Our voles and squirrels are also very excited that tulips are so cheap and plentiful at stores.

Spider plants, if you can find a spot it loves it is amazing. A local friend gave me her small dying plant probably 15 years ago. She just couldn't convince it to live. Turned out it loved my house in the big east windows. The plants are shaded by direct sun by 3 foot x 2 foot sheets of plexiglass painted to look like stained glass (the sheets go up against the glass to help protect all the plants up on the upper window shelves during the winter from the cold drafts. They stay there all year. The windows go up 2 full stories - I can't get any plastic that high). I've tried other places in my house but they aren't happy anywhere else. Period. In this spot they are amazing. I have 3 plants now each in 12 inch plastic pots, have had up to 6 at any given time all from the same original plant. The routine has been: Each mid May they go out onto the east deck with morning sun. When it's time to bring them in late September they get so pot bound in the 12 inch pot that I have to hack them in half with a shovel. I keep 1/2 of each plant, repot with Miracle Grow Moisture, put them back in the 12 inch pot and up on the shelf in the east window with the painted plexiglass. They are watered every 7-10 days at best because I have to climb up 12 feet on a ladder to get to them, they are not babied at all, never any fertilizer other than whats in the soil. They more than double in size, get loaded with babies and get pot bound again each winter. If I don't hack them in half in the spring and repot at that time by the end of summer they will have broken their 12 inch pots. I got tired of replacing broken large plastic pots which is why I'm down to 3. After repotting in spring they go outside on the east deck with morning sun in mid May. At the end of summer I hack them in half with a shovel again...it's become routine. I've grown these about 10 of the years with generally 50-60 percent humidity year round. I grew them for 5 years within 15 feet of a hot woodstove and low humidity, it made no difference in this east window. Bottom line? I'd just keep trying different places in the house until you find a spot where it really responds. Respond it will! Sometimes it's not a spot that you'd prefer it to be, I'd really rather not have to deal with the ladder and water, but, that's where they thrive. Good luck!

erm... wait a minute. Hold up. You mean, the excitement over getting a compost pile cranked up AND sizzling hot, is supposed go away after the first one? Beg to differ... thats NOT how it usually works. I still get excited about them all. On occasion, I'll get MORE excited than usual. For instance, this time (current hot pile) ...I had to hack up a layer of glacial ice with a giant ROCK PICK to get to the LAST pile, so I could build the NEW pile. Never had to do that before... wasn't sure how it was gonna fly. But it worked! (I got stoked, right away... who wouldn't.) Then, I ran out of ICE to feed the pile, and it started to dry out...Gah! Had to feed it yukky CITY water for the first two flips... worried that would be too much the microherd to bear at this time of year, but they pulled it off...whew! (Got excited over that also...for obvious reasons.) Now today, were having a BLIZZARD...after record daytime highs over the whole last week. Second flip was only the day before yesterday (tap water...grrr)...and now its COLD, heavy wet snow everywhere. Double-gah! I feared, the whole thing might STALL OUT, and loose too much of its momentum... but we are still smoking, hanging right around 140. Right on time. AND, the pile has shrunk down to about 1/3 of original size already... its only a couple weeks old! Go microherd!!! (Yep. Giddy, all over again.) After all this, as if it wasn't like Christmas already... I came up with a NEW PLAN this morning...that's designed to insure, that THIS pile (and maybe even the NEXT pile) will NEVER need to suffer with yukky, treated, city water again! You can't stop me from doing the yippy-skippy dance over this one...check it out: (oops, I'm sorry... almost forgot what I came here to say. Congratulations on your first hot pile. I can totally relate to your excitement, it's perfectly justified. Just be mindful, as you move on to the next one... these hot piles can get a little addicting. Just sayin'... Les in CO Here is a link that might be useful: Check it out...

dizzlylizzy415-i first upload the pics to Photobucket, than from my library on Photobucket you left click on your mouse the HTML code(it will highlight in blue)then right click to copy the photo then go to your window that has your garden web post(forgot to mention you need two windows on your browser) then right click to paste the photo where you want it on your post. Its much more easier then it might seem. I think we all have a little tech savvy in us.