Gee I get my seed potatoes locally in January or February at local nurseries or feed stores. They usually have LaSoda or Kennebec but I would go with whatever I found locally. I wouldn't hope for large potatoes but I would think you could get some good sized new potatoes. Now, I planted late this year......April and still got some potatoes even though I didn't do enough hilling either. I was testing to see if kids could grow them if they only got to visit once a week. It wasn't the best but it proved even with minimal work you can get some potatoes.

Like you, I wanted a longer season to make mulberry muffins and was impressed by all the happy customers growing IL Everbearing up north. The plant that I got from a well-known Houston area nursery was represented as an "IL Everbearing" and has grown well and faithfully made berries. But they are les than 1/2" long MAX. Perfect for bird beaks, but not for a big, hungry human tummy. Nurseries never mislabel plants, right? So, I got scions from a nursery up north from 3 recommended varieties to replace the tops on the supposed IL Everbearing. The grafts all took. The 3 kinds of fruit were very unimpressive and had very little flavor at all. So next March I will clip off those and regraft every branch with a proven, tasty, big-enough variety that works well producing fruit all April each year. Shangri La. Pick them early if you want more tart ness, and pick them a little later if you want less tartness and more sweetness. Pick them too late and they are insipidly sweet/flat tasting. Drop unwanted berries in a big pot of continually moist potting soil and you may have lots of Shangri La seedlings sprouting up that can later be potted separately to give away or plant elsewhere. The leaf patterns will vary a lot. The seedlings grow very fast in full Sun and in good, moist soil mix. Go Saints.

Grand Isle is harsh climate indeed. If you're talking about potted roses on a deck, I don't see why that wouldn't work just fine, IF the roses get enough direct sun daily. Generally 5 or 6 hours direct sunlight is considered the minimum for happy roses. I've had some, though, that are sensitive to our harsh Louisiana sun, that seem to prefer some dappled light part of the time. There are many minis and mini-floras that would be good candidates. If you're planning on planting in the ground, you should plan to bring in a lot of good soil, since sand won't do much for roses. Do you see any roses growing in anyone's yard on the island? If so, ask the people what the varieties are; if not, that's not a good sign. Rugosas tend to be more tolerant of salty climates. The Grootendorst varieties are reported to tolerate seaside conditions well, though I have no personal experience with them. Since Grand Isle tends to go under every so often when hurricane's blow through, I'm not sure roses in the ground would be able to survive the salt water "drowning." That's the main reason I would be inclined to stick to potted roses up on the deck. I definitely agree with the advice to give the roses a regular shower with fresh water. A water wand is cheap and easy to control. Mike

This is a quote from The Southern Living Gardening Book: "Plants take 2 to 3 years to come into full production but then furnish spears every spring for 10 to 15 years or more. They take up considerable space but do so in a grand manner. Use along a sunny fence or as a background for flowers or vegetables. (You don't have to plant every plant all together. You can scatter them around through ornamental beds and just walk around to harvest.) Set out seedlings or roots (not wilted, no smaller than an adult's hand) in fall or winter. Make trenches 1 ft. wide and 8-10 inches deep. Space them 4 to 6 ft. apart. Heap loose soil enriched with composted manure at bottom of trenches and soak well. Space plants 1 ft. apart, setting them so that tops are 6 to 8 inches below the top of the trench. Spread roots out evenly. Cover with 2 inches of soil and water again. As young plants grow, gradually fill in trench, taking care not to cover growing tips. Soak deeply whenever soil begins to dry out at root depth. Do not harvest spears the first year. The object is to build a big root mass. When plants turn brown in late fall or early winter, cut stems to the ground. The following spring you can cut your first spears; cut only for 4 to 6 weeks or until appearance of thin spears indicates that roots are nearing exhaustion. Then permit plants to grow. Cultivate, feed, and irrigate heavily. The third year you should be able to cut spears for 8 to 10 weeks. Spears are ready to cut when they are 5-8 inches long. Thrust knife down at 45 degree angle to soil; flat cutting may injure adjacent developing spears." "Jersey Knight is the best variety for Southern Growers. Male hybrids typically produce more and larger spears, because they don't put energy into seed production. Such selections still produce an occasional female plant." At my old house, I followed the above instructions and had asparagus there. (I live in East Central MS, about 200 miles inland from the Gulf Coast.) I made a three foot wide raised bed alongside my vegetable garden and planted nothing in it but asparagus. Ever. That is one disadvantage to asparagus and why they are so expensive. You cannot plant anything else in their bed. That soil only produces something edible for 2 to 3 montsh each year. In my youthful ignorance, I bought the typical order of plants, which is 20, and then split them with a friend to save money. Ten plants never produced enough spears at one time to feed my family of four. However, the plants did well, and required very little work except feeding, watering, and giving them a good mulch each year to keep down weeds. If I had space, I would definitely grow them again, but plant AT LEAST 20 roots this time. The Gardening Book says asparagus will grow as far south as the Lower South, which is all the way down except a narrow strip along the coast. Asparagus roots are not that expensive, though you may have to hunt for Jersey Knight. If you want to grow them, do a really good job of preparing the soil and digging the trenches and see what happens. It's not much to lose and you just might succeed!