Thank you PV for your post all all great tips:) My balcony is facing north and there is a bit of sunlight in the front of in usually by noon. Then its all shade for the rest of the day...Lemon trees seem to be doing fine so this will be an experiment with herbs. I didn't know about carrots that they will not grow without full sunlight (too bad was excited for some sweet young carrots) but i will look into lettuce! Your basil is amazing. what kind of basil do you have? i bought seeds of sweet basil but saw some other kinds and had a little bit dilemma of which one to choose so went with sweet one. I like growing from seeds - more fun to watch and more satisfaction than buying a grown plant. Does growing broccoli or cauliflower require a big container? I might be interested in that but I don't have room for a big container on my balcony. Fortunately I am the only person who will be using herbs for cooking and veggies (if that works out for me) so I don't need a lot. I guess just a bit of everything that I like. I still want to get some dill seeds. I bought 2 new containers - one smaller one medium and will have to figure out what to plant there.... Thanks for tips on plants and flowers! i am interested more in once that will live longer than one season... and that will add some color to the balcony. unfortunately its more of a concrete balcony and I don''t have any railings to use for attaching a windowbox. SO I am left with whatever pots/containers I put on the floor i guess. I am excited to expand flowers/plants on my patio. It's probably not he best time of the year for it -fall - but in I live in San Diego so another 2 months should still be quite warm before it's around 45-50 degrees in the winter. I also attached below pictures of how the balcony looks like and other ones in the building (it wasn't a sunny day so actually it looks a bit more gray than usually): Magda

yah - Joanne, i really could see that the whole growing to sell thing could be really stressful. it intrigues me to sell my extras on ebay... but im not sure if i could ship well enough to satisfy people. i dont have room to keep all the extras and i like the thought of selling so i can put that money back into my violets. but anyhow! i feel like ive missed lots of discussions on here lately! we are homeward bound tomorrow. oh and if anyone else wants to know where to buy African Violets in Lancaster PA... go to Esbenshades Greenhouse! :) they even told me that they will be getting in some minis in a few weeks. sigh. just missed them. i did pick up four there though! i believe that they are all optimara. :) red, pink, blue, and a white/pink. they need some tlc... which i can handle. ;) i also found a maidenhair fern which i had been looking for FOR. EVER. ;) oh Joan - just reading back posts here! trader joe?? i didnt know they had violets! hmm. gonna have to remember that. did you get the one that might have been ingrid?? i love that one! rosie, dont apologize for your trips down memory lane! ;) i enjoy hearing the history behind the journeys.

Looking more into this, I think it may actually be voles, not gophers. So thank you, gorbelly, for the advice about foil. Do you just mean wrap some foil around the base of the stem? I have 2 surviving tomato plants. One is about 3 ft tall and the other is a lot shorter. This morning, I noticed the shorter one was wilting even though I'd given it a good watering yesterday. I was worried it had been attacked but couldn't see any damage above the soil. I transplanted it into a pot, trying to keep the root ball in tact (I may have damaged some of the extended roots, though). It look s pretty sad right now but I'm hoping it'll survive. Here's the 3-footer still looking healthy, but I'm worried! Aside from the foil, what's the best vole deterrent, if that's what it is? I've read some stuff online and people are saying castor oil is a good one, although I'm still unclear as to how exactly I apply it. I see no entrance holes anywhere in the surrounding dirt. People are saying sonic repellents don't work that well. I may not be able to get to the store until tomorrow, so I'm hoping it doesn't get attacked by then. I'll add the foil in the mean time. In a super desperate move, I took the remains of the first detached tomato plant and tried to bury it as deeply as I cold in another area of the yard, right next to some onions and kale. I know I'm totally dreaming this will work out but I figured it was worth a try. I know it would be an admission of defeat but I'm still considering moving the zucchini and cucumber, which are still relatively small. I just feel like I need to do something ASAP and not wait around until I figure out the deterrent option.

