I have a bank of 6 Sir Tommys and these boys are monsters. I have never deadheaded because of the thorns and long canes. Last year I had to wade in and clean out the dead canes due to the Easter freeze, and it was a bloody weekend. Besides, they are a lot taller than me; they are about 7-8 feet tall so there is no way I could deadhead. Actually I think I'm a little afraid of them. They seem to do OK on their own without my help, so I avoid them. They do make a wonderful hedge, though. -terry

Trampolins? LOL, reminds me of an idea that was so simple and useful I saw at one of the local Flea Markets I am surprised no one has done more of the same. The guy recycled an old trampolin as was, even using the springs and plastic canvas as was. All he did was make the legs longer by adding more pipe until it was tall enough for a 6' person to walk in. Now is that simple or what? Would make a perfect, flat roofed shelter for most any reason, to include a greenhouse. Anything hitting the roof would naturally bounce off, lol. It is also possible with a little construction talent to put a peaked roof on with more pipe, like any common "gazebo" frame. The only hard part would be the peak of the roof since one needs some sort of thick metal pan to attach the roof poles to, or through. I am sure someone here would have an idea or two using recycle parts, like a stainless steel metal bowl or something. If you like the general appearance of a "gazebo" frame, then you realize how an old trampoline made taller by extending the "legs" is a natural recycler's dream project. There is also no reason not to move the legs out a tad from verticle if you are so inclinded. That slightly outward placement would provide a little more floor space and slope the walls, if you should enclose your frame. I have used large diameter PVC pipe to do the same thing, but I can see how a galvanized metal tube frame would be stronger and last longer as a greenhouse project. I have also seen some rather large trampolins. If the frame can handle bouncing adults trying to injure each other in various ways, while tipping the weight scales past 200 lbs each, I am sure the frame can hold up sheet plastic and other greenhouse coverings during most storms, outside of the monsters that can take off with your house. Got any ideas? How about sending me a large trampolin frame for my next project? I am sure I can use some galvanized fence posts to make it taller.

mdln, thank you for posting your information and experience. It is helpful. I appreciate your mentioning psychological therapy, especially CBT, as a non-drug treatment for depression. It is one I left off the list...my bad. My fear and experience may have led me to overstate the side effects of SSRIs, which are, as you say, supposed to be better than earlier generations of drugs. But then again, from the NIH However, questions about the safety and tolerability of SSRIs have emerged with their continued use. For example, in the original placebo-controlled clinical trials of fluoxetine in depressed patients, sexual dysfunction was reported in 1.9% of trial participants receiving fluoxetine. However, postmarketing clinical trials have reported rates of sexual dysfunction as high as 75%. Given that these drugs are viewed as relatively safe and efficacious heavily marketed by drug cos prescribed to larger populations including even preschoolers prescribed for use beyond depression prescribed for longer periods of time preferred by insurance cos as cheaper than therapy use of these drugs has skyrocketed. According to the CDC, antidepressant use has increased 400% from 1988 to 2008. Moreover, less than one third of those taking a single antidepressant have seen a mental health professional in the prior year. Add to that evidence that these drugs may not as effective as purported to be... Altogether, there were forty-two trials of the six drugs. Most of them were negative. Overall, placebos were 82 percent as effective as the drugs, as measured by the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D), a widely used score of symptoms of depression. The average difference between drug and placebo was only 1.8 points on the HAM-D, a difference that, while statistically significant, was clinically meaningless. The results were much the same for all six drugs: they were all equally unimpressive. Yet because the positive studies were extensively publicized, while the negative ones were hidden, the public and the medical profession came to believe that these drugs were highly effective antidepressants. Moreover, ...he observed that even treatments that were not considered to be antidepressants -- "such as synthetic thyroid hormone, opiates, sedatives, stimulants, and some herbal remedies" -- were as effective as antidepressants in alleviating the symptoms of depression. Kirsch writes, “When administered as antidepressants, drugs that increase, decrease or have no effect on serotonin all relieve depression to about the same degree.” What all these “effective” drugs had in common was that they produced side effects... See The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why? So, IMHO, what we have are drugs with potentially serious side effects, of questionable efficacy being prescribed for mental health conditions and other conditions by non mental health professionals at increasing rates for longer periods of time. Especially when there...

you two crack me up. i'm sorry, but the ONLY calculator anyone knowing actual wattage needs is whatever device or grey matter is used to multiply: (Wattage × Hrs × Days × kWhRate$) / 1000 = price Furthermore: unless trying to HEAT your plants, wattage doesn't tell you...anything! Lumens offers some approximation, although ability to place lights close up to plant or only further without frying them (depends on efficiency - less watts per lumen means less heat; smaller wattages per bulb and efficient heat dispersal, such as in bare spiral CFLs or LED bulbs, also add up to a cooler bulb with more close-up capabilities) Mercury - only matters if you break the bulb, and get the innards all over the place. Anyways, it's more of a disposal regulation issue than a health warning... I don't even see Prop 65 warnings on cali bulbs, and that known to the state of cali to cause cancer sticker is on EVERYTHING these days LEDs - uh, I can get ~280,000 lumens worth of any mixture of 3000K & 5000K LED lights / $1000 spent at my local cali grocer...semi-decent brand, even, not GE/Silvania mind you, but also not some noname newcomer. That's not all that expensive, and actually comes in bluish temp veg lights too, not just 2700-3000K "soft white" yellow flowering lights like all cheap CFLs in fact, current "affordable" vegging lights in CFL cost as much or MORE per lumen than LED...though admittedly good discount scores to the tune of 5000-10,000 lumens / dollar in CFL 2700k can't be beat, providing a whopping 5-10 MILLION lumens / $1000 spent (somewhat deceptive since you'll spend 10x the price on fixtures, but still...mindblowing!) economy wise: good LED ~90-100 lumens/watt crap LED ~60 lumens/watt (IKEA/intertek junk) good CFL ~65-70 lumens/watt bad CFL ~40 lumens/watt (again with the IKEA/intertek junk) thus, good CFL outperforms bad LEDs in not just price, but also in efficiency... additionally, good CFLs are furthermore cheapened by pumping more lumens per bulb, with monster bulbs doing 2500-5000 on normal sockets (vs 900 or so for affordable LED), providing major savings on fixtures/splitters though there is absolutely no way you can actually mount $1000 of discount CFLs...youd probably be visible from outer space for the few milliseconds before you simultaneously blow the grid and your eyeballs ^_^ yup theyre THAT cheap. might as well consider 2700K cfl to be a) free,b) a nobrainer... but LED too is already giving MH & HPS a run for its money, and is actually available at perfect vegging colour temps for the same price. might as well mix and match!