Dawn, I understand about your Mom. My Dad died when I was 16, so of course, that was tough. My husbands parents both died in their early 60's about 26 months apart, with the death of my husband's grandfather in between. My mother is still living and will turn 97 this July. After my DH retired from the Air Force, we moved back to that area so that we would be there to help out a bit, since my sister has always had to help my mother a lot. Well, we lived there almost 12 years and so did she. We were still young enough to work a few more years and needed to move to do that. Al took a job with the Boy Scouts and covered the three most NE counties in Oklahoma. After a couple of years, he was tired of never being home. I was working at the courthouse so he took a job there. I have not worked for several years but he continued to work until the end of February this year. I stay home but he still has a finger in lots of pies. Oklahoma has a program called "Drug Court" which gives people one last chance when they would otherwise would be going to the pen. He serves on that committee. When he leaves there today, he said he was going to the senior citizens center to help them with a vehicle purchase. He is on that committee also. He heads the male youth program at church. Retirement does not mean relaxing to him, just more time to do what he wants. Yes, when I first discovered the Oklahoma forum, you were covering plants. You don't need that extra stress this year so it is probably best to wait awhile to plant. Oh yes, the tomato challenge! I remember a lot of that down there, but I don't know too many people that garden up here. I have some small gardens around me but they are not too serious about them. One did plant a few toms and squash but that area now has a big building on it. The people behind me are gardeners but are week-enders so they have toms, onions, lettuce, and cucumbers most years. We normally get enough rain that it takes care of itself all summer. They pick it on weekends. A young couple moved in next to them a few years ago, but he is so rude that I can't stand to talk to him. I have tried a few times, but gave it up as a lost cause. Too bad, because he has a large pile of mulched timber in his yard and I know he can never use it all. However, a few years ago at a wedding I was chatting was our former senator and he "braggingly" told me that he tries to get his first tomato by the 4th of July. The chase was on. Every year I tell his wife to go home and tell Rick we are having our first tomato. Love to beat him. I had to laugh about the MANY tomato varities. Earlier this spring, my husband said that he thought by now I would have narrowed my choices and just planted two or three kinds. I hated to let him see me plant anymore seeds. LOL Then a couple of days ago, I said that I had all of these new seeds to try but already had so many planted. He said, "Well I would plant them anyway." He knows I will never find a place to plant all of them and I think he enjoys dropping off the remainder to the senior citizens. One year I had so many weird ones, like stuffers and such. Those people grew them in their flower beds and last year wanted to know if I had more of those. I know this is weird, because this is a paste tomato, but my favorite tasting tomato is Opalka. Everyone talks about planting them to use them for paste, but I am wondering just how many take that weird looking tomato to their table. Most of the winter I buy Roma in the store, but occasionally spring for a $3 box of small grapes. I don't like Roma and have no desire to grow them, but my husband thinks we should always plant them. I told him I would plant 2 in the garden and if he wanted anything else he would have to grow them in pots. He agreed. Can you believe it, with all of those other great choices. Actually Opalka is really his favorite also. This is the only location where I have grown it so I don't know what it is like elsewhere. I plan to take better care of my garden this year, so by the end of the year I may be sorry I planted so many. During our Air Force years, I didn't always have a garden so when I did I tried to plant everything. I have narrowed that down a lot and I don't try to do that. Some things I just must have tho. In the spring I need lettuce, broccoli, and sugar snap peas, and I usually plant a few onions and potatoes. The summer garden needs cucumbers, squash, okra, a few green beans and lots and lots of tomatoes and peppers. I always think I will plant a fall garden, but I am usually worn out by then. Besides you have to start when it's hot for some of those things. Guess I am too old and too lazy for that. I do enjoy growing things tho. I have a two new beans to try this year. One is Red Noodle yard long which I understand is really from the pea family instead of bean family, but I have never grown it. The other is called Insuk Wang Kong that a man sent me from Washington. It came from his Korean wife's family and didn't have a name. She just called it a king bean because of the size. Zeedman and "our Oklahoma macmex" named it Insuk Wang Kong. Insuk is her name and the other part is king bean, I think. Anyway, I saw a picture of the bean growing and I just had to get some to try. It is a climber and has red blossoms. I can't wait to try it. It produces the biggest shelled beans I have ever seen.