Dan, you've missed the main point. Waki922 doesn't have the room to rotate and looking for an alternative, so the first step is to destroy Early blight & septoria leaf spot fungus overwintering in residues in his bed. It can be done and with proper housekeeping so he continue to use the bed for Tomatoes or whatever, year after year. Your statement, (In farming, rotation is done on distance scales of thousands of feet. ) doesn't hold water here because this isn't farming, it's home gardening on the micro scale. Rotation is not practical for home gardeners and other more labor intense practices are needed with a different plan then in farming. So knowing what you're up against, and how to fight it gives a plan that works for me. A look at the fungus in question: Alternaria solani - Early blight, and Septoria lycopersici - Septoria leaf spot. Both fungus depend on plants from the Solanum family and no others. Both fungus are unable to crawl, walk or slither from one point to another. They are Immobile and depend on wind, water, or digging to move them. They need a suitable host, a way to get to the host, and the right growing conditions for the condia, (asexual chlamydospore) or spores to infect a plant by killing leaf cell tissue with toxins, and feeding on the dead plant cells. Poaceae (grass family), Liliaceae (lily family) , or any other family of plant will not support these two fungus, only the Solanum family of plants. Killing the overwintering fungus in the ground, where the fungus food (tomato plant) is grown will drastically reduce Condia in the spring. Then with the proper care the plant can then grow to produce a crop. His lawn or lilies won't feed the fungus, and his perennials won't, if they're not a member of the Solanum family. So fungus level will be very low in the surrounding area. WAKI , once you've killed overwintering fungus in the soil you must keep the site clean of plant debris. Roots must be pulled, all leaves and stems must also be removed, you can't leave anything for the fungus to overwinter in. Your little blow torch will not do it. The flamer I gave a link to needs to be used. No, its not illegal (just have a garden hose handy). When done search the area for other solarium family plants growing and flame them also. Then care for your new tomato plants properly with a sound feeding and watering. Plants, just like people, need to maintain a homeostasis balance to produce hormones and steroids for increased resistance to stress/disease. (yes plants use hormones and steroids.) I've experimented with the many disease resistant varieties to date. One was called Iron Lady, a cross of a "triple resistant" Cornell line and a late blight/early blight line from North Carolina State University released around 2012-2013. 50 -60 cents a seed. Guess what? If they're not cared for properly they will wilt. (not from lack of watering but improper feeding) My test plants were neglected to see how resistant they really are, and were ate up with disease in no time. Not far from the Iron lady was a Brandywine heirloom having no resistance, that I cared for properly and had no problems in producing a good yield. Regardless of the conditions plant health is of most importance. (I did spray the brandywine with Copper fungicide.) Dan, my main garden in the back is 65' x 230' and even there I don't rotate. Maybe 20' to 40' one way or another but not 1000's of feet. I'll be moving my potatoes a few hundred feet away to a new plot, not because of wilt but because of wire worms. 5 yrs ago I talked to a couple that planted tomatoes in the same spot for 45 years! Said they always had a good crop and the garden growing conditions were the best I've ever seen. So the need to rotate can be countered with other measures if one takes the time. I must mention Mountain magic tomatoes. One of the hardiest plants I've ever grown. Resists wilts to no end, grows great, high yield (picked almost 100 so far this year and will get another 100+ ) and 99% perfect fruit. They're small about size of a golf ball, about 2 oz. but the Quantity make up for the size. Another expensive seed costing 50 cents each from jung or 90 cents each from gurney's. I have a spot in my side yard facing south I plant show tomatoes in. It is 4' x 24' in size, I've been planting tomatoes in the same spot for about 15 yrs. Grasses, perennials, shrubs and flowers grow all around it, everything except plants from the Solanum family. I keep it clean of all plant debris, pull the roots, flame it and in the spring plant it. I mulch with rye straw, use drip irrigation and feed what they need, when they need it. They are my show off jaw dropper tomato plants and give amazing results well away from my main garden by 450 ft. , No rotation ever and right now there is no wilt on them, or pruning of the bottom leaves. Only sprayed them with copper twice this year when the conditions were right for fungus. If I do see a spot I remove the leave, (remember the spore has to kill the plant tissue before it can feed and reproduce and to spread), and with close attention you can stop the spread easily, if fungus levels are low below.