I am wanting to do a trade. I would LOVE to try your: SOLAR FLARE variety and only need about 5 seeds. I have these varieties that I did not notice on your list: Burgess Lemon (only 5 seeds from Wintersown and several years old) Hovarth (only 2 seeds left from Wintersown and several year old) Peacevine Cherry (10 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) God Love (5 seeds from Kenyon Organics, probably 2 years old) Abe Lincoln (about 10 from Livingston Seed Co, less than year old) San Marzano (about 10 from Organic Ferry-Morse, less that year old) I am rather new to this forum and unsure how to proceed. Is there a way you can message me to exchange addresses? I can send a SASE.

I'm on two acres in semi-rural central Massachusetts, bordering conservation land (wetlands). This is the first time I've thought about itemizing what I've seen in my four years, here. It's a long list, and I'm sure it's just a fraction! We have a pond, and keep half the property meadow. (Maybe, by some standards, the whole thing is a meadow....) I've been putting up birdhouses, lately. We see (in rough order of how interesting...) great blue herons, red tail hawks, egrets, a large flock of cedar waxwings, redwing blackbirds, barn sparrows (how do they know it's a barn?), downy/hairy/piliated/red-breasted woodpeckers, orioles, juncos, nuthatches, and the usual finches, bluejays, cardinals, yadda yadda yadda. A wood duck down the road, and I wish he'd visit. Spring peepers (I can't wait for them to come back!), leopard frogs, other various frogs and toads, garter/ribbon/maybe milk snakes, 4-toed salamanders. Turtles nearby, but not at my pond. In the pond, various snails, leeches, more frogs, infinite insects (especially mosquitoes). In the orchard, every pest an apple tree has ever known. Mice, groundhogs, rabbits, grey squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks. Coyotes, foxes, deer. Neighbors have seen a bear and reportedly minks, but not me. Beavers have us surrounded, but they are not my own yard. Some lovely spiders, and some plain ones too. Lots of paper wasps and various bees. More mosquitoes. In fact, mostly, we have mosquitoes. And worms. --Jonathan

Hi beebs, It is my understanding that the reputation of Eucalyptus for limb-shear has been extrapolated from the few to the many. As a general rule of themb, the eucalypts which make good building material are also good strong trees in the paddock, and don't deserve to be lumped with the widowmakers like river redgum and the angophoras. Ironbark is one of the strongest, and a tree you could trust where, for example, you might trust an English oak. Do you want to go with dry sclerophyll plants such as melaleucas and callistemons, ar are you more interested in a rainforesty look? Dry sclerophyll plants burn like a bomb, whereas the "dry rainforest" species tend to be a bit hard to set alight. They are also usually good at growing in a crowd, even in the difficult situiation of under eucalypts. Pittosporums are notably fire-retardant, and are lovely civilised things to live with - not to big and amenable to pruning for thicker growth or size control. Members of the Sapindaceae family are particularly deep rooted and get down below the eucalypt roots to a space of their own. They include Alectryon, Arytera, Atalaya, Cupaniopsis, Diploglottis, Dodonaea, Elattostachys, Guoia, Harpullia, and Heterodendron - plenty of good shrubs and small trees there. And all those dry rainforest things are drought hardy and never need watering after their first six weeks. Hoveas also have a reputation of preferring the under gumtree site. Another gem worth trying is the little Ironbark orchid, Dendrobium aemulum, which you can usually get from nurseries, and might like to attach to the south side of your tree. Trish

Many watermelons have set fruit. I'm not sure which kinds they are, but probably Santo Domingo Winter hybrids are among them. My most vigorous muskmelon plant, so far, is my Honeycomb x Torpeda F3. Germination was excellent on that one, too. The other Honeycomb types are different. A volunteer muskmelon is pretty vigorous, too, as is my Noir de Carmes x Metki Dark Green Serpent F2. The muskmelons I'm growing, this year, include these: * Honeycomb x Torpeda F3 (plants in two locations) * Honeycomb F2 * Honeycomb x Ashkahabad? F2 * Noir De Carmes x Metki Dark Green Serpent F2 * Charley's Pride offtype * Unknown volunteer * Orange Flesh Honeydew * Conoe Creek Colossal I'm not growing Kirkman, nor Torpeda, this year. Kirkman was pretty late, last year, and it didn't have a winter muskmelon type shelf-life. Absolutely all of my watermelons and muskmelons are from saved seeds (or else are volunteers), this year. Some of my peppers set fruit by a day or two ago. I'd have to look up what kinds they are, but there's at least one Pepperoncini type that has set fruit among them. Watermelons I'm growing include at least these: * Santo Domingo Winter * Santo Domingo Dark Green * Santo Domingo Brown Seeded * Navajo Red * Navajo Winter * Weeks NC Giant crosses * Wintermelon * Winter Queen * King Winter * Carolina Cross #183 I'm not growing Verona, nor the Congo types, this year (although it's possible they cross-pollinated something). Based on previous years, the earliest watermelons to get ripe might be Santo Domingo Winter, followed by Weeks NC Giant crosses, Santo Domingo Dark Green, and Carolina Cross #183, in no particular order. However, with probable cross-pollination, things are less sure than they otherwise might be. I expect the earliest muskmelon might be either the Honeycomb F2 or the Honeycomb x Torpeda F3, or possibly Noir de Carmes x Metki Dark Green Serpent F2.