For those of you having troubles with cukes and squash, you might want to inter-plant with nasturtiums next time, try it! My garden in 9b is just going to be one year old, or should I rather say, I will be celebrating one year of being the garden's loving custodian....so I have lots of troubles. In march/April I had a jungle of brassicas (both rapas and oleraceas). I had this green explosion and almost ran out of room in the freezer. Turnips, kales, collards, bok choi, beet greens, you name it. When it got warmer the harlequin beetles attacked them and they all died, after I had hopes for their perennialization (a word?). The Harlequin proceeded to suck the jalapenos and the tomatoes, ruining several tomato plants too. I was (am) so afraid to put brassicas on the ground again, until I realized I need to give them sacrificial crops. This started to work to some extent last year, and my fear was that sunflowers would not sprout at this time of the year. Guess what? they did! I now have sunflowers growing and I just planted some kale and mustards near them. Not sure if nasturtiums will do the trick for brassicas but I put them in too. We also got some brussel sprouts trying to germinate in a protected environment (terrarium), I think I will use the plastic cylinders from soft drink bottles that grandad from Louisiana is showing on the cole crops thread. So glad I overcame my fear of trying brassicas again. I still have to successfully grow cauliflowers and broccoli though. We will see how the brussel sprouts do and think about it, my cauliflowers never flowered last year, but the leaves were good....LOL In the mean time, the amaranth is still producing as many greens as I need. They are tougher leaves now that the plants are seeding, so I just cook them longer and they are still acceptable. Whatever tries to attack them gets in turn eaten by a large collection of lady bugs that seem to hang out near them a lot. I am encouraging more lady bugs by planting more and more cilantro. When they reach their end I will still have several dozen pounds of frozen green in the freezer from the spring. After that I hope the cole crops will be ready to harvest, and the harlequins somewhat controlled. So I hope anyways. I was so furious when i found out they are an introduced species! grrrr.....and no predators either, not even chickens will eat them. Anybody knows of other sacrificial crops to deter bugs from cole crops? I will need something after the sunflowers run their course, but I suppose since now I know they will grow at any time, I can keep planting more and more sunflowers. A very handsome looking sacrificial crop at that.....

Sherry, I saw pictures of the Florida freeze, and thought about you. Have you had much damage? It has been terrible here in Oklahoma, and I am not sure what the results will be in the spring, but ours had gone dormant or at least were prepared for the cold. They were not prepared for below zero, but were prepared. Florida seemed to be hard hit. I hope your garden is ok. Sammy

I've made a ice-bowl or three in my time! It's basically the same plan as the luminaries but you use a large and small bowl instead. I used tupperware and took my chances on it cracking (it didn't). I had to use duct tape to keep the smaller bowl centered in the water because it wanted to keep moving. Also used silk flowers to match the occaision. Because of their bulk they didn't have a lot of room to move around during the freezing process. I would have loved to put in some kind of berry but they would have sunk to the bottom. Anyway, each time it turned out beautiful. You have to remember to remove it from the freezer allowing enough time for it to thaw out of it's container. It is NOT recommended to run water over it for fear of cracking. A half hour was enough for my bowl. Then I set it on a folded square of paper towel on top of a beautiful crystal cake stand. One time I had cut fruit in the bowl and the other two times I had shrimp cocktail. The bottom layer of fruit had problems sticking to the ice bowl. So when I did the shrimp cocktail I cut a round piece of wax paper for the very bottom of the bowl, which helped. Easy to do and oh so many compliments! You can also unmold it way ahead of time as a precaution and then just return to the freezer without the mold. I did!

Depending on where you live in the Midwest, you may not find Michael Angelo's, I've never even heard of it. I've never purchased or eaten frozen lasagna but my son in law likes the Stouffer's. He heats them up in the microwave for a lunch when he's at work or when he's working in the evening. He always has two, one is never enough, but he's a mechanic with his own garage, so his hours are sometimes long and the work is physically demanding. Also, the Midwest is full of something called Gordon Food Service, they're a warehouse type thing that you don't need to be a member to shop at. They provide food to schools, restaurants, etc. Elery says he's gotten lasagna there and it's "OK". You do have to buy large pans of it, though. Annie