Chris, I would be interested in any tomato seeds that you may have extra of. My hubby and I were just talking about what to put in the veggie garden last night. My family likes canteloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, cumcumbers, and green beans. Would be interested in anything unusual, fun for the kids! But if you've got everything ready for Patty, or have it mailed, please don't worry about me!! I wasn't able to send to everyone either. I really wanted to though!! Patty, I'm going to have my daughter mail off my seeds today. I'll post when they've made it to the P.O. Have a good day everyone! Karen

I vote we keep this going month by month and we have an option to play that month or sit it out.Also it would be nice for us all to update our members page so we can go and see what our partner for the month is interested in and the color themes they are using.That is not saying we have to go by a list boballi,but to give us ideas.I have several gardens and several in progress and several planned,so I can use anything.The etc. part is a good idea also.I have a bird house village and maybe someone is interested in swapping birdhouses or garden art.I am not sure I would want weeds.I pull about a wagon full almost everyday now..lol This has been alot of fun for me and am glad of having the opportunity to meet you all.Thank you Diene for bringing us all together.As our group grows,it will become more and more interesting.Don't you all think we should have a name for our group? Or keep it as making new friends? Vela,thanks for taking the next swap.Maybe we can do a mo. by mo. volunteer hosting or have someone to keep up with who swapped with who.I like the idea of the host passing on the info to the new host.That way we won't have to keep going back sending it repeatedly. I sure hope you get your box today Wendy.I shutter that it may sit until Monday in the PO.If this happens and the plants do not survive,I will gladly send another box right away.Please let me know about the passion vine. Vela,thank you for the offer of your lilies but my ditch here in Ga. is full of them,but send me a picture and let me see if they sre the ones we have here.I am thinking they probably are. Well,I am going outside to play in the dirt.Have a great day everyone. moonphase

flashheat: Getting back to ronnatalie's advice, you have these options: 1. Replace the wiring with modern cables with grounds (probably the most expensive and least feasible approach but ultimately the best solution) 2. Run new green ground wires from selected outlet boxes to the ground bar in your main panel. (It's also possible that you may be able to connect them to a #4AWG ground that runs from your water supply input point to your main panel, if you have such a wire and can access that more easily. Note that I'm not recommending that you connect directly to a water pipe!) 3. Install a three-prong GFCI outlet with no grounding wire. This is the easiest and quickest approach, and is code compliant even though the outlet is not truly grounded. (The exception is recognized because the GFCI function renders it reasonably safe--as long as it's working correctly. ;-) ) If you take this route, you should make sure to attach a sticker (comes with GFCI outlet) indicating that the outlet has no ground. Side issue: If the ground rod you connected to is the pre-existing rod that's there to serve as the grounding electrode for your house's main panel, the tester should not have indicated a faulty ground under normal circumstances. That's not because your wiring method would have been correct, but because the rod would normally be bonded to the panel. Was this a ground rod you drove for this purpose? Or, could it be an "independent" ground rod driven by a telephone guy or cable TV installer or something like that? Or maybe an old unused rod? If none of the above, and it is the purported grounding electrode for the house's grounding system, you have a potential problem worth investigating: It's possible that the rod is not properly bonded with your panel. (I won't jump into the issue about whether that's "unsafe". Let's just say that it's safe to say it's "not good.")

Okay, so it is the next season after this thread. Not sure who might even still have an interest in this. I guess I feel I am trialing roses for disease resistance and growing organically and thought my experiences might be useful to anyone trying to do the same. What has happened since then. I cut back Julia Child just about to the ground in August last year. It came back from the ground and was about a foot tall before the first frost. Over the winter that new growth died back to the base of the canes. Some new canes came up from the ground and some new growth started on the bottom of the old canes. I did my usual compost/alfalfa meal in late April?, and fish emulsion/seaweed a few times. I had excellent healthy growth and I let it develop the way it wanted to. I tried to fix the problem I felt I created the season before, by cutting down any plants that were near the rose, so it gets a lot more air circulation. Last season I had a lot of cleome reseeding and allowed it to grow right up around the rose. A big mistake. It is only July now, but we have had two long heat waves already and it's been very humid this season, but Julia Child looks very good, just small. Here is a series of photos..... Julia Child April 27th, 21 - low to the ground but healthy growth. By May 25th, lots of healthy growth and flower buds showing. I didn't really prune any of the interior new growth. Still wondering if I should have because it has a lot of interior growth. Julia Child June 7th - first flush of bloom, looking nice iwth plenty of buds, healthy foliage. Julia Child on the 7th of July - Still has completely healthy foliage and is pushing out new buds for a 2nd flush, despite not doing my usual 2nd dose of compost and alfalfa meal. And that's the story with Julia Child. Have no idea why it struggled so much last year. I didn't use the Epsom salts because I chose instead to cut it down to the ground and not look at the ugly foliage any more. I was prepared to lose it and replace it with the same. Happy that I didn't have to. What is different this year than last, that it's had such a healthy year? No idea. I have two questions, was it better not to have applied a second round of compost/alfalfa meal? Should I have pruned some of the center growth when it first started producing so much new growth? It's been a good year for roses here. I have only had foliage problems on one out of eight roses and that was Pope John Paul. I shovel pruned it as soon as I realized it had blackspot. I could have done what I did to Julia Child last year and cut it back to the ground and let it regrow with healthy foliage, but I decided I was unhappy with the rose for other reasons and that was just the last straw. My biggest complaint is that the petals on the rose, deteriorate as it is opening, so it's hard to get a healthy clean looking bloom. I decided I wanted to try another white rose, maybe next year. I was initially over enthused about the rose, but that problem with the petals just really changed my mind. Savannah, has been healthy healthy looking. Pushed up new canes, is very bushy. Had a good flush of blooms 1st time around but is slow to put on new buds. My only concern is again whether it is too bushy and I should have pruned more of it off. I did prune it initially and it started with only 3 canes but it added more and is branching off those too. So, I'm just letting it do it's thing. I skipped the 2nd round of compost and alfalfa meal on all the roses this year. I think I did that, because they had a little bit of a rough time last year, and some had a rough winter, and I wanted them to just go at their own pace. Savannah June 4th 21 Savannah June 27th...first flush was done and the foliage still was clean but it's so bushy. It seems to me that is the way it grows and doesn't seem right to try to open it up in the center for air circulation. Especially since the foliage has been so clean. I have another thread floating around which I had a hard time finding, but I did think that Beverly was dead, and with encouragement from everyone here, I watied and it came back great in short order. It has also had a good season with healthy growth. It bloomed with about 5 blossoms first flush and right now it has one open bloom on it that is smaller and a few new buds just forming. Here is a current photo of Beverly, after thinking it was dead back in May...completely healthy foliage. I also have Prairie Sunrise, which I had an early season thread about - New Dawn, which had it's best year since I've had it - Aloha, which I enjoy and is very healthy but it's not in full sun and it is a very stingy producer. Penelope that keeps coming back even though I've cut it to the ground multiple times. [g] And that's about it. I would say based on my experiences with these roses, Julia Child I have had the longest and I feel is the most reliably healthy and productive. And I love New Dawn and hope to place it in a better location where it can really perform the way it was meant to. I love that old rose fragrance. I'm enjoying all the rest. I'm not sad to be looking for a new white. And I could lose Penelope and not be sad at all. But the current collection I have, minus Pope John Paul,seem to be a very healthy bunch for someone like me who grows organically with no spraying or insecticides at all.