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.

I already answered another post of yours, and it sounds like you might have already replaced the soil. (You can read my comments in that other post) Anyway, two things stand out in these pics: (1) no mulch (2) other stuff in the containers (lemon peels??) If you have pictures of the fungus that is now on the foliage, that might be helpful in diagnosing the specific problems you're now having.

we're in the same zone...although i'd venture to say it's a lot hotter and dryer here. i have volunteer tomatoes popping up here and there all over my garden... so i guess i'm saying you can direct sow. i'm betting that unless you have a heat mat and grow lights, you'd probably be better off direct sowing because the seeds will germinate faster outside in the garden than they will in the house. just be sure to keep the seeds moist as you would with indoor sowing. if you have enough seeds...why not try to direct sow one set and sow another set in a flat...and whomever wins the germination race gets to be planted in the garden? oh...and keep that son of yours out of the garden!!! what did he do anyway? over fertilize?

I love volunteer tomatoes :) True they normally germinate later than the store bought plants because they need to wait for the soil to warm. However, comma - if they are not transplanted the root structure excels so they need far less watering and can better withstand dry spells. IF you can allow them to grow where they sprout, I would do that. As recommended cut with scissors those you want to remove. The downside is they are always a surprise and you just don't know what the fruit will be until it is time to harvest (which also can be a bit later). Cherry tomatoes can reproduce like weeds. I have managed to go several years on just volunteers until the venison family found my tomatoes and ate all the fruit before it was even ripe so none ever hit the ground :( The finger smell test is the way to determine.