jeanner, for a town with a population of 5,700 the volunteer count was amazing! We have UMM here, a branch of the University of MN (UMM was voted one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the US!), and a great community of civic minded folks. MN DOT provided a grant for the trees based on how many volunteers we could round up to plant them, so the call went out and we were AMAZED by the response. More than 190 people came forward, 4-H, garden clubs, FFA, boy and girl scouts, etc. Unfortunatly, MN Dot has some pretty different ideas - each hole had to be 60" (that's right 60"!) wide and 15" deep, no sod back in the holes, 1/2 compost, 1/2 dirt, then mulch (which we aborted due to the rain - might have to go back and add more dirt if they sunk - we'll mulch them later this week). It rained so hard the holes were filling with water, NO FUN digging when the slop sticks to every shoveful! So they were real troopers! Brenda, burr oak, Triumph elm (a new disease resistant kind), Siouxland poplar, seedless honey locust, silver maple, hackberry, Austrian pine, and Japanese tree lilac. (whew)! Tonight as I drove home from work after a 9 hour day, there was my sister and her SO and 4 others, planting the remaining trees and cleaning up piles of sod etc, my heart went out to her - wish I could help more! They put out another call for volunteers that couldn't help Saturday to help finish. And we had gusts of wind at 50 mph+ on Sunday so they need to stake a bunch of them... (Thanks for your questions about my health, I'll answer on 'the good, the bad, and the ugly thread' - it's been a two week nightmare)

Beth, If you want to have a Three Sisters garden but need for the corn to be sweet corn instead of a field, dent or ornamental corn, then all you have to do is switch to a half-runner type of bean or substitute a good bush-type cowpea like Pink Eye Purple Hull. From what I can tell, Pinkeye Purplehull peas with no support seldom get taller than maybe 20-30" tall in my garden, but they'll sneak across the pathway and climb 6' tall tomato cages if they have the chance. Still, the Pinkeye Purplehull peas are not as lush and heavy as many pole beans. Half-runner beans also shouldn't get tall enough to bring down the stalks of most sweet corn varieties. I have grown sweet corn in my Three Sisters beds but it is harder than it sounds. I only do it because I am stubborn and want to do what I want to do in the way I want to do it. : ) If you grow sweet corn and have beans climbing it and squash vines running through it, you have to be very, very, very careful when you are picking your ripe ears of corn. Often the bean plants will be wrapped around the ears, so you have to remove the ears without breaking the bean vines and you have to place your feet carefully as you harvest the corn (and, later on, the beans) or you'll step on and break your squash vines. In my garden, the huge advantage of the Three Sisters garden used with sweet corn is that the big winter squash vines often keep the raccoons from getting our sweet corn. Back in the day when the native Americans planted their Three Sisters gardens, they were raising crops to get them through the winter and their corn and beans normally were left on the plant until they dried so there was no issue with harvesting corn in the sweet (milk) stage or beans for use as green snap or shell beans. About a decade ago, give or take a couple of years, I read an amazing book called "Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden" in which Buffalo Bird Woman described for historians how her Hidatsa tribe and her specific family raised their crops in the 1800s and early 1900s. The book is available at various online booksellers, but it also is posted online and you probably would really enjoy reading it. Buffalo Bird Woman not only described how they raised their crops but also how they preserved them. It is one of my favorite all-time gardening books although it is not, strictly speaking, a how-to book. I've linked the online version for you. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden

Lots of thoughts today. Speaking of rain, we were planning to go to Bar Harbor, ME, this weekend, but since our main purpose was to explore Acadia and it's closed, we just cancelled our hotel and instead are going to NYC. Now I checked the weather forecast for NY and it looks pretty lousy...well, 30% chance of rain, better than 100%. DH wonders if someone is telling us something and we should just stay home? But I know he'd be mopey all weekend if we did. He was more excited about Acadia than the rest of us were, because he is obsessed with his camera. Meanwhile, DS surprised me last night by saying a local university has moved into the "favorites" on his college list (he is a senior, working on early action apps this month). So he now has 3 favorites, one 5 hours away and 2 very close to home. I suspect he is setting himself up to stay close to home, because he is that kind of kid, but he won't ever admit it out loud! DH and I would be thrilled if he stayed close, but we're playing it very cool and actually have been almost pushing the far-away school. For anyone wondering: Syracuse, Northeastern, and Boston University. Unfortunately only NU has early action, so he'll have to wait quite a while to find out about the others. (He's applying EA to 3 others, too.) Finally, I have been working very part time as a decorator for several years. I don't advertise and all work has been via word of mouth, or from people who read my monthly column in our local newspaper. Business has been very erratic but that's fine with me. I enjoy being busy but also enjoy down time. Over the summer I thought gee, maybe I should pack it in and get a "regular" job with stable hours. OTOH, I like making my own schedule, taking most of the summer off, and being my own boss. So I was in a quandary. Well, as of the end of August, I have been CRAZY busy. Like never before. I have been laughing, thinking as the third new client called me within a week, am I being punked or what? I guess word has just gotten around. Who knows, but even though it's been a bit overwhelming, I'm loving it. It sounds silly, but I've noticed I have a bit of a spring in my step and in general just feeling more productive feels good. My kids need me less than ever (and one moved out over the summer) so the timing is good, too. At the moment, I think I have 6 or 7 projects at various stages. Finally. The whole wheat bread I made in my bread machine last night tastes like cardboard.

I really should get First Blush! Interesting how the purple spreads into the leaf tips...Is it keeping the colour all season long or plain green in summer like Purple Haze?