Like Llaz, I had a challenging year; a few of my perennial favorites had to take a year off, to be replaced by shorter season alternatives. I'll list them all anyway. Snap beans: "Fortex". I also grow at least one other pole snap, including: "Emerite", "Pole 191" (a.k.a. white-seeded Kentucky Wonder), "Rattlesnake", or "Garafal Oro". Shell beans: "Ma Williams" (early pole) and/or "Bird Egg #3" (late pole) and/or "PI 507984" (very early bush). At least one of these, depending upon the weather. "PI 507984" proved itself this year, in a very short season. Dry beans: "Brita's Foot Long" or "Soissons Vert" (high yield, outstanding flavor) Sweet corn: "Miracle" hybrid (highly disease resistant, very large ears w/tight tip cover, great flavor) Summer squash: "Zucchetta Rampicante" (borer & disease resistant, excellent frozen quality) Eggplant: "Casper" and "Diamond" (cold & Verticillium resistant, high-yielding) Okra: "Pentagreen" (cold & Verticillium resistant, the only okra I can grow reliably this far North). Proved itself this year, with a short, cool Summer. Swiss chard: "Special Large White Ribbed" (flat leaves, easy to clean, very wide stalks) Other greens: Water spinach, Egyptian spinach, Moringa oleifera (tree grown as annual, high-protein leaves) Cucumber: "WI 5207" (highly disease resistant, parthenocarpic, good climber, great flavor) Tomatoes: "Sojourner South American" (very large red oxheart, prolific), "Elfin" (OP grape tomato, extremely prolific) Peppers: "Greygo" (very large cheese type, sweet, tender skin), "Beaver Dam" (large pointed Hungarian type, very early, medium hot), "Pizza" (highly prolific, gourmet green peppers just before frost, outstanding keeper) Soybeans: "Sapporo Midori" (edamame, early, very large seed) Pea: "Purple Podded Parsley" (table pea, purple pods) Watermelon: "Blacktail Mountain" (very early, high Brix, good keeper) Garlic: 10 varieties (mostly hardneck), plus Elephant Garlic & Pearl Onions (which are really bulbing leeks) Since I am a seed saver, many other vegetables are grown in a rotation... I never have the same garden twice. But I do grow varieties each year from the categories below: - one adzuki bean - one mung bean - Runner beans: 2 - Limas: 2 - Yardlongs: 3-4 (will include the bush yardlong grown this year) - Cowpeas: 2-3 - one C. maxima squash (buttercup, hubbard, banana, kabocha) - one C. pepo squash (acorn, naked-seeded pumpkin, spaghetti) - one hot pepper for drying - Tomatoes: one banana-type paste, 1-4 red paste types, one non-red paste, one potato-leaf, one non-red slicer - one basil - soybeans: 3-4 additional edamame In addition, there will be many other trials each year for pole beans, soybeans, peas, tomatoes, and peppers.

Wow Claire...that before photo is amazing. You can really see where everything has changed. I can see that retaining wall so differently. The hoop and the pathway make such a difference. It looks like a different property! I guess that was before you put a shed in too? You get a lot of bloom on that rose bush. Very pretty. It is a pretty shade of red too. I really like your front yard. I like the large front window on your house and it looks like you have shaker shingles? One of my favorites...very Cape Cod too. Is that Miscanthus Morning light? What are the pink flowers? I have a rock border like that along a few beds in my back yard, because I really do like a casual rock edge. No it is not confusing. I can see the path and the hoop and now it all makes sense to where everything is placed. So why is your backyard so different? I have a large pile of broken pavers that I am going to use inside my borders for access and that will be one of my first projects in the spring, too. I will be moving a lot of plant material around then so it will be the right time to do it. LOL....that is funny about the cat. We don't have a cat so I was just guessing. I didn't realize catnip meant catnap..lol. I can see your photos perfectly and had no trouble viewing them at all. As for the stone company...I forgot you were on the cape. I probably won't be going down there for stone. [g] Thanks for sharing all your photos! Paige...I am always amazed when someone takes down a tree. I assume it had to come down. I say that because I have a large Norway Maple that I hate but I just don't have the courage to take it down. It is also a pretty expensive project from what I have heard. I would love more sun. Do you have any photos of your new beds? Anyone else have some of their projects done?

HEy Bill, Thanks again for awesome pics!! You make me want to move to SoCal!! Thanks for including the pots. It gives me an idea of what I am going to have in a few years(unless I cut them back like crazy!) That blue is similiar to the pot I put my JJ Orange in. Thankfully it has a nice BIG draining hole in it. I looked around at the pots for some time before finding the one I got. I thought at first that I would just put the blck plastic pot into the blue decorative terra cotta but I didn't need to worry about it. TLD I had a cutting of. Laura gave me a smallpiece from hers but it didn't root:( I was REALLY BUMMED about that. I read an old post that said that TLD also has decorative foliage. I am really getting into the seedlings. I wish I had better acess to seeds. Right now i have two varieties growing from seed. Mardi Gras(thanks to Jandey!)and Kimo. They may not produce the best flowers but there's always that chance that you can end up with a seedling that is actually better than the parent. I believe this is how the Jack ORange came to be. Sonia told me she found it mixed in with John's other seedlings years ago. The plumeria was labelled CS2, so I am taking a guess and saying that it must have California Sunset in it's parentage. I am going to have to look up the yellows you listed. I did get a noid yellow from Mimi. That took over 3 MONTHS TO ROOT FOR ME! I just hope it was well worth the wait. Enjoy your holiday Bill! Andrew

I grow Monkshood, my big plant is the blue and it is pushing 5 and a half foot.They are a little slow to take off but once established and if watered well especially earlier on in the season they easily grow to the 5 foot mark and above.Mine started growing a bit earlier this year from the odd spring we had ..Yours is just loving the area ,, next year it could be back down to the 4 ft tall mark pending the weather.. M