Hi, I just wanted to make a quick note and let everybody know I did send my pal a package In October and my Secret Pal did send me a wonderful package. I have had a great deal of trouble finding time to get online and communicate to all the Gardenweb Community. I want to thank my Secret Pal for all the little gifts you sent the kids for Halloween. They needed those pencil sharpeners and erasers. They keep losing all the ones I buy them. They are managing to keep up with the little balls you sent though. The hubby liked the pen you sent him. I hung the Flower Pot Seeds hanging dor up in the Sunroom. Did you embroider the kitchen décor yourself? That is so thoughtful. I tried embroidery when I was little but I do not have time to do stuff like that now. I hung it next to my spice rack since the saying referred to "seasoning with love." I have decided I need a shelf or something for my pretty garden cups. ThatÂs on my " honey do list". I always love reading the magazines you send. I have got a habit of thumbing through the Birds and Blooms a tonight while watching TV just to unwind-even the ones I have already read before. The Garden quotation book will work for that too. I was touched that you signed the inside cover for me. The dessert on the cover of the cooking magazine looks so good it will probably be the first recipe I try from that magazine. But, IÂm sure IÂll try more. I love finding a new recipe. The kitty kat toothbrush holder was converted to a pencil holder for my little girl. We play with our fingernails together so the emory board is coming in handy. I was excited to see the lighted magnifying glass for maps. I canÂt tell you how many times we pulled over under a street light this summer to figure out on the map where we were. Now we can do it and not lose time and hopefully not get lost. lol This weekend I will be plating some of the bulbs youÂve sent me. Usually, I donÂt so so well with bulbs. Even when the moles and squirrels didnÂt mess with them, they did not bloom. But one of the local gardeners told me it was because I needed to plant the bulbs in November. And showed me how she did hers. So, I am going to plant them her way. I am going to put the Chrysanthemums up front. And the allium and daffodils in the back yard I am sure I left something out but I am typing this from work. I just canÂt thank you from home anymore. Atleast not at the moment. There is too much going on. But, I do appreciate everything you have sent me. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for thinking of me! Leann

Hi Ohio Fem! I don't have a particularly large amount of space that isn't shaded. We put the plastic shed against the house when we first moved in, back when the property was all lawn. The previous owner sub-divided and sold the lot behind us. I look at that 1/4 acre of sun-drenched bliss nearly every day and shake my head. I got the buckets from the bakery dept in the local grocery store just to try out container tomatoes. Then I bought 2x10x10 boards and that was how they fit. I didn't give it much thought at the time since the seedings were teeny when they went in. I've decided to move the shed. That will give me an area about 10' x 10' for growing my tomatoes. I have to empty it and find a few strong guys to move it. I have a huge live oak in the shade, so we'll put it under the tree. I bought 32 resin pots last week and a pallet full of soil stuff. The white buckets will go along the cyclone fence and I'll use them for plum tomatoes for sauce. Thanks JoeOrganic. Prayers are always appreciated. I feel pretty good most days. My energy remains low so if I have an hour of steady work in the garden, it's a good day! When I move the shed and switch to the new pots I was planning to build a different sort of trellis system. I don't know why, but when they built this house they put the septic and leeching field behind the house. OTOH, the front lawn is HUGE and would have been a great place for the septic business. I figure they had to have been on drugs or something. It's FL! Everyone puts a pool behind the house! You can't dig in the soil where the shed sits, so I was going to put 2x2x10 in buckets and fill them with cement. Then I was going to attach 10 feet of 4x4" wire fencing to each end and grow tomatoes on either side with 8 pots per row. I'll have 4 rows of tomatoes with an aisle in between. That should take up the entire amount of tomato growing real estate I'll have in that spot. Plums will stay in the white buckets along the sunny fence area around the yard. THis is what I have so far: Cherokee Purple Floradade (developed specifically for FL by UF) Black Cherry Black Plum Amish Paste Tigerella Green Zebra San Marzano Mortgage Lifter Yellow Gooseberry I bought more seeds to start inside in Dec for the second half of the FL growing season: Sun Gold Berkeley Tie Dye Yellow Mortgage Lifter Dr Wyche's Yellow Pantano Romanesco Paul Robeson Black Krim Large Barred Boar Green Grape Jersey Giants Blue Berries Purple Bumble Bee Pink Bumble Bee I've been told that cherry and smaller variety tomatoes do better in the FL heat than large tomatoes. I had planted Beefsteak and Brandywine in the ground last spring thinking they would be fine to grow in the summer. I don't think I had a single tomato more than 1' around. Almost all of them split wide open from the daily monsoon rains. I guess that's why the growing season here is from Sept - June. The heat and constant rain here kills everything. The only thing that grew all summer was Okra. I did get n enormous amount of Roma tomatoes but they were very small and thick skinned. Thank you so much for your words of advice. I do have quite a few very small plants. When I started the seeds I had 100% germination, except for the yellow gooseberries. They didn't grow at all until I placed a few seeds on top of the soil in the bucket and kept them well watered. I had placed two plants in many of the buckets, thinking one might die. They didn't. After 4 weeks I pulled the second plant from each pot and put them in 1/2 gallon pots. The plants in the five gallon buckets started to take off and get bigger. The plants in the small pots will get transplanted into a bucket for the spring season. Hopefully they will have a head start over the seedlings I'll be starting soon. Like I've said, I really don't know what I'm doing. My Italian grandparents had a farm in upstate NY when was a kid and I spent every August there. We helped pick the tomatoes and spent days cooking, straining, making sauce and canning with grandma. My parents always had lots of tomatoes, swiss chard and peppers too. I can't call any of them for advice because they no longer walk among us, LOL. So it sounds like I'm hearing that I should trim the suckers if I want to have a few large variety tomatoes and leave the cherry and plums alone so that I have more production with the small varieties? This post was edited by sunqueen57 on Mon, Nov 18, 13 at 13:42

