Hi. I'm including the answer to a similar question we answered at the Elisabeth Miller Library on this topic.

According to Michael Leigh's Grow Your Own Native Landscape (Olympia, WA: Native Plant Salvage Project, 1999), dividing Trillium is difficult because you must "dig deeply to ensure minimal damage to roots and rhizomes, take special care not to break the stems, and transplants may die back before reappearing the following spring."

According to April Pettinger's Native Plants in the Coastal Garden (Whitecap, 2002), "Trilliums do not like to be transplanted, so if you decide to move them to another site, be prepared for them to take several years to flower again."

My personal experience suggests that taking as much of the soil around those rhizomes as possible will give the plant the best chance of success, and I think early fall is the best time, although I don't find any source that specifies a time of year. Right after bloom may be fine too, as it is the recommended time for division according to the American Horticultural Society's Plant Propagation (DK Publishing, 1999).

Yes, you can use Praying mantis for pest control.  However, be sure you have pests for them to munch.  If they don't have a food source, they will go after each other!  (I guess they don't play well together!)

I think the following information and sources will address your questions:

From Clark County Extension: . . .There are over 1800 species, mostly tropical. Three are native in North America: the Chinese mantis, Tenodera sinensis, the Carolina mantis, Stagmomantis carolina and the European mantis, Mantis religiosa.. . .  The mantis, also known as mantid is most closely related to grasshoppers and cockroaches. The common name comes from the manner in which they hold up the forepart of their body, with the front legs folded as if in prayer. They range from 2 to 6 inches in length and are varying shades of brown and green.The praying mantis is strictly a meat eater who enjoys moths, beetles, horseflies, leaf hoppers, aphids, and other mantises, even animals larger than themselves, such as frogs, lizards, and young snakes. They almost always start eating their prey while still alive and go for the neck to ensure struggling stops quickly. There is but one generation per year. In the fall, females lay eggs in a large mass about one inch long (30–300 eggs), in a frothy gummy substance that glues them to tree twigs, plant stems and other objects. A few weeks after laying eggs, the mantis dies. The eggs overwinter and tiny nymphs emerge from the egg mass in the spring or early summer. Nymphs look similar to adults, only smaller and have no wings. They quickly grow eating each other until only a few remain and become one of our larger insects. Praying mantis eggs cases are now available for purchase through catalogs, on-line, and at your local nurseries. You can raise your own prehistoric-looking bugs for cultural insect pest control. http://clark.wsu.edu/volunteer/mg/gm_tips/PrayingMantis.html

Retired King County Extension Agent, Mary Robson wrote a great article for The Seattle Times several years ago about beneficial insects and suggested contacting local nurseries--City People’s (Madison Valley), Molbak’s (Woodinville), Sky Nursery (Shoreline) or Swanson’s Nursery (NW Seattle)--or purchase on-line. Mantis’s are usually available in spring. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2003798223_marygarden28.html

Ohio State University has a fact sheet about Praying mantis and includes a source for purchasing: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2154.html.

You have three great questions and I have info to share!

1. Bulbs: Yes, dig up those bulbs and re-plant. I just bought my favorite Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ last week and the package confirms to plant in full sun and at a depth of 4”. I think this is a little deep for such small bulbs and you can get a way at a depth of 2-3”. Here’s the general rule for planting bulbs: Plant flower bulbs at a depth of between 2 – 2 ½ times the size of the bulbs. Also, make sure they are not upside down. Plant pointed end up and roots down.

3. Planting two year old seeds and bulbs:  You can plant your seeds, but check the expiration date on the package. The seeds may or may not be viable.  If you want to make certain your old seeds are OK, you could perform an easy germination test--From Holly Kennell, King County Co-op Extension: If you keep your seeds cool and dry, they will last longer, but can you be sure that they are still good? If they are, you can save yourself some money. Before you order your new seed, do a germination test on any seeds more than just one year old. Here's what to do:

