Axel: Searching best apples Santa Cruz, a bunch of your posts came up. Thanks for sharing your expertise. I went to the Nursery to buy a Gala apple bare root, choosing Gala because there is one growing a few doors away from my yard. My former neighbor gave me some of the apples which were very good, better than store bought. But the man at the nursery said the Pink Lady is a much better apple than the Gala. I asked if it would do well in my area of Santa Cruz, which is in Live Oak by the upper harbor by Capitola Road. He assured me that it would. But when I got home I read the tags; they said that Pink Lady is for hot climates, so I wonder if I should take it back tomorrow and get the Gala or another variety. What do You think? Do You know if Pink Lady will ripen well in my neighborhood? Among store-bought organic apples, I like the Pink Lady the best, then the Braeburn, and the Gala third. It would be nice to grow an apple that keeps well and (optionally) could be eaten raw or cooked. I'd probably prefer a later ripening variety than one that ripens in summer when there are still plenty of other fruits available. It's pretty warm where I live, but probably nothing like the summer heat where you live. Aren't you in Grape-growing country in the SC mountains? Which red or reddish apple would develop the best flavor in my area,on a dwarf or semi-dwarf stock, and ripen for sure? I don't even know for sure what chill requirements mean, but it has gone below freezing maybe 10 times in the last couple months, which is probably a bit more than usual. Any advice you give me will be greatly appreciated. The other trees I'd like to plant are a pineapple guava and a Japanese plum. Both have been observed growing in my area, and both make delicious fruit, although no-one knows what varieties they are. Thank-you, I really enjoy your posts. -Gala (like the apple, I always say)

Oooooh! This is a fun one Weldon. I have good luck finding songs when I Google the word : "lyrics" and the phrase from each song I remember such as "There once was a farmer who took a young miss" Here's what I found for you: "One for the Wonder": scroll down this web page and the lyrics are listed: http://www.wagglepop.com/stores/bond-vintage-sheet-music?disp=view&listingID=25152&data= "A You're Adorable": http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Youre_Adorable.htm "White Coral Bells": http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/whitecor.htm "Sweet Violets"-looks like there may be more than one version of this one: http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Sweet_Violets_2.htm Thanks for prompting me to look up a couple of silly camp songs I'd forgotten. Unfortunately, I can't find mine!

often on my way to work i'll play talking heads and i'll laugh myself all the way there w/ this... i'm on the road to nowhere (LOL) WELL WE KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOIN' BUT WE DON'T KNOW WHERE WE'VE BEEN AND WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE KNOWIN' BUT WE CAN'T SAY WHAT WE'VE SEEN AND WE'RE NOT LITTLE CHILDREN AND WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT AND THE FUTURE IS CERTAIN GIVE US TIME TO WORK IT OUT We're on a road to nowhere Come on inside Takin' that ride to nowhere We'll take that ride I'm feelin' okay this mornin' And you know, We're on the road to paradise Here we go, here we go CHORUS Maybe you wonder where you are I don't care Here is where time is on our side Take you there...take you there We're on a road to nowhere We're on a road to nowhere We're on a road to nowhere There's a city in my mind Come along and take that ride and it's all right, baby, it's all right And it's very far away But it's growing day by day And it's all right, baby, it's all right They can tell you what to do But they'll make a fool of you And it's all right, baby, it's all right We're on a road to nowhere i'm an 80's child, extremely well educated, working in a job where i'm well paid but utilize very little of my knowledge and feel like i'm going nowhere fast...lol but atleast well paid lol. it's part of a bigger plan for my life... another fav is sinatra's the best is yet to come. it was the last song at both of our wedding receptions. it represents to me that even thou i've have a fabulous life so far there is even more fabulous thigs still ahead. i absolutely worship music and have tons of songs that have meaning for something in my past or life now that i relate to all the time :-) ~ liz

What is in a pot does not matter, as long as it's not toxic to the plant in some way, just its' texture & ability to retain moisture & oxygen @ the same time. If it has no inherent fertility, very effective fertilizers exist to serve those needs. I don't doubt you at all. I don't have access to ingredients for that so I can't offer any feedback about it. If buying a bag, I look for cactus/palm soil, but go more by weight over what it says, and look for a broke bag to inspect and make sure there's no peat in it, and hopefully not much perlite. If it's not lightweight for its' size, it's not helping me reduce the weight of larger pots, and probably not going to help with keeping more oxygen in the soil. Digression alert, probably on this whole post... I don't want to be confusing either, and do not offer any of this as a recommendation because it has evolved over quite some time of trial'n'error, and other, personal factors like personal acute dislike of perlite & seeing those little white things in my pots, a lot of reading about roots & microbiology, dislike of spending much $ to have something in a pot in which a plant can grow, realizing that if there is no peat, I can probably keep a plant alive, ...and especially to someone in the middle of a city without a yard. I'll use anything but peat/potting soil, and often add some roughage from compost pile. Dracaenas grow fine in ground dirt from the "good dirt" part of a tended plot, especially if I'm going to repot them often anyway. Fine for smaller plants but way too heavy for a plant of decent size. Since all old "dirt" gets put into flower beds, I don't put anything in pots that I wouldn't put in/on the ground. This is why I quit buying flats of annuals to use in the ground and started putting my house plants instead, because I kept finding styrofoam instead of perlite in the soil of them. I refuse to bury other people's non-biodegradable trash in my yard.