Susan, I started doing square foot gardening in the mid-1990s and it works really well for some things and not as well for others that get really large in our climate. My spacing that I use now is sort of a hybrid of spacing from Square Foot Gardening and from John Jeavons' "How to Grow More Vegetables....." book, which has a complete title about as long as the distance between Marietta and OKC. I've just experimented with the spacing until I find out which one gives me the best yields. I think Square Foot Gardening would be great for you, but encourage you to think of it as Cubed Foot Gardening and grow as many plants upright on trellises, cages or arbors as you can and you'll get even higher yields per square foot. With smaller plants like lettuce, onions, carrots, etc., the standard Square Foot Gardening spacing works fine. With larger plants that turn into monsters in our climate, like Indeterminate tomatoes, squash, etc., I go more with John Jeavons' spacing or space my plants even further apart. With peppers, it generally varies, depending on whether a given variety gets 2' tall or 4' tall or taller. I have found most peppers give a really high yield even with close spacing, and so do many determinate tomatoes. I see Lunas most years in April, but not every single year. I usually don't see them in a bad fire year, but I'm not sure if that's because they aren't "here" or if I am just gone so much during a bad fire season that I miss seeing them when they are here. At our house, I almost always see them either on the ground in the area under the big security light that lights up the garage/parking area or hanging around outside the plant shelf window. When I see them at the fire station, it usually is early in the day and they're normally lying on the ground near the security light that illuminates the front of the station. I've never seen the larvae, but we have acres and acres of woods so they could be anywhere. We have tons of native pecans and hickories scattered all over our property (and on the surrounding acreage as well) so I guess that explains why we see them pretty regularly here. When I was a kid, they'd hang out on the front porch, usually on the screen door, when we were playing in the yard in the evening. It seems like we saw them a lot more often back then than we see them now. We have every kind of wildlife you can imagine here (as you well know) and most of it is a pleasure to have around. Seeing the lunas, because of their relative rarity, is a real thrill. Dawn

Burpee sells 3 types: Brandywine, Brandywine Red, and Brandywine Pink. ***** What???? Since Brandywine IS pink why would they sell something called Brandywine Pink? With all the negative comments about Burpee these days re Black Pearl and now their F1 Tie-Dye, which is stealing a name that Brad Gates named one of his varieties and e-mail letters back and forth with Burpee about that have been posted at another message site, well, you couldn't pay me enough money to order anything from Burpee, especially tomato seed. I didn't get a catalog this year, thank heavens, but are they still selling their hybrid Bucks County Red? They first listed it as F1 Red Brandywine, and then that name disappeared and all of sudden the name Bucks County Red appeared with no connection made with it being an F1 RB, then several years went by and they only then said it was the same F1 RB they started out with. Burpee is headquartered in Warminster, PA and that's in Bucks County PA, thus the "clever" name. Years ago when they first listed it I bought seeds for it as well as plants b/c it was the first time that a hybrid of a known heirloom variety had been available and quite frankly I was upset with that. I raised plants from their F1 seed, from my own stock of OP Red Brandywine and then compared the plants of the F1 they sent as well as the plants from my RB as well as the plants from the F1 seed. There was no darn difference at all. Triple Sigh. Carolyn, who notes that the Burpee of today is NOT the Burpee of old.

hoosier, I've only had the catalog THREE days and the Master's are back ordered? LOL! George, I hope you and others do indeed see what you get with them. My space is already full for next season. Plus, if they are derived from Beefmaster I am not a big fan. I grew Beefmaster years ago a few years and it was average to me and nothing special. Trudi, they claim they are hybrid. Two packs @ $1.75 each and 1 at $1.95. 30 seeds per. And they call it a modern STRAIN of classic Brandywine! And Bill is correct, the pics show RL foliage NOT PL like the description claims. I do agree with Dave that Burpee's Brandyboy is a winner but I have serious reservations on these "Masters"...:)

I have been busier lately and haven't had much time to post... been missing y'all.... Keep in mind that I got all my plants at different times and from different sources so timing of one plant vs another in my list doesn't mean much. CHERRIES Sungold - 7 feet tall, 2nd truss ripening now. Of course a great producer and my first ripe this year. Gold Nugget - just produced my first ripe Sunday. Loaded with fruit. May have more fruits than Sungold in a much smaller plant! Probably would have beat Sungold if they were seeded at the same time. Sun Cherry - For being the cousin of Sungold this plant is being suprisingly slow about producing, although it is competing in terms of plant size. It is taking its sweet time. Sweet Baby Girl - Similar to Sun Cherry - nowhere near ripe so far. Both seemed to have a harder time setting fruit in the cool weather. SunSugar - I wanted to compare to Sungold but I don't think my plant is a fair comparison this year - I think it may have gotten an overdose of growth inhibitor, or had some other major stress, because it's a dwarf plant, although it's not supposed to be. This result I assume to be an outlier so I will try next year, hopefully with my own seeds. SALADS Jaune Flamme - A slow starter, but now getting moderately loaded up with fruit Momotaro - my only plant with leaves that have a little problem - most look fine, I think it might have been environmental . Tomatoes are forming, but this plant is not producing heavily yet. I expected this one to be earlier. Anna Russian - this plant is performing generally poorly although it should have one of the best spots in the garden. Maybe it actually doesn't like such heat? It took forever to start setting fruits, although there are about 5 babies now. Stupice - Formed fruit early that's doing nothing as the plant has grown vigorously and continued to put on fruit. Moderate fruit production. The fruit is very small, almost cherry tomato size. I see how this could have been early, had I gotten it out early! SLICERS Cherokee Purple - the star of my garden this year. Loaded with fruit everywhere. Biggest plant. Happy, happy, happy. Pineapple - looked to be far behind CP although purchased same place/time and treated mostly the same. However, just as of this week, I see fruit all over the thing. Moderate production, nowhere near CP, but I am very happy. There will be ripe Pineapples, even if it does take till September. Big Rainbow - Good demo of why it's important to start early on these. This plant was way behind and there are 2 tomatoes set on it. May not get much off this one, or they may be green. Mortgage Lifter - also purchased too late. Plant looked great in nursery. Still looks great but I don't see one baby fruit yet. Kellogg's Breakfast - brought this plant practically back from the dead and started it way too late. It had a couple fruit when I got it that are doing fine. I see a handful of babies that have set since then. I find it ironic that it's doing better than Mortgage Lifter which was in so much better shape. Mountain Princess - I guess this is a slicer? My only other determinate besides Gold Nugget. Short, bushy plant which I clearly put in too small of a pot; it was the first to wilt when I missed watering the other day. LOADED with fruit. Hope it's yummy! Black Krim - LOADED! Doing great, in the east bed rather than south bed. Maybe Anna Russian would be happier there too. Jenn