Oh, Beth, I so know what you mean. This is my first week as a retired person. I envisioned being in the garden all day and enjoying the sun, which only seemed to appear on week days. So, I am stuck in the house watching winds and rain. When I walk the dogs, I need my heaviest winter coat, scarf, hat, and gloves as it is so cold. This is CALIFORNIA, for heaven sakes. I am approaching the need for antidepressents as I am greatly affected by weather. Should have retired in April!

I think the fertilizer you got will be fine. A balanced fertilizer is good for all around growth and flowering. A fertilizer with a high first number has more Nitrogen and is used for growth but can inhibit flowering in certain plants and overuse can cause growth that is attractive to insect pests. Fertilizers with a high middle number have high Phosphorus and are often called bloom boosters for their abilities to bring plants into bloom or to increase bloom size or numbers but Phosphorus also helps with root growth. I always mix fertilizer at only half the strength recommended on the bottle unless it was designed for epiphytes like orchids. Mike

I have lots of 6-7' tomato plants, many without even a small tomato fruit growing. I could not plant them out until at least 6-15, due to rain, and it has been constantly over 100F everyday since then, so none are setting fruit. The only fruits developing are the ones that set on before they were transplanted out in my garden, except for a few cherry and very small fruited plants that don't seem to care how hot it is. I have probably 30 of 50 beefsteak tomato plants out there without any fruits started. I also have a pole bean trellis 10' long, 5' high, with 21 Fortex bean plants growing to the top, with nary a green bean to be seen. They have "bloomed" several times, without producing even 1 small bean.

I miss the ones we had at our house in Norman, OK. Every single year they came back, they unfortunately nested in our chimney which made a big mess but we did not disturb them at all we were so happy to see them return each year. We put out houses but I think it was the same family and they only wanted in the chimney I guess it was much higher than anything else. Watching them at evening diving and darting was great they are like art in motion. It did drive our kitties a bit crazy though hearing those babies chirping through the fireplace doors LOL