Vicky, Boy, we are much alike. Funny you should ask about sleeping schedule! I wrote my post right before going to bed a couple of nights ago. Went to bed -- then got up 2.5 hours later! I did get some more sleep later yesterday, and did some more catching up last night, so I think I'm back on schedule. I had a bout of insomnia for most of this year that was fairly resolved when we went on vacation. Anymore, I don't even consider one bad night of sleep per week as insomnia, compared to those long bouts. I've really been taken with alternative containers, especially since I can get them free while trash picking or keeping up with our local Freecycle Network. (People ask for or offer items that would otherwise simply be trashed, but still have some life in them. To find your area's site check out this link -- http://www.freecycle.org ) Granted, some times I do pay for the containers, but, if you know where to go (we just hit our local Goodwill Stores for the first time last week, looking for containers and found two -- a beatiful ceramic one for our small bay leaf and a cheapo plastic wagon that will only last a year or two), you can get the 5-6 gallon containers, for free or for $.50-$4 each. Below is the link to one page of one of my websites that gives a long list of unusual containers, and where you can find those 5-6 gallon containers, although I forgot to mention that my Dad gets his by buying kits to make wine, and gives many of them to me, afterwards. (I may not have kids, but I still enjoy playing and thinking young. LOL) Of course, once you get into containers, soil can get expensive. I've been buying much of my soil in the fall, when the leftover potting soil is on sale. I also supplement it with last year's dead annuals and the stuff that just blows into the yard -- leaves, buttonwood fuzz, and soil that leaches out of the bottom of containers, each time I water. (Last one is only doable if you have concrete for a yard, so you can tell the soil from the ground. LOL) My compost is left in five gallon containers with a multitude of holes on the bottom and lower sides, so the pill bugs can find it and enjoy making it into true compost during the winter. Add to that, I buy sandbox sand, which is more sterilized then builder's sand, a big bag of peat moss, and a couple of bags of perilite, to stretch out the bought potting soil more and mix it in with used soil and new compost. "Don't plant more then you can do," is my biggest problem! Eight years later, and I still can't figure out how much I can do. LOL Fortunately, I must be one of the world's worse seed sower, since only about a quarter of the seeds I start actually sprout AND grow to maturity. LOL (Yes, I use seed starte soil and containers, so it's not a problem with Damp Off.) This year, I'm even having trouble growing lettuce from seed! Last year, it grew quickly and easily. Well, good thing I read some good advice given to an advice columnist, when she brought home a whole pick-up truck full of annuals, and then realized how much time would be required to plant them all. She just sat in the midst of them, feeling overwhelmed, when her next door neighbor found her. The neighbor picked up a single container, handed it to her, and simply said, "plant one at a time!" Duh, now! LOL I guess that is part of the secret, realizing that we'll never get any of it done, unless we just set our minds to dealing with just one at a time! But, you are right. I do feel badly that hubby became disabled, but I'm sure glad I get to see more of him then I used to. I generally don't have to worry about dinner. He's a great cook and does most of it with great enjoyment and great results (as demonstrated by our great girths now, too. LOL) One thing I have learned in the last 8 years, that only other people in our situation truly understand -- the house will not fall down, if all the housework cannot be completed. LOL Sounds like something else we have in common -- a reduced sense of what absolutely has to be done for daily chores. ;) I sure hope your daughter can visit occasionally, so the two of you can sit in the garden and simply enjoy what you have so far! That's part of why I love gardening -- the amount of time hubby and I sit back there in the summer through September and just watch the tomatos fruit, the birds enjoying the bath and seeds, and the variety of herbs and flowers, as we just take it all in silently together. Lynn Here is a link that might be useful: Young Buds in the Garden

Thought I would follow up with a progress report on the redbud I transplanted last fall with what seemed like not enough root. I followed Ken's advice and did not perform amputation, and it looks simply smashing, even in this heat and drought! I have been watering it periodically, but haven't been giving it anywhere near the amount of water a bareroot tree needs, especially in 100 degree weather and drought. All my redbuds seem to be weathering the drought much better than some other trees.

I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow, see I originally thought it was the cold, and still kinda do. However, it is supposed to be hardy to zones 9A and up, in which I'm on the line of 9A and 9B climates. I've found them growing good in people's yards and even a few that are wild on Galveston Island, TX. I have two plants, so I'll do a test run of cutting off the top on the weaker one. Just terrified I'll lose them. I'll hopefully be moving to the Hollywood region of Florida in a year or two so I'm trying to stock up on tropicals. 3 kinds of guava, 2 kinds of mango, tamarind, royal poinciana, rainbow eucalyptus, jamaican hibiscus, jackfruit trees, several different breeds of papayas, so far at 7 different species of fruiting Passiflora (and still collecting those), 2 kinds of grapes, soursop, and many more. Anyways, thank you for your advice.

Lin, I'd be happy to send seeds of "Konjac" when they are ripe. Konjac not only grows easily from seed, but multiplies nicely from bulbs. The mother plant dies after setting seed and divides into several little potato like bulbs. I sometime reuse potting soil and have them coming up in the strangest places. Once a plant went out the hole in the bottom of a large black nursery pot I had inside a decorative pot and came up the side between the pots. I thought -- where the heck did that come from???? It was determined to grow! Pam, I'm fairly certain that all the plants you mention above would have no problem regrowing if you cut them back. I know Greg's mist flower can take it. And the others come back from the roots here in the spring. I'd do it. Nothing makes a flower bed look worse than half dead looking droopy plants -- definitely 'not working'. Anyone else want to venture an opinion on Pam's question?