We love to hear from our readers about their gardening tales — the good and the not so good. There are plenty of both in our gardening experience. Tell us about yours! You might have a Quick Tip to share, a favorite recipe, a "Lighter Side of the Garden", or just a story idea you think we should cover for future issues — you decide.

If we use your material in an upcoming issue or on our website, we'll give you full credit and a gift for next year's bounty. Who knows? Maybe you'll want to be a contributing editor to Practical Gardener!

If you're computer savvy and want to send us a story and/or photos, we can accept them in .doc or .tif files best. Send them to editor@thepracticalgardener.com.

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Here's an example of a story sent in by one of our readers:

As I write this I can’t find my garden. In “normal” years that would be because of the weeds. But this year it is different. The culprit? Watermelons!

What began with the best of intentions has gone sadly awry. Lost are the dark brown avenues and boulevards that allowed easy access to the peppers and strawberries. Vined and covered over are the corn and sunflowers. It’s as though the vegetables are Europe and the melons are Germany of WWII.

I blame my parents. You see, when I was growing up we (like millions of others, I have come to find out) could not grow watermelons. In retrospect, I don’t know whether the soil or the attitude was the limiting factor. Regardless, we resigned ourselves to store-bought melons and so played roulette with quality. This year I vowed to grow the most, sweetest, greatest watermelons my kids had ever seen. (I have since begun a “Watermelon Growers Support Group” for others with my problem.)

So, armed with three packs of watermelon seeds, the debacle began one fine Saturday in June. Undaunted that I had not grown melons before, I read the planting instructions on the back of the seed packets… and promptly ignored them! After all, what do “they” know! Even though they said to plant them approximately 6 feet apart – I knew better. My reasoning went like this – “To produce more melons I must plant more seeds.” And I did. Three seeds per hill with the hills 6 INCHES apart. I savored the taste and joy of sharing these beauties with all my friends and neighbors.

Fast-forward to today (September) and you know my dilemma. I am reminded of my high school days and the ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ I believe it actually went like this, “Watermelons, watermelons, everywhere and not a one to eat!” It must have been misinterpreted upon translation.

Amidst this mound of watermelons, I have solved one of my problems. I don’t have to take my watermelons to my neighbors – they can simply eat the ones that are growing on their property!

B.C., Finchford, IA