I am on Firefox now, and started with a couple of ads, but they disappeared. I hate to start something new, but if I become accustomed to this, it might be better than Internet Explorer. When we purchased this computer, we had the company set it up for us. I was told that systems that block the ads can sell my information to "trusted vendors" -- that is how they operate for free. I gave the man the name of the ones I had been using, and he went into the small print of what I had signed, and showed me where I agreed to allow him to sell our information. He said that signing that agreement was probably what lead to our receiving whatever it was that messed up our computer. I really wish I understood this stuff. I am afraid when I should be confident, and confident when I should watch out. There is so much to learn. This is my preview, and Febreze just flashed at me again, and blocked the screen. Sammy

Vicki.. are you staying in the area or moving somewhere that gets rain? I did similar things when I sold my house. Even after the people signed the contract I was out there mulching and pulling weeds. It's about 6pm. I guess mothernature read this post. She hasn't teased me today. She didn't give me any rain but she didn't tease me. Pam3... LOL that was funny about the mailbox. Buford... That's a ways from here I think. I'm not really sure. I felt a couple of drops yesterday but no rain. I just watched as the drops evaporated on the deck before the next one was felt. That made it especially painful when nothing happened after that. bumblebeez... I have tried that and still nada. foxesearth... If it were to pour right now, I believe a good amount of rain will get into the soil. I have been keeping it moist as best I can so the water seeps in and doesn't run off. What you use is a very good strategy though. Well it's about that time... Time to go water.

Buy a good hand weeder. I don't know why they aren't more readily available. I was able to replace my recently lost one with a $9 tool which is ok. Blade is offset but essentially it's "L" shaped. You can hack up the soil if needed but mostly you run the blade about a half inch below the soil to uproot weeds. One garden writer recommends a cobra headed weeder. If there are a lot of smaller weeds, I used a swirling motion to bring weeds to top and round up in a small pile. If they are very small, just pull the blade through the soil. If the weed has a long root runner, hold the top in one hand and drag the blade thru the soil as you gently pull so the long root comes up and doesn't break off. I've been having very good luck with building raised beds using the lasagna method which doesn't not require a rototiller. Best to build the bed the season or year before. Advantage is usually very few weeds the first year. I am protecting some plants until flowering with garden fabric, Agribon from Johnny's which I was able to buy off Craigslist. I have bee successful using an animal repellant spray which I bought at the farm and feed store. It contains coyote or fox urine. Doesn't stay stinky for long. Deer are around but haven't been visiting. I think they are eating other things. Although before the spray they ate some of my hosta. You might try putting black netting over your garden. Hope your next efforts are more successful. Keep trying.

marquest - I beg to differ about retail profit margins. At least for clothes, I mean I work in the fashion industry, and you do not find $400 retail dresses purchased at a $1.99 wholesale price. Most profit margins hover around 40-60% for contemporary-luxury clothing. So for your $400 dress will probably cost the department store about $285 (40% markup). It's true that they do not need to sell so much of these to earn a hefy profit, especially if the item is more expensive. But big department/retail stores also cut their losses by charging the vendors anything that was discounted or left unsold. Essentially, vendors have to obliged because of the promise of their products' future in the store. I just gave a analogy of the apparel business, I'm not sure about plants. But I would consider plants as perishable, and retail stores definitely charge back the vendors for losses at a fixed amount - so at the end of the day, store wins - vendor loses. The thing that why this business still continues is because large vendors/nurseries like altman/sgm growers are able to make more by selling their plants in bulk. They save alot on shipping cost/store front and marketing cost because the bbs does all of that for them, and distribute for them. Sometimes when you do the math, it makes sense to sell more even with chargebacks. Hence, the return glufers despite a community rallying against it for the well being of plants because selling a product at full price (profit) is the imperative over anything else. Let's say you are a big nursery -- you sell to HD, Walmart, Lowes (Let's just use one plant for simplicity sake -- Crassula Jade Ovata Gollum, because it more common) Here will be your orders: HD - 2 Million units at $0.50 each ($1 Million) Walmart - 4 Million units at $0.45 each ($1.8 Million) Lowes - 1 Million units at $0.50 each ($0.5 Million) That's a total of $3.3 Million if you sell everything, let's say sales is good this year/season and only 10% of your plants die and you have to give the stores half-full price discounts/chargebacks -- that only amounts to $150k-$300k, you still make $3 Million just for 1 plant! You do not to incur any cost but just produce good quality and healthy plants, and hope they sell in the stores. vs A small boutique nursery/garden (that produces the same plant instead of buying from wholesaler for simplicity sake) You produce 100k Plants, you sell them max at $3 each (that's the max I will pay for a Jade 'Gollum), You will make $300k if you sell all of it Let's use the same constant as the previous case -- you only sell 90% of your plants because it's a good year. You only make $270k! That's great right? But now you have to account for cost of running the store, rent, marketing to attract customers etc. We use 1 season to break it down. Rent - $10,000 per month (1 season = 3 months = $30,000) Utilities - $5,000 per month (1 season = 3 months = $15,000) Marketing - $20,000 in total (this is a conservative number considering if you say publish ads on the newspaper/magazines/participate in shows) You will need at least $65,000 to run your business. You are only left with $205,000 to distribute your profits amongst yourself. You do the math. Sorry, I went on a crazy merchandising mode. But I just want to prove my point, big corporations like macdonalds don't care for you or your plants well-being. At the end of the day, it's a capitalist world and they only support sales and profits. This is why, I always try my best to support local communities and farmers market. I know it's pricier, but at least I know my money goes into support families and quality well being of animals/plants.