Thank you, Dawn! Your advice and encouragement helped me a lot when I was getting started. Looking forward to participating more on this forum again - I have so much more to learn!

Hi Canokie! Welcome back.

I remember your posts about your garden beds! It was about the time I was new here.

heyhey Welcome back!

Thanks :) I'm glad to be back! I can't believe you guys remember me :)

Of course we do. Welcome back. I can not believe how long I have been lurking here.

canokie, Oh c'mon, how could you think we'd forget you, Shelley? Are your garden beds still built/fenced like Fort Knox to keep the dogs and bunnies out?

You know, once you are a member of this gardening family, we are never going to forget you and you're always going to be a part of us. I remember you back quite a few years....probably until at least maybe 2012? Possibly further back, but the older I get, the less sure I am about things like what happened in what year.

Dawn

Thanks you guys! :) I remember all of you - you helped me so much in getting my garden started and then through those first few years. I started gardening in 2010 or 2011 but I can't remember when I found this place.. probably 2012. My garden went through several different layouts before I finally settled on this one, which consists of 2' wide beds along the fence in my back yard (all three sides), leaving my tiny backyard as open as possible.

Hey, does anyone know if there is a way to get notified when somebody responds to your post? I can't figure out this new format...

Anyway, yes, my garden still does pretty much resemble Fort Knox lol... the dogs have given up and the rabbits can no longer get in, but I have an ongoing battle with the wood rats, especially starting in late summer through the fall. Of all the things I have had to battle in my garden, this is the most hideous - especially the trapping part :( Actually, these rats don't look like my mental image of a rat - they look like big mice, kinda cute actually - not those hideous sewer rats. But, they can still carry Hanta virus or so I have read, and they sure can be destructive. I thought it was rabbits eating my green bean shoots and my baby greens in my fall garden, and I figured they must have a helicopter because there is just no other way they could get in. But I finally saw the rats. Now I have to keep traps set, otherwise they just destroy my fall garden before it can get established. Has anybody else ever had that happen? I don't know why all the weird stuff happens to me! But I guess I shouldn't complain - at least I don't have snakes. Dawn, I have read some of your snake stories and I don't think I have the fortitude to deal with that one! Tending to my rat traps is pushing my limits.

Every year I try new things and learn a lot. Recently, while planning my garden, it finally dawned on me that I don't have to keep growing a bunch of tomatoes if tomatoes give me heartburn and I rarely eat them anymore. Same with peppers. :( So this year I am just going to grow a couple of big slicers (for some reason, toasted tomato sandwiches bother me less than tomato sauces or tomatoes in salad - go figure!) I think I will grow a Brandy Wine (or maybe Brandy Boy?) and a Cherokee Purple or Black Krim, and that's it. I want to focus on lots of greens (year around), onions, white potatoes, carrots, beets, peas, cabbage, and cauliflower, then the warmer season crops like sweet potatoes, corn, beans, cucumbers, and melons. I'm also growing blueberries, strawberries, and, new this year, boysenberries. Last year I was able to keep dinosaur kale and swiss chard going all summer long, and that was a big breakthrough for me. I used to buy a lot of organic greens and now I am able to grow them year around, which saves me quite a bit of money. The trick seems to be growing them along the sides of the house where there is shade part of the day, and focusing on dinosaur kale and swiss chard for the hottest part of the summer. Most of my front landscaping is herbs now - lavender, rosemary, sage, oregano and thyme, with dill and chives in the partial shade - and I have learned how to cook with them and now use them often. This year I want to add one more raised bed (for a total of 14) and do something with the ugly corner of my yard that features a manhole - I'm thinking a water feature or strawberry barrel on top of the manhole with cutting flowers all around. I know nothing about flowers so that will be my next challenge, along with all of the challenges that my vegetable garden provides every season :)

Shelley

I recommend zinnias. Easy peasy and lovely to cut!