I found two great places that you can find pretty much anywhere. Home Depot: surprisingly cheap containers. I found square 6.5 gallon planters for about $7 there (I included a link to my blog that shows what they look like) WalMart: Has 11.4 gallon flexible tubs in black, red, green, and dark blue. These are perfect for tomatoes and pretty much anything else you want to plant. They are also cheap for the size: about $6 each. I also agree with the poster above about visiting your local nursery/garden supply store. They are the best place to get cheap nursery pots (often 5 gallon pots are around $3.50 here). If you only need a couple, I would get the planters, since they look better (in my opinion anyway) and are more sturdy. Here is a link that might be useful: Link to my blog about containers

I recommend Horizon herbs. They have an excellent selection and are very conscientious about the organic standards they adhere to. I am pretty sure they have a combination pack of the four (4) different types of tulsi. Hth

I am sorry for your disappointment - but I believe it is a misunderstanding. You can only get good size blooming plants - if they are delivered in a certain way - packed in sleeves, set in boxes with lids way above flowers, sent across the country in climate controlled trucks and opened looking no worse for the wear. Translates - Optimara. Big plants are quite breakable - and will not come in one piece if sent through the regular post. Good local nursery is a best bet for blooming plants. You won't get the varieties that Violet Barn sells - and you most probably won't get named plants - but you will get a very nice gift for your family and friends. I hope you will agree with my explanation. If not - you can run an experiment - take a good size blooming violet - pack it to your best - and send it across the country. Ask your addressee to send you a photo of what he gets. Broken leaves, soil all over the place, wilted flowers... And yes - every so often when Violet Barn is out of good size plants - they send new starters way too early. They should mark these varieties as "Out of Stock" and keep growing them for another month. They do not do it all the time - but - happens. I am not saying they should send big blooming plants - but sturdy well established starter is expected. Usually they have excellent plants in a beginning of the season. i.

eks, I was having plugmold installed on my island yesterday and was sick when I saw the result, so I googled it to find pictures and a possible solution. In my search, I found several GW threads which had some links in them, some of which seemed to be online sources but I didn't look closely. I don't have them up but if you google plugmold or plugmold power strip and look at the results, either on p 1 or p 2 should be several GW threads. There is also a place within that result to click "More results on this site". Also, the pm my electrician got is distinctly off-white. I asked him if it came in other colors. He said no, but the painter could paint it. Now, I'm not putting much stock in his base of knowledge about various options. I've found that most tradespeople who work with my GC use one or maybe a small handful of products and don't even look at what else is available. He didn't admit until I pushed and pushed that the junction box didn't need to be sticking out further, or that there was another slim option that didn't have to have the big box. He finally agreed to extend the strip to cover the wires and eliminate the box. Nice guy, but he and his crew have no idea about aesthetics and just do what they are told. (You'd think they'd come find me and say "This is sticking way out, are you sure this is what you want?" but they just go ahead without any thinking. Why would I want a beige 3" wide box extending from my white white cabinets under my black granite?) Sorry for the vent. Gotta do it somewhere! Anyway, HTH!