Get some peat pots and your seeds and sow some of each you want to grow. Dont sow alot unless you want alot. Then get the book gardening for dummies and follow its advice for watering and hardening off. Every month repeat and you can have a continual harvest. You need to skip months 90 days before you cant plant outside due to weather and start again 90 days before your last frost.Or so. I plant in containers and have adopted a gardening philosophy from years of reading online, books, talking to people. The core sum of all my knowledge is plant what you like or would like, research those items and have fun! Here is a link that might be useful: robs urban farm

This year, in my garden at least, there were not many of the cuke beetles, but those little buggers made quite an impact. They affected my beans, heirloom tomatoes, melons and lemon cukes. The adults laid their eggs on my cockscomb amaranth, since no corn was around I suppose, which had grown to 6-feet! I can't imagine a swarm of the little devils! Although only the melons and a couple of heirloom tomato plants failed to survive the attack, they delayed maturation by my account about 2 weeks of several other tomato varieties, like beefsteak, producing wilt all round the yard or so it seemed. My early strategy, before I saw the beetle adults, was to attack the wilt problem as a fungus because we had so much rain in the Spring and the heirlooms showed the first signs. Once I found an adult in my melons, I mixed a solution of neem oil, antibacterial dish soap, and a horticultural oil and sprayed generally, especially the beans and tomatoes. While this had some impact on the beetles and aphids on the nasturtiums, what I found more effective was the addition of a jalapeno pepper solution to the initial mix which really seem to slow their advance. But, by then, however, they had already laid their eggs on the roots of my amaranth, which I discovered when pulling up a group that had fallen over, I thought from some heavy wind, but it proved to be the work of the spotted yellow microbeast that had attacked the roots. I was able to destroy quite a few of the young by hand and foot (where is that cordless vacuum when you need it?). Now, I'm preparing a plan to deal with this pest for next season as I clean and prepare the beds for winter. One recommendation is to turn over the soil to expose any larva and remove any root debris. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Also, below are two links to some information about organic controls related to this discussion: Cucumber beetles: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/cucumberbeetle.pdf Squash pests: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/squash_pest.pdf ATTRA Plant Diseases ID and Management Brochure, 4 pages (A very handy tool for newbies and masters): http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/PDF/IPM/disease.pdf

The photos show healthy looking plants. They do not get bushy really as they put up a few stems stems and don't branch. The black bits look normal but then you would expect an embryonic bean to appear from the shrivelled bits. My vegetable book suggests dryness and spasmodic watering as reasons for blossom drop in beans. Heat might also be aproblem or possibly lack of bees.

Thai Green Beans and butternut squash 1 medium butternut squash, split in half and baked at 350C until done (pierce with a fork to test) 1 can regular coconut milk (15 oz or so) 2 cups fresh cut green beans (frozen works too but fresh is best) 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp sugar 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice 3 leaves from a kaffir lime 1 small bunch of fresh thai basil AKA Siam queen (regular sweet basil will also work) 1 small bunch chopped scallions 1 sliced hot pepper (I used cayenne and thai red peppers, leave in slices so they can be removed if desired  green hot peppers will also work here) Salt to taste Bake butternut squash. When cool enough to handle, peel, seed and cut into 1 inch chunks. Open can of coconut milk. Use some of the solids on top (the oil) to sauté garlic, kaffir lime leaves, sugar, salt and hot peppers for just a few minutes (do not burn the garlic). Add green beans and squash cubes and stir. Add the rest of the coconut milk can and cook for 10-15 minutes until green beans are done. Taste, adjust seasonings and sprinkle top with chopped scallions.