BS: How did your garden grow this summer?

Subject: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 01:11 AM

I am sitting her, late at night, listening to Max Wax On, remembering the thread we had this spring on who was planting what in their gardens and how to rid Duckboot's garden of pests.

With tonight's first broadcast of Mudcat radio, we are seeing how Max's garden came into full bloom and it is wonderful.

How did your's do? I had some really nice things come up; several of my (NO! Max! I don't!**BG**)flowers did not flourish well, though. Gorgeous petunias and verbenas, as well as wild geranium from the mountain and wild mint. Delighted that some cosmos just decided to bloom. They remind me of my mom; some of her favourites.

Darn grasshoppers are a lot of stuff!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 01:28 AM

Mine did really poopy and I'm bummed. I planted a gallon of wild flower seeds and had wonderful visions of the explosion of color that was to come. But ... nada. I did a nice flower garden in front, which will have some good annuals next year, but my much-anticipated wildflower garden looks mainly like the Home for Hopelessly Bedraggled Weeds.

Buh-muh-er.

ww

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Pelrad
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 01:28 AM

My garden got eaten by ravenous bunnies. After the third planting, we gave up. :-( Wish my landlord had let me plant here; my three tiny lions would have kept those bunnies in line. (ZZ and Gilbert have quite a taste for bunnie guts.) Ah, well, maybe next year we'll have our own place to plant.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: MudGuard
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 03:11 AM

My garden didn't grow at all, it stayed exactly the same size ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 04:55 AM

I'm a veggie grower (She-who-must-be-obeyed deals with the flowers) and our unexpected triumph this year is an enormous pumpkin. We planted a couple of plants & some gourds in a plot we usually used for spuds, having failed to buy our usual spud variety. We intended them for harvest festival decoration and the odd pumpkin pie, but one has gone beserk, with no special care. It is so large I'm thinking of offering it to the Windsor Theatre for their panto. They're doing Cinderella, it would make a good coach!
Beans, carrots, parsnips, leeks, tomatoes and courgettes all done well this year. Quite warm and wet in Spring and summer.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 07:47 AM

Incredibly dry season. My garlic (4 varieties, mostly a softneck) was harvestable, but nothing to write home about. I'll just leave the Jerusalem artichokes in the ground for next season.

The succulents on the bank, on the other hand, went totally nutzoid -- spreading at an incredible rate, long flower spikes, etc.

Also had more basil than we knew what to do with. (Figure of speech only -- we knew exactly what to do with it and there's plenty of pesto in the freezer and good food in the stomach.)

Just the right tomato and banana pepper harvest and a coupla volunteer squashes to boot.

Linn who has a built in source of bat by-products

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 08:15 AM

Hokay, now I guano tell you 'bout my garden...
Just got the house in May and I was determined to plant something, even though I didn't really know what I was doing. Tomatoes, basil, and peppers (plants courtesy of Linn) and nasturtiums have been going crazy. Other herbs are doing well. Several morning glory and moonflower vines are growing out of control, but there are as yet no flowers. The wildflowers I planted never came up, but the indigenous ones are making the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds very happy.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Jen
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 08:39 AM

Let's see... even though there was a technical drought, we are now drowning in tomatoes, apples, and the like. The lima beans are taking over, the corn is finished, the peppers are coming in, and my sunflowers are blooming... so are my morning glories, and my sweet pea bloomed early this year. My mini roses in pots are doing great through no fault of mine, and my hibiscus plants (also in pots) are blooming like crazy. What herbs I have (a bunch of lavender grown from seed) are actually not doing too badly.

Not too bad for a drought year--we have so many apples and tomatoes we can't really tell there was a drought.

Jen

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Vixen
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 08:43 AM

D'Cats--

I just have to tell about my beans...

I have an 8x24 patch with potatoes (wonderful), tomatoes (just fine), Kentucky wonderbeans (ok), wax beans (bunny chewed), squash (abysmal). I also have one set of three bean poles under which I planted Italian beans (the flat kind). They're spozed to go from seed to bean in 60 days, and I planted them around the middle of May, expecting beans in July sometime.

Well. The vines grew up the poles, flopped over the top, latched onto the garden fence and two adjacent tomato cages, twingled all over those, sent tendrils into my neighbor's yard, and got stalks the diameter of my thumbs. I wondered if p'r'aps I had traded a cow for these things. July came and went...no blossoms, no beans, just luxurious, plate-sized leaves, and a hopeless tangle of vines everywhere. August came and, at the very end of the month, I noticed....

bean blossoms.

