Tom - Well, last week's cold snap was kind. Minimal damage. However, I am really worried about this week! This is 'red round turnip' and some papaya that I picked last Sunday. This variety does very well for me. These are 3 views of my garden today. The recent freeze wasn't hard enough to turn the papaya trunks to mush. I picked off a lot of the green fruits in hopes that I get to eat a few more ripe fruit. These pea pod vines have produced a lot of pods already. My husband and I covered several of my favorite fruit trees today to get ready for tomorrow's hard freeze. I use plastic to make mini-greenhouses and then I put a little heat inside. This is my 9-10 foot three year old 'Carie' mango tree. You are so lucky to not have such low temps when the cold fronts come through. ibarbidahl - No, those are not paper cups, they are the top part of plastic cups. I only use them for plants that I started from seed in "pots" (plastic cups). In the heat, the plastic collars help to capture water and they act as cutworm protection too. When the plants get large I often remove them. Christine

When I was in seminary, back in Indiana, long ago, we lived in a trailer park. We didn't have much storage. I rented a garden plot two miles down the road. Of course, we grew sweet potatoes. On top of that, my wife's grandparents always grew quite a few. At Thanksgiving the whole family would try to go to their home, in Southern Illinois. They would load everyone up with a crate of sweet potatoes. So, we had A LOT of them to fit in our little trailer. We stored them in crates under the bed and behind the sofa; and, it worked. I couldn't leave them out to cure either, as we had thieves in the rented gardens. Incidentally, I'm still digging our crop from this year. I hope to finish today. Yesterday I dug my dedicated row of Oklahoma Red and was very pleasantly surprised. They sized up much better than in the two previous growing seasons. They were very acceptable in size. In fact, they out did Red Wine Velvet this year. I still had a couple of two foot long "skinnies" and some which were too skinny to really use. But most were plump enough that they wouldn't cause the uninitiated to wonder "Why are these so skinny?" They produced heavily too. This illustrates something I've heard Dawn say about other kinds of vegetables. To give a fair trail of a variety takes a couple three growing seasons. I was beginning to think of this one as a "preservation project," in that I was disappointed with usable yields. But it has proven this year, that it can really produce, and that, some very nice roots. Also, there is one more thing to consider. There are so many variables, that sometimes it is virtually impossible to do a fair comparison without growing several times, in different parts of the garden. For instance, I was running late on getting our sweet potatoes in the ground, this summer. Since I was running late, I put my beloved Red Wine Velvet in the first available row. Red Wine Velvet did acceptably, but not nearly as well as in some years, and not nearly as well as the two other varieties I have dug so far. The only factors I can see as possible reasons for this are 1) They went in the "top row" nearest the North edge of the garden, where the soil is harder. & 2) Because of their location it was harder to get a soaker hose on them. One more observation on Oklahoma Red. I will have to pay closer attention with other varieties to see if this is true also for them. The longest, skinniest roots were those which mainly grew laterally. The nicer plump roots grew vertically (down). In many hills, this year, the majority of the roots practically went straight down from the base of the plant. These were the best roots. Some which grew more laterally, though, still sized up enough to eat. These were the really long roots. These are harder to dig without breaking. Okay, just one more observation on this variety. I didn't find a single split root. This year, because of the drought and rains, I have found a number of roots (other varieties) which split. They were still usable. But they were blemished by splitting. Oklahoma Red showed great resistance to splitting. Now, the thing to do is to observe it a few more years to see if this is always the case. George

I found this link that might help: Posted by gardenguru1950 SunsetZ16 (My Page) on Sat, Aug 8, 09 at 13:06 The most common "eater" of rose leaves in California is the Bristly Rose Slug, the larvae of the Rose Sawfly. The sawfly is a pudgy little wasp. It lays its eggs on the UNDERSIDES of the leaves and the caterpillars feed on the UNDERSIDES of the leaves. The rose slug is tiny, no more than 1/4-inch long and very slender, and it's the exact same pale green as the undersides of the leaves. Talk about hard to see and find! It's the critter that "skelotinizes" rose leaves. It's pretty easy to get rid of, actually. Almost any good spray will do the job: insecticidal soap, Neem, pyrethrum. The trick is to spray thoroughly UNDER the leaves. Not stand back and spray all over. You have to get UNDER the leaves. By the way, a commonly suggested spray for rose sawfly is BT. It doesn't work. It doesn't work because it's meant for the caterpillars of moths and butterflies. The rose slug is the larvae of a wasp. And I'm not sure of any beneficial insect that preys upon it. As for your rose buds, Applenut has a good idea. Go outside late at night with a flashlight. The critter most likely is an earwig, sowbug or pillbug. It also might be a slug or snail. Joe Here is a link that might be useful: Bugs that eat roses' leaves

I've learned something new! How to do this stuff! Anyhow, here's what I thought I found: What looks like a fawn to me, in relation to the answer Jasdip posted. A chipmunk Little gray bird, a dove, perhaps? I had also thought that the black shadow immediately to the right of my "1" might be a black squirrel. Wrong. . . . . And yes, Annie, I kind of thought that was a snake, too, But it changed a lot when I enlarged the picture. Aren't imaginations fun? ? ? Rusty