Dry all last year and the beginning of this year (except for a 2ft snowstorm in Feb) until the last week of May when we got a month's worth of rain in 1 week. Alternating cold(30's) then hot (90) then cold (40's) temps in May and June, finally got tomatoes out the beginning of June and MORE rain! Poured for about 20 minutes at dinner last night, weather.com is showing 0 inches but I'm guessing 1/4". More gentle rain overnight, clear this morning and then this afternoon another T-storm. So I'm saying 7.5 -8" this month plus the 3.5" last week of May. Tomatoes are looking sad - I started replacing some yesterday and also planted 6 I'd been holding back. Haven't checked today to see how they've held up in the driving rain (had a couple broken last week). Peppers are still in 6-packs, I guess I can say they're hardened off though they may sunburn when I can get them out, 1 is blooming. Squash looks like it's loving this weather, cukes OK (seeded before squash and they're smaller), spinach is bolting and the kale and Asian greens are just OK. I guess I'll try to harvest mustard greens, tatsoi and bok choy for stirfry mix rather than salad greens since lettuce is so far behind. Carrots are disappearing, lettuce is barely coming in after seeding twice (every time I seed we have a downpour) but the arugula in the mix is getting tall (not bolting yet). Radish bulbs are finally starting to show above the ground 3 weeks after seeding and I don't know what's happened to my chard and beets that I've seeded twice. Beans are doing OK, but I lost 2/3 of my edamame. The only thing I'm harvesting right now that is doing really well is strawberries and they're coming to an end just as market season is beginning. Blueberries and brambles are coming along though.

Ei - the beans needing warm soil is the same for bush although I think they are a bit tougher. You obviously have a sheltered spot plus the raised beds allow the soil to warm up faster. The pots are effectively raised beds and the driveway collects and retains heat fo that helps the pots. I used 8' bamboo poles to make a teepee using 4-5 poles. The first year I used 6' poles and the beans spilled over the top and ment roaming around! 8' is the minimum! I way overplant the beans (and peas) in the pots so don't have any idea how many are in the pots - I just cover the top of the pot with beans, leaving some space between them and then cover them with some more soil. (Soak the beans - and peas - overnight in water before planting and idelly add innoculant when planting beans or peas.) In the ground, rows might be easier although a teepee would work nicely too in a square-foot arragement. This year we'll have one pot of climbing green beans and one of yellow. Watermelons are fussy - need two compatable types for cross pollination, need lots and lots of heat, shouldn't be watered with cold water and need very rich soil. I think the people who have most success with them grow them on the compost heap! Blueberries are a nostagia thing for me. I grew up with wild blueberries all over the place and my summer job after year 1 of university was working on a blueberry research project crossing high and low bush types and assessing previous crosses. Since the research facility was in 'the middle of nowhere', I boarded for the summer with a local dairy farmer and family. He told all his diary-farmer friends that I did AI (Artificial Insemination) on blueberries! Highbush blueberries tolerate less than ideal acidity better than lowbush but definitely do better with proper pH. In the pots we use the soil acidifier sold to make hydrangeas blue. But it needs to be repeated several times over the summer as the pH drops - the water here is on the alkaline side so you have to keep checking the pH of the pots - and I forget to do that... It's easier to just buy blueberries from the farmers' market. We have to have blueberries from somewhere to make 'grandma's blueberry shortcake'. Yummy stuff! Asparagus is GB territory :-) I've never grown it.... Strawberries - yes, you shouldn't let them produce the year they are planted (but I always cheat and at least let one produce... :-) You need to do some reading on how to set up in an efficient way to grow them because they only crop well in the first year or two after planting and then the mother plants need removing. If you set it up right, the daughters (runners) are ready to take over by the time the mothers get removed. (The blueberry project was located in the facility that also provided/multiplied foundation strawberry plants for commercial sale...) Tomatoes - and many other things - shouldn't be grown in the same ground each year or diseases and pests will build up in the soil. That's why you do crop rotation. In a small enough planting you could replace the soil but that would be a PITA/impossible for a bigger area. Pay attention/learn how to 'read' the initials after variety names that indicate what they are resistant too and buy the most resistant varieties. Will you be growing them from seed? I forgot to mention - we tried cucumbers in the pots but they didn't like it - too many disease problems. They used to grow well in the ground at our previous house. Chelsea, our Golden at the time, loved them and we'd often catch her coming out of the garden with a cucumber in her mouth, trailing 8-10' of vines behind her! GB - I've been buying rhubarb at the farmers' market - and trading Zoe's owner dog cookies for rhubarb! Our rhubarb has petered out - too much shade... but rhubarb is one of those things I MUST have! We went looking for some non-dessert recipes to use rhubarb. We tried one that put it under the skin to bake chicken - odd but not bad. Then we tried one that was a beef stew with lots of rubarb in the sauce - tender meat but distinctly odd! I'll think we'll stick to dessert:-)

This is an interesting comparison of colors. They all look like the same flower, but the variation of color is strange. Mine is definitely on the pink side, the picture being very real as to how it looks in my garden. I have an alkaline soil, no acidity to speak of. Maybe that is the difference. I also am dry, dry, dry. We've had maybe an inch or so in two months. This was a year I will be glad to have behind me as far as growing plants is concerned. From two weeks of 80's in March to two weeks of below freezing in April, to no rain after. I've been watering "Trees" for weeks now to keep them from going into early dormancy or dying completely. Some rows of daylilies (450) had maybe one or two pods set in the entire row, thats' how dry it is. I had no bloom on any spring trees at all, Horsechestnuts, dogwood, flowering cherry and apples, redbud. Nothing bloomed. So this year can go quickly for me and I won't be sorry. I like all the colors shown here of "Royal Jester" but mine is surely the most pink. Bob

As far as the opt-repeated claims of him being a "strict constructionist" or a "originalist" where you read the actual text of the Constitution and try to glean and educe what was intended by those that originally wrote the document and then not extend any more rights then what their words indicate they meant. A simple way to put the lie to such claims for Justice Scalia is to read the Second Amendment where it says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Any attempt to deduce the original intent behind the statement, must acknowledge that the subordinate clause at the beginning of the sentence, clearly intends to influence and limit the main clause. What exactly is intended by the clause? I'm not sure. It must have been intended to mean something, otherwise why would it even be there. However if you read any opinion by Justice Scalia its clear he felt those words held no more meaning then if they were stray inkblots on the paper.