In article
,
Nanzi wrote:

Oh Ross that isn't what I wanted to hear!! Seriously, sorry you missed
a garden this year. Better luck in 2011!!

Billy, why doncha cross the bridge and head south on rt 13 for Dover
and see one of the NASCAR races in person? 2 x a year, May and the
end of Sept they go fast and turn left!! There is a lot more to it
than cars going around in circles.
And Delaware is tax free shopping too.
Nanzi

Oh, I ain't dissin' NASCAR. It just don't spin my wheels,
http://www.infineonraceway.com/
but they aren't alone. We got two baseball teams, two basketball teams,
two college football teams, and a hockey team that I can't get worked up
over either. My gesture towards the irrelevant ends with football (two
teams: 49ers & Raiders). The 9ers are more fun to watch (but not much
since Eddie DiBartolo left), but the crowd is white on white. The
Raiders are less interesting to watch, but their fans are the best. For
the most part, they give me a reason to set myself down, on my one day
off during the season, and do nothing, while watching others do serious
damage to their own bodies.

A couple of years back, I couldn't even get into my garden until mid-May,
because of all the April rain. That year and the subsequent year, I
learned about leaving lids on germination trays when you put them
outside to harden off (Fried! and I had to restart a couple of times).
This year, because of good weather, I had peas in the ground by
mid-March, and tomatoes by mid-April (an all time best for me, and only
possible because I wrapped the beds with clear plastic to heat the soil).

"Lasagna gardening"/"sheet mulching" (no dig), in conjunction with drip
irrigation, is the easiest way to garden, and the earthworms have never
been so large. We just had our first tomato, Stupice (60 days), and 2
more are coloring up. The Marmande (67 days), and both the Glaciers (65
days) have green fruit.

The last 6 weeks have seen our garden explode (potatoes from 5" are up
to nearly 5', where Mr. Coon hasn't trampled them, tomatoes from 6" -
12" now 3' - 4.5', summer squash from 6" in diameter to 4' now, and we
get 4 salads a week from the lettuce, with a veritable tsunami of
lettuce almost ready to plant). Melons not doing much (no plastic),
peppers are putting along, and setting fruit but only 12" tall.

We had an unusually rainy May, and a couple of days of rain in June,
most unusual for here. Our first 90°F day was yesterday, and today
promises to be the same, but then it will cool off some.

Seems the gardening never ends One of our trellises is scheduled to be
switched over from peas to climbing squash around the 1st of July, but
the squash (Zucca) is setting fruit so I planted it as carefully as I
could under the trellis. The peas are hitting on all 8 cylinders at
present. Think I found the Scotch Bonnet peppers in a misplaced six-pack
(3 in one cell). I re-potted and I'm leaving them under the grow-light
on a 12 hr. cycle day/night, hoping to speed them up.

Glad you got your garden in. I doubt that you did any harm, except delay
your gratification of that first tomato. From looking at the way our
garden is performing, I think I could have waited another month, because
with the good weather, the plants are movin' on up. In another 60 days,
you'll have the best veggies at your NASCAR tailgate party.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html