Buford, Wayside doesn't have it either. But thanks for the idea. Gean, S&W was one of the first I checked, as I have ordered from them in the past and are one of my favorites for potted roses. Great prices, great plants! Thank you. Aliska, My Austins do so much better on 'Dr. Huey'. I have about 5 that are own root, and 12 that are on 'Multiflora' and all of them have been stagnating at about 14" tall for nearly 3 years while their 80 or so counterparts on DH are 4' and 5' tall. All my other roses from Pickering on MF are old roses and are doing much better than the Austins on MF. 'William Lobb' and 'John Cabot' are both 5-1/2' tall and only one year old. I think the Austins just take longer to get established on MF and I'm getting impatient because it's making my garden look awkward. I've been to the Star Roses website nursery directory. While it's a great idea, to be effective it would have to be updated on a regular basis. Only one of the nurseries on that list still carries Austin roses. The others have not carried them for at least 2 years. I visit most of them regularly. Thanks so much for your help. I may have to just wait and get them next year from DA. Rob:)

I used to coordinate an organic Community Garden in a park which belonged to the City of Berkeley, California. We had to fence the garden in (with barbed wire on top) because of theft of the food crops and damage by roving dogs. We also had to lock up the tool shed because of theft of the tools by non-gardeners. (They'd sell the tools at the local flea market.) Most of the people gardening were middle-aged folks. We tried to get children interested, but we weren't successful. We encouraged a mix of flower and produce gardening because of the pollinators and beauty brought by flowering plants. Cottage gardens are gorgeous! We held potluck meetings once a month (in the garden) to share info, educate each other, and air grievances. Each gardener had their own plot. We discouraged the planting of perennials, unless it was something like an artichoke, which would produce food year after year. Once in awhile we organized work parties. Peer pressure got most of the gardeners to show up. We did our own compost. We had to build a large bin for that. We also had to do intense weeding a couple of times a year because nearby Bermuda grass, growing in the park, would encroach upon the garden. I doubt a rotating schedule would work. Someone will always be flaking out for one reason or another. However, if gardeners have their own plots, they will likely feel more responsible. Sharing amongst gardeners would happen naturally, if there is abundance of some items. If you wish to discuss more in depth, I can be reached at lornaf@zianet.com Please put "community garden" in the subject line so I do not inadvertently trash the Email as spam. Lorna

Paula - I'm tickled! I'd love to come back to the spring fling this year! :-D Thank you so much for being a gracious host - I really appreciate(d) it! Re: community gardens - the more I read, the more tricky they seem... mostly because of permissions and personal accountability issues. I work at a private academic institution which owns some vacant lots across the street from the school's nucleus. I think they're holding them until they can develop the land, but that won't be for a while. I'm going to try to get a plan together that I can present that won't cost the university anything. That way, it'll be hard for them to say no. :-) soonergrandmom - i DO have the gardening bug! It's a bit insane, and I have lofty ideas - we'll see if I can implement them! I haven't taken up flying (expensive! time-consuming!), but I LOVE Snoopy... hence the screenname. I'm sorry I don't remember your name, and it's very kind of you to remember mine! I'll do better in the future. :-) ezzirah011- I have had several people tell me about Urban Harvest recently - I'm definitely getting with them to see what we can do together! Thanks for the suggestion and the link! Susan - thanks for the information! There IS a glut of info out there (I currently have around 30 books that I've checked out for gardening how-to's, plans, methodology, etc.). Thanks for the link as well, and for the community garden forum suggestion! I'm in a bit of a unique situation, as the community garden would be for the students, faculty, and staff of a private university and would be integrated with ongoing curriculum, but I'll definitely let everyone know what happens! We've got some students interested (in gardening and in composting!), as well as new freshman learning community plan unrolling (focused on sustainability), and I'm going to try to piggyback the garden on top of that, so we'll see what happens. Dawn - :-) Thank you! We're quite happy, and the wedding went really well (whew!)! And those spider mites were voracious little bugs! The only way I kept them under control at all was through insecticide (boo!), but they never actually died, even from multiple applications. I didn't try the sharp stream of water trick; maybe that or ladybugs would have helped. I finally let them go because spending all that money on poison seemed worse than letting the plants die. :-( And we shall see what happens with the garden - I'm planning this year so that I can secure permissions and start soil preparations for the next growing season. This year, I'm going to be planting in my pots and helping Mom is my "spare time." I know I'll do basil again (SO GOOD!). I might try again with tomatoes, and I'm insisting (ha!) that Mom and I do potatoes and onions. We'll see! :-D Suzie - Excellent link! I do know people at Chesapeake - some of them even left my institution to work there! Thanks for the great suggestion! Chandra - thanks for the information! I've pretty much decided that I'm going to be a guerrilla gardener if my school won't allow a community garden. :-) Of course, they would know who to blame immediately if i chose to focus my efforts on campus, but I'm hoping they'll look at my detailed plan and love it!!!

Hi there I have been doing lots of searching for ideas on how to set up a community nursery in my neck of the world. Can anyone please give me some tips, ideas, how to structure the management, sites to look at, to give me some ideas. At this stage I am doing a proposal, which will then be presented to a funding body. I live in Australia, there is a need for indigenous species to be propagated to be used in land rehabilitation. Seed will be collected, and plants will then be sold. Thanks for any ideas, much appreciated. Popi