We had a cool summer too. June thru August were below average temps...quite often 10 degrees below the norm. July was the 4th driest July on record...less than an inch of rain. August and June were below, but not bad. Sept. we had less than 1.5" of rain, but the temps were just perfect the whole month. Rain wasn't that much of a problem...the cool days and cold nights were. My tomato plants did better than last year...that year was the worse one I've had since I started gardening in 1979. Nothing grew well at all. This year I planted a lot of purple green beans and only got a couple of plants. Green onions, carrots and red peppers were good. My flowers, perennials and annuals all turned out very good this year. So all in all, it wasn't that bad. The best thing though was our low electric bill...hardly used the air at all. October has been junk from the 1st. Temps have been 10 degrees below the average and it's been raining almost every day. I do hate to see summer end though. Wish we had a longer growing season. Kat

I am not pleased with my Straight Eight Cukes either, but I seem to have a different problem, they are growing long and skinny to about 12 inches, then filling out unevenly so that I have a fat end and a skinny end. I suspect watering issues has caused the strange growth since we have had an unusually rainy summer here in New England. My first two ended up in the compost bin as they tasted horrible. How do yours taste? Maybe you'll need to harvest them smaller than the expected 8 inches you will get some edible ones? Rachel GrafixMuse's Garden Spot

Yeah Shawn, mine do at least, lol..I'm sure they dont do it special for me, lol. The seeds are in the black berry looking things, the seed pod will dry, peel back and reveal the berry looking seeds. When they are ready they will come off in your hand real easy.If you dry them well before storing, you can just rub them between your fingers to remove the dried berry/fleshy part. I leave mine on a piece of newspaper till they dry, then put them in a packet..I dont even take that outer fleshy part off. As long as you keep them dry they wont mold.

So far we've removed: garlic, onions, Yukon Gold potatoes, kale, beets, beans and 1/2 the swiss chard. The peas have long been done but are still standing to help block/trap the grasshoppers (yes, still grasshopper issues). The rest of the potatoes will be dug out within the month and I usually pull the carrots and turnips late September/early October when the cold room is cold enough the store them in. There's also a few kohlrabi and the shallots left. The spaghetti squash is ripening nicely outside still and with the warmer weather the zucchini is starting to bloom again. The tomatoes are still in the garden and a few are finally starting to show color. Our forcast for the week show highs of 25C and nothing lower than 10C so there's no need to start going crazy pulling things.