I was going to buy a bouquet of flowers for Thanksgiving but to get what I wanted would have been almost 15 dollars.  Sitting there next to the cut flowers was a little pot housing 3 Kalanchoe plants, one with red flowers, one with yellow, and one with orange.  This was 9 dollars.  The cheapskate in me won out.

It lives in my kitchen, so it gets decent morning light from the East facing kitchen window, decent evening light from the West facing living room window and resides under a florecent light in the evenings.  I've been sticking my finger down in it's dirt every few days and if it feels dry I give it an ice cube (tip from a florest friend.)  Yesterday i pinched off the remaining flowers, so its bare but the foliage is pretty.

Here are my questions,
1 - do these 3 plants need a bigger pot?  They're still in the little plastic one that I bought them in.
2 - should I keep them in the same pot or give them each their own little pot?
3 - what kind of dirt should I get for re-potting?  Will any kind of potting soil work?
4 - how dry is "moderatly dry"?  The instructions on it's little tag said that it needs moderate room temps (65-70) and moderatly dry soil.
5 - Right now we're probably a little on the low end of the recomended temps, durring the day our thermostat is at 55, when we're home it's 68.  Come summer time though, it'll be MUCH warmer than that (85 durring the day and 78 in the evening)  Am I going to kill this thing because of varying temps?

I do a very good job of killing house plants. I've yet to actualy keep them alive, mostly they're in my husbands care until I can get them outside into the dirt. Currently this plant(s) seems quite happy on my kitchen table and I'd like to keep it that way if at all possible.  Any hints or tips would be gladly excepted.

 I haven't posted on here in ages! I took an outfit photo today that I thought I'd post + another old one that I don't think I've posted (but maybe I have haha, I couldn't find my last post to check). I'm wearing two of the same things in both though hohoho

( click for two outfits )

renaissance2010
Turning to photography as a creative outlet during a valiant fight with breast cancer at age 34, renaissance10 survived and set up a photo contest to help raise funds for the Lavender Trust, a nonprofit that provides information and support to younger women with breast cancer. In the first two years, the competition brought in over £65,000 (that's $107,260.73 U.S.!), with entries from 130 countries last year. Renaissance10 recently joined LiveJournal to meet other passionate photographers and find supportive friends.

curiouscupcakes
Holy buttercream frosting! If you have a sweet tooth for sugary goodness or a wandering eye for whimsical confection, this is pure ecstasy iced in deliciousness. Hailing the beloved cupcake as the artisinal canvas of choice, you'll enjoy recipes, photos, and bountiful tips to bake up a batch, whether your taste leans toward French classics or funky and flavorful.

mission101
With New Years in the offing, it's an ideal time to reflect on past accomplishments, make peace with disappointments, and refocus the lens on future goals. This community welcomes you to create a bucket list of 101 things you plan to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. Offering support, guidance, and inspiration, this is a great way to jumpstart those pesky resolutions.

I'm looking for a different red velvet recipe. I've been told mine is a little dry, so I need something moist. I'm seeing a wide variety of recipes out there. Does anyone have a good, moist recipe they use?

(X-posted to Bakery)

Hey guys! Almost everyone I know gave me a calendar for Christmas. I now have seven for the year 2010!

Does anyone want my Bunny Suicides calendar? Free, I'll send it to you if you are in the US. Merry Christmas to you!

It's this one:
http://www.amazon.com/2010-Bunny-Suicides-Wall-Calendar/dp/3832738525

Gir and Pirate got a new basket for Christmas, they love it.

Hello everyone! So happy to have found a community where I can share one of my passions. My name is Maggie, I'm 32 and live in Melbourne, Australia, I'm a fairly new gardener but on a very steep learning curve. I've just set up my first raised experimental veggie patch. It's a temperate area, with wet cold winters and VERY hot summers. I can grow most plants barr the most tropical ones, am VERY lucky. Now, I have a bit of a question I hope someone can help me with. I went away over Christmas and I THOUGHT I'd put all the potatoes in the fridge. I missed about 6 which rolled to the very back of my cupboard. I found them this afternoon and they have started sending out some very strong looking shoots. The shoots are close to 30cm long now, and the spud itself is NOT green at all, a very healthy if somewhat withered brown.
Now my question is, is it safe to plant these spuds out? Or would I end up poisoning myself? :P I've never grown spuds before, and it's not trully the season to be doing here right now, but I'm curious and wouldn't mind seeing if the experiment would succeed, since I can't eat them now anyway. But yes, landing myself in hospital would probably be a situation better off avoided. Any advice would be appreciated, and yes I can post a photo if anyone wants to see, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow as I'm currently at work :)

SHEDDING. GAH! I can't even cuddle Niko and Jack very much anymore because they're shedding SO much and I have allergies to pet hair (hence having only non-shedding animals...until now).

Is there a brush or something that's good for removing excess bunny hair? Even running a lint brush over her back doesn't work because she can fill two sheets no problem and still have a ton of hair left over.

I tried one of the gloves they make for cats but even that doesn't work very well...

Hello fellow bunny owners!

