I just posted another message with pics of my first garden. I'm glad there's more of us out there! I'm harvesting romaine lettuce but that's about it. Snap peas are getting ready...tomatoes are coming a lot slower this year but maybe it's the weather.

Not that good. I lost four more brassica, a squash, and a potato plant today. The squash and the potato were eaten down to the ground by flea beetles. I'm not sure what's killing the brassica. Heat and sun, I guess. My garlic is beginning to fade. I'm not sure if that's heat or if they're getting "ripe."

And a different kind of bug is now eating my other potatoes and my broccoli. These aren't skeletonized. They're just chomped.

But I keep trying. I got some more seeds in the mail today. Different kinds of brassica, some lettuce, and carrots. I'll find what works in my back yard.

Oh, and this is my second year with this garden, and my first trying to grow melons, cauliflower, garlic, Brussels sprouts. Last year, the only thing that survived was the potatoes.

crabjoe, welcome aboard, glad your garden is doing well. Now's the time to begin thinking about next year's garden. Set up a compost station and make yourself some nice soil amendment. Also this fall gather all the fallen leaves you can and bury them about a foot deep right in the garden. Use alot, around a foot thick. It'll look rather mounded if you use enough but by spring it'll be compressed and black and rich. Next spring turn in some composted, not fresh, cow manure and mix it with that layer of leaves that will have worked down. Add some blood meal, bone meal and greensand if you can get them (follow directions) and you'll have the richest soil in the neighborhood. If you've got compost going then use it as a mulch around the plants after they come up. Don't mix sawdust, wood chips, unfinished compost, etc. in the spring - it eats up too much nitrogen at that time. Believe me, if you feed the soil you've fed your plants. Oh, it's a good idea to have your soil tested if only to determine Ph. It's great to have it at 6.5 but not absolutely necessary. Best Regards.

Your garden sounds like my garden! This is my second year, last year didn't go very well, but this year, my garden amazes me every day! We've been enjoying romaine since the radishes are gone, and I have a handful of zucchini that I could pick today if I wanted, as well as my beets, but I'd like them to get a little bigger. My melons and cucumber are in full blossom, and I had no idea so many tomatoes could grow on one patio bush! The broccoli, carrots, and brussels sprouts are holding their own as well.

My beans have been my nemesis. Mine have also taken forever to grow. They finally have blossoms, but with quite a bit of space devoted to the beans, I constantly think about pulling them out and putting something else in. I'm also trying to plan better for next year as far as spacing plantings out. The romaine has been great, but it would be even better if the tomatoes were ready to accompany it. I have a notepad where I've been keeping track of when I planted, when the veggies sprouted, and when they're ready for harvest. That will better help me next year I think.