Jane: Though I find myself very rarely questioning the advice of Rhizo1 or Dave, I'd go about it differently here in SoCal. First, I'd bite the bullet and go buy a bag or two of Kellogg's N'rich and work that into the soil now along with a mix of organic meals cottonseed or feather for N, bone for P, and kelp for K and other micronutes. I buy mine in bulk but I think Home Depot has a bag that has them all made by Vigoro. In about a month or so, you could start planting things like the brassicas you mentioned, as seedlings. You could probably find some transplants at Armstrong's et al and Home Depot/Lowe's will have common starts like Kale and Broccoli and even spinach starts. If you have light set up for seedlings, you could start them right now, and start hardening them off in 3-4 weeks -- in the ground by mid to late January. Snow peas could be direct sown by the end of December. The veggies you mentioned -- I've grown all but beets. And here's what I've noticed as far as pests/diseases. Occasional cabbage aphids on brassicas, but pretty easy to control with water, soap, or neem oil. The cabbage loopers are pretty much gone by now, but they'll be back next summer. Again, pretty easy to control with BT K. Slugs, choose your method. That's about it for the brassicas. PM or mites -- they're just not susceptible. For lettuces-- I never see anything on them, except last year when I tried to grow some in the summer and whitefly nailed 'em Carrots and radishes -- once again, I never see anything on them. Snow Peas -- mites? Really? I nver see anything on them either, but as Spring progresses, PM is an issue. The best way to deal with that is to treat proactively -- i.e., start treating with a fungicide early on and stay diligent. You can't wait to see the symptoms or it's too late. Spinach, once again, nothing but slugs and maybe earwigs. In all cases, I put 2 toothpicks right up next to the stalk of all my seedlings just so any cutworms don't come by and snip them at the soil line. A note on the brassicas -- SoCal is now home to the Bagrada Bug. So, do some research for pics, monitor, and you should be fine. I saw some on my kale this past summer, squished them for 3 weeks or so and haven't seen them since. And I have all sorts of brassicas planted this fall. Dave: Solarization is a great idea, but I have found it's not very effective during any season but Summer. JMO. Kevin This post was edited by woohooman on Fri, Dec 5, 14 at 16:23

I regret that I didn't pick up this really mature sized Rhino Hide with a thinner centre section that I saw early in the season because they went fast. If they have them again next spring I'll snap one up.

I am SO glad...the backsplash is the one decision we didn't consult with our designer on, as we couldn't afford it until we paid off some of our other kitchen expenses. I couldn't justify taking a loan as I've never done that...everything in our kitchen we've pretty much tried to pay off right away. That's how we've always been. Thank you so much for the wonderful comments, and I will post pics once are cabinets are up so you can all admire them along with us!!! I am so relieved, was starting to worry that I made a big goof, and am excited that you are all on this ride with hubby and I. I think this will be the last of my backsplash posts...because my wonderful MATTEAnn Sacks Heath ceramic tile will be coming in the mail in a few weeks!!!

Triple, ever since the first day I ever planted anything (a rose...and about 200 years ago), I've been obsessive about my plants. So if something ate anything, I would know. I recall an ongoing battle between me and one squirrel that to this day, I did not find a way to kill, LOL. (Another "bug" if you ask me.) Out of hundreds of tomatoes, we actually ate about 20 total thanks to that demon. Speaking of demons, I have one resident squirrel here. He is eyeing my bushes and I am eyeing him. I'm older since that last battle and have less patience--let's just leave it at that for now. LOL But on GW/Houzz, I've seen so many people post about hornworms and I shudder each time I see one, praising sweet baby Jesus that I never, ever had one. Until this year. It just obliterated big stems of all the leaves and growth. I feel like I am down to about half the potential tomatoes I had--and this poor thing is a determinate plant so it's not like I can wait for the next round. Very strange, too, because I have 7 total tomato plants here and only this one, which was technically the most robust one, is the one that got hornworms. It is, of course, the only one where I have one plant of this variety, too. Ain't life grand? :) (Meanwhile, it was two tomato hornworms that came back to triple's backyard six times each...Haha.)