I am moving in a week from Florida to Pennsylvania, and am planning to take my 2 bunnies with me. The trip will be about 3 days long with a 1-day stay in SC. As of now, I am planning on getting a small dog crate for each of my boys to ride in. However, I'm not really sure of the logistics of it all. To make this easier, I'll list my questions in bullet format:

* What do I do about water? They are both used to drinking out of bottles.
* Food? Should I have it available to them at all times or just feed them, say, after our trip ends for the night?
* I imagine they will pee/poo in their cage... what would be a good, easy way to clean it up? I  am thinking newspaper and some hay... but any suggestions are highly appreciated.

But yeah.. any general tips/advice I am very thankful for.

Mine?


Mine! :D

Macbeth enjoyed ripping open the presents my mom wrapped for him. I wish I had gotten pictures of the acutal tearing into the packages, but my camera died.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Grow-It/Contaminated-Compost-Clopyralid-Aminopyralid-Pyralid-Dow-Chemicals-Toxins.aspx

Contaminated Compost: Coming Soon to a Store Near You
9/4/2009 8:33:34 AM
By Barbara Pleasant
Tags: compost, herbicides
In Santa Rosa, Calif., the folks at Grab n’ Grow have been making compost and planting mixes for 25 years, using organic materials generated in Sonoma County. In 2002, the company detected residues of a potent herbicide called clopyralid in a batch of compost. The next year, Grab n’ Grow manager Don Liepold and his wife saw the herbicide’s trail of destruction in their raised bed organic garden — lettuce that refused to grow, curled and wilted peas, and stunted, gnarled tomato leaves.

As we reported in July 2009, clopyralid and its close cousin, aminopyralid, easily persist, sometimes for YEARS!, in hay, manure and compost. When contaminated materials are used in food gardens, tomatoes, beans and other sensitive crops develop curled foliage that looks like a disease, if they grow at all.

Both herbicides are manufactured by DowAgrosciences, which seems to have no moral or ethical problem selling products which clearly are polluting the public compost stream. Meanwhile, aminopyralid pesticides have been pulled from shelves in the United Kingdom. Liepold, the Rachel Carson Council and MOTHER EARTH NEWS think the U.S. EPA should take the same action here.

“I have been testing and detecting herbicide residues and thus rejecting cow manure, horse manure, turkey mulch, rice hulls, mushroom compost and yard trimmings,” says Grab n’ Grow manager Don Liepold. “I spent $20,000 in lab fees in 2008, and am on the same track for 2009,” he says.

It is extremely difficult to keep contaminated materials out of commercial compost. “One load of contaminated grass clipplings can ruin a batch of compost,” says Eric Philip of Anatek Labs in Moscow, Idaho. Philip has seen so many positive tests for clopyralid residues in compost that he would not use untested compost in his own garden.

“When folks have plants die in their home gardens, their first assumption is that they did something wrong,” Philip says. But with pyralid-laced commercial compost becoming more common, contaminated soil amendments are often to blame.

The source of pyralid pollution can be impossible to trace. For example, a horse stable may use hay brought in from a neighboring state, without knowing that it is laced with pyralid herbicides. If the horse’s manure or stable litter ends up in a garden, disaster is ready to strike. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Liepold stopped making one of Grab n’ Grow’s most popular products, Mango Mulch, for more than a year because he could not find an uncontaminated manure supply. Now he’s getting it from two local organic dairies.

Testing for contamination is a slow, painstaking process that comes at a steep price of $350 (or more) per sample, so most commercially-made compost is not tested.

Both of these herbicides were approved by the EPA before their persistence in compost was known, and before lab tests existed that could detect residues at damaging levels. We think approval of these pesticides should be revoked before the damage gets worse.

To express your concern about this hidden danger to your garden, write to your senators and congressional representatives to make your voice heard. You can also contact Rick Keigwin, director of the EPA’s pesticide review division.

See our earlier report: Milestone Herbicide Creates Killer Compost for lots more background on this issue.

Don't worry about the parsnips. They're fine in moderation. My guys get them as a nice change from carrot treats once in a while.

No bunny, IN not ON TOP D: 
Happy Holidays!

I'm so nervous --

I was cooking with parsnips and brought a tiny piece up with Ellie's dinner, unsure whether or not it was safe but I was going to look it up while he ate his other food. I put the little piece of parsnip aside while I looked it up... various sites said different things about whether buns can eat parsnip, but I noticed it was included on some lists of toxic veggies. I went over to Ellie's food area and then noticed he'd eaten the bit of parsnip I'd set up on the booksehlf! Help! It was a pretty small piece, about half as long as my pinky-finger and about as thick.

Will he be ok? Are parsnips really poisonous? Should I call an emergency vet? I doubt many vets in my area would be open it beingn Christmas and all. Is there anything else I can do, to help him pass it if necessary?

He's acting normally so far, he ate the piece of parnsip about 15 minutes ago and he's behaving fine, poop looks normal, hopping around, chewing things and eating his dinner, even did a few cute binkies across the floor... but should I be concerned???