No, we don't fertilize citrus this late in the year. We don't want them to go into the cold months with new, tender foliage. In California, we generally feed established citrus plants three times -- once in Feb-Mar, once in Apr-May and once in June-July. With smaller citrus, especially those in containers, we can feed monthly (but lightly), from February through August. Joe

Dawn, I understand about your Mom. My Dad died when I was 16, so of course, that was tough. My husbands parents both died in their early 60's about 26 months apart, with the death of my husband's grandfather in between. My mother is still living and will turn 97 this July. After my DH retired from the Air Force, we moved back to that area so that we would be there to help out a bit, since my sister has always had to help my mother a lot. Well, we lived there almost 12 years and so did she. We were still young enough to work a few more years and needed to move to do that. Al took a job with the Boy Scouts and covered the three most NE counties in Oklahoma. After a couple of years, he was tired of never being home. I was working at the courthouse so he took a job there. I have not worked for several years but he continued to work until the end of February this year. I stay home but he still has a finger in lots of pies. Oklahoma has a program called "Drug Court" which gives people one last chance when they would otherwise would be going to the pen. He serves on that committee. When he leaves there today, he said he was going to the senior citizens center to help them with a vehicle purchase. He is on that committee also. He heads the male youth program at church. Retirement does not mean relaxing to him, just more time to do what he wants. Yes, when I first discovered the Oklahoma forum, you were covering plants. You don't need that extra stress this year so it is probably best to wait awhile to plant. Oh yes, the tomato challenge! I remember a lot of that down there, but I don't know too many people that garden up here. I have some small gardens around me but they are not too serious about them. One did plant a few toms and squash but that area now has a big building on it. The people behind me are gardeners but are week-enders so they have toms, onions, lettuce, and cucumbers most years. We normally get enough rain that it takes care of itself all summer. They pick it on weekends. A young couple moved in next to them a few years ago, but he is so rude that I can't stand to talk to him. I have tried a few times, but gave it up as a lost cause. Too bad, because he has a large pile of mulched timber in his yard and I know he can never use it all. However, a few years ago at a wedding I was chatting was our former senator and he "braggingly" told me that he tries to get his first tomato by the 4th of July. The chase was on. Every year I tell his wife to go home and tell Rick we are having our first tomato. Love to beat him. I had to laugh about the MANY tomato varities. Earlier this spring, my husband said that he thought by now I would have narrowed my choices and just planted two or three kinds. I hated to let him see me plant anymore seeds. LOL Then a couple of days ago, I said that I had all of these new seeds to try but already had so many planted. He said, "Well I would plant them anyway." He knows I will never find a place to plant all of them and I think he enjoys dropping off the remainder to the senior citizens. One year I had so many weird ones, like stuffers and such. Those people grew them in their flower beds and last year wanted to know if I had more of those. I know this is weird, because this is a paste tomato, but my favorite tasting tomato is Opalka. Everyone talks about planting them to use them for paste, but I am wondering just how many take that weird looking tomato to their table. Most of the winter I buy Roma in the store, but occasionally spring for a $3 box of small grapes. I don't like Roma and have no desire to grow them, but my husband thinks we should always plant them. I told him I would plant 2 in the garden and if he wanted anything else he would have to grow them in pots. He agreed. Can you believe it, with all of those other great choices. Actually Opalka is really his favorite also. This is the only location where I have grown it so I don't know what it is like elsewhere. I plan to take better care of my garden this year, so by the end of the year I may be sorry I planted so many. During our Air Force years, I didn't always have a garden so when I did I tried to plant everything. I have narrowed that down a lot and I don't try to do that. Some things I just must have tho. In the spring I need lettuce, broccoli, and sugar snap peas, and I usually plant a few onions and potatoes. The summer garden needs cucumbers, squash, okra, a few green beans and lots and lots of tomatoes and peppers. I always think I will plant a fall garden, but I am usually worn out by then. Besides you have to start when it's hot for some of those things. Guess I am too old and too lazy for that. I do enjoy growing things tho. I have a two new beans to try this year. One is Red Noodle yard long which I understand is really from the pea family instead of bean family, but I have never grown it. The other is called Insuk Wang Kong that a man sent me from Washington. It came from his Korean wife's family and didn't have a name. She just called it a king bean because of the size. Zeedman and "our Oklahoma macmex" named it Insuk Wang Kong. Insuk is her name and the other part is king bean, I think. Anyway, I saw a picture of the bean growing and I just had to get some to try. It is a climber and has red blossoms. I can't wait to try it. It produces the biggest shelled beans I have ever seen.

Hi High alt, I definitely second the motion to plant them now! Fall is a GREAT time for planting. The only real negative is the fact that you have to wait all winter to see for sure if they'll come up in spring, but most of them will---and they'll be so-o-o far ahead of where they'd be if you waited till spring that it's worth possibly loosing an occasional plant. Anytime the soil's not frozen the roots will be growing! And with Achillea--which is virtually indestructible--I'd be amazed if they died overwinter. As Charlene says, be sure they're well watered when you put them in, and after that be careful that you don't keep them too wet. There's some Achillea millefolium growing in an isolated area by the Kmart I go to and it is NEVER watered or taken care of in any way (it's a Kmart, after all!), and it just keeps going and going and going..... The only thing I'd be hesitant to plant in fall would be something that's only marginally hardy in our zone. I still have some things in pots I bought earlier this year that I never had time to put in that I hope to get planted yet, and in terms of mulch, I don't plan to do anything once they're planted. I do have bark mulch around all my perennials to make it look nice and help conserve moisture, but I won't be adding anything else that's actually on top of the plants. With some plants--especially ones that like it dry or are in any way a succulent type of plant--the crown can stay too wet if there's not enough air circulation, and they could rot out. If you do decide to mulch over the top, be sure it's something that allows free air circulation. One word of caution--be sure whatever you're planting is thoroughly hardened off if it will be cold for the first few nights after you plant it. Or else wait till we warm again and you know it will be warm for the first several nights before it gets really cold again---that way they'll harden off naturally as the temps drop once it's in the ground. You especially need to be sure you harden off things you get in the mail since you don't know what conditions they've been in before they were shipped. The plants you have sitting outside in pots I'd just leave out there! If they've been out there for over a week now, they've been exposed to some pretty cold temps and should be well enough hardened off to be just fine. If you move them inside, they'll just need to be hardened off all over again. I'm not familiar with Coreopsis 'Autumn Blush." Is that one listed as z5 or colder? Some of the newer Coreopsis's (sp?--Coreopsi!!!) are not reliably hardy. I hope that one is--it sure sounds pretty! Happy gardening, Skybird P.S. Charlene, good luck with your "little sticks!" I LOVE your descriptions!

Thanks. No water restrictions here in Mississippi. I've got a lake that I'm thinking of pumping water from. I figured it would be better than putting that chlorinated water on the plants. Plus, I thought there might even be some nutrients in the lake water. I'm going to plant later this week after this cold snap passes. The shade is coming mostly from Oak trees with a few Ash trees here and there. In the winter, the cedars will get almost full sun in the afternoon when the leaves are gone but the spring and summer months are pretty shady. I hope it's not too much shade for them while they get established.