Well, now I'm questioning my supposition, Reefisher. Usually, powdery mildew is a late season problem in my garden. Many plants get it but squash & melons seem to be the most susceptible. The peas from an April planting are long gone by late Summer/early Autumn but the vines have some mildew by the time they are pulled in July. Planting Oregon SugarPod in August doesn't really allow for pod development here - therefore, we are just growing them for the tendrils. They don't get tall enuf before frosts begin (usually after mid-September) to even require a trellis. Older bean plants also get mildew but the ground for early peas usually provides a home for a July planting of green beans. Seems to work without much trouble altho' if I run very late into the month - frost may kill the beans before I get a crop. If your March crop got mildew in May, I think you've just found that this variety prefers Autumn growing conditions. Maybe, we can "tear a page from your garden notebook" and plant Ho Lan Dow late. I don't see a "VPs003" behind the name but Stokes sells Ho Lan Dow - which means I don't really have an excuse for not giving 'em a try over all these years of pea-pickin'. I've got to say that your temps in December look to be warmer than ours were in late September but . . . you never can tell. Steve

CMK, that is interesting about eggplant liking pots. I started planting a salad garden in pots and window boxes on my back deck a few years ago. I didn't really think about eggplant though. I'll have to try it this year. I find that leaf lettuce does very well in window boxes. I also grow baby cukes in pots and let them trail down the deck railings. I've also done peppers and tomatoes in pots. I mix in a few small pots of nicotiana (not near the tomatoes...does that really cause problems?? i've heard they should not be combined) so the hummingbirds come to feed. Woodyoak, how deep are the windowboxes you use to grow carrots? And which carrots do you choose to grow in them? I've been seeing more pictures of large pots in amongst plants in the garden and I think I may try to experiment more with that. Does anyone have pictures of pots fully incorporated into their perennial/shrub borders as a focal point? Also, does everyone in wintry climates bring their pots inside in the winter? Has anyone found a type of pot that does not crack with the freeze/thaw cycles of winter?

My favorite thing to do in my garden (besides garden!) is to sit in my aidirondack chair under an awning and look at my garden (very small but cottagey backyard garden that I proudly created from scratch!). My 4 year old son loves to run around and pretend each little section of the garden is a different animal habitat (the shady area with raspberries and climbing hydrangea is the "jungle", the wisteria is the "rainforest canopy", the blue spruce is the "coniferous forest" and so on...) This absolutely delights me because I want my son to appreciate nature (instead of watching TV or playing video games). I'm so proud that he notices when a particular flower is opening or when he sees a plant from our garden in someone's else's garden and says, "Mommy, we have that plant in our garden." He even knows the names of some of the plants. I like having someone to share my love of nature with. We also have birds nesting in our birdhouse, in a notch in the wisteria right above my son's sandbox, and last year, a bird tried to nest in our mailbox! All this in the very small space of about 1/4 of an acre! Jill

I just had a possibly awesome idea: what if I plant snow peas like a cover crop for my plot in the late fall, and then cut them to the ground for the tasty shoots, then let them grow back (the second growth is too tough to eat as sprouts) to serve as a cover crop? In order to judge whether or not this will work I need to know 1) will they survive being cut in cool weather and 2) do they really work well at fixing nitrogen for the soil and protecting from nutrient loss? Maybe I'd better ask the folks on the soil forum about this.