Counting the ones that are blooming and the one hanging down in the rear, I count 15 all totaled!! So, what does this bulb do on an off year? :-) Donnaâºâºâº

Sure chicken stock can support growth of botulism. Any low acid food can, and meat and meat broths are low acid. I think everyone goes through that 'scared' to eat it phase. Especially so if they haven't watched an experienced canner a few times do a certain product. The first time I made saurkraut, and the fermentation started I freaked out. Nothing smelling that bad could surely be edible. I talked it over with a couple of experienced kraut makers, and even had one go down and inspect my 'work in progress' and guess what, when it was done.......it was so good. Try to keep things in perspective. If you use a method you know is current and safe, and you followed directions, and the product sealed well you are probably just fine. If you have any doubts whatsoever when it comes time to eat it, follow common sense. If it smells off, doesn't look right, is growing something, or the lid pops off like an explosion when you open it, for pity's sake don't even smell it. Dispose of it safely. If it looks fine and you still have doubts, heat it to the boiling point for twenty minutes. That will kill the bacteria and break down the toxins. I have read the stats on botulism poisoning each year at the CDC websites. If you disregard the cases of infant botulism and wound botulism there are relatively few cases of it from food consumption considering the amount of food preserved annually in this country. That's not going to help you if you are one of the cases, though, is it? In my case the only time I was concerned was when I canned up a huge surplus of potatoes in a good gardening year. Even commercially canned spuds will sometimes get cloudy liquid from the potatoes disintegrating in the heating process.......but it turned me off. I think I pitched them, and am really sure in retrospect they were probably wonderful and safe. I followed the directions to the T.

I just trimmed out the porch with stuff I found at L0wes - though we tried to match colors, it does seem like the board over the stairs is whiter than the others. Tried 2 different boards to left of stairs, didn't see difference when laid on the ground but once they were up I could still see joint where grayish one met white one. Sorry, gotta take daytime pic Here is a link that might be useful: PVC trim

No mulching! You want the rhizomes to be exposed to the sun. That's why it is a hassle to weed around irises. Fertilize with Bulbtone or other bulb fertilizer early in the spring when iris begin to grow about 0.5 tsp or 1 tsp depending on the size of your plants.