Welcome Usha! The discussion board here goes through cycles and it has been a bit slow for awhile, but many of us "old timers" check in - - you'll get plenty of help. I read that you are saving milk cartons..... you do mean milk JUGS (clear plastic), right? To make the "mini green houses" you will need lots and lots of jugs. It is NOT to early to get everyone in your life to start saving them too! Just ask them to rinse them with hot saopy water before storing to give to you,,,they get really really stinky if they don't!!!

This year I tried to restrain myself. The current selection, most of it still in the fridge, is: Exotica (sitting next to the computer, just about to bloom) Aphrodite (showing the tips of stalks, on the kitchen counter) Charisma (3) Lemon Lime (2) Pink Diamond (3) Melusine Papilio Picotee (2) In past years I have also loved: Apple Blossom Hercules Green Goddess Nymph Sweet Surrender (the most magnificent flower, but they do eventually bend down, even with stakes, and can look messy towards the end) and others too numerous to name. I also have about forty Ziva paperwhites just waiting for their pebble and water homes. Am always looking for pretty containers for my paperwhites! My amaryllis are all potted in terra cotta, slightly larger pots than are usually recommended. My addiction to this flower is sick, sick, sick, and I love it!

I am also new. I found a copy of Permaculture 2 at a used book store and I'm slowly reading it (lots of concepts to wrap my mind around). I got interested in energy-wise house design 20 yrs. ago so this is familiar. Also- just lost a tree in my yard and had to replace it for shade as summers here are very hot. Luckily I had an idea to plant something that will feed my family and pets so I am putting in a tiny fruit orchard along with taller trees to shade more of the roof and keep the house cooler. Once I get the bareroot trees in, I'll put in herbs, some veggies and strawberries as groundcover. My son keeps fancy rats which provide us with plenty of manure/bedding for the compost pile along with green waste from the kitchen. My goal for now is fewer ornamentals and more edibles from my garden, hopefully so I can spend less money on food (and get better quality). It's on a small lot in a suburb of Los Angeles so chickens, and livestock are out of the question; riding stables are close by for more manure though. I'm having a good time with this so far and I'm looking forward to learning more from others experiences.

Actually I learned this on Thursday. I was getting a generic Rx filled at Kroger. It is a 3 month Rx which has been $12.00. If your Doctor writes it for 90 days, rather than 3 months, it is only $10.00. I have another generic Rx and the pharmacist told me to have my Doctor write me a new Rx for 90 days and it would also be $10.00. I don't know if that is true at all Pharmacies. A small saving, but still a saving. Every little bit helps, and is appreciated. BTW, my little pea brain would probably get lost trying to keep up with a movie and the internet at the same time. ;( Sue