Hi there! The frenzy is beginning, i see! It must be the mild winter, and the groundhogs' forecast, eh? I did all my winter sowing in January - well, all the perennials anyway. Forty-two containers! I'll probably start annuals around the end of March, beginning of April. I've been going through catalogues and making lists, but haven't ordered anything yet. Oh wait, i lied. I forgot - i did a small order from Botanus because some of the things i wanted said "limited quantities". So, i've ordered Aster dumosus 'Schneekissen', Hemerocallis hybrida 'First Knight' (really pretty!), Heucherella 'Stoplight', Phlox subulata 'Candy Stripe', and 2 Trillium undulatum. I've always wanted some trilliums and finally succumbed! :) Checking my notes, Debbie - i sowed impatiens and petunias on February 13 last year. This year i'm going to try to hold off until the end of February because i ended up with so much in the house after taking cuttings and then cuttings of the cuttings - it was a little crazy! And i'm hoping for a nicer May so that i can take things outside sooner. If the snow goes early enough, i may get a greenhouse, but i'm not holding my breath! Here's a hint for avoiding damping off. Water your seedlings with chamomile tea. I did that last year and everything was fine. You can also sprinkle cinnamon on your soil and that's supposed to prevent it too. Coincidentally, i just got myself a shredder today. It was on sale at Walmart for only $5, so if it calves out on me, i'm not out too much. I was reading on another forum where people shred junk mail and use it in compost, and i thought that was a heck of a good idea. There's always a lot of extra paper around here so i might as well make dirt as burn it! Geo, you should check the discount aisle at Walmart. I don't know if Thunder Bay's store has one, but ours in Dryden has some gardening things on sale. Today i got a pretty wrought iron plant hook - not a huge discount, but a bit of a deal. There were quite a few others there, as well as some different containers. I haven't found any deals at Canadian Tire yet, but our Co-op had McKenzie seeds on for 33¢ each! Back to the weather - it's -25° tonight! That's about as cold as it has been all winter! It isn't supposed to last. Good thing because that feels darn cold this year!! I guess that means i should be off to snuggle under the duvet! Happy garden dreams, everyone! Marcia

Hi everyone It's been cold here the past few days. The new back door we had put in it May is letting in lots of drafts, the hinges are icing up. The door company guy said this is normal? Ha! Then why is the top hinge not icy? He put some new weatherstripping around the middle and lower hinge but they have still iced up. It is a metal clad door and he said the cold from outside is coming thru the steel and inner core and icing up the hinges. I don't think so, but we are not getting anywhere with this. Plus the guy didn't know any English, and I don't speak French so son was trying his best to translate. It's hard to communicaet when u don't speak the others language, and hand signals don't really cut it when your trying to explain about a door. I would like to know if any of u have steel clad doors on your homes and if the hinges ice up on yours? I don't know what to do,,,,all the thousands of dollars we have spent at the building center and for Robage windows and doors in the last year and we are getting treated like this? Ok, enough about that. I am still busy doing my seeds. I planted some more impatiens and silver wave and mixed carpet petunias the other day. The geraniums I have in wet paper towels on top of the fridge are germinating nicely and I plant some in small pots every night. I have also started two types of coleus. Some of the geraniums that I had in paper bags over the winter and I potted up are getting leaves on them, so I'm happy about that. I think I brought up the amaryllis too soon as they are getting leaves on them but no flower stalks. *sigh* so looks like I'm not going to get many flowers from this 10, but I have a bunch more in the basement. *L* Marcia, I think I will try Dominion Seed next year as I'm getting tired of Mcfaydens. I don't know how u save petunia seeds. I can never see where the plant hides the seeds...you'll have to take a pic of your petunias for me where the seeds are hidden, ok? *L* If your petunias get too big before it is time for them to go out to the garden U could do like I'm going to do, take cuttings from them and put some rooting hormone on them and see if they will root. If u have geraniums in the garage, won't they have frozen or is your garage heated? Sorry to hear your having trouble with spider mites, I hope the dish soap will help get rid of them. Do u mist them too? I have read that they don't like humidity. We haven't hit 0 here yet, still waiting. But don't want it to melt too quick in case of floods etc. I am feeling better now and I too got the flu shot, but I'm the only one in the family that did. I just wish they'd learn not to share germs. *L* How are the house projects coming along? Did u get the floor, siding, painting etc done? Hi Rani and Lindi Rani, zone 6? Where abouts are u located? Zone 6 would be around Toronto, I think. Hollyhocks are biannuals, I think. Which means they will bloom the second year and reseed themselves. They grow the first year and bloom the second, then die. But I'm not sure on this, maybe someone else would know. Hollyhocks are not hardy where I live, though I have tried them, love them. I would also suggest to go to your local library and get some gardening books. I have read every gardening book in our local library, they might even have some gardening videos u could borrow too. I also think that daturas are tropical plants, if they are the ones I'm thinking of, so they won't have survived the winter if u left them outside. You might also want to go to some garden club meetings or horticultural meetings in your area too and ask people there questions, they are usually very good to answer questions. Lindi, I have a small pond here too that son and I dug about 8 years ago. I love the sound of water, it is conforting. Also love hostas and lilies! I have about 70 different types of hostas and oh about 300 lilies,,,but not all different types. I love lilies they are my fav flower. Hubs and I just redid my gardens last year. Moved a lot of hostas from the back yard to the front amongst my roses. If u have any questions we will try and help you. Take care Debbie :-)

Parking in Indian Rocks Beach- there is some free parking, it's right across the street from Keegan's (great food!) and it is a row of parking- about 15 - 20 cars can go there and if you get there early enough, like around 10 AM or so, you can stay all day. And one block north is a car park area where you pay to park and it has nice restrooms and I think a shower for getting the sand and salt off. It's across from Guppies Restaurant, which also has good food, but I like Keegan's better. This is at 16th and 17th streets on Gulf Blvd. The beach house we go to is between those 2 streets, that's how I know this for sure. And there are other areas that have free parking, too, you just have to learn what to look for. We have walked to Caladesi Island, we parked at the northern most park south of the "island" and walked about 2 miles up, I would guess. The part that made it an island before got filled in with sand some years ago. That's the place where the rogue seagull stole Woody's big, fresh london broil sandwich right out of his hand! It was a riot. Oh, you can usually find sand dollars up there, too.

We used to go to the Florida beaches regularly and our all time favorite was Grayton Beach and the Destin Area in general. Wonderful seafood restaurants, very laid back, lots of fun things to do and go to. And some of the prettiest white sugar sand beaches, so clean. We loved the state park at Grayton Beach, we would park the RV there and really enjoyed it. The beaches were wonderful and you could be the only person on the beach for miles. But we have not been able to do that in quite a while so things do change and it may have but I know how beautiful those white sand beaches are that will be the same I am sure. Definitely worth checking out. They do have very nice cabin rentals there also. Grayton Beach