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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

> In early Spring, late winter, I planted a flat of Red Burgundy seeds.
> They came up fine and I transplanted them fine, but the largest one is
> only slightly larger than a quarter.    I'm not sure what I did wrong.
> I guess I will plant more red onions in a month or so and hope that by
> this time next year they will make bulbs.

Bev; give the onions more time. I start my onion seeds in Jan/Feb, and the 
large ones (Ailsa Craig) are just starting to bulb up now (golf ball sized 
right now...they will get huge by August). I also have Walla Wallas that are 
about a month behind the Ailsa Craigs.

Summer hasn't arrived here yet (or maybe it came and went and I missed it). 
We get into the 70's during the day, but drop into the 40's some nights. And 
it's been raining almost every day. We just had a good dry spell...3 days 
without rain, but we had a thunderstorm overnight last night, so we are back 
in the mud.  The cool weather crops are loving it  The peas are starting 
flower buds for a second round! The celery and lettuce are phenominal. But 
the peppers, eggplant, and winter squash haven't grown at all in the past 
month. I have cucumbers and melons in the greenhouse, and I actually have to 
shut the windows at night to keep it warm enough to make them happy. The 
tomatoes (and I have over 100 plants this year) are doing well despite the 
cold, rain, and late blight which is hitting all around me. The Big Beef are 
loaded with golfball sized fruit; other (heirloom) varieties have small 
fruit. I have a few Stupices (an early heirlom tomato) that are almost ripe. 
I have a few plants from seed I saved last year; they were Mortgage Lifter, 
but the save seed has come up with potato leaves, so it must have crossed 
with something else, or reverted to an earlier form. I'm anxious to see what 
they produce.

I've been using the few dry days to get some hay in. This year some of the 
desirable plants seem to be increasing. I have a small area near the road 
where I have my hay delivered in the winter, and this year it's full of 
birdsfoot trefoil. In fact, trefoil is everywhere this year (it's sort of 
the northeastern equivalent of alfalfa...which doesn't grow so well here). 
I mainaged to get that all cut and dried and in the barn before the rain 
hit. I also found some hairy vetch there. I left that to go to seed. I like 
using hairy vetch as a cover crop, but it's so expensive. If I can start 
collecting my own seed, I can use more of it.

I also have chamomile growing in my driveway. There have always been a few 
plants, but this year the whole driveway is covered with them. I've 
harvested and dried some.

I always plant a lot of leaf lettuce because it normally goes to seed after 
a few weeks. This year, because it's cool, the first planting is still good 
while I'm transplanting the third planting into the garden. The slugs made 
my Chinses cabbage look like lace; I stripped off all the bad leaves and 
there was a small core of uneaten leaves, but it took 3 heads to get enough 
for stir-fry. Potatoes are just blossoming now, garlic should be ready soon. 
When the garlic is pulled, those beds will be the winter garden; I got Eliot 
Coleman's new book and plan a fall/winter garden of carrots, beets, endive, 
lettuce, as well as leaving the leeks and parnips that are there in the 
ground as long as I can. I'm doing a fall planting of peas, but I keep 
reading that fall plantings don't do as well.

The strawberries (Alpine and everbearing) didn't set many fruit, probably 
because of all the rain. They are still in constant blossom, but few fruit. 
I have a bumper crop of pears, and a few peaches, but NO apples. I have 4 
producing-size apple trees, and they had blossoms, but the frost must have 
gotten the fruit. Funny, because the pears weren't affected at all by the 
frost, and lot of the peaches survived. Maybe it depends on the exact stage 
they are in when the frost hits. I'm continuing to spray the peaches and 
pears with Surround, and they look good.

I'm starting to be overrun with cucumbers, lettuce, and greenbeans, so I've 
been trying to find the best way to sell them. I tried selling through a 
local farmstand, but what they offered to pay for my produce wasn't worth 
driving there. The farmers' market is once a week, and I have produce more 
often than that.  If I man my own farmstand, I can't be in the garden, so 
I'm thinking of using an honor system and not leaving anymore produce or 
money out there than I can afford to lose. People here are generally honest, 
and ther are quire a few self-serve, honor system stands.

So far, it's a a strange, but not unproductive gardening year.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA