I'm bigger also. I lose some, gain some, the more I excersize, the more I eat, I haven't been an American Size 12 for years, I think your UK sizes run smaller, so you must be very tiny maybe about a size 8 American, but just guessing. I'm not very tall also, so the weight is all that much more on me. When I was a size 5, people called me Ethiopian, they don't like skinny women in America, most don't anyways. The meat here is fed hormones to make the animals eat more, fatten them up for market, but it is transferred to people as well, they eat more because of the hormones. I can't blame my weight on eating meat because it's my least favorite part of the meal. I like the sugar and don't drink water, big part of calorie intake. It's the eating, lying down afterwards, staying up all night confusing your daily routine, making you eat more thinking it's time for dinner for the next day. Not getting any sleep will throw you off and get you eating in the middle of the night. Once you become bigger, you eat to supply the normal calorie count you are used to, and then you keep gaining. People eat a lot, no doubt, and if they made a concious effort, they could save at least 1/3 of their grocery bill each week if not half. Considering the global economic and supply issues, I wonder why no on in America really cares to make an attempt. I was impressed that Obama, not my favorite or unfavorite person, grew a Whitehouse Garden, Queen Elizabeth II has had one out for the past few years, so even the big wigs are publicly making attempts to encourage Victory type gardens. It would be wise to take a hint, if it's one at all. I researched Victory Gardens and basically they reclaimed unused property, the owners had no say so, for temporary gardens and supplied water at half price to anyone willing to pay for the lot for the year, the price then was something like 5 dollars. It must have been a nice effor though. I've never noticed what size tables though, I'll have to take a look. My dad stands about 6 foot 4 inches, so I see the tables usefull for taller people. Several of my cousins stand 6 foot 5 or more. I'm the runt of my siblings at only near 5 foot 4 inches. We might find research on why the tables are like that somewhere, a restaurant would definitely prefer the hungrier bigger man to a little 110 pound woman. I would imagine someone from Europe would not like American food. An American would feel the same, you guys over there just started to carry cookies and your peanut butter is different. Your pizza parlors sell quiche, I've never had quiche and I love eggs, but I would definitely prefer pizza. America wouldn't know what to do with a supermarket that sold rabbit or goat meat.

Curious as to what section of Orlando you live in with a Camel problem?? Well, I haven't actually SEEN one for a while but I'm pretty sure they are there, lurking around. I occasionally find plants trampled, garbage turned over, garden chairs knocked on their sides, new shoots nibbled off.... pretty sure that's the work of the evil dromedary. Good point about the escape issue: I'll bet our local herd came from some experimental lab at UCF! I'll have to check into that just as soon as the black helicopters stop flying around my house. First, must go to the store to purchase more tin foil...

I've used this method for many flower and vegetable beds! It works well, just remember to keep it wetted, as that speeds the decomposition incredibly! I find that cardboard is much better at smothering out weeds and grass than the newspaper is, and if you go to an appliance store you can ask for some large boxes that will cover the whole area easily. Newspaper also tends to have lots of potentially dangerous toxins in the ink, especially if it's color ink. For that reason I try to avoid using it. In my experience the only problem with this method is making sure you have enough material on top of the smothering layer, otherwise the roots of your flowers will be unable or unwilling to penetrate from the soft top layer into the hard, compatcted clay layer. And it could result in stunted or unhealthy flowers. Good luck!

That's great information, and just what you'd expect from Linda Chalker-Scott. It's a bit hard to read here, so worth looking at the pdf file you've linked to. I have an old container of SunSpray ultra-fine horticultural oil and I've been wondering if this type of oil will keep it's qualities in storage for a long time. I recently read that it could be used to keep citrus leaf miner moths from laying their eggs on citrus leaves so I want to try it out later in the spring when the leaf miner moths come to life. I had trouble finding this ulta-fine oil online, so I've dusted off this old container just in case. (later...I just looked on eBay and found some so I may not have to use the old stuff, unless someone can tell me it should be all right...it's probably 10 years old). Thanks for bringing up this subject, I always forget about using dormant oil on my peaches until the early ones start flowering. Now's the time to start thinking about it.