Hello. I have to ask those that say they love Scarlet Runner Beans: how small should they be to pick and eat, and how do you prepare them?! I've been growing SRBs for about 5 years but have always treated them as an ornamental because I read too many times that they shouldn't be eaten! :( I've also grown various heirloom tomatoes over the past 5 or 6 years... the only hybrid I'd ever grow again is Sun Gold (which is FANTASTIC!), but I bought more seed 2 years ago and it didn't come true. So disappointing! :( Funny... I grew Principe Borghese this year for the first time... the plants were perfect little specimens. They were LOADED with tomatoes. And they tasted like crap to me! lol! I tasted them fresh. blech. So I dried a batch. more blech. Maybe they had that blight but just didn't show it?! The heirloom tomatoes that I *have* to grow every year now are: - Pink Brandywine. I don't know which strain I have (got in trade), but they're huge and fantastic. - Oxheart. Huge and fantastic and nothing but "meat". I struggle to find enough seeds in them to save for each year! - Green Zebra. LOVE the taste and appearance, and the plants are smaller and always so productive for me. - Cherokee Chocolate. This was introduced as a mutation from the tomato man that reintroduced CP and I much prefer the color and flavor. - Kellogg's Breakfast. Huge, great taste, and just BEAUTIFUL color. - Gold Nugget. Not the best taste, but pretty and the most productive tomato ever for me -- and always the first ready to be picked! :) I've stuck with them for more than 10 years. lol! I only have small veggie gardens, but other heirloom tomatoes I like and have grown more than once include Stupice (early!), White Wonder (AMAZING texture!), and Matt's Wild Cherry (too cute and *very* flavorful!). There are some I've tried that I won't bother with again, and so many that I've never tried! aftermidnight: I plant my tomatoes very close and have been saving seed for years without bagging. Haven't had them cross yet. I read about how they self-pollinate and the chances of them crossing are very slim.

I am still struggling with a too large vegie garden that is full of weeds, BUT I discovered the soil forum on G/W and am now regaining my garden through lasagna gardening. I have some tomatoe plants that I affectionately call Godzillas -- they are enormous (just in flower though, starting to set fruit), squash plants that are taking off and look like they are going to smother everything in sight and I picked a couple of cukes this week. My broad beans are finished and the pole beans haven't started but we have a bumper crop of peas. Leafy greens and beets are doing ok (they aren't in the lasagna garden) and we have had a few artichokes. The best part of the garden though is the raspberries! They are huge, tasty, red beauties. I mulched them with leaf mould and grass clippings in the spring and have not had to water them much but they are obviously very happy. Except for a few white drupelets from the sun and heat they are just wonderful. Nothing tastes as good as your own produce. I love it.

Hi Straw & everyone. I'm soaking bluebonnet seed now to plant over the next few days. Already planted larkspur, coreopsis, poppies, winecup, oxe eye daisy, tahoka daisy & horsemint. Also a wildflower mix. The seed from Wildseed is really good--very good germination, very clean. The winecups started sprouting in 3 days! We scored a pickup load of horse manure from a close source for free! It's from a couple of Percherons & a Paso. The guy was rightfully proud of his poop--his hosses are alfalfa fed so no weed seed. Got it all spread except for a few buckets reserved to lightly cover the new seeds. I like how manure has a spongy water-retentive quality--great for seedlings when it's used as a fine covering. Gradually moving band babies into 2 gallons & into more sun for the fall & winter. The ones in the ground since last spring are wonderful--have some beautiful Sunsprite, Baronne Prevost, Mrs. B.R. Cant, Maman Cochet blooms. I can't get the chlorosis out of Iceberg & a few others--all older plants in the ground. Gave them a shot of Ironite that was left over, & some sulfur earlier. I have some gypsum & have added the horse manure around them--will keep working at it. Haven't done a specific soil test of the area but the general characteristic of soils (& I'm being generous, calling them 'soils') here is very alkaline. Lots of caliche with thin to no covering dirt. Alkaline hard aquifer water. Finally, I got Talisman grafted on Ragged Robin! Love Talisman's flowers but it's a middlin' plant for me. Fooled around trying to bud some & was shocked to find a bud pushing new growth. Now I'll try to root the Ragged Robin cane with the Talisman bud before it's too cool. Oh, & I need to plant a "dryland ground cover mix" I ordered from Peaceful Valley last year. It's got nitrogen fixing Palestinian clover & some other seed. I want to sow it around the roses & under each of my Dad's fruit trees & along a strip I'm trying to develop for a garden (have some 'taters & carrots started there to bust up the ground). There is a stand of clover under a big tooth maple tree here & it grows well each winter. I hope to get the seed spread the next few days & then hope for some rain.

Hi Michelle Sorry for the delay in responding - just got back from holiday in Turkey. As I feared, there had been a few frosts during my absence but damage to my Salvias has been limited to a minimal number of plants and the garden is still looking pretty good. This is in contrast to a garden about 2 miles away (a pub garden where I also plant lots of Salvias) where just about everything has been blackened. It just goes to show what differences there can be in mesoclimates. Even within my own garden which has the advantage of being on a slight slope, there are microclimates where the flow of cold air is restricted and a specific Salvia can be badly frosted whereas equivalent plants, only a few yards away, can completely escape damage. My soil has a large proportion of clay but, over the 25 or so years I have been here, I have mulched with various products such as mushroom compost and composted manure to help build up a top layer of better tilth. I root lots of cuttings and the old soil from all the pots also gets thrown onto the garden. Surprising how this all adds up to improve the soil. Most years, in early summer, I try to give the garden a 2" mulch of some sort to help keep it in good heart. I know many Salvias don't need this but I plant very closely and the mulch helps with moisture retention and weed supression. If I go back 10 years or more, I always got a hard frost about mid-September which knocked off my Salvias (except most microphylla types). Since then, although the thermometer always dips around this time, temperatures are not so low and then we seem to then often survive for at least another month. Last year was even better and the Salvias were not really hit until early December when we became blanketed by snow. Ignoring any general global warming trend, I read that we may now be moving into a short term cooler period (there seems to be a cycle of about 25 years or so between highs and lows) and so I may have to get used to September frosts once again. Of course, by then, I may be just pushing up daisies and not bothering with Salvias. Naturally you are most welcome to visit although from the above you can guess that timing can be crucial if you want to see the display at its best. You must also take in Robin's garden as he always has gems that we others drool over. I'm thinking about your request of naming the plants in my pics. It's a bit of a task but probably worth the effort. Give me some time on this. Finally, I was pleased to see Robin include Salvia 'Imelda' on his site. This was a seedling I found near S. greggii 'Peach' in late 2008 and which flowered for me in 2009. I named it after my wife's middle name. It is proving to be much sturdier than Peach - which I love but seem to lose after a couple years or so. Here is a pic of the very first flower of Imelda: Jim