catherinet, I cannot tell you the cause for the the bitterness in your cucumbers but can suggest a way to reduce or completely remove the bitterness in your cucumbers. Just cut off a "cap" of a bitter cucumber from the end it was connected to the stem - quarter inch cap should be sufficient. Now make several random scores on the exposed (head) flesh of the cucumber by a gentle oscillatory motion of an edge of a knife. Now put the "cap" of the cucumber back on to the exposed end and rub it in a circular motion. Soon you will see white frothy stuff/foam begin to collect at the edges of the cut. When sufficient froth is collected, make another quarter inch cut. Get rid of the frothy small piece and enjoy the rest of the cucumber. I grew up in South Asia and just about every one I knew back home used this method - I cannot remember eating or serving a cucumber without going through this process. Please let me know how it turns out. Regards, VK

Same here! This is my first "real" year gardening, and I'm about to give up. Outside of vegetables (and my wall of mg) none of the ws annuals made it. I have one lil petunia that keeps trying too bloom, and it just started a week or two ago. There was one other, cant remember the name right now that put up one bloom then keeled over. My sunflowers (the mamoths) range from 1ft tall to 6ft tall, only 3 out of like 24 are 6ft tall, making for a very uneven sunflower house. My cukes aren't growing, they just finally had a small growth spurt this weekend, and some mole or ground hog decide to dig a huge tunnel under my cuke tunnel!! My pole beans are just starting to grow. No zukes showing yet, only 2 summer squashes. My toms aren't ripening, I thought they were just starting, some were going yellow, but today they're brown mush. My Yellow pear tom stopped growing and went backwards, it only sits 3-4ft tall. I've gotten about 10 toms from that. Gave up on the broccili. It's weird, we got warm weather early this year (been above 70 since end of April, more like above 80, into 90's w/ 100+ heat indexes!) I would've thought things would've grown early w/ the head start and the heat lovers would be going nuts. But it's like everything is just starting to grow, in AUGUST!! My cocks comb is just starting out, well I have one that's 2ft tall and hasn't bloomed, but a few others have (at 4 in tall!) I bought a bunch of young perrenials this spring, they have done NOTHING! Haven't grown a bit!. 1 out of 6 Calla Lily bulbs came up, no blooms from that yet either. The only good things have been my daylilies. All the ones I planted last year gave me, and still are giving me a great show, even the majority of the ones I bought this spring gave me a nice show. And the lovely morning glory foilage that is finally covering my ugly wooden retaining wall, just wish it had more blooms to go w/ the foilage. If I wanted all green I would've planted Ivy! So I guess I should chalk it all up to the weather? I just assumed it was me. Ehh...I still blame my crappy soil!

Hi Merry Heart! I was figuring you must be at the lake. Hasn't the weather been wonderful....so much cooler and cloudier than usual and not nearly as much rain these last 2 or 3 weeks. It sounds like you had a great time there. I am still getting ripe tomatoes from some sorry-looking plants too, and I am very grateful for that because many people here lost all their tomatoes to the rains and/or flooding. I am slowly removing the yucky plants after I harvest the last of their good-looking ripe fruit, and am replacing them with fall tomato plants I raised from seed. I have been doing that since June, and some of the June-planted replacement plants are already 3 to 4 feet tall and have blooms and fruit, so I think it will be a good year for fall tomatoes at least. I always grow about 15 tomato plants in containers (in additions to those in the ground), ranging from 5 gallons to about 30 or 40 gallons and they always do incredibly well as long as I keep them well-watered and well-fed. This year, Better Bush, Jaune Flamme, Early Girl, Little Lucky, Lucky Cross, Kimberly, Orange Banana and Nebraska Wedding have done very well in containers. Several others, including Ultimate Opener, Red Star and Galina's Yellow did not do as well in containers. Susan has had really great results with a tomato I think would be PERFECT for a container. I think it is Husky Red Cherry. There is a whole line of Husky tomatoes that are short internode plants which are great for containers. In the past, I have had lots of success with Better Boy in containers too. My melons have been slow too, but have finally begun to form fruit. My pepper plants are like yours....smaller than usual and bending under the weight of the fruit. I bet that we will harvest peppers until the first frost, though, so the plants ought to be able to grow and get a little stronger. I also have basil everywhere, and have been having to cut it back and cut it back and cut it back. The flowers are looking great, and it is still hard to keep up with all the mowing and weed-eating. We had bobcat problems earlier this spring/summer....he got a total of 2 chickens and 2 guineas, but we haven't seen him the last 2 or 3 weeks, so maybe he has moved on. The coyotes haven't been howling and running much yet, but it is usually August when that kicks in big-time, so I guess time will tell. The river is back down in its banks, although a lot of pastures near the river still have huge amounts of water that just will not drain and dry up...so I am guessing the water table is high under those pastures. We have had lots of deer, including one doe who always leaves her still-spotted fawn on the edge of the woods while she (the doe) nibbles around the edges of the garden. I just love little fawns, so, of course, I have been putting little piles of cracked corn, sunflower seeds and hen scratch on the edge of the woods so the fawn can eat them while the doe devours the garden. (She stands outside and reaches over the fence.) We are having tons of birds (including some we've never seen and haven't identified yet), butterflies, moths, frogs, turtles, dragonflies, etc., so it is a great year for sitting out in the lawnchairs at night and watching the wildlife. It IS hard to believe it is August 1st, and we haven't even hit 100 degrees yet (which is OK with me). I hope we have a really late first frost so we can enjoy a long, lovely, mild autumn. Welcome home! Dawn

NC, It is the edible type of snail aka Escargot. You need to let them purge for 2 days or so, some people feed them lettuce, cucumber, fennel, etc. You purge them as to get rid of snail bait in them or in your case Plumie leaves and inflos. After they purge you can cook them up and Bon Appetite. Voil Gourmet French cuisine. It ate your plumie so you can eat it..lol Snails are Nocturnal so you need to catch them at night or early morning. If you want to get rid of snails and slugs naturally, put out a saucer of Beer around your plants and the snails and slugs are drawn to the brew and drown in the beer. Cheers and good luck.