Thanks for your response. I just moved here from lush Missouri. Actually, one of the reasons I chose Utah was to learn how to plant beautiful landscapes in this soil and climate. I see you have found your way with this. Your success with the Japanese Maples is just amazing to me. Do you treat your soils with any sulfur products? A friend of mine up here owns an apple orchard. He told me that every time they water the orchard, they add sulfuric acid to the water. Every time. He's got it down to a science. There is another farmer up here that is going to attempt to grow blueberries in the spring. Blueberries like it very acidic. I imagine he will be doing something like what my orchard friend is doing. But, I wonder if it is worth the investment of the ammendments. I guess when he goes to sell blueberries, he will find out. Again, thanks for your direction.

Finding tomatoes that do well in the fall is a HUGE challenge and is so dependent on the summer and early autumn heat. Here are the criteria I use when trying to select tomatoes for fall: 1) Days to Maturity 2) Flavor 3) Ability to set flowers in heat In a way, you could say Days to Maturity is the MOST IMPORTANT factor and, technically, you would be right BUT it seems more important to me that the tomato be able to flower AND set fruit while the weather is still quite warm. Some tomatoes that have the "right" DTM still won't produce a good fall crop because many of their August flowers don't set fruit until the temperatures are more to their liking in mid to late September. And, there is no way to know in advance which tomatoes will or won't set fruit in heat, except perhaps based on the experience of other tomato growers in the hot regions of the country. Based on my experience in growing tomatoes in Oklahoma and Texas, I would say the best fall crops come from plants that: a) produce smaller rather than larger tomatoes b) produce on determinate plants set out earlier than what is usually advised for fall tomatoes c) are often advertised as "plants that produce all summer long", like Arkansas Traveler, Porter or Homestead 24 I generally choose for flavor, and tend to avoid all those tomatoes bred specifically to produce in the heat like Heat Wave or Sunmaster because they lack flavor. For fall cherry tomatoes I favor Sun Gold, Rosalita, and Black Cherry. For smaller slicing or salad tomatoes I usually go with Porter, Black Plum, Martino's Roma or Heidi. For larger tomatoes, I usually go with Purple Cherokee, Earl's Faux, Black Krim, Persimmon and Better Boy. Although Better Boy lacks the outstanding flavor of the heirlooms, it sometimes produces like gangbusters in spite of our extreme heat. Two of my best producing years with Better Boy, I had spring-planted plants produce tomatoes until the first frost in October, and had to pick dozens and dozens of green fruit the day before the freeze. Last year, Persimmon, Black Krim and Cherokee Purple set fruit in August and September despite our high temps that kept hitting 110 to 114 degrees. I thought that was amazing. This year I am going to try a lot of heirlooms for fall tomatoes, especially the heirloom winter storage types. I also am especially interested in seeing how Neves Azorean Red, Cherokee Chocolate, Champion and Little Brandywine do as a fall crop. In the past, Bucks County produced well all summer and into the fall but it appears to be "gone" this year, and there has been speculation in the tomato world that Little Brandywine is, in fact, Bucks County simply re-named. To get a fall tomato harvest, I do ALL of the following: In early- to mid-July, I cut back a few of the healthiest tomato plants to 12" to 18" tall and feed them a good balanced fertilizer. I keep them well-watered and they are usually flowering sometime in August and producing fruit in September In early to mid-June, I set out fall tomatoes that I have raised (in 4" pots) from seed outdoors in the heat. Raising them outside in the hot weather is hard, but it ensures they can handle the heat. I like to get these in the ground as early as possible in June. Setting them out later in June makes it more likely we'll get fruit before a freeze. I always set out a couple of fresh plants in VERY LARGE containers that can be pulled or pushed into the garage to avoid the first freeze and then brought back outside as soon as weather allows. If an early frost is threatening, I will cover two to four of my most productive fall plants with a blanket or heavy 6mm plastic. If you can protect them and get them through that first really cold weather spell of autumn, we often have 4 to 6 weeks of "Indian Summer" and will get a lot more ripe fruit during that time frame. Finally, if really cold weather is inevitable, I pull up the tomato plants that have a lot of fruit and hang them upside down in my tornado shelter or garage. A lot of those fruit will continue to ripen, sometimes for weeks! This is especially true for cherry tomatoes. Many years I pick a lot of green ones in the fall, but would rather have ripe ones than green ones (!) so anything that can be done to stretch the harvest is worth the time involved, I think. And, once in a blue moon the first fall freeze will be VERY, VERY LATE here....sometimes after Thanksgiving, and in a year like that, I have a huge fall harvest and am pretty much the happiest woman in Oklahoma!

Jasdip, I think you were gracious to listen. It would depend on my mood, or how worried I was about the person for whom I was waiting. Both my parents have had health issues in the last few years, and I've spent a lot of time in hospitals and doctors' offices. If there is another person in the waiting area, I usually smile and ask, "How are you today?" If it's jam-packed, I'll sit down and open my book, maybe smiling at those in the vicinity--I find that folks usually don't want to have a conversation when everyone else in the room can hear. If someone responds and wants to talk, I'll listen, even if it's a discussion of religion. At my age he isn't going to convert me, and I will probably never see him again, so unless he is insulting or abusive, or sharing TMI, I'll listen. (I'd rather not hear about some man's prostate symptoms, and in the near future I might pass on a political discussion. ;) We live in a small community, so I also invite the visiting witnesses in, if I'm not busy or ill. I know members of most of the churches in the area, and if I help them to fulfill their duty, what does it hurt? They aren't going to convert me, either, but I'm hoping it will give us both good Karma, good vibes, a neighborly feeling--whatever you want to call it. If the sight of them made me angry or resentful, then I wouldn't let them in; I'd politely tell them, "No thank you." If anyone doesn't want to hear another person's troubles, health issues, religious views, etc., of course it's his/her right not to participate in a conversation, and I would hope that the other person would be polite enough not to force the issue. OT-- I once had a lady--a stranger--tell me the whole story of her son's death and funeral, while we were standing in a check-out line at a store. Before she left I gave her a hug, and told her I hoped she would find peace. I recently accompanied a friend to the office of a doctor who practices at the Cleveland Clinic--the opposite end of the state from where I live. A woman who was waiting for her mother started telling me about her father's health problems. I could empathize because I'd been through the same thing with my father. She'd heard my friend tell the receptionist that we'd driven for hours, and asked where we lived. The woman had been raised in a community 20 minutes from my home! The conversation was a pleasant way to pass the time, and if it helped her, great. It cost me nothing.

A good friend of mine rated Rules of Civility as one of her favorite books. I'm thinking of suggesting it to my book club next time we make selections, as yet several months away. Or I may choose this one instead.