Everywhere.

Now I've got about 30 bushels of Italian beans, all about 1 inch long and getting bigger every day.

This might be serious, folks, because I generally eat everything my garden produces. If I manage to eat all this, I may become...

a human bean.

Ok, so you can all groan at me in person at the Getaway. But the bean story is true--I have pictures!

V

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 10:15 AM

Roger the Z, what are courgettes?

ww

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: MudGuard
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 10:30 AM

WyoWoman (Why, oh Woman??? ;-) ),

Courgettes are vegetables, they look very much like cucumbers, but while cucumbers are a dark green, courgettes are a bit brighter green and have little white (or very bright yellow) spots.
In Italy they are called zucchini, perhaps you know them under that name. They are called courgettes in France.
Originally they come from the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, but nowadays are grown elsewhere as well.
HTH,
MudGuard.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 10:39 AM

...essentially they are marrow varieties that crop best if picked when young, so you get lots of small "fruit" which are good sauteed, in ratatouille or briam , or sliced and deep fried with garlic sauce (a Greek speciality: kolokothakia mia skorthalia). If left unpicked (as mine will be while I'm in Greece for 2 weeks a week from today yipeee!) then they grow into marrows and stop setting new fruits. Then we stuff them with a mince mixture. Sorry, I can drool for Britain as well as bore for Britain (and both simultaneously!).
Mudcatters seem to love their food and drink as much as I do!

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 11:00 AM

Didn't get anything planted till I moved back into my house in mid-June then planted corn, beans, squash, lettuce about 1/3 of the way through a horrible Northeast drought. (Palmer index <-4) Good beans. Lettuce-- too late in the season. Corn got about 3' tall, tasseled, no ears. Squash withered and died. Plan for fall: improve quality of soil. Plan for spring: get things in early. PETE

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Alice
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 11:59 AM

My yard has pretty well established perennials by now, so I just had to do some weeding and pruning to try to keep things under control. The big thrill this year is that the 3 hazelnut bushes that I planted about 11 years ago suddenly decided to bear fruit this year!! My neighbors thought I was nuts to try to grow nuts at this altitude in Montana. I had found a catalog from a company in up-state New York 11 years ago that sold bare-root hardy nut trees, and I planted and coddled (to some degree) these bushes. No one thought they would live through the winters let alone bear fruit. Well, I was amazed... I discovered them after they were quite well formed in the clustes of green pods. That's my big gardening success of the year this season... and it actually was an effort from 11 years ago, just having to keep the neighbors from driving over them or the school kids from crushing them when they walk through my yard. Last year my apricot tree was loaded with fruit courtesy of el nino. This year, hazelnuts.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: MMario
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 12:14 PM

Alice - would that be Miller's nursery? about a half hour's drive from me, if it is....

Not much in the way of garden this year - so dry my peonies lasted about 2 days rather then the three weeks they normally do, and the daylilies were done by July - when they normally bloom well into august. Tiger lilies loved it though....they JUST finished blooming and they were done by July 4rth last year....

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Margo
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 12:15 PM

No garden yet, but we're building a greenhouse attached to the south side of the house. We have such a short growing season here in southern Washington, and we decided fresh garden veggies in the dead of winter would be nice. We aren't planning any alternative heat source, just solar. It will be very interesting to see if we are able to grow anything!

Margarita

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Duckboots
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 12:25 PM

We still don't know what chomped its way through the garden in the spring, suspects are a groundhog, one of our cats, Rick, or slugs. Whatever it was got some bluebells, violets, one sea-holly and a purple coneflower, it came back a couple of months later and got more bluebells and violets the other sea-holly and the yellow coneflower. Whatever it is, it knows what it likes.

The only food thing I planted was oregano, and it's been so cooking with something that grew in our very own garden that I think we'll branch out into lettuce next year. Rick wants to grow potatoes.

Duckboots

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 12:56 PM

I should never try to type and make sense that late at night! I meant to say the grasshoppers ATE a lot of stuff. By now, though, I figure you all can read between my lines and figure it out.

Pelrad: it is my great and fervent hope that we, too, will have our own plot to plant next spring.:-)

On the earlier thread, I thought more people wrote about flowers than veggies, so I was kind of surprised at all the foodstuffs mentioned here.

