Did you buy your tomato plants from Wal-mart, K-mart, Home Depot, or Lowes?  Or even from a local nursery which doesn't grow their own plants and instead buys them from  Bonnie?  Across the eastern U.S., these stores have pulled all tomato plants from their shelves due to a late blight epidemic.  It won't hurt you, but your plants will go kaput.

Some people even speculate that commercial growers might be affected.  That would mean few fresh tomatoes and potatoes in the grocery stores this summer.  To read about the symptoms of late blight and more, visit this Boston Globe article.

Of course, if you grow your own heirloom tomatoes from seed every year, like we do, you're probably okay.  Still, if your neighbors' plants are infected, yours might be too.  If you see symptoms, you're best off yanking the plants out and burning them or putting them somewhere far from the compost pile.

The rain has been good to us lately, but this week it came up a little short.

We had to make a small change to the creek pumping system by adding a separate line from the pump.

This provides a more direct path to the sprinklers and has increased the pressure by a noticeable degree.

The picture shows one of those large plastic storage units at the bottom of the creek that provides a nice place for the pump to rest. It also keeps the pump in place. The intake is towards the middle, so it helps to prop the hose end up on a brick.

You'll want to keep crop rotation in mind as you plant your fall garden.  This can be a bit tricky since many of your fall vegetables are in very popular families:

• Crucifers: broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi
• Legumes: beans, peas
• Umbellifers: carrots, parsnips
• Nightshades: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant

So, don't plant your peas after your summer beans, your kale after your spring cabbage.  Instead, plant crucifers after beans, fall peas after your spring potatoes.

Good luck with your fall garden!  If you've got any additional pointers to share, I'd love to hear them --- I'm still working on perfecting my fall garden.

One of the major benefits of gardening organically is the wildlife.  Our garden is so full of life that sometimes I have to literally watch my step to make sure that I don't tread on a toad.  During our lunch breaks, we watch hummingbirds fight over the bee balm, and gnatcatchers, buntings, and bluebirds hunt bugs among the vegetables.  Then there are the butterflies, dozens of species with colors spanning the rainbow.  Without poisons around, the forest ecosystem creeps right into our yard.

The deer have stayed away from the garden since the nightly banging has begun.

I discovered that making a curve out of the tin at the bottom helps it roll off the stick and prevents a situation where it gets stuck.

Adding a couple of timers was Anna's good idea.

Now we don't have to worry about forgetting to switch the things on before bedtime.