I don't think you should call this "mistake". It is more of a "neglect" than mistake. It can happen to most of us one time or the other. If you plant from seed or small seedling, be prepared to weed. Weeding should be a continual thing not scheduled. When my plants are very small, as soon as I can tell them from weeds, I get the weed out especially the ones that are too close to the plants and those that I know are agressive and grow fast and big. Some smaller weeds I don't mind to stay as compantion, as green mulch and ground cover between bigger plants. Actually I like to plant clovers between my tomatoes and cucumber, if I can find seeds.

Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to make one. You have to be a member of instructables to view the whole thing, but it's free to join. http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-your-own-Earth-Box/ This tutorial looks along the same lines, but you don't have to register to view it. http://www.josho.com/gardening.htm Tutorial with different methods, how to cut pvc pipe, planning a large scale garden with the containers, etc. Plus a Q&A. If you don't have an adobe pdf reader, visit adobe.com for the free download. http://www.seattleoil.com/Flyers/Earthbox.pdf Earthbox research has information and tips on using earthboxes. http://www.earthboxresearch.com/ As for veggies to garden this time of year. How about pumpkins? Depending on how long it take to mature, they would be ready around Halloween.

Diane, Eat your okra fried and you'll love it. My dad used to mix up a garden dish that I love, using whatever was handy from the garden. He'd usually start out frying some bacon in a cast iron skillet. While the bacon was frying, he'd dice up some potatoes and onions and slice some okra. If he had peppers or summer squash, he'd slice 'em and dice 'em and add them to the pile he was preparing. He'd remove the bacon from the skillet when it was done, leaving the bacon grease in the pan. Then he'd throw the potatoes, onions and okra (and other handy misc. veggies)into the skillet and fry it. When it was almost done, he'd sprinkle a couple of handfuls of cornmeal over the top of the mixture, stir it in and fry until the cornmeal was browned, but not blackened. Then, he'd remove the pan from the burner, crumble the bacon over the top, add salt and pepper, and serve it. It was the best! Some people make a dish like my dad's but they mix together a little flour and corn meal and dredge the chopped veggies through them before cooking them, so they're basically breaded first. I prefer okra fried or oven-roasted, but I'll eat it in gumbo too. If you need a 'fancy' okra recipe, I have one for Okra Parmigiana, and you can make okra pickles too. In Dori Sanders' "Country Cooking" cookbook, there's a recipe she calls "Yankee Okra" for people who don't like okra, which is basically okra sautee'd in oil with herbs. She says one batch feeds 4 to 6 Yankees or 2 Southerners. She also has a recipe for Okra with Cabbage and Sweet Potatoes, which is a combination I never would have thought up. Dori Sanders' Country Cooking cookbook is one of my favorite cookbooks because it is full of veggie recipes. (She grew up on a farm and ran a real farm market stand where folks could buy their farm veggies and always posted recipes for them, showing how they could cook the veggies her family was selling. I believe that's how the cookbook came about....putting her farm stand recipes into a book.) If anyone is interested in any of those recipes, let me know and I'll post them. Dawn

Without seeing it, I'd bet on Salvia Coccinea. While it is an annual where your are, the seeds will overwinter and sprout the next year. When I grew it as a reseeding annual it often didn't bloom until well into July. The general rule with this salvia is to keep it deadheaded. Just about the time that a flower stalk flags there are usually new stalks ready to bloom, and it all can happen within a few days. My own plants have had to be deadheaded numerous times already this summer, and if I keep at it the plants should look good until frost. And one more thing. If you collect or buy seeds and plant them indoors like you would tomatoes, you can expect blooms in June and much larger plants. Your right, Robins site is great. We still have ways to go, or at least I do, on what salvias are hardy for zone 6b. If you start experimenting please let us know how it goes. There is also a lot of talk about salvia on the hummingbird forum.