You might want to try something narrow as a contrast to the shapes you have already. Blue salvia -- "Blue Bedder" or "Victoria" -- dries well and many people mistake it for lavender. There are also spikey veronicas, and although they're perennials they tend to bloom the first year, even from seed if you start early enough. They come in red, white and blue/purple. Larkspur would also be a change of pace. I finally got some to germinate by using peat pellets in a tray on the floor of a cold, dark basement, then monving them outside under a clear cover when germination began, sticking them in the ground as soon as it was workable and protecting them from the birds and rabbits with row cover until they were a foot tall.

In the legume family, in general dried beans are higher in protein than dried peas. I think soybeans are the highest,followed by lentils, followed by dried beans in general (black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, etc.) and then by dried peas. In the pea category, dried southern peas (blackeyes, pinkeye purplehulls, zipper peas, crowder peas, etc.) are a little higher in protein than dried green peas (English peas, etc.). It goes without saying that any bean or pea harvested and eaten as a snap bean or as a edible podded pea or as a shelly green bean or pea has less protein than those grown to maturity and harvested dry because at the green stage they have not yet fully developed the proteins that will develop before you harvest them as dried peas/beans. I've grown most of the bean varieties offered by SESE but I grow them as snap beans or as shelly beans(particularly lima beans) at the green stage but not as dried beans, and they produce just fine in spring and fall, but most flower and set beans poorly in mid-summer because the heat impedes their pollination. Pretty much any bean variety I ever have grown, excluding runner beans which also have trouble in high heat, will produce well with only minimal irrigation as long as the temperatures don't go too far above about 90 degrees. At 90 degrees, blossom drop often becomes a problem. I don't grow beans or peas to the dried bean or pea stage because both are so inexpensive to buy in bulk at the grocery store that it does not make any logical sense to me to devote a lot of garden space to growing them and then devote a lot of time to shelling them, only to have a relatively small harvest as a result. When you grow beans to the dry stage, you are discarding the dry pods and keeping the dry beans/peas and it is amazing how a big bucket of bean or pea pods gives you relatively few peas/beans (by weight or volume) once shelled compared to all the empty, dried pods you throw on the compost pile. I don't like spending all that time growing and harvesting them only to keep 5% of the plant to eat while composting the rest, but that's just me. I simply like the maximum production from the soil we've spent years improving, and raising beans or peas to the dry stage gives us a smaller harvest overall than harvesting them and eating them as snap peas or snap beans, although the same harvest if eating them as green shellies. Drought tolerance is in the eyes of the beholder to a certain extent because there are many kinds of drought. Beans or peas that grow and produce well in moderate or severe drought might not grow and produce nearly as well once your area advances to extreme or exceptional drought. The beans that have produced best for me in periods of extreme or exceptional drought are Rattlesnake, Worchester Indian Red Lima and Violet's Multicolored Butter Beans. All southern peas produce very well in heat and drought. Dawn

Cjohansen, Don't buy your Perlite from the big box stores, or if you do, don't get the Miracle Gro stuff.. it is waaaaaaay overpriced. Im not sure where you are located, but if you are on the east coast (US) Agway has it at really good prices, around 20 bucks for 3 cubic foot bags. I think you can order 6 cubic foot bags online too for really good prices. Mom and Pop type nurseries are always good to check too, but some of them are more overpriced than the big box stores, while others have great deals... it's just hit or miss. Look in your yellow pages for agricultural supply stores and farm and feed type businesses. It's always good to start familiarizing yourself with local sources for supplies. I'm not sure what ratio of Perlite you should add to the compost, but probably a pretty large percentage, possibly upwards of 40%.

I lost the post I just sent so here it is again - Ray, they really are worth the trouble - there is nothing as sweet as a good homegrown onion. As Manual says - daylight length is important ( I plant winter Solstice and crop at the summer Solstice or thereafter) One of the reasons I grow my own is the spraying. This is what the ag. department advise just for storing - let alone the spraying during growing! : " A single application of maleic hydrazide at the rate of 11 L/ha in from 500 to 1000 litres of water should be made when the plants are nearly mature and the tops are just beginning to fall. This is usually 10-14 days before harvest. If applied too late, when the tops are not "active", the chemical will not be translocated to the growing point in the bulb. Crops that may be required for seed should not be treated with maleic hydrazide." All I do is make sure the soil is limed well and nicvely loose in structure ( remember I have heavy clay, but I add gypsum and sand where I plant the onions and it ultimately benefits the garden as a whole) I do that a few weeks before planting and then put in a side dressing of lime when I plant. I grow Creamgold and Sheffield Red. The reds take a month longer, but can be pulled to use and thin them out after about 4 months. I crop them at the New Moon after Xmas - when the Moon and Sun are at their most southern declination therefore the longest daylight period after which the sun is 'northing' and daylight starts to shorten. Daylight length is determined by latitude due to the 23 degree tilt of the earth ( why we get longer daylight the more south you are) and this is one of the keys to choosing the right variety and planting time. Here's a useful link with onion varieties suggested for different latitudes. Go Cosmic! It's scientific! I'd suspect that growing over winter in Qld would be a proposition. Armidale is similar to Tas in the nice cold conditions, but adjust for daylight length. Cropping and storage is easy - I plait the onions and hang them in the garage. I get 9 months from the golds and up to 6 from the reds. For three months I don;t eat onions. Linda Here is a link that might be useful: Latitude and Onions