I am over here in Southeast Montana and have sandy soil that melons love. When I started raising melons in the 1970's, my Burpee Hybrid muskmelons were simply delicious, now I cannot get hardly anything good out of a muskmelon. The exception was the Sunder which was superb, but Willhite quit selling. I can get good-tasting Savors in the early part of the season, but the later ones rot before they taste good. As for watermelons, some do not do well for me (Desert King). I have had only two watermelons that had a "perfume" when eaten. The one I remember the most was a White Seeded Simpson. I used to grow lots of watermelons, did not rotate and eventually my field got too diseased. Now, years later, I start on new ground, till in lots of leaves and I have vines all over the place. I really like the Sweet Favorite. They ripen early (around a month after setting on), and I can turn around and get two crops off the same vine. Some Sweet Favorites do not get the sweetness of the others, I wonder if one should withhold the water for a few weeks before ripening. To tell when a melon is ripe: I used to scratch the melon with the date it set on. For example, if a melon set on July 19, I would take a knife or nail and scratch "J19 on the skin and the resulting scar would remain. Then, since it takes six weeks for most watermelons to ripen, I would harvest the melon six weeks later (September 1st for the above J19 melon. Now, I think I will take an ear tag (that they use in a calf's ear), and if a watermelon sets on July 19 th, write that on the ear tag and set it beside the melon. I actually would go out July 23 d, see a watermelon the size of a chicken egg, and subtract a few days and write J19 on the tag. But I do agree that the Orange Glo is a very delicious watermelon. And it has a taste that is more than sweet. This year my Orange Glos tailed off in sweetness at the end of the season. I tried the Moon and Stars a few years ago and was impressed with their earliness. But I ran into problems this past year as I picked the first ones too early. I think that in excellent soil, they ripen later than if they are on just average soil. And they do taste very good. This year, I will plant around 50% Sweet Favorite and 50% Moon and Stars. With a few new ones. I finally found a source for the Tiger Baby (Anderson Seed and Garden Logan Utah.) The Tiger Baby is a small melon, short vines and ripens in 30 days from setting on for me. The flesh is only pink, but I am going to try plastic tunnels, underground heating to try and get very early melons. I like to take a heat lamp (put in a 100 watt bulb), and set it next to the watermelon plants in the plastic hot kap for overnight heating of the soil (heat lamp is face down on the dirt). Sometimes the bulb breaks due to moisture on the bulb. But the plants really thrive and grow fast if it is 100 degrees in the hot kap at night. I like the Tiger Baby's short vines because I have to cover all my watermelons with wire with small holes due to the hail we seem to get every year. Is that called hardware cloth?

janet, that is a coincidence that we were there on the same day. I was there around 11 a.m. During that brief rainstorm that drenched everything! I actually had a bit of a laugh because they had to call one guy from the woody and shrub section to help me and they radioed him and they were giggling over his responses and I was wondering, "who is this guy that they all seem to have a crush on?" then this cute guy walked up, a young patrick swayze look-a-like, and I thought, "ah, that's the one." Sure enough, he was the guy that the girls at the front counter were swooning over. I pointed it out to my husband and he got a kick out of it, too. that's interesting about perennials getting marked down. when does that happen? We were happy with the 20% off on the japanese maple yesterday. the coral bark version is so pretty and it was just $80 with the 20% discount. we saw their stash of blue spruce trees that made US swoon, but the price tag was a bit too steep at $299 per tree. They were nice and large, around 7 feet tall, but very price ouchie at $299. Is there anywhere else to get blue spruce that size at a lower price? we wanted to plant a few of them on a hillside on our five acres.

This is the first time I believe I have posted. I am presently in Virginia, 10 minutes north of Richmond. I am seriously bummed over the possibility of moving away for several reasons. One, I have family here and two, I have spent so much time and money in my gardens. If we must move then we must. My youngest will be graduating in a year and going on to college that following fall. We will probably move as soon as school is out. I know she can stay with my older daughter and I can come down to visit...still a hard thing. Next dilemma: what to do about my many plants here, especially the irises and daylilies and other sentimental (heck, they are all sentimental)? I went throught the Master Gardener program here in 1997 and have accumulated so many wonderful plants. I am a member of the Central Virginia Iris Society and have at least 250-300 different varieties of Iris. I know Cincinnati is zoned 5B-6B and that will also depend on where we end up moving. My husband's business will in Blue Ash, Ohio. What to do about all these irises! I saw my Master Gardener neighbor move from her home a year ago and discovered the people that moved in (with three small children) dug most of her plants up and brought them to the dump. I could not believe that. I don't want that done to mine. I would love to bring one or two rhizomes of each and every one of them, along with the 30 or so daylilies, some unusual hostas, and then some. I thought about digging them all up and having a huge plant sale but that's a lot of work and I don't know what kind of yard or possibilities exist on our future home. I don't even know which zone most irises can handle. There may be different ones for different irises. I have 10 months before we must move to Cincinnati. Any ideas out there? Regards, vicki

Thanks to everyone who has offered suggestions. If nothing else, it is good to know that this is pretty much a universal experience. It is not just me, thank goodness! I know that there are many, many wonderful novels in existence, some of which I have read, some of which simply didn't suit my individual tastes, and some of which I would love but have yet to discover (probably fewer of this last group, unfortunately). I am concerned here mostly about current and recent fiction. Thank goodness I have this forum to point out ones I might otherwise miss. Some old favorite writers have left us, and some others continue to write but have moved in directions that don't suit me. I'm quite sure that in time new writers will appear to take their places. It's just the wait that frustrates me. Meanwhile I'm reading books about sewing techniques and planting trees. Useful and informative they may be, but somehow I find them a bit weak in plot and character development. Rosefolly