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applestar
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Re: Applestar's 2014 Tomato Gardens

I soaked some pole and runner beans overnight 5/17-18 and rinse/drained them 4 times yesterday. Today, practically all of the Kentucky Wonder and Purple Podded Pole beans had germinated, and a handful of the Scarlet and Sunset Runner Beans, so. I sowed them in the VG raised bed gardens. These are what's left in the sprouter:
Scarlet Runner, Sunset Runner, KY Wonder, Purple Podded Pole, white Marvel of Venice
Scarlet Runner, Sunset Runner, KY Wonder, Purple Podded Pole, white Marvel of Venice
The white on the runner beans are not germination but attachment scar/bellybutton, but there IS one starting to germinate at 12:00.

I also sowed some overgrown Sayamusume edamame. They were starting to green up and had to be planted or they would have spoiled, so I just stuck them anywhere I could. :roll:

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digitS'
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Any thoughts on the reported "allelopathy" issues with sunflowers, AppleStar?

I have had weeds from the nightshade family, first show up in my garden under sunflowers. The sunflowers certainly didn't seem to have any toxic effect on them! I have thought better of planting pole beans or anything that looks sensitive amongst the sunflowers. Mostly, they grow in the same places in the veggie garden, year after year.

No tomato worms since I started doing this! Sunflowers attract finches and chickadees right thru the season. It is like the birds are establishing "dibs" on the seeds long before they show up.

Steve

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applestar
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Oh interesting! I hadn't considered the sunflower allelopathy. Most of the pole beans went in under tomato and pea trellis, and under the cherry trees, but as indicated on the map a few were planted along the sunflower row so I guess I'll find out. I *think* sunflowers and cucurbits (melons and cukes) are supposed to be compatible.

Sunflowers and cherry tomatoes are to alternate along the fence along the apple tree so that should work out based on what you said. I checked on the sunflower seedlings there this morning, and they seem to be growing strong, so I'll go ahead and plant the cherry tomato seedlings. I know apple tree and tomatoes/solanacea are compatible, but I wonder if there will be negative influence from the sunflowers on the apple tree.... :?: :idea: Maybe I'll plant the tomatoes a little closer to the apple tree to hopefully provide a bit of root zone buffer.

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applestar
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I had to plant two more watermelons in the SFHX watermelon patch. So now, I DO have 8 watermelons planted in that space. But there is a wide stretch between the watermelons' raised row and the fence and they can roam in that direction if they want, :()
image.jpg
The Charleston Gray that was wilty (furthest plant) had perked up a bit this morning... But got a bit limp again later in the sun. I guess something is wrong with its root system -- maybe I accidentally broke it's roots while transplanting without realizing it

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applestar
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Update photo and map of the "Sunflower House" (SFH) tomato garden and the "Sunflower House Extension" (SFHX) watermelon patch plus the "Haybale Row" (HBR) protected squash patch
image.jpg
HBR, SFH, SFHX
HBR, SFH, SFHX
I have to say Dancing with Smurfs and Amethyst Cream stand out:
Green Beauty snow peas, Amethyst Cream, and Dancing with Smurfs
Green Beauty snow peas, Amethyst Cream, and Dancing with Smurfs
Not as startlingly dark, but Brazilian Beauty, too
Brazilian Beauty
Brazilian Beauty
And I didn't know Royal Hillbilly would exhibit some antho as well (though this one could be a sign of nutrient deficiency)
Royal Hillbilly
Royal Hillbilly
This cross's variegation is still going strong:
Variegated PL x Striped Big Cheef F3#3
Variegated PL x Striped Big Cheef F3#3
But Faelan's First Snow is losing variegation due to heat as expected:
Faelan's First Snow
Faelan's First Snow

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lakngulf
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Not only are you a good member of PETC, but also DETC (Draws Everything Too Close).

Plants look healthy. good job

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applestar
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In the Patio Side Tomato Garden, Blush and Maglia Rose will have to wait a little longer before they can move into the 36 inch windowbox -- the Little Marvel peas are just starting to bloom. But the forcast for next week is in the 80's so it won't be too long.
Future Blush and Maglia Rose windowbox
Future Blush and Maglia Rose windowbox

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applestar
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...aaaand... The WINNER of first fruits set and recognizably growing for the 2014 season goes to... Anmore Treasures! :clap:
Anmore Treasures
Anmore Treasures
This one was one of the few that DID sprout from the earliest 2/24 sowing on 2/28. I had massive failures from that sowing and tried sowing the earlier maturing varieties again on 3/12, but had to give up on growing the later maturing varieties (that didn't sprout) for this year. :(

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lakngulf
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applestar wrote:...aaaand... The WINNER of first fruits set and recognizably growing for the 2014 season goes to... Anmore Treasures! :clap: :(
Nice! I love the types of tomatoes that put on like a bunch of grapes. Great sight, and most get ripe at the same time so you just pick a handful at one swoop.

