Nanadoll, if you look at Select Seed's website, their 2013 listing shows some nasturtiums as being 1 foot tall (Whirlybird, Vesuvius, Golden King, Empress of India, Black Velvet) some as being 3 feet tall (Forest Flame, Golden Gleam, Hermine Grashoff, Milkmaid) and some as 6 feet tall (Indian Cress, Moonlight, Variegated Queen). Renee's Garden also has a number of varieties listed, with Moonlight, Amazon Jewel and Spitfire being classified as climbing. http://www.reneesgarden.com/seeds/seeds-hm/flowersN.htm#nast Botanical Interests has a number of varieties, but only one climbing - Trailing Single Blend http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/index/srch:nasturtium It may be that you have to purchase the seeds via mail order if your local stores do not carry the taller types. Alaska has been semi climbing in my garden if it has something to support it, even though it is listed as being one of the shorter types. Here is a link that might be useful: nasturtium listing at Select Seeds This post was edited by plantloverkat on Thu, Nov 7, 13 at 18:09

Hi Prof: I love your raised beds. I made one myself some years ago with wood from some discarded kitchen cupboards and hinges from Lee Valley sold for that purpose. I started doing sq. ft. gardening with some of the same veggies you use: radish, lettuce, etc. and beans along the back growing on stakes. But alas, the cedars have grown and shaded the bed, and this year, it's all rotting and I need to replace it, but the thought of doing it myself is a bit overwhelming. It is now filled with several types of lamium, luxiuriant bleeding hearts, geraniums, solomon's seal, and columbines, so maybe I'll remove the rotted wood and leave it. We have wild violets here but quite a different type. They have underground stolons which can survive standing water. They also produce a gazillion seeds each year, so they are a problem. I spent several hours last week clearing a patch of my backyard of them so I can plant some squash. Once they get started for the year, you are stuck, unless you want to use a pesticide which I don't. I envy your order and straight clean lines but I'd need a ton of help to achieve that. Keep it up!!

Burying the marker is intriguing. The card file is very interesting. I'll consider both of those. I don't use above ground markers because my dog rips them out as soon as I put them in. I can't get rid of the dog because he keeps the deer away from my hosta. I, too, have a database. One of the fields is the location. The map of my garden is on graph paper; I've lettered the columns and numbered the rows so I can put that number (e.g. E-17) in the database. In the extreme case that I lose my map, I can recreate it from a combination of the database and the garden. Nance

Richard, Great news on the rain and slightly lower temps. Good luck on the Spokane opportunity. Keep us posted. Weather would be much more friendly in Spokane. I discovered this mess in my melon patch yesterday. It appears I had a hungry visitor in the garden overnight. In other sad news, I saw a mouse in my compost bin yesterday too. I don’t believe the mouse did the damage to the melon. The bites thrown aside behind the ‘loupe are too big.