In case anyone missed the PBS special The Botany of Desire which premiered Wednesday, October 28, 2009, you can still watch the entire program online. It's incredible. Book turned documentary. BOTANY OF DESIRE is a documentary which tells the utterly original story of everyday plants and the way they have domesticated humankind. An interpretation of the relationship between plants and people. This two-hour documentary explores plant evolution and takes viewers from the potato fields of Peru and Idaho, the apple forests of Kazakhstan, and the tulip markets of Amsterdam. View online in it's entirety: here This is another related program by the same presenter on LINK TV (a cable access channel) which is timely: Deep Agriculture Traditional methods of agriculture in most developed nations have long ignored environmental concerns. Factors such as soil erosion, water shortage and the impact of chemicals on bio-systems have been overlooked in favour of massive crop yields and cheaper food. But what impact does this have on our health and our environment? View online in it's entirety: here __________________________ Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and witness the evolution of an Organic Kitchen Garden.

Pam, If wood chips were readily available here, I'd get them, but our electric co-op in general only does a big tree trimming about once every 10 years out here in the sticks where I live. However, I have about 10 acres of woodland full of raw material so I can gather all the wood we need even though it isn't neatly chipped. Susan, In the sandy soil on the east side of the pecan tree, our four o'clocks make humongus roots. I've seen them roots get as large as the head of an 8-10 year old child. Once the roots are big, the plants will grow as tall as 6-8' tall as long as they have something like a tall garden fence or chicken coop wall to lean against. Mine do come back reliably in the sandy soil and in well-amended clay, but do not come back as well in unimproved clay. Lisa, When I started making hugelkultur beds when we lived in Fort Worth in the 1980s, I didn't know it was a method that had a name. I just knew that my black gumbo clay needed major soil improvement, and we had cut down a tree so I stacked up that cut wood behind the shed for a couple of years and then used it to improve the flower beds and veggie garden. It was amazing what a change it made, so I've used wood and other woodland debris to build soil ever since. Pam, I first read John Jeavons' book in about the 1990s or so and employ many of his biointensive techniques, which allow me to get a huge yield from my gardening space. I believe you'll love the book and will find his methods offer many benefits. With regards to teaching people in difficult conditions to grow in buckets and bags......I am not sold on the idea unless they otherwise have no land in which to plant. I think it always would be preferable to teach them (as Ecology Action does) how to improve the soil they have in order to increase its fertility over the years. There are sustainable mini-farm techniques that can be used for food production even in very difficult climates. Any method used to teach people how to grow food successfully is good and helpful and useful, but growing in buckets and bags wouldn't be my first choice unless there were mitigating circumstances that made it impossible to grow in the ground using biointensive methods. It can be difficult to keep container plantings happy in extreme heat, and we have the advantage of having drip irrigation lines that can be placed on a timer. I cannot imagine trying to grow in those bags in low-rainfall areas or during drought periods accompanied by extreme heat. It seems like it would be hard to keep the growing medium moist enough. With regards to adapting our gardening practices to the changing climate/weather conditions, I think we have to be flexible and willing to push the limits in order to achieve success despite the weather. The recurring droughts of the 2000s make soil improvement even more important than ever before (and it always has been very important anyhow), and mulching makes a huge difference. So does careful watering using methods that don't waste water. Providing plants some relief from the sun in periods of extreme heat helps them remain happier, healthier and more productive. I use many more 'protective' techniques now than when we first moved here, and I think they make a huge difference. The first year I bought a roll of shade cloth to shade the tomato plants during extreme heat (I think it may have been during the drought of 2008), Tim was not fully on board with the idea. I am sure he was asking himself just how far I was going to go to protect those tomatoes. A few days ago he told me that he wished there was a way we could put shade cloth over the entire garden during periods of excessive heat. So, even as a non-gardener, he's learning what it takes to help the plants give the maximum production during difficult summers. Of course, our garden is far too large for it to be practical to shade all of it, but I do shade peppers and tomatoes with shade cloth during periods of extreme heat, and I also plant interplant rows of shorter plants with taller ones so the tall plants can partially shade the shorter ones. After we'd lived here 6 or 7 years, I thought I had our weather and climate all figured out, knew how to deal with it, etc......and, then, it started changing. Every year that it remains very hot and very dry, I learn more about how to deal with it. We all have to constantly adapt to whatever challenges the weather, climate, soil, pests or diseases are throwing at us. Waurika, It is always interesting to read Dr. Albrecht's writings. I spend a whole lot more time on soil improvement than on anything else and the most-improved beds always produce best whether we're in or out of drought. Last year I triple dug one large bed that is roughly 40' long and 5' wide and amended the soil as I went along. Triple digging in dense clay soil is very difficult back-breaking labor and is very time-consuming, but it is a wonderful way to improve the productivity of a planting area. I hope to double-dig or triple-dig a few more raised beds this winter. That triple-dug bed gave us a huge output of veggies this year. It grew tomatoes from March through July, southern peas from July through early November, and is growing carrots, turnips and collards now. Newspaper inks used on newsprint are non-toxic, but we shouldn't use the glossy inserts or any glossy magazine pages because they have a different kind of ink. I've used newspaper ever since we moved here and it is wonderful. Both newsprint and cardboard attract earthworms like mad. I like to put them down on the ground as the first layer of mulch and pile grass clippings and shredded leaves on top of them. As these materials break down over time, they further enrich the soil. I'm going to link the website of Ecology Action for anyone interested in learning more about biointensive, sustainable mini-farming or gardening. I also buy some seeds from Bountiful Gardens, which is affiliated with EA. (Bountiful Gardens is where I first found Piricicaba broccoli.) When I first read John Jeavons' book, it changed me so much as a gardener and the more that I used biointensive gardening techniques, the better a gardener I became. At the Ecology Action page, there is a link to Bountiful Gardens in the upper right-hand corner. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Ecology Action Website

