Re: "The only plants with soil are the lotus & lilies & there's no holes in the bottom of the pots. The others are in gravel with landscaping fabric lining the holes in bottom of pot." When I rebuilt my pond this year I repotted all my aquatic plants by removing and washing off all the soil and then planting them into peagravel (in baskets). Some of the plants I put directly into a section of peagravel in the pond (no baskets). Its been 3 months now, and everything is so slow... very little growth. I was starting to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. With the fish chomping away on the roots of the floaters, and then the lilies and mariginals hardly growing and providing very little coverage, I'm also battling with water thats too warm and lots of algae. (Geez... I wish the fish would eat all that algae and leave the roots alone!!) Anyways, I was starting to think this was a bad idea, when I talk to the guy at the pond shop/nursery who told me that putting the plants in peagravel is the new way of thinking and is actually much better in the long run as the plants are truly hydroponic. He said I might not get much leaf and flower growth this year, but the roots are getting established and are getting used to taking the nutrients from the water instead of soil. (I can see the roots have grown alot when I lift up the baskets). Next year and the future years, I should have good growth, and the plants will be strong with much larger blooms than if I had left them in soil. So perhaps it just takes some time and patience... its definetely frustrating. I rebuilt my pond this spring and I can't wait for it to look more filled in (even just a bit more..)... sometimes is embarrassing when people see the new pond and all I have are piddly plants and lots of algae....

Well, we had never-ending very light drizzle all day long yesterday, but it didn't add up to much more than we'd already received--we ended up with 2.6" at our house over a period of about 3 days, but most of it fell Saturday night. Suzie, I know the water can be a huge problem when you're building. After we'd lived here several years, in 2004 we finally were ready to build our detached garage/barn/multi-purpose building. We started in June, and you just knew it was going to be a bad experience when a foot of rain fell that month, and not all in a day or two...but rain each and every single day it seemed. The poor concrete guys had to fight the rain to get the slab poured and cured, and then the guys putting up the building were rained out part of every single day. It seemed like it took forever, and once they finished the building, then all the rain stopped. For a month we lived in a lake of water and mud, but that building got built anyway, albeit more slowly than expected. I hope the rain doesn't torment y'all during this building project like it did with us. It was a very productive year for the garden, notwithstanding the fact that such heavy rainfall often waters down the flavor of ripening tomatoes. Green and lush is nice, but when you're building, dry is better, isn't it! Dawn

I too am new to all this and struggling to learn what needs to be learned for this to work. My biggest challenge is that some of my plants don't look good (I'd say 6-8 of my 28 are in some level of disrepair or desperation), and I *know* they don't look good, but I don't have the ability yet to look at a plant and based on its condition say "Ah, yes, bugs." or "Needs fertilizer" or "too much water" or "too little water". Man, it'd be so great if there was one site with pics of each problematic condition a pepper could have. I had aphid infestation, and I got rid of those, but then it rained every day for a month, and the damage looks similar...LOL Anyway, like you I was getting lost and overwhelmed by the whole fertilizer thing. Then a guy who works at a very successful and major nursery here (DeBaggios) said, just use TomatoTone, period. at transplant time and then once every three weeks, another tablespoon full in a circle around each plant. Seems pretty easy. I guess we'll find out if it works.

