I use a plastic 12 pack flat rack from soda. I think it came with a 12 pack of pepsi 20 oz bottles from Sams. I Zip tied it to the top of my hose reel and keep all my various hose fittings and sprinkles in it and a bottle of cheap dish soap and hand soap for quick wash ups. The round wire footstool frame work from an old wicker footstool for a plant support. Just let tall plants grow right thru it. Rusted quickly and blends right in. Iron packing rails..they look much like plain wrought iron railing. Turned them on the ends and used two on the fence to let climbing roses climb. The other two I teepeed for a tomatoe tower. It holds 6 plants and is about 5 ft high. Works better than ANY tomatoe tower ever has. I too use kitty litter buckets. The lid keeps them leakproof. YOU can keep various tools safe and dry in places so you don't need to walk so far. They also effectively seal out flies when I use them for a doggie disposal until garbage day. I also use curtain rods for plant supports and old pipes too. I use sterile cabinets for garages outside under my pool deck for storage. I have four of the wall cabinets placed right on the ground under the deck. Drilled a couple of small holes in the bottom of each one so that any stray water can drain out. I keep my garden hand tools in them, and aids so they are close at hand. I find if tools are close by, I will often diddle a bit when I have just ten minutes to spare but won't if I have to go fetch. Seems to be easier to keep up. I use two inch copper pipe end caps to keep the wicks dry on my glass torches for outside. 72 inche white bungie cord hangs from my offset umbrella ribs to a nearby plant hook keep it from getting caught in the wind. Wish I had thought of it two umbrellas ago. Also keeps it from spinning. Plastic ties from packaging...do I need say more? :) I am sure we all use those on a regular basis. Disposable diapers in my containers for water retention..especially coco fiber pots..

Well heres the latest report from this side of Colorado! Spring has definitely un-sprung around here! Its 5 in my backyard right now, and still going DOWN! And INSIDE of my house the furnace has been running for almost three hours nowand its all the way up to 63! All last weekwhen it was WARMmy furnace was running just fine! I had to get up at 0400 on Sunday morningand discovered that my furnace QUIT sometime over nite! So at 4:00 in the morning, when Im supposed to be getting ready to leave for the airport, Im running around a cold house trying to figure out whats wrong with the furnace. The pilot lite was on, and the fan and the thermostat worked just fine. If the thermocouple goes out, the pilot lite goes out! Everything worked exceptthe burner wouldnt come on! So Im stumped! I left at 0600 with a little lamp under the kitchen sink, where the pipes are on the outside wall, and an oil filled radiator on near the computer! I left the thermostat turned up while I was goneI guess hoping for magic!!! Spent the nite last nite in a WARM hotel in Newark, and got back home early this afternoon. The temp in the house was 49 when I got back! Asked the neighbor to come look at it, but he agreed with meall the obvious things were working. He recommended somebody to calland the guy came right over! I found that kind of amazing! The neighbor said he thought it was a gas valve, and he was right! An hourand $300later I heard the burner come on again! And its been running ever since then! Heats a GOOD thing when its cold outside! But I didnt think of the Blackie sweet potato vines I have in the front windowtouching the glassbefore I left and theyre not happy AT ALL right now! Im overwintering a couple again this year to keep from having to buy more in springand I hope they make it! Wish I had thought to at least move them away from the cold window before I left! For tonite at least, theyre FAR away from the glass! No Rocky Mountain Gardening in Winter going on around here right now outside OR inside, Skybird

Hi Everyone - Happy Thanksgiving! Deb, glad it got to you before the holiday. Thought you'd like the gold - LOL! The little knife is handy for opening all these packages, but I reckon you've lost that one! ha! We'll probably talk to our families on the phone this evening, but DH worked night shift last night, so it's pretty quiet around here today. Guess you can tell that since I seem to be the only one posting. LOL! Anyhow, just wanted to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving. Susann Here's a thought I just wanted to share. BE THANKFUL By Author Unknown Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire. If you did, what would there be to look forward to? Be thankful when you don't know something, for it gives you the opportunity to learn. Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow. Be thankful for your limitations, because they give you opportunities for improvement. Be thankful for each new challenge, because it will build your strength and character. Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons. Be thankful when you're tired and weary, because it means you've made a difference. It's easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks. Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings.

