Final report on the spring planting of Cool Breeze: 32 lbs of cucumbers from 12 plants. Put another way, 24 pints of bread and butter pickles, 9 quarts of sliced dill pickles, and a few cucumbers for fresh eating and sharing with family. Every fruit was crisp, juicy, and sweet, even when the plans were under stress. They held very well in the fridge, too. That trait was really useful, since I needed to collect 2-3 pickings to get enough for a batch of pickles. Debby did them in; I've been battling mildew for weeks but after three days of near-constant rain every single leaf is badly damaged, even the newest growth. I'm going to give it a few days to see if any of the small fruit still on the vines will grow to usable size, then yank them. (Also, I need to get more seeds before I can replant.) I had pretty much expected to lose them in the heat and humidity of summer. With the good harvest, I consider them a big success, and will definitely replant this variety in the future. Note: The fruits I had this year were really spiny. I don't remember them being this spiny when I grew them years ago. I even had spines lodge in my fingers and break off in my skin. (The good news is that the spines soften up and fall out after a few hours.) If you have delicate skin, I recommend wearing gloves to harvest and handle them until you wash the spines off, or they soften on their own.

Brenda, Hooray for the tiny tomatoes and peppers! They won't stay small for long. If your onions seem behind, try giving them a shot of nitrogen fertilizer. They are heavy feeders. You can give them dried blood/blood meal if you garden organically or any pelleted form of lawn fertilizer that contains nitrogen only. They also need a consistent amount of moisture even if no rain is falling. Otherwise they stall and just sit there and refuse to grow. You can plant garlic this year, but just not right now. In our climate we can start planting garlic in the September-October time frame for harvest next June or thereabouts. I am so glad your husband is hanging in there and making his way through all the surgeries. Hopefully he'll soon be strong enough for the third one. I am glad to hear he's making good dietary changes, and that you make it more fun and more meaningful for him by growing fresh produce yourself. Fresh is so much more nutritious because nutrients degrade as 'fresh' produce is shipped across the country, and even around the world, to reach store shelves. I also think there is something that just "feels right" about eating food you've grown yourself whenever you can. Dorothy, I know. It made me laugh out loud at first, but after a while I was tired of it. When we got married in September of that year so very long ago, it was 102 degrees. I think they thought they'd gotten on an airplane and flown to H-E-L-L. After we moved here, my brother and sister-in-law and their kids came to visit that August. They were here for 3 days and our high temps while they were here were 110-111-112. It was a drought summer, so that year the humidity was very low when they were visiting, but it still was miserably hot, even if it was a dry heat (grinning). They can't stand our heat 'cause they aren't used to it, but then I can't tolerate their cold weather either. We were there on Memorial Day weekend one year, and it was 26 degrees in the morning when we got up early to go trout fishing. Another year, it was 70 degrees and misty on the Fourth of July. I had typical Texas summer clothes with me, so all I remember about the Fourth of July was that I was freezing and that the fireworks show was cancelled because of the rainy, foggy, misty weather. Dawn

Your state? Has an outbreak occurred there? It does look as if your plants are infected with Late Blight, and that's really too bad. We haven't usually had it widespread in the deep South, though I think I read that a few outbreaks had been seen last year. Well, you need to utterly destroy the plants if that's what you have. How did the infection get into your greenhouse? Freezing kills the spores but I'm not sure about other treatments. If you just bag the plants and put them out in the trash, I'd think the spores would get loose in a landfill. I don't think you can cut them back and have new growth occur. Late Blight infects all of the plant. Better to start over with clean soil and clean plants. Call your county agricultural agent to report it and ask for the best way to disinfect the greenhouse. Maybe in some ways, your neighbors should thank you -- your greenhouse probably kept the spores from wafting for miles around your property. It's a terrible disease...

Dave, thank you, I updated the information. I am in zone 6 (though not sure if i am A or B). Are there any fungicides you can recommend? This is one I found on a search, and while I am sure you cannot know all details about every fungicide, is there any problem you can find with this one? http://www.amazon.com/Agra-Quest-Serenade-RTU-32/dp/B000FOMRUC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1434031872&sr=8-3&keywords=Serenade And is this 32oz enough for 4 tomato plants, or will I need more If i apply often for the next 3-4 months? I pruned every leaf with septoria and pruned every leaf that was touching the soil. (I sure hope these plants still grow, there were quite a few leaves I pruned on one of the tomato plants) I will be adding mulch to my garden tomorrow or this weekend. My garden is a raised bed and only 32 square feet, are there any bags of mulch that can be purchased, and if so, are there any kinds I should search for?