Boy, do I know where you're coming from! I'm looking to branch out on all of my veggies but the tomatoes have been hard for me to narrow down as they all sound so darned good. :) This is what I plan to plant this year (by the way I purchase these at parkseed.com and victoryseeds.com). Also, I'm copying and pasting from my Word spreadsheet, so it contains info from the sites, which may or may not be beneficial to you: Park's Season Starter Hybrid~ 60 days from setting out transplants. F1VT. Determinate. Always grow the first tomato on the block with this super-fast determinate variety! It sets huge yields of juicy-sweet 6-ounce fruits -- and they taste as good as they look! Set plants 2 to 2 1/2 feet apart. Pkt is 30 seeds. Tomato Sugary~ The Sweetest Cherry Yet! So bountiful that you may have to prune the plant back in mid-season! 60 days from setting out transplants. Indeterminate. Many Cherry Tomatoes look great but taste like nothing, while others are flavorful but don't have the big, steady yields we all love. Well, award-winning Sugary has it all -- super-sweet flavor, a fun new shape, and huge, huge yields on plants that just keep growing up and up all season! Scoring a full 9.5 on the Brix scale of sugar content, these delicious little 1/2-ounce dark pink fruits are packed with sweetness. This plant is absolutely unstoppable. It sets huge clusters of fruit all season long, and grows so vigorously that you may have to cut it back in midseason just to keep it within bounds! Never fear -- it will keep bearing like crazy! Park's Whopper~ 70 days from setting out transplants. Indeterminate. Set plants 2 to 2 1/2 feet apart. Sweet Baby Girl~ 65 days to maturity from setting out transplants. ISI (intermediate short-internode). Our search for the Best Cherry Tomato in the World has come to an end. Sweet Baby Girl Hybrid is hands-down the finest for all kinds of good reasons: 1. It rarely cracks. 2. It grows on space-saving, manageable plants. 3. It yields HUGE numbers of fruit over a long season. 4. It has a great after-picking shelf life. 5. It is the sweetest, best-tasting Cherry Tomato ever! The fruit is small -- about to 1 ounce -- and arises in big clusters on intermediate short internode vines. Now, what this means is that the vines keep producing all season, but the space between each cluster of fruit is much less than on traditional vines. In other words, you don't waste garden space, water, and food supporting a massive vine with widely-spaced clusters of fruit! Sweet Baby Girl's vines just reach about 3 to 5 feet high and 2 feet wide, yet yield like nobody's business. Just how much fruit can you expect from each plant? Well, in our gardens they each offered up TWO POUNDS OR MORE PER WEEK at the height of the season. That's a lot of ½-ounce fruits! Resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus races 0, 1, and 2, Sweet Baby Girl sets fruit in giant clusters, but I recommend picking them individually rather than as a bunch. You'll get each at the height of ripeness that way, and maximize your harvest. Tomato Marcellino Hybrid~ 73 days to maturity from setting out transplants. Determinate; upright habit. Marcellino has incredible holding power, keeping fruit fresh up to a MONTH after ripening! It's determinate, so it sets its enormous harvest all at once -- dozens upon dozens of clusters of fruit, each with 20 to 25 little tomatoes dangling alluringly! There has simply never been a Tomato of any size and shape with this kind of holding ability. This plant is upright rather than vining, reaching about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Tomato Better Bush Improved~ 68 days from setting out transplants. ISI (indeterminate short-internodes). If you're looking for an old-fashioned-flavored tomato with the juiciness and distinctive "tang" you remember from vine-fresh tomatoes of the past, Better Bush Improved Hybrid is the best choice. These big, luscious, 4-inch fruits grow very densely on indeterminate 4-foot plants, thanks to shorter internodes. The central stem rarely needs staking (except during those "bumper crop" times!), and this plant begins early in the season and just keeps going! Resistant to Verticillium Wilt and Fusarium Wilt Race 1. Brandywine (Sudduth Strain) 80 days, indeterminate  Potato-leaf plants produce large (fourteen to thirty six ounce fruits) that are oblate in shape and pink in color. Excellent flavor. David Pendergrass sent us the seed. This variety originally is from the Ben Quisenberry collection who reportedly obtained the seed from a Mrs. Doris Sudduth Hill who said that it had been in her family since about 1900. Black Cherry 65 days, indeterminate  This is a new variety that is very productive with cherry shaped fruits that have the dark, purplish coloring of 'Cherokee Purple'. Flavor is wonderful, very rich and sweet. Red Grape 60 days, semi-determinate  This variety is modern and currently very popular in the fresh produce market. The fruits are bright red, weigh about an ounce, and are smaller than most cherry tomatoes (½ by ¾ inches). Since they are mouth-sized they are perfect for salads and garnish plates. Twelve to sixteen fruits per cluster. Marianna's Peace 85 days, indeterminate  Reportedly a family heirloom from Czechoslovakia dating back to the early 1900s. Potato leaf foliage. Fruit are deep reddish pink, good size weighing around a pound, good sweet / acid balance flavor, very meaty and a shy seeded variety like Brandywine. This variety has been rare, highly sought after since its introduction in about 2001. It is becoming widely available and finally affordable. LivingstonÂs Favorite - (90 days) Indeterminate, 6 to 10 ounce smooth fruit with exceptional flavor and color. Introduced by Livingston in 1883. Originally developed for canners, they withstood shipping over long distances and had desirable market qualities. LivingstonÂs Magnus - Indeterminate, potato leaf with six to eight ounce oblate, pink fruit, excellent taste. Introduced by the Livingston Seed Company in 1900. "Livingston's Magnus is unsurpassed in quality and in the production of fine, large fruits. While well adapted to main-crop planting, it also takes first rank for early market purposes. The form is perfect, uniform, large and attractive; quite deep through from stem to blossom end. The flesh is very firm. A robust grower, with short joints, setting its clusters closer together than most varieties, and is a very heavy cropper. It has broad foliage which prevents sunburn in hot sections. Ripens evenly, does not crack about the stem. For staking up in the open field, as well as for forcing in greenhouses, is fully equal to any for such purposes." Giant Oxheart 85 days, indeterminate  The 1933 catalog description of this 1926 Livingston introduction follows: "Oxheart is truly the giant of all tomatoes. Its attractive shape, large size and excellent table qualities has quickly brought it into deserved popularity among backyard gardeners. Market-growers are finding it in great demand. There is now great rivalry in gardening neighborhoods to see who can grow the finest Oxheart in shape and size. Three pound specimens are quite common. One customer sent us a five pound specimen. The Oxheart is smooth, thick, tender and almost seedless; frequently showing two inches thick without a seed cavity. The color is pink and it has that delicious mild flavor that every lover of this fruit likes so well. Rich soil adds greatly to its productiveness. Late variety." So, did I help or hurt? :) Stacie