I am now up to having almost 25 Hosta's poking through the garden area, really was worried that maybe a few had bit the dust with last years winter but it seems all have survived and there looking great and I am estatic! And I am on the hunt for buying more Hosta's, addictions are expensive but with this one enjoyable. Wish me luck on my "Hosta Hunt".

Bougainvillea are heavy feeders and need an acidic soil, so I would feed it using a fertilizer formulated for bougainvilleas and have the soil pH checked.

Nope, never had orange juice pancakes. I usually make them from a delicious buttermilk pancake recipe I found online and add a generous handful of blueberries. I keep some mix here, too, for those mornings when I just don't have time or inclination to cook from scratch, or when I don't have real buttermilk for them. It's acceptable but nowhere near as good as the scratch ones. The Black From Tula tomatoes were decent but I won't grow them again. They're not good enough to justify the space and energy. I grow Better Boy and Big Boy, too. They're almost always dependable producers of good tomatoes. I like trying new varieties every year and keeping some of the old standbys for the majority of the production. This year I also grew Mortgage Lifters. They were okay but I don't think they lived up to their reputation. I've grown Brandywines, too. It was a year that I had trouble in the garden with disease and drought and they didn't produce much at all. I might try them again another time. We do a taste testing day at the Heirloom Tomato Demo Garden every year and this year my favorite was Todd County Amish. It had more true tomato taste than the others. I hope to grow some next year in my garden. If the Demo Garden folks have seedlings I'll probably get some from them rather than buy seeds. I usually order from just one or two catalogs (Totally Tomatoes is a great one!) to save on shipping. If I can get the majority at one place, I'll order a special or two from some other company. Otherwise, I rely on local seeds or transplants. I can't see adding several dollars to the cost just to get a couple of packets of seeds. One of my favorite books is Dr. Carolyn Male's 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden. I've learned a lot about growing tomatoes in general and often try a couple of new varieties based on her recommendations. Okra is delicious in soups and stews! My sister and her husband used to grow a lot of it but I only want enough to freeze some for winter use along with a little in summer. I grow it about every 2 to 3 years. I've been a Master Gardener since 2000 and love every minute of it. Our record keeping is very simplified and done online now. The only difficulty is sometimes recording the demographics at these seminars or at clinics but I usually have a helper at the seminars (a new MG in their first year) to do that. I also work the new to us Ask an Expert email system and answer a wide variety of questions through it. I mainly teach the veggie classes but have done a number of different ones, too. For example, last year I taught a group at an assisted living facility how to do a cut flower garden. I work full time in my husband's business and volunteer in two other organizations (both work related) so I really do burn the candle at both ends! I'd like to have more time to devote to the Extension programs, but can't do it right now. Love blackberry cobbler! I don't make jelly or jam much anymore but remember the year we picked 125 quarts of blackberries! That was a great year and we lived where there were tons of vines. Not so many where we are now but enough for a few good pickings. I've thought about growing some in the end of the garden but never bought any. Do the cultivated thornless varieties have the deep blackberry taste like the wild ones? Maybe I could get the grandkids interested in picking thornless ones. They seem to be "alergic" to the scratchy wild ones here! Sandy

Hey Barb: I think we're the only ones who visit here these days. So what's going on in your life these days? I live out west in a valley surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. This time of year is beautiful here. I do a lot of bird watching, and this year the hummers are everywhere, storing up much energy for their non-stop flight across the Gulf of Mexico for the winter. I live near the mouth of a huge canyon, and try to walk on the trails there as much as possible. Would you believe it's already into autumn? The maple trees are just brilliant gold, orange, and red, and the scrub oaks will be deep burgundy before another few weeks. During the next three weeks I will (I hope) move six huge Bridal Wreath shrubs, completely dig up the back border, and put a layer of mulch around most everything I put back. In one border the blackberry I had dug up and removed has re-appeared -- in five places yet!!! And in another, wild thistle is coming up everywhere. I can't use Roundup there because it's impossible to do so without hitting the perennials. Are you safe from Ivan? Did Frances get your area? I wonder if global warming isn't bringing us so many bad storms. I'm leaving for most of today, but will be back maybe later or tomorrow. Hope you (and anyone else who *might* be here) have a lovely weekend. Carolyn