Rebecca, Lettuce transplants very easily. To ensure I have no problems, I always start the seedlings in paper cups I can plant (I use the tiny Dixie cups sold to go in bathroom cup dispensers) or in peat pellets. That way, no matter the age of the plants, I can transplant them with no real root disturbance. Lettuce seedlings generally need more light that the light shelf can get them and will get leggy fast, so as soon as the first tiny sprouts appear, I move them outdoors. I can carry then indoors, if needed, but since they're pretty cold-tolerant, I really don't need to carry them in very much if at all. Mary, Sow the seed slightly later than OSU recommends and you'll be fine. Carrot seed is slow to germinate in cold soils, but much quicker in warmer soils so the trade-off when planting later is minimal. It can take carrot seeds up to 30 days to germinate in cool soils but significantly less in warm soils, so you can get seedlings up before the end of March from a mid-March sowing or you can get seedlings up before the end of March from an early-March sowing. The difference is that the extended amount of time the seeds spend in cool soil between early and late March increases the chance something will happen to the seeds. Honestly, carrots are fairly easy if you sow them when the soil is a bit warmer. Look at how easily the closely related Queen Ann's Lace self-sows itself around by the hundreds and thousands of plants everywhere every year. Kim, I occasionally have harvested carrots even later than that---well into July in one year without an appreciable loss in quality, but it must have been a fairly wet, cool summer. Dawn

When the owner was asked by another visitor if she would be open again next year, she grimaced about the amount of work but I have a feeling her gardens are that spectacular every year (and weed free). She said she bought the property across the road and was planning an apple orchard. I feel lucky to have gone this year. She recommended Christopher Lloyd's book on succession gardening. Danielle's sister's garden in Nashua used to be on Open Days several years ago although I visited when it was on the local garden tour to raise money for the symphony. She was at Danielle's when I visited. Said her garden had a lot of vole and rabbit damage this year so she has lost a lot of plants. She had already started downsizing her tropical collection she planted in pots and next year when her husband retires, they plan to do a lot of traveling. I don't think her garden will ever be open to the public again which is a shame because she gardens on a small suburban neighborhood lot with a steep backyard slope that's shady. No professional landscape designer but she did need some gardening help. Lucky you to have visited the Epsom garden 10 years ago so to know how much it has changed. Funny thing, I didn't notice the pollinators but I did notice how well the red in the red and cream sunflowers along the side of the garage marched the paint color. Comments were made that the dark red was a great back drop for all the colors. It was painted three years ago ... I wonder how the painters dealt with all the plants? Maybe it was fall.

So after checking on my garden today, it looks like I might have to start over. They look much worse due to me fertilizing them again. Also that storm that came through late last night tore them up pretty good. I think my best bet is to probably take cuttings from the plants that still look somewhat healthy and maybe cut the plants down to the lowest growth tip and see if they will recover. This was my first time attempting to grow tomatoes in the ground, even though I wasn't too successful I still managed to get some ripe tomatoes and the experience has taught me some valuable lessons. I cant get too upset with myself, as much as it does suck, I still have my other grow site and my house garden. I'm going to probably start another thread about my other grow site. Thanks for all the comments, hope to see you in my next thread. The other grow site is one I've been working on since last October. It was a super sandy piece of land that I've been amending with leaves and compost for a while now. Its finally taking shape and my tomato plants seem to be happy at the moment. The before This past winter Prepping for tomatoes I think I planted them around 4/7ish and this is from 4/20 Todays Pic 5/01

Enjoyed your video. Lots of beautiful tomatoes. Looks like you are on your way to a great harvest. I don't have any advice on the wilt. It did show up in my garden this year. It struck two plants, took them out quick, but has not spread to other plants. The two wilted plants are in the raised bed. The raised bed has the least amount , or none that I can recall, native sandy loam from my garden. I filled with compost from a nearby recovery facility. The first two years, there was no wilt. I did add a bag of new soil this year. I will have to see what happens next near. Knowing where the wilt is, and could continue, may affect my decision to plant something else there.