I live in the North-East Bronx, just South of Westchester, NY, and I find that most of the local nurseries, garden centers, and Home Depots/Lowes etc. suck, if you're trying to find anything that approaches an "exotic" ingredient for making Al's growing medium. None stock Turface-MVP, and they never heard of it. I've been to them all, and haven't found anything that could be called "pine-bark fines"...just shredded mulches....that will mat down, and clog the mix. After you factor in the cost of gas, your personal time, phone bills, cost of the products, time used to screen out unwanted materials -which doubles the cost, if 50% is wasted- the mix becomes very expensive. I can't be bothered hunting down all the ingredients anymore. I cut my losses. I just buy premium grade Repti-Bark at the local Pet-Co/Pet-Smart, a 20 lb. bag of aquarium grit, and a bag of Turface-MVP, and make the mix. NAPA Auto has oil-dry compound that can sub for the Turface. Some of the bark nuggets are too large, but, what the hay. Most of it is usable out of the bag. Hit the big pieces with a hammer. Yes, there are cheaper alternatives for the ingredients that I have mentioned, especially the Repti-Bark, but I'm not driving all over the state just to collect the ingredients that I need. Re-read the 2nd paragraph. Just my two-cents worth. The mix is great,...if you could find what you need, EASILY. My Clivia love the stuff, and you can not over-water plants! No PWT either! Frank PS....When the bark breaks down, just wash out the residue, and re-cycle the Turface-MVP, and the grit. Use new bark chunks, and you're good to go. Just the bark-fines break down.

I would recommend musa basjoo that you can leave outside during winter. If you don't protect it, it will regrow from the roots, since they are very cold hardy. However, if you want to have more beautiful and taller specimens, you have to protect them from the cold. Another quite interesting and nice looking one is musa velutina that quite cold hardy as well. Personnaly I have never left it outside during winter. What is particularly nice with this one is that it can flower in one growing season, even in cold climates. Mine flowered indoors in October! If you want to bring them back indoors, your choice is bigger. Good luck with banana growing, Nicolas, Switzerland

Just kidding.....it was not my swap package! It was a lovely thank you gift from Maggie! She sent some baking chocolate from TJs and a some treats for Chance, with a nice thank you card! Maggie I am going to try some biscotti this weekend so the chocolate will come in handy for dipping. Thanks you so much for thinking of me!!

You are all so sweet! I already feel like one of the group. My name is actually Mary but I use the Irish spelling..Maire. I love everything Irish. My great grandparents were from Galway. I live in West Virginia surrounded by mountains. I'm glad to meet everyone. Many states represented here! Looking forward to joining in!