Amanda, If you are in Tulsa, then I believe your Oklahoma Mesonet station is in Bixby, and it shows about 4.8" of rain for the month of April and 11.8" for 2009. That's really not a huge amount of moisture unless your soil drains very slowly. However, Tulsa had a whole lot of rain last year--about 53 or 54", so your ground is completely saturated. I checked you KBDI number and it is almost zero which indicates totally saturated soil down to a depth of 8", which is as far down as the KBDI goes, so your soil could be totally saturated at an even greater depth. So, even though your rainfall has not been excessive, it has been falling on thoroughly saturated soil, so in that sense, the rainfall is the problem. Plant roots don't really grow in soil. They grow in the "empty spaces" between soil particles and the roots pick up oxygen from those spaces. If the empty spaces are full of water (as they are when it rains a lot and your soil is totally water-saturated), the plant roots fill up with water and cannot take in enough oxygen, nor can they take up vital nutrients from the soil. Understand? That is most likely why your leaves are drooping and also why you are seeing the yellowing. I don't know how long ago you transplanted the tomato plants into the ground, but if it was only in the last week, you might be seeing transplant shock, although transplant shock is usually pretty minimal in springtime when there's lots of rain and clouds. Pulling off those lower leaves won't help the plant any because right now those leaves are "communicating" with you and letting you know the plant is struggling. If you remove them, all you've done is interfere with the plant's ability to tell you that it is "sick". Before you make the decision to dig up the plants--or to not dig up the plants, why don't you wait until tomorrow. Whenever you have a chance to look at the bed tomorrow, pick up a trowel full of soil out of that bed where the tomatoes are planted. Put the soil in your hand and squeeze it together in your fist and then open your palm and look at the soil. Does the soil clump together in one big wet lump? Or, does it fall apart when you open up your palm? Also, when you squeezed it, did water come out of it like when you squeeze a sponge in your hand? I'm trying to help you figure out if your soil in the bed is too wet for the tomato plant. If the water clumps together in one big lump, that's a sign it is very wet and possibly a sign it needs more organic matter. If it sort of falls apart in your hand and doesn't clump, that's a good sign. If you can squeeze water out of that lump of soil, that's not good. My best guess is that excessive moisture is the problem. If it is, you can take a "wait and see" approach, watch the plant carefully and see if it seems to get better or worse. Often, when excessive moisture is the problem, you'll see the situation improve as the soil dries out, IF the soil dries out. If rainfall continues, and I think it is supposed to, you may see the situation worsen. If the plant continues to worsen, you will see the worsening appear as even more wilting and more yellowing. If the plant is starting to be starved of nutrients, you may see some yellowing or purpling in the foliage, or the foliage may begin looking yellowish-green. Sometimes you may see the leaves curling. I really consider digging up a tomato plant to be the "last-resort" solution, but you may not have any choice. If your plant stays wilted and yellowing for 2 or 3 more days or the condition worsens, you may need to dig up the plants and plant them in pots for a while until the soil dries out or replant them in a higher spot. On an annual basis, you have more rainfall there than we have probably ever had here in Marietta even in our rainiest year ever, so you may have a lot of drainage issues simply because the soil seldom, if ever, truly dries out. I was under the impression that much of the soil in the Tulsa area is very well-draining, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sometimes hold water for a long time. In 2007, we had excessive rainfall here and my plants stayed wilted and poorly colored for well over a month--probably closer to two months--throughout April and May. I didn't dig them up and put them in pots, and later on I regretted that decision. It is hard to know what to do because you can't predict what the weather is going to do, although in Tulsa, it is safe to say you're going to have a lot more rain. Just because the plants are wilting and yellowing, you do not have to dig them up. You can leave them and let them struggle through it. Leaving them in their current location doesn't necessarily mean they will drown and die, although it is a possibility. Digging them up doesn't necessarily mean you'll save them. So, you have to make a judgement call and no one else can make it for you because no one else can see your soil and what it looks like or your plants and what they look like. By the way, sunflowers like lots of moisture. So do pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, and even melons (except when the melons are ripening). Tomatoes though? They need really well-drained soil that does not stay wet all the time. Dawn

Wal-Mart had some good sized Cleome in the perennial section here in zone 5. While they DO reseed like anything, they are NOT perennials. The inexperienced gardener won't know the difference. Those aren't the only "tender annuals" I've seen marketed as perennial there. When I brought it to the attention of the clerk in the garden center, she basically just stared at me with a "So what?" look on her face. Of course, that's the same Wal-Mart where a clerk in the Music department and I had the following exchange: Q: "I'm looking for the new Sinatra "Duets" album, what catagory would I find him?" A: What kinda music do he sing?"

I am so disappointed to hear this. I agree that it would be strange to see the exact same pattern on both feet -- especially in this style which makes the pattern so prominent on the foot. Ive been on the fence about ordering another size after my size was sold out. I had planned to get a wide to allow room for socks but I have a pair of boots where I did the same and my foot moves around in them too much. I think I am going to pass. It's a shame though because I find the other snake patterns too small and too busy. I haven't had time to shop for other styles but I think my next focus will be a pair of light gray suede pointy toe booties. I am also tempted by the blondo waterproof booties that don't LOOK like rain boots. Ive had fall shoes out all week-- I worked at home on Wed when we had 90+ temps but the rest of this week has been pretty darn cool.. my heat came on this morning! It's time.. it's time for new slippers too!

"FWIW, I find myself using Hoopla more than Overdrive these days because it has more titles I like and ebooks are checked out for 21 days. Overdrive ebooks are checked out for 14 days here." I have two suggestions for you. For most library Overdrive accounts, the length of checkout time is changeable. Using a PC and a browser, go to your library's Overdrive home page. (You can get there with a search like "XYZ City Overdrive" or the name of the regional Overdrive cooperative membership if your library uses that, like "Southern California Digital Overdrive). Sign in, go to My Account, then Settings. If allowed by your library, you should see where the checkout time can be changed, The three choices I usually see visible are 7, 14 or 21 days. Second, my experience is that Overdrive Kindle books get wiped from the Kindle readers at the end of a checkout period ONLY if and when the Kindle reader connects to the internet. I know this because I have a family member I help to checkout Kindle content from library Overdrive services. For this purpose, I might check out 5-10 books at one time in advance of a long trip. Because I do Kndle checkouts from a PC, it's a two step process - checking out the book on the library's Overdrive page, and then requesting it be downloaded (it doesn't happen automatically and need not be done at the checkout time, it can be done later). When download is requested, a link is triggered to sign into the user's Amazon account. Once the Kindle device syncs and the books have downloaded, you can turn the Kindle's Wifi setting to Off. The downloaded books will remain on the Kindle device and will be usable until Wifi is turned back on again and an internet connection is made, which might be many months later. This means no new books can be downloaded until all on the Kindle device have been read. This matters for books that are popular and hard to get (with a wait list), doesn't matter for books in less demand.