1. Put exactly ten seeds on top of a damp, folded paper towel.
2. Put the towel and seeds into a plastic sandwich bag and seal.
3. Label the container with the date and seed variety being tested.
4. Leave at room temperature for a week or so. (Leave parsley, carrot and celery longer; they're slow.)
5. Count the number of seeds that sprout:
a. 10 = 100% or perfect germination
b. 9 = 90% or excellent
c. 8 = 80% or good d. 6-7 = 60-70% or poor -- sow more thickly
e. 5 or less = 50% or less -- throw the seed out! http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/vege004/vege004.htm

Now, what about old bulbs? Many gardeners plant bulbs and tubers every spring and dig them up in the fall and store in a cool garage. Prior to planting again in the spring, always carefully inspect the bulbs for signs of disease and re-plant the healthy bulbs and discard the unhealthy bulbs. Now, if you’ve discovered some old bulbs that have never been planted, you could plant, but I wouldn’t expect lovely flowers or foliage. Often, the bulbs are dry, shriveled, and no longer viable and should be discarded.  If you aren't sure, give it a try.

3. Summer Squash is a warm weather Squash. WSU Cooperative Extension recommends planting Summer Squash seeds indoors in May-June in peat pots. http://king.wsu.edu/gardening/documents/8StartingCropsOutdoors-Indoors_001.pdf
Ed Hume (Gardening with Ed Hume, 2003) recommends sowing seeds outdoors in mid- to late May.

Gardeners are often faced with the question of what is the frost date for my area. Typically the last frost date for Seattle is March 23. For more information about frost dates in Puget Sound, see: http://www.king.wsu.edu/gardening/documents/40ClimateMicroclimatesandFrostDates.pdf

I hope this info is useful.  Please feel free to ask for more info and I'll do my best to help.  Enjoy the sun and Happy Gardening!

You have a great list started and everyone else has added great tips and recommendations!  My all-time favorite hanging baskets are in the city of Victoria, BC. For inspiration, a list of plants, and instructions how to achieve these beautiful hanging baskets, go to: http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/pdfs/compar_prknrsy_hngbskt_brchr.pdf

I also find great ideas by visiting local nurseries, like Swanson’s in Seattle or Wells-Medina in Bellevue. I always marvel at the exotic combinations of plants in the hanging baskets and containers everytime I visit University Village. And for great shade combinations, check out the hanging baskets on the 2nd floor of the parking garage next to Crate and Barrel in Bellevue Square.

Finally, you probably already know this, but don’t set out your baskets or containers too early. A day like today gets us in the mood and nurseries and garden centers entice us with their beautiful displays. Remember, those pretty plants have been coddled in warm greenhouses and will not fare well in the cold and rain. As a rule, I never plant my annuals until after Mother’s Day or even late-May to early-June. Of course you can gather your plants and even plant your containers earlier, just be careful when you decide to set them outside and be aware you may need to pull them into a garage or protected area from time to time until the temperatures are more consistent.

Oh, and about Nasturtiums. Yes, they should bloom all season.  An added benefit: the flowers and leaves are edible.  On the downside, many gardeners complain they attract aphids.

Happy gardening! -Andrea

You have a great question. This isn't a simple question to answer since we are all working hard to improve our composting skills. There are many articles available on the internet advising how to use fish as fertilizer. Just be cautious. Here's some information:

1. According to Seattle Public Utilities “Don’t Compost: Meat, fish, dairy (these attract rats), or pet waste (bag it, and put in trash). For details, see: http://www.seattle.gov/util/services/yard/composting/spu01_001997.asp.

2.  The following site agrees and says not to use fish in the garden, see http://www.mastercomposter.com/ref/orgmat2.html#fish 2.

3.  To learn more about how fish fertilizer is processed, check out the following article: http://www.rainyside.com/resources/fishfert.html.

4.  For general information related to composting in King County, see:  http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/naturalyardcare/documents/Make_a_Kitchen-Composter.pdf

 I hope this helps you and encourages others with expertise in this area to share their thoughts.  . -Andrea

Here's the sorry truth: you can't get rid of ivy. Ivy is the source of all the evil in the world; the roots go down to the center of the earth, where they lie in wait for opportunities to put out new shoots.

There's a few things you can do for mitigation, though. First off, strip it off of everything and haul it away. Be aware that ivy is one of those magic plants that can reroot itself from any fragment, so if you leave a bit lying around -- a leaf, a stem -- it will turn into a whole new ivy plant. See what I mean about evil?

