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Greeting Gardeners. It's a nice day here in Missouri. The sun is shining, the temperature is near 60, and the computer area is toasty warm from the sun shining in through the patio doors.

We had some rain this week, so everything is a bit squishy and I don't plan on any out door activity today-letting things dry up a bit.

Lemon tree is blooming again, and has 2 lemons left that are almost ripe. The rosemary Christmas tree that I bought at Walmart has been turning brown, but still has some green. I'll just harvest it all after Christmas. The smaller rosemary plant that I purchased in the fall is still green, so I am hoping to baby it through the winter. I love the smell of Rosemary, and enjoy the flavors of fresh Rosemary, so I keep trying to find a way to grow it year-round.

Hope every one is doing well. Prayers up for all. Have a great weekend. God Bless.

Missouri lemonade for Christmas-— oh yeh. My lil garden here in N. Tx still surviving. What a treat to still have little tomatoes popping out. Had to cover them last night and tonite the same but the temps will rise again this weekend. I’ve been eating on the swiss chard just about everyday I’m here and making green smoothies too. Last year this time it was all gone with the cold except the mustard greens.

My garden was a complete bust this year. Between the deer (REALLY high deer population here in western Pa) and the groundhogs, my garden never had a chance. Need to build a better fence. We did, however get some huge pumpkins growing quite unexpctedly. Must have been some seeds in the compost pile. Hubby planted Roma tomatoes and green beans in our green house, so the deer never got to them. Sigh....I guess I’ll try again next year. Got my Johnny Seeds catalogue, so I can dream anyway........

It’s 43 degrees and overcast here in Massachusetts. I found an avocado tree growing in my overwintering tomato pot. It’s looked quite healthy, but it had to go. I still haven’t received my seeds, but maybe today or Monday they will arrive.

Snow here today in west Michigan. Then a warm up next week. Nothing growing outside. I got burlap bags for 99 cents each at Menards and covered up my pawpaws and rhododendrons this week. That’s about it. Prayers and Merry Christmas to all.

I'm curious if anyone here has experience with the perennials in the mint family. We've had an unseasonably warm winter so far and I've been bringing in my large (16" diagram) planters during the hard frosts (about 25 F. or lower) and, so far, they seem to be thriving. I'm hoping that I'll get a lot of plants which I can divide and seed in the spring along a shady hillside on the west side of the house which is good for little else.

When I lived in North Dakota, these plants thrived in similar environments with ease (excepting there are few shady hillsides, but there are shady flat areas). Of course, the soil quality was much better in North Dakota than here in SW Pennsylvania.

Because mint, catnip and others in the mint family are quite fragrant, wild critters do not bother them much and I eliminate a big patch of ground which is tough to mow and keep the weeds down. Eventually, if these plants thrive like they did in North Dakota, I hope to have a whole fragrant hillside of beautiful perennial plants which will not only crowd out noxious weeds, but provide useful leaves for tea drying and the like.

Any hints on propagation would be greatly appreciated to help me achieve that goal.