Joanie, Four feet wide is the perfect width for a small garden. You have no need of an aisle with pavers in the middle, since you can easily reach in from both sides to tend your stuff. This is great because it maximises the utlity of the tilled area, w/o wasting much space in aisles (which need weeding, etc.) Less work to do!. Which way does your garden run in relation to the sun? Does it run east/west or north/south, or some other way? This question matters because taller plants can shade lower plants ( a good or bad thing, depending). You can use this to plan out what toout where. Think of planting short rows across the four foot width, rather than long rows. You get to try many more things, this way. If four feet of something isn't enough, you can plant double rows next to each other. Succession planting (planting something more than once, lettuce for instance) allows you to have crops over a long period, and also allows you to re-use the same ground more than once in a season. If you are thinking of tomatoes and peppers and eggplant, it might to a good idea to buy a few plants this weekend as the choice of varieties will become limited soom. Don't waste money on big plants. Little ones in 6-cell packs, or up to 3 or 4" wide single plant pots are the way to go. Look for good green ones, with thick, slightly furry stems about 4 to 7 inches tall If you like them buy one or two cherry or pear tomatoes (red or yellow) [plants. Sweet 100 or Gardener's Delight are both easy red cherries; Sungold is a deliscious little yellow pear. For big slicing tomatoes Big Boy, Better Boy, Park's Whopper are widely available and have good disease resistance. There are tastier heirloom varieties, but I'd stick with standard odern hybrid ones your first year. (Any homegrown tomato is so far superior to store ones, that you will be amazed!) Buy a 3 to 4 big slicing varieties. They can be all different varieties. (It's perfectly OK to try heirloom ones, if you like, though they can sometimes be more challenging due to tomato diseases. If you're OK with the risk, go for a couple of those along with a couple modern hybrids for safety's sake.) If you want to try canning some tomatoes, pick up 2-4 of those. Romas are good, so is Opalka, if you can find it. Try to buy locally grown ones from a local nursery, rather than imported from the South plants at the big box stores. If you want peppers, buy 3 to 4 plants; eggplants are trickier to grow in some places, unless you love them madly, I'd save them for next year. While you're at the garden store, but some green or yellow wax bean seed if you like them. Buy bush beans. Buy at least two kinds. It's too late for peas this year. You can sometimes get a crop in the fall, but save those for early next spring. Buy carrot seed (but not parsnips, too late and warm for them already). Buy beet seed. Buy radish seed (if you love them, buy several packets they will yield your quickest crop. Sown today, you could eat them by the 4th of July.) Buy a couple of summer squash plants, if you like. But you could also start those from seed for the next couple of weeks, directly in your garden, so buy seed for that instead of plants. Bush varieties are better for a small garden. Buy a variety of BUSH winter squash (acorn, butternut, or baby hubbard). Buy some onion sets if you like (1/2 lb) Buy some seed potatos if you can find them (it's late but they will still mature and they are fun, fun, fun to grow. 1 lb will be fine for a small trialcrop. Corn takes a lot of space for the yield, but if you are keen, buy 1 variety to test it. Lettuce: buy several kinds of leaf lettuce ( 5 or 6 wouldn't be too many as you will be sowing it often). Choose ones noted for summer production. Iceberg lettuse is a pain. Spinach, if you like it, buy a packet, but save it for planting later in the summer when it will mature in the fall. In you area it may be too late to try for the cabbage family to harvest during the summer (cabbage, broccoli, cabbage & cauliflower), but there should be plants ready soon for fall harvest of these ( or perhaps they are started from seed in early July. ) Ask locally. Also what is the pattern for brussels sprouts? Up here in the north we plant them now for harvest in the mid-fall. But in your area you may plant them later for harvest through late fall and early winter. Also ask about chard and kale; when can the late crop of those be planted from seed in your area (if you like them, that is)> Buy some bush cucumber seed. Or buy 2 or 3 plants. Do you like to pickle? If so buy some bush pickling cuke plants ( 3 to 4) Buy some basil pants of you like them (you can also grow this from seed started now.) Buy a chive plant (your first perennial addition to your garden!). Buy a six-pack of parsely. Buy some dill seed, if you like to pickle, or like fresh dill in your food. Buy a tarragon plant if you like it.. Skip this first year: Strawberries, raspberries, asparagus, rhubarb. These are permanent plants; you need to kno more about your interest and soil before investing in them. (Crops to think about for next year: Leeks, peas, parsnips, early cabbage, swiss chard in spring, kale. Get your soil tested. Call your local cooperative extension office to find out how and where to to that. They also may have Master Gardeners to talk to on the phone to answer questions on local gardening practices. Take a bar of plain soap and soak it in a recloseable plastic tub to get it softer (not at all dissolved, but defintely soft). Before you go out to garden dig the tips of your fingers down in the soap to get it under your nails. Quickly rinse and dry your hands on a paper towel. Let the soap stay under your nails. It will keep a good deal of the dirt from under there. Do you have bunnies, deer or woodchucks in your yard now? You may need to fence. Don't buy anything listed above you don't already like to eat. Save the food adventures for other years. I may have missed something you wanted to try. Just ask and I'll make more suggestions. HTH L.