You'll hear people say "oh, just cut it and the part above will die". Not really. And even if it does, it's still weighing down your building and trees and whatnot, and blocking their light. You want to get it all out of there.

Next, start going back to the roots. Ivy is spectacularly good at winding its roots around things, including other plants and trees, parts of your house, rocks, and whatever you've got. Follow ALL of those strands back, and dig down, and kill as much as you possibly can. Kill, kill, kill. Note that some of these roots will be as large as your arm or leg. KILL THEM.

If you can afford to have your yard look like a dump for several years, you can really do a lot of damage to ivy by putting down black plastic and several layers of cardboard to completely block out all the light. Ivy needs light to survive. But you have to leave it there for FIVE YEARS, and be vigilant about the new growth that will magically appear at the edges.

If you can't do that, you're going to have to face the fact that it WILL be back. At least once a year, go back and zap any and all new vines you see a-creeping, and follow them back to their source, where you will inevitably find new, larger root systems that you missed before.

Killing ivy is not a destination but a journey, in other words. Two hundred years from now when you and I are long gone, and possibly even human civilization, the spot where your house was will be marked by a towering mound of ivy. I guarantee it.

It's a peony. Leave it be, give it a little fertilizer, and you'll be rewarded with gorgeous foliage and big, colorful flowers year after year!

It sounds like you have chosen bulbs/tubers that bloom from mid-July through early fall. If you want year round interest, you can edge the front of your bed with a line of evergreen dwarf boxwoods, Buxus 'Suffruticosa', add a few columbines, Aquilegias,that will happily reseed around the garden for spring bloom, and Delphiniums for late spring/early summer bloom. The Aquilegias and Delphiniums can be cut to the ground after blooming. Candytuft, Iberis sempervirens, would give you an evergreen groundcover that blooms early spring. Geranium 'Rozanne' grows 3' x 3' and it has blue flowers constantly from June until frost.

The list of possibilites goes on and on, but these are tried and true plants that will extend your seasons of bloom and interest.

Nita-Jo

For Seattle, most types of lettuce and other leafy greens. We don't get a lot of sun, and greens don't need a lot of sun, so it's win/win.

Dear Sacreligious,
Soil is the soul of the garden, tis true. You gotta work with what you've got. BUT soil is truly amenable as well, as many garden gurus, from Alan Chadwick to Steve Solomon, have proven. Lots of organic matter, and good organic matter, matters. You can see the change through better yields. HENCE, I would seek out a better amendment than horse manure, which is full of weed seeds, not as nutritious as other manures, and has been known to pass on the herbicide Clopirilid (sp?), which is blamed for the die-off of nightshades and legume vegetable families. A source of goat, cow, or chicken manure, well composted, would be a better choice.

That said, sounds like you have had good luck with many a veggie in your little plot! Good on ya. Do you have space to grow up? I mean your veggies, not you. You can train you winter squash, cukes, and some non-bush summer squash vars. along a trellis and perhaps they could find more sun upwards than outwards. PLUS this practice saves you precious garden soil space!

As per your brassicas and lettuces, they fall under the category of "I need lots of water". Bolting of lettuce usually denotes either too hot weather or not enough water. Brassicas need coolness and rich soil. Try em again, this time with lots of moisture!

Sounds like you are a good candidate for a little Seattle Tilth love and learning...they have THE BEST veggie starts offered in the area, along with THE SMARTEST info on how to grow your food organically, with all the best tips for food growers. Check them out. Thier killer plant sale is the first weekend in May. I would stay away from the mega-store plants, as they are not bred for sustenance. Tilth's are.

Bon Chance!!

You didn’t mention which variety you a growing? Here’s some general information about figs from Raintree Nursery, specializing in disease resistant fruit trees, berries, nuts, and ornamentals.

Fig trees should be planted in a warm location and can tolerate shade but prefer sun. Figs usually takes 2-4 years to produce fruit. Figs do not need much fertilizer. When shoot growth falls below 6” per year, 1 pound of nitrogen can be given to mature trees during the winter. If you over-fertilize you will sacrifice fruit production and end up with lush vegetative growth minus the fruit. Figs don’t require a lot of water once established. Do, however, irrigate during dry periods in spring and summer.

