Gardening in the Carolinas Forum participants may want to know that the annual spring plant sale at the South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson University is this weekend: Friday, April 24, 2009, 2:30 P. M.-6:00 P. M. Preview Plant Sale for Friends of the Garden only Saturday, April 25, 2009, 9:00 A. M.- 1:00 P. M. Public Plant Sale

Lisa, Well, I cannot work outside today because it is trying to rain, so I am going to start some flower seeds in flats. I should be cleaning house and doing laundry but I simply don't want to. I want to grow something! The possibility of snow this weekend has now moved all the way down here into southern OK, so I am going to have to carry all those flats of tomato plants back inside the house on Thurs. or Fri. depending on when the real cold arrives. I'm not happy about that....but this will be only the second time I've had to carry them inside after moving them out. The flower flats I fill today will go on the light shelf, so I guess I'll set up two long folding tables in the plant room (used to be a guest room, but there's no room for guests from now until late April) and carry the tomato seedlings up there when the cold front gets close. I'm going to start zinnias, nicotianas and a few other things. I won't know what, for sure, until I go through the seed crate and pull out a few packets. I don't direct sow much because our land has a serious slope to it and all the seeds wash downhill and up in the bar ditch. Once, one of the "old farmer" types that lives up the road from us stopped and told me I had "the prettiest bar ditch" he'd ever seen--it was full of several kinds of poppies and larkspur. I thanked him for the compliment, gave him permission to come back later and collect all the seed he wanted once they'd set seed, and never told him the bar ditch was planted "by the rain" as it washed seeds out of the real garden and into the ditch! I need to scatter some more poppy seed before the cold front arrives. It is very, very slow to sprout this year, perhaps because of the drought, so I need to put out some more seed in case the "reseeders" from last year didn't reseed well. Maybe it has been too dry this whole last year for the poppies to germinate and grow. One plant that did reseed well was the 'Malva' Zebrina in the shrub bed. I have tiny little plants everywhere....including in the adjoining bermuda grass. I'm thinking seriously about hand-painting Round-up onto the grass around the malva seedlings and killing it so they can grow and I can have a big patch of malva. Dawn

So far, along with the the packets the boys took to school, we have planted hostas (about 10 of them) 2 bleeding hearts, 10 dahlia tubers, another 10 Allstar Strawberries, another type of canna tuber, marigolds (12 plants), Salvia (12 plants), Snapdragons (36 plants), Dusty Millers (36 plants), Alyssum (36 plants), wave petunias (24 plants),Lily of the Valley- 20 pink, 20 white. We have also planted marigold seeds - 4 packets (BIG packets), Cannas- two types 4 packages, Brazilian Fireworks 1 packet, Pride of Barbados 1 packet, 10 packets of Morning glories, 10 packets of perennial sweet peas, 5 packets of Forget me Nots, 10 packets of 4 o'clocks, 10 packets of Salvia, 5 packets of Lantana, 5 packets of butterfly weed, 5 packets of Ice plant. That's the count so far today. We're not finished yet, just came in to eat dinner and rest a bit. We'll work inside sowing more flats here in a little while :) Not sure how you're converting plants to packets of seeds, or how many seeds you're considering a packet. I know that a one of those marigold packets filled 2 72 count flats. But, however you're tallying it up, we've done a LOT of planting today! So, any ideas on how many carried through today? Or about how close you got to your goal? Kathy~ heading back to the seed sowing :)

Morning all, Raybo, First off, congrats on all your press out there. You've really taken a simple design and "Mona Lisa'd" it!! Actually, the BER really wasn't that bad...maybe twenty tomatoes out of 400 or so. Will see if I can find the C-Tex for next year. And no, no fall garden. Tried it last year with dismal results. All done for this year. Hope you have a great season. Send some PICS!! Cheers! Hi Timmy, I really liked the Big Beef. Nice big tomatoes (10-12oz), perfectly formed, very good production, and no disease problems. They'll be my staple for next year. Hope all is well up North! Cheers! Johnny, You know...after further review I guess I really shouldn't be too disappointed with my results. The production of some varities wasn't what I hoped for but it was still fun trying new ones. Trial and error is how you find the types you like best. So now I know more than I did last year!! Cheers! Sprtsguy, Farkee, and Alley Cat, Thanks so much for your comments...much appreciated!!. I sure learn a lot on this site and it's fun to compare notes with others. I used hydrated lime which I picked up at a farm CO-OP. Next year I'll use Dolomitic lime which tends not to affect PH as much. As I told Raybo above, in hindsite, I really didn't have much of a BER problem after all. I think out of a total of 400 tomatoes or so, I only had to cull about 20 which had BER. Most of these were the Parks Whopper CR, same plants I had trouble with last year. However, I'll continue to grow them next year as they produce a perfectly shaped, tasty and large (10-12 oz) tomato. Their production is really good also...15-20 fruit per plant. It it were me, I'd continue to use the lime. The Black Cherry were good but others liked them better than I did. I was really disappointed with Opalka. Had heard so many great things about it but for me, production was very poor. The Kellogg's Breakfast was really a disappointment. Very bland, almost tasteless. Of course, one year's experience doesn't really mean much as the weather was really not normal this year down here. So...I don't mean to belittle any of these varieties, maybe they just don't do all that well where I live. Or...maybe I don't know what the hell I'm doing!!!! Cheers! Cheers all and happy growing...send PICS!! Bing