I'm just back from Cuba and a week's rest in the sun. (Now, *that's* a tough way to have to live for a week or two.) LoL! I already miss my noon-Mojito.

Now, I'm launching the full time garden writing career again. I'm pretty excited by this and you'll get to see a whole bunch of new stuff developed as a result of your questions and comments.

Feel free to comment on the newsletter and web pages that I'm developing; your feedback is useful to me. After all, we both want this to be useful. Thanks to the "editor" who found and told me of a mistake. See!! It's corrected. LOL!

In the last newsletter, I put up a link to Plant Spotters and some of you couldn't read it. Here's the url directly. http://www.plantspotters.com You'll notice from now on that I'll be putting the url up here rather than the html. That will make it easier to find the site (always assuming I spell it properly) :-) It is these little details that readers tell me about that I might otherwise not see. So thanks to all who wrote in to tell me of that problem.

There's lots of new pages up again on my different sites. My objective right now is to average two to three new pages every day for the next three months. There will always be something new. So, if you think of something, let me know. I'm in the mood to write! For the next few weeks, I'm building up the Beginner-Gardening.com website and the Water-gardens-information.com website. After that, I'll be building all three websites pretty equally based on your questions and comments.

And I'll have a few free books to give away in another month when I launch my second-ever "What's wrong with this site" contest. LOL! Stay tuned for details.

An article on Lotus at http://www.water-gardens-information.com/lotus.html

An article on pond oxygenating plants at http://www.water-gardens-information.com/oxygenatingplants.html

An article on floating oxygenating plants at http://www.water-gardens-information.com/floatingoxygenators.html

An article on tomato gardening as well as pea growing can be found through http://www.beginner-gardening.com/vegetablegardening.html

Several articles on lawn care can be found at http://www.beginner-gardening.com/lawns.html

There are others as well but not listed here or I'll run out of space. The biggest numbers will be at the Beginner-Gardening.com website for the next few weeks.

Remember that most of these sites are pretty new and "raw". That is they don't have a lot of graphics and the articles are being developed and added according to a plan - meaning there's lots more to come.

Useful Link

Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org/

Seedsavers is an interesting organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. A non-profit organization, it hopes to preserve the "living legacy" of our seed heritage. There are some interesting links there.

If you like heirloom seeds but don't want to save them, you might try the graphic below. These folks are selling heirloom seeds from the Thomas Jefferson Monticello estate.

Want to ask a question? Click here to ask a gardening question.http://www.gardening-tips-perennials.com/askagardeningquestion.html

Questions

In a previous newsletter, I mentioned that I was having trouble trying to find space for my wheelbarrow.

Karen (a longtime reader who's only problem is she's a Pittsburgh fan):-) wrote with this comment. "Have you seen the wall clips for wheelbarrows that Stanley makes? I looked for two years after seeing one in a magazine, so clearly they have distribution problems. Two parts--the bottom part is a wide hook that screws to a wall at the height of the front end of the wheelbarrow. Slip the front over the hook, tip the barrow up, and then the top part is a latch that pulls down over the back edge of the barrow. No floor space used; drains dry. My only concern is that where I installed mine, the tire is now exposed to the afternoon sun. Worth it to be rain-proof and to get that much floor space back in the shed."

You might find something similar at http://www.leevalley.com (although I haven't checked - they have darn near everthing else like that.) If a reader runs across a source on the net - let us know and I'll share it.

p.s. Thanks Karen.

* * * * * * *

And Rebecca from North Carolina wrote that her Lantana were frost hardy there if she mulched them. "What tends to stress tithe plants here is the warm days and freezing nights" she wrote. So they'll take more frost than I originally thought but not a lot of freezing ups and downs.

* * * * * * * *

I have built a Pergoal 18'x18'x10' high on back of my home mostly it's north in Zone 5 (OH) & get's part sun to full sun most of the day. I would like to plant fast growing perennial vines or fragrant white or pink roses to shade the patio beneath. What would you suggest. Love the garden newsletter.

Barbara

A: Silver lace vine is one of the fastest growing vines around. It never met a trellis it didn't like. If you want a really large vine that is slower to establish but eventually gets quite large (first year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps) you might want to try Climbing Hydrangea. Both of these vines will cover a pergola and will flower. The problem quite frankly with zone 5 climbing roses is that they will tend to be burned back by a cold spell. They also come with pruning requirements and you'll do a lot of work with them. In this area, they won't really grow up and over a trellis/pergola to provide shade. Having said that, they would be gorgeous on the sunny "side" of the pergola to provide a bit of privacy or fragrance. You'll have no trouble picking from a wide range of plants at your local garden center or through mail order. I'll be putting up some rose links on the beginner gardening website in the next few weeks that can direct you to those good plants.

* * * * * * * * *

Hello from zone6 in Southeastern Pa, USA! What fast growing vine has the biggest leaves, brightest flowers and strongest aroma? It will be used as a screen to cover an area ten feet high and as wide as possible. What kind of support besides the existing four foot chain link fence will it need? Will digging it up and overwintering it be an option? Thank you for sharing your expertise!

