Oh, man. I swear I don't know what is wrong with my thumb!! Sometimes it is nice and green. other times, it must be dormant or something. I am the only person I know who cannot get invasives to stick! Come to think of it, I had a backyard full of bittersweet. We removed a bunch of it, and it is mostly gone! Go figure!(haven't had the same luck with poison ivy, but the population IS dwindling...) Anyway, I have planted about 15 pips in the past few years and only ONE has come up in spring! Now, I'm still hopeful for this year's crop(which I just planted last year), but so far, nothing. I also cannot get MINT to grow, which I'm sure will amuse some people to no end! As for the LOV, well, after reading one post in particular, maybe I'll be lucky if it doesn't take where I last planted it because it's right next to a concrete walk. If it starts lifting THAT, my husband will stuff every delicate blossom right up my nose (the better to enjoy the lovely fragrance..). So I'll find a place in the woods...so that the bunny and deer can enjoy them, and plant some new pips there...ho-hum...

Terri: Heat strips are electric coils that can be installed into SOME mini split heat pumps, most any standard split house hold system will accept them. Its just a little box with bare electric coils that in an emergency or when the temp is so cold the heat pump wont work the electric coils kick in and the blower blows the hot air off of them. The biggest problem is there more expensive to operate than the heat pump. Depending in where you live you can get them usually in 5kw banks. In south Alabama 5kw was enough in the north 10kw to 20kw would be a better choice. The more expensive mini splits usually can be fitted with them and I have seen them advertised as included. I am an electronic engineer and handy man, plumbing, electric framing roofing anything I think I can handle I do I was the designer and contractor on my last house. 1/2 the time I haven't a clue what I'm about to do but I research for weeks before I try. By no means do I know it all, however when I needed a heat/cooling system for my new business office as in the above post I did my research and bought a mini split system off the internet. I did the complete install in 1/2 day. I would not recommend just any one to do it though. I had the gages and vacuum pump to pump the system down which I would recommend you have a pro do, should cost about $100. I think most handy men could do the rest of the install in 1/2 day. You need a 220v 20 amp circuit if you have NO heat strips. The most important thing is to make sure you don't get anything into the copper tubes including moisture. I paid $900 shipped for the unit. It is NOT an inverter compressor which the one you are looking at is. The inverter technology varies the speed of the compressor to save electricity when you don't need full cooling or heat. However almost every other one I have seen the blower varies the speed depending on how much air flow you need and the compressor runs full tilt as in most house hold systems. I found out the inverter compressors can have a higher failure rate and cost more to repair and over 5 years don't save that much. Others may disagree. Its a personal decision. If you purchase a good name brand 12,000BTU heat pump over the internet about $1500 - $2500 is the norm. Non name brand $600 - $1100, inverter compressor add $500. 1/2 day labor to install it and 1 hour from an air condition tech, although many will not connect the system unless they also install it, a racket in my opinion. You can find a local guy to do it, if you look. I would think that a 9000 BTU unit would be big enough unless you have a lot of equipment heating the room a lot of bodies inside, or lot of windows. If you look on the net you can find calculators to calculate your heat load. If your afraid of the do it your self route than a pro is the best choice, although expect to pay 2x to 3x more. Right now I'm researching surface electric heat wire to warm a cold floor. Good luck.

I live in Lovettsville, VA, which is in Loudoun County. We are considered "Northern Virginia" and are just outside of Washington, DC. I grew up in Fairfax County, which is even closer to DC than where I live now. I feel lucky to have grown up near DC and try not to take it for granted. It's still pretty amazing driving over the bridge and seeing a view of all the memorials from the car.

I live in Gulfport, Ms. Until Katrina I loved it here, now I have a few doubts, I lost my brand new home,we had lived in it 8 days,it was hit by a tornado. We are now back in our home and working very hard at making this house into a home. We have been here 28 years, I say I wasn't born in the South but got here as fast as I could. I grew up in Chillicothe,Ohio. Love the forum, also garden junk forum. Nancy