I've copied and pasted your comments and questions. I agree, it was a different year and I am just now realizing that I should have watered more. Peas: excellent because they were 'done' before the rainless summer hit. -Agreed. Had a great crop. Summer Squash, Zucchini, cukes and scallop squash: Shocked at these. Every year I plant crookneck and early prolific straightneck, and every year I have literally 10-20lb harvest about twice a week for about a month. This year, however, I couldn't even keep the plants from dying! Four (4) rounds of plantings (~ 4-5 hills each round) just up and DIED. I got ZERO (0) fruits. Cukes I planted 2 rounds- dead. - I thought I did a lot better job keeping up the bug battle. Plants started off great UNDER a fabric covered low tunnel so the striped cucumber beetles didn't get them. I scraped eggs into soapy water, etc. But I didn't get nearly as much squash as usual. In comparing notes with a gardener in western MA and one near Montpelier VT, they watered a lot more than I did. In fact, I think I stopped watering the zukes once they started producing. Big mistake. Tomatoes: the usual: great until August, then blight. Funny thing was, cherry toms were unaffected. Just the bigger varieties got hit. - I think I got bacteria speck not blight. Two beds are just about leafless and it seemed to travel west to east. A third bed in a different location with mostly cherry tomatoes doesn't look nearly as bad. I'm not sure how to handle this next year. Corn: stalks no higher than ~4 feet, and dried out or under-developed cobs. - We just buy ours at the farmstand. Green beans: Did "ok" but not as well as I'd have liked. - I think I kept watering the beans more. Crops are fine but don't seem to taste as good as last year. Tried a yellow filet that was tasteless. I think the green filet was taverna. I have a new crop of romano just starting to produce now. Another crop of bush beans in flower right now. Will probably need frost protection in another week. We get hit early but if I can keep them going (fabric tunnel) I'll get a late crop. I think the beans accidentally got more water because near them I was starting new seeds of something so they got watered too. Spinach: what was up with THIS one?! Again, nothing to show for what is typically a very successful crop. What little actually showed up didn't even grow big enough to take one cutting before bolting. - I got braggy about my spinach. Put in a late crop last year Tyee and let it winter over. I think we picked spinach in March. I have a late crop growing now but it should be getting watered more. I have to get spinach planted in early April to get a good crop. See manure info. Beets, Cauli and Cabbage: Cabbage actually showed up long about a week ago, but Beets & Cauli were foliage only. - Don't grow cauli. Cabbage is a napa variety in a location that doesn't get full sun. Mostly neglected. Not great but not bad for the amount of neglect. Beets I work hard at but I noticed last night that I'm running out of red beets. Sure, I didn't plant as many but this time last year they spring crop was huge (but not woody). Again, I don't think I watered enough. I have a later crop of gold beets that got special care because they never seem to do well for me but we think they are sweeter. Onions did ok- I do have decent success with onions. And the potatoes were new to me this year, and did "ok." - I only planted a few red onions and they look pretty good. I'm still working on onion growing skills. I have them among my pepper plants. It's a fantastic year for peppers. I rotate everything every year in a 25 x 50' space. So the same crop doesn't hit the same spot only every 4 years. I usually cover w/black plastic- didn't this year, but haven't had THIS bad of failure ever. I don't fertilize other than tossing on a fresh pile of compost and roto-tilling it in both in the fall & spring. I build raised beds every year. Anyone have any tips other than "it was just too damned hot all summer?" Cuz I'm willing to chalk it all up to that :) - I use the lasagna bed system starting off with layers of wet newspaper and alternating leaves, fresh grass clippings, wood ashes, kitchen scraps etc. The top layer is composted horse manure that I originally located via craigslist. The guy adds kitchen scraps to the pile and mixes it with his tractor It's really nice and we just pay him something like $15 to load our utility trailer. The year I planted spinach before adding the spring composted manure, the spinach looked pretty good ... but another patch planted a few weeks later after the manure application was much bigger. I use steer manure when I have to because it's free but I don't think it is nearly as good. The only composted manure I've seen that I liked better than the horse manure is composted buffalo manure from the place in warner nh. It was black and gorgeous. I'm also a fan of fish fertilizer. All transplants get doused with it. I will also fertilize again about 2 weeks later and any time something doesn't look like it's thriving. Every soil and location is different. In parts of our yard, the water table is quite high. There's a seasonal stream and across from that it can be marshy much of the year. My husband was able to mow in July instead of waiting until August because it was that dry this year. I only watered on weekends and sometimes in between if things weren't looking good. There are plenty of places that right now are like powder. A perennial bed near the stream area isn't too bad, more like normal soil but this is a spot that in the spring will be too wet to work on. The lawn will be sodden. I also grow garlic so I was carefully to keep that watered. I add an organic fertilizer before planting because it's also a heavy feeder. I noticed some of the bulbs at the ends of the row were much smaller so I probably wasn't careful with the fertilizer and water. I don't have raised beds per se (when first built, a lasagna bed is about 18" high but compacts by half the first winter) but I plant in beds. Between the beds are mostly grass paths wide enough for the riding lawn mower. But I also have some narrow alternating pathways that I layer with newspapers covered with grass clippings to keep the weeds down. Next year, that composted material might get shoveled onto the bed or become a bed. Keep in mind, the lawn area can suck up moisture. The bed closest to a mature maple although not close to the canopy area shows a big different in growth. At the end farthest from the tree, the romano beans are at least 18-24" tall but nearest the tree, maybe 12-18". I think the tree is getting the moisture. Sometimes I edge a row with newspapers and grass clippings but I usually don't have enough time. I'm not a fan of black plastic during the growing season. I have a good hand weeder and I seem to like to weed. If you plant close enough like Square Foot Gardening, once plants get big enough, they seem to do a good job shading out the weeds. The photo makes your garden look distant from the house which is what ours is. This year my husband built a high tunnel and to get water to it, dug a trench and put in a yard hydrant. Having a hose faucet closer to the garden has made watering easier. But I still should have done it more often.

