ilikewinter: I'm not an expert on strawberries but since I empathize with you because of the care you've given your container plants, I'm going to hazard a GUESS. Strawberries do not like sun and heat. Both strawberries and spinach like coolish weather rather than blazing sun. These are the very same two plants of yours that suffered in the heat which tends to corroborate that sun and/or heat may be the problem. Spinach is known to bolt to seed when the weather heats up. It is considered to be a cool weather crop. The fact that the damage happened during high 80s temperatures also tends to corroborate heat as the problem. If your weather cools down and the strawberry plants come back, this would also tend to corroborate heat as the culprit. Also, your south facing balcony gets the hottest sun of all - the blazing afternoon shake and bake without the shake. I'm in the L.A. area in Southern California. About 50 miles north of here the coastal communities of Oxnard and Camarillo are prime strawberry growing areas. Miles of strawberry fields. The reason is that the weather never gets too much above 85 F because the Pacific Ocean moderates the climate. Most of the spring time temperatures, which is the time of year when strawberries are grown there, are in the 60s and 70s. Fog and overcasty type weather fosters the strawberries. Other coastal areas that get hotter don't have the large strawberry operations. Oxnard and Camarillo are unique in this respect. So some kind of simple shading device might help. 30% shade cloth simply fastened to and draped over your balcony railing would be simple and economic. You don't need much material. Old window screening (double layer) or muslin scraps might also work. You just want to tone down the direct sunlight. On overcast or rainy days, you could just flip the half of the, say, shade cloth that covers the pot over to the other side (the outside) of the railing. Also, from the wide shot picture, the direct sunlight hits the pots. This heats the pots and, in turn, the soil inside them which can burn the roots. There's a big difference between roots in the ground and roots in a container. Some of my black nursery pots got so hot in the summer that I could not touch them. Terra cotta color will heat up whether it is terra cotta clay or plastic. After I discovered this the hard way, I spray painted my pots white. I used a spray can paint formulated for plastic from Home Depot. Haven't lost a plant since. In lieu of painting the pots, you could just put skirts around the sides which receive direct sun rays in order to totally shade the pot itself. I mention again that the foregoing is a guess. Tony

