Hi, I'm in the Kansas City area and I set out about 1,200 plants this year. Of the bells, I had: purple bells - smallish California Wonder-pretty good sized, mostly as big as the grocery store, some were smaller. But, I didn't water much and I only fertilized a couple of times. I was happy with the quality of the fruit and plants though. For the last month or so, I've been getting some great red bells from these plants. Quadrato Asti Giallo - this is seed from Italy for a giant yellow bell. I was impressed with the size of the fruit. Mini Orange Bell- cute little bell pepper, orange, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Cute little stuffers Sweet Red Cherry -very prolific Cubanelle - Very prolific and I had some very large ones and some that were average in size Pimiento-this is an underused pepper. We used it in salads like one would use a red bell. It is just as sweet if not sweeter. I know you said sweet peppers but I also grew hot peppers. Anaheims - got some nice sized ones, mild heat Serrano- a bit smallish but nice and warm Red Cayenne - tons! Bird pepper - tons! Ancho/Poblano-disappointed with the size Jalapeño - very prolific Red Hot Cherry - very, very prolific Black Hungarian - very prolific, very ornamental Pasilla bajio - not very prolific but did get some nice-sized peppers Hungarian Yellow Hot wax - nice flavor mixed sizes. Some were nice sized and some were so-so. Sweet Yellow Banana - so-so size but prolific Orange Habañero - late but now have a lot of them, don't know if the rest will make it to ripeness, we may get a touch of frost this weekend (dang it!). I also had two other types of peppers I lost the labels. One was a long Italian frying-type. Nice sizes and I let some of them turn a nice, rich, red color. The other was an Italian or Greek pepperoncini but I let them get too big. I was harvesting about 30 lbs of peppers a week. I probably have about 50 or 60 lbs out on plants right now but it is in the mid-50s right now, raining and getting progressively colder at night. Probably the last week for my peppers. But, this has been an incredible year for me and for my peppers sweet and hot both. I don't think I need to tell anyone here how rewarding it is to walk down your rows and see all of that delicious and beautiful fruit producing like gangbusters!

Kimberly, A BIG part of your problem is your plant choices. Gardening in the deep south, and that's where you are, is dramatically different than up north. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but live and learn. :) Here goes: petunias: These are strictly mid to late spring bloomers in our heat. Once your daytime temps begin to hit in the low nineties, they quickly go to seed and die. There is nothing I know of that will prevent this if your plants are in full sun, which they need. delphiniums: Delphiniums will probably never again look as good as the day you buy them in the south. They are persnickety up north. They are virtually impossible in the deep south (with, perhaps the exception of a fully dedicated expert type). It's one of my pet peeves that all the big box stores sell them. This is what gives people the idea they have a brown thumb. snapdragons: These are planted in the fall with pansies. Some types will bloom through the winter, but for the most part they make their big show in mid spring and then, when the heat comes in, you guessed it. They're done. Hosta: Some hostas will do well in the south IF you provide an area with very dappled shade ALL day long, where they don't have to compete with tree roots, and where they stay evenly moist all the time. (They like an annual top dressing of manure too.) The older tried and true varieties are the best for us. Zinnias: You have learned that these are one of our best summer blooming annuals. Depending on how big a variety you chose, I betcha the roots are bumping into that landscaping paper. Next year, when you start over, begin by pulling out that stuff. It will cause alot more problems than it solves and won't stop the worst of our weeds anyway. I have seen nut grass pop through it like it's paper. Blazing stars are prairie plants. I have tried, and killed them numerous times. I think they don't like our clay since it holds moisture too long. That's my guess. I have killed them the requisite 3 times. I am done with them. Iris: I assume you refer to bearded irises, though I have never seen them in flats...If you bought rhizomes in bags and planted them, you should have planted them so that the top half of that potato like root is above ground. It likes to bake in the hot sun. Irises like deep (at least a foot), loose, rich soil with not too much moisture. This means clay must be well amended. Never pile mulch on their roots. They can take two or three years to come into their full glory when they are started from a packaged rhizome. Again, get rid of that cloth. As they get larger, they will want the root space. Impatiens: I know these can be grown in the south, but they are not easy to grow in the south. They need similar conditions to hostas, which I described. It sounds to me like you did a pretty good job of preparing your soil. I, too, recommend that you get rid of the landscape cloth in the fall. One question: Did you lay the landscape cloth over your ground as it was, and then pile soil on top of that? If so, it would be a good idea to plunge your spade deeply into it (after the cloth is gone) and at least loosen it so that roots can gradually work down into it. Then put several inches of chopped leaves over the top of your beds (though not around the irses). Over the winter read a good book on gardening in the south. Every southern gardener needs a copy of the Southern Living Garden Book. If IT says you can grow something in your area, you can. And if it says you can't, you're wasting your time. Don't give up! You've made a great start! Just tweak your plan a bit and try again!