A: I think you want a Wisteria. The Japanese forms are very hardy and require no digging or wintering where you are. The Chinese forms will only lose their buds on a cold winter in zone 6 but the tops should be fine. And if you want to dig up the plant, look for one of the larger forms of Jasmine Gelsemium sempervirens It won't be hardy but it is both vigorous and fragrant.

* * * * * * *

am always searching for ways to enhance the looks of a water barrel I have in a rock garden (on a side hill) which flows continuously with fresh water. Any suggestions? I love getting your newsletters. thanks so much. Susanne

A: I'm assuming you mean the looks around the barrel not inside the barrel. (Inside - just load the baby with flowering plants such as dwarf lotus (see the article on lotus above)

Outside the barrel is much the same thing. Load up the plants around it. I go to my local big box store in the early spring when they're selling off the tropical plants. I pick up a bunch of them for a few dollars each and then either replant them into nice pots or wait until the last frost is over and plant them directly in the ground. For a few dollars, my backyard water pond (mine is a plastic lye barrel type) looks good and in the fall, I take the good-looking houseplants inside for the winter. My banana tree is on my desk as I write, just aching to get back outside. :_)

* * * * * * *

I write a note about compost in a previous newsletter (there's an entire series of compost articles planned for the new sites) and reader Kay wrote," Compost: I compost year around. I live in Idaho and right now it is 18 degrees. In the summer, I save my vegetable scraps and when my bucket gets full, I dig a hole between the rows in my garden, in go my scraps and cover it up with dirt. I don't put in orange or lemon peel. But in no time flat I can't find where I dug the hole. In the winter, before the ground is froze, I dig a big big hole about four feet across and at least two feet deep. Dump my garbage all winter long, If need be, cover it with snow. In the spring cover it with dirt and plant pumpkin, squash or a tree. I've done it for fifty years and it works for me.

A: Thanks for the tip Kay - appreciate it.

* * * * * * * * *

WHY DO THE LEAVES ON MY HOT CHILE PEPPER PLANTS KEEP FALLING OFF? THEY GET FED,& WATERED

A: See the article on vegetables at the Beginner-Gardening.com website. The basic article details the instructions/needs for both hot and sweet pepper growing. Generally, falling leaves are a symptom of stress in any plant.

* * * * * * *

From My Garden To Yours

Looking out my office window as I write this column I can see white. That's about all because the snow is falling quite quickly and blocking out my normal view. Not that I'm grumpy about this or anything because a few weeks ago I was in Baltimore for the largest nursery trade show in the eastern U.S. and got my fill of plants and garden stuff.

I did however come home to some unhappy houseplants. It seems I might have forgotten to water them as much as I normally do before taking a trip and they were a tad disappointed with their water levels. Let me remind us both that watering houseplants at this time of year is a simple chore if you have a spare finger to do the water finger-test. Put your finger on the soil and if it comes away damp at all, then the plant has enough water. If your finger is bone dry when it comes back from visiting the pot, then water the pot. I water all my houseplants thoroughly every time I apply water. This means that the water has to run out the bottom of the pot before I stop watering. This ensures that my houseplants go at least a week between waterings as the entire soil mass is thoroughly wet. If the water sits in the saucer for longer than an hour, I remove it by dumping it down the sink as I don't want my pots sitting in water and catching some root rot fungus.

My African violets get watered by filling the saucer and allowing the pot to suck up the water by capillary action. Yes, I have been growing African violets for the first time in my life and my grandmother with her kitchen full would have been proud of me. Mind you, they're a tad unhappy this morning but I've been watering and I expect they'll jump right back with their blooms and growth. Sitting in their east facing window where they get a great deal of morning light, the bloom production has been prolific this fall. All this because I began watering from below, giving them regular feedings and enough light.

I wish my amaryllis would have been so happy. The blooms have started fading and no amount of water is going to bring them back into bloom. I've cut the individual blooms off as they start to fade and will cut the stem at the base when the last bloom dies. This will force the bulb to throw strap-like leaves and start developing next year's flower buds. Keep feeding and watering the bulbs for the rest of the winter (use one half strength liquid plant food) and grow them in the full sun. Next summer, they can go out on the patio to summer outdoors. In August, stop watering and allow the plant to go dormant. Give it several months of sleeping time and then bring it up into the light again to produce new blooms. Remember though that if you don't feed it, it will not produce new flowers for next year.

Remember to get the insecticidal soap out and use it regularly on your houseplants at this time of year. Those pests that hitched a ride indoors last fall will soon be emerging to increase their numbers and ravage your plants. A spray every seven to ten days should keep their populations under control. If you do get an infestation, decrease the time between sprays to every three to five days until the pests are all dead. A single spray will not kill all pests with these organic sprays. You do have to repeat them regularly. My banana tree is about to get sprayed for sure.

And last but not least, now that we're in early spring and the light levels are starting to increase again, it is time to begin a fertilizer programme for your houseplants and overwintering annuals. Half strength feeding for the next few weeks is a good idea and then gradually increase the amount until by the middle of March you are feeding at full strength once a week.