I agree that the problem is that you transplanted too early. Tomatoes are tropical plants. I actually had one seedling that did the same thing this year! It wasn't dying, but it just wouldn't grow. It was given to me by a friend several weeks before I planted outside and it got dry a few times. It is growing now but I don't very much expect it to recover all that well. Tomatoes aren't very resilient in my experience. I have heavy clay soil down here and it is really fertile stuff - I had a tomato plant that nearly ate Dallas a few years ago! (you know, the kind that has you looking for unlocked cars in the parking lot at work so you can unload tomatoes onto unsuspecting coworkers!). I wouldn't use fertilizer myself, but it sounds to me like you may be way over-fertilizing them. The best thing you can do is amend the soil with compost. Even side-dressing with compost or watering with compost tea (compost mixed into a bucket of water and allowed to sit for a couple of days), tomatoes love that.

In Montana, most of my tomatoes (started by me) become fully ripened in August. However, tomatoes I started this year on 3-25 (and transplanted to 1-gallon pots at some point) ripened in July (early July through the first 3/4 of the month). NOTE: Those started on 3-25 (and transplanted into 5-GALLON pots) ripened earlier--in late June. Transplanting for both sets was the first week of June. (BTW, I have never seen any stress caused by transplanting, no matter the size of my plant/pot. My tomato plants really take off after they go in the ground.) Those started later, on 4-10, have NOT RIPENED as of August 1. ALL of my tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes, ripe or not. This data doesn't give us the same info as comparing the planting of 6" plants vs. 12" ones would, but it shows that starting early CAN produce earlier tomatoes, especially, IMO, if bigger pots are used, as needed. I did, btw, plant some tomatoes in 4" pots (that were very tall and should have been transplanted into 1-gallon pots) at the same time that I planted the ones in 1-gallon pots in the ground. Those made a good effort in catching up, in size at least, but they were just flowering when others had lots of fruit on the vines. Were any of my plants root bound, particularly the ones in 4" pots? Not that I recall. In fact, I need to learn how to produce more root and less growing top because my tomatoes get too tall before transplanting outside (I have them on a southern-facing, plastic-covered back porch WITH a roof, so they don't get full sun, by any means, which is the main reason they get so tall). I like starting plants earlier than recommended, especially since I moved to this colder climate. I believe, if the roots are given plenty of room, this method can produce healthy plants that produce earlier, just like with flowers that you want to bloom earlier. But beware--it's a lot of work to bring all those plants in big pots inside every time the temp looks like it's going to dip below 45 degrees F at night!

Good Morning, As the kids used to say- "Go Jasmi, Go Jasmi, It's your Birthday"!!!! 'Slim in 6' sounds like a killer that just may work if you can hang with it without getting hurt. I can't wait to break into the 150s. We've moved DH's 76 year old aunt in with us. She has no children, has gotten her finances in a mess, and is getting feeble and forgetful. It is hard on me because she has been alone for quite a while and doesn't want me out of her sight. She walks slowly with a walker and wants to sit and talk all of the time. I've got to carve out time somewhere in the day to get in my treadmill time. I had to go to the grocery store late last night after DH got home, dinner was over, and she had gone to bed. She wants to eat all of the time. YIKES!!! But, she is sweet and has been very good to me in the past. So... life goes on in the wierdest way. My scales said 165 this am. I hope it is true. Come on Ek, get on those scales. It can't be that bad. We still love you! Take my advice and throw that carrot cake away. She is not too dear if she is giving you carrot cake when you are trying to diet. Wish we could get more garden planted. DH tried to plant tomatoes Sat and a storm started before he could finish. Sounds like you have a great one going. Maybe I can get a nice fall garden going this year. We are zone 7 and can extend it into early winter with some protection (according to the books!) I really need more green leafy anything and groceries are REALLY getting expensive. Helen, I love retirement. But, I have been busier than I've ever been since I retired! Have you found that to be true also? I know what you mean about thunderstorms. Last night when I went grocery shopping the sky was lit up continuously with lightening and it started pouring before I could get back home. Crept the last 4-5 miles straining to see through the wall of water. I backed the car right up to the deck steps and carried all of the bags I could get on both arms in at once. The rest stayed in the car overnight. DH brought them in this morning before leaving for work. The driveway has ruts washed in it from the storm. Bummer. Where are you, Harold? Have a great day, Betty