I can't post a picture because the welded parts were reinstalled with the new axle and the old one went in the trash. The tractor went back to work that afternoon. Like I said, it wasn't a knock on Craftsmen. By the way, I didn't find any cracks in the frame itself, just the two steel plates holding the axle.

Too late to WS? Here in Colorado, we have the most bizarre weather, and if I had planted in January and February, it's an almost sure bet that everything would have sprouted (we have lots of sun and warm days--even had some warm nights!) before the middle of March, then would have promptly perished in our latest series of storms, with temps down below 20. I didn't even start until the first of our March snowstorms, and I'm certain that everything will sprout just fine. Most seeds don't need to be fully stratified, so a couple weeks of cool nights should be enough to encourage things to grow, and will be just in time to plant out without needing the "frost watch" you would need if they had sprouted earlier. GO FOR IT, and thanks to soonergrandmama for sending the link: we now know that the Laura Bush seeds will provide true plants. So, save away--I'm sure I'll be putting them on my trade list soon, even though I have two containers of petunias (currently with sun on them, but down to 25 last night...) that I'm looking forward to. Where to plant? Who cares--this is too much fun!!!

Elemire, you have hundreds of roses - how small can your garden be? Interesting how different attitudes exist side by side - I truly want to scream every time I hear 'grow your own'. Vegetable plug plants have taken over from petunias and lobelia, even in supermarkets (although you would have to be desperate to consider buying any of those plants after a couple of days sitting in overheated stores, ignored by all). Of course, it is a massive con. I can see why people would buy half-hardy bedding plants such as aforementioned petunias - they can be a bit tricky from seed and need a fair bit of light and heat to get going...but lettuce! spring onions! The idea of the potager, growing vegetables and flowers and herbs together, to look decorative and have a useful function, has been pushed mercilessly. Everywhere, we see little 'raised bed' kits (just lengths of timber and a few stakes for ridiculous prices) while folk are trying to create some long-lost bucolic simple life, return to nature scenario. More than once, I have seen lettuces laid out like bedding plants, then unharvested because it would mean leaving unsightly gaps. The truth is, to grow vegetables well, they do need to be apart from long-term ornamentals and they do look quite dull for most of the year. This is why vegetable gardens were often relegated to some far corner of an estate. I do intend to carry on growing some vegetables but only those which we eat, are reliable, can be stored and are relatively trouble-free. So, no more brassicas, no more french beans or sweetcorn (I fail to grow this successionally so we always end up with 3 dozen corn plants, all ready at the same time) no more weird and wonderful stuff (okra, asparagus peas, scorzonera and salsify, radicchio, aubergines or oriental greens)No more ground-swallowing potatoes apart from a few earlies. Fruit, and plenty of it, from now on....and a lot more roses.

Well, it was a great gardening year here. The first year with the greenhouse was very sucessful. Lots of ripe tomatoes, peppers, cucs, squash and even some little cantelope...although I would have liked larger cantelope and more of them, I was still happy with what grew. Next year, I think I will arrange the stuff in the greenhouse a bit differently, though. Out in the veggie garden, I think it was the best year yet. Larger beets than I have ever had before, which meant more beet pickles. :-) This was the first year that I used a lot of fresh herbs in cooking right from the garden. mmmm good. I grew them other years, just didn't use them much. I also would have liked to seen more cucumbers in the outside veggie garden. There some, but certainly not as many as other years. The containers were full and spilling over....taking over the area in front of the greenhouse and along the fence. :-) I evenually had to move a couple of the containers to the other side of the house.....just so they didn't look so squished. The very large hanging basket, that was out front this year...did the best it ever has. I guess it had more sun on all sides of the basket, so it was huge. It was the earliest I have ever seen dahlia flowers...so many. :O The begonias have flowered non stop. The new ones I bought this spring...must have been giants, they got sooooo big. LOL. And even my pitiful annual phlox, decided to take off.....It still didn't look as lovely as Gil's pics but it had nice clumps of pretty flowers by the end of Aug. The glads all flowered nicely...still a few flowers at the tips of some of them as I write this. There were two varieties, but the funny thing was they all bloomed at different times, within the same variety. I thought that a little strange, but it made the glad season longer, so not complaining. I might even save a hand full of corms from each variety. I wasn't impressed with the elephants ears...each bulb only put out two leaves and the entire plant wasn't any taller than about a foot and a half tall. The one caster bean plant that I planted in the garden also only got to about a foot and a half tall. NOT VERY IMPRESSIVE. Oh, I planted a large container with gazania and it didn't start flowering at all till last week. Now I have about 6 to 8 flowers.... Is this one of the plants that I shouldn't have fertilized? I also planted some pink cosmos in the back garden....these plants got 5 to 6 feet with strong stems and just started flowering about a week ago as well....they weren't fertilized at all....so not sure what that was about. LOL. The other varieties that I had stayed shorter and started blooming in July. Well, thats my "Studs and Duds" for this year. LOL! Sierra