I've copied and pasted your comments and questions. I agree, it was a different year and I am just now realizing that I should have watered more. Peas: excellent because they were 'done' before the rainless summer hit. -Agreed. Had a great crop. Summer Squash, Zucchini, cukes and scallop squash: Shocked at these. Every year I plant crookneck and early prolific straightneck, and every year I have literally 10-20lb harvest about twice a week for about a month. This year, however, I couldn't even keep the plants from dying! Four (4) rounds of plantings (~ 4-5 hills each round) just up and DIED. I got ZERO (0) fruits. Cukes I planted 2 rounds- dead. - I thought I did a lot better job keeping up the bug battle. Plants started off great UNDER a fabric covered low tunnel so the striped cucumber beetles didn't get them. I scraped eggs into soapy water, etc. But I didn't get nearly as much squash as usual. In comparing notes with a gardener in western MA and one near Montpelier VT, they watered a lot more than I did. In fact, I think I stopped watering the zukes once they started producing. Big mistake. Tomatoes: the usual: great until August, then blight. Funny thing was, cherry toms were unaffected. Just the bigger varieties got hit. - I think I got bacteria speck not blight. Two beds are just about leafless and it seemed to travel west to east. A third bed in a different location with mostly cherry tomatoes doesn't look nearly as bad. I'm not sure how to handle this next year. Corn: stalks no higher than ~4 feet, and dried out or under-developed cobs. - We just buy ours at the farmstand. Green beans: Did "ok" but not as well as I'd have liked. - I think I kept watering the beans more. Crops are fine but don't seem to taste as good as last year. Tried a yellow filet that was tasteless. I think the green filet was taverna. I have a new crop of romano just starting to produce now. Another crop of bush beans in flower right now. Will probably need frost protection in another week. We get hit early but if I can keep them going (fabric tunnel) I'll get a late crop. I think the beans accidentally got more water because near them I was starting new seeds of something so they got watered too. Spinach: what was up with THIS one?! Again, nothing to show for what is typically a very successful crop. What little actually showed up didn't even grow big enough to take one cutting before bolting. - I got braggy about my spinach. Put in a late crop last year Tyee and let it winter over. I think we picked spinach in March. I have a late crop growing now but it should be getting watered more. I have to get spinach planted in early April to get a good crop. See manure info. Beets, Cauli and Cabbage: Cabbage actually showed up long about a week ago, but Beets & Cauli were foliage only. - Don't grow cauli. Cabbage is a napa variety in a location that doesn't get full sun. Mostly neglected. Not great but not bad for the amount of neglect. Beets I work hard at but I noticed last night that I'm running out of red beets. Sure, I didn't plant as many but this time last year they spring crop was huge (but not woody). Again, I don't think I watered enough. I have a later crop of gold beets that got special care because they never seem to do well for me but we think they are sweeter. Onions did ok- I do have decent success with onions. And the potatoes were new to me this year, and did "ok." - I only planted a few red onions and they look pretty good. I'm still working on onion growing skills. I have them among my pepper plants. It's a fantastic year for peppers. I rotate everything every year in a 25 x 50' space. So the same crop doesn't hit the same spot only every 4 years. I usually cover w/black plastic- didn't this year, but haven't had THIS bad of failure ever. I don't fertilize other than tossing on a fresh pile of compost and roto-tilling it in both in the fall & spring. I build raised beds every year. Anyone have any tips other than "it was just too damned hot all summer?" Cuz I'm willing to chalk it all up to that :) - I use the lasagna bed system starting off with layers of wet newspaper and alternating leaves, fresh grass clippings, wood ashes, kitchen scraps etc. The top layer is composted horse manure that I originally located via craigslist. The guy adds kitchen scraps to the pile and mixes it with his tractor It's really nice and we just pay him something like $15 to load our utility trailer. The year I planted spinach before adding the spring composted manure, the spinach looked pretty good ... but another patch planted a few weeks later after the manure application was much bigger. I use steer manure when I have to because it's free but I don't think it is nearly as good. The only composted manure I've seen that I liked better than the horse manure is composted buffalo manure from the place in warner nh. It was black and gorgeous. I'm also a fan of fish fertilizer. All transplants get doused with it. I will also fertilize again about 2 weeks later and any time something doesn't look like it's thriving. Every soil and location is different. In parts of our yard, the water table is quite high. There's a seasonal stream and across from that it can be marshy much of the year. My husband was able to mow in July instead of waiting until August because it was that dry this year. I only watered on weekends and sometimes in between if things weren't looking good. There are plenty of places that right now are like powder. A perennial bed near the stream area isn't too bad, more like normal soil but this is a spot that in the spring will be too wet to work on. The lawn will be sodden. I also grow garlic so I was carefully to keep that watered. I add an organic fertilizer before planting because it's also a heavy feeder. I noticed some of the bulbs at the ends of the row were much smaller so I probably wasn't careful with the fertilizer and water. I don't have raised beds per se (when first built, a lasagna bed is about 18" high but compacts by half the first winter) but I plant in beds. Between the beds are mostly grass paths wide enough for the riding lawn mower. But I also have some narrow alternating pathways that I layer with newspapers covered with grass clippings to keep the weeds down. Next year, that composted material might get shoveled onto the bed or become a bed. Keep in mind, the lawn area can suck up moisture. The bed closest to a mature maple although not close to the canopy area shows a big different in growth. At the end farthest from the tree, the romano beans are at least 18-24" tall but nearest the tree, maybe 12-18". I think the tree is getting the moisture. Sometimes I edge a row with newspapers and grass clippings but I usually don't have enough time. I'm not a fan of black plastic during the growing season. I have a good hand weeder and I seem to like to weed. If you plant close enough like Square Foot Gardening, once plants get big enough, they seem to do a good job shading out the weeds. The photo makes your garden look distant from the house which is what ours is. This year my husband built a high tunnel and to get water to it, dug a trench and put in a yard hydrant. Having a hose faucet closer to the garden has made watering easier. But I still should have done it more often.