Good evening, y'all! It's been warm (up to the mid-70's) and sunny here today. I sat out in it for a few minutes this morning when dh let me off at the front door of the hospital and went to park the car. My procedure went great. Just the colonscopy, not the top end this time. All was well, no polyps or problems. YEA! Must have been all those good thoughts and prayers from my good friends. :) Marci and Jan, I'm so sorry to hear about your falls and owies. Bless your hearts. Let others pamper you until you're feeling better! Suzanne, all your photos this week have been so beautiful. The one of the pending avalanche was amazing. And, after my experience this morning, all I can say about that egg photo is "ouch" for that poor chicken that delivered the really big one! Love your photos always! Dee, thanks for checking in about Dave on FB. Still no word. I guess that things are still the same, so they don't have the heart to post right now. DH and I drove straight to Antonio's Italian restaurant from the hospital! LOL The dr. had advised a bland diet: scrambled eggs, pancakes, oatmeal. I just looked at him and said, "WHAT???" He laughed and told me to just go easy at first and to not eat the peppers in the salad when I got there. I ate about 1/4 of the salad and the shrimp & chicken florentine, then boxed up the leftovers for dinner tonight. It was definitely the thought that counted for that meal. :) I slept great last night and awoke ready to get the show on the road at 9 a.m. I got to the hospital at 10 and was in and out from the procedure at the same time I'd originally been scheduled for it. Home by 1 after lunch. No nap, but I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight. It's great to come here and see Maddie, Donna, and Marci posting, too. It's how it should be! I'll be talking to y'all more this weekend. Time for a bite to eat!

Good Friday morning! Raeanne, bon voyage. I am so glad you got that package in time LOL! Have fun. John, see the effect you have on women! Sounds like you were the perfect gentleman. Good luck sleuthing, I mean babysitting! Hopefully they pay more for babysitting than .50 an hour that I was paid years ago. LOL Maddie, I am still trying to figure out how I can pull NYC off in December. I am in on the exchange too. Besh, have you given any thought to NYC? Good job on Dee's package BJ! Have fun at your planning party tonight. Planning is the key. Dee, enjoy all those lovely gifts! What a fun package to receive. Speaking of planning I have my carriage club's planning meeting tomorrow night. This is where we plan all the events for 2008. It's a pot luck (ugh) but I plan on being prepared for good eating with what I bring. I have to get a photo of this but will share so you can imagine what I am seeing: About 2 miles from my house is a lovely farm with big fields on both sides of the road and a lovely antique colonial home. The fields host flocks of sheep all summer and fall. On my way home Halloween evening someone had delivered to both fields huge piles of pumpkins for the sheep to eat. So I am driving along taking this all in. The sheep, some with black faces, eating from these huge piles of pumpkin, the setting sun filtering through the trees giving off this warm cast of oranges and golds through the leaves and a old man (presumably grandfather) standing next to this tow headed boy who is petting one of the sheep through the fence. It was all too beautiful. I will try to get a photo of the sheep and pumpkins but I doubt I the camera will ever be able to capture what is in my mind's eye. I hope you can imagine it.