Spokaneannie, I'm in Olympia. I lost my garden and orchard to divorce. Now I make do with a tiny patch of illicitly converted lawn barely big enough for a few head of lettuce and some peas or beans. This year I am trying potatoes in chicken wire baskets. I live in a rental, on glacial gravelly till, in a neighborhood overrun with raccoons and norway rats. Hard to keep them out of the garden, even with 2 dogs actively patrolling. Anyone see the NatGeo special on urban raccoons?? that was us, westside Olympia. I could take care of them pretty quickly if this weren't a no shooting zone ... but the neighbors think they're cute and leave out food for them. Though I must say the rats are more destructive to the garden as they burrow under fencing that keeps raccoons at bay. We'll see if I get any potatoes or strawberries. The soil is poor for growing most edibles anyway, and the summers too cool. Best growing crop around here is Doug fir, and you can't eat that; but it likes the gravelly soil and dry summers and it's native. Greens and peas and berries grow very well in better soil but you can only eat so much of those. Fruit trees can do well enough, but the landlady doesn't want me planting trees so I have dwarf peach and apples in pots. And anyway I wouldn't be here long enough to harvest anything off trees I planted. We do have a farmer's market here in Oly, and another one in Lacey, but it's kinda hard for me to get to because of its limited hours. Also the Oly one limits produce to that grown in WA so no citrus. We get to-die-for tree fruits from Yakima, and local berries and greens, and root crops from the Skokomish and Chehalis Valleys where the soil is decent, and nuts and kiwis from Morton. But they're only open a few days a week, not at all in winter, and they close at 3pm. how's a working person to shop there?? I don't do errands on weekends, I save those for adventures; and going to the farmer's market does not count.

I planted a bunch of bush beans in the places that I pulled my lettuce and spinach. I did this last year and it worked well. As an experiment, I put in some swiss chard, because the package said it could be planted in July. The other posters here seem to plant that in the early spring, so I may be way off base with that one. I'll post a follow up later and let you know how that goes. I have never grown it before. I planted about a week ago and I am going to need to thin soon, because it germinated right away.

Glad you got it, Larry! Sorry about your loss-great tomatoes, especially home crosses, are like members of the family! I got Dixiewine and the sisterline to Big Cheef (maybe it's larger than BC). I've grown out some of the F3 Brandywine/NAR and it'll be interesting to compare Dixiewine to them-they're all RL and PL reds (all appear the same). Bill has said elsewhere that he may recross Brandywine and NAR for sale on Marianna's site next year for anyone interested in looking at the various genetic combinations-maybe some good pinks like I've seen discussed. Anyway, it might be fun for some of the younger members to try some of Bill's crosses and find a favorite to stabilize and name. I think I've probably been near the areas in PA/Ohio you mentioned-doing wear tests on jeans worn in underground mines (Consol) near Washington, PA and in strip mines in Ohio-beautiful countryside. Darlene

I can't grow Freesias outside in my climate but I have seen them growing happily out of stone walls in Italy. My reservation about this idea would be that they need entirely different conditions from most vegetables. As socalgal said, they don't want much water and I suspect they don't want rich soil. In your picture is it possible that the Freesias are actually planted in the gravel edge rather than in the beds themselves? Maybe you could grow them in pots and place them around the garden? Perhaps you could contact the guy who does the blog where you found the picture and ask how he does it?