A number of years ago, I was in charge of renovating a 1900 heritage house (5,400sq ft) into 11 (now 12) large gorgeous rooms for affordable housing, for low income wage earners. The plumbing was all redone so it gave the opportunity to add things for the future, like plumbing for an extra sink/garburator combo for compost. People are pretty good about taking it out to the pile, but now there is a worm farm on the north side of the wrap-around deck, off the kitchen and that will work way better if the compost is ground up. My thoughts about how to use the garburator has resurfaced and I came across this thread. After reading, I think the best idea for this house is something like the five gallon bucket or drawer (as in Mother Earth News mentioned earlier) under the sink, with a couple of screens so that the compost can be saved and put in the worm bin right away and the left over liquid can be forwarded to the septic, or somewhere else downhill from the house (separate drain line is in place). The sink is in an anti room outside the kitchen but close. Later we can use recycled water for the garburator, as the bones for a system using recycled water for toilet flushing was put in place too. The water to the sink will be injected like a toilet from a camper so that when it is recycled water there is no chance that anyone would drink it. HMMM, maybe just use a toilet from a camper, bigger orifice, maybe use less water, getting compost into the garburator? I think that something like this would make it easier for 12 people to deal with compost, then running it through a food processor for the worms. I watched a documentary the other day that stated that worm castings are 6 times more potent than compost and no crows, rats, dogs and hopefully no more compost in the garbage. There is already a plastic container in one of the kitchen freezers for meat scraps. I drop if off the dock into the 'chuck' as a frozen block, which sinks right away and the crabs love it!! Thanks for all the ideas !!!! It brought me to the exact solution I was looking for.

Anney, I grew ML for the first time last year. It took a long time to start producing here in Maine. I didnÂt get many tomatoes from the plant, perhaps 4 or 5 total. ThatÂs the bad news. The good news is that one of them was the largest tomato IÂve ever laid eyes on in my life. Simple beginner's luck. I will never forgive myself for neglecting to weigh it. This is the only photo I ever took of the monster. I must apologize for the unintentionally misleading perspective in this photo. The tomato is not quite as large as it seems. Somehow, the dime to the left of the ML in this photo looks like it is right next to the tomato, causing the ML to seem to be about the size of a watermelon. The dime is actually about 12-18 inches behind the ML. IÂm growing 2 ML plants this year. For reasons that a newbie like me will never understand, this year one of my Mortgage Lifters is merely beginning to flower while the other has set plenty of fruit. Fred

With all due respect, Breeze: no to the soap dispensers. I mean, it's =0.02 of course. But that's a definite no from where I sit. I realize I'm in the minority, or at least those of us not annealed to our soap dispensers are quiet about it, usually. I don't get it though. Why pass up the opportunity for a pretty version of such an every-day work item? I have this soap dispenser I got from Cost Plus for about .25 because it had a chip in it. It's made of marble with flowers chipped (deliberately) out of it so the chips are a grey color and the outside is shiny-black. I absolutely love this thing. It makes me so happy to see and use it! I actually bought it for my mom to use on the occasional week here or there once per year that she might visit. And then I thought how silly it was for this lovely item to sit fallow the rest of the year, so now I have it next to my prep sink. It's heavy so it doesn't move around and I can adjust where it does go to make room for a compost bucket up top if needed or extra dishes drying as needed. It's pretty, it's flexible, it's changeable, not that I can envision wanting to... At my other sink I have a beautiful hand-painted glass soap dispenser of Maine lupines, which lets me dream and wish wish wish they held the view out my window. sigh. You don't want to know what's really out my window.... If I'd bought an ugly matchy soap dispenser, it (a) would be on the fritz, probably and (b) would deprive me of the opportunity to enjoy this functional art. So I'm just putting in a word for the minority: no GD, don't miss it; no soap dispenser, wouldn't want it. :) Isn't it fun to disagree about such utterly subjective things? WWBITOTK? (What Would Belong In The One True Kitchen?)

There are various theories why BER occurs, lack of calcium being the primary factor (often combined with excessive N). But inconsistent watering practices seem to play an equal role. BER often occurs when damper early season weather begins to dry out just as the fruit is beginning to set but can be just as frequent when the plants are allowed to dry too much in between waterings. I am not a big proponent of self watering containers and I am not familiar with your Garden Patch grow boxes to comment but I would do what I could to ensure the plants in them receive consistent, even moisture. Bonide makes a calcium supplement for tomatoes called 'Rot-Stop' that is watered into the soil. I've never had to use it myself but it seems to be quite effective and is a popular item at my nursery.