I had several people in town tell me their flowers didn't flourish, either. I bought stocks, pinks, marigolds, and two new poppies and none of them did much of anything. Also, bought babies of my favourite pansy, "Jolly Joker", which I've always had good luck with and they never grew up; just stayed barely alive, stunted little runts with only a few leaves. When they bloom they are gorgeous, purplish deep blue with orange.

One year, in CT, I had some on my front porch when the FedEx guy brought a package. He freaked out because they were so close to their colours. They were a really new hybrid at the time. I gave him the name, where I'd bought them, etc. He was going to suggest to corporate that they get seed packets to pass out to clients. He was worht writing a letter to them about. At the time, we were receiving Roger's check via FedEx, every week. It was always very important we get them to the back on time as we had a lot of expenses. One Saturday, this guy went above and beyond. I was around the corner, on another block, helping out with a girl scout troop tag sale. He saw I wasn't at home, knew we needed the check, walked around until he found me to deliver it into my hands!

Grasshoppers even ate the catnip I plant every year for my cats!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: M
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 02:09 PM

First year in my new apartment. Quite a change from the 90 acre horse farm, where I had 3 gardens and plenty of plantings around the shack. My (new) tiny garden of beloved old perenials did fine despite the drought, but then they're used to my form of neglect. Rose, spiderwort, Siberian Iris, sage, columbines, lavender, black-eyed susans, lamb's ear, pulmonaria...I finally got the blue garden I always wanted. I have a total of two dozen pots scattered around my door and up into the parking area, filled with lilies, hostas, swiss chard, peas, lettuce, cosmos, sunflowers, basil, the biggest pots with tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and peppers. I had to water these EVERY DAY. What a chore! Back on the farm, they were lucky to be watered once a week! But, it has been a success, this planting in containers. I miss my potatoes, though, and the volunteer nicotiana, tomatillos and crookneck squash.

Droughts are funny things, very individual. Spring stuff here in the NYMetro area did OK--I picked 4 quarts of lucious, large wild raspberries (about a quarter of the whole patch!). Summer stuff didn't do well--a much smaller harvest of wild blueberries up in Maine, and most farmstand farms had to irrigate, not just water. May the cycle be broken for next year.

WyoWoman, I have a friend (a tree man) who planted a wildflower garden for a customer this spring and it was a beauty! Well, half of it. The second lot didn't do much at all, partly due to heavy rains right after planting and groundhog appetite. He attributes the successful half to thorough rototilling before seed scattering an ALOT of watering (every couple of days, each area of the garden got watered with an upright sprinkler for about 2 hours). Seems contrary to some of the promo material on wildflower gardens ("Just scatter the seed and watch nature bloom…"), but it's the first time I've actually seen one work. Goood luck if you try it again.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Barbara
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 02:32 PM

"Solar!??", Margarita, SOLAR??? HOW long have you lived in the Pacific Northwest? Actually, you can do that, but it takes a few sunlamps and full spectrum fluourescents in the greenhouse and then you can go out there and treat your SAD at the same time. (GRIN).
As some of you know, we've got way too much garden & orchard to describe, and it's why I get scarse at the Mudcat this time of year. The Gravensteins and the plums and the crabapples are ripe, and the tomatoes and the pears need canning, and there's more basil to be picked, and the wild blackberries are ripe. Anyone coming this way is welcome to visit the swimming hole, too.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: annamill
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 02:40 PM

I love the variety of us.

I had nice tomatoes and peppers in big pots. My honey planted them for me because we can't plant so near the ocean. Only dune plants. The tomatos were/are wonderful, if small. My peppers were tiny and disappointing. But, I loved them anyway. After all, they were mine.

Summers closing. Any day now I expect to go and buy firewood. The sunsets are deeper and much more colorful.

Is it spring yet??

Love, annap

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: MMario
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 02:48 PM

gravensteins??? the real old-fashioned honest to goodness make great cider gravensteins? *drool*

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 03:26 PM

M: it sounds absolutely lovely! What a transition from 90 acres to what you have now!

As for wildfower gardens in Wyoming.....we can NEVER follow the guidelines for most growing seasons, as it is so cold, the growing season so short, AND SO DRY. If we only watered every 2 days, everything would wither and die.

One of the things that did grow for me: I'd bought a couple of those rolls out gardens, where the seeds are in a mulched, rolled up "carpet" which you unroll, scatter soil over, and water. These had been riding around in the back of my car for two summers! This year, I cut them up, placed them around in various bare patches, watered once, usually twice per day, and they are all blooming now. really, really nice.

