I did plant late, because it was still weirdly freezing and raining this spring, and I didn’t feel like squatting out in the cold rain to turn soil and plant my veggies. I’m definitely a fair-weather gardener.

I barely got any peppers either. Nor cucumbers, nor eggplant, nor squash. Apaprt from two weeks of 100F+ days, the weather has mostly sucked.

One of the reasons I knew I was pregnant in May is that when I was planting, every time I stood up I got all woozy. Now it’s time ot think about winter crops, but I think I’ve got too much belly now to be out there squatting comfortably. So my own internal baby garden is interfering with my veggie garden!

I’ve started planting more perennials. I got a bumper crop of artichokes this spring. Meyer Lemons will boom this winter, I hope. And I just planted asparagus. Here’s hoping for next year!

I’ve not noticed any difference in the store tomatoes, but one reason I want to rent a house is so I can grown my own.

As to weather, I’m puzzled by talk about “normal” weather. Sure we have kind of a loose pattern of weather in given parts of the world, but if you look at stats for weather each year, and really think about one winter or summer to the next, they’re never the same. And if you look at weather over geological time, weather is in constant flux.

Yeah, last year we had lots of rain. I loved it. This winter we may find drought, or it may rain just like last year. I don’t remember any constant weather. Weather is change, aye? The earth evolves just as the life on it, and that affects yearly changes in weather “patterns.”

But I totally sympathize with your tomato frustration. Hope you end up with lots of them! Dana