Have you got some follow up information to report? I'm very interested. Marie

Carol, Remind me in the spring and I'll pot up a mulberry seedling for you to bring to next year's swap. They pop up every spring. Yesterday I took out a 5' tall sapling that had popped up in my bed of larkspur the last few years, and I just left it there because I never "got around to" removing it.Every spring it pops up, and every spring I cut it down but don't dig it out. This spring, it just zoomed up and got huge. I dug down in the clay, which was a whole job in and of itself, and cut it off about 4" below ground but doubt I could dig out those roots from the clay. By next year it may be up and growing again. If it is I'll get OkieTim to use his superior strength to dig up that sucker to pot up for you. Otherwise, I'll find a smaller seedling next year. David, On some not-too-distant-day when it is either raining too much (don't we wish!) to work outside or too hot to be outside, we'll have to start a "back in the good old days" thread and then we older folks can entertain the younger ones with the things we remember from back in the day. I saw your request for a Sassafras seedling and a Catalpa seedling and if I had either one, it would be yours. I spent time this last week getting rid of all the mulberries so now I don't have any seedlings to get rid of, but if new ones pop up I'll let you know. I have a nice tall mulberry tree, but it is about 15' tall so I don't think it will transplant well. : ) Catalpa trees are all over the place a few miles south of us in Thackerville's sandy soil, but I've never seen one in our neighborhood. However, we have clay and rock so I guess the catalpas have chosen to stay where they're happy down there in the sand. I've always wondered why they haven't spread further north to where we live, so think maybe the soil is the reason. Everything else here spreads like mad. Dawn

I love the depth of your comments on human nature, Odinthor - "an inability to demonstrate the fullness of their hearts" for the deeply devoted in many respects. We all get passionately committed to something and then find ourselves building an overwhelming sense of responsibility and an awareness of how limited we are. I seem to find there are two possible responses to that growing awareness of the impossible in our lives - either we get anxious and focused on controlling ourselves and our environment to achieve that impossible perfection (like Kim's friend) or we develop a sense of humility and gratitude for being at least a small part of something bigger than ourselves (like Campanula and the endless joy of joining in the shaping of her wilderness). The same pattern often applies to us in other aspects of our lives, not just gardens but faith, family, and friends too. I was reminded of how much the latter attitude is both a choice and a long-term growing process for all of us last night. My daughter was chafing at the waiting and watching for her brother's Tae Kwon Do tournament last night, and I was reminding her to be patient and find something to be interested about in the activities. She turned to me exasperated and said, "Yeah, but nothing ever bothers you!" Shocked the pants off me, let me tell you - you mean you don't remember all the times I snapped at you, for starters? Then I realized that she's only 12, and her life has been absolutely filled with dramatic changes so far all the time - physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually. She doesn't have the luxury of a perspective to look back at the tapestry of her life and see the big picture of how things work together and work out - her tapestry is tiny and rushed and pretty jumbled up from where she stands (all gangly 5' 9" of her already, at that). That insight gave me the chance to do my "mom thing" and remind her (and myself) that an attitude is a choice and something you have to practice to get good at. Patience isn't something we're born with, but something we deliberately cultivate by not backing away from challenges (even the impossible ones) and handling the frustrations in our lives with grace and humility. Building that patience in the garden and life is something that all of you help me with at GW, and I thank you for it! Cynthia

When coir is used in most greenhouse/nursery operations it makes up <10% of the total volume of the grow medium, and is used primarily in bottom watering applications like ebb and flow. In large part, that is because it loses its loft very quickly and compacts severely when top-watered. Coir also has chemical properties that vary significantly enough from peat that it would be unwise to believe that coir can serve as an exact substitute for sphagnum peat w/o having appropriate work-arounds in place that take into account both the physical and chemical differences between the two. Coir is also known to be allelopathic to a notable % of plants, though I can't say with any certainty if almond trees are on the list of plants affected allelopathically by coconut hull products. Most plants I've tried to grow in media comprised of large fractions of coir/ CHCs were not at all cooperative and fared poorly. There isn't enough information to make a diagnosis with any degree of certainty, but odds would suggest that you are up against one of the fungal pathogens often gathered under the umbrella of damping-off diseases; or, compaction of the coir fibers has created an hypoxic root environment favored by fungi that thrive in anaerobic conditions. It's highly likely the seeds that have split into 2 cotyledons are perfectly viable. They can be planted in river sand which has been screened over a 2mm screen to eliminate the finest material. Start fertilizing when the plant is pushing its first true leaves. Al