I want to get all 50 states. I still need someone to trade pak for pak trade with these last 3 states. Look at my list by double clicking on the above Mastergarder2003 highlighted name. My email is there as well. POST here so I can see your list too. Email me and let me know what you would like from my list. I will look at your list too. Please have a list for a trade. WE can email back and forth once we agree upon how many to trade. email addy.Thanks.Bon.

I am about three miles from the Mexican border so that is about as southern New Mexico as you can get. My acre and a half space is also an NWF refuge, so I welcome all rabbits, and ground squirrels and birds and the rest. The road runners are startling, the quail wonderful to watch (how could anyone shoot out a friend's face pursuing these fist sized birds with a high powered shotgun as their families and babies run by in single file? What's left after you shoot them? How's that for family values? Don't get me started!) so all living things are welcome here (I'd like to get a few chickens in to go on scorpion patrol someday!) I am planning along an eastern facing wall some rosemary plantings, with perhaps a few roses, and wondering what would make it. I hope mainly to get natives in, like mesquite and cacti and ocotillo and agave, etc. There's room enough here, and I've only been in a few months now. Still unpacking boxes. I immediately pulled down a decorative block wall and reset it at the front and center for a meditation garden, and pulled down an old improvised BBQ pit in the back to build a walkway there, to my main bird (and varmint) feeding area. Plenty of those white wing doves around here, whose scientific name ends with asiatica, the only non native species welcome here. I see hummers and woodpeckers buzzing around, but have not yet set up there stations. Have the butterfly puddle going with a slow drip system; the quail families like it too. I set up some small bird feeders (long feeders for small birds) that the dove never bothered in my last place, but these out here, normally ground feeders, have figured out how to hang on and pull out some feed, very strange. Like Flying squirrels in their tenacity! I appreciate deertlvr's advice on local sources, and will go check them out after payday. ALso their advice on transplanting barrel cactus and agave from the leach field as the state inspector advised. Someday I hope to set up the heat resistant strain of tomato as well as squash, bean, etc. Mostly a got a great crop of tumbleweed. I haven't seen any of those goathead making weeds, thank goodness. I hate tracking those seeds into the house and "discovering" them later in the carpet while barefoot. Well, let me know how it goes and what I can do here, too, coming from zone 6. I admire desertlvr's advice about the fruit trees as well.

Tulum is beautiful--we were there last summer during our cruise. There is a gorgeous beach right there at the Tulum ruins, and there are some beautiful plants growing all around the area, but nothing like a structured garden. We didn't explore any nearby places, so who knows what you'll find? Ask your tour guide or someone working there, and they could probably tell you. I've seen that there is a botanical garden near Puerto Morelos--check this link below. Janey Here is a link that might be useful: Puerto Morelos Mexico

The way you planted them is the problem. 1) You have them in buckets not getting sun and you have potting soil or garden soil on top of the native soil, which isn't necessarily bad but if you haven't prepared the native soil to allow the roots to make make an easy transition. You can try, but I doubt it will be a success, to transplant them into fresh buckets with holes drilled in the bottoms using a soilless potting mix. This time make sure you come to with a couple inches from the top with soil. If you want to protect them from dogs and children(whether in a container or in ground), throw a tomato cage around them. Note: Large fruited annuums, like New Mexican chiles, do much better in ground than in containers. So perhaps next year think about a raised bed or straight in ground or use containers that are bigger than 5 gal. buckets. Next, I have a few issues with chris051443's assessment. Sorry Chris :( I won't comment on the coco coir, since I've never used it but I've heard it's great at starting seeds. ----- 2) "I'd never use that amount its primarily used to retain moisture in smaller pots The degradation of the mulch will rob the plant of nitrogen as with any compost that still contains bark etc Mulcing is good for soil in small amounts it can also increase the soils bacterial content and the mulch will always be breaking down and releasing amounts of other nutrients and minerals. ----- Disagree entirely. a) It can be used in ground, in small pots, in raised beds, etc. to not only conserve water but to cut down on weeds, regulate soil temps, and add nutrients to the soil. b) Well aged mulch will NOT rob the soil of any nutrients. FRESH wood chips will, however, but even then it would have to be incorporated into the soil, which, at that time doesn't qualify as a mulch. Mulch is defined as lying on TOP of the soil, not be a part of. In any case, refrain from using FRESH wood chips on vegetables and other annuals and reserve them for perennials and tress. Better yet, age those chips. c) BARK does not rob the soil of nutrients. One reason why bark based soil mixes are so popular nowadays. Bark has great durability whether as the soil or as a mulch. The SAPWOOD(basically wood chips) found in many bags of bark does rob the soil of Nitrogen if used as a soil mix. Why it's always a good idea to sift out the sapwood when making a bark based soil. Used a a mulch though, the sapwood doesn't need to be sifted. 3) "Garden soil is always a must add component It contains a good biodiversity of bacteria and fungi" ----- This is true and should be reserved for just that--- the GARDEN. However, it's very difficult to maintain a healthy microherd bacteria and fungi)in containers unless they're very large containers. Stick to a soilless potting mix for containers or use large containers like half wine barrels. Something as large that temperature swings and water swings will still support the microherd. 4) "If I was you I'd repot with less thick mulch it can overload the soil with rotting type organisms which have been known to eat at the roots." ---- Thickness of mulch is not an issue and unless you're using diseased organic matter as your mulch, does not promote bad, unhealthy soil. I've mulched with a thickness of four inches or so before with no ill effects. However, you don't want mulch touching the stalk of your plants, so pull back on mulch about 3-4 inches from the stalk. 5) "PS mulch is no good for pots IMO if you want to cover the top to prevent mould etc you could use small pebbles" ----- Try telling that to my very healthy potted MULCHED plants. Also, I can see the merits of rocks as a mulch, but they heat up very high. And much like most of the growers in the U.S., we're looking to cool our soils a tad in the dog days of summer. I can see it's merits possibly in the spring when we're trying to warm the soil, but unless you live in a very mild climate or are an indoor grower, I just can't see it as an effective MULCH. Once again, sorry Chris. But mulch is your friend. Kevin