Of course it helps to use plants which are inidgenous, but even those, to get started, will need lots of water.

It really is true that things dry up and blow away here. That's where "them Tumblin' Weeds" come from!

katlaughing

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Alice
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 04:13 PM

I forgot to mention the pond (photos at the original BS garden thread) and how well it flourished. We actually had a record wet August for our area. The pond lily thrived as did the other pond plants, once I added alum to stop the string algae growth. It is almost time to move the pond plants inside for the winter. Most wildflower garden beds I have planted have flourished the first year and then gone to yellow clover and white yarrow that you can never get rid of the second year. The best method I have found is not to plant a pre-mix, but to get seed packets of the ones that do the best for this area, such as columbine, poppies, blanketflower, etc. You can buy wildflower seed directly from Earthly Goods. There is a garden website that can help in selection of plants at this link - Virtual Gardener Guide

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: teller
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 04:34 PM

We live in the centre of our village, and although we have some lovely views of the moors out of our front windows, we have no garden, it having been built on by previous owners to provide larger kitchen and bathroom. We HAD an unlovley flat roof........but all that changed this summer!!!!! We now have a lovely, STURDY, NEW flat roof. Few plants yet, but come this time next year, all manner of marvellous green things will adorn the railings and the walls. Soon the couple of pots we have will have colourful companions, and the curry plant will joined by new compadres!! New smells, new sensations. But even now, it's wunnerful to sit out there on a balmy summers evening, sipping a glass or two of something red and pleasant, Loreena McKennitt on the stereo.....AAAAAHHHH!! Thoughts of next summer buzz round my head like that late'n'lazy ol' bumble bee....but that's wishing what little we have left away. I'll be content to enjoy our sparse but happy space...then maybe you can let me know what's best to plant in pots and so on......see these thumbs? Green they most definitely ain't!! Teller.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Llanfair
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 04:44 PM

Things that grew well; bindweed, ground elder, jerusalem artichokes, borage, the willow cuttings. The sweetcorn was doing fine until a goose got over the fence and ate it. Tomatoes, and grapes in the greenhouse. I can't get in there because the vines are trying to strangle me.The slugs ate most of the other veg I planted, but we're putting up a polytunnel, which will be a slug-free zone. Oh, and the 7 surviving maran hens should start laying any day now, and the three old maid warrens are just going into moult. Not too bad a season for a "British summer" Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: folk1234
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 06:27 PM

It was a green and "herbaceous" summer here in sunny Southern OK. Early in the year we had a wonderful assortment of baby lettuces and greens - oak leaf, red oak leaf, butter bib, mustard leaf, chard, black simpson, arugula. All summer up to and including now our basil, oregano, bell peppers, thyme, sage, rue, tarragon, parsley, cilantro, margaram, chives, and rosemary are growing like crazy. We are even having success with some odd things like Vietnamese cilantro and Cuban oregano. We'll make lots of herbed oils and vinegars this fall. I recently planted another crop of lettuce for fall harvesting. Some of the rosemary is growing quite long branches. I like to freeze dry the leaves and use the straightest branches as skewers for grilled meats and veggies. All of our plants are in containers on our deck, so we avoid the pests and most of the bugs. To quote from the great song, Early, "It's been the greenest summer we've had in years".

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: McKnees
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 07:11 PM

I and four of my friends one of whom was armed with a chain saw to four and a half hours to trim my garden into some semblance of order, although I think I did go a little over board and today I drew up the plans for a summer house, come shed at the bottom of the garden, so the fairies have somewhere to shelter before the onslaught of winter. Duckboots is probably horrified by my butchery of the garden, but I was just reclaiming possession of it from the trees and bushes. From the non gardener McKnees

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 07:24 PM

Bron, my friends keep beer in shallow dishes amongst their strawberries to keep out the slug. It takes some maintenance but owrks really well. I think they fall in, get drunk, and die. Such a life:-)

McKnees: we've been watching Ground Force on BBC-America. Mayhap they inspired your chainsaw massacree??**Big Grin**

katlaughing

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 09:27 PM

It certainly was a rainy summer here in the Colorado Rockies. The yard and woodland around our house is lush, green and overgrown. Usually by mid-August, the grass has become parched, but not this year. We don't attempt vegetables at this altitude, but the perennials we planted at the end of last year had about a 75% return rate. Rule of thumb is if they come back two years in a row, they've become permanent residents. Russian Hawthorne, Nanking Cherry and Rocky Mtn Maple planted summer before last are thriving with the heavy rains. We have about a quarter acre of raspberry bushes which started producing fruit in mid-July, and are still bearing.

