I discovered swiss chard when I lived in San Diego, an asian neighbor dug up some of her plants and gave me 2 big plants. I LOVED them. They had big huge leafs, I would steam and then briefly saute in fresh garlic and butter..YUMMMY...Now for some reason, the chard I have planted here in GA is not as good to me, the flavor is very different. I got a bunch of seeds in a seed exchange, so maybe the varieties were just not the same. I'm going to try to plant more of the big green ones, the shorter more colorful (more red stemmed ones) just dont have the same buttery taste to me. I also got seeds from a neighbor last year of what i was told was a climbing okra...turns out that it is something else which I cannot recall the name, I know that they are used when left to dry out to make luffa's?, and since they were planted so late last year, I did not get a chance to try them out..but they were really big long pods. I'll try them again this year and see what happens. I LOVE Okra, planted Emerald for the first time this year, last year and the few years before, I planted Clemson Spineless, hope I am not dissapointed with Emerald, as I have NO Clemson's planted at all this year. My first year here, I planted 6 yes SIX okra plants, I'll never forget, I was admiring the very lush garden of a neighbor of my MIL's , he's an older gentleman and I was so proud that I too had planted OKRA, he asked me how many plants I had, and I told him SIX...and he chuckled outloud and says "well you might be able to get a mess from them" I learned quickly, there was NO MESS of any kind with just six plants...the next year I planted 20 and even then never had enough to put any up...and it took a week to get a "mess" to cook up. this year I have planted 3 rows (15 feet each), I'm hoping this is enough :) I also have for the first time successfully grown garlic, I bought a mixed bag (she sent me a few of each of several different varieties) from a lady who sells on the farmers bulletin from Atlanta, I think I planted like 6 or 7 different types. they are all over my garden..cant wait another surprise that I just love are the multiplying onions. got free bulbs from someone on freecycle, and now I have more of them than I know what to do with.. last year I also for the first time successfully grew PEANUTS!! that was WAY COOL...harvested and put up a dozen gallon bag full of them. of course here in the south we boil them in salty water, yummy!! I have volunteers all over my garden!! I have enjoyed mustard greens and love having parsley in my garden...I found some growing in the cracks in my lower patio, I had let some in the flower beds go to seed, and I dont have the heart to pull them up!! And finally sweet potatoes! no hassle great reward!!

FW, I'd love to share! But AFTER *I* see some flowers if you know what I mean. Nine pretty plants covered in buds that fell off a few days after coming home. Now condensed to 3 hanging pots and 1 in a tree-base washtub planter. That one's really pink too. It got a little frost bite but has recovered well. Asleep, IDK. They'll be outside until frost looms, then I can't control the lights inside. That's what I have to offer, we'll see what happens in the spots I have available. PG, the ones that are so pink/purple were right in the east windows for winter so were much more used to the direct sun. Paired with other plants that didn't get direct sun, you can really see the diff. although they've all been outside for 2 mos now. I keep looking for sunburn but haven't seen any yet. I put a pot of cuttings where it gets sun all day, literally, and it doesn't seem to be burning, has cute tiny new leaves, raspberry pink. Some get only morning sun, that really pink one's sticking out in the sun most of the day, the wind blows it in/out of the shadow of the porch roof. Early in the season yet, I'm watching... You know I'm not afraid to burn a plant to find the "too much" point. The cuttings (with a piece of Haworthia, top center): Another plant:

Thank you for all the comments. Ellie, That would be funny, wouldn't it? But I believe we'll be finished well before frost. Debra. Thank you, but I'm just using the automatic setting on the camera. It's a Cannon EOS 20D with a telephoto lens DH bought me for one of my Christmas gifts. njmomma. I am chronically behind with what I had intended to do, but I use Preen and mulch and that helps otherwise it is continual weeding. Thanks Jason, there is a lot of re-bloom this year. Julia that is Wall of Fire, Karol Emmerich's intro: Rita, Lots of brown and done scapes, but a lot of re-bloom this year. I have things re-blooming that are brand new, things that usually rebloom, and things that have never rebloomed before. Maybe all the piddling with them is paying off. Avedon, it was totally unexpected. Yesterday, I was whining about bloom being so diminished and today there was a lot of bloom. go figure. kay

We have quite a lot of spring blooming trees coming out of heat dormancy and blooming here in Oklahoma. You see trees looking half dead with maybe one or two branches green and blooming. I think there will be a lot of major trimming and removal of dead trees next year. Another weird thing is the warm season grasses. Most bloomed very early. My Panicum grasses started blooming in late June. Bluestem in mid July. Its usually not until late August or September on these. We got a bit of rain in September and with the cooler weather, I have never seen the thick flowering I am now getting on my natives. Its like they saved up energy and its all being put toward flowers all at once now. I have Thelesperma plants that are solid yellow mounds now. They bloomed all summer but now they are in hyper-bloom mode.