Marglobe Baker Family Heirloom Arkansas Market Purple Calabash Kelloggs Breakfast Beefmaster (hybrid) Black Krim Striped German Chico III Costoluto Genovese Brown Berry Cherry Actually this year I cleaned out my seed stash. Some of these plants are the result of using up little sample packets sent to me by the Wintersowing folks last year when I first tried that. Arkansas Market is my own made-up name. It was seed I saved from some beautiful big round Arkansas-grown grocery-store tomatoes that my son brought over shortly after the e.Coli scare last summer. I have no idea what they really were. Any ideas, anyone? Kellogg's Breakfast, Black Krim and Striped German are three that I grew last year and loved. Baker Family Heirloom from George, my first year to try. Thanks George! Brown Berry from a trade this year. Supposed to be a good candidate for a container plant as the vines are determinate. Beefmaster was seed I had from several years ago. I wasn't really crazy about it as the core was pretty large. I know a lot of people really like this kind, so I may just put the plants in my garage sale this spring. Last year I sold tomato plants for $2.50 each. They sold quickly and I even had calls later asking if I had any more. I didn't have a whole lot to sell as I had only sown extra in case the seed didn't all come up, and practically all of it did. This year I planted a little extra to share with my exterminator (we are his benchmark house for ants, he says). Anyway, he's become our friend and has helped us in lots of ways so I try to do little things for him when I can. He has never experienced heirloom tomatoes. He usually buys hybrid plants for his garden. I have been hardening my plants a little differently this year. All that carrying out and carrying in is a pain. Fortunately we've had several days and nights of warm weather. I put them out on my covered back porch where the sun reaches them for about an hour. I have them in foam coffee cups and fitted the cups into plastic storage boxes. The boxes are a little taller than any of the plants. After their hour of sun, I just covered the whole community with a sheer curtain panel, to protect them from the wind, etc. Left them out all day and all night that way. Next day, uncovered them for half the day, then covered again as it was terribly windy that day and I didn't want them to dehydrate. Next day uncovered for all day, covered during the night. They've been out now for four days and nights and look really good. Last night turned out a little on the cool side, 40 degrees. But I think they'll be ok. I already have Brown Berry transplanted into the tubs they will grow in. Looks like we have another spell of cold weather coming up, so I'll have to carry them all back in then.

Kelly, The quick answer is yes, you can grow Lumina on a trellis. I've done it here, although not in several years. You can grow anything on a trellis as long as: a) the trellis is sturdy enough that it can support the weight of the vine and the fruit it produces, and b) you use slings to support the weight of the pumpkins or squash as they enlarge. I normally use either knee-high nylon stockings (or the legs cut off of pantyhose stockings) for melons and cheesecloth or burlap tied to the trellis for heavier pumpkins or winter squash. Some pumpkins and winter squash can hang from vines on trellises until they are fairly large, but without experience with any given variety, you won't know if the weight of the maturing pumpkin/winter squash will cause the vine to break or the pumpkin itself to snap off the plant, so it is better to support them all. The support might not seem necessary in general, but with the strong winds that often accompany thunderstorms here, it is better to be safe than sorry. Trellised melon and squash plants that normally can hold the weight of their own fruit may not be able to hang on to those fruit in higher winds. If the melon, or squash is not terribly high up off the ground, sometimes I just put an upside down 5-gallon bucket underneath the pumpkin or melon and it sits on top of that bucket as it enlarges. With some of the ones that bear smaller fruit, no support other than the trellis is needed. If you use trellises for melons that naturally form an abscission layer and fall off their vines when ripe, you do need to support them with a sling as falling to the ground any distance may cause them to crack open when they fall. Lumina will make pumpkins that weigh between 8 and 12 lbs. depending on how many pumpkins set per plant and how much rainfall/irrigation they receive. I'd sling them once they are getting larger than a large grapefruit. My question for you is why grow Lumina on the trellis when it produces much larger fruit than Pontimarron and Waltham? Both of them likely would be able to support the weight of their own fruit without slings, whereas Lumina would need support. With a winter squash that naturally vines into trees in its natural habitat, like Seminole, slings are not necessary. Their vines can support their weight, even when there are lots of squash on the vines and even when the winds get a bit high. Hope this helps, Dawn

I realized the solution is two composters. We need one at the first floor level for kitchen waste. That would be a relatively small, inexpensive one like yimby. It is very reasonable on Amazon. Then I'd get a larger tumbler for yard waste. I'm reading reviews. I think it was 'life solutions' that got very good reviews and a decent price. Safety is a factor. Being less sure-footed now, Having to walk out to garden to the composter in winter is an invitation to slip and fall. ( it is no longer an option to just drop the kitchen garbage over the wall onto the compost heap. That was so easy!)

Sunshine: I am growing a watermelon now and I have a few fruits ripening on the vine. I’m hoping they manage to get there before the temperatures drop. I have tried in the past but vine borers have always gotten to them and killed the plant. This is the first year my melons have made it through unscathed and I think it’s because I planted them a little too late. It’s amazing how quickly the fruit grows. I took this first picture on Friday and the second this morning. All that growth in just one weekend!