Please report back on which ones are sweet! In Iran I think all apricots I've had are sweet and delicious kernels. Perhaps you can find some Iranian varieties. I think Scott has found some Iranian varieties like Shekar Pareh and Zard perhaps from Afghanistan??? I just spoke with my grandmother actually she says I am mistaken--we have bitter kernels in Iran as well but they are less common and cheap fruit. Shes says the bitter kernel ones generally have darker yellow skin, smaller fruit, and poorer overall fruit quality. I wonder if anyone has ever tried Tomcot kernels!!! I am nursing my small Tomcot tree back to health probably won't produce for a few years.

I had some Gaillardia that I planted for the solstice in Dec. It germinated the 1st wk of Jan. I was worried about it during the 19 degree nights we have had, but ive just kept the top on and left it near the bricks that get the afternoon sun (they hold heat overnight). It has done fine. I was REALLY surprised when I saw that it had sprouted, but dah, it was in the sun and we had 50 and 60 degree days. Rookie mistake :-) Since then, I have researched, and I now have a better understanding of hardy vs tender, etc. Also I have moved the "ghetto" to complete shade, for now. Nothing new has germinated since. In my very Rookie experience, the gaillardia seedlings can handle cold, with normal protection. Here is a link that might be useful: Gaillardia Seedlings, bottom right pot

All of which goes to show....do what it takes not to fight with your neighbors. They may be unreasonable (one of ours called the cops to report an abandoned car parked in front of our house....that belonged to my daughter who was on vacation). They may be dead wrong (one of ours thought that, because their property is subject to an easement for use by their adjoining neighbors, they had an easement to use my property). They may even be right (when we were first married more than 30 years ago, another of ours objected that our dog, who we had trained to retrieve the newspaper, was taking their paper. She was.). We have learned to be considerate. When their wishes infringe on our right to live as we please, we set down boundaries, explaining why and what we are doing, accommodating what we can. Neighbor doesn't like cars parked in our driveway? Too bad. We have friends. Neighbor likes to spray the property line with Roundup? Fine, so long as not one drop gets on my plants planted along the fence line. Neighbor doesn't like the view of my yard from their living room window? Fair enough. We do what we can, planting screening to soften infrastructure installed by the developer. Of course I wonder why they didn't do the same on their own property. But I screen nonetheless. It's all part of being a good neighbor. Funny how barking dogs and trash containers get people nuts. We have neighbors who seems to think that leaving the emptied trash containers up on the street for an hour past trash pickup is a sign of poor breeding. Oh well. The green can is so heavy that I cannot wrangle it up the driveway. I get half way up, and it rolls me right back down. So when my gardener fills it, he also does the service of putting the green can up by the street. Neighborhoods used to be organized with those wonderful alleyways at the back of the property. We don't live in that world any more. As for dogs, there's a big difference between a young dog learning to enjoy staying in the yard alone for the first time and a dog that barks all day, every work day while its owner is at work. But not to my neighbors.

REVENGE OF THE PLANTS: I did dump everything un-sprouted yesterday. Couldn't see wasting any more water...ghetto is gone, yard looks lovely. ANYHOO...just as I was dumping last containers when walking by a rose bush it reached out and grabbed my shoelace and tried to wrestle me to the ground in retribution for my actions against its cousins. It succeeded to making me go flat on my face into the mulch. I just laid there think, "Please, God, don't make me have broken my arm or make me die here out in the sun among my beautiful garden" I didn't do either, but that rose bush is going to get a severe pruning! I'm glad to be done...learned quite a bit and am already planning for next year. Like let my grandson WS tomatoes for me, his are doing fabulous. Mine didn't do anything.