I sold most of them at the farmers market, put a lot of them in my yard, and still have some of each. The little sumatrana X gran nains, I used an oil type spray on because they got spider mites real bad,and I burned most of the leaves off, because it was too hot outside. I put some of them in the garden after the corn was finished, and that was in August, and they still got to be about 2.5 feet tall. And they started off in August at 8" tall. One fun thing about the bananas, you plant them small and by fall, people who don't realize what you planted to start with are really impressed and think you did a LOT of work planting. They don't know you only planted small little things! The largest bananas I have planted in the pictures were only about 4-5 feet tall when I planted them in May, now they are more like 15 feet tall.

Ahhhhh, Prairiemoon, I knew if I slowly dragged a pot of those "Prairie...." hosta past you, it would evoke a response! hehehe I'm that way about names myself, love a significant name. And now I notice that you are in Mass.....which is where I started my passion for hosta, in Chelmsford, next to Lowell. The only hosta I have that were not mail ordered were those I got from Bob Seawright at his nursery in Carlisle. He also has day lilies. If you are at the roundabout, you take the road past the library toward Billrica, and it is not far from there. Huge oak trees, great mature hosta beneath them, and a big field mostly daylilies. If you want to see mature hosta his display garden even in September when I saw it was awesome. Of course, that is the only time I was in a hosta garden, I am flying on faith here. Interesting thing about the visit to Seawrights. The missus noticed my accent and asked where I was from, and it turns out they are from Mississippi themselves. So we had a great discussion of the book about the 1927 Miss River flood and other regional stuff. Bob is a tall stately man, and Missus is tall and thin as well, with great reserve and elegant manners. If you seek local sources for your hosta, ask Steve-Mass which places he frequents. His place is tour-garden worthy, and he really knows the places to find great hosta.

I know what you mean Berrypie7. Life used to be so easy..... When I click on Houzz (the growing tomatoes one). At the top of the page it says "Start a discussion". You might have to close the page and start fresh to get there. Good luck! Linda

David, As John said, you shouldn't overthink a pressure treated deck, as it won't look good for very long anyway. That said, you can still build it well and be proud of it when you're finished. I build higher end, using Ipe for decking, and this is how I frame for butt joints. I stagger the joints, and create a repetitive pattern. I sister joists wherever a joint happens, so each board lands on it's own joist. Butt joints are always problematic...I work with a caliper and a table saw to make sure that I butt 2 boards that have exactly the same width. You'll find out that 5/4x6 really means 1"x5 3/8 or maybe 1"x5 1/2". I rip the wider board to the same width of the smaller. Then there's the cut...the 2 boards need to meet at a tight joint. It's not easy, so I round over the tops of both cuts. It's more forgiving. If there's a slight gap, you won't notice it. Anyway, there is a lot to deck building that you can obsess about, but do you want to? I do, because I like to...I need to. Back to your question...I sister the joists together...no 1/2 gap. steve