I understand, Seil. More than 25 years ago, I would leave an overhead, oscillating sprinkler going over large areas of my Newhall garden, requesting the community gardening staff to turn them off when they left for the day, on triple digit days. The horse manure mulch disappeared quickly. The foliage was huge, plants even more so, and they flowered amazingly. Water was cheap and plentiful, so not an issue there and then. There were no disease or insect issues. The plants were fully clothed in very dense, durable foliage and there was no such thing as sun scald nor Flat Headed Apple Borers which became great issues once that type of watering had to be discontinued due to availability and cost. Black spot and mites were frequent issues with the own root plants we propagated as volunteers at The Huntington. I learned early when bringing home any new plant such as those to pull off all of the foliage before bringing it into the garden. I had an area in filtered sun under a tree where I kept a pile of horse manure. I'd clump the newly arrived own roots in their pots together, surround and fill between them with the manure, often inside them as mulch, then overhead water until new foliage began developing. No mites, no diseases and the plants exploded into growth quickly. A bit of hardening them off in larger cans and higher levels of heat and light and they were ready for planting once they'd filled the five gallon cans. Growing them up in larger cans also permitted me to move them around to see what position was best to their liking. It often made quite a difference. At the beach, I had a number of customers who regularly used my "proprietary blend" of Ultra Fine and Miracle Grow sprayed every two weeks except between the middle of July through the middle of October. In the Perma Fog, it prevented disease, eliminated the constant aphids and saw flies and kept really terrible things there, like one lady's beloved and hated Paul Neyron, viable. He caught her heart in books and she was determined to grow him. He languished until I suggested the Ultra Fine and MG foliar application. She had severe bronchitis, but made sure she brought me a bouquet of beautiful Paul Neyron from her bush! Used during the heat, that mixture did burn, but when there weren't heat and light intensities to contend with, it worked wonders. NO way I could have ever used it in any garden at home! I tried it once, learned my lesson the hard way right there and then! Anything presented as being even slightly phytotoxic WILL burn here. I am in total agreement with your walking the roses daily. I can't imagine having them unless I wanted to walk them every chance I got. Each has its own personality, likes, dislikes, needs and will quickly let you know if you don't provide them. It's the best way not only to head off problems early, but also to detect sports. They can happen so quickly right in front of you and seemingly behind your back. A big part of the serendipity for me! Kim

Labradors I'm still developing my rotate methods. I've been getting one of the blights and tried growing Caliente 199 mustard with mixed results. Since my garden was too small to rotate crops, I started a small new test plot. I grew 4 tomatoes there without problems. So the next year I started another, the third, new plot between a peach and an apple tree. That also was blight free, the following year the blight started up in the third plot. The second plot didn't have problems till the third year. So I'm working this year on a large 34x74' fenced garden. I won't be able to plant up the entire plot. In the first year I hope to plant potatoes, 24 tomatoes, and some pole beans. I may get some fall crops in later. In the second year, hopefully I'll get some land dug up to move the tomatoes and the potatoes to new spots. In the meanwhile I plan to just mow what's not ready to plant. In short I'm thinking 3 years to dig up this garden and then rotate on a 3 year cycle. I have 10 posts cut in the woods, one still needs hauled. It's a white oak 14 foot long and 5 to 6 inches on the bottom and 4 or 5" on the top. I have it up off the ground, hopefully it'll dry a little. I'm going to try a 2 wheel dolly tied to the bottom.