My first time, so of course I'm like a kid at Christmas! Of the pictures I showed you before, quite a few of the seed pods stopped developing. I was sad but told myself I should not have counted those chickens before they hatched. There were three more left - then they suddenly turned brown, and I thought darn, I lost those, too. But no! They were ripe! The first pod just opened this afternoon, and I got 18 seeds. They are fresh... and PLUMP! I never knew that fresh ones are soft and plump because the ones I have received from internet orders are always flat. So something else I never knew about fresh seeds. I guess 18 seeds is fewer than most of you experts get, but not bad for a first-time pollinator and first-time bulb (well... for all I know - she's not talking! Haha!) I still have quite a few seed pod hoppers out there. I guess we'll see how many I get by the end of the summer. Only one person ever sent me an email with an address for seeds (Clare in California) so those will go out tomorrow. I never did hear from BigOlDude and I haven't seen him post in this forum since the first post in this thread. Oh my gosh, this is SO much more rewarding than my real job. Ok, here are the pictures: Seed pods as of yesterday. You can see the ones on the left stalk all aborted; three pods on the right stalk are starting to turn brown (dying, I thought!): Seed pods as of today. See the one that has split open?! And here are the seeds!!:

Hi folks...thanks so much for the continued support and feedback. I must tell you, my dear wife who is not in to gardening at all like I am basically convinced me not to give in just yet. There is yet another option of which I do not look forward to which involves clearing trees and constructing greenhouses....I just don't know where I'm going to find the energy for all that (lol). gardenman, yes I have always pretty much used oak leaves for mulch. I've not had any of the ingredients tested but I am near 100% certain that the Black Kow is free of herbicide. A few of my container plants which had Black Kow mixed in were inside my little greenhouse for around 3 weeks and they were fine but when I placed them outside it only took about four or five days to exhibit the leaf distortions. However it plays out this spring, I'm not going to pull any plants. I planned on letting things continue so that I can see the end results. And there are some positives going on. The plants continue to grow and set fruit at an excellent rate with some plants approaching 4 feet tall. And don't hold me to this, but I must confess that it does appear that some new foliage has developed without the distortions. Fingers crossed.... Jay

This is such an interesting thread. I come from the Canadian prairies where there were no disposal facilities at all until recently, and what there is remains limited. So disposing of all manner of garbage on your property was the norm. Maybe that mentality developed because of the seemingly endless space out there (as opposed to dense urban areas where they can't find landfill space to save their lives). Everyone burned their garbage in a burning barrel (and still do) or created their own little dumps. I doubt people thought much about how their actions might affect ground water, air quality, etc. Some of these things we just did not know then. We used to carry water to our livestock in "rinsed out" 5 gallon pails that used to contain herbicides and pesticides. ARGH!! I live in Eastern Canada now. People in my area burn garbage in barrels. Recently our municipality regulated burning. At first, I was annoyed ("what are they going to regulate next?!"). Now "they" are saying that backyard burning is one of the worst forms of pollution. Don't know if I buy that but I stopped. I felt a bit shocked, like I should have known better, but I'd just never really thought about it. I just did what others did. I'm a bit obsessed with reducing and recycling, and try to be informed about the environment yet there I was burning garbage. People here still "bury" old barns. I haven't seen it but it involves burning it to the ground and covering the foundation with soil - poof, gone! I have 2 such foundations on my property and have to work around them (broke a shovel "discovering" one of them). We have to take our stuff to the landfill and dispose of it for a fee. We can recycle lots of stuff for free. But when I drop my garbage, it seems very few people are recylcing. All around on the garbage heap is paper, cardboard, bags of cans, etc. You wouldn't believe how fast the landfill is filling up. You can't fail to notice it but it doesn't seem to be affecting people's behaviour. Yet folks sure complain about having to pay $1.25 per bag! Very disheartening. I wonder if it will take a crisis for us to change how we think about the materials we consume and dispose of? Interesting how many people have commented on how lazy those people who bury their junk are. But when you think about it, digging holes by hand to bury those mountains of stuff must have been hard work! Seems almost ironic. My mom reused and recycled long before it was in vogue. She came from poor, hardy pioneer stock who didn't waste stuff. So the stories about using carpet to keep weeds down strike me as an example of "not wasting" more than ignorance or laziness (altho there's always room for those!). As alyrics noted, if it's not bad for the environment, maybe it's not such a bad idea. Having said that, I don't envy those of you who have to clean up those awful messes. I'm amazed and grateful for the time, money, and effort you have put into properly disposing of garbage that's not yours. There's a little back road near here that I take in summer. Every year, some clown dumps a dryer or stove in the ditch. Drives me nuts. I wonder what's going through those people's minds that they can behave like that. I always try to use that to remind myself to watch for my own behaviours where I do "stupid" things without thinking (like burning garbage). cnid

I am so, SO thankful, so blessed that I had all of you to turn to. I just re-read all the replies again and I'm smiling from ear to ear (and to be perfectly honest...my eyes got a bit teary) and I am about to start RE-decorating the tree....for the second time; thanks to all of you. To read some of your stories....terribly sad yes....those memories. But then I read how someday I can look back at this and laugh and I'm hoping all of you who've had the fallen tree mishap are able to do that also. To all of you: If any of you ever need a shoulder, or need to vent, I'll be here for you just as you were for me-I sincerely mean that. Just holler! (or, at least email through GW and I'll be there for ya...any of ya!) My Dad is doing much better....thank you so much for asking. It was sure scary the night I called 911. The fact that he is diabetic didn't help matters. E.R. Dx'd as severe food poisoning but because his sugar was through the roof and white count was so high they decided to keep him. On day three they were still insisting it was food poisoning. Took matters into my own hands and got a second opinion. Five tests later...... Severely Gangrene Gall Bladder, infection throughout bloodstream, etc. etc. Emergency surgery at 9 that night. Today, Dad is going to the bathroom without me helping him get up and walk there and without me standing outside the bathroom door waiting for him to finish. Thus....I'm redecorating my tree today! LOL My son? My voice of reason and comic relief. I will be showing him this printed thread. Thank you all so much. As for mice, rats and Sterilite....here's some pics I took really early this morning. This is one of the last two Sterilite tubs that we didn't get broken down in time for the curb/trash pick-up. Until now I thought those cute little round mouse holes in cartoons were just that....round mouse holes in cartoons. Nope, those critters really DO make almost perfect holes to get at what they want! And yes, thank you for that tip.....I just finished printing out this topic, all the replies. I want to put it with the pics I took of the mouse holes....so I can hopefully laugh about it some day. If you are squeemish about 'rat and mice stuff', don't scroll down to the pics below.....stop right here *smile* But I did put pieces of bubble wrap behind the holes to keep you from seeing the 'stuff' inside. Considerate of me, no? *grin* ------------------- ------------------- ------------------ ----------------- ------------------