I only grow two Austins and one is a dog who despite the fact that his flowers are to die for (all three or four of them in as many years) has a shovel standing right next to him - so the only first hand recommendation I could make would be for Windemere - the color is very delicate, the blooms are lovely, the bush has filled out nicely in the same period of time that the other has languished and she is not stingy - the down side is the blooms seem almost like day lilies in staying power. However there are lots of them coming on all the time to make up for that. In defense of the other rose it is own root and my Windemere is grafted, which should initially make some difference but not as much I would think as I am seeing. I believe the slacker is just a dud - so I don't want to mention his name and cause his brothers to suffer, perhaps undeservedly.

Carol, I am having a lot of fun with the greenhouse. Last night I didn't even want to come in at dark, but I did. Then I went out several times during the night to see how quickly or how slowly the temps inside the greenhouse drop after the sun sets. We have a night in the mid to upper 20s this week, or maybe two, but nothing so cold that I have to worry about anything in the ground freezing. I worry a lot less than I used to now that I've got frost-blanket weight floating row covers. Last year both the Lowe's and Home Depot had blue potatoes, but not until closer to mid- or late-February. They don't have any seed potatoes in either of those two stores down here yet, but they've got a lot of bulbs in, bagged onion sets, garlic and shallots, and bags of strawberry plants, horseradish and rhubarb roots, so the potatoes cannot be far behind. I remember the year you had to hold plants forever in pots. I have saved every Tidy Cat litter buckle we've ever gotten so that if we ever have a wet, flooding year like 2007 again (I held plants in pots until June or July that year too), I can plant whatever I want in the cat litter buckets. It wouldn't be real attractive, but it would lok better than dead plants in a flooded garden. We still have tons of peppers in the freezer too, and to my great delight, when I was removing a bag of roasted jalapenos for Super Bowl Sunday, I found a stray bag of dehydrated cherry tomatoes in the pepper area. Woo hoo! I thought all the tomatoes were gone, but now we have a whole bag left. I could scarcely contain my joy. I love the security of having twice as many tomato plants as I need, and that explains partly why I grow so many. That way, if baseball-sized hail rolls through (or even golfball-sized hail), I have replacements for the shredded plants. It has been about a decade since large hail completely destroyed my veggie garden one May, and every year that passes, I feel like the odds are greater we'll have one of those destructive hail storms hit us. We had hail 11 times last year, which was remarkable since we usually see hail maybe once or twice a year, but none of it was overly big. We had small hail last week, about pea-sized, but it fell very briefly and wasn't big enough to hurt anything. I never have trouble giving away the extra tomato and pepper plants, as you know, and bring many of them to the annual Spring Fling. I also give them away to friends here, and sometimes Tim comes home from work and asks for a variety recommendation for one of his co-workers, and I'll give him a list of sugested varieties...and send some tomato plants to work with him to give to that person. The good thing about being out-of-control with tomato seedlings is that it doesn't leave me a lot of available space to get out of control with peppers. lol Increasingly I am growing only jalapenos and habaneros for canning purposes, and sweet bells and Yummy peppers for fresh eating and freezing. I used to grow several dozen pepper varieties every year, but just don't have the space and time for as many without sacrificing space where I'm growing canners. Diane, I've wondered that myself. Carol, I saw the soil-block makers in the Lee Valley Tools catalog too. Jay, I have a personal rule for myself that I don't purchase from anyone who spams our forum with 'messages' that are thinly-veiled attempts to direct us to their commercial website, and by that comment, I DO NOT mean someone like Gary who is a regular participant on our forum. I mean people who do not post here at all except to promote something they sell. Dawn

Bellsmom, Ice cream freezers are a pretty mature technology, and Cuisinart isn't likely to turn belly up during your warranty period, so why not? :) I like that the 100 has the different paddles, though I don't know how big a difference it makes. I donated counter space that wasn't all that useful anyway to mine, but I wish it did a magic appear/disappear act. :) Yours should be fine in the pantry if you have a solid counter and a plug. It's sure to vibrate a lot and needs some clear space for the circulation of warm air (i.e., not right up against your foodstuffs because they want cool pantry, and a freezer will warm it up). Those are the biggest problems with putting it in the pantry. Do you have a laundry room where you could put it? Maybe keep a cloth over it when not in use to keep away lint, etc. Or even a protected porch? The lack of water shouldn't be a big issue because of the removable bowl. You can take all the main parts to the sink for cleaning (maybe keep a little dishpan with the machine to dump them in, and just bring a sponge or rag and a small bowl (or the dishpan) of water to the machine for wiping it down. Kids love making frozen treats, and it's also a great way to teach them about what's in what they're eating. Be really honest with yourself, however. Do you really want to be carrying the ingredients back and forth? And the clean-up? Would you rather have it on the kitchen counter? Would giving up freezer space be no issue because you'd be using the space you usually fill with bought ice cream for the bowl of a non-freezer model? Will you use it more if it's just ready to go? Will you use it less if you have to unearth the bowl from a pile of stuff in the freezer? I know the arias are beautiful, but imagine yourself doing the conducting. Read through the instructions online and imagine yourself doing the work. See which model you'd really rather have to fit into your real life and way of doing things, and your particular cooking setup. You're already well informed. That's the next good step to making a choice.

I'm not sure, no bermuda lawns around here. I never really noticed the 200 sq ft bermuda patch that invaded my TTTF ever turning brown, but at the time I didn't pay too much attention to it because it was a "weed" not bermuda. It does not snow here and the only "frost" we get occurs 2-3 times a year and melts off the car windows by 0900. Our estimated 1st frost of the year is November 21 and last is February 21. So I would presume I should know more around the 1st-2nd week in November. Some info I have read states that keeping it watered and fed can put off dormancy for some time. I will keep updating and we shall see what happens.