Uncle has an interesting point. We lived in New Orleans years ago and people would grow mirlitons on trellises. The vines were enormous. Folks would train them up 4x4 posts and then they would spread out over lattice work "roofs". The fruit would hang down through the lattice. People had small yards there, and the narrow strips of land along the side of the house was popular for this treatment. I cannot see why it wouldn't work for winter squash, except for the fact that it wouldn't get to root into the ground, and as long as your "roof" has large enough openings for the squash.

I kind of disagree with you not researching it first on text material like books. Since a book can provide a wealth of information, inquiring a person will give you limited information. Its simply too much for one person to type. The reason there are books out there, and one of the best is the Peter DÂAmatoÂs book: The Savage Garden. Amazon.com will sell books at a discount price, but you can find that book in a pubic library if you donÂt want to pay say $20 or $30 for it. It usually best to research what you want to buy before buying it 1st then asking questions later. To many a newbie have killed their plants right off the bat by adding fertilizer, planting them in regular potting soil and watering them with tap water. Or simply sending them into an irrecoverable shock by exposing them suddenly to drier air, under the sun, without hardening the plants 1st. As a result more then one newbie have wasted $2 or $5 when some purchase their plants in a general store or nursery. But others have wasted $25, $50, and even $100 worth of plants they bought from a specialized nursery. The idea people go to forum to inquire to a particular problem like a pest problem and want to find someone how they handled that problem or learn what done wrong if a plant fails to grow. So if you donÂt want to research it yourself, people will think you will be to lazy to do you own work yourself and will eventually kill their newly purchased plants anyways. Now I donÂt now which pitcher plant you fed bugs and how small these insects are? Since the plants themselves sold by Lowes are quite small and lacking the digestive fluids inside their pitchers. Most likely whatÂs going to happen is the bugs are going to rot and kill the leaves. Sundews and butterwort (P. primuliflora) donÂt have catching appendage, since it is the leaves itself that does the catching. The leaves of sundews are covered with hairs and has a "dew" drop on each hair. Butterworts on the other hand their leaf surface is covered with sticky mucilage. DonÂt feed the plants, they can do that themselves. DonÂt try feeding the Venus flytrap, even if it grows new traps, it will be too weak to digest the insect. Digesting an insect takes a lot of reserve energy before it can utilize it. It may take up to a month or 2 for a VFT to recover. Now your "Should they be fed into the soil like a regular plant?", are you referring to adding fertilizer to the soil. If so DONÂT. That is a common mistake made by newbies trying to grow their 1st CPs, adding fertilizer to the growing media. Fertilizer will kill your plants, CP have a weak root system, and is mainly used to anchor the plant to the media and draw out moisture, and thatÂs it. Fertilizer will destroy that root system and eventually kill your plants. That also means not to use regular potting soil, even if part of the ingredients contains sphagnum peat moss and perlite. It also has other things like fertilizer and wetting agents. What you need is pure sphagnum peat moss and perlite to aerate the media, nothing else. Make sure it doesnÂt have any additives at all. You mix it up in a 50:50 mix. This is the true and tried growing media for most CPs. Sit the VFT, sundews, Sarracenia pitcher plants (the purple pitcher plant) in a dish with 1 inch of water. The butterwort P. primuliflora in my experience does well growing in straight long fiber sphagnum moss and likes its media quite wet. Nepenthes only require having their media most and not as wet as other CPs. Nepenthes will require a mix of long fiber sphagnum moss used for orchids, again make sure no additives and you can mix it with one part perlite and one part fine orchid bark. They like their media most but with enough drainage for their roots. Use distilled water to water them, donÂt use for any reason tap water, purified water, or drinking water. These still contain minerals that will eventually kill your plants. Second choice is rainwater collected in a bucket, followed with R/O water but distilled is still the best choice. For now have them growing in a wind sill from indirect sunlight in their own Âterrariums (aka the cubes-of-death by the CP community), lift one corner slightly to allow ventilation, checking for drooping or wilting leaves. Be careful not to let the media dry out. In a weak lift one corner a bit more, again checking for wilting and do this slowly. This way you can harden your plants to a drier environment and give the plants time to build the natural wax coating over their leaves that protects them from drier air. As they develop new leaves, gently expose the Sarracenias and VFT to stronger sunlight, keeping an eye on wilting or sings of burning leaves. Control the amount of sunlight to allow them time to harden. Although the sundew will recover the quickest, followed by VFT & Sarracenias. Neps may take 4 months to develop new leaves and even then it will not develop new pitchers. They are known to take about half a year to recover. Nepenthes, butterwort, and the sundew will do best growing under indirect sunlight or under very bright fluorescent lamps. Nepenthes especially require at least 12 hours of bright light to grow their pitchers properly, Neps are tropical plants that do receive long hours of light. That basically covers the basics but it is better to you research things 1st and read books for information to avoid mistakes in the 1st place. Good luck.

Hi Robin I am not sure if I planted it last summer (meaning 2005) or the summer before. I can find pictures from 2005 but not 2004. This year it really took off, with many stems extending 4-5 feet in all directions. It doesn't climb but I did tie up one of the bigger stems to a support, mainly because as I said in my earlier post, it's in the middle of a small garden and was smothering other plants. That's why I'm moving it to a location where it will be on its own and can scramble wherever it wants. So in answer to question #1, tall is relative to where you want to place it. The photo I posted of the close-up is actually very true - the flowers are a silvery-blue. I bought this clematis at WalMart. It starts to bloom, for me, in August and carries on into September. Also, if you're looking for it, the name is Mrs. Robert Brydon (don't forget the Mrs).Here's a link to some more info : http://www.clematis.hull.ac.uk/new-clemdetail.cfm?dbkey=335 Be sure to click on the link at the bottom of that page for another interesting article about this clematis.

Things done improperly should be done again. As for style of things, our builder friend says, "Anything can be changed." But if it wasn't specified in accurate detail in the first place, it will probably cost you. So how much you're willing to change to what you want may depend a lot on how much you're willing to pay. It doesn't sound like you specified pillar and leg details first? Did you see and OK any drawings? Who hired the cabinet maker and had them start? The statement, "no one bothered to ask me what I wanted" worries me. I think it's probably more your responsibility to specify exactly what you want before you have them start work. When I'm paying the bill, I want to make sure what I'm getting is what I expect...and they can only know that by what I order and spell out. With options for details you haven't covered you can always hope they'll ask...but it's not safe to assume.