Hi All, this year I had two potato patches. One at home that the soil test results said nothing needed, and a borrowed neighbors field that had been fallow since 1965. The field lays wet every year until about the end of May till it dries down. The soil test came back deficient in everything except manganese. The field received 10-10-10 and gypsum. The home patch got trenched while the field only got shallow tilled and taters planted just into the top three inches of dirt. I spent one hundred twenty bucks just on 'spoiled' hay from a farmer to hill the field taters. I learned a lot from these two different methods. Most taters in the field drowned from to much rain. The survivors made it all worth the effort. Red Pontiac withstood the rain the best, most all the different whites perished. On average the taters hilled with hay per plant gave much larger and outnumbered the taters hilled at home with dirt. At least two to one. On average the home taters came in at five lbs. per plant versus ten lbs per plant with hay. The plan for next year is for the home garden is to trench and plant the taters with dirt. Once started for the first hilling I will use hay with a light coating of soil. Then the second hilling with hay again and another light coating of soil. The soil removed to make the trenches should give me about one foot and a half for hill purposes. The expense for hay was due to poor planning. This year there is much spoiled hay due to the rain. So I called several farmers looking for free hay. I hit the jackpot with one farmer who gave me over two hundred bales. Just I had to load and pickup. For the field I am tilling several new rows and each row is getting the bales lined up intact to rot in place for next year. Hopefully next year I can spread the rotted hay down the middle to plant and move it back in for hilling. This is my plan for next year. I will see how well that works and let everybody know. Best regards to all.

The only plant genre I can think of with more creative names than roses is the daylily world, and there are tons with science fiction names. The clearest series to come to mind is the "Spacecoast" series, such as Spacecoast Jedi Knight. Most of the colors look decidedly alien as well. As for roses, there is a Space Invader listed by Carruth on HMF, but no US vendors. Armstrong and several others have the mini Space Odyssey. There is a Vulcan rose, but it's not available in the US. Over a dozen roses use the word "Fantasy", many of whom are available in the US, including a pink Fantasy (Jackson & Perkins) and a red Flame of Fantasy available several places. Sounds like a fun plan! Cynthia

There is nothing wrong with your idea. There will though as with any project be things that come up that will need attention such as I see a possible headache for you if a tenant decides to take back a plot that another is using our community garden does 10 x 10 foot plots and you may consider doing the same. Also you will need a couple compost bins and our garden and my home one is made of simple pallets. Will you provide a shed for tools? Will you have a hose for dry spells? Look for rules for a community garden and consider having a contract for use of your plots as neglected plots can become an eye sore that you will end up having to care for yourself. I am not trying to discourage you as it would be wonderful for you to allow gardening and it would only improve your land. You will also want to consider if you want to allow perennials as some are quite aggressive and will take over, run out of control and even can kill other plants. Mint is one that I would not plant again myself. If your not sure you may require special permission or avoid them all together.

Lisa, You are in a fortunate area--gardens GROW where you are! As a rule of thumb, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, are put into your garden as transplants, either started indoors or purchased from a nursery. Anything deep rooted (carrots, squash, corn) or cool season, quick growing plants (lettuce, spinach, radishes, beans) are seeded directly into the garden soil. Contact your county extension agent for a list of varieties that do well in your area, and start planning your garden lay-out now. It's fun! I just got The Southern Kitchen Garden by Adams and LeRoy. I read it cover to cover, and found a wealth of information in it. It gives planting dates, advice, suggestions for varieties--in short, all the info we gardeners need in one spot. You might find it valuable, too.