It's too bad you don't live in the Midwest! Or maybe it is better that you don't! lol! I'd clear out all your stuff.

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.

Heard things? Yes. Mostly, I've heard questions. There is a similar thread going right now over on chowhound.com where somebody is trying to track down one of the rumored Samsung slide-in ranges with the flex-duo oven. Consumer Reports published a brief note about planning to test a flex-duo oven (on the radiant in the picture you linked to above. About the only a first hand review that I've found is the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Samsung slide in with flex-duo review

I have sumac Low Grow, and it is doing very well in part Sun which surprises me. It is not particularly low maintenance because of the taller deciduous trees above it. The fallen leaves smother the sumac in the fall and come spring those leaves are a great, sodden, heavy mess. This is a steep hill and raking even a little is not easy. OTOH, it is a good spreader and fall color, even in part sun is excellent. I have large patches of ground cover geraniums, macrrorizum Spessart and the magenta species which are steady growers and need little water and very dense after a few years.