didirt, I do mulch with newspaper and grass clippings or hay I just never got to the peas and lettuce. I will hanlde that problem when I replant them for a late crop. I keep records from year to year and this year's garden is about 10-14 days later than any of my previous gardens. It's OK as along as the weather holds and the frost holds off until late October. Since the October full moon isn't until the 26th, I might be in luck.

I have not bought plants in garden centres recently since I started growing almost everything from seed, but I do not remember ever seeing tomatoes or peppers in flats. I remember flats being reserved for annuals. For a good source of nursery stock and good variety try Ritchie Feed & Seed. Even the Carp Road nursery which is the smaller one has a good selection. WalMart has in recent years had a good selection of herbs and vegetables grown by Bonnie and resonably priced.

My garden at first always seemed to get in gear in summer and peak in fall, just like the wildflowers on my farm. Too long to wait! So for the last 3 years I put a lot of effort into putting more things in for spring. I'd really like to collect more fruit from the wild crabapples and get more of those going (although they don't bloom until May), and I'm looking forward to seeing the crabapples bloom that I got from the National Arbor Day, if the deer will allow them to grow up. That's a big if. I'm always envious of the crabapples I see when driving down the road. This year I'm trying to grow more of some of the little native beauties like Claytonia and Isopyrum. I'm trying those from seed this year, as well as Virginia bluebells. I love the look of Isopyrum leaves. I also want to get some Hepatica, especially the purple. Cameron your gardenia is already budding? I have a gardenia from Niche (either Kleim's Hardy or Chuck Hayes) that is finally 3 by 3' and I hope will bloom this year. In previous years it died back to the ground each winter. It was planted in very rich soil that lead to tons of tender growth that wouldn't make it through freezes. The soil has mellowed some now. I also have a rooted cutting from DH's grandmother's gardenia, the only piece of it left. It's older than DH. Her place has been sold for development now. Gene was so protective of this gardenia he'd actually go look at it every day he got home from work early enough to see it so make sure it was still there. I surrounded it with pine straw bales and covered it with blankets every time the temp got below 30 so it wouldn't suffer dieback. I've also got about 25 gardenia seedlings in the ground but they're only one inch high presently.

I was just commenting to my husband that they should remove the G out of HGTV because there are hardly any gardening shows on anymore. At least not like there was several years ago. I really enjoy Paul James but to my knowledge he is on only twice on the weekend. He is one of the only shows that are suited to the home gardener. There use to be Rebecca's Garden, and my favorites were Gardener's Diary and Gardener's Journal, none of these shows are currently on. Most of the shows that I have seen are Landscape type shows for people with a big budget. Nothing really suited to the how to's of plant growing. Your right, other than Victory Gardening I can't think of any other shows! It would be nice to have something especially for the southern gardener.