I have Sweet 100s that look similar to that. Also, have some good fruit on Brandywine, Better Boy, Celebrity and Fantastic. My wife asked yesterday when we could expect first ripe tomato. I think the earliest I have had decent harvest is Father's Day weekend. These will have to hurry to get ripe by then, but sunshine, water and good soil, you never know.

Juliuskitty
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I have to say, I am loving this tour and the explanations. Your Amethyst cream is blowing me away. Mine never got even close to that dark. Pretty cool 8) . I can't wait until you start your taste thread. :D

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applestar
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I can't wait to start tasting them either! ...and I'd love to hear about how everyone else's tomatoes are doing, what varieties you are growing and what you think about their flavors, etc. All the Gardener's in the southern regions are/will be harvesting already or soon. :D

Thanks for letting me know you are enjoying my posts. I was beginning to wonder....

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digitS'
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I carried the youngest and the last tomato plants out to the spaces we left for them in the tomato patch today. That involves a pickup ride of nearly 20 miles, one way.

Luckily, I could entertain myself planting some interesting bean seed. The winds were gusting above 30mph. I felt sorry for the plants already out there!

So, Casey's and Coyote came back home after a "visit" to their future home. . .

Steve :)

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RogueRose
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I should be part of that club! I plant everything close and pile everything in! I have beans, watermelons and corn all in the same bed. I did melons and corn in the same bed a few years ago. They did well - but I wasn't successful with melons - applestar, since you are in NJ what melons do you plant? I had trouble with my melons cracking. I talked to my friend and he said that melons don't like clay. I amended my soil by putting in some manure compost and lots of grit to help with drainage so we'll see how it goes this year.

In my tomato bed - which I think I spread pretty wide this year now that I'm looking at it. I put carrots as a border and planted some beans and some soy but the soy doesn't seem to want to come up. So it might just be the string beans.

If I can get the lettuce to hurry up and grow I will harvest that and put in more corn there. Or beans. I tried cranberry beans but they don't particularly seem to like to grow in this soil either. Bleh.

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applestar
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The way I see it you'll never know unless you try. :()

Have you seen this thread?
Subject: 2014 pre-germinating/sprouting experiment Peas, Corn, Curcs
I ran out of space in the thread title but I also pre-germinated edamame/soy, and all kinds of beans including Good Mother Stallard which is like cranberry. I need to post an update in that thread that they are all sprouting in this heat.

Melons -- honeydew grew well in the past. This year I'm growing leftover seeds and bonus seeds of musk melons.

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applestar
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Started planting the 3-gal Squares (3GS)
3GS
3GS
Vegetable Garden raised beds:
VGC
VGC
VGD
VGD
VGD-VGE-VGB fence buffer row of sunflowers, cukes, pole beans, watermelon
VGD-VGE-VGB fence buffer row of sunflowers, cukes, pole beans, watermelon
SFHX watermelons:
SFHX watermelon patch
SFHX watermelon patch
(the closest seedling is a volunteer cucurbit I left to grow -- not sure what it is....)

Lab_Man
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You have a very nice garden. I love how you mulch around everything. It reminds me of my mantra, "work smarter not harder."

I too prescribe to the "how much can I cram into garden" crowd.

Let me tell you, no matter how big your garden is, it isn't big enough.

My Father in law tilled a 20' by 40' garden while I was away on a business trip. After my tomatoes comprised 1/2 of my garden I expanded it to 30' by 50'.

I will be watching this thread with envy. :mrgreen:

How many tomatoes did you end up planting?

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applestar
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Thank you! :D
It looks like I planted 47 tomato plants in the ground. Now working on planting micro-dwarfs, dwarfs, and other compact varieties in containers. :()

Good luck with your garden, too! :wink:

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applestar
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More 3GS:
Cherokee Tiger Large Red (winter '13-14), Anmore Treasures, Utyonok, Balkon Tiger F4, Maglia Rosa, Blush
Cherokee Tiger Large Red (winter '13-14), Anmore Treasures, Utyonok, Balkon Tiger F4, Maglia Rosa, Blush
Green Gail (Large), Coyote, San Marzano Nano, 42 Days, Rainbow Dwarf
Green Gail (Large), Coyote, San Marzano Nano, 42 Days, Rainbow Dwarf

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applestar
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The shriveled up tiny -- we're talking like marble-size to quarter size -- last year's harvest potatoes that had never-the-less had sprouted into a tangled mess in the paper grocery bag in the pantry. These were planted in the front row of the Patio Side Tomato Garden without much hope that they would grow.

