Hi Sure! Hi Vickie, I posted a reply to you after you posted to the Special Instructions thread. Here is my reply so you won't have to go run it down....or maybe you did see it, since you ended up here on the Conversation side. Welcome Vickie! Sure you can join the fun! Until you have something listed to trade, just check out some of the generous offers that say SASE, SASBE, Newbie, Newbs, FREE, BEAP Though you are not a GW newbie, just mention that you are need to the Seed Exchange. These are all seeds offers sent with you providing a bubble envy, return postage, and whatever else is asked by the offering member....ie, return address label, GW name, list, whatever... Here is an explanation of what might be needed. sase-sasbe is NOT a self addressed envelope There are some FAQ for the forum, but they don't address a lot of things. Hopefully the FAQ will get redone and be more complete, sometime this winter. Once you get some seeds in hand, or even before, you should check out The Winter Sowing Forum It is getting about time to sow many things. Have Fun! Sue...resident busy body

Thanks everyone for your comments and compliments. The dl's get all the credit, I just try to take care of them and take photos of them. :) For those of you who love Another Chance Today, as I do, here's an earlier photo of it that I don't think I posted. I think it's even nicer with the slightly recurving petals. Jan

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

Welcome, Betty in Georgia!!! I think I've seen you somewhere before *g*. I am so happy to have been a part of your conversion, and you are going to love it here (especially the OT threads, those are my favorites...we like to get friendly). OK, look up at the top of this page, there is a green bar that says Blogs, Forums, Photo Galleries, etc. Hover your mouse over "Forums" and you will see "Garden Forums" as one of the choices. Click on that and it will take you to a listing of all (and there are a LOT!) of the garden forums. Scroll down a ways on the page and, on the left side, you'll see "Georgia Gardener". Or, follow this link: Here is a link that might be useful: Georgia Gardener