Since garlic doesn't take up much room, I stick leftover cloves everywhere throughout the year. Sometimes I find the cloves still unsprouted weeks later when I dig a hole in the same spot for some other reason. I just poke them in somewhere else, knowing they'll start pumping out lush green shoots in their own sweet time. I do the random stick-it with all sorts of things besides garlic and more often than not, get great results. My best container right now holds an eggplant, a pepper, garlic, and some blue-flowering vine that broke off another plant. This started out as a pot of calendula, but it was too beastly hot to plant the pepper and eggplant on the day the seeds arrived,so I stuck one of each in the pot and forgot all about them. I think I added the garlic on the day I transplanted the calendula to a permanent bed. The vine is a johnny-come-lately, but they all seem to be very happy together. Of course, I sometimes end up with something like puce and orange flowers in in the same pot, but it's never anything that a quick transplant job can't fix. Anyway, sorry for the thread drift. Yes, I use grocery store garlic, and don't do anything special other than try to remember to set the cloves pointy side up. J.

I forgot about this thread. Mersi, no, my vanilla orchid never bloomed..I wish. I had two, green and variegated..the var went to plant heaven. I could blame it on the seller, but it was my fault..except I still don't know where I went wrong..lol The green is once again a small plant..It grew huge, over 10'..Somehow, the stems tangled..it was like unraveling Christmas lights that have been tossed in a box w/o organizing. It got a haircut about a year ago. Cuttings never rooted..boohoo. Marcsi, you've never heard of Gardenwatchdog? Wow..It's too bad everyone who grows/buys plants wasn't aware of this site. It's great for two reasons..The first is if someone wants to order from 'x' nursery, they check GWD, and read feedback. The second is, it's a good way finding a nursery. BUT, there is a negative side, too. Over the years I've talked to a few nursery owners. They're very nice people, have to take lots of cr*p when it comes to the public. One woman ordered 2 plants from 'x' nusery. One was a backorder so when she opened the box, found one plant missing, she went balistic. She phoned the owner at midnight, again 4am..she admitted, on GWD, calling his home at midnight. She hesitated mentioning the 4am call though.. To top it off, she left negative feedback. If someone doesn't get exactly what they think they're going to get, instead of contacting the owner they run to GWD, rant and rave what a terrible nursery they ordered from, warn people away. I've ordered from nurseries some complained about and never had any problems. One man ships bare-root plants..it's written in plain English..still some complain the print isn't large enough, or it doesn't offer a good-enough description. The seller even displays pics/sizes of what to expect..lol How much more can anyone do? So, all it takes is one person to get the ball rolling, and others tend to follow. But I do enjoy reading GWD and have found several decent nurseries. Perhaps Logees has improved their stock. If they haven't, the only reason they could be getting positive feedback, and I dread saying this is, people who have been shopping with them for years may feel dedicated, or ppl who just starting buying plants, who never shopped elsewhere, have nothing to compare to, perhaps feel a 3" plant is sufficient, especially if they believe it rare. I feel bad talking down about Logees, but after paying high costs to receive dead or tiny plants, if someone asked where to shop, I c/wouldn't refer them. Toni

Planted about a dozen potatoes around 10 days ago to see if this is something that will grow for us....they popped up and have good green color. If it works that would be great. I only see the little colorful gourmet types at the markets. I believe that they can do a fall crop a few miles closer to the ocean and have a long planting window since it is very occasionally hot or cold.

During the Depression my grandmother ran a boarding house for young men at the Unversity of Missouri. She needed recipes that featured Fast and Cheap. I don't remember all of her scalloped potato recipe, but it began with cooking the sliced potatoes in boiling water in a large frying pan. Then she poured off the water and added flour, milk and seasoning. There was no baking involved. The whole thing was cooked on the top of the stove. Cooking the potatoes in water was faster, and you didn't have to worry about the milk or cream 'turning' snce you added it after the potatoes were almost tender. You could add ham at the last...if you had it! Grandmother had sent her two eldest boys to live with an uncle. She managed to keep the other five housed and fed by running the boarding house.