I have been growing a fig tree in a container for the past 3 or 4 years. Even with the extreme winter temperatures we experienced, my tree survived. Ideally, I would have pulled it into the garage, but given it’s location on a back patio, it wasn’t possible. My tree has never been fertilized and produces great fruit. Enjoy.

Phalaenopsis orchids are easy to grow. Yours may be getting too much light, too much water, or is too cool.

I've raised a few dozen. Look for mealy bugs and remove them manually. They will look like a white mildewy powder.
Cut off the offending leaf. get a larger container and some orchid bark. Transplant and set the the whole container with plant in cool water up to where the stem starts. Leave for a few minutes. remoe, drain, and put somelace shady. Morning has worked best for me.

Spray with waer on occassion and let the roots get dry. they tend to flower once a year for several months.

Hello!

Dahlia bulbs (they're actually called tubers) like warm soil temperatures. The are should be well draining. They are native to Central America and Mexico. Given that bit of info, it is actually too early to plant them. I usually plant my tubers in mid April, even though air temps may be above 60 degrees. My soil is clay and takes a while to warm up in spring. A tuber sitting in wet spring soil will be more likely to rot in the ground or just have a very weak start.
But sometimes you have to plant earlier, or it's just too tempting not to put them in the ground.
One trick to warm up the soil faster is putting clear plastic or a tarp over the area a week or two before planting. This will dry the area out, and also warm the soil up a bit. Remove the covering before planting.

Another trick is mounding the area- an area of soil that is raised above the rest of the garden, what we call a raised bed. This has some great advantages- warmer soil earlier in the season, easier to upkeep and weed, and it looks nice...

Here's a good rule of thumb that will help guide you with dahlias: Dahlias and tomatoes need similar conditions to do their best.

Good luck with your tubers!!!!~ Juicy

Hi!

Many early spring food crops (lettuces, cabbages, kale) have a fairly shallow root system, and will love your garden soil you described. For crops that require more root room (carrots, beets, asparagus- most 'root' crops), you may need to dig a little deeper to break up and sometimes even remove some of that heavy clay buried underneath- use compost to amend the garden soil- I'll even use fine shredded bark when planting shrubs and trees in my clay soil. Consider applying Gypsum- it's an amendment that helps loosen and break up the clay particles. It takes a couple seasons for it to start to work it's magic, so the sooner you apply it the better. Use recommended rates.

For summer crops- tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, etc, you may have to mound the soil. these summer crops don't like cold soils and clay soils take a lot of time to warm up in the spring. By mounding the soil, you help by creating an environment that allows the soil to heat up quicker. Other tricks to warm up clay soils in spring: use a plastic tarp or covering over an area you want to plant a week or so before you plant. Not only does this dry out the area, it warms it up too

Clay soil is made up of platelets that have been smashed and 'glued' together- your job is to encourage the break up of those platelets. One of the ways is by consistent application of compost as a mulch to help replace the organic material that breaks down in every garden. As the compost breaks down, it releases and encourages beneficial microbes to enliven and literally break up the soil.

Clay soil has a high nutrient content, but these nutrients are locked up in the soil structure. Diligent amending and mulching will help unlock those nutrients so they are available to your plants. In the long run, you will have to use less fertilizer! Happy gardening!!!

You plant the whole thing (the tentacles use the spud for energy until they grow leaves). You can even cut each potato into pieces, although you should make sure each piece has at least 3 eyes.

Potatoes, like most vegetables, will take all the sun you can give them. But don't let a little shade prevent you from planting them; potatoes are pretty easy to grow. Like most roots, you want to plant them in loose soil (if nothing else, it makes digging them out at the end a lot easier). If you want to get fancier, once they start producing foliage, you can add more loose dirt over them (leaving some of the foliage uncovered); sometimes they will then produce more spuds.

One final thing: your potatoes may flower and produce tomato-like fruit. Don't eat it. It's poison. You can save the seed from the fruit to try to get true potato seed (as opposed to re-using the sprouting spuds, which causes disease problems after a few generations).