Columbine. I'll admit that I'm still not a fan of the multi-colored variety, but I've overcome my prejudice in steps. First Nora Barlow, then a lovely tall yellow one (with spurs!) that floated seed over from my neighbor's yard. I will never get over my hatred (yes, I feel that strongly about it) of yucca. It's been such a trial killing the ones that we inherited when we moved here. The only thing that worked (and I'm not entirely sure that the yucca isn't still seething below the surface) was painting concentrated RoundUp on every leaf, front and back. With the first clump (there are--hopefully WERE--several in our yard) we tried digging up the entire root. We got about four feet deep by four feet wide by eight feet long, thought we got it all and then filled in with new soil and planted flowers...and then the baby yuccas started popping up amongst my newly planted bed. One even cleverly disguised itself amongst daylily foliage and I didn't catch it until it was over a foot tall. So in that bed I am continually pulling up yucca babies. The neighbors across the street have a few clumps in their yard, and when it flowers I am seriously tempted to sneak over there in the middle of the night and clip the flower stem before it's pollinated so seed doesn't float over. Die, yucca, die. Please?

Janet: As you remember, the pertinent sentence gives the reason - "to eliminate the possibility of the fungal diseases overwintering." "In the fall, after a heavy frost, remove and destroy the stems of garden peonies down to 3 inches from the soil surface to eliminate the possibility of the fungal diseases overwintering." Given the fact that this information comes from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension service and given the fact that the climate in North Carolina can be rather humid - thus aiding in the fostering of fungal disease - I believe it to be good advice - even though you might live in a drier climate where fungal diseases might not be a great or moderate matter of concern. Of course, not only should you cut the stems/leaves down, but you should be certain to remove them from around the plant and toss them into the garbage. I used to live on the tallgrass prairie of central Illinois - Peoria and now live in northwestern Michigan - Manistee. The humidity here in Michigan is somewhat less than in Peoria - especially during the summer, but the fall season can be a little wet in both places. Accordingly, I would follow the advice for our neck of the woods. I think it might be wise for you to do the same unless you hear otherwise from Peony growers in climates similar to yours. Again, best regards in your gardening efforts. Bill

Peonies.....you've got peonies?.......in California? They must be California grown, I thought peonies only grew in northern latitudes where they receive a winter of content.... When a plant, that should bloom, doesn't....then the first thing to do is STOP ALL FEEDING....NO MORE FERTILIZER. The idea of this is make the plant think---yes, plants think---that they are in distress and whaddya know....they begin to produce buds....in order to produce flowers..which then produces seeds.....and we know what a seed does. So stop any and all fertilizing until it does bloom. Plants stop blooming...or wont bloom, for many reasons. You have to figure out which ones causes yours to not bloom. Too much water; too much fertilizer; too little water; too high a temperature; too much sun; too little sun' tired out soil; too much shade; too cold at night; too warm at night;.....and it goes on and on. Sometimes too when a plant just refuses to bud and produce bloom, the first thing you might consider is to divide it.....as we do when perennials like lilies when they stop or bloom small or not as many. Usually, just dividing the plant makes the plant want to produce more. Since dividing is easy....make sure each division has at least two 'eyes' and make sure to plant no more than 2" below surface----otherwise, the plant may never bloom. Now, having said that....maybe that's where your trouble lies....its too deep in the ground. Bring it up....its easy too, just put a spade into the ground on the four sides....lifting a bit each and then finally lifting the entire plant out and plant it --at the correct depth--in its now home which you have prepared ahead of time. Water it well, then wait.