So cool to hear about your nigra orchard Jacky5! A lot has changed with mulberries for me since I started this thread (under my previous name)... I still prefer the taste of BB mulberries, but they are too tart for everyone else in my family. On top of that, they have turned out to lack vigor and productivity for me. All of my attempts to propagate them have failed, including the air layers, which declined over a few years. Now one of my two established trees has died, and the other is unpredictable. So I have turned my efforts to illinois everbearing and similar varieties. They are much easier to propagate, are very vigorous, and I'm hoping productive here as well. Unfortunately my dreams of rows of bush size BB's propagated from my original trees won't become reality, but I'll likely be picking mulberries of some sort through much of the summer in a few years.

Since many of my other favorites have been discussed above, I will name a few others that have been excellent for me. Crnkovic Yugoslavian - very good and very assertive flavor, medium production, but does take the heat better than most. This variety sets the occasional JUMBO fruit. I've grown 3 and 4 pounders without even trying. Cuostralee - A pretty decent large red tomato though it is a bit more on the balanced side flavorwise. Andrew Raharts Jumbo Red - This one has outstandingly good flavor but does not stand up to nematodes or high heat very well. Daniels - This is a large pink potato leaf variety that is at least as good as and sometimes better than Brandywine. It is consistently productive and relatively tolerant to disease in my Alabama garden. I would rate the flavor as balanced with a bit of a leaning toward the intense side. The best part is that it is productive even in locations where Brandywine is not. Omar's Lebanese - Jumbo fruit and moderate production of good flavored tomatoes. This one is not as intense as some of the others but it is consistently in the good to very good category. Zogola - Another large red tomato that Carolyn can comment further about. This one distinctly changes flavor as a result of temperature. I've picked them after several 90+ days and they were excellent. When the temp goes below 85, they are not quite as good. Note that this variety is not noticeably heat tolerant in terms of production, it just changes flavor more than most as the temp rises. I like Galina for a pretty good flavored yellow/gold cherry tomato. Besser is a good red cherry and Riesentraube is a rather unique small nippled tomato with intense flavor. Fusion

Hi zoenip. Yep...that's me. I don't know if I would call myself a guru...probably more like obsessed but still learning. I will look at Brown Antique. the black fossil won't work. The slab is too short and the material cost alone on it is nearly $100 per foot. I just found that out today. So no black fossil for me. Probably for the best....I was concerned about the pattern competing with the kitchen granite. So I'll be looking at solid black, brown, and also cream colored marble. Also looking at Either maple or walnut. The GOOD news is that they will be cutting my delicatus tomorrow!! YAY!! They are seaming it at the two sinks and the cooktop so they can get it here unbroken. this stuff is bad about breaking and having the seams at the cut-outs will help it get here unbroken. So maybe by mid-next week, I'll have granite! I am sure once it is in, it will be easier to decide on what to use on the bar overhang. Cindy

I just wanted to update this thread for my own reference next year. The Fall peas I planted are doing great! In the same spot I planted the Spring ones. Nice nodules on the Spring ones. They are flowering and 4 feet tall, growing no slower than in the Spring. The Fall beets had poor survival. It looks like I will get at least a few smaller beets, in the sunny spot I planted them. The lettuce planted in the shady bed stopped growing about 3 weeks ago. It is baby greens. I will try some MG to give them a boost. The carrots planted in the shady bed are growing well, but probably not well enough, I will be surprised if I get any decent roots. The brussels sprouts are looking pretty nice despite all the mistreatment and I hope for some sprouts in November. The direct sow cabbage and broccoli was a total fail. The seedlings just wouldn't grow in the summer heat. They are growing now but too late. And for the summer stuff... The beans are pretty much done. A little bit of poor quality dribs and drabs left. The earlier planted beans did much better than the summer planted ones. The Alexandria zucchini is still hanging in there, all other squash is long dead from PM and pests. The Ace and Biscayne are rocking. I LOVE my peppers! They did just as well in the late september cold as the summer heat and sun. The eggplant is doing well. The Hansel has lost quality pretty bad now, but the Galine is still doing great and is plenty of eggplant. The later planted ones are doing better, but they are also getting much more sun. And, the tomatoes. The smaller plants, the Jet Star and Sweet Tangerine, are about 75% toasted from septoria. The Golden Rave are still producing but also looking really bad, and unsplit Sungolds are difficult to come by. All of the fruit is poor quality and honestly I wish they would just hurry up and die at this point, so I can clean up the mess. I have harvested enough tomatoes for the winter for sure. This is going to be a hard year to top!