I also have raised beds in Connecticut and have a couple of them (4 x 12 ft) covered with low tunnels, 4' high, made from 1/2" PVC pipe. I've used them for many years but only as season extenders. I was never able to get any crops to reliably grow during Jan and Feb because of the single plastic cover and no heat. I found that spinach is one of the hardiest crops to winter over if it is about 2 or 3 inches tall in November, but it didn't actually grow much until early March, then it took off like a rocket. I also used the tunnels to start seeds in early March of cold-tolerant vegetables. There was no provision for automatic venting on sunny days and that caused big temperature swings by the time April rolled around. Very heavy wet snows also caused structural problems since the PVC was only half inch. I had a coldframe for a few years with an automatic vent and that actually worked better because it was lower and had less heat loss, but it was not large enough. Last fall I build a large hoop house over two of the raised beds; it is 12' long and 10' wide and about 7' tall and is made from 1" PVC and 6-mil single-ply construction plastic. No heat. It has survived some heavy snow loads without any bending or distortion. I didn't have time to plant anything in it last fall because it wasn't finished until December but I planted lots of cold-tolerant seeds in early February. They were covered with Remay to get the extra protection that Coleman suggests. A min/max thermometer showed the temperature got into the low twenties at night. This week I expect the night temps to stay above freezing. The seeds I planted in early Feb are doing well but the ones I started indoors in late Feb and put in the hoophouse 2 weeks ago are doing just as well or better. I intend to remove the plastic in summer and replace it in November so I don't cook the plants. Temperature control is tough without fans and I really don't want to get involved with electric heat and ventilation (I might change my mind some day). I just built an automatic window this week and installed it yeasterday; it is 30" by 36" with a univent opener. I really needed it because the air temp might be freezing when I leave for work and get really sunny and warm by lunch time. I am working on the second one this week. This is a challenge with a PVC hoophouse because of the difficulties involved in making a window on a curved surface. This summer I am going to dig around the raised beds and put foam board vertically around them as far down as I can dig (about 18" in my stony soil). This should keep it warmer in the winter. I will also put low tunnels inside but I only need thin plastic covering because it won't have snow on it. But they will have to be well sealed especially at the edges of the hoophose where it is coldest. Maybe I'll give in and put a small electric heater in the low tunnel but I will use it to keep it from freezing rather than try to grow things like tomatoes. Then I will be ready to try real 4 season growing; I recommend the book because of the interesting ideas in it and will be looking at this forum for best crops to grow. I'll let you know how It turns out. Bob B.

I have a feeling that a lot of people, like me, have read through this thread with a certain amount of anxiety and have felt that after all that has been said about advertising, that they don't have anything to contribute. The anxiety comes from concern about the performance of their own markets. Lushoasis, you have described an inner city market and you should know that many markets in these locations couldn't have even started without the WIC and Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Programs. You have a group of goodhearted people as administrators. They should be looking to these nutrition programs or similar ones to "ratchet up" the sales of fresh produce. The market where I sell is in an urban center. A good 20% of the sales are to low-income folks who have vouchers. A lot of our "better heeled" customers seem to really appreciate that these elderly folks and the moms with the strollers are down there to buy the healthful food. If anything, it seems to encourage everyone to attend. Advertising is okay but the best and cheapest is word-of-mouth. Getting a good base of customers in and having them find good quality produce is what leads to success. Good luck, Digit

Hi all -- Diane -- Hope you are being dramatic with language, "If I survive..." Prayers to you that you get well soon. I grow French Lace, and I can say with certainty that this rose seedling is not French Lace, thought it could be a parent - who knows? It's not a seedling I directed. Kristine -- you are making me want peaches peaches peaches. For our faculty retreat, we had an "iron chef" competition. Four professors as head master chefs, and all the faculty divided into four teams. Then each team under the iron chef made 3 dishes, plus beverages. We all ate amazing food. Afterwards, everyone was so exhausted, no one stayed for the film. I am going to bed now. Good time, but hard work. I mention this because one of the iron chef desserts included peach slices, some kind of chocolate ganache in the middle of the plate, and then somethign else on the side. When I got my little plate I had no fork, so just dipped a peach in the chocolate and was VERY HAPPY. No more from me for a while -- very busy week. Worried about my Dad. He may be having "issues" now. Wish he lived closer. Hope all of you are doing well and your gardens are thriving. :-)