We got our first ripe one today. Yum! I guess I should say we got the first one that the terrapins didn't get. DH didn't stake them up and the terrapins get to them just as they are starting to turn. Never have seen one of the little devils. Next year they will be staked if I have to do it myself!

Ginny, it is never too early or too late to learn something new, especially when it comes to gardening, growing edibles is an investment in our health. I am very careful about not wasting anything that the garden produces and is fun to try the many different recipes that you can come up with the harvests, tomatoes are always the main stars of the garden. It is so easy to make sauces and put them in the freezer, the oven dried tomatoes are good as decorations in a dish or a salad. I just made a chili with some saved roasted tomatoes from the past season. In the meantime I am growing the tomato seedlings to be planted soon. Hi Amber! I am so glad that the tomatoes are doing well for you, I am trying new varieties this season, beefsteaks and cherries are my favorite and the most versatile in recipes. My atemoyas and sugar apples are ripening in the garden and my dogs are letting me know when to pick the guavas. When I was a child, I was in charge of making some kind of guava sweet that I had to stir in a giant copper pot, since I don't have that I made them in a double boiler and it came out so good! The stuff that they sell in stores doesn't even come close to it.:) And soon, I will have persimmons....plus it is time to plant squash, beans, cucumbers and plan for the cold weather veggies. Silvia

YouÂve got that right, CatNTree, it is confusing! YouÂre the first one that mentioned it looks like blight. I feel strongly we donÂt have any spider mites as IÂve checked foliage and cannot see any signs of pests. We amended the soil last year only when we created the bed adding Oma-Gro, a couple bags of sheep doo doo and some worm castings. Nothing this year because I felt it was rich enough soil. I did not fertilize when planting and have only used a foliar spray once which consisted of Neptune fish emulsion/seaweed kelp dissolved in water (per package directions) and sprayed onto the foliage. I think it was about an eighth cup emulsion to a gallon of water but would have to check to be sure. Goose Creek has no webbing. None of the plants do in fact I watered them by hand yesterday morning and kept thinking how odd that they look so healthy above the brown dead leaves and I think they may even look a bit improved except for the dead brown stuff because there is such strong green growth from the tops. They are really huge plants, most of them. I also noticed a lot more green balls than IÂd thought had already set on and was pretty happy about that especially since Carolyn told me with these high temps weÂve been having the fruit set doesnÂt happen. That was good info as I didnÂt know it. farkee  the truckload of Oma-Gro was for this bed only. It was my neighborÂs pickup truck and was a cheaper way of buying it than by the bag which can be expensive. We tilled the soil first as deeply as possible and then added the Oma-Gro to the top few inches and tilled it again. As for drainage I suppose that could be a consideration because this garden sits at the bottom of a hill in my back yard and we didnÂt think about sitting water there after a torrential rain. That hasnÂt happened often but it did for a few days early on because we got pelted. I still think it drains pretty well for its location and generally the soil even with the clay content is crumbly. Everywhere else weÂve planted things the drainage is quite good but I will check on that. We have started to get the dead foliage off and they sure look funny. I also noticed while watering that the stems (stalks?) all look very healthy with no discoloration or spotting so IÂm still stumped. At the risk of sounding like an idiot could this at all be due to not enough water? I mean, if it is not soaking in evenly throughout the bed would the plants look like this if they didn't get enough water?

Main event I'm thinking should be Saturday afternoon, from lunchtime onwards. Then people can do whatever they fancy the rest of the time. For those interested, there are other times to meet up for dinners (I think there's a restaurant in Marysville) or whatever. This is only a suggestion. Feel free to chime in. I do think however that it would be best Sat/Sun, rather than Fri/Sat. Some, the unfortunate ones, have to work. But your arrival/departure dates are up to you, as long as accommodation works. The other thing to work out is getting people from Melb airport to Marysville and back again.