Some may be discovering it late, as is the case with me. This is my first year gardening, and I'm doing my best to go completely organic. I have been given lots of plants and have purchased a few. Right now, I have some boxwoods, crepe myrtles, nandinas, some grasses, purple hearts, daylilies, tiger lilies, and basil, rosemary, and lavender in pots. I have terrible soil and have been building raised beds - which is time consuming, and between work and life demands, leaves me little time for just surfing the web. I've mostly been gathering information, and this forum has answered many questions for me. It's been great, and I appreciate everyone's input and feedback! It has certainly kept me on track in my efforts and help make it a great experience.

Yes i do feel the same. Too many forums have dried -up that i use to like. I do not know about this Garden Web future. This forum is big,but well organized. I am interested in growing tree fruits, not tomato or garden stuff but i do grow garden stuff. tree fruits are more complecated so you need more knowledge about them.I have been active in forums since the seventies and my interest are sub-tropicals only.(persimmon,oranges,manderins,atemoya etc.) Finding a forum to suit me is not easy,stuff that i post is usely not of interested to many. There are many people on the different forums that are very dedicated,more so then me so, there are always good info from them for the future. Bob.

This year doesn't look like I'll have a good tomato crop but it's still early. I will have to can tomatoes and salsa since I didn't can any last year except for a few jars of tomato/corn salsa. I didn't dry any dillweed from my prolific volunteer crop. I picked strawberries at the beginning of the season for desserts and then at the end of the season before the PYO place closed. Too late I discovered I loved the flavor of strawberry jam with balsamic vinegar. Only made 2 half pints from the small batch recipe and put them in the freezer. Have an abundance of red cabbage because the 6-pack I bought early in the season at the local nursery contained far more than 6 plants and it looks like all I separated out survived. Now I have to figure out what to do with it all. I should have bought green cabbage because I donate cole slaw to the monthly church suppers. This week it will contain a small head of red cabbage that split after a heavy rain but I had to buy two heads of green. If I can get myself going I will probably try a curtido ferment. Since there are only two of us I try not to plant too much. My husband doesn't care for pickles but he loved the sweet red pepper relish I made last year. I should defrost the frozen peppers and make some since the freezer needs emptying and we're out of relish. Has anyone made a Christmas jam (recipe uses strawberries, cranberries and orange zest) using frozen strawberries and cranberries and been happy with the results? Warning to bargain hunters (like me). Saw a good price on liquid Certo at Ocean State Job Lots … expiration date is September 2018. I guess it's a good deal unless you are trying to make apple jelly in October.

I just started winter sowing last year, and found this forum through recommendation. I had tremendously good luck with it, and will post results later on including pics (rather busy now). Even seeds I couldn't find info for did well for me - perhaps beginner's luck, but I think it had to do with our mild, wet winter (zone 7). I hope you find the info you're looking for Deanna! There are so many varieties of flowers and plants... I got rather confused as to which I should try first and want a bit overboard! FWIW, the only mistake I made was planting some of my seeds too late (Mid March).