14th Annual Bethel Garden Fair on Saturday, June 18, 2016 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. The Bethel Garden Fair is held at the Fairfield Country Extension Center. 67 Stony Hill Road in Bethel, CT 06801-3056 Free Admission. Our theme this year is Sustainable Solutions. We all want to be more “green” and help address many of the negative effects on nature. The year’s fair will focus on ways to reduce environmental harm, benefit wildlife, and use native plants. Plus, as more of us want to grow some of our own food, vegetable gardening will be a major topic as well. For those who want to buy local, the Bethel Farmer’s Market will open that day with us as well. There will be something for everyone: Informational booths (in process of being updated) Presentations (in process of being updated) Walks (in process of being updated) Plant Sale Demonstrations Free Admission. Sponsored by the University of Connecticut Fairfield County Master Gardener Program and the Connecticut Master Gardener Association. 14th Annual Bethel Garden Fair on Saturday, June 18, 2016 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. The Bethel Garden Fair is held at the Fairfield Country Extension Center. 67 Stony Hill Road in Bethel, CT 06801-3056 2016 Bethel Garden Fair Flyer

I don't know, it sounds like later in May is a problem for a lot of people, not to mention the parks. What about the weekend of May 10/11th or even the 3rd/4th? Then, if it's rainy, no fee issue with a pavilion, and either way we should have park space, whichever park we end up at. Just as an aside, the closer we can park to where we gather, the easier it is on all of us, I think, since we won't have to carry the plants as far, which can really add up when we make multiple trips with heavy containers. (I admit it, I'm a wimp about it- but in my defense I have two discs out in my neck.) BTW- I have about 10-2 year old regular sage plants, if anyone is looking for some. I tried planting them with my tomatoes but it didn't work out- the sage is overtaking the beds and has got to come out. I'll talk to Kathy and see if she can join us, too.

Jay, I agree with everything you said about gardening and doing "all the right stuff" and then, still, in the end having to acknowledge that Mother Nature is in control of the growing conditions much more than we are. I believe in studying and researching and trying new techniques too. Still, gardening has to be fun and enjoyable and sometimes I have to remind myself to enjoy the process and be happy enough with the results no matter what they are. One of the reasons that I have stayed away from tomato seed exchanges in the past is because I worried about seedborne diseases coming in with the seeds. Perhaps the Chlorox soak can prevent that. Once you get diseases in your soil, it is hard to correct that, and I find that very frustrating. I don't rotate either, and I ought to. However, I grow tomatoes in virtually every bed in my garden either in spring or fall, so that's impossible. Amending rock-hard, slow-draining red clay is so costly and so time-consuming that it would require a major effort to make another garden plot in another location and then rotate the tomatoes back and forth from one garden to the other. Some days when I look at Raybo's or Bingster's earthtainer garden photos, I tell myself that they are doing it the right way. Still, at heart I am just an old dirt gardener like my Daddy and my grandfather before me, and there is something about gardening exclusively in self-watering containers that seems un-natural or wrong to me. Maybe it is just that I like to feel the soil between my fingers and toes. With regard to Bonnie's Plants, you've heard what I've heard then. I do find it impossible to believe the disease is not originating in their greenhouses, though, or perhaps from some of their seed suppliers. It just seems like they are the "golden thread" that connects the diseased plants all over the affected portion of the country. I know I can alternately spray copper and Daconil on a 7-10 day schedule in my garden (because I used to do it in my pre-organic days) and suppress many diseases in my garden. I'm not saying they aren't there....but they are suppressed to the point that you almost don't see them. So, I suspect BP's rigorous spray schedule in their greenhouses may be suppressing the late blight so it is undetectable until the plants have left the greenhouse and have missed at least one spraying, since stores do not spray. And, I am not saying they know the late blight is being carried by their plants and are covering that up or denying it, but rather that their practices work and what happens after the plants leave them is beyond their control. It would be a terrible tragedy and a huge disservice to BP for them to be blamed if they are not at fault. And I am very skeptical you can keep late blight from spreading once it is present. I guess we'll know because JohnCT and others certainly will say so if it spreads even after they've removed the infected plants. I suspect it perhaps spreads and is on other plants (though not yet visible) by the time they see symptoms on the first plant. I hope I am wrong--and it is just a gut feeling. There has not been as much discussion of the late blight as I'd expected on the Tomato Forum, but then maybe the poor northeastern gardeners cannot even get out of their houses and out to the gardens to look at their plants since it just won't stop raining there. They are having an awful year and I feel for them. I enjoy all your posts.....long, short and in-between, so keep it up! : ) Larry, You shouldn't encourage me to write "more"! (smile) I feel like I'm always too wordy and too detailed as it is. Dawn

I think I've got it on the border of Hartford/Litchfield counties. The Glacier tomatoes are about finished anyway, will pull them this weekend, but I see stem lesions on the Bloody Butchers next to them. Do the spots scrape off with a fingernail, or do they go deeper into the tissue? Not seeing sporulation. Might not be LB since I can scrape the discoloration off pretty easily, but the garden is looking pretty bad after 2" of rain on Sat and a couple of nights below 45. The only plants really hanging in there are the Sudduth BWs, and since there aren't that many left of any size, harvest will pretty much be over next week. BKs are about done for (lots of dying leaves though no stem lesions), Speckled Romans are falling off the plants (though plants don't look too bad, these are supposed to be Ind. but I wonder since there don't seem to be any new fruit forming), cherry tom stems look really bad (exactly like the picture on usablight website) and aren't scraping off as easily so I'll probably be pulling everything but BB this weekend. My second planting in another area is looking good, but I really should have suckered and strung them up (vertical string) better, lots of green tomatoes of all varieties, again maybe no time for BWs to ripen but might get some Bloody Butchers and Black Krims over the next month if the weather cooperates. And the few potato plants still alive look great! Been awful lately for fungal diseases though - I pulled almost all my pumpkins last weekend b/c of downy mildew (the cukes went long ago), the zukes are on their last legs so will be pulling those as well this w/e, but my second planting of yellow straightneck and my gourds are getting it, I don't even know if I'll get anything off of them. Time to just pull all the annuals I guess and start putting the perennials (berries) to bed for the winter...