No one has mentioned acidity. I have similar mixed success here in zone 5a in Maine. My soils are pretty acid, but I have some planted in a shady well drained humus/sandy woods, some in a sunny bed (these are growing the most, and are standing up well to some invasive neighbors), and some in the shaded trashy soil beside my house. Something (maybe my cat) dug up some of the new ones, others are doing OK. I plan to do a bit of dividing--what I have is mostly from divisions I rescued from an overgrown bed so I'm not sure the varieties. One is small green with intense red flowers; one is marbled/mottled red and green, one is deep purple. I adore all of them. I had one of the ginger-colored ones, peach melba I think, which didn't make it. If I have something that I think comes from a more alkaline area (the default assumption here where most of the soil was peat bog a few centuries ago) I throw in some marble chips, sprinkle randomly with wood ashes, etc. Especially western plants tend to want a much more alkaline soil. Ph is always my first suspect when things don't thrive. So, what pH do these puppies prefer? And do preferences differ across the varieties?

I love dried prunes and apricots of course you have to be careful on the prunes LOL but they are good sources of iron. Pumpkin seeds are too and they are really good to snack on. I also like the canned smoked oysters and clams they are really good to add to a big salad full of those leafy green veggies include some kale and you have a really iron rich meal. this site has a good explanation about the Heme and non-heme iron. Dietary Sources of Iron It is awesome that you and your sister do this regularly you have likely saved a few lives by now. I have a friend that does it very often and she got her token/award for going over the amount required to get the award, I can not remember how much she told me it was but very impressive. I can no longer donate. We all should thank those that do it is such a great gift you are giving. Thanks

LoneJack. Thanks for the information on Black. We used to grow Black Krim but we got fed up with the concentric cracking in our garden. Then we switched to Margaret Curtain. I think it was actually worse for cracking. Both were great tasting and just fine for personal consumption but only our "heirloom knowledgable" customers and a few chefs would buy them. They were just too ugly for the standard buyer not to mention that they aren't round and red. Concentric cracking is characteristic of black fruits in our garden due to rapid changes in soil moisture here. It doesn't just rain here anymore ..... when it does rain, it comes down in torrents. Black also sounds a little larger than our Black Krims and Margaret Curtain's were. I'll give Black a trial. I've confirmed that I've got seeds in my inventory. My seeds are from TGS. My DH was in old Mexico earlier this year and he picked up some much larger black fruits w/green shoulders, 14-18 oz. They looked like Black Krims on steroids with no concentric cracking and they tasted great. Not sure what the variety is or if it was a F1 hybrid ..... I saved the seeds ...... We'll see what the grow-out looks like in 2018. We grew Chyornyi Tarasenko this year. It's a nice black in the 12-16 ounce range. Less prominent green shoulders. Good taste. Little to no cracking. Moderate production. Probably deserves to return for another year. Kevin, IMO Big Beef is a good overall tomato. I see you had Pink Brandywine in 2017. Were they from Burpee seeds? I've grown out those Pink BW from Burpee seeds and they produced some huge fruits. Shell 6A

Thank you, Katyajini. Am pretty sure these are all spring pics. I think a lot of my plants are big, or you could say overgrown, because I'm usually not a very assertive pruner. I like big plants but I also like some degree of order and neatness and am pruning more and at any time I want, not just before spring. I cut back some one cane wonders really hard and for the most part it was a good decision. This year we are having so much rain and my early bloomers are starting on second flushes now. Some of them look as full of blooms as the first spring flush, and I think it's got to be because of the rain. That and letting in more light by tree removal and pruning. Our soil here is easy to dig, so it's easy for roots to spread out in. The bad thing is that it drains fast and in summer the soil can get awfully dry. But since the roots have spread out a lot, they take in whatever moisture they can find. But in a drought, I feel like my garden is way overextended...I can not keep it watered, we just depend on luck with the rain.