Today, I noticed thumb-sized potato shoots starting to grow. :()

Thinking back, I believe these are "Eric's TPS" potato harvest. So this is going to be doubly interesting. 8)

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applestar
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I started planting the peppers yesterday:
Vegetable Garden Raised Beds map updated with peppers in VGD and VGB
Vegetable Garden Raised Beds map updated with peppers in VGD and VGB
I thought this is pretty late to be planting them out considering we had early Memorial Day weekend a week ago. The crazy thing is I noticed this morning that tonight's forecast for overnight low is 48°F :eek:


...the nasturtiums are not coming up very well. Only sporadically here and there. Maybe this means they don't respond well to the pre-germination technique. :? Since I'm out of nasturtium seeds but have a bunch of snapdragon "Black Prince" seedlings started, I may end up planting them where I indicated for nasturtiums. I'll just have to nurse the nasturtiums that did sprout along (not using any as trap crop) so I'll have flowers and leaves for my salad and sandwiches this summer.

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applestar
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VG and Apple Guild progress update photos:
VG raised beds overall
VG raised beds overall
image.jpg (69.19 KiB) Viewed 9449 times
VG Cherry Espalier bed
VG Cherry Espalier bed
VGB sunflowers with watermelon
VGB sunflowers with watermelon
VGD sunflowers with cukes and beans
VGD sunflowers with cukes and beans
Enterprise Apple Guild sunflowers and tomatoes
Enterprise Apple Guild sunflowers and tomatoes
Enterprise Apple Guild map
Enterprise Apple Guild map

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applestar
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FINALLY brought these basils out to harden off :roll:
image.jpg

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digitS'
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AppleStar!

You must have very small feet.

Nice looking basil. Much of our basil was cut before setting out. The plant makes quite a bit of quick growth in 4-packs. About 6" can be clipped off and, out they go. They have already begun to show signs of recovery and should bush out well.

Steve

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applestar
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I'm short, but I clomp around in knee high rubber boots, so I don't know how delicately I could walk. :roll: :lol:

...it seems like the tomatoes are not growing very fast, but it might be just because I'm comparing their relative growth to those of corn and squash.
image.jpg

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applestar
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I'm a little worried because I keep thinking I see signs of russet mites on some of the tomato plants. One Pit Viper has succumbed and the surviving CT Striped Plum that I thought was doing well has green fruits on it now, but I had to remove most of the leaves yesterday. -- these are the leftover plants from the Winter Indoor grow out.

Among the 3 gal Squares, Annmore Treasures with fruits is starting to have that russeted appearance and I didn't realize so I hadn't isolated it. I put a tiny little brown spider on it, but am not confident that it can handle this. -- WHERE ARE MY MITE PREDATORS!? ...hoping to bring some green lacewing larvae and ladybug larvae around.
Non-Chemical Control

There are a few of predators that feed on the tomato russet mite, but most of them do not seem feasible for a biological control program. Bailey and Keifer (1943) observed that a predatory mite, Seiulus sp., was effective in controlling tomato russet mite on tomatoes grown in home gardens. However, this predatory mite was not effective as a commercial biological control agent.

There are other predatory mites which feed on tomato russet mite. Typhlodromus occidentalis (Nesbitt), Pronematus ubiquitis (McGregor), andLasioseius sp. were predatory mites noted by Rice (1961). The Zambia Department of Agriculture (1977) implied that the predatory mite,Phytoseiulus persimilis (Athias-Henriot), may have controlled tomato russet mite. De Moraes and Lima (1983) observed that Euseius concordis(Chant) will feed on tomato russet mite. They indicated that its effectiveness as a predator of the tomato russet mite would be limited by the presence of Tetranychus evansi (Baker and Pritchard). The problem is with the webbing of T. evansi. It hinders the activity of E. concordis. Another problem is the presence of tomato russet mite with T. evansi for most of the year.
https://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/cro ... lycope.htm

I think this is a question of foreign pests. I don't believe Russet mites are normally present around here, which probably means their predators aren't local either, and the local Garden Patrol may not be equipped to handle the situation. :?
DISTRIBUTION

The tomato russet mite is cosmopolitan in distribution. It is present in almost all areas where solanaceous crops are grown (Jeppson, et. al., 1975). The exception is in southern and northern latitudes below 60 degrees and above 60 degrees, respectively (Perring and Farrar, 1986). These latitudes do not appear to have conditions suitable for the tomato russet mite. This mite has been in Hawaii since 1942 and is present on the islands of Kauai, Maui and Oahu.
https://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/cro ... lycope.htm

...we're in the 40's here. So maybe it's the hot spell we had in the last week that helped them thrive, but the dips in the overnight temps we're experiencing now may help to slow them down.

