Last year, 3 cucumber plants gave me enough cucumbers for me, my wife, and my 4 year old. We always slice them and eat them as a snack. 6 tomato plants was enough and we even shared with the neighbors. 6 jalapeño plants kept me well stocked since only I eat them. I have a 10x20 "fool's square" (someone here called it that and I loved the term) but this year I am increasing the garden by using two additional parts of my yard. Up until last year, I had one peach tree but last year I planted two apple trees, one plum tree, one nectarine and a pear. This year I am planting a cocktail tree and a strawberry tree from a catalog. Also, I already put my blackberry, blueberry, and two raspberry bushes on the ground (all from Sam's). All in all my gardening efforts should feed all four of us fine.

How will you turn this pile with the landscape fabric , bricks and chicken wire in the way ? It is easier ( for me ) to build a more stable fence with a moveable opening simply to keep the dogs out of the pile and to let me get in to stir . I have a dog that likes to eat decomposed grass clippings - yuck ! I also have an armadillo that loves to rummage through the compost and constantly upended the chicken wire circle no matter how well I staked the wire down - even weighted the edges with bricks . The armadillo won every time . Now I have the shed as one side and left over chain link gates as the other three sides . I can swing one side open to get in and all the other critters stay out . With very little mixing , I have perfect compost in no time thanks to the heat and rains . I prefer compost directly on the ground with no floor . Much easier to manage and allows the earthworms easy access . Start off simple and go from there .

I start my tomatoes in an unheated garage after solstice in Oregon. After the seedlings come up, I take them off the heat mat and use just the lights close and have a fan running to imitate wind. They are very stocky that way. I also bring the tray out on sunny days a few minutes and work up to more. When I pot up the the first leaves they go into an unheated green house and I open up the green house for a part of the day. They are very stalky that way.

My mother's best friend from her first job lived to be 102. I kept up with her by phone. One day she told me how she and her mother laughed when they discovered that my mother had never ironed *anything*. No, Mom was not raised in luxury! My grandmother earned a living in a laundry when she first emigrated from Scotland to NYC as a teenager. She was the Ironing Lady -- using those big, heavy irons like those that some of you are using as doorstops. (Imagine lifting those things on and off a stovetop in a city laundry in the heat of summer!) She continued to do all family ironing, and there was a ton of it in the early 1900's. My mother never did iron very well. I remember her washing out a handkerchief in a motel sink and spreading it out to dry flat on the bathroom's tile wall. Most of the time I do 'thumb ironing': Spreading out a garment before it's completely dry.