I use containers for several reasons: I love tropicals, but can't grow them as perennials in a subtropical climate. The tropicals and other plants come in with for the winter for year round gardening...as long as my husband retains the youth and willingness to carry large containers. As the tree canopy changes light patterns, it allows me to chase the sun. I can locate plants away from the path of deer, groundhogs, and other "dinner guests". I love watering containers. It's a peaceful time and a chance to really get to know every nook and cranny of a plant. It is a great way to experiement with different plants. And I love what one poster said... "As I get older and knees creakier I plan to sit in center of my pots on a swivel chair and water my pots...(not kidding here!) for now I'm still able to stroll around each dawn and thoroughly enjoy it. josh" What a declicious idea..especially for those of us who already have many creaky parts.

Hello... Althea...thanks for your link..I just got back to this forum and noticed another post to my question. I agree with you about leaving the sunflower heads for the birds. I tried growing sunflowers many years ago, but my yard just didn't get enough sun and the only place that had the most sun was in the root zone of some trees, so it didn't work well. They didn't thrive so I stopped growing them. I do have one large 15x15 full sun perennial bed in my front yard, but not a great place for sunflowers [g]. I grow cosmos that the goldfinches also love and it is great watching them swaying on the stems to get them. That sounds like a great tip about the paper bag. I think they recommend that for corn from the raccoons too. oh..thanks for the link to NN...It looks like they are a part of gardenweb ring. that will come in handy...didn't know it was there. ftm...well you have more tolerance than I do for nests. I love bumble bees and are not afraid of them at all, but having them in a work area that I needed to access would be intolerable to me. Interesting story of the one that bumped you..[g] I tried googling the miday clavatus, but came up empty. Not sure if it could be a fly, but if it is, it looks exactly like a wasp. [g] Actually just re read your description and this insect has all bright orange legs. Thanks for the try.. :-) Adam

token, Tulips are basically annuals here. Don't even think of them returning the following year unless they are very old plants, not the newer hybrids. I got leaves last year, but no blooms. Same here but . . .I learned a trick over on the bulbs forum. Only certain kinds of tulips will return, bloom and multiply, and the specs usually don't say because most people do grow them as annuals, some come back, but some peter out by third year. I guess you are supposed to look for "tulips for naturalizing". Never saw that phrase in all of the many I looked at. Here was my experience, but I don't know how it will be long term. I ordered some yellow and pink from Bluestone. One yellow came back, didn't bloom. A lot of the pink ones did come back and bloom, second year, don't know what they will do next spring. They did not multiply, may have lost a couple. But I ordered an assortment 2 yrs ago called "Purple Rain" from American Meadows. I planted all my tulips and covered w/chicken wire and nailed it down w/landscape pins (squirrels). Now I can take most of that up and didn't nail the latest down. The tulips will come up thru it but I had to cut some holes for some that got stuck. As soon as they are done blooming, cut back the stems way down so they won't use energy trying to make seed, leave all the foliage to die back naturally as that's how they feed the bulbs for the following year. That takes awhile and can be unsightly. At the time you cut back the stems, sprinkle the ground with Scott's Bloom Booster, shows on the container how densely. Repeat in the fall. The result was that my Purple Rain mixture multiplied some and produced more blooms this past spring, and they are on the east side where the technique wasn't expected to work because it's only morning sun. One in the assortment came back and bloomed, the purple w/white border, rest didn't. That one is shorter than the others. But the plain colors did pretty well. I just filled in a gap there and had planted a whole new row for me in front, will see how they do. I would buy other kinds but I know whatever ones are in that mixture work, except the one, and the colors work well for me. I'm still working on this spot and will overplant with something, and shouldn't have used fill flash on the photo. Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Rain Tulips

I agree with sleevendog and Annie about using canning jars. I start with something that was stored in the food storage room in a 1/2-gallon wide-mouth jar, and as the food item is used, down-size the contents to a quart, pint and 1/2-pint, and they all use the same wide-mouth jar lid (I use both metal rings and lids and the plastic screw-on lids for jars, and metal lids I have spray-painted with chalkboard paint and use chalk pencils or liquid chalk markers to mark the contents on the lid.) For dry storage in the pantry, the quart to 1/2-pint jars I use take up the same amount of space since I store my jars on their side with the lid showing the contents of the jar. I have my shelves adjusted so they are the same space as a 1/2-gallon jar between them (and have between 75-80 jars in my pantry holding dry-goods). I stopped and counted 15 canning jars in my refrigerator. We also use a number of glass Pyrex storage bowls with plastic lids (1-cup and 2-cup). Hubby takes them to work in his lunch - so they are filled with leftovers from previous meals and stored in the freezer. They go from the freezer to his lunch bag, and then microwaved when he eats lunch. A plastic container I like to use are Ball Freezer Jars - the 8-oz. size often used for freezer jam works great for single-servings of soup/stew/broth, and they also come in 16-oz. size. I like the screw-on lids. These plastic jars stack nicely and the lids nest together. -Grainlady