WOW where are you that you're finishing up your summer stuff? I'm just getting tomatoes, cukes, zuks etc now! I'm in zone 8ish, No CA. Our season is running about a month late, but I have at least 3 months to go. I usually have one raised bed that finishes in time to clear for a winter bed. Usually the squash/cukes. I also have a perenial bed that I put winter stuff in just cause I don't do very much winter stuff. I also do things such as lettuce and radishes in boxes on the deck where I don't have to go out in the mud and muck during the rainy season. I haven't done seeds for a winter garden yet, but I'm thinking about a month fom now is about when you start from seed in my area. I think I have a site that tells you when to do what. I'll look for it. Happy Gardening! Nancy

It can be brown rot, but I'm not sure. The way you can be sure you have brown rot is some of the peaches in an advanced stage will have the brown dull powdery stuff on the outside. If that is what you have you need to spray, primarily in the early phases of fruit formation, to prevent the disease, and also perhaps a spray in July just before fruits start ripening. I use Serenade, an organic product, and it seems to work OK. You can also use propiconazole (Monterey Garden Fungi-Fighter). The peaches rotting in the bag are probably rotting due to brown rot, so it does sound like the fungus is present. The only thing about your description that doesn't quite add up is the way the fruits are falling off before they ripen. When you have brown rot they usually don't drop early, and in fact they can "mummify" on the tree, turning all shriveled and gross. Also it sounds like the fruits falling off look fine, just hard and unripe. It makes me wonder a bit if a storm or hail or something didn't come through and blow them off. One last thing it could be is some varieties of peach can drop fruits when they are young trees. It is common for them to drop in June but is not common to drop so late. Overall, I would spray for brown rot next year and hope for better luck.. Scott

I was reading some of these stories to my hubby tonight and he reminded me of our neighbor Jen's story and I decided I needed to share it with the stupid garden tricks... Our neighbor across the street has been divorced for about three years or so..and let his lawn go to pot as a result..he is a really nice guy, but lost interest when his family moved out. About 6 months ago, he fell in love with a girl about ten years younger than him, she was just 19...and she moved in. He aplogized all over the place to everyone that would listen about his robbing the cradle and that she was so young, but begging everyone to give them a chance and accept it because he loved her. She is JUST 19 and niave....but quickly we learned to love her too..she is a big sweetheart, even if a bit naive sometimes. Late this spring, when my hubby and I pulled in the driveway she followed behind us on foot and asked what we thought of what she had done to the yard. She had pulled and piled his mountains of weeds. I am not kidding in the back yard, the weeds were taller than cars and unused lawn equipement had sat there for years and they had grown around them while he grieved his lost marriage. What was once a nice yard had become an eyesore. She had done a ton of work and we were amazed..she said her hands had blistered even with gloves because the weeds in the back were as thick as saplings. She then asked if we had any weed killer and a sprayer she could borrow. My husband impressed with her work so far said he sure did..it was even already mixed up and it was extra good stuff. He walked with her to our garage and got it for her, and I went in the house. In the meantime, my daughter called and we began idle chit chat, I heard my hubby come in and sit in front of the tube and never thought a thing of it. I talk on the phone and walk about the house and found myself near a window. I looked out, and there was that Jen out there spraying her yard away in the front. I never thought a thing about it, admiring her determination at such a young age with the lost yard. Then she happened to turn towards me and I gasped when I saw which sprayer she had. My husband had given her the roundup sprayer...assuming she was killing the big weeds around the fence and dead lawn equipment in the back that she had been complained about..but instead she was spraying her front yard randomly. I quick hung up the phone and hollared at him to go stop her. He felt terrible...she was mortified and felt young and stupid..she didn't know there was such a thing as roundup..she thought it would only kill weeds,not grass..so she was spraying every weed she saw in the front yard. My husband told her to water quickly and see what happened..he felt terrible that he had misunderstood what she wanted. He always uses granular on the lawn weeds, not liquid so he was not even thinking that way. About two weeks later, these HUGE brown smiley faces of grass began appearing in the lawn. We walked over to apolgize to them but they were laughing bout it. Being just 19 and silly..every weed she had seen, she said..GOTTCHA and after she spritzed it with "weed killer" she drew a smiley face around it... it wasn't bad enough she had sprayed weeds in the grass with roundup but she had drawn prety faces to announce she was in power now....there were dozens of dead grass smiley faces all over the front lawn for passerbys to see. My husband couldnt even look each time we left home. He felt partly responsible. I just chucked..what else can you do? :)

I'm still sick & nauseated from the bad combo last night (sunflower seeds & cherry juice & lemonade), Men's Health has an excellent article on how certain medications mixed with certain food/drink can have a deadly effect & toxic: http://www.menshealth.com/health/ 1. Limes and cough medicine. You may have heard not to drink grapefruit juice with some prescriptions, including cholesterol-lowering statins. But limes, pomelos, and Seville oranges—although not the more-common navel and Valencia varieties—also may block an enzyme that breaks down statins and other drugs, including the cough suppressant dextromethorphan ... this includes hallucinations and sleepiness; in statins, you may sustain severe muscle damage. 2. Dairy products and antibiotics. Some antibiotics, including Cipro, bind to calcium, iron, and other minerals in milk-based foods. “This prevents the absorption of the antibiotics, ultimately decreasing their ability to fight infections,” Gullickson says. When you get a new prescription for acne or an infection, ask if the drug falls into a class known as tetracyclines or flouroquinolones. If so, avoid milk, yogurt, and cheese 2 hours before and after taking the pills. 3. Smoked meats and antidepressants. Check the label on your happy pills. If they belong to a class called monoamine oxidase inhibitors or MAOIs—brand names Marplan, Nardil, Emsam, or Parnate—combining them with foods rich in the amino acid tyramine can cause life-threatening spikes in blood pressure, says Gullickson. Unfortunately, the list of no-nos includes not only summer sausage and smoked salmon, but also red wine, sauerkraut, hot dogs, aged cheeses, soy sauce, and draft or home-brewed beer. 4. Chocolate and Ritalin. Besides caffeine, chocolate also contains a stimulant called theobromine, says Tom Wheeler, Pharm.D., B.C.P.S., director of pharmacy and pulmonary services at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago. (It’s the reason chocolate harms dogs—canine bodies can’t break it down.) Combining all these stimulants in humans can potentially lead to erratic behavior and seizures. 5. Apple juice and allergy meds. Nix the nectar from apples, oranges, and grapefruits if you take Allegra (fexofenadine) for hay fever—at least within 4 hours of swallowing the pill, Gullickson advises. These juices inhibit a peptide that transports the drug from your gut to your bloodstream. The resulting lack of absorption makes Allegra up to 70 percent less effective at stopping your sniffling and sneezing, Wheeler says. Other medications also travel with the help of the same peptide; lay off these juices while taking the antibiotics Cipro or Levaquin, the thyroid medication Synthroid, or the allergy and asthma treatment Singulair, Gullickson says. 6. Cinnamon and warfarin. People taking the blood-thinning medication warfarin—prescribed to prevent or treat clots—have long been warned to keep their intake of vitamin K steady, says Wolfe. This means you shouldn’t change your weekly intake of foods like leafy greens or broccoli; because vitamin K plays a key role in clotting, doing so could affect the thickness of your blood. But there’s another risk. Cassia cinnamon, the kind on most American grocery-store shelves, contains high levels of a compound called coumarin that can thin blood and potentially cause liver damage, says Eric Newman, M.D 7. Alcohol and acetaminophen. Resist the urge to wash down your Tylenol with a cold one—your body uses the same enzyme to break down the two substances. http://www.menshealth.com/health/