Territorial Seed (www.territorialseed.com) is a good source for general info about planting vegetables around here. They say:

"CULTURE: Potatoes grown in loose, well-drained soil produce the best yield. Up to 3 weeks before your last frost date, plant seed potatoes 4-6 inches deep, 12 inches apart, in rows 12-24 inches apart. Larger potatoes can be cut to use as seed. Be sure to leave at least 3 eyes per piece. If soils are heavy, plant 2-3 inches deep and cover with 2-3 inches of mulch. Irrigate heavily when needed, and allow the soil to dry out somewhat before watering again. Mulching will help prevent sunscald. Apply a fertilizer that is low in nitrogen and high in phosphorus. Bone meal is a good choice. Use 5-7 pounds per 100 square feet.

HARVEST: Many varieties die-down on their own to let you know they are ready to harvest. If the plants are still growing and your potatoes have reached that perfect size, you can stop growth by breaking or cutting off the plant foliage. Potatoes should be left in the ground for about 2 weeks after vines have died or have been cut down. This allows the skins to set and increases storage ability. Standard potatoes yield about 10 times the amount originally planted. Fingerling potatoes yield from 15 to 20 times the amount originally planted.

STORAGE: Store potatoes in a relatively dry location and at the lowest temperature possible without freezing."

Note: last frost date in Seattle is April 15, so 3 weeks prior is March 25. Keep your potatoes in a cool, dry place until then.

I bought one for my dad's wife for Christmas- and her first shot at it didn't work. It was shipped to Alaska during December though and I'm not sure if it froze or was otherwise compromised. I contacted the company (http://www.bttrventures.com/) and they were not only incredibly friendly and helpful- but they sent her TWO new kits to ensure that she'd get mushrooms. I haven't heard from her if she's tried growing them again yet, but I think she may be waiting for their weather to warm up a bit. The company I ordered from does have a 100% guarantee and if you check Amazon their product gets better reviews that a lot of others. I just really like them because they're tiny and real people replied to my emails (actually both partners did). So mines only a half answer- but I'd say give it a shot!

yes! it's super easy, too! hopefully you're in a place where you'll be for a while - concords don't grow fruit until they're two or three years old.

there's a little bottle of stuff called rootone at the garden shop. you can buy it for woody plants or herbaceous - the only difference is that the woody plant mix has a higher concentration of the hormone that stimulates root growth. that's the one you want.

go find a foot-long piece of grapevine that has lots of the little knobby bits where the leaves grow from. those are called nodes. three or four on a foot-long piece is ideal, since the roots will grow from where leaf tissue would normally develop. once you cut it, take a look at the cross section - greenish wood is a good thing. older yellowish wood is not. cut a few - the success of this process is only 60%, and i don't want you to be left with no successful cuttings at all! recut the bottom of your cutting at a 45 degree angle.

dip the bottom end of your clipping in a bit of water except for the top 4 inches or so and then coat it with rootone. now, carefully cover 3/4 of the clipping with wet newspaper, wet cloth, wet moss, or paper towels. cover the whole thing up with a black plastic bag (black is important! you don't want any light in there!). your wrapped-up clipping is going to need to be somewhere consistently warm for a few weeks - under the radiator, atop the fridge, or next to the hot water heater to keep it as hot as possible. it'd prefer to be at 85 degrees, but you'll still see results if it's cooler than that - it'll just take a bit longer. check on the clippings regularly, and change the paper/moss/towels often. you don't want it to get moldy, but it's got to stay moist.

first you'll see little white bits of tissue at the end of your cutting and at each node. it kind of looks like a new scab. that's success! cells are proliferating and that's good. soon you'll start to see baby roots developing. once you see that, plant those suckers! they need to be in the soil by april, so hurry it up.

how exciting for you! good luck!

oh noes. it looks like it's gotten overwatered. agaves are drought tolerant but are quite unhappy when there's too much water.

are you in australia? you poor folks have massive amounts of water this year! even when it's not this bad, winter can still be rough on agave. not only is there the moisture issue, but any shade it might have thrived in during the summer might be lost when any plants above it have lost their leaves for the winter. most agaves really prefer partial shade.