We live in an area hit hard by the pine beetle, and neighbors all around me have had to drop dozens of 100 ft Ponderosa Pines. These beetles lay larva in the trunks of the trees at end of Summer which block the vascular systems, preventing the roots from nourishing the rest of the tree. Infested trees begin to "brown out" in Spring, and must be dropped to stop the mature beetles from flying to neighboring trees at the peak of Summer. We are all hoping for at least one week of below zero weather this Winter, because that's what kills the beetle larva.

teller- do you live in Yorkshire? I love the description of your place, and have a soft spot for the English moors.

LEJ

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 09:42 PM

MudGuard -- AH, YES! Zucchini. We know it well. It's one of those vegetables that, when they start bearing, your neighbors lock the door because they know you're going to be coming over with more of that d**ned zucchini. I do love it, but don't grow it anymore because it's just me and I can much easier go buy a few down at the farmer's market.

I think my mistakes with the wildflower seeds were that I used a steer manure and potting soil mix and it was too strong for the seeds, and that I didn't keep the soil broken up and it got too firmly packed for seeds. I am interested, Kat, in the seed roll-ups you mentioned and might try those next year. I've pretty much given up on veggies here in Wyoming, but I do love my flowers waving hello to me when I come up the front walk.

ww

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 09:52 PM

WW, last year I had a patio tomato, little cherry ones, wihtout a patio! They did really well and tasted lovely fresh off the vine, warm from the sun. Veggies can be done here, if you have a lot of time for them and start them inside early.

I got the rollups at *GASP*....WallzMart. I was surprised they did anything and wished I'd put them in earlier.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 09:52 PM

WW, last year I had a patio tomato, little cherry ones, without a patio! They did really well and tasted lovely fresh off the vine, warm from the sun. Veggies can be done here, if you have a lot of time for them and start them inside early.

I got the rollups at *GASP*....WallzMart. I was surprised they did anything and wished I'd put them in earlier.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 10:19 PM

We had a very unusual year in northern Michigan ~ no frost during May or August. Lots of rain during June and July along with warm humid nights. The result was a fantastic garden with plenty of stuff to give away to our friends. Some of the pumpkin plants grew to around thirty feet from one end to the other. The result will be around 25 or so BIG pumpkins this year. Other things that did well were: corn, pickles, peppers, zucchini, summer squash, red raspberries, onions, and green and yellow beans. The apple trees have so many apples that I'm afraid that the branches may break. I hope they get plenty ripe before the deer find them. Looks like a good fall for cider. Ummmm!

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Mudjack
Date: 02 Sep 99 - 10:51 PM

We had a BUMPER crop this year, with minimal effort, we watched every kind of wildflower and green come up there was. There was so much I had to take the lawn mower after it. My only problem is, what can you do with all these @##%#@*#(&^ WEEDS when they quit being wildflowers?????
Mudjack has a maintenance free yard, because I give it no maintenance.
Show me folks who play music and I'll show you folks who ain't got time for gardens. Inch by inch...Row by Row Gawd how I envy folks with green thumbs and beautiful plush green gardens. Our garden is named Safeway.
: Mudjack

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 12:16 AM

We had very little rain but Erica watered from what we did get in our rain barels...We have alot of flowers and not so meny veggies..The plants did better in my larger flower-pots.{I make flower-pots} so we've kept more of those going then usual..Good soil preperation is very inportant when the wheather is not being helpfull and Erica is ravanuos at preperation<<>>{Can you guess I'm not}I could'nt beleave that White Flower Farm {Here in Connecticut} kept thier gardens perfectly presentable thruogh it all..How could anything grow after the fourth of July weekend...I felt like it was the end of the world....I'm glad I was wrong!!My best to you all<<>> Guy

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: teller
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 12:07 PM

