1. I have no more space in the shade, yet order 15 more hostas. 2. Even other gardeners' eyes glaze over when I start going on about hostas or bring out the hosta photos. 3. I think most people's hostas are boring because they're the "green ones with the white edges." 4. I'm tempted to call the ASPCH (American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Hostas) when I see hostas limp on the ground in other people's yards in need of water. Deanna

Windy.....here is some basic info on expanded shale that I stole from an old Gardenweb thread. In my pots I use basically a cup and a half of it per 2 cups of potting soil. I use a raised bed blend. I just started using it last year so the jury is still out, but the difference in the drainage and the stopping of the overly wet "mush" is clearly evident: Expanded shale is like "Vermiculite plus"--it is, as I understand it, "popcorned" shale rock. Please realize that vermiculite is expanded, or "popcorned", mica. Mica is naturally a rock made of many fine layers--all fragile and glassy (silica rock is, basically, glass--so you have whisper-thin layers of glass puffed out, mostly apart). When expanded, mica forms a very fragile accordian shape that holds a lot of moisture--and usually some air. The air is needed to keep roots from drowning--they have to breathe, too! Alas, mica breaks down quickly into tiny blobs that can form a gray mass of blech -- say, if used at the bottom of a container. Even if the blobs are evenly distributed in your dirt-free soil mix, they still won't hold air anymore--and don't hold much water. Blobby mica is not a sterling aid to roots anymore. Solution? Add more vermiculite (at an annual cost), try another product/substance/method, or move to expanded shale. Unlike mica (which expands into a fragile accordian shape to make vermiculite), shale starts as a roundish rock. Expanded shale retains a smooth rocky appearance--just larger. (Think of corn expanding into hominy--still a distinct shape, but bulkier.) What is so wonderful about expanded shale? Expanded shale *always* retains 30% air. Even if you dump it into a bucket of water, the stuff still retains 30% air (in normal environmental conditions). This means your plants' roots always have access to air, so they are pretty much drown-proofed. Texas A&M tested solid clay soil, in a ground-level bed, with moisture-sensitive plants. Solid clay soil slew the poor test plants rapidly (as anyone with clay soil already knew.....) The plants in the bed with expanded shale survived and *thrived*--that 30% air pocket content saved them. Naturally, the 70% water pocket content provides needed moisture to plants, even in challenging conditions like raised beds/containers in 110+ degree F summers. (Probably great for vacation survival for houseplants, too. Also for people with "blue thumbs" who overwater everything....) Expanded shale is easy to use. It is useless to put a layer of expanded shale in the bottom of a container--just mix it evenly in the soil. The A&M experiment was 50% clay, 50% expanded shale. Your good compost/coir (or peat, or varied, aged compost only) soil mix will not need that much shale. Unlike the water absorbing gels, expanded shale will never swell or shrink, so you don't have to worry about the soil (and plants) heaving up or collapsing. Expanded shale weighs more like lava rock than vermiculite--and has the same ability as lava rock to remain intact for many years (centuries? millenia?) at a moderate initial investment.

Always happy to see a new time-lapse video from the "Micropolitan Museum" YouTube channel, and this one shows a worm bin scenario! "Two weeks in a typical vermicompost bin: two compost earthworm species (Eisenia fetida and Dendrobaena veneta) in a base of aged vermicompost with plenty of fresh organic kitchen waste (used coffee grounds, carrot and potato peels, celery and carrot leaves, egg shells, etc.) on top. Other fauna (mostly potworms, springtails and mites) arrived spontaneously in the compost bin through addition of garden waste." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6em_8iFfKIk Of course the food stock being layered on the top is for demonstration purposes only, but it's interesting to see how completely it gets demolished by the end

Can't say I have judged others after they are dead, but I always look for social media content on new leaders at work. Where they live and pictures of their homes and décor can tell you a lot about the person. There was actually a study done where a manager had to hire college students for a job based solely on an interview and some staff solely on an examination of their dorm room. The students selected by the examination of their dorm room performed much better than the students selected through interview.