, whether spring or autumn, is not necessarily focusing on feeding the plants, but rather feeding the soil. Feed to the soil life, which is in much more abundance if not tilled, and they feed the plants all the mineral and nutrients they need, that is otherwise harder for the plant to get in the soil when tilling due to less of that soil life, thus the need for more of those nutrients in regular feeding schedules. You COULD just use a thick, heavy mulch of primarily hay and leaves or some other organic matter, and I am doing that as well as the compost, but the compost provides a stronger start for a brand NEW garden due to a space to sow seeds into, transplant plants into, as well as give a quick feed to the soil life. Not to mention it's also full of soil life, which, if taken care of, can possibly provide some long term nutrients to the plant in a brand new garden as that. Its going to be a very interesting experiment. I have some beds tilled to compare of course. I would recommend checking out Charles Dowding if you are interested. I am largely following a combination of his and Ruth Stout's methods. He has website with bi-weekly updates on his market garden as well as all of the experiments he runs. It's a very neat concept. Of course, he is in the U.K. so a bit different climate, making this an even more adventurous experiment.

Lars I hope you get to try true chestnuts. They are a pain to shell but then the delicious flesh can be used in many ways. Using them for savoury dishes including chestnut soup and chestnut stuffing for chicken. Using them for sweets is my favourite and are mainly French based. With sweets you can use the cans of slightly sweetened puree… French Imported are the best. There is Mont Blanc which is a delicious slightly sweetened chestnut puree formed like vermicelli. Also chestnut mousse. My favourite are the Marron Glace - candied chestnuts. The imported from France boxed ones are better than the ones in a jar. Also adding that you can buy Unsweetened cans of chestnut puree as well and the trick is to read the french label and not buy the wrong one. Hah! ask me how I know.