I know it's not much help to new gardeners to be told this but you do develop an ability to know how your plants are feeling after a few years. Something about the way they hold themselves and the surface appearance of the leaves tells you they are thirsty long before they wilt. And I don't personally think it's that bad if they do wilt sometimes. They can get over reliant on being babied and stop bothering to root deeply and go looking for water. Also some plants will droop naturally during the heat of the day (even over here!) and perk up at night. It's their natural behaviour and doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them. If you are short of water give it to your vegetables and let the ornamentals tough it out for a bit.

You can start peppers and eggplants inside now. You probably would be OK starting tomatoes now and transplanting them outside in late April. For everything else that can be grown from transplants, look at the spring planting date for your part of the state, and start your seeds 3 to 5 weeks prior to that planting date, with 3 weeks being ideal. THE FALL GARDEN: You can plant almost everything in the fall garden that you would plant in the spring garden. Some plants do better when planted in the fall than in the spring, including brussels spouts and (for me) cabbage and other cole crops. The hardest part of planting a fall garden is that you must, by necessity, start new plants and seeds during Oklahoma's hottest, driest, most miserable weather. You can get around that by starting seeds in peat pellets indoors where it is cooler, hardening them off in semi-shade and the transplanting them into the ground, preferably on a cloudy day (or in the evening, so they have all night to recover). You also can give new plants some shade while they are getting established, using shadecloth and other methods, including spraying them with Wilt-Prufe. If you keep them well-watered, the tiny summer-planted transplants will catch hold and grow although you may not see a lot of topgrowth until the weather cools a little in September. Here's approximate planting dates for a fall garden in southern Oklahoma. If you are significantly further north, you may want to plant 2 weeks earlier so you can get a harvest before frost arrives. June 15th-July 1st: Cantaloupe, muskmelon, watermelon and any other European, Asian or American melons (seeds or transplants) July 1st-15th: Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers (all from transplants, not seed) July 15th: Sweet corn (seed) (I pre-soak it in water overnight to help it germinate more quickly, especially if the soil is very dry. July 15-30th: Cilantro (seed or transplants), pole beans (seed), southern peas (black-eyed peas, crowder peas, cream peas, etc.)(seed), winter squash (seed or transplants), pumpkins (seed or transplants) July 15th-August 15th: okra (seed or transplants) July 15th-September 1st: Summer squash (including zuchinni) (seed or transplants) July 25-August 10: potatoes (seed potato pieces) August 1st-Sept. 1st: collards (seed), brussels sprouts (seed or plants), cabbage (seed or plants), swiss chard (seed or plants), kohlrabi (seed or plants) August 1st-Oct. 15th: spinach (seed), mustard (seed), August 1st-15th: Rutabagas and turnips (seed), carrots and parsnips (seed), broccoli (seed or transplants), August 1st-October 1st: parsley (seed or transplants) August 15th-Sept. 10th: lettuce (seed or transplants) August 10th-20th: Bush beans (seed), lima beans (seed), cucumbers (seed or transplants) Sept. 1st-15: beets (seeds) Sept. 1st-Oct. 1st: peas Sept. 10th-Oct. 1st: Leeks (seed) Sept. 15th-Oct. 15th: Garlic (for a spring harvest) HEIRLOOM TOMATOES: I'm going to list the ones that not only have great flavor, but that have great production. Some that have INCREDIBLE flavor, like Brandywine, might only give you a few fruit per plant so they are VERY frustrating to grow. Black Krim (maroonish-greenish-reddish fruit) Cherokee Purple (or Cherokee Chocolate or Cherokee Green)(all taste about the same to me, only difference is skin color) Nebraska Wedding (Orange-gold fruit) Hillybilly or Royal Hillbilly Aunt Gertie's Gold Dr. Wyche's Yellow Mortgage Lifter (pink fruit) Dr. Carolyn (ivory to yellow cherry) Arkansas Traveler or Traveler 76 (not technically an heirloom, I suppose, but has been around Arkansas so long that I think of it as one) Earl's Faux (flavor almost as good as Brandywine, not technically an heirloom, but a sport or cross grown from at least one heirloom parent) Porter, Porter's Pride or Improved Porter (pinkish-red) Bradley (pink, an Arkansas heirloom) Marianna's Peace (pink) Snow White--another ivory to pale yellow cherry, fruit are larger than Dr. Carolyn Black Cherry--relatively new on the market, so I guess it is not an heirloom, but it has that special heirloom-type flavor Sungold--is not an heirloom, but it the best cherry tomato ever If I could only grow 5 heirlooms, I'd grow Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, Snow White and Arkansas Traveler OR Nebraska Wedding. And, if I could only grow 5 hybrids, I'd grow Brandy Boy (flavor incredibly close to Brandywine's), Better Boy, Sweet Million, Sungold and Porterhouse. If I could only grow 5 tomato varieties total, I think I'd grow Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Sungold, Better Boy and Mortgage Lifter. That's my list of favorite tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid. And, if you asked me on a different day, you might get a different list. Each heirloom has a flavor that is unique and special, sort of like fine wine. And, flavor can vary from year to year and also varies due to soil and growing conditions. You didn't ask about paste tomatoes for canning or cooking, but some of the best ones are Opalka, Amish Paste, Grandma Mary's Paste, Martino's Roma and San Marzano Redorta. For sun-dried tomatoes, you can't go wrong with Principe' Borghese.

Heard of it? Yes. There have been several discussions on this. One named "organic tomato magic..." is currently running further down the page as is one called "should leaves be taken off tomato plants". I think it's safe to say that the general consensus is that it's difficult to buy into - to put it nicely. ;) Here is a link that might be useful: organic tomato magic

Here's a link to a great, easy to read article that that tells you what to look for and why. It really helped me make a decision when it came time to choose a faucet. Here's an excerpt regarding Lowe's Moen vs. Faucet Depot's Moen: "Most major faucet manufacturers will make special models just for the large retailers. . . in some cases the faucet can be sold at a lower price because the materials used are lower quality - plastic spouts rather than brass, for example. . . . If the model number or name is exactly the same, most likely you have a regular-line faucet. If it is not the same (usually by the addition of a suffix such as M1045-HD rather than M1045), then it is probably a store model. . . . If still in doubt, call the manufacturer's customer service and ask. " HTH! Here is a link that might be useful: http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/sources.faucets.htm