I wrote a piece in my garden column about how to set up a garden blog. You can view it at: www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/feb22.html. I interviewed David at leavemealoneimdigging.blogspot.com for the article. I enjoy his blog and also love Greensboro Birds (she put her link above, but here it is again: www.greensborobirds.com). Her photography and writing are superb, and it sustained me through the dreary winter. Other blogs I like are May Dreams Garden (maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com) and Tim Wood's The Plant Hunter (plant-quest.blogspot.com/). My own blog is mainly about gardening and nature, with an occasional off-topic entry. I keep a separate "for my eyes only" blog in which I record rainfall amounts, phenology notes, etc. It works so much better for me than the willy-nilly attempt I've made in the past to keep journal entries in Word. The "labels" feature allows you to neatly file things for easy retrieval later. I really had no idea of the immense offerings of the blogosphere until I set up a blog myself. Now I'm hooked on so many blogs, not limited to gardening. My cat even has her own blog! I highly recommend blogging to any gardener. Carla/Ratgirl (no relation to Paghat, though I love her Web site too) Here is a link that might be useful: My Back Yard

Pineresin, no doubt, deer will eat hollies, but they have neither touched the one in my front yard, nor the Nellie Stevens and Foster Hollies in my neighbors yard. I know they will eat most anything if they are hungry enough, but our yards have been spared. Bboy, thanks for your "research." Excuse my ignorance, but the Satyr Hill is only available in the female form?? So I guess I just hope that it will produce berries, considering there are many hollies in close proximity to where these hollies will be planted. My knowledge with ilex opaca very is limited and that is why these forums are a great resource. Thank you, Bboy! Yes, kman, you are a stick in the mud. There is no holly forum of which I am aware, guess I should have posted in the Trees forum. Have you any worthwhile comments to add re. the topic? I thank all of you who offered helpful information and advice. I think I will take my chances and go for the Satyr Hill Hollies.

..... What does concern me is the return you are experiencing. ..... The primary reason we did not recognize a higher return was because of mistakes. As I said in my earlier post I spoke with some chefs early in the year hoping to get ideas of what to grow and how much. They where not very helpful in that regard so I took a stab at it. A good example of one of our mistakes was lettuce mix. We get $4.00 a bag at the restaurants (about a pound in a bag), however we way over planted and ended up taking extra to local produce auctions, one day we took about 40 lbs and ended up with $.25 (yeah thats 25 cents) for the bunch. Needless to say after that I feed the excess to my compost pile. So, because we had way to much in the spring I backed off on the amount I planted, only to discover that in the heat of summer you simply don't get as much per cutting or as many cuttings till the stuff bolts. As a result we did not have enough to keep all the restaurants supplied and of course we wasted valuable growing space on the excesses in the spring. ....... Seeing that the book was published 23 years ago, shouldn't the average price of produce per square foot be much higher than the $5.40 (or even $5.75) that Mel calculates on page 81 of Ca$h From Square Foot Gardening? ....... Is there a reason why you haven't updated your expected return to match modern organic prices? Can you tell me a little more about where you are located and what the local market is like? ....... As far as updating the prices and getting more per square foot depends on alot of factors. I am located in southeast PA, just outside of Lancaster County the produce capital of the northeast I believe. We have a large produce wholesaler (Four Seasons Produce) that buys from local farmers in season and resells to stores and restaurants as well as three produce auctions within about a 20 minute drive so it is a competitive market and alot of the produce available from the restaurant suppliers is local when in season. This fact forced me to keep my prices to the lower side of the normal range in order to help open the doors. Now that we have relationships established and happy chefs I believe I will be able to raise my prices somewhat and still have the business. As to the $25.00 per square foot, maybe in TX with the longer growing season, but I doubt that would be possible in PA especially in my area. Some examples of prices I charged and the going range in my area Romaine lettuce $.75.....Price range $.75 - $1.25 Lettuce Mix $4.00 LB....Price range $3.00 - $4.00 LB Tomatoes $2.00 - $4.00 LB....Price range $.25 - $4.00 Bell Peppers $.25 ea or $8.00 1/2 bu....Price range $.25 - $.50 ea or $8.00 - $16.00 full bushell Scallions $1.00 bunch...Price range $.75 - $1.25 bunch

I knew I should have clicked on this thread yesterday! lol Jaybird, I was the one that led Corey here. I felt bad for the way she was treated - then banned. Hers is one blog (besides AM) I check on every single day. If you haven't read in awhile, go back a few weeks and read about their motorcycle trip. JaneF had asked to use my kitchen in KWL. Several months later, she asked if I was interested in writing a shopping post once a week. It's fun, but sometimes takes longer than it should to write. I tend to find an item, then get interested in something else.....then something else, etc etc. lol funcolors, I am following you on Twitter. Look forward to checking out everyone's blogs!