Hello Rock Oak and Ianna, I wish everyone was just nice and left everyone else alone unless they were really doing harm. Unfortunately, in my opinion, humans, for whatever reason, although they can be kind, they also can be predatory and cruel, among other nasty traits. I love gardening for so many reasons, not the least is that plants offer me back more than I give them with my tender loving care. In a way, I understand why you both may be thinking that complaining about selectively applied laws is like complaining about the weather... it just happens. From my perspective I don't see this thread as complaining about it but rather about helping me become more aware that this happens all the time, so that maybe I or my family or my friends or my neighbors won't be caught out in a lightning storm as this poor women has been who they decided to pick on with the initial excuse that she was growing a front yard vegetable garden. What happeded to this women could happen to you or your adult children in a much worse fashion. I read about a lady who had her life time home taken from her becasue she owed almost ten thousand dollars in back taxes. She was unemployed. There were over two hundrd and fifty properties in town with the same issue that were not bothered about the back taxes. The feeling is that whe the property was sold or when the person died hey would get their money. What person wants to put another person out on th estreet for society to take care of. But the town officals, at that time, didn't like her. So they took her house and sold it, making her homeless. Plus they took away her only source of income since it was a three family home. The sale paid off the ten thousand dollar tax issue but it also brought the town over eighty thousand dollars in profit. They did not give the poverty stricten woman her eighty thousand dollars, the town kept it. That is morally wrong if not legally wrong. That was really bad weather. But I think human nature can sometimes be controlling to feed the egos of those in power and they will push people around to show who is boss. And yet those in power say they are "public servants". There is a saying, I forget who said it but it goes like this, " bad things happen when good people do nothing" Well I am not very powerful, or connected but at least I can particpate in a discussion that talks about this type of political weather power. I think most people think it won't happen to them or a member of their family. But when it does, they suddenly become an activist about this type of weather. I guess I want my community to be preppers against this type of political weather than seems to just happen. Well tornados just happen and hurricanes just happen, and Nor'easters just happen. Isn't it nice to be aware that that weather can just happen and be prepared for it so one doen't lose what they worked so hard for all their lives or even worse their life or the life of a loved one. Political weather just happens, in my opinion, when good people just gossip about it as entertainment releived that its not happening to them. My personal opinion is that if we all talked about it, then maybe it won't happen as much, becasue it is unconsititional and it does not support the American fundamental legal and moral philosophy of freedom. Sadly, where ever we go in America, our lost of freedom is in our face. When I read about local law officials harassing someone for collecting their own rainwater off their roofs to water their gardens, that makes me understand how vulnerable we all are, especially when an offical will say" well its on the books but we don't enforce it". This is hard to face. Who wants to talk about political weather when we could be laughing and exchanging war stories about what we are going to be doing with all our zuccini. The reality is, soon, if we all don't pay attention to these selective laws, and what personalities have been put in power to decide who these laws are goin gto apply to and who they won't, few of us will have gardens to share zuccini war stores with. The farmers are hurting but since the farmers feed us, if they loose , we loose. It is my opinion that we all need to be at least more aware of this. I just don't see this as complaining. I see this as helping us all pay attention more to what is going on around this country that will soon affect all of us if we all don't start talking about it on a grass root level. My aplogizes in advance if I offended anyone with this post. Deanna, I guess we were actually talking about the same thing. I just misinterpreted your point. I wholly agree with you. Blake

Brian, Awesome job ~ thanks for showing your beautiful & productive garden space. The summer season is over, but in our climate we can garden into the fall if you desire. If you're done gardening until spring cover crops should be enough to renew the soil. Since I keep part of it productive I just add compost to spots after harvesting & any beds finished up get topped off with a combination of what I have available. Usually homemade compost, partially composted manure + bedding, and grass clippings mixed with shredded leaves as it comes out of the mower catcher. Our rains keep it from blowing around. I noticed kale in your pics. Kale sweetens after frost, so you might like to keep some in the garden all winter. Pick outer leaves instead of cut & come again technique. It will flower in spring & self-sow if you let it. I've not sown it in years because I let it self sow & it transplants readily. I don't keep all the beds productive year round, but it's sure handy to have the vegetables out there. -Chard & parsley keep as well bouncing back after cold snaps. -Root vegetables can be kept in the garden until desired if you can protect from freezing, rodents, & excess wetness. -Onions & garlic can be planted now for harvest next spring & summer. If you already have leek it will stand for you until you want to pick. -Then there are lettuces & greens you can keep picking especially with protection... -Celery is good for soups & stews. I use a few different found items as cloches over individual plants to provide some winter protection later on. In severe weather I'll throw some row covers on. It would be even better if we had plastic hoop cloches over them. Here is a link that might be useful: Fall & Winter Vegetable Planting Guide

