Loribee, I had no luck with blueberries. Probably something with the soil type.....but they do have that big blueberry farm out on Occidental Rd heading out to the river, so it is possible! With my asparagus, about now the spears seem to get thinner and thinner, so when I stop getting the big fattys it's time to let them go to fern (about now, actually). I might get a stray fat one, so I'll pick it and chop it up into a salad or eat it right in the garden. I cut them back when they start to turn brown, usually about Thanksgiving. They do take a couple of years to get established, but after that! WooHoo! I'm about 2 miles West of the Casino (GRRRRRRR) BTW. So similar growing conditions. Nancy

My go-to favorite is ruby swiss chard; very hardy, and you can cut the outer leaves to keep it coming. Saute in olive oil with fresh herbs and pine nuts (I add diced ham, too) - yum! Lynn

Shades, missed your post about "bed sideways." When we went to Ireland, in the old stone cottages we toured near Shannon, in the parlor the multi-purposed room included a sideways folded bed. It was in like a cupboard of beadboard. The board was the bottom of the bed, which was the height of the wainscoting around the room or at least on the wall opposite the fireplace. It was a rather wide mattress, but being old fashioned, not sure it was a double bed. However, I think it was the sleeping quarters of the mother and father, because the children slept up in a loft behind the chimney over that room. My DH's mama was raised in a similar cottage, slept in one loft behind one chimney, and the boys slept behind the other chimney at the opposite end of the cottage. It had been added on to and was over 200 years old. Very smokey in those rooms too, because they burned peat. But I digress here. Message is, that folding bed arrangement or Murphy bed (Irish name too, hmmmmm).....is not a new concept. It can be very quaint and old fashioned, or quite modern depending on how it is finished. I'm thinking a sideways bed now, instead of a tall bed, but maybe I can use the front bedroom as a 2nd bedroom (again) as well as a study, if I move the majority of our books into our master whole wall of shelving/storage. Our two bedrooms are 12 x 12 approximately, maybe lack a few inches. So there is room to take away a foot in one dimension along the whole wall of our master bedroom. We will be adding about 70 sq feet more to that room as a sitting area/tall closet, just not in the area reserved for the bed. I think we'd still have room for a wheelchair to park beside the bed, or a walker, will have to incorporate this storage wall (with AND without) a Murphy bed into both rooms. I mean, why stop with just ONE ROOM....after all, I was used to small spaces when I lived on a houseboat and worked on a boat where I had a tiny personal bunk room. Every bit of the space had to WORK.

The easiest way would be to replace the slats with 3/4" plywood. You may need to add some 1x4 stiffeners to the plywood to keep it from sagging in the middle.