Summer

In honor of Summer and my favorite American satirist, a qoute: "Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." -- Mark Twain.
I got a Cercis from the woods folks and it is going to make it! My pole beans are climbing the porch and what a great idea that turned out to be. The leaves face out for a full on foliage extravaganza, while the flowers (and, of course, the subsequent beans) are at waist height for easy picking. the heirlooms all worked out, even the eggplant (in pots), and I have fennel umbels as large as my head and at eye level for ease of viewing the orgy of insect activity. It has been cool and wet, prompting one to question the global warming hypothesis, but only if one has a complete lack of understanding of it in the first place. Very few things worthy of note have happened to me personally. Check out Yew Dell if you haven't yet, the link is on the right under suggestions.

Im an arrogant sob

They won't care what you know until they know that you care. I got that as advice today and the more I think about it the more I realize that it is solid and wonderful advice for those of us who are trying to develop an interest in education in this country. I am guilty of frequently reminding people that I'd rather live in a country where the culture already values education and educators as much as entertainment and entertainers but I have been remiss in making people aware of how much I care about America and how willing I am to suffer on her behalf. We can change things folks, we have to.

Finally, indoor corn.

If you haven't seen or heard of dot pots yet (OMRI certified seed starting pots) please take some time to check them out this year. I have a brother who also starts his garden seeds inside and he was thoroughly unimpressed with these because the equivalent jiffy pots were so much cheaper. Let me assure you he is very wrong. These pots actually do what they claim, as a result anyone can start sweet corn indoors 14-21 days before they intend to plant. Those of you who would like to try 3-4 different sweet corn varieties this year without cross pollination ruining your efforts, this is precisely the temporal spacing you need and you can still plant all of your varieties on the first day the soil is warm enough! Sowing corn directly has always been recommended (even by experimental gardeners like myself) because of pots constraining root growth. No longer a worry, the roots of eggplant even grow through these pots. I have tomatoes at v3-v4 that have little roots sticking out already. This means I could have started them as much as a week later. That's a week of electricity for grow lights I don't have to pay for.
You can all help tell this company we appreciate their incredible invention by purchasing a few for yourselves for next year. Spread the word. Happy spring everyone. My Hyacinth/viola/tulip purple-white bed is a real stunner. Sometimes I have some pretty good ideas. The lady laughed at me when I bought her last purple pansies in December and she gave me a huge discount. A little mulch and a southern exposure and they overwinter like bulbs and what a display of color. Anyway, I hope you are all well and gardening your butts off.

Gardenrant.com

Kevin Hollis wins the Good Enough to Eat prize for this lifelong saga:

He met his wife because she saw that corn in the graduate co-op garden and asked him what his secret was. He missed the birth of his son because he insisted that there was one perfect day to plant this family "heirloom". He wouldn't be one of those pacing types anyway. His daughter had been married in their backyard and he was certain it was pollen from this corn that made her new in-laws sneeze throughout the ceremony. Only appropriate then, he thought, when he gasped for his last breathe staring up at the sky between those emerald leaves.

Those of my friends who have not gone to gardenrant.com should go there now!

Environmental Decoherence

"Once environmental decoherence blurs a wavefunction, the exotic nature of quantum probabilities melts into the more familiar* probabilities of day-to-day life." -- Brian Greene
* (familiar to some of us I would say, but a mystery to all those who date, play the lottery, or tithe.)
I highly recommend The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos to all of you struggling to understand quantum physics and "apply it" to your daily lives. Brian Greene is a very talented author. I thought I was up to date and appropriately confused about the realm of electrons and photons but now I know I needed a refresher, and his is the best.