? ? ? ? ? I did not see any plant on the chart that bears 'all season' and don't see how I implied it in my post. The one that bears the longest on the entire chart is squash and it only bears for 3 months in her area according to the chart. What the chart does help with is figuring out what to plant and when so you can have a variety of things in your garden at all times. Even the chart isn't the answer to everything under the sun. As an example, my local ag. office says we can plant bush beans here from May 1 - Aug 15 in 2 week succession plantings with harvesting June 21 - Oct 15 (and even plant as early as April 1 using row covers). But if you look at the zone 7 chart (my area), it only shows planting May 15 - July 15 and harvesting July 1 - September 1. BUT, the chart is certainly better than nothing and I think the chart is a good start to figuring out what & when. Especially for a beginner like me who had no idea that broccoli should not be grown in the heat of July in my area. I am growing for immediate consumption, not for storing, so I also did not want gallons of bags of beans (or squash or tomatoes or whatever) ready at one time. I wanted a little bit of a bunch of different things ready each week. I did not want to have beans for dinner *every* night !! One thing I had to figure out was what was the recommended number of plants for 2 people to be able to consume the harvest. Also what plants are a once and done plant and what plants would be able to be harvested over a long period from one plant. For example, squash are harvested for a long period from one plant, but bush beans are for approx 2 weeks. Carrots, obviously, once you pull the carrot out, that plant is done ... no more producing carrots from that plant, LOL. So ... 1 or 2 squash plants might be enough for 2 people for the whole time squash produces. But 20-80 carrot plants (depending on how much you like carrots) split up into succession planting of 4-10 carrots every week from Feb 1 - Mar 1 would give you 4-10 carrots ready every week once they start producing, rather than 20-80 carrots all ready at one time. I also think 40sf is a good size. Our garden is 36sf (11 feet of that is trellised) and I have open squares that I am not using right now. But as soon as I am able to plant fall crops, I will have room to start them early without pulling a summer plant. Then as the summer plants are done I can start pulling them and planting more fall crops in those newly emptied squares to extend the harvest. The one thing I would like is a little more trellis for my summer plants (or I need to cut back on my tomatoes some!!). I would like to have some honeydew on the trellis and more cantaloupe, and maybe have moved my watermelon to the trellis(?). As it is now, my trellis is divided as follows ... each square is 1 plant per square except the cucumber ... 6 squares tomato (2 each of 3 kinds), 2 squares cantaloupe, 2 squares squash, 1 square cucumber (2 plants in 1 square). However, in the fall, the only thing I have planned that will be trellised is peas. I doubt I need 11 squares of peas !!! That being said, this is my first ever garden and I am very excited about it so far. I have read a lot on the internet, but I am not an expert ... I haven't even eaten my first veggie yet !!

Nicole, Raddishes are a must. They come up in only 1 week. Plant a short row every week and you will have some throughout the season. When the first short row is done you can replant that row. When I use to garden, I only did small amounts of each variety. I bought seed pkts and used the same pkts for several years. They were stored in the house, so they didn't freeze. For green beans I highly-recomend planting pole beans. Buy a 2"X2" by 8 foot pole to let them climb on. Have DH pound it into the ground about 2 1/2 to 3 feet. Before putting it into the ground, have the kids pound medium nails into one side about every 8 to 10 inches. This keeps the beans from slipping down the pole. When it is in the ground, you can plant 4 - 5 beans around the pole about 4" from the pole. This way your beans take very little space. I like Kentucky Wonder pole beans, and you will get enough for your whole family to enjoy those yummy fresh picked beans till frost. When choosing tomatoe plants look at the tags and choose the smaller size tomatoes because they will be ready to pick sooner. I really prefer cherry tomatoes. Be sure you put some flowers in there too. Marigolds around the outside MIGHT keep out rabbits and they are a pretty border. Mark each place with the name of the seed planted so the kids can learn to recognize the right plants from the weeds. Don't forget to weed, if you don't let them get out of control you will really enjoy the garden. Have fun and I hope we get to see pictures.