Boy time really got away with me. I'm been so busy with work and I just interviewed for a Masters Program at UT Southwest Medical here in Dallas, whew I'm exhausted! :) Here are the rest of my Brugs! :) I took these after work one day so they are a little darker than normal. Good idea, Eloise, about the markers. I had no idea that wasn't toxic to the plants. Thanks pkponder! Coleus was really easy to start from seed. I started a thread in the Container Garden forum, if you wanna check out the coleus progress! :) It'd be interesting to try different types of ferts but right now I'll stick with what I have on hand. I don't have access to any other fert than store bought ones... Yaslan, this is my first time growing from seed. I got a Wizard mix, which is a bunch of different types of coleus and I used pretty much the whole package and got lots of seedlings! Ashley

I'd really been wondering when the redbuds would show that first blush of color and finally .... just in the last day or two, they are showing up along the roadsides. A deer visited a few days ago and snacked on some of my tulips :( but the ones that are left are beginning to bloom and they are beautiful! Phlox is now blooming and the hostas are growing fast. I'm now pretty sure that the tree that I thought might be a crabapple is just that, and it looks like another small tree is a redbud (yay). It's fun discovering what's growing here, now that the weather has finally decided to warm up. A neighbor said 12 wild turkeys were in our yard the other day, but we were at work so we missed seeing them. The street we live on is called Turkey Run Drive, so now we now how it got its name :). Oh, and one bit of good news .... they started the dirt work where the building will go, and when they stripped off the bermuda grass the land is mostly nice dirt, with only one little strip of red clay running through it. This may have once been farmland, or a pasture. So that's good news for the vegetable garden. Suzie

Nice link, Julianna, I haven't seen that one before. Both hybrid & open-pollinated squashes are pictured... however, they are not identified as hybrid or OP. That is an important distinction, since you intend to take only OP varieties with you. For open-pollinated squash varieties _only_, there is a much more extensive squash listing (by species) in the book "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth (which I highly recommend you take with you, considering what you are planning). If you have access to the book "Garden Seed Inventory, Sixth Edition" (published by the Seed Savers Exchange) it lists most of the OP varieties sold in the U.S., with descriptions. The C. pepo squashes are the most widely grown, because there are so many types - including nearly all Summer squashes, most pumpkins, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, ornamental gourds, and quite a few others. They run the greatest risk of crossing, with others of their species grown nearby. C. maxima & C. moschata will not cross with C. pepo under normal conditions. You could grow one of each in each plot, and still save seed. Even if your plots are only 2 miles apart (I mistakenly said "5 miles apart" in my previous post) the chances of a cross between the two plots is very small; if there are other pollen sources between them (such as flowers), the odds are almost infinitesimal. There are some references (which others may quote) that say inter-species crossing is possible in rare cases... but I & many others have not experienced any. I don't plant all three mixed together, however; I grow the different species on opposite sides of the garden, with other crops between. Not sure if this really makes a difference... but as long as it works, I'll keep doing it. ;-)

I found this post after I had posted on the "pets" forum the following: "We have a pup, 2 1/2 months old, weighs 8 lbs. We live in the middle of woods in a very rural area. She loves being outside and is gradually exploring further and further from the front porch. We have all kinds of wildlife here, but my main concern are the owls and hawks. Are they a danger to an 8 pound pup? I can't seem to find a definite answer online about this, varying opinions everywhere. We have barred owls and great horned owls, which are pretty big. We also have red-tailed hawks. At what size do we not worry anymore about the pup? We also have seen racoons, foxes, bobcat, and have been told we have coyotes, but I've never seen one. I'm not as concerned about those because they pretty much stay away from the house. Our property is big but is fenced with field fence all around." All the answers on that were "be concerned". I'm seeing both sides to this here. So I guess to be safe I'd better keep a close watch until she gets to be around 15 pounds, which should be in about 6 more weeks.