tracydr most of the melons I planted are short vine melons like Yellow Doll, Minnesota Midget, Emerald Gem and so forth. When the vines are only 3-5ft long you don't need as much space. My bush beans were planted 8 days ago. I soaked some pole beans last night and will be planting today. And yes I have seen the crazy weather coming. If the beans fail I do have plenty more to replant in two weeks. mister_gin They are not all from eBay but the melon seeds are all from small melons and the seeds are smaller than standard melon seeds. My guess is being much smaller they did not have enough energy to get to the surface planted as deep as I did. I paid $ 7.00 for the Yellow Doll seeds. Ouch!!! The cucumber seeds were Armenian cucumber seeds from an eBay vendor. I have Early Prolific Straightneck seeds but did not plant any. Most of my seeds were from major suppliers Like Johnny's, Baker Creek, Seed Savers, Southern Exposure, The Sample Seed Shop, Territorial Seed and so forth. I know the window to plant is closing. I can't imagine planting seeds when its hot enough to cook an egg on the ground. Time to get to it. My guess is the problem I'm having with germination has mostly to do with the one unseasonably cold day and night about four days after planting. The cooler weather thats coming is still about 13 degrees warmer than what my failed seeds experienced. There is a saying I did not pay attention to that I will next year. "I would rather plant two weeks after my neighbor than have to re-plant with him."

Nicky, that would be great. I have bells of ireland seeds yet. Is it the Minnesota Midget that you have? If you can think of anything else you would like let me know. Please shoot me an email and we can set up a trade.

We live in Surrey, England, and have an allotment (for non-UK residents, an allotment is an area of land (125 square metres) that you rent from the town council on an annual basis; there are usually 50 - 100 of these plots, and most have access to water, via a stand pipe (faucet). We're growing Marina di Choggia winter squash. From 6 seeds potted on the kitchen window-sill, four sprouted. One got nibbled by slugs (pernicious creatures!) in the cold frame, but three are doing well on the plot. I have built a trellis (basically two capital 'A' shapes leaning together) out of lengths of 2" x 1" treated timber. The squash are doing fine, but I'm going to have to provide sling supports of some sort, as the fruit can reach 10 or 15kg each. I'll see if I can get some photos uploaded somehow. Cheers

Good lookin' vine, angie. The Black Eyed Susie is an annual here and has always done well for me but I was thinking of something with a bigger blossom, more obvious from the curbside. My house is set waaaaaay back from the street on a pie-shaped lot. All the yard is in the front and I have very little in the back. Whoever plotted that out was obviously not a gardener, not did s/he have kids who needed a private place to play. But that's a rant for a different place and time :)