I put down plastic mulch and row covers on valentines day and have tomatoes up to my knees, and will pick the first summer squash this week. Pepper transplants just sat there and so did basil , watermelon transplants lost vigor and I pulled them an put in more tomato plants. I potted the rest of the peppers up because I don't want to lose them. They are going to be big when they finally go in. Leeks at various stages and short day onions and intermediate day onions are going...mint is good to go. I am going to put in bush beans and italian purple pote beans today. It's a little bit of a gamble, but oh well, It seems worth it. There is one 38 cell flat of lemon cucumbers, marketmore cucumbers and butternut squash each that will go in in about a week. A variety of summer squashes too, in a cold frame in 4" pots. I can still do cabbage and broccoli and have lots of those to go in. ..not sure if I want to bother with direct seeding root crops ....any thing not transplanted is always so vulnerable to pests and requires lots of defensive strategies since I live in a wild land area. I have a table garden with lettuces , mustard, kale and arugala...and am going to try to keep those kinds of greens going at least until tomatoes are ready . One last thing starting is a sweet potato for slips. Probably end up doing more, or buying some ...this will be a first!

Oscularia deltoides is a good choice. It spreads its dense blue carpet quickly. Most sedums will look great. Try Sedum spathulifolium, or any of the myriad Sedum rubrotinctum hybrids like 'Aurora', or Sedum spurium hybrids like 'Dragon's Blood'. Squaw Mountain Gardens and Wild Ginger Farm, both in Oregon, have a great selection of sedums, and other mat forming succulents. Brad

Posted by Lauren Z4 - 4: I'm looking for a good source for native northern ground covers for my shade garden. I'm particularly interested in bunchberry (cornus canadensis?) and asarum canadensis - wild ginger. I also have bleeding hearts, bloodroot, bellwort, purple foliage violets, monkshood, etc. in the area.The canopy is oak and some airy pine. I moved in some trillium this fall along with some hepatica, birdfoot violet, and solomon's seal. Would bunchberry or ginger overwhelm? Would they be better off on a completely shaded sloped north side of house? Thanks! Lauren Follow-Up Postings: Alta 56N zone2: Bunchberry are native where I live. They seem to grow best in partial shade, acidic like yours should be with those trees, cool and moist but on higher ground. Will they overwhelm? I certainly don't think so. Here they grow in company with twinflowers (linnaea), and wintergreen. One does not overtake the other. Frances Boninti: Yes wild ginger will take over. I'm overwhelmed with it and once it invades the space of another plant it wins. I lost trillium to it. be careful. Dot - 7-OR: Cornus canadensis is compatible with all plants mentioned and in the Pacific Northwest grow extremely well together. I have also found them growing in open sunlight under summer drought condition in logged over ground. sheri zn 5 MI: I just saw a show that suggested a great companion plant for hosta and guess what it was? Yep, and it looked great he said it was a "well behaved" plant.

The Effects of Vegetation on the Structural Integrity of Sandy Levees Hello and thank you everyone. I thought this would be an easy question. In the second picture showing the levee, I think all of the red color is this plant, and maybe all or most of the green color too. It's on the Feather River at Shanghai Bend at Yuba City, California. I am going to try asking locally, I already tried to google in a general way but will try that again with more specifics--edited to add: I found several mentions of Erodium in the general area and I am satisfied with the genus/common name, thank you! For example, in the link above: "60. The level crest of the levee includes a frequently travelled crest road and road shoulders. Most plants here are stunted and only hardy pioneers survive. Most of the growth on this high, dry surface occurs in the early spring when lupine (presumably hydroseeded) covers much of the area. During most of the year, storksbill (Erodium) blankets the area."