I live about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. Nothing we have planted is over three years in the ground. The best for me, so far has been my citrus. This year will not be good because of a late frost at bud time. Valencia, blood orange, tangerine, Ruby Red grapefruit and Louisiana Sweet produced heavily. The Owari and Brown Select Satsumas have not grown enough to produce well. Meyer and Lisbon lemons are doing well (planted next to the south side of the house). I spray when I see white flies. There has been a bit of leaf minor damage, but that will be less of a problem as the trees grow. I planted an American and a Fuyu persimon. The American is growing slowly, the Fuyu has died three times in the same spot. The next Fuyu I buy will go in another spot. No bugs were noticed, they just dried up (after looking lush and beautiful) and died. No spraying on them. The muscadines are growing beautifully and quickly. I may have a monster to tame with pruning. The Cowart is loaded with fruit I hope to get some before the animals get them all. The other varieties are Carlos (for wine), Summit, and Fry. One vine makes all the muscadine I can use, if the animals would leave them alone. I had 2 Fry and 2 Cowart at my last house. The only problems so far, with no spraying, is a few aphids. The peaches are a different story. The 2 Florida King, which ripened first, gave us enough fruit to eat and preserve. The other 3, LaPeche and La Festival, ripened later and were beset by bugs and squirrels. It also started raining every day, so I couldn't effectively spray. We lost all those peaches, except a couple we picked still too green to enjoy. Peaches look like they will be a lot of work, but we love them. We planted 3 apple trees (Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Ein Sheimer). Two died (I think because of root damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One bent the trees to the ground from the North, the other bent the trees to the ground from the South.) and of course I didn't mark which was which. I was going to mark them later and then after the tags fell off, I was going to identify them from the fruit. I think I may try to replace them. I had 2 fruit on the remaining tree, but something wanted them more than me and was willing to eat them green. Not much bug problems yet, but then no fruit. The pears are growing well and I have some fruit on the Keiffer. The Pineapple and Orient are growing well, but no fruit yet. They are young trees. Had one banch with fireblight, which I removed. It has not returned, yet. Figs normally do well down here, but I'm having trouble getting them established. Most froze back to the ground or had major limb damage from the last frost we had. All the trees were sprouted and some had breba crops. Now we have a few fruit on the LSU Gold and the Ventura, but as they ripen the birds get them. My neighbor has 2 well established trees, but I looked at them yesterday and all the ripe ones were split from the rain. I don't think he is even picking any. I tried growing pawpaw, the seedling died and the grafted Mango variety died to the root. The root is coming back and is doing okay as I am now shading it. I thought planting them between my shed and my neighbors shed would be shade enough, but they got direct, middle of the day sun and were fried. I plan to try another grafted pawpaw in the future. I have a wild mulberry. It grows very fast and produces a ton of fruit. This year we had tent catepillars (after the fruit was gone). I sprayed the tree once for a scale infestation. I need to trim some branches, but overall a no care tree. I have 2 jujubes (Li and Lang). No pests, no problems. We have fruit this year for the first time. I sure hope I like them. I have never tasted them before. The biggest problem has been root suckers. I mow most of them and cut by hand the ones close to the trunk. I planted some wild cherry trees, but a rabbit ate the bark of and killed them. I will try again. I planted some banana trees a couple of months ago. So far, so good. I planted two Cherry of the Rio Grand and a Strawberry Guava. The goats ate them to the ground, but one of each is coming back. They are very small. I have two English walnuts. I thought they would never break dormancy, but finally did and started growing like gangbusters. Then something (Junebugs?) ate all the leaves off. I sprayed, but it has been raining every day so I don't know if I did any good. They are sprouting again. I have two pecan trees (Sumner and Elliot). They are finally starting to grow. I hope to try a few in about 5 or 6 more years. I have 3 loquats. They produced one year and then I pruned drastically to correct a shape issue. Just a few this year, but should be great next year. No bug problems, except a few leaves were chewed on the edges. I guess the bugs needed something after the walnut leaves were gone. I have (had) 5 plum trees (Methley, Santa Rosa, and Bruce). Several died and yes, I didn't mark the varieties. They seem to have problems with mosses and lichen growing on the trunk and need to be sprayed a couple of times a year. I've used copper and lime/sulphur. Both seem to work. No fruit to speak of yet. The couple we had were small. They may be getting too much shade from an oak tree. I have one seedless concord. It is very slow growing (at least compared to the muscadine) and has not produced any fruit yet.