don't fret! do you see how the center of the plant is still bright and green? you've going to do whatever you can to make sure those new leaves survive. that means trimming off the older damaged leaves - they'll just contribute to the overall moisture problem if you leave them. try your best to dry out the roots, and right away. if its in a clay or terracotta pot, take it out and put it into a plastic pot with lots of drainage holes. agave don't like being repotted and can sometimes go into shock, but you'll lose it entirely if you don't get those roots dried out.

you're going to have a hard time finding bulbs that are not already planted in soil this time of year - i hope sprouted and planted is what you're looking for!

the discontinuity you see in cut flowers doesn't really follow with live flowers - especially tulips. the bulbs themselves are little life-support packages with nearly everything that tulip needs to bloom. cut tulips were most likely separated from the bulb too soon, and they starved before the bud developed or the flower opened.

that being said, if you want great tulips, you're gonna have to pay for them. regular old tulips are fine, but lily-flowering, double-petaled, parrot and exquisitely colored tulips are jaw-dropping and have a price to match. a few garden shops that won't disappoint you as far as selection goes are swanson's, molbak's, well's medina.

and, since you're going to have to give these bulbs away planted in the  dirt you bought them in, pots would probably be best - but if you've got a glass-drilling bit you could  plant them in mason jars with ribbon around them as long as you made a drainage hole.  it could kill a few of them, but you could also wash all the soil off the bulb and put them in cheap ikea vases with lots of colored marbles and some water.

yeah, it's definitely possible! late-summer-flowering bulbs/rhizomes/tubers like dahlias, daylilies and gladiolas are planted in very late march/early april anyway. don't plant them too early - they're tender.  they'll pop up next year, but they need a lot of time to acclimatize themselves for next winter.  if you're interested in planting already-sprouted perennial rhizomes/bulbs/tubers, you'll see them in garden shops soon.  crocosmia is awesome even though its the hipster of the plant world right now and it makes gorgeous sprays of orangy-gold that double every year.  arisaema is also one of the coolest plants there's ever been.

you can still plant some of the mid-to-late-spring-flowering bulbs (daffodils & tulips) that say they've been refrigerated on the label, but they're tough to find.  if you do find the refrigerated bulbs, plant them an inch or two deeper than what's stated on the label; it will keep them cooler and they'll receive enough chill to flower.  you're going to have lots more success if you plant those already-sprouted bulbs that are being sold all over the place. you can plant those RIGHT NOW!

It might have been a temperature thing. Rosemary is normally a hardy perennial that weathers our winters fine, but the harsh winter in 2008 killed all of ours...absolutely crispy brown. The ones that died were all a trailing Mediterranean variety that might have been more fragile than other types.

Hang onto it until springtime, just in case. You can break a few of the stems and see if there's still life. Bendy and green, still alive. Brown and crunchy, time to toss it in the compost.

Your parsley might resprout, by the way.

Leaf mulch makes a good soil ammendment, but it should be rotted first. You can probably just turn the soil over in the beds with the leaves and be in fine form.

A nice thing to do, though it may be a bit late for it (but you never know), is to seed the beds with a winter cover crop. Fava is popular but I prefer crimson clover. Fava is a better nitrogen fixer and those leaves may rob you of a bit of N but the clover also fixes N and does much better when turned over into the soil in the spring. Plus, it's real pretty.

Having said that, you should consider some additional fertilizer. Compost by itself is usually not sufficient to provide adequate nutrition here in the soggy lands. N especially leaches out through rain. Here is my super secret all purpose high powered vegetable fertilzer mix:
6 parts greensand
3 parts bone meal
2 parts alfalfa meal
2 parts blood meal
by "part" I just mean "scoop". No need for weighing.

This mix is a bit rich in N so you can reduce the blood meal or the alfalfa meal a bit. The blood meal is very high in nitrogen and that N is entirely (I think) water soluble. That means it is pretty much ready for use by plants right from the get go. It also means it can get used pretty fast. the alfalfa N is mostly insuluble so will last a bit longer in the soil.

