This is the longest hot summer I can remember and I had the worst harvest in my annual vegetable garden.

I feel like such a failure.

The three 18-inch high organic tomato plants I bought at the West Seattle Farmer's Market have been mostly a bunch of little yellow blossoms.

I did have had one tomato about the size of a tennis ball. It was a crimson beauty that I decided to pick it and show Elsbeth that I had not lost my touch.

Alas, the whole side of it I could not see had been devoured by some invader. I had never raised half a tomato so I threw it away.

My six cucumber plants are the neighborhood joke. People drive by and point and laugh.

I got one cuke about 6 inches long. The other five were about the size of a cheap cigar. And I had even tried Shultz Fertilizer drops like they do in the Normandy Park community pea patch.

I don't think it is because of slugs. I use Corry's slug bait. It has always worked before and the stuff is a local product.

Old-timers around here remember Bunge Lumber and Hardware stores in White Center and Burien.

Back in the forties an English chemist and inventor, Don Corry, brought his slug killer product to White Center and sold the license to Fred Bunge.

Fred hired a local boy to come in and fill paper bags with the product, and that boy was West Seattle's Elmer Matson.

The Matson family lived in Highland Park and Elmer graduated from West Seattle High School.

The youngster eventually ended up owning and operating the company and he, in turn, sold it to his son.

It still has a wide acceptance and sells well even though it is on the shelf with a half dozen national brand competitors.

Luckily we have some kind-hearted neighbors who have that magic touch I once had and keep us supplied with enough Early Girls to make great bacon, lettuce and tomato samiches.

Now I must find a neighbor who raises lettuce and pigs.