Gardening rewards!

[RR]

For the last forty plus years, I've looked forward to one of gardening's most rewarding moments . In 2005, it happened this morning. Standing in the garden, having just picked the year's very first, fully vine-ripened tomato, eating it out of hand, like an apple, while it's still warm from the morning sun, and sharing it with my wife and gardening partner. Life is good.

Ross Southern Ontario, Canada. New AgCanada Zone 5b

43º17'15" North 80º13'32" West To email, remove the obvious from my address.

[Steve Calvin]

Took you forty years to grow a 'mater?!? ;-)

Yup, nothing like picking fresh veggies for salads, sandwiches, or just themselves. My tomatoes are going gangbusters. I've had so many I had to start making sauce and freezing it 'cause we just couldn't keep up. I'm not complaining though mind ya, this winter I'll have great frozen tomato sauce. Summer squash is doing very well too.

My garlic did very well this year. My peppers and cukes aren't fairing quite as well but the brussel sprouts are beginning to come into their own. The jury is still out on those though.

[OmManiPadmeOmelet]

Oh yeah... ;-)

How SWEET it is!

[Kenneth D. Schillinger]

The rewards of gardening are surely here this year. My tomatoes won't be ready for another week or two, but I have had peas, potatoes, green beans, peaches (I just got the biggest kick out of watching my wife and one of her friends walk by, peach juice dripping from their chins while they were eating their peaches). My wife and I have also been eating Zucchini nearly every day for the last month and a half or so, The salad greens were great, and I still have several types of squash as well as the corn nearly ready to eat. As you say; This is a very rewarding year for gardening. Ken. Marine Zone 8

All incoming and outgoing mail scanned using Norton Anti Virus, by the shores of beautiful Puget Sound.

[TQ]

'05 on the coastal plane of Zone 7 has been the best year in the last 10. A bit too dry, even with mulch. Few pests other than Stink bug, a few Jap. beetles, and a little worm that got into the peaches.. No cuke beetle, no aphids, and no squash bug this year. Leaf diseases more or less under control.

Romaine, strawberries, and cukes are out but the zucchini (triple crop), tomatoes, bell peppers, apples, and raspberries all doing well. Late crop of romaine germinated this week with seed taken from matured spring lettuce