I've actually had maybe 80% success with peaches here in the Rocky Mountain foothills. Apricots are maybe one in four or three at best. Partly the peach success is because I have a bunch of different varieties. "Polly" has by far been my best and most productive peach. (Took a couple extra years to get going, though). Good old "Redhaven" somehow finds a way to produce a few every year. I once got a couple in a year that was so bad the apples struck out. J.H. Hale produces but it is not vigorous, that's for sure. Don't even think of putting it in a high density situation. My advice is: Plant Redhaven. No question about its quality, and having Redhaven in your orchard is like having Jim Brown in your backfield with the ball on the three yard line. You won't be able to make conversation at the Master Gardener's, you will just have a lot of peaches.

Hello again :-) So, after another year of trying to schedule better...here is where I am at. veggiecanner said.. 'I have a garden plan going every year but find that it is only a guide to what really happens. ' Exactly! I had a plan but in the spring, I got sick and couldn't get out to garden until the end of May and by then I had a LOT to do out there, so the veggie garden was off to a slow start again! I did manage to start tomato seeds with the winter sowing method but for some reason, this year I had only 1 container germinate. I kept waiting for the others to germinate and by the time I gave up on them and headed to the nursery it was June and they were out of my favorite varieties. I think that will work out okay though. I am trying two new varieties from the nursery this year. Wayne...didn't get to sowing the broccoli in June again. BUT...I have a feeling I am not going to have room for them anyway. I have 3 of my raised beds planted with tomatoes that were planted very late. They are still only about 2 feet tall and it is mid July! So I don't think I will be pulling them too early. I will be lucky if I get ripe tomatoes at all. I only have one bed with string beans and that will be the only vacant bed, which I plan on planting with cover crop this year. My large containers that had tomatoes last year, have squash, cuke, watermelon and pumpkin in them, so I don't think they will be coming out early either. That is what you get with a small garden. I am actually feeling very good about our vegetable garden right now though. I have realized that part of the problem is I am trying to renovate the whole yard and the work that has to be done is always competing with the veggie garden too. Once I get a lot of the other work done, I will be better able to concentrate on the veggie garden. I am actually keeping up with it really well when I stop and think about it. I have gotten the frame work of the veggie garden finished and this is the second year of working with it and it is really as good as I can get it in the space I have, I am sure. I don't mean that it can't be improved upon later, just that the groundwork is done. The raised beds are working out great. As for looking neat and attractive, we had laid down cardboard with bark mulch all around the beds last year. This year the weeds were up like crazy right through what was left of the mulch. I don't know why I was surprised. We decided that we can't be weeding that whole area every year, so we bought weed fabric and layed it down in the paths and around the perimeter and put the bark mulch on top of that. The label said 15 years...I would be happy if I got 5. [g] I did something right since I last posted. I did buy a cover crop, Hairy Vetch, last year and even though it was late to put it in, it stayed warm so late, that it had plenty of time to grow before any bad weather. I turned it into my containers this spring and the soil is much better. Everything looks pretty healthy. Also added compost to my raised beds this spring and they look healthy too. I used Hay to mulch the raised beds which has eliminated weeding and is looking nice too. I also am keeping a daily journal now [thanks for that tip George and tjg911] for the first time and taking photos as often as possible. chaman's idea of keeping some space open for fall planting so I don't have to worry about scheduling the earlier crops was one that I think might be the only way I am going to get a fall crop. [g] I am going to have to rethink if there is somewhere I can put a couple of beds or containers that I could leave free every year, just for a fall crop. tjg011...I did wait to sow zucchini seed until July 4th. So we will see how that works out. It feels so funny to have little zucchini seedlings in the middle of July. Well, I have a good start I think and I am keeping a copy of this thread on my desktop to refer to, since there are so many great suggestions that I hope to try. Thanks again to everyone for sharing your experience and veggie wisdom. Photos taken first week of July. :-)

Complicated schedules like that are exactly the reason we suggest "deep and infrequent." Basic lawn care should not be a mathematical or scientific hassle. Deep and infrequent is a summary of the consolidated wisdom of the professionals and home owners around the country over the past 10 years. One inch is a starting point which you should adjust for your conditions. Consideration should be given for shade, clouds (different things), humidity, wind, temperature, soil type, soil depth, adjacent tree roots, grass type, grass density, mowing height, and other factors that don't come to mind. How do you take all that into consideration in a low hassle way? You look at the grass. When the grass becomes wilty looking, then you went about 1 day too long in the 'infrequent' factor. But you did not go 3 days too long. One caveat is zoysia grass. It does not give a warning before going dormant. When it looks wilty, it is going dormant and there is nothing you can do about it. The reason for deep is to provide moisture deep in the soil to encourage deep rooting. Your neighbors watering daily will have shallow roots which are very fragile in the event of a sprinkler failure or extreme low humidity. Usually what we see is someone goes away for the weekend, a sprinkler head broke, and the entire lawn died. The reason for infrequent is to allow the surface to dry completely which practically eliminates weeds. Your neighbors watering daily will have high weed pressure and end up using herbicides that others watering infrequently will never see.

Lefleur1 and prairiemoon--My sure fire earwig bait. I have never set this out in the evening without having some earwigs in the container in the morning. Note--baby earwigs are grey and turn red as they age so don't think it is another bug. Baby earwigs are ravenous when they hatch and can strip a plant down to the stem in 1 night Bait for Earwigs. Equal parts of full salt soy sauce, cooking oil and (molasses or corn syrup). The molasses or syrup is bait to attract them--the oil doesn't allow them to crawl back out and the salt in the soy sauce finishes them off and makes the mixture dark so they think it is just a hole. Put it in a small container��" I use those small scoops from laundry soap and place a stone on top but you can use any small container even the bottom of a soda or water bottle and anything for a lid. Cover 1/2 inch of the bottom of the container with the mixture and bury it up to the brim in the soil where you have a problem with them. Prop a lid over it so it doesn't get diluted by rain and so it is a nice dark place for them to hide for the day--ha. When you prop the lid, leave a small space for them to crawl into the container. You might have to wait a couple of days for it to work, but the first time I tried it I used a baby food bottle and it was full to the brim with little grey baby earwigs the next morning. I was surprised at just how many I did get. Try it. It really works