I ordered a sungold plant and it was just because the seller recommended it and everyone is raving about it, :( I wish I ordered more than one emphasizing the (frown). But congrats on endulging in the fruits of your labor!!!!! I cant wait to see mine!!! :)

Thanks to everyone for the helpful replies. @Pete All the rain we have gotten over the last 2 months (11+ inches) have ensured that my grass would green up. I am already scoping out a place for and materials for a raised bed. I mapped out, in general terms, the suns path throughout the summer last year in preparation for this year. I can't go in-ground at this time for several reasons: most of my utilities run underground thru my back yard and I have an automatic sprinkler system are the main ones. Oh, and the soil under my grass is absolute crap. I started containers this season so that I could get a feel for how things would fit with my work schedule, sort of a test run. My plan is to lay down cardboard and newspaper to supress weeds and grass and build a bed using retaining wall stones from one of the home improvement stores in a strip between my sprinkler heads. I was thinking 4' x 8' to start and perhaps 24" deep, but I was thinking that might not be enough so 12' sounds better. And with the stone I will be able to easily tear down and rebuild the bed in a larger form over time. I have priced stone, now its a matter of finding a spot. I also plan on keeping most of my herbs in containers, they seem to be doing well there and I can save bed space for tomatoes and peppers. ;) @Randy Nice 'maters! I have to agree that my plants are suffering from two main problems, lack of fertilizer and over watering due to excessive rain. It's been real humid as well which I believe prevented earlier blossoms from pollenating and blossom drop. There are likely other concerns as well, some of which will be remedied thru my experience this season and moving to a raised bed. @sunsi I agree with the thought process, I am starting now with the planning and design of next years raised bed. Can't dig for reasons stated above, but I can put together much better soil than whats below the surface of my yard. Cheers!

Is that a sad sigh or an exasperated sigh, Carolyn? Lol. I actually picked it up at a local hardware store, and was excited to see that the tag mentioned that it was good for fried green tomatoes. I figured if I had one plant that I used specifically for that purpose, then I wouldn't have to break my heart every time I picked an unripe green tomato because I'm a newbie, and every ripe tomato is like a gift from the gods. If I had to choose, I would pick tomatillos over these Granny Smiths for salsa verde any day of the week. My favorite is a fresh tomatillo salsa with onions, lime juice, jalapenos or serranos, cilantro, and some avocado all whirred up in a food processor. But now I feel sort of bad that Granny isn't getting much love.

There are many varieties of tomatoes with a wide varieties of tastes out there. Check around and start seedlings from seed early next year to get some varieties that you may like a lot better than Big Boy. It may be an acquired taste, and not everyone likes the same thing. All my first tomatoes were too bland for my liking this year, probably because of two months of unrelenting rain. Now that it has stopped raining, the flavors have improved a lot, more concentrated and like they should be. To me, there seems to be a consensus of opinion that Brandywine is one of the best tasting tomatoes out there, if you grow it I might suggest the Brandywine Sudduth which produces a large pink tomato. Cherokee Purple has become the favorite of my Wife's and my 84 year old cantankerous organic gardening neighbor over the back fence, Tom. Two that I grew this year that were productive with big tomatoes but were just a mite bland for my personal prefence is the new Burpee Porterhouse, and one called Ugly out of Florida. The list could go on and on, and that is one of the things that make it interesting if you get into checking the threads here and the seed catalogs on line, or hard copy and starting from seed for the selections from such a wide variety. Surely you can find one or more that gives you the real joy of a good home grown tomato. Beyond that, there are ways to enjoy them cooked, or to enhance a sandwich and turn one from mediocre to fantastic. Perehaps you could find one or two real "girlie" tomatoes that somewhat impersonate a bland store bought tomato and work up to the real thing! I do not know if they have tried any taste bud transplants yet or not ! ":^( Just kidding man, your taste of the cucumbers that you grew may encourage you on your quest for a great tasting tomato. Good luck and keep us posted Scottlk. That little striped watermelon looks intriguing. Bill P.