The only thing growing around here right now is resentment.

Hi Vgkg, this is aka_peggy. I had to create a new mailbox to gain access to GW yesterday. Then I had to go in and un-check, "send me an email" because my email was being displayed on my member page. I went another step and changed my email entirely so it doesn't work even if you could see it. I don't trust them anymore. BTW, you now have to click onto "my journal" to send email messages. I think they're trying to fix it. They just couldn't be happy till they broke it.

Anyway, on a more cheerful note, I finally made my garden bigger by 350 sf. We took the fence down at one end and expanded it as far as allowable. There's a large holly tree that stopped me from going any further. The septic field prevents me from expanding in the other direction. But maybe I can grow corn now and more than 2 melon plants per summer. My total garden area is now 28x72' and tho that may seem large, I have over 50 asparagus plants. I started building a coldframe but then it snowed and I couldn't find it. Then Christmas came and you know how that goes. I guess it won't get finished till spring.

Before I close, I wanna say that I probably won't be back to gardenweb. It'll be difficult but on principal I feel it's best to find another gardening site. I've been lurking around the compost froup and the soil underground as well as a couple of others. I might be back to check in. Cold turkey has always been difficult for me to swallow.

Take care one and all, I hope to see you on another site.
Sadly, Peggy

For the record, my "real" email is, pnuttATmyactvDOTnet

I just had to check in again. Moments ago I decided I should try to log in as aka_peggy to make sure my email addy isn't exposed. Many people have reported that their email is exposed on their member page. Imagine my surprise when I typed in aka_peggy and got penny_md6.

LOL!

Yeah they really are screwing things up. Lately I've been having to log in every time I visit GW, before they remembered my "cookies" or whatever and I was automatically logged in. So I've been briefly experiencing the inundation of aggressive ads until I get logged in--yikes! I don't see how anyone could navigate GW on a regular basis while chasing all those ads down, having ads cover half the text, etc.

Peggy you will be sorely missed if you leave permanently. I don't trust Ivillage either, but as long as the ads are shut off on my screen and I don't start getting spam, I still think it's the best gardener's resource out there. Unfortunately, this will likely change in time as more and more members jump ship due to Ivillage shenanigans. In the meantime, I haven't found a comprehensive gardening site with anywhere near the amount of traffic as GW. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!

Anyways, there's nothing going on outside in my garden now. Ground frozen solid and a couple inches of snow on top. So far this winter has been quite mild regarding temps and snowfall. I'd just as soon have it stay that way.

Hey, I am Joule and this place has changed my username. I cant find any place to report it... can ya all help??

I still have some turnips and collards... not to drift off topic eh??

Joule, try going to the Suggestions forum and reading the latest posts about the username problems, logging in problems, etc. and who to email. Not that it will likely do any good, but there's more info over there than here.

Hi Ladies, good to hear from you all. Sorry you are having problems here, nothing unusual with my name yet but I did go to my page and saw where my email addy is exposed. Don't know why this place decided to do that? as I don't see an option to keep it hidden either. Hope to "see" you at SB_Johnny's place, I try to avoid TSU now with all the weird things going on there.

Well, this has sure been interesting. For the first time in several months, I had to log in again also. Hmmm? What's going on? Is it the beginning of a new year?
Now as to beginnings, I've ordered all my seed-starting things--mostly soils, seeds and supplies. I did happen to notice that seeds are a bit higher than last year. I am careful about how I store them, but things run out. Could the higher prices be because of higher costs in fuel? I found that Tomato Growers, from which I love to buy heirlooms was much higher than last year, not just a bit. Fortunately, I still have enough of the seeds they offer so was able to submit a small order. The only place I found to be on the same page was Gardener's Supply. No they've never been cheap, but at least I'm not paying tons more each year for the same germinating and transplant mixes which I love and which work out great with their APS.
So I've been bitten, and it's still too early. But we're getting a mild winter so far, so I'm looking to start some seed-starting in mid to late February.
Football keeps me going until I can start for good, but with the Giants out of the race, now I have to pick another team, hmmm, wish it would warm up faster.

Peggy, don't go!!!
Tamara wrote me back quickly when I wrote about my log-in problems. She had me clear the cache, close down my browser (firefox) and then open it again and go to gardenweb. Now my log-in is holding and no ads.

Where did you go?

Hello,
I had to log in also, but that seems to have settled down.
Vgkg, er vgkg now [have you noticed you have lost a stripe!], I have been over on another site lately......very friendly and chatty there. I don't feel that there is as much experience over there in gardening though. It is more about people relating to people on some of the forums....good place though.

Hello all,

I finally got my name back but now I have to log in everytime I come here. I know a lot of folks were having to log in last week but I didn't THEN.

Veichen and Toad, thank you...it's nice to know someone would miss me. I've been to a couple of forums over the last few days and as Wayne said, more chatty and not so much gardening experience. I went to Dave's Garden...didn't join yet tho. Do you know that over 1,000 people joined Dave's Garden in the last week? I copied this from their website.

"DG has 197,008 members. In the past 7 days, 1,165 signed up. (Our membership has grown by 0.59% this past week)."

I read a few messages from some of the new members and many of them are folks from gardenweb who've jumped ship. I didn't visit any other forums tho because you have to be a member. Of course the format isn't nearly as good as gardenweb. I predict that before long the forum pages here will look generic like the main forum page and member pages. Blah

To stay on topic...the weather here was so nice last week and I got a lot of work done outside. I found several large bags of leaves by the curb and got them spread around the garden. In fact, since October, I've snagged a record number of bagged leaves. I even got an invite from one family to return next fall.

Yesterday, temps dropped dramatically and snow and sleet were blowing sideways. Winds gusts so strong I thought the roof was gonna blow off a couple of times.

Hello Peggy,

You get my weather about the next day. Warmer weather ahead.
Course, many new members both at Dave's and here don't do anything much. I didn't at Dave's for 3½ years!

Ha, yeah Wayne I see what you mean about losing a stripe, but that's ok cause that's how I sign off anyways. Good to see you're still here too Peggy and All. Some of you may be familar with this newer composting/conversing site :

http://s14.invisionfree.com/The_Compost_Froup/index.php?act=idx

A lot of the old timers are there and the open forum can get interesting at times....come on over a sit a spell.

Well, I picked and stored the last of our carrots yesterday. Nite temps were expected to fall into the lower 20s (and they did) so I went ahead and harvested the remaining carrots. They were rather weather beaten with the ups and downs in temps since early Dec. but they are still sweet as sugar and tender too.

That leaves some old collards remaining as everything else is done for the fall crops. Last week there were several daffodils breaking ground all around the yard, pretty early it seems. I'll be starting on pruning fruit trees in a few weeks from now. The roses still have their old leaves for the most part since 20F is about the lowest temp yet this winter. I see where Europe and Russia are frigid and locked into a cold wave. Hope that cold "bubble" doesn't decide to swing back our way in late winter to put a hurtin' on my fruit tree blooms....

As long as Europe is getting the cold, we will likely stay warmer.
I have some late spinach...rabbit is harvesting it!