Roy, I always lived in the Rust Belt/Snow Belt until I moved down to NC a
few years ago. Some of us actually *celebrate* the coming of fall down
here! If you ever want to see what "accelerated growing" may look like,
feel free to call me in February when I'm watching the weeds waving nasty
hand gestures at me!

[Or, then, maybe not -- I'm afraid too many of the neighbors blame me for
the snow we've had here since we moved. I'm told that an average winter was
5" snow total, but we've had a couple of doozy snowstorms since we moved
here. Let me put it this way: I grew up on Lake Erie, lived in both ND and
VT, but only in NC was I ever really snowed in!]

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC



"Roy" wrote

I can relate to that. I used to always wish cool weather wold come so
stuff would stop growing and I would not have to be trimming and
cutting grass etc. I never really got into plants of any kind as it
always seemed to take forever to see it grow as it should, and I hated
to have to wait a year for it to take hold and do its thing etc
etc./......Nothing could be done to accelerate the growing
process........But since I retired and slowed down a lot, I hate to
see summer end and stuff go dormant.......as I have really enjoyed
watching the various stages plants go through, watching fish get
bigger and actually seeing things I was always too busy to spend time
on before. Its got me to the point I wish there wasa way I could
promote better weather and conditions over my pond etc so it would
always remain in full bloom .......I never can seem to say, there
thats it, its finally finished, as I always have to tinker with
something around the pond. The wife never knows what to expect when
she comes down to it......I must have planted and replanted her 1/2
barrel at least 20 times in its short life so far.........and each
time it looked great........there is just something about fiddling
around with aquatic type plants and fish and ponds that grabs ahold of
you. Never in my life would I have thought I could get attached or
obsessed with a $4.99 Wal Mart Koi that survived and is now 12"
long.......or that I would have ever spent $40 bucks for a fish just
to put in my pond.........or all the money for plants knowing full
well the koi are bound to nibble on them..........but I do, and I
enjoy it.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wife,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.