wbonesteel, I don't blame you for being sick of petunias. I imagine I would have gotten sick of them under similar circumstances. The Laura Bush petunias are generally the only petunias I grow. They are derived from a native petunia and tolerate heat like nothing else I've ever seen in the petunia world. I cut them back hard in mid-summer and they rebound with a huge flush of blooms. When I grew traditional petunias, they always began to struggle with the heat beginning in late June. Laura Bush petunias laugh at the heat. I have a great appreciation for anything that tolerates our typical July and August heat with no issues, even when not irrigated. Every year when the petunias begin appearing in regular stores (often as early as February here), I want some but then I don't buy them. I know that if I am patient, the Laura Bush petunias will start blooming in late February or early March and will outlast the standard types you buy at nurseries. I used to grow Wave petunias from seed but stopped growing them because the Laura Bush petunias were so much more heat and drought-tolerant. The little flying insects adore them, so they are great for attracting pollinators to the garden. I grow a ridiculous amount of watermelons. I currently have about 12 plants in the ground but have 12 or 15 more to plug into gaps in the garden. I grow mini Refrigerator sized melons because the large ones produce more melon than we can eat at one time. I generally grow some of my melons on trellises and on the garden fence because that keeps the melons safe from pill bugs and sow bugs. The rest roam around wherever they choose. I often underplant okra with melons. The okra gives the melons enough shade to help prevent the fruit from getting sunburned and the melons keep the ground cooler under the okra, like a living mulch. With excess melons, we either give them away or I get out the melon ball scoop and make melon balls, which I then freeze in freezer bags. If you eat them when they are only half-thawed, they aren't mushy and the flavor is terrific either way. I also make a chilled melon soup from both muskmelons and watermelons. I've even dehydrated strips of melons, but once you remove the water, the flavor is too sweet and I didn't care for it, so don't dehydrate them any more. The last two summers have been really hard on our poultry. We lost quite a few chickens during 112-115 degree days in 2011 when I was gone to wildfires a lot and wasn't home to monitor their conditions. After coming home from fires and finding them dead, I started leaving a misting system on for them when I left, had fans running in the chicken coops, and fed them watermelons, cantaloupes and Armenian cucumbers daily in an effort to help them stay hydrated. So, at our house, it is hard to have too many melons or cukes because I always can feed them to the chickens. I haven't lost a single chicken to heat since I implemented the misting and melons. They always had plentiful fans for air movement and lots of water, but in 2011 it wasn't enough. I've noticed when I have the misting system on that all sorts of birds from hummers to cardinals to doves and blue jays come play in the mist right along with the chickens. Having chickens is great for the compost pile, we enjoy the fresh eggs, and I have a built-in excuse to grow all the lettuce, melons and cukes I want because the chickens consume any surplus that is produced. Some people make watermelon rind pickles, but they are not my favorite thing, so I don't make them. I'm usually too wrapped up in tomato canning and pickle-making to worry about the watermelon rinds. Dorothy, I stopped working in the garden long enough yesterday to look inside the broccoli plants and small heads are forming. Hopefully they'll get a chance to get bigger before trying to bolt, but we're in the 90s here and staying in the mid to upper 70s at night, so bolting could occur at any time. I harvested some cauliflower yesterday and have more to harvest today. I'm surprised it has formed mature heads faster than the broccoli, but I planted it a month earlier to give it a chance to make heads and I guess that made the difference. The brussel sprouts are forming but are very slow. If they don't hurry up, we won't get any brussels sprouts, but they were a gamble all along and I never really expect sprouts in spring, though sometimes I get them in fall. We have broccoli worms all over and I don't have time to handpick them so I guess I'll spray the cole crops today with Bt. I don't mind them so much on broccoli plants because I can drop the broccoli heads in saltwater and the worms will float to the surface after a bit, but I don't care for holey cabbage. It will be a good cole crop year if the heat this weekend doesn't cause them to bolt. We have hit the 90s for the last two days and are expected to be in the 90s the next two days so the cole crops are right on the edge, so to speak. If they only produce small heads, I'm okay with that. We put up so much stuff last year that our freezer still has a little of everything left (and a lot of tomatoes) so we'll survive if the cole crops produce poorly, and I'm processing and freezing oodles of snap peas. I hope to finish them up today after the heat drives me inside this afternoon. To collect seeds I like to use nylon knee-high stockings. I just pull them down over the seed head in question. They stick to the plants well so I don't have to worry about high winds blowing them off the seed heads. I'll tie them closed around a plant prone to having pests get into the seed heads---like the hollyhocks which always have some sort of weevil looking things in their seed heads. Dawn

My go-to favorite is ruby swiss chard; very hardy, and you can cut the outer leaves to keep it coming. Saute in olive oil with fresh herbs and pine nuts (I add diced ham, too) - yum! Lynn

Thanks again. I've gone from no ideas to too many ideas! That's a much better problem to have. Islay, along with the things I mentioned above, I was thinking about the traditional Israeli salad or Greek salad. There are definitely some good tomatoes still around in my neck of the woods. Alex, that snap pea salad sounds great. Believe it or not, I was thinking of snap peas but for a dip not an actual salad. I know I'd devour the recipe you linked to. DC, I'd like to look at your salad recipe. The addition of carrots sounds interesting. Thanks again for your help. I've got time to mull this over and decide which would appeal to the most guests. It'll be fun!

Israeli Salad is a favorite, easy, fresh tasting, and it goes with anything. Chop equal amounts of cucumbers & tomatoes in about a 1/4 inch dice. Add your choice of other veggies...sweet onions, bell pepper, radishes, frozen corn kernels or peas, apples, pears (crisp varieties), melon, jicama, etc..you get the idea. I prefer to limit it to 4 items, so that each flavor can stand on it's own, without being too confused. Finely chop herbs of your choice. I like parsley, or mint, and sometimes one of the mint cousins like marjoram. Sometimes I use chives. Mix a dressing of extra virgin olive oil, salt and fresh lemon juice, in the proportions you favor. I like to use 2 parts of lemon juice to 1 part oil as I like the tart flavor, and tend to go easy on the salt as people can always add it at table. I love this with Meyer lemons, as the juice is on the sweet side, but you can use the more acidic varieties if that's what you have, though you may want to add a bit of sugar. Anyway, toss it all together and let it sit to "moogle" for at least 15 minutes before serving.