My peas are up about 3 inches since sowing them on April 15th and I just sowed string bean seeds. I think I will think of some way to shade the peas if it suddenly gets hot and hope that helps. I wonder if I should mulch them to keep the soil cooler? We do enjoy lettuce and bok choy so I am going to go ahead and plant those and eat them young and if they bolt early, I will leave one or two to go to seed for the fall. Brassicas will have to wait for a fall crop I guess. I wonder about Kale? I grow in raised beds organically and the soil is constantly mulched with leaves and grass clippings and I often add kitchen scraps around the edges of the bed under the mulch, so there are lots of worms and the soil is good and loose. I shld get some quick growth. Oh good, beets and chard. IâÂÂll give those a try in the next few days. Nila, I often put tomato starts out early but I always use a Wall of Water around them and that works very well for me. HavenâÂÂt had a frost damaged tomato plant using those. pnbrown, I was lucky enough to be able to stop at that vegetable garden of JeffersonâÂÂs. Just a gorgeous location with so much space and rolling hills in the background and they keep the veggie garden immaculate. Yes, I donâÂÂt really get how someone in Virginia can be zone 6b or 7a and spring starts the same time as Massachusetts? Makes no sense to me.

LOL, I can't afford to even LIVE in SF much less have the space for a plant. But up here in the boonies, I do have the room for artichokes in some areas of my yard we haven't landscaped yet. My only problem with them was that last time I had them (30 years ago!) they'd get earwigs. I'd clean and cut them, boil them up, serve them, and after peeling off those few outer leaves, I'd find an earwig had bored a tunnel through the thing (and was most likely boiled alive inside somewhere). Eeeeeew! It's one of the reasons I don't grow corn either. I can't stand any veggie where you can't see the bugs until you're in the house, opening them up. But I was way young then and didn't know anything about pest preventions. There also wasn't an internet back then. Now, a little wiser and with more resources (e.g. you all) I may give them another shot.

it's only been planted a week & temps haven't gotten higher than the 80's. Should have been planted out months ago to minimize exposure to days in the 70s. it's bitter & then it bolts. Ditto, except 60s & perhaps more water. brussel sprouts are the same size they were a month ago Fall crop. My carrots & radishes only grow their tops Temps too warm and perhaps too much N. ---------- Don't give up. Plant at proper time and soil temp for crop. Dan

Just got around to this thread again and saw Chandra's comment on the blood type book. Since I was the one who first mentioned it when someone asked if it was possible to eat too many tomatoes, thought I would throw in my two cents. I am from a cattle raising family. My 84 year old father still raises cattle and so my family eats grass-fed beef and has for over 40 years. I married a man from a hunting family and tried for a brief time to at least limit his consumption of red meat. "Three days a week is enough," I said. "No, we need it every day." he answered and meant "sometimes twice a day." So when friends loaned us the book 15 years ago, I knew I'd been beat. "See," he said, "We're supposed to eat a lot of red meat." I still insist on one chicken day a week--homegrown chickens--and one or two fish meals a week--being Norwegian, he loves Kippers and Sardines and I love Salmon having been raised near Seattle. I also make sure to fix a lot of salads and of course we do raise a BIG garden and he eats a lot more veggies now than he was raised on. I went through a period where I blood tested "allergic" to wheat so dropped it from my diet completely for 2 years--along with eggs and milk. (Hardest thing I ever did.) At the end of the two years my Dr gave me the go ahead to replace those foods carefully and I now eat all three but in much less quantity than before. Being an okie, I don't think I could give up cornbread, and especially now that George has introduced me to homegrown meal corn. (DH prefers wheat bread, both yeast raised and biscuits.) And like Chandra DH and I are blood type O so all four children are too. I have read after two or three DRs who follow the blood type system and for a while thought I would too, but just couldn't keep it up. One thing I did notice for what it is worth though. He says lentils are very bad for Os. Whether that is why I can't eat them I'm not sure. But every time I have tried, they make me feel really bad, very sluggish and sleepy and headachy. Green/raw onions do the same thing but I can't remember if they're supposed to be bad. For my family, I find it hard enough to just put a healthy diet on the table, limiting sugar, processed foods, additives etc without worrying too much about the blood type diet.