Last night, I was "googling" a whole list of plants I have sprouting to get information on color/size/sun needs/etc and had the exact same experience - jaw dropping prices! Even when I ended up on seed sites, I was amazed to see 4.99 for 5 seeds when I'd gotten a package in trade with at least 30 for free. Makes you feel wealthy!!!!!! Bout the only thing I am still buying in my second year of WSing is promix and bulbs/tubers. The daffadils I bought and planted from Van Eglan last fall are up and are fantastic. The paperwhites I bought from them for forcing as xmas gifts were also the best I've ever had. I highly recommend them for bulbs if any WSers are looking this coming fall. I love that WSing has provided me with hundreds of free plants and then allows me to be generous with others in sharing plants from my current garden. This weekend I dug up tons of rudbeckia plants (black eyed susan) to make room for the new babies. I used now topless and empty milk jugs to hold bunches in tidy pacakages to give away to coworkers at a staff meeting today!

ali-b, I used my tomato cages last year as hoop houses. I opened them up and arched them over my potager beds, then covered them with floating row cover. I had greens, lettuce, carrots, and onions all winter long. Our lowest temps were eleven degrees. The greens stood through that without any protection at all. I was delighted and amazed. For your climate, you would want a heavier cover, but the tomato cages worked great as the "skeleton" and the openings were large enough to reach in for harvest. As to size, my potager is just about right for the three of us (DH, mother-in-law, and me). We eat fresh food from it very nearly twelve months a year, and when I have excess, which I have had this year, I give them to a poor family in our church. They are so grateful since their landlord won't allow them to garden and fresh produce is so expensive at the grocery. I have 9 raised beds that are approximately 8'x3.5'. At the west and south corners I have dwarf apple trees. In other areas of the yard I have six blueberry bushes, a fig tree, and two plum trees (these are an experiment). I grow strawberries in two large tubs on my deck. I gardened in a traditional row garden for ten years or more. I hated it. I could never control the weeds and it was ugly (to me). I finally gave up and only went back to growing veggies last year. I stumbled upon this forum by accident and went straight to Amazon to buy books. I just love these little beds. It takes about an hour to clean one out, amend and turn it, replant, and remulch. Because it's so easy, I keep them in pristine condition and continually productive.

Thanks for the posts everyone. jessie21, I think there are various ways to figure it out, but it all depends on how tall the people are in your house, really! The recommendations I have seen say to go 30-40" ABOVE the countertop. If you go on the rejuvenation.com website and select a pendant light then there'sd a tool you can use to detemrine the length by inputting your ceiling height, etc. Also, a great tip that I am going to try after work today is to buy some balloons and string, and blow up the balloons and tack the string to the ceiling to hang them at different height. You can determine your ideal length by doing this exercise especially if you have people sit (or pretend to sit if you don't have seating yet, like me) at the peninsula (or island) counter and then stand in various places in the kitchen as well and find the perfect length. Have you DH or any other people in your house there to detemrine the right length based on their height/ability to see. You want to avoid having anyone craning their necks around the fixtures to see into the kitchen and beyond the peninsula... HTH tklahr, I'll try to see if that 12" formula works! Thanks for the tip. Anyone else have any photos of pendants that are LARGER than 8"? Thanks!

Have they all been brainwashed? Well, there's more to it that appears on the surface. Some, yes, definitely have been brainwashed, I'll agree. However, going to the tap and taking a whiff of some of the water in this area, well, the smell alone could about knock you out. And then drinking it? Well, I've had the Hershey Squirts enough from bad water so I'm a bit careful. Woof, that's not good! As far as well water being free, well, (no pun intended) I had a well put in at the cabin... far from free. And if I could have that water available to me at all times, great, but you can't compare that I can get it free at home when I'm 200 miles away and thirsty. You can get food at home cheaper but when you're away and hungry... well, you get it. I've been drinking a lot of water since long before it became fashionable. I have always liked water. When we'd eat out, I often ordered water to drink even if I had something else with it. Always had a good thirst and after getting sick of soft drinks ("pop" as we call it around here) I drank more and more water. Then the prices of soft drinks skyrocketed and I knew water was a better choice. I do splurge by buying bottled water. But I refuse to pay more than $1 for a 6 pack. Normally I want the price about 10-15¢ per 20 oz bottle (or less) and I'm willing to pay that for the convenience of leaving it in the vehicle and also the consistency so when I'm out and about I don't have to risk indigestion. I travel a lot and rather than buying single bottles or buying pop, juice, or whatever, I'm saving money when I'm out and about. I also have it with me so I don't have to buy something or search for a drinking fountain to take an aspirin or ibuprofen. I did start out buying one or two and refilling them often from my filtered water at home. But you really need to clean the bottles for sanitation purposes and I am not into that much effort for such a little return. Given the other savings, and additionally I make coffee and take a thermos with me which is a great savings so I'm satisfied. I realize water is generally a filtered municipal water. However, it's generally a municipal water that is good to start with and then filtered, so yes it is different than the average tap water. Especially different than many areas. It's also more consistent than municipalities which vary so much from area to area and even from well to well. Some cities just take the water from the local rivers. My city water has changed dramatically over the years as they put in a new well. There are big differences in water! When I go camping or something, I take a 5 gal. jug and fill it with my home tap water. Great for washing and is drinkable. But I usually take a couple gallon jugs and fill with filtered water for drinking. For that matter, when we were in the Boundary Waters, we just used lake water for drinking! Sadly, that's getting worse in latter years though. So there's always going to be the argument that it can be cheaper if you... but I since I have a large thirst, especially in the summer and know how much pop I used to go through, I'm saving big bucks by spending a few bucks. Could I save more? Maybe, but then again, I might wind up being able to sh*t through a screen door at 20 paces from drinking water that doesn't agree with me. I don't consider great discomfort to be a good tradeoff for a few pennies in savings. Like I said, I'll splurge in this area and make it up in others. I'm just upset that water drinking caught on. It did raise prices but there's still good prices if you watch for sales.