The two "gut" keys for me are (1) Size: Tigers big, Blacks small. The largest Blacks will be only as large as the smallest Tigers. (2) Yellow spots. Blacks have double rows of yellow spots on the forewing, double rows of yellow spots on the body, yellow spots on the hindwing ... Exhibit A: Papilio polyxenes f If you're lucky to see the light through the wings, a third key is that female Tigers are really dark brown, not black. What's hard for me is sexing Black Swallowtails when they are ambiguous. I believe this one is male because of the solid row of yellow spots inside the blue, but he might be best called "metrosexual."

Soil is really warm down there - even under the mulch hay where I had the potatoes it's about 56. The rows where I wanted to plant the edamame (actually more like trenches - where the tomatoes drowned in 2011), with just weed cover is 70! But I noticed that areas that are normally soggy with poor drainage aren't now. Not that they're dry, the weeds seem to be doing OK in the trenches, but the flatter area across the road from there where the manure pile is isn't squishing as I walk on it. And the deep pit at the end of the trellised trenches I filled with chicken manure and sawdust, where I had all the volunteer tomatoes last year b/c it's glacial till underneath and doesn't drain (I never had to water those volunteers last summer) has only a couple small weeds growing in it. We've had just over an inch of rain this month (TWC says we had 1.5" last month but Dad didn't mention any the night before we got back from vacation so I'm not sure about that day). We got just 1/100" yesterday (supposedly - my rain gauge broke and I haven't replaced it). We're expecting more next week, but of course it's too far away to tell how much - just a 20-30% chance early in the week and supposedly more later. But it worries me that we're getting 1-1.5" when we should be getting 4.5" a month this time of year - it's been below normal for almost a year now, we didn't even get as much snow as normal. Reservoirs and ponds are still looking OK, but our springs aren't running like they normally do - the one that feeds our pond isn't making it all the way there any more, and the one that runs along our driveway (we had to put in a culvert when we built) disappeared a month ago. The only thing that's keeping things green is the snow melt and that won't last much longer. I'm wondering if I should scale back (though I've spent money on supplies, incl. lumber for hoophouse) this year, just sell my plants and keep a small garden near the house for us. I haven't sent in my fee for market yet. I just don't want to spend $200 for market, $50 for insurance certificate, and bust my butt (and run the well dry) all summer hauling water out back to keep the beans, edamame, 100+ tomatoes and 50 peppers watered and then find (like I did with peppers and onions last year) that it wasn't enough and I don't harvest (m)any. This post was edited by ajsmama on Thu, May 16, 13 at 13:17

Dang, I wish I could go, but we have other plans. I took a course from one of the speakers, Gary Koller, last fall and he's really great. I never knew daylilies were edible!

Played a little. Will go back when I have more time. Thanks, Karen.