LonesomeEJ - yes, the Yorkshire Moors are wonderful, but our Moors are at the other end of the country, in Devon, but are just as beautiful....some would probably say more so (pun not intended!) Our little plot of this green and pleasant isle is in a village that's been around since the 13th century, but was all but burnt to the ground in the early 1800's. When it was rebulit, the houses were movd farther apart, but still retained much of the winding, higgildy-piggildy feel. The back of our place looks across the tops of old barns (now converted to dwellings), courtyards and several other flat-roof gardens. At this time of year, it looks and smells glorious, with great gouts of climbing flowers crawling all over the rooftops, and pots too numerous to count, throwing their scent into the summer air. Things are starting to quieten down a little now; the kids are due back to school any day now, and the tourists have taken themselves and their caravans back to where-ever it was they came from, so that in the evenings we can actually hear the bees droning their final patrols across the blossoms, rather than the roar of the traffic passing through the village. We're fast approaching the hibernation, when we can all roll back into the relative peace and quiet village life, and wonder why everyone doesn't take ther courage in both hands and move to the country.....and also count our blessings that they don't....far too crowded, and we'd all move back to the city for a bit of peace and quiet!!! All the best, Teller.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: rich r
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 09:00 PM

I grow perrenials and tomatoes. Best tomato crop in several years and I didn't have to engagne in very much moisture augmentation. The perrenials had an above average season. Most of the 40 or so varietites of iris bloomed in June this year perhaps about 10 days later than usual. Many clumps need dividing but I haven't done it yet. If you do it early, you lose that years bloom. Then the mosquitoes come out, then it gets hot, then it gets cold and it's too late. Maybe next year. The 50-60 varieties of daylilies put on a good show and there are still a couple of stray flowers around. The early woodland wildflowers and the later prairie wildflowers were solid. Monardas were exceptional this year. Several varieties of geraniums did better than others. Several varieties of hostas got nailed by slugs about mid summer. I had two bunnies, they did some severe pruning on some asters but also seemed to spend a lot of time out in the lawn munching on the too common clover. The flower beds were dense enough that I could share with them. They got to be moderately tolerant of my presence and not run away immediately. The black hollyhocks put on their usual fine show in mid summer. Still waiting for the asters, boltonia and mums to bloom.

rich r

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 10:02 PM

My tomatoes are plump. bright red and hollow.

The zuccini is so dry I intend to add to the chord wood by the stove.

The peppers are impossible to cut.

The string beans are all string.

No rain, no veggies, no roses, but on the up side, my lawn died.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 11:23 PM

LOL!

I just spoke to a friend of mine in Mystic, CT, where, when I lived there, it was always VERY wet, no problem, no need to water. She lives on a hill across fromt he Seaport....beautifully landscaped place with lots of flowers and veggies. Very energetic woman. She has nothing this year. Said all of it is dead, except the hardier trees and shrubs. Grass is barely alive from the night's condensation. They've had a watering ban on for two weeks and the reservoir is down 37%. One old lady in North Stonington, who was born and has lived in the same place all of her 87 years there, has never seen it like this. She said they had plenty of rain in May and that was it.

Having heard CT farmers on NPR earlier this summer, telling how much they've lost in crop money and non-harvest, I quit watering my backyard and let it all go dead. Have also not watered the front grass for weeks on end. Felt too guilty. I've always felt guilty using up water in the SO dry West, esp. after living out on the ranch on the Oregon Trail where we had to haul all of our water. Makes a person frugal with the tears of the earth.

Moving from Wyoming to New England, the main thing I was impressed by was the lush vegetation. It is really hard for me to imagine it so dry, brown, and lost.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Curtis & Loretta
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 11:55 PM

Broccoli and tomatoes did great, along with zinnias. We only got one cucumber, then the two plants died. Of course, we hardly did any weeding or watering, so I'm really happy with my little crop of broccoli and tomatoes. We're lucky here in Minnesota; we've had sufficient rain without watering.

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: alison
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 02:33 AM

OK all you green thumbs....

I planted daffodils 3 years ago... they flowered that first year..... now all of the stems have been up for weeks now (remember it's Spring in Oz) but no flowers.... (none last year either).... i'm not really supposed to dig them up and replant them every year am I?... never remember replanting them at home.. hundreds just appeared every Spring. Having said that I have some lovely snowdrops which I never planted at all... they just appeared... lovely... reminds me of home.... now if I could only manage a field of bluebells......

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BS: How did your garden grow this summer?
From: Craig
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 03:17 AM

Welll..I threw some wildflower seed under one of my orange trees I had carefully weeded to see what would happen. I let the sprinkler system water every other day. Nothing happened for two months and the the weeds came back with a vengence and a few pretty little blooms of assorted colors showed up. Could barely see them for the weeds. Damaged a few while trying to get rid of the weeds again.The figs came in very nicely and lasted about a week until the birds ate them all. The peaches came and went so fast I almost didn't realize that they had even been there. Looking forward to avocados and tangerines next season. I usually get a lot of each.

Craig