Hey just a quick response here. I got a few extra minutes . There is a green flash. Has to be near the equator and there has to be just the right light. It is like a flashbulb goes off in your eyes and you can see it for about 15 minutes just like when someone takes your pic. We will be along A1A on Melbourne Beach. I am at the library now in Vero Beach. Sorry not to get back to you guys . Busy AM. We got to Key West as I said by ferry. Didn't ride down there LOL...thanks for thinking I am THAT fast LOL. Nope. I am feeling wonderful and the group is great. Check the crazy guy link and you can see more. The blurry photo above was Alabama Jacks. I am sorry the pic was bad. I just thought is was funny to see it. Thank you all for the rousing support. I love hearing from everyone. You can email me anytime through GW and I will get it on my cell. I will answer in the PM. We go to bed at 9 PM Eastern so if you are on the West coast the texts will wake me as I leave my cell on at night. Best to send in the mid day and will answer after dinner. THANK YOU ROSELVR !!! You are amazing. c aka eagle woman !

skrepka- Don't worry, you're not alone. I will be moving to St. Pete in JULY and I'm ready for it to be awful, especially because our "new" 1970-built house doesn't have a pool (yet). My DH may have "gamed" it a little when he took me back there for house-hunting at the end of October/first week of November when the weather was PERFECT, and he knows it! LOL. But the area meets our requirements: (1) Job: I'm retiring from the Navy but my DH does hi-tech/government work; if you haven't been to the area for a while, you might be surprised with the recent influx of hi-tech jobs in the Tampa/Pinellas/Sarasota area. My DH has a large number of choices if the move with his current company doesn't work out, which it looks like will, thankfully. (2) Schools: We're big believers in the public school system and Pinellas has the strangest system around. Good schools, great schools, awful schools. As long as there are decent schools with good programs, we're fine. There are lots of programs for upper-level kids, magnets, IB, etc. (3) Boating: Water recreation is our thing. Wanted a place to put our sailboat, where we could fish and kayak. Also, we do a lot of biking, and the 35-mile Pinellas trail is less than 2 miles from our house. My DH & I have both lived and visited all over FL thanks to our military careers (and we're both aviators). We both lived in Guam (and my DH in Key West), so we're well seasoned after surviving numerous typhoons with no option for evacuation. I don't care for the panhandle or Jax. I've only visited Orlando on a Disney vacation, and it seemed rather sprawled out to me. I thought Cocoa Beach was a nice place to visit, and I really liked Cape Coral, on the west coast. But I just love nearby St. Pete - reminds me of San Diego. We keep watching "Hoot" to keep the boys motivated! (manatees come up our canal during the rainy season). Anyway, you might want to look around a bit where the jobs might be available. If you can find a good headhunter, you could end up in a great place! Good luck! Lisa A.