MrsG47 hi I have seen this book on internet. I think this is U.S.A. book is that for Michigan part of U.S.A.? I meant that part of U.S.A. for growing fruit. U.S.A. is quite big country, growing situations can vary different parts of U.S.A. You mean it is easy to understand? Noogy hi You mean posts, something posted here Gardenweb? I think saw something pear posting here regarding that. That last book sounds like medicinal book to me. I forgot to say Florida's best fruiting plants book have few pages for each fruit. Florida's best fruiting plants book was good book. It listed some varieties, good images, good information about plants, just to look the book is good. Peach world cultivars to marketing was also good book, good amount of information. Fruits of philippines was good book, it had images of fruits which is good. Next book name is Common Malaysian Fruits from 1975 and it have 64 pages. This books have tropical fruits. It have color plates which shows fruit and leafs. It also have diameter in centimetres so you can compare fruit size. Images are without colors. This book have mainly common tropical fruits, not much special fruits. Fruits are listed in alphabetically by family. First is Anacardiaceae mango family, followed by Annonaceae cherimoya family and caricaceae papay family. First it say something about family and after that it explain plants. First fruit is mango. It describes what size tree is, what kind of leaves it have and what kind of fruit it have. It says fruit size, what color it have and what it taste like, is it sweet fruit. This book is good too, not very big but it have information about fruits. This book have soursop, rambai, assam gelugur and mangosteen fruits. Just to mention few of them. Next book is Malaysian Fruits in Color from 1996 and it have 129 pages. This books have color images. This books have chapter which are following : common Malaysian fruits, rare fruits, ornamental fruits, wild fruits, nuts, highland fruits, fruit arrangement, seasonality of fruits, propagation, planting and maintenance, index to common names and index to botanical names. This books have common fruits, but some unusual fruits too. This books explains fruit plants size, fruit size, what kind of taste fruit has, when it starts bearing. Images shows fruits in branches. It give plant name, latin name and what family it belongs to. Common malaysian fruits chapter have information about durian, mangosteen, banana and pineapple. Just to mention some of them. Rare fruits chapter have fruits which are rare or are uncommon many people. It have butterfruit Diospyros Discolor and Gnemon tree Gnetum Gnemon. Just to name a few of them. Ornamental fruits chapter have plants which are grown mainly for their ornamental purposes but might be edible. This chapter have kumquat plant. Wild fruits chapter have edible fruits, they are growing wild in forest. This chapter have soft fig Ficus Obpyramidata, wild watermelon Passiflora Foetida, west inidan cherry Muntingia Calabura and tampoi Baccaurea Griffithii. Just to mention some of them. Nuts chapther have nuts. This chapter have brazil nut Bertholletia Excelsa. Highland fruits chapter have fruits which grow high elevations. This chapter have strawberry. Fruits arrangement chapter have some information about fruit arrangments. Seasonality of fruits chapter explains fruit production, what kind of flower plant can have, what can influence that plant produce fruits. Propagation, planting and maintenance chapter tells about plant propagation by seeds, budgrafting, planting, and watering plants. After that there is index to common names and index to botanical names. This books was good, it have good images, also plants are in section. Having planting information is also good, altought i have not much looked there yet. Next book is Oro verde Securing the Future of our Food book from 2007 and have 308 pages. I didn't like this book. I feel like information what it gave on fruits, was information that i could find on internet. Waste of money in other words. It have followin chapters : tropical vegetables, tropical herbs & spices, tropical fruits, the philosophy behind holistic organic cultivation, soil - the foundation life, pest & disease control, genetically modified foods, the holistic farmer, future hope, epilogue, glossary and index. It has color images on fruits, but grey on vegetables. Tropical fruits list are from page 140-199. There is 30 additional tropical fruit & nut crops with commercial potential after that list. Each fruit takes few pages. So about 60 pages of that book 300 pages is about fruits. It looks like this book is written for farmers, as it says how much they profit from fruit, pest control, disease control, organic growing. It is not a fruit growing book, too much general taking about soil, fertilizing, planting. As it have short fruit describtions, it don't have much growing advice, it didn't have much images either. I think it is not good book for fruit growing. Mine last book is Fruits for southern Florida from 1980 and it have 196 pages. This books habe black and white images. This books tells fruits alphabetically in family order. Before plants it have following chapters : introduction, climatic factors, cultural notes, plant disorders, commercial plantings, home yard plantings, uses of fruits, introduction to describtive text. It explain plant disorders, which might be good for beginners. It also list fruits are they trees or bush or vine. Information for planting is also given. It have information about uses of fruits and also have table of uses of fruit which is good. First family is Anacardiaceae cashew family. It first give describtion of family. First fruit is cashew. It tells what size tree is, what kind of fruit it has, what fruit taste like, when fruit ripens, also has information bark use. It have nutritional information of fruit. It have list of fruit varieties. It don't have much of images, so there is pretty good amount information about fruits considering size of this book. This book is good. This books have cherimoya, soursop, custar apple, sugar apple, loquat and mangosteen fruits. Just to mention some of them.

well i heard that its not i had a BIG shock ive been breaking the copyrite law by exchanging patterns that ive bought and made then given to my sister in exchange for ones she had done its not fair an original copy of a pattern you have made and paid for you should be free to do what you want with when you no longer need it i mean are all those selling charts and kits on ebay breaking the law to????????

Hi All I've recently joined GardenWeb & am looking forward to contributing. I'm going to be a grandmum soon & my daughter is bugging to me to stitch 2 cross stitch afghans - 1 of MLP and the other of care bears. Have been to all the shops where I live but can't get any panels (xstitch panels of up to 60 stitches). Is there anyone who is willing to share? Unfortunately, I don't have anything to swap. Fingers crossed I'll get some help here. Thank you.