I actually got tender greens up and they didn't devour them this year. Had to put them in the ground late though. Waited till the hoppers died down a little. Had my first mess of them Sunday. Froze another gallon bag of bell peppers. Still have green tomatoes. Not cold enough for frost yet. Hope it holds off a little longer.

we picked so many bell and various chili peppers that we were giving them away. on the other hand our tomatoes would not ripen.

Jessica, where do you have your tomatoes planted? Could it be that the plants get too much shade to ripen? As I remember, your yard has quite a bit of shade.

borderokie, I'm jealous. I thought I had waited until most of the hoppers had died out too, until I walked through the newly planted area and watched them jump away from my young plants.

dorothy, we gave permission to use the property next door. clark keeps much of it mowed now, and we have a large garden plot in the sun. last year we had tons of tomatoes; this year they are still green. one of my garden friends in oregon said to not water them as much as we do, so clark stopped, but still not much. our roma are getting ripe now. our ag guy here told me to pull them by the roots out before the freeze and turn the vine upside down in the garage. will do just before that happens.

A peck would be 1/4 of a bushel

Dorothy, I have both hot and sweet bells to pick, but haven't managed to get around to doing it. The rattlesnakes and copperheads are plentiful in and around the garden this year, and I've had enough close calls with them that I don't even want to step foot in the garden to harvest, though I need to do so.

I harvested and preserved so many peppers all summer long that I am sort of burned out on the processing of them, so I've just avoided looking at the heavily laden plants.

I'm glad you used the term 'peck'. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person around who still uses terms like 'peck' and 'bushel'. Obviously, Robert knows the terminology too though, since he defined it for you.

Robert, I hope you are doing well and that y'all have had some decent rainfall as we finally have gotten some, though it seems to have come too late for a lot of the warm-season native pasture plants. Winter broadleaf weeds and scattered amounts of winter rye grass have sprouted all over the place in the last couple of weeks though, so I guess the moisture was good for them.

Dawn