Al mentioned using a heated nail or screw. Better yet, if you have an ice pick use that. I've been using an old ice pick for years and years for putting holes into containers to putting holes into plastic plant labels so that I can hang them from a plant. Mine has a wooden handle and the heat never reaches the handle. I have a gas stove so most of my ice pick heating is done over a burner. If a hole is not as large as I want it, I reheat the pick and do what Al sez, move it around. If it doesn't seem to be going thru the plastic, heat it up even more. Some things were so tough that I had to heat my pick up until it was glowing red. I store it in my knife drawer with a cork over the sharp end for safety reasons (I'm a klutz, what can I say). Do stores even carry ice picks anymore? The one I have was my mom's and I remember it from being a small girl, and that was nearly back in the cave days. Jenna

I too have a carrot curse (I do fine with beets and radishes though) I think it all has to do with moisture. We get no rain from now until October. That means we are very dry and we warm up quick. So the only time I had success with carrots was when I remembered to water at least once a day, sometimes two times. I think I will try the board method though and see if that helps. I think too that they are very tasty to the buggy critters. I have in the past gotten very excited when I saw germination, only to come out a couple of days later to find not a sprout in site. They are so slow to germinate and soooo slow to begin growing that they need super care. I often wonder why I keep trying when a bag of carrots is so cheap! but I course have a bed right now where I am hoping to see germination soon!

I have never had a rabbit problem, but dried blood might help if they are a problem, adding nitrogen to your soil at the same time. Hornworms are a pest and will have to be hand picked, they bite, so haul them off and squish em. Old Germans are my absolute favorite!!! I had one that was 2.6 pounds, and the best tasting tomato I ever had!! Unfortunately mine didn't start well this year so I only have Green Zebras and Cherokee Purples. I usually dig a 1 1/2 foot deep hole about 14 inches in diameter, put 2 shovels of well rotted cow manure in the hole, mix in some soil at the top, and plant my tomato. It won't matter what your soil's like, the tomato will be growing in manure. I've seen my dad grow squash in a pile of rocks this way!!! About the only things that don't like manure are beans and potatoes. Plant the tomato as deep in the soil as you can. I'll usually cut off the bottom few leaves and put it a foot deep [ tomatoes will root from the stem] . I usually don't put manure at the top because I worry about burning, but if it's well rotted and cow this should not be a problem. Happy gardening.

You can bet I will stick with Bakers and companies I know that DON'T sell silly seed. I am going to post the link that Dawn turned me onto, on "Please don't laugh" thread. I read all of it and also downloaded the video, as it would behoove all of us to do, because this affects all of us, not just the small farmers that are being blackmailed, and sued by Monsanto for using their seed, which they've managed to patent. This, even though the farmers had planted their own saved seed, the pollen in the Monsanto crops cross pollinated with the farmers and altered their plants. The upshot was that the courts have decided in favor of Monsanto, and further, that it didn't matter HOW the patented Monsanto "effected" plants got into the farmer's fields and crops, the farmer is liable to OWE Monsanto. And also, that the crops then technically BELONG to Monsanto. Oh, it gets worse! And I think we had all start arming ourselves with the facts. Larry was right when he said whomever owns the seeds, controls the world. And that's what it's coming down to, and apparently Monsanto's evil scheme. Do you know that, according to Sen. Inhofe's response to me, Oklahoma farmers are already using Monsanto seed in their fields? And, for example, let's say one of these farmers has planted Monsanto genetically modified corn in the field next to your property, and the wind currents, birds, insects, (if they survive), happen to drift over and cross pollinate with your hithertofore heirloom seed...it will be goodbye heirloom seed. There is NO way to undo the damage, or save your heirloom seed. It has been unalterably changed. Furthermore, if Monsanto's seed police find out, they can claim your corn is Monsanto's property, and either sue you for infringing on their "intellectual property" OR charge you for using it. Nice guys huh? Welcome to the world of corporate thugism. There is a word for it when big corporations and government operate together to control a country and it's people. Since as Sen. Inhofe so PROUDLY says, the food we eat coming America's commercial farmlands now contains 60% of genetically engineered "ingredients" whatever they may be...doesn't that make you think twice about buying a package of corn chips, tortillas, corn flakes, soy products, or just about ANYTHING. How about going out to dinner someplace? There are no FDA regulations requiring labels to be placed on products containing GMO. Will this not end until it has encompassed the entire planet irrevocably? I fear we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. I urge everyone to visit the link Dawn originally posted. If enough Oklahoman's and others complain loud enough it could conceivably be stopped, at least close to home. I think it was Mendicino County environmentalists in California that got laws passed to ban GMO from being used there. If it can be done there, it can be done here in our counties as well. Perhaps in the entire state. Finally, I think the Monsanto lobbiests have sold Sen. Inhofe and others a bill of goods. To send out a form letter instead of seriously studying a very serious issue is not my idea of good representation. Barbara Here is a link that might be useful: Monsanto and GMO crops