Everything appears to be off to a great start and we’ve been enjoying perfect weather for gardening; cool nights, mild days and now the fortune of a slow soaking rainfall to provide needed moisture to the garden. It has turned sharply colder and today I heard rumors of frost warnings going out for the Central Pennsylvania area tonight. That’s not surprising, but what is, is that I’ve recently heard more than one local gardener talk about plans for setting out their tomatoes and other frost tender seedlings… well I sure hope they’re covered!

While there isn’t much to look at or write about out in the garden these days, things are slowly beginning to show promise of some spring-like changes! Daylight Savings Time is now in effect, the temperatures are growing slightly warmer, and last week witnessed the return of the robins from their winter roosts. We could be in store for more snow and cold but at the worst it would be a matter of days or weeks compared to the months of winter that we are emerging from.

The November issue of the Gardening Secrets Newsletter has been published and distributed to all the gardeners on the subscription e-mail list. The feature article for this month’s gardening newsletter focuses on a selection of great gift ideas for the home gardener. Regardless of the budget or type of gardening involved there are tips for locating an interesting gift that will please anyone who loves to engage in the hobby of growing plants in the home or the garden.

Yes, there’s a change in the air surrounding my vegetable garden but unfortunately it has nothing to do with the heat wave that we have been experiencing. High temperatures and drought continue to dog the garden but at least there have been no more groundhog sightings. Despite the sweltering conditions my garden is beginning the transition from summer into fall veggie gardening.

Well, I guess all it took was a little talking it up to finally get a decent deluge of rainfall on the garden’s raised vegetable beds. Water has been a major topic of conversation on this website over the past few days; with the recent Fountain Review and the Newsletter’s focus on irrigating the garden.

The latest issue of the Gardening Secrets Newsletter has been delivered to all of the gardeners on the e-mail list. Just in time for summer, the theme of this month’s gardening newsletter focuses on the process of irrigating the garden to prevent drought stress during those hot and dry summer months.

It’s been a while since the last garden update but I’m afraid this one isn’t going to be pretty! What was shaping up as a perfect growing season just a couple of weeks ago has been tempered by the disturbing signs of extensive damage from an unwelcome intruder.

I was tagged by Marc who blogs over at the Garden Desk in a meme called “7 Random Things About Me”. Marc speculated that he didn’t think I was the meme type, but do you think that stopped him from adding me to his list… of course not!

So here are seven random things about me: