Bea, I'm so sorry to hear what has been going on with you. Mary, you are a wonderful daughter to be there for Mom. Got a deal for you Bea. I just had another spinal surgery 3 weeks ago, and, I'm having a tough time getting around now, even with a cane. So here's the deal, my friend. We are going to do this recovery together. Very slowly and very patiently, together we are going to rehab together and get back on our feet and into our gardens to work again. Is it a deal? you bet it is. We will do this together. Progress is slow and we are both impatient people wanting to get our lives back again. E-mail me any time and please e-mail me about MG seeds. Don't have any from this years growing yet. Slow to grow, slow to bloom, just a crazy growing season. But I have plenty that I collected from last year. E-mail me and I will send you some pics in info on what i have and let's get going on that deal. whose gonna get to the gardens to really garden again first? Your friend in MA Fran

Carol, I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Ardmore.....we did arrange that one cool day just for you....LOL! Be glad you are not here today....it is currently 102 with a heat index of 108 and I have the hose running in the lily pond because it is down about 6" since the beginning of the week. We just came back from Ardmore few minutes ago, and there was little six-point buck in the driveway, making his way toward the garden. I guess he was going to eat anything growing out through the fence. The half-inch of rain we got wasn't much, but our fire dept. hasn't been paged out to a fire today, so it must have helped a little. People here do not pay directly for fire protection, but the county gives each dept. some money every year--it isn't even enough to pay our annual gasoline bill, but every little bit helps. We do lots and lots of fundraisers and it is never-ending, you know. Our citizens are VERY good about supporting Love County's 14 volunteer fire departments, though, and we always appreciate that. Dawna, It broke my heart to stop watering, but I swore I wasn't going to run up an outrageous $350-per-month water bill like I did during the 2005-006 drought....remembering that all that water didn't even keep the garden alive then, so what's the point in doing it this year? Only a little over 16" of rain here this year, and I think less than 3" combined for June, July and August so far. Combine the drought with the long string of days over 100 degrees (it's been as high as 106 to 108 here with heat indexes up to 116 degrees), and the garden (and the gardener) just can't take it. We've had lots of the usual hayfield fires started during either cutting, raking or baling, but its so dry that they have been burning lots and lots of acres per fire, instead of only a few. Lots of fires along the highways too, of unknown origin, but probably started by cigarettes thrown out of windows. I've spent as much as 10 hours at fires in one day, but usually only 2, 3 or 4 hours or so on most days. I'm just too tired. Between the drought, the heat, and the fires, the garden's just sitting there withering up and dying. It's OK, though, surely next year will be better. : ) Right? Moni, I bet Montana was wonderful! Well, I'm not giving up on gardening permanently, just giving up on keeping the veggie garden alive this year. Love County is in what the U. S. Drought Monitor terms a "moderate drought" and I believe our rainfall has been "below average", and sometimes severely below average, for 11 of the last 12 months. Our rainfall is roughly 10" below what it should be at this time of year. Even when rain does fall, we normally have severe drought conditions in July and August anyway, so without the "usual" rain, we are really hurting. The garden has been very productive thus far....tons of big, huge, softball-sized onions, a lot of potatoes, zillions of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, a moderate amount of beans (less than most years) and I'm still geting okra, melons and pumpkins, although the plants look pretty bad at this point. Both our freezers are full and I have lots of onions and potatoes in the cellar. I'm still getting ripe tomatoes because the plants had tons of tons of green ones when I quit watering. At this point, I don't have much time to garden. Fires are happening with a frightening regularity....mostly grassfires and a few of the larger wildfires, a couple of car fires, and one major structure fire (over 10 hours long) at a wooden pallet factory earlier this week. I've been gone to fires so long, or in town on fire business, or running to Sam's and Costco to get food and drinks for the 14 fire department's firefighters, that I wouldn't have time to work in the garden even if I were inclined to try to water and keep it alive. I've also been on-line designing and ordering custom safety vests, hats, and t-shirts for our fire dept., so lately its been all about the fire department. That's OK. The work the VFDs do is very important and I don't mind diverting "gardening time" to "fire department time" every now and then. I just hope it all settles down by next spring (we need rain and a lot of it between now and then) so I can start over with fresh plants in a new season. : ) What about y'all, Moni? Did you sell the house yet? Did you move? Somewhere in the madness of trying to survive the heat and drought, I lost track of what's going on with y'all. Let me know! Dawn

I just looked at the first 4-5 photos. That does look a bit pathetic. My concerns would be how much moisture they have been getting. Since you are in Illinois, I am not sure if you have had as much rain as we have had up a bit further north or not, but it could be too much moisture. The other issue might be your fertilizers. A lot of the time, in ground with decent soil, you need little to no extra nutrients. You might have over done it by tilling in the fertilizer into the soil. The 12-12-12 ratio might be a bit high on the P and K parts. Normally people use ferts that a bit higher in the N than the P and K. There isn't a whole lot you can do now since your plants are already planted unless you wanted to pull all or some and try then in containers for the rest of the season. But it sounds like something happened since last year since you said you had good luck in that spot in prior years. The curling leaves could be a number of things but fertilizer burn could be one of them...Pests or virus's also can do that. I hope someone else has a bit more guidance for you. Keep us posted on how it turns out. Bruce

I finally got some of my greek pepper seeds to sprout! I don't use seed mix ... I just strain my potting soil and use that and haven't had any mold issues. I put sandwich baggies over each starter pot and put them on the back porch. The idea just popped into my head the other night and it's working. It's keeping them so much warmer than not being covered. I may get some peppers by Christmas. lol I feel your pain Dirty ... I have auto immune syndrome ... my doc is skirting the word lupus for the moment. I know how it feels to have a good day and then feel like a truck ran over you the next. Gardening and nature help me to keep my spirits up. So sorry to hear about your health issue Greenthumbs ... sending good vibes your way. :)