somewhere there is a kid scratching his head and wondering,"WHO was that woman and WHAT did she do with my wheel!? LOL! I absolutely adore your wheelbarrow! I am kinda a sucker for them, they are just so darn country cute besides being handy, too. Love your "doodling" on the front, very cute!!! Thx for sharing! blessings-sherri

Timmy and Quinton- Hugs to you, our furry friends. Hope you're both doing better! Eduarda- It must be very tough to work with all the noise, not to mention living with the mess! Hang in there! I'm looking forward to seeing future photos of your wonderful new porches! Cameron- I'm delighted that your blog is doing so well and love the idea of using the starving artists work. Lorna- Have you ever tried lasagna gardening? I used this method when I had rock-hard clay in Ohio. Beats breaking your back! GGG- Good for you with your job changes and success! Your produce yield is amazing. Welcome, Chester the Kitten! Edna- Neesa and Sam are just beautiful. Amazing that they all survived. LOL about using your dogs to do the digging! It really pays to have a sense of humor in this life. :-) ThinMan- Congratulations on your greenhouse completion. I'll look for the photos. Good that your little guys will be off learning some social skills with their peers as well as building a healthy immune system! The two days a week with Grammy and Grampa will be extra special now for you all. Speaking from having my own grandparents around a lot, there is just nothing in this world like that loving relationship. They are VERY lucky boys to have you in their young lives. Midnightsmum- Thanks for the good wishes directed at the USA. We all have our fingers crossed. Annette- YES, a big piece of cake from what I hear too. Really I have not heard of a single negative experience. Good luck! Sierra- I'm glad you have some positive things happening for a change with the house next door. I hope the knuckle-draggers won't give you any more problems. (Well, one can always hope!) A rainy day here today and my day off. Ohhhh nooooooooo!!! Now I have no excuse not to begin my fall house cleaning. "Dang!" Thanks everyone for writing. Let's hear from the rest of you! Patti

Tree, Congratulations on the impending birth of your first grandbaby! Be sure to let us know when he or she arrives. Since you grow melons and squash without difficulty, I am baffled by the cucumber problems. Usually if you can grow melons and squash, cukes do just as well in the same soils and same conditions. I've grown a lot of the ones you have seed for, and generally don't have trouble with them. However, I did have more trouble with all the open-pollinated types than with the hybrids, and you know I prefer to grow heirloom O-Ps when I can. So, I have switched more and more to the hybrids and they have done much better for me than most O-Ps ever did. I don't necessarily have a big pickle year every year, but in 2013 I canned between 200-300 jars of pickles. At some point, I just quit counting because I was too busy pickling. I know that sounds insane, but we give homemade pickles to everyone so even in a year when I make that many, we usually run out of pickles before the next year's first cucumber harvest. About a month ago, my nephew, who is in his late 20s, asked me to teach him how to make pickles and pickled peppers, so this summer I'm going to give him pickling lessons and recipes. Apparently the pickles I give him for Christmas run out too fast so he wants to learn to make his own. I think that is so cool. If you want to try County Fair, let me know. I could bring County Fair seeds or small seedlings to you at the Spring Fling. It resists disease and in some years when other cucumber varieties have struggled, it never has. It simply has the best disease tolerance I've ever seen. H-19 Littleleaf is another one that I grew last year that produced really well. I think it is less prone to disease and pest issues because of the small leaves. Normally if you have a pest like cucumber beetles that is transmitting diseases to cucumber plants, they are hitting melon and squash plants with the same diseases. I did go through a period several years ago where the melons, squash and cukes all struggled at the same time in mid-summer for three years in a row. It usually was a bacterial or viral disease. I don't know what changed because I still grow a lot of the same melon, cuke and squash varieties, but I don't have that problem anymore. Or, at least, I haven't had it in several years. It might be that the blister beetles were transmitting the diseases. I haven't had a huge problem with blister beetles in recent years. The last time they showed up and were devouring my cucumber plants, I started spraying them with Pyganic every time I saw one and I haven't seen many since that year. Dawn

I love this sale and look forward to it as a highlight event every year. I had a list of silver plants I wanted for a garden area I'm doing in mostly silver and got everything I wanted, I even found a Southernwood plant which I didn't expect. Its my first plant purchases of the season and I wouldn't miss it. I'm just so glad we still have this nursery, so many great ones have disappeared. I got a plain-jane native non hybrid Oakleaf Hydrangea I'd been wanting for only $8, a three gallon sized plant that had a bit of damage. I was thrilled.