Greensand is a miracle fertlizer for the organic gardener and has more micronutrients than you can shake a stick at. However, you do not want to use too much too often. After putting in your garden two or three years in a row you may wish to hold off for about 3-5 years before you add more.

As far as compost goes, the best stuff available in Seattle is Zoo Doo and is sold by Woodland Park Zoo. Unfortuneately, it is tough to get.

Spring before it starts to bud out.
There is a ton of info with pictures if you just google:pruning a plum tree

Here is one link for you...it says June, but i have always pruned my fruit trees in the spring before they bud out.

1. pop yer way out:

heat ray + corn maze = popcorn scene from Real Genius

2. Look for Terrence Mann, the author who wrote the Boatrocker. He's still in there somewhere...

(Also, if you build it, he will come ...lead your lost ass out.)

I would recommend a combination of any or all of the following. I have all of these growing in my yard so if you live in the Northwest like me they should work pretty well. The Barberry is the only one that's not evergreen so you'd get coverage year-round. Good luck and happy gardening!

Columnar Barberry

Escalonia

Mexican Mock Orange (Choisya)

Evergreen Jasmine (To grow on the fence itself). Must have full sun for this one.

Oh man, stuff those babies and you will be in seventh heaven, my friend. Here's what you do:

1. Make shit to stuff 'em with. That can be a grain (rice, either brown or white, or kasha, or barley, or, um, whatever else you can think of), which you cook up separately. When the grain is done, toss it in a bowl with plenty of grated Parmesan (the real shit, not that godawful stuff in the green can), some chopped parsley, some chopped walnuts, and maybe some shrooms. If you include the shrooms (either buttons, criminis or portabellos; your choice), you really should saute them in butter with maybe some rosemary before you toss 'em in the bowl with everything else. Oh, shit, put some onions in that, too. You can put 'em in the bowl raw and nicely chopped, or you can caramelize them first in butter as well, also maybe with some fresh rosemary. Basically you're trying for a bit of moisture in your stuffing mixture, and if that moisture comes from a fat, so much the better. Mix everything together, for this sacred mixture is your stuffing.

2. Cut the ends off the peppers, scrape out the seeds, and stuff 'em. Lay them down sideways in a baking dish. Some of the stuffing will fall out, but c'est la vie.

3. Stick 'em in the oven at, say 350º for maybe 45 minutes. Your goal is to get the skins mostly translucent - that should indicate that they've caramelized a bit themselves, and their natural sweetness is ready to dance a jig on your tastebuds. If they turn a little brown on top, so much the better.

Enjoy! And you will. Trust me, you will.

I think morning light is actually the best environment for most houseplants. The afternoon sun through a window tends to fry the shit out of many plants.

All of our houseplants are in the east facing window of our living room, and all of them are thriving. Like RM, I have no idea what most of them are. One is definitely a ficus benjamina, so I concur with Rev. Smith on that one. We've also got some African violets that do quite well and bloom year round, and a "Thanksgiving cactus"(?) that blooms every November. There is also a spider plant, another spidery looking plant that has more of a wooden stem, some viney things with big leaves (dieffenbachia?), and others.

I pretty much do nothing but occasionally water them (once every week or two). Once a year or so, I'll add some compost as top soil.

If it wasn't the owner of that space, it's an example of guerrilla gardening.

Guerrilla gardening is growing in popularity. These are a few websites that discuss strategy. It is usually illegal and done in secrecy (because the land isn't owned by the gardener) but, I think, a beautiful thing. Urban beautification!

You can participate easily-- just make or buy some "seed bombs" that contain Northwest-friendly varieties and throw them somewhere you think flowers belong. Cultivating a large, empty area under cover of night is also a popular tactic, though it's more involved.

Sounds like you've found some Lycogala! Common name is wolf's milk slime mold or toothpaste slime.

Does this look like the blobs in your garden?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycogala_epidendrum

(Might not be that particular species -- any local mycologists want to comment?)

I think that is caused by spittlebugs, also known as froghoppers. They excrete a foamy substance to hide themselves from predators. They feed on plant sap, but are relatively harmless.

http://gardening.about.com/od/insectpestid/a/Spittlebugs.htm