Hi, I'm new to ferns too-just bought a Bird's Nest fern and it's doing very well. My mom has grown a Rabbit's foot fern for years. She doesnt do anything special except put it under the shower for a few minutes once a week. She doesnt mist. It does lose its leaves (some) in winter-this is normal for this fern-but they grow back quickly. It likes morning sun, nothing too bright and my mom fertilizes it w/Miracle Gro every time she waters. It really is an unusual plant w/the "feet" and all. You cant even see the pot on my moms plant! They dont seem too difficult to grow. Good luck! : ) Jen

Rodger, welcome back! I was afraid the USDA had you locked up, for attempting to take their entire pea collection. (lol) Glad to hear that so many of your seed crops went well, I remember your post about the "Insuk's Wang Kong" being knocked down by wind. It was a challenging year for many of us, although it ended up being pretty productive. You're living my dream, Rodger; I hope to grow large-scale seed crops when I retire. It's a labor of love. For now, I can only grow small preservation plantings. For me, I'm not sure what the future holds. A job promotion last Fall has improved my situation financially, but the increased hours will be cutting into the time I usually spend with family & garden. I'll be continuing my preservation efforts, but perhaps at a reduced level... I'll see how it goes this Summer. My vegetable list for 2009 is still a work in progress; it never gets firmed up until I get the SSE yearbook, and search it for items on my wish list. It should be out any day now. I will be re-growing "Sangre de Toro" as a dry bean. While it showed great potential last year, the rabbits severely damaged it (all but 3 vines!), and I want to see what it can do without interference. The entire garden will be surrounded by rabbit fencing this year, the losses last year were intolerable. "Ma Williams" will be my main shell bean this year, it's time to replenish my seed stocks - and my freezer. "Kentucky Wonder White #191" will be my main pole snap, 4 plants last year gave me 3 pounds of seed!!! "Atlas" (bush shell), "Emerite" (pole snap), "Snowcap" (pole shell) and several others that have yet to be chosen will be for trial & preservation. Hopefully a couple new varieties from the USDA as well. Will be growing "King of the Garden" limas this year, a variety that has proven difficult here in the past. I've gotten much better at starting limas as transplants, so I think it has a good chance of success. Another lima will be chosen from the Yearbook for preservation. For cowpeas, I will be growing several heirlooms from SSE; "Green Dixie" (a very large-seeded "eye" pea with light green seed), "Speckled Purple Hull" (small brown & tan seed), and "Thailand Pole" (grey seed, possible use as yardlong). All are pole or semi-pole. Will be growing two yardlongs as well, haven't decided which ones yet. Weather permitting (and that is a big "if" after last year) I will be conducting a large trial of English peas this year, at least 10 commercial varieties. Probably all of those currently listed by Vermont Bean Seed, plus several others. I will be focusing on yield, rather than earliness... and since they will likely be planted late, on heat resistance. "Green Arrow" is my standard. Other stuff too... yes, I do grow more than just beans, believe it or not. But since this is the bean forum, I'll post the rest elsewhere. Rodger, can't make promises that far ahead, but I'm going to try like blazes to make that Fall Harvest Festival. Quite a few people will be there that I'd like to meet. I'd like to participate in the seed swap as well, if this Northerner wouldn't be upsetting the apple cart. ;-) Hope to be seeing a lot of you here this Summer!

We had out gutters, eaves, downspouts, front porch, screened porch, driveway and garage door pressured-cleaned Thursday. He only charged $80 and did a beautiful job. I gave him a little extra because in my mind it was worth so much more! We're an end unit so we have more "stuff" to clean.

This might have been mentioned. (I didn't read everything.) If you had a groundcover below the trees, there stands a good chance that many leaves would disappear into it as they sift down, and then just convert to "mulch" over time. I don't think it looks good to have shrubs below the trees as it seems everything is competing visually with everything else. It could either be a tree form with groundcover below, or a shrub form that is allowed to cover all the ground space. Whatever plant (tree or shrub) you pick, if it's reasonably narrow, I wouldn't worry about some if it crossing the property line as that's just the way life is with limited space yards. It happens everywhere. The neighbor has the right to cut back to the property line. Also, I wouldn't worry that a plant is labeled necessarily as "tree" or "shrub". For small trees and large shrubs this is a massive "grey area." Many plants can fit either category depending on how you prune them.