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applestar
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More update photos :()
Patio Side Tomato Garden
Patio Side Tomato Garden
Vegetable Garden Raised Beds
Vegetable Garden Raised Beds
VGA and VGB
VGA and VGB
VGD-VGE-VGB Sunflower barrier fence row
VGD-VGE-VGB Sunflower barrier fence row
SFH
SFH
SFHX (watermelon patch)
SFHX (watermelon patch)

pow wow
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Your tomato garden looks great Applestar! I read that a garlic oil spray will get rid of those Russet Mites.

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applestar
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Thanks! I might try that. 8)

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applestar
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:clap: First tomatoes to be harvested this season :clap:
ANMORE Treasures
ANMORE Treasures
image.jpg (15.18 KiB) Viewed 8951 times
(I have better handwriting than that -- I really do -- but the pentip kept on snagging on the papertowel :roll:)
Last edited by applestar on Fri Jun 20, 2014 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Fixed typo in name of tomato (thanks DigitS)

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applestar
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ZLUTA Kytice in VGB doing its Multi-flora thing....
Zluta Kytice
Zluta Kytice

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lakngulf
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applestar wrote::clap: First tomatoes to be harvested this season :clap:
Congratulations! Enjoy

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digitS'
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Yay!!

You worked too hard writing that name, AppleStar. One "n" can be dropped.

In a recent blog post, Tatiana noted that there is never any "heat" in that little British Columbia community's days. She is growing and commenting on cold-resistant tomatoes this year :).

Steve

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applestar
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Haha you are right, Steve! I keep wanting to write Annemore because of my friends name and thought I did well dropping the "e" .... :oops: (I'll fix that now)

I'll have to go look at her blog, thanks for the heads up. :D

Lakngulf -- thanks so much! Lots of little green ones and blossoms on mist of the plants now, so there will many many more before we know it. (I should start getting things ready for the avalanche :roll: )

VeggieGardenGal
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Great Garden !

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applestar
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Thank you :D

Here are some update photos of the raised bed VG garden:
Overall view from same direction as before
Overall view from same direction as before
Neves Azorian Red, Terhune, and Grandma Oliver's Chocolate.<br /> Flathead Monster Orange and Tidwell German on the other side.  <br />Pole and runner beans reached the top of the bamboo poles <br />so I added cross beams.
Neves Azorian Red, Terhune, and Grandma Oliver's Chocolate.
Flathead Monster Orange and Tidwell German on the other side.
Pole and runner beans reached the top of the bamboo poles
so I added cross beams.
Sunflowers have reached the top of the fence. I hung nylon netting trellises on the picket fence for the pole/runner beans and cucumbers:
Sunflowers' lower leaves keep getting spotty or yellowing, <br />but I think the beans and cucumbers will fill in to supply the <br />barrier.
Sunflowers' lower leaves keep getting spotty or yellowing,
but I think the beans and cucumbers will fill in to supply the
barrier.

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ReptileAddiction
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Everything looks great!

Juliuskitty
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applestar wrote:ZLUTA Kytice in VGB doing its Multi-flora thing....
image.jpg
Now that I like! :D

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applestar
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I practiced removing sepals, petals, and anther cones from all pre-yellow petal flower buds from about 1/2 of a Zluta Kytice floral truss. Removed yellow petaled and immature buds. If all goes well, I will collect pollen from a likely cross prospect (am thinking Terhune) tomorrow or day after tomorrow and attempt my first cross of the season. Also practiced with a couple of a Neves Azorian Red and a Terhune (Broke a mega bloom Grandma Oliver's Chocolate blossom :( ), and managed a couple of tiny Coyote blossoms (I want to try crossing this one with Terhune too for the clear epi).

I have yet to succeed with getting a cross to "take" so you may be hearing about many more tries. :>

Here are update photos of the Raised Veg garden beds again. They just keep growing! :lol:
Crisscrossed top with overhead bamboo support for the <br />exuberant beans.  I wonder if they would make too much <br />shade?
Crisscrossed top with overhead bamboo support for the
exuberant beans. I wonder if they would make too much
shade?
View from the VGA corner
View from the VGA corner
Close up of the runner bean flowers :D
Scarlet Emperor
Scarlet Emperor
Sunset
Sunset
I hope I do have Purple Podded Pole beans growing here somewhere. Their magenta blossoms will be gorgeous added to the mix, along with other pole beans which should have white blossoms. :-()

JohnnyB60
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Wow! It sure is nice. I wish I could have a garden like that in the desert. 8)

Juliuskitty
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Oh my, good luck with the cross! Very very cool 8)
Runner bean flowers are beautiful.



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