On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 13:51:41 -0400,since it's all about me
Pat Meadows professed:


This has been an almost catastrophic gardening year for me:
first we had a disastrously cold and wet spring - I think
this is true throughout the whole northeastern USA.

You misspelled "eastern" USA.

I'm about 800 miles south of you, and the animals were
lining up two by two around here this spring and the
early part of the summer.

We had
a stretch of more than six weeks without a single sunny day.

I don't know the numbers for no sunshine, but I do know we
went 8 weeks in a row with rainy weekends, which is when
I have to get most of my gardening done.

Temperature wise it's been a cool summer for us. I don't
think we've had a single 100 degree day this year. In a
normal summer it's not unusual to have high 90's and 100
degree temps from July through the end of August. We
were almost two weeks into August before we broke
90. No lack of humidity, though; I've had to clean mildew
off of everything.


FINALLY...abundance! It's lovely.

Heh, yeah, it is, isn't it?

The tomatoes did poorly again this year, with only the pink
Brandywines and one unidentified tomato holding up against
the Tomato Spotted Wilt virus. The peppers are going crazy,
though. I'm getting a basketful every other day.

(And, hey, I'm out there picking those habaneras
barehanded.)

The unidentified tomato was supposed to be a Manalucie, but
it's a determinate, potato leaf yellow tomato. I sure wish I
knew what it was so I could get more next year.

snip bountiful harvest


We gave some of the squash and tomatoes to a neighbor,

One of my neighbors told me she *loved* hot peppers, the
hotter the better. So I gave her some. Now, for some reason,
she avoids me when I'm out in the garden picking peppers...

I am continually amazed at how little work it really takes
to produce so much good food using either raised beds or
container gardening.

I would expand that to include any well prepped soil. I've
grown things in raised beds, containers, and in the ground;
and starting with good soil makes all the difference.


Pam


--
"Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart."
"ElissaAnn"