I mentioned in another thread that I had gone down to TMD the day before she opened because I happened to be in Tulsa. They had a chain across the drive and were just starting to put out plants. I had thought that I would be back in town last Saturday, but when my grandson went home, his Dad met me in another town. I have had company from Tennessee all week and they are staying until Saturday. On Sunday I have more company arriving. LOL It is about an hour and a half to drive to TMD so I doubt that I can find 3 free hours to drive down, especially since it is only weekends. I looked at Lisa's selection and she is growing some that I would really like to have, but that is a really long drive for a few plants. I bought from her Dad one year, but since then I have always started my own. I would have started them this year if I had known that I could get my garden ready in time for fall planting. It may still be a fight as I am sure new grass will sprout, but maybe I can keep up with it. I have planted several things, and we have had 1.8 inches of rain this week so they should get off to a good start. Too bad I didn't have tomato plants in there already. We were trying to get as much tilled as we could while it was still dry so the earthworms would be lower and we wouldn't chop any. We got about half of it done, but had re-sprayed some of the other and wanted to make sure we had a good kill there before we tilled. My backyard has always been about half garden and half grass and it was hard to keep the grass from creeping in so we just killed it all out and made all of it garden. It is fenced with chain link then has smaller wire all around the bottom. It is pretty well rabbit proof. One gate has to have blocks under it and I noticed my DH had moved them so a friend could come in with his wheelchair, so I have to make sure to put them back before the beans start sprouting. I poured concrete under the other gate. I think the fox keep the rabbit population pretty well controlled now, but we see a few. The area of our yard we really use, for cook-outs, flowers, etc. is on the south side of our house instead of the back yard. We have an extra lot there so we have plenty of space. I may have more garden than I can keep up with. LOL I think it is about 40x40. I can't plant all the way to the fence line until I remove a lot of roots from all of those vining plants that had been planted on the fence. Most all of the plants have now been removed but they still have those nasty long roots that wind up around the tiller. It will still take a lot of work, but it sure beats doing dishes. LOL I love to watch things grow.

Not rust, I don't think, but damage from the four lined plant bug. Google their damage and check against your damage. There's another post somewhere about this same thing, and that's when I realized what I was dealing with. At first, I thought rust, too, since we had a very rainy spring. I have various plants that are affected, like caryopteris, lysimachia clethroides, geranium macrohhzium (sp), weigelia....there's more, I just can't remember which ones. I'm making a list, though, because I need to remember to cut them down in the fall. The eggs overwinter in the plant stems, so if I get rid of it, maybe I can limit their numbers next year. This morning I was out watering, and noticed damage on a weigelia. I saw the actual bug...four of them...I killed by smooshing them with my bare hands....okay, I had gloves on, but it felt good to take them down. They are a lot smaller than I thought from looking at pics of them. I was expecting bugs the size of japanese beetles, but they are a lot smaller. This is the first time I've ever had them in my gardens or have ever even seen this type of plant damage.If you have a different problem than this, sorry for going on and on.

Another Update Plants have definitely improved, are probably twice the size they were in the original pics, and have filled out quite a bit. While they're behind, fruit is beginning to set. On several plants I've pinched off the lower branches / leaves (a good foot off the ground) due to them yellowing and dying. The upper 2/3rds of the plants are a nice dark healthy green. They are continuing to grow - but I'm keeping a close eye on the lower leaves. While I've lost some lower sections of the plants, those where the leaves have died off (or branches I've removed b/c of it) have new green growths sprouting. Christy ^^ I too didn't want to fertilize much, especially considering I purchased some really good compost. I don't know if it's the change in weather or the fact that I fertilized but the plants look much better now. I doubt overwatering is my problem as I've held off this year. They only get water when the soil is very dry. I'll try to take some new pics in the next day or so. Joe

I think my tomato plant cannot be saved. I did some more research and I think the plant has the Tomato spotted wilt virus. Early symptoms in a young plant include inward cupping of leaves and leaves develop a bronze cast followed by brown spots. Once the plant becomes infected the disease cannot be controlled. My plant has all of the above symptoms. I purchased the plant at a big box store and it has always been outdoors. My picture does not show bronze leaves because I cut them off.