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.

Hi. I posted a message about this yesterday in the general rose forum and because I can't upload pictures there, I am reposting it here- as I think the pictures are helpful. I have a new William Shakespeare 2000, on his own root with what seems to me as impossibly spindly and prostrate growth (acts like a tomato vine hanging down out of the pot). I don't know if this is from bad pruning, or a genetic defect, or totally normal. If it's normal, will it grow out of this habit? I don't have the room for a creeping rose. ai yai yai. It looks like the main canes (from below soil) were already nipped at about 2 inches on both original shoots. It gets weird from there. All this new growth (fairly lush) is coming off side shoots, and side-side shoots. It puts on a litte cluster of shoots about every 1-2 inches. So, it's super multibranched at only 15inches height and cannot support itself. About one third of the plant appears to literally want to grow straight down because it is a bunch of side branchs that came out facing down, then they rebranched again. Good news is there is what appears a new shoot, which is about 7 inches and it seems normal. He was transferred from a band? into a gallon pot for me by the nursery about 5 weeks ago, and I just picked him up from them yesterday. I transferred him into a 5 gallon pot in the evening and his roots looked fine- running all around the soil. His leaves are normal colored and although some are quite small (all this multiplexed branching, I guess) he also has quite a bit of normal sized foliage. Lots of buds ( i removed most). To me, he doesn't look diseased. But he looks nothing like any of my other austin's. If he just needs time to grow, could you offer me advice on how to manage him? I can't imagine pruning him, seems that would make matters worse. Should I just let him hang down and be weird for a while, since the branches grew like that? I'd like to hear any suggestions (even hunches if you haven't had this particular issue yourself before). Thanks! Image link:

Are you treating your plants for the caterpillars? Bt is a very effective control, so effective that worm holes seldom cause a problem for me. Other controls are also available to eliminate the problems so you don't have to throw fruit away. I lose a few to BER sometimes very early in the season but that's about it. Dave

Obviously, though, there are going to be differences in yield according to climate, soil, etc. But 8 sungold plants for one person is a HELLUVA LOT unless there is something seriously hindering their growth and productivity. You'll never lack for things to do with the ones you don't eat, though. I'm not personally a fan of them for sauce or for savory recipes like salsas or pico de gallo, but they make a GREAT tomato jam (really nice with ginger), if you're into that sort of thing, and they make a lovely, summery tomato soup with an extra sweetness.