2nd year Vegtable grower here *but new to seed starting this year" and I saw my first sprout from a pepper plant (Burpee rainbow mix). This happened after 6 days since put in a Jiffy Peat Pellet.. I rigged my own heating source by using an old computer to put the Jiffy Pro seed starting kit on top and kind of trapped the heat with cardboard and a trash bag. I guestimate the temp to be around 75-80 F. I think this is accurate because the room temp is about 70 degrees and the bottom black pan from the jiffy starter is a bit warmer with heat that it is sitting on and come from the exhust fan.. Now out of the 12 I planted this was the first to spring up (more photos will follow). Below is the photo below and... Today I put it under a jumperstart Hydrofarm light with out the protection of the plastic cover with my trusty GoPro and set a TimeLapse of a photo every 60 seconds. I will update this with a video time lapse soon. This post was edited by thebutcher on Wed, Mar 6, 13 at 19:43

300ga stock tank pond, 3/4 buried in the ground (5'x5'x28"). ~1000gph submerged pump goes to a 60ga DIY skippy-type filter with scrubbies, rocks, and lots of plants on top. Water flows out and down a small stream back to the pond. Six 6-8" goldfish/comet/shebunkins and 1/2 a dozen babies. Spring: Raise the potted plants from the bottom, re-pot and fertilize. Drain ~1/2 the water and clean out any debris on the bottom. Put the plants back in and start up the pump. Fill the skippy and put plants back in it. Buy new oxygenator plants. If the water turns green add prefilter of quilt batting or window screen to pump. Clean once a week for a couple weeks until the plants get growing and the water clears, then remove. Summer: Prune plants and remove yellowing pads as necessary. Remove string algae from the stream once in awhile. Watch so the watercress doesn't plug up the skippy outlet :) Feed the fish 2 or 3 times a week. Fall: Stop feeding fish when water temp Winter: Just before the first snow or hard freezing pull the pump, clean it and store it inside. Drain the skippy and flush it with the hose (this is the only time I 'clean' my skippy). Leave drain plug out for winter. Add air stone and tank heater to pond. This year I'm going to cover 2/3 of the pond with plywood or foam board. Fish stay in it. I have clear water except for ~ 2 weeks in the spring. I try to keep my fish load low and have lots of plants. I rarely have much string algae, my fish seem to like to graze it down. I have a 2nd pond a bit smaller with a 640gph pump and a 1/2 whiskey barrel skippy that I remove all plants and fish from and let freeze for the winter (it's a liner pond and only 18" deep). Otherwise maintenance is the same.

All of our tomatoes have put on a LOT of new growth and many blooms; I harvested tomatoes yesterday from this new growth. The tomato trimmings I stuck in my flowerbeds are blooming, no tomatoes yet but have my fingers crossed. I have more trimmings in a 5 gal bucket rooting in water. That seems to work very well with less wilt when put in the soil. We may have to buy another freezer if all these tomato plants produce tomatoes and we have a late freeze! The neighbors will be happy...one neighbor said his wife wanted 8 lbs of tomatoes but our one little grocery store wanted $4/lb so he just bought 4 lbs! He was very tickled when we showed up with a bag of tomatoes for them. I have already swapped for over a dozen different varieties of tomatoes to try next year such as Big Zac, Cherokee Purple, etc. The volunteer pepper plant is a Poblano and it is covered with peppers, am currently letting a couple of them ripen so I can save seeds. These two are a brillant red, very pretty on the tall plant which is taller than me. Some are over 6 inches long and hope to make some chili rellenos while my hubby is off the next two days. Sweet Potato vines continue to snake through the beds and are blooming very pretty purple blooms. Gotta make trellis or arbors for vertical gardening next year! The Delicata Squash turned out to be Spaghetti Squash instead. Mildew has been a problem with it since I use shower nozzle on hose to water, hoping to add soaker hose or drip irrigation next year. Currently harvesting comfrey leaves for the compost pile and to make comfrey tea. Yesterday harvested 3 yellow icebox sized watermelons and should have cantaloupe any day now from a volunteer vine that came up from last year's compost pile. Am reading online to see how to harvest basil before a freeze gets it. Have two varieties this year and have swapped for seeds for 3 or 4 more for 2008 garden. We are creating an outdoor living room. Currently painting our outdoor furniture some lively colors to go with all the flowers. The area has 2 walls consisting of cannas, 3rd wall is a lantana bed; we look forward to relaxing in the shade with a cool beverage and watching the butterflies and hummingbirds nectaring and laying their eggs on host plants. Have two pots of mint by the glider, chocolate mint perfumes the air (I crave chocolate after brushing against it!) but the orange mint is disappointing. Hoping to add other varieties of mint in 2008. God Bless! Peggy