Lighting Enhancements for Indoor Growing, Fall Planted Spring Blooming Bulbs and Pruning Thornless Blackberry Bushes

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THE SHED SAGA
If you are a regular reader, you already know about the rainbow ceiling in the new garden shed. This is a photo from yesterday - more changes and improvements were made today - the tweaking continues. The new feature today was the addition of reflective insulation material on the wall to the right to take advantage of the sets of grow lights hanging there. Reflective material on the wall behind the grow shelves maximizes the use of artificial lighting.

THE ONE THOUSAND BULBS
A gardening friend from Daffnet (the daffodil conversation online) told me that

Brent and Becky's Bulbs is having a last of the last sale (25% off).


So I ordered.


It is now official: We will have put in 1,000 bulbs this year when they arrive and get planted. The photo below is one of the beds - it now has 700 bulbs in it. We can see this bed from the kitchen table windows.

Two things about the Brent and Beck's sale: 1) My online friend said they didn't have in stock everything they advertise as available; and, 2) she said they did not give her the discount so she had to call them to remind them to credit her.


Well, here's a third thing: I ordered online last night, received a confirmation email last night. Then this morning I received an email from them that said something like critical information and looked for all the world like a virus-type email so I called their order department. The woman there said that she has received other calls about the danger-danger style of the email subject line. At any rate, it is actually from B & B and is harmless.
If you want to print out that particular email confirmation of your order and the prices you will be charged -you must have the most recent Adobe and some other piece of software installed. I didn't seem to have the right software they wanted so I didn't bother printing it. If the bill is incorrect, I'll call them then.

BLACKBERRY PRUNING --- I started cutting back the thornless blackberry bushes today. This year's yield was terrific and we have several bags of berries in the freezer to use over the winter. All the blackberry pruning advice says to remove the canes that made fruit this year. Anyone know how a person can tell which ones they are? They don't appear to have any markings that look different from the new canes.

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