"Courtney, MG has an agenda on these forums, which is to get people to embrace conventional agriculture with it's huge scale, poisons, synthetic fertilizers, depleting of underground aquifers, chimerical genetics, and etc. He's been scolded for bringing that agenda to this particular forum, so now he resorts to sneaky stratagems like claiming that his home-grown produce tastes the same as some tired junk grown on depleted fields, picked too early and sitting around in a truck and store shelf for a week or more." thanks pnbrown for telling us that! Once I heard him say he makes sauce from canned tomatoes I knew something was up! ;)

CMK, that is interesting about eggplant liking pots. I started planting a salad garden in pots and window boxes on my back deck a few years ago. I didn't really think about eggplant though. I'll have to try it this year. I find that leaf lettuce does very well in window boxes. I also grow baby cukes in pots and let them trail down the deck railings. I've also done peppers and tomatoes in pots. I mix in a few small pots of nicotiana (not near the tomatoes...does that really cause problems?? i've heard they should not be combined) so the hummingbirds come to feed. Woodyoak, how deep are the windowboxes you use to grow carrots? And which carrots do you choose to grow in them? I've been seeing more pictures of large pots in amongst plants in the garden and I think I may try to experiment more with that. Does anyone have pictures of pots fully incorporated into their perennial/shrub borders as a focal point? Also, does everyone in wintry climates bring their pots inside in the winter? Has anyone found a type of pot that does not crack with the freeze/thaw cycles of winter?

Our favorite use of basil (apart from pesto) is this Thai noodle dish, from Real Thai by Nancy McDermon. We eat this pretty much every week during the basil growing season. It works with any kind of basil, in my opinion. 3 c. wide rice noodles, soaked in boiling water for 10 min, then drained. 2 Tbs minced hot peppers 1 Tbs chopped garlic 1 Tbs sugar 1/4 tsp salt Ground black pepper to taste 3 Tbs fish sauce 1 tsp soy sauce 2-4 Tbs veg. oil 1/4 lb ground pork, beef, turkey, or chicken 3/4 c. chopped basil or mint small handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered Get everything ready before you begin. Combine your sugar, salt, pepper in one small bowl, and the fish sauce and soy in another. Put all the other ingredients next to the stove. Heat a large, deep skillet over med high heat, add oil. When hot, add garlic. Toss 30 sec. Add chiles and toss another 30 sec. Add the ground meat, breaking it up with your spatula. Cook till brown. Add the sugar mixture and toss to mix. Add the fish sauce mixture and stir fry until the sauce bubbles and thickens slightly (~1 min.). Turn the heat down a bit and add the rice noodles and turn to coat in the sauce, about 1 min. Add the basil, turning to wilt. Add the tomatoes, fold in, and remove from heat. Enjoy! I like to add a bit more fish sauce to my plate of noodles.

Here is my list - - Additional blocking in the framing stage to accomodate grab bars, towel bars etc. Additional blocking being the slidebar of the shower also makes it sturdier to use as a grab bar. - Kerdi board for waterproofing - Heated wires throughout the floor including the shower area - Tall niches with shelves sized to fit the costco sized bottles - Tile that is not too slippery for the floor. Also used epoxy grout to make future maintenance easier. - frameless shower doors - we did pay a couple hundred dollars extra for the really clear glass - U-groove frameless - One of the bathrooms is curbless to accomodate access issues. Has nice looking grab bars and a folding teak shower seat that is ADA rated to 400lbs. - LED cans (california code) - Elongated Toto skirted toilets with sanigloss to make the cleaning easier - the special lutron switches where the fans stay on an extra 20 mins to clear all the steam. we used them with panasonic fans which are much much quieter than what we had in the past - wall mounted heated towel rods - hooks instead of towel bars.. I just preferred the more streamlined look of hooks - plug outlets inside the vanity to charge things. - wheeled laundry basket with divers to sort laundry has a niche to be tucked in. - separate toilet stall with a door. We did not do comfort height as we are not overly tall people. Elongated toto toilets with an integrated skirt to make cleaning easier and a GFCI outlet to plug in a washlet. - paper towel holder from Moen that doubles as a grab bar in the ADA bathroom. - accomodated for daylight (skylight or a window) in both the bathrooms to help people to wake up in the morning.. I love the daylight. - radio for listening in the morning. We are big public radio fans - wall mounted lighted makeup mirror - mirror defogger to prevent the mirror from getting steamed up.. - vac pan at the floor level that connects to our central vac system to make daily cleanups a breeze. I am picky about hair on the floor - solid core doors to prevent bathroom noises from being heard outside. I often have to get ready before dawn and the shower noise wakes DH up. - recirculating pump for our tankless to avoid warm water delays. Ours is integrated into the tankless. - Hansgrohe ibox to get the thermostatic control to preset the preferred temprature - Ebbe integrated drain that has a hidden hair snare. - Handheld shower with a longer hose to make it easier to clean the walls. - rain shower on a longer arm so that you can stand away from the wall.