This has been the best season ever for my garden! I am growing Beans-Rattlesnake, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Mennonite Purple Stripe, Cherokee Wax, Kentucky Wonder, Kentucky Wonder Wax, and Long Beans. Not alot of all the varieties trying to get my seed stash resupplied on some. Tomatoes-Mr Stripey, Brandywines, Cherokee Purple, Juliet, Sweet 100, Roma, Parks Whopper, Better Boy Watermelon- Moon and Stars and Tenderweet Orange Squash- Grey striped zuke and Trombocinno Pumpkins- Musqee de Provence Melons-Charentais Bright Lights Swiss Chard Collard Greens Cucumbers-Lemon, National Pickling, Armenian, and some other pickling kind Onions-1015s, Red onions, and some other sweet white Peppers-Jalapenos, Big Bertha Bells, Sweet Cherry, Habanero Eggplant-Black Beauty and Japanese Broccoli Cabbage-Red and Green Corn-Country Gentleman Okra-Emerald Flowers-Sunflowers, Nastursiums, Morning Glories, Asters, Petunias, Moonflowers, Black-eyed susan vine I just can't believe how amazing everything is doing this year, it's soooo awesome!!!

I've enjoyed this thread. Some of our 2013 hits and misses from first time items were: Hits Mizuna: Comes up quickly from seed, produces abundantly and is a cut and come again veggie. Tokyo Bekana Grew very well here from seed in the spring and fall. We love it raw in salads as an alternative to lettuce. Fingerling potatoes: we grew five varieties and all did well and were DELICIOUS. Did very well at the farmers' market. Zephyr summer squash. These are very delicious and showed good disease resistance and yield. Safari zuchinni. It wasn't a good year for zukes for us, but these kept coming even after the others bit the dust. Red Russian kale. Produced very well. Tasty and tender. Moon and Stars Yellow Fleshed watermelons. We really enjoyed these. Not as sweet as Crimson Sweet, of course, but crispy and delicious. Fails Lemon cucumbers. Produced poorly. They taste fine but not worth the space they take up. Won't plant again. Burgundy okra. The problem with this is that the wildlife couldn't resist it. Deer and groundhogs destroyed it, while hardly bothering the Clemson Spineless. If you can keep the critters away, this would be a good choice. But we won't bother with it again. Creasy Greens (upland cress). This didn't come up at all. Surprising since it grows wild here. We won't bother trying again. Here is a link that might be useful: White Flint Farm

If in doubt whether the seeds are good or not, I usually test the seeds by placing them on a MOIST paper towel, folding it over several times. Place in a small Ziploc plastic bag and put on top of the refrigerator. This method is explained on page 41 of Garden Way's JOY OF GARDENING by Dick Raymond. On July 4th I placed two seeds of GAYLIA MELON 409 which I obtained from Thompson and Morgan on 07-15-1989. That is correct almost 20 years ago. One of the seeds germinated on 07-10-09 and I planted it in a 2 3/4" plastic pot filled with moistened germinating mix. The seeds were kept at room temperature all these years in the original inner foil packet and outer paper packet. My reason for wanting to replant this variety was that it is the standard seed from which I can obtain seeds to save. Galia melon is now available as a hybrid although some seed providers have the OP available. I tried this method with 10 Melon Ogen seeds with 100% germination. I just checked the invoice, and it is listed as Melon Gaylia F1 Hyb even though Standard Seed is listed on the right hand margin on the back of the packet. Will have to rethink about saving the seed if indeed it was a hybrid.

My husband was in michigan this week and that was one of the flights he thought about taking on thursday night. He flies a lot and it just hit close to home. Clarence is not far from where we live. We are a little more out in the country. Big sigh of relief. When the news came on at 10pm they announced at the end of the broadcast that a plane had crashed by the airport, but they didn't know anything yet. By the time the 11pm news came on, it was not until after the weather that their news crews made it to the neighborhood and they announced it was a commercial plane. WIVB broadcast without commercial break until I went to bed at 2am. When my husband called to say he was alright i was so grateful. (wipes tears and sniffles) Fran, Could i have the blanket flower, please? BTW, DS#3 watered my keyboard once, its still a little iffy. We set it in from of the blower on the woodstove for a week. Just FYI those of you sowing in the keys LOL! Thank all of you for the prayers. Families here are esp. close knit and things like this are difficult for anyone. Praying for your FIL, too Nichol. Fleethart