Hi Nona!! To answer your question... NO!!! LOL I've got a lot of dead things everywhere. But my friends in the Salvia group have all sorts of goodies set aside fot me - they are so nice. Except someone told me we're expecting a colder than normal winter which means even more frost my way if true, and a lot of the Salvias don't like frost, either!! Oh, the joys of gardening in an erratic climate! LOL Actually, Im starting to think about roses. They are the absolute hardiest plants I've ever seen. They are still flowering during this drought - I don't ever water them - and they survive winter. And I recently met the woman who holds the biggest rose collection in Victoria, has over 100 different kinds, many of which are Heritage Roses, AND she is extremely generous with giving away cuttings!! Her garden is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen and the perfume!! Everywhere you walked around her garden you were struck with the most fantastic fragrances. Of course, I'll still have my Salvias but I'm getting more picky. Breaks my heart when I see them wither away.

Hey squirrelypete, I'll see you at the AL swap. I'm in Bham now but I still lurk here since I came from GA. Anyway, the AL swap os May 20th at Oak Mtn State Park. People generally don't sell things, preferring to swap stuff, but it doesn't have to be other plants. I'm swaping one lady a needlepoint kit for some of her plants. It's best to just contact the individual people and see if you can work something out. Most people are generous, especially to newbies. Michelle H

Hi Merry Heart! I was figuring you must be at the lake. Hasn't the weather been wonderful....so much cooler and cloudier than usual and not nearly as much rain these last 2 or 3 weeks. It sounds like you had a great time there. I am still getting ripe tomatoes from some sorry-looking plants too, and I am very grateful for that because many people here lost all their tomatoes to the rains and/or flooding. I am slowly removing the yucky plants after I harvest the last of their good-looking ripe fruit, and am replacing them with fall tomato plants I raised from seed. I have been doing that since June, and some of the June-planted replacement plants are already 3 to 4 feet tall and have blooms and fruit, so I think it will be a good year for fall tomatoes at least. I always grow about 15 tomato plants in containers (in additions to those in the ground), ranging from 5 gallons to about 30 or 40 gallons and they always do incredibly well as long as I keep them well-watered and well-fed. This year, Better Bush, Jaune Flamme, Early Girl, Little Lucky, Lucky Cross, Kimberly, Orange Banana and Nebraska Wedding have done very well in containers. Several others, including Ultimate Opener, Red Star and Galina's Yellow did not do as well in containers. Susan has had really great results with a tomato I think would be PERFECT for a container. I think it is Husky Red Cherry. There is a whole line of Husky tomatoes that are short internode plants which are great for containers. In the past, I have had lots of success with Better Boy in containers too. My melons have been slow too, but have finally begun to form fruit. My pepper plants are like yours....smaller than usual and bending under the weight of the fruit. I bet that we will harvest peppers until the first frost, though, so the plants ought to be able to grow and get a little stronger. I also have basil everywhere, and have been having to cut it back and cut it back and cut it back. The flowers are looking great, and it is still hard to keep up with all the mowing and weed-eating. We had bobcat problems earlier this spring/summer....he got a total of 2 chickens and 2 guineas, but we haven't seen him the last 2 or 3 weeks, so maybe he has moved on. The coyotes haven't been howling and running much yet, but it is usually August when that kicks in big-time, so I guess time will tell. The river is back down in its banks, although a lot of pastures near the river still have huge amounts of water that just will not drain and dry up...so I am guessing the water table is high under those pastures. We have had lots of deer, including one doe who always leaves her still-spotted fawn on the edge of the woods while she (the doe) nibbles around the edges of the garden. I just love little fawns, so, of course, I have been putting little piles of cracked corn, sunflower seeds and hen scratch on the edge of the woods so the fawn can eat them while the doe devours the garden. (She stands outside and reaches over the fence.) We are having tons of birds (including some we've never seen and haven't identified yet), butterflies, moths, frogs, turtles, dragonflies, etc., so it is a great year for sitting out in the lawnchairs at night and watching the wildlife. It IS hard to believe it is August 1st, and we haven't even hit 100 degrees yet (which is OK with me). I hope we have a really late first frost so we can enjoy a long, lovely, mild autumn. Welcome home! Dawn

Sorry, I just saw this topic, I didn't know it had been resurrected again. Natal, Paula lost weight eons ago. Old news. Do you work for Google? :) Lukk, Paula is the one who made her health public. She's had the disease for a few years now and she is going to make money from advertising a new medication for diabetes. Since she kept it a secret for so long while cooking high carb and DELICIOUS food, lol, speculation is she only "came out" because of the money. Which rubbed a LOT of people the wrong way, even others on the Food Network. Tina, I did see the interview, she's in denial when she said there's only a "few" people who were mean. Once more she hedged and said how much her family loves her. But I guess I'd do the same. It's not going to die down unless she stops those interviews with Al. I'll still watch her show unless she starts cooking "light." Everybody with a brain knows it's all about moderation. It's like telling an Italian cook with Diabetes to can the pasta. lol I have to wonder though, will the drug company still use her now that she's had such bad publicity, so bad that her own, long-time publicist quit on her because of how Paula handled it? Stay tuned! I still like her though, she just made a questionable choice.