Hello All,

You probably thought I ran off never to return.... You ain't that lucky I'm afraid!

Quick note: the system here lost all my info and I had to re-register and was able to use my original info. There isn't a time limit here is there?

Anyway, on with my story.

Here in NC, it was a very bad year for almost anyone trying to utilize the soil for any kind of growing. We are in a drought situation and have been all summer and the particular plot of land my house sits on seems to have it's own micro-climate. If getting only about 5-6 rainy days all together wasn't bad enough, my little plot of earth was unfortunate enough to NOT even get some of the few little the showers that fell in town just 8 miles away. So as bad as our area is in general, my garden failed to get some of much needed liquid gold that fell a few miles down the road.

We tried desperately to water but after 2 consecutive months of a water bill in excess of $100 we were forced to let nature take it's course except for a few plants. About all that we really were able to harvest were peppers, the HOT varieties. Even the bell peppers didn't make a showing. They bloomed and even with watering they never produced fruit. We got about 7-8 small tomatoes, no corn, 1 serving of beans if you put the butter beans, pole beans and limas all in one pot.....one serving of beans for each of us. But bless the hot peppers as we are still getting plenty of those.

This gives you an idea of how we faired this summer. I can't blame it all on the rain because we were ill prepared when we planted. We didn't properly amend the soil. It was virgin soil and about all we did in preparation was till it, put a very little compost on and plant. We had talked about a garden and with my health weren't sure if we would actually plant. Then on one particularly good day we decided that was the day and rented a tiller and proceeded.....not a very smart thing to do because of the way the garden turned out plus my illness made me pay dearly for the abrupt decision.

We are now planning for next spring and this time we will bring in a truck of amendment, ie: compost, and try to fix this stuff we call dirt which is mostly red clay and rock. If anyone has any input for any special additives please let me know.

Our biggest concern now is whether we will get the rain we will need. The entire state is under water restrictions and I told my wife that if by the end of March the water situation hasn't turned around then we may bypass planting. The forecast is for a drier than normal winter and as of today many of the reservoirs are dangerously low. So if we don't get the rain we need that will end next years crop before it is even planted.

So until I have something interesting to share I will be in the background drooling over what others are doing.

,

k4lop

Gerry