How wonderful for you, but it must have been absolutely fantastic for her! My friends and family are getting tired of giving me bird feeders anymore! But it's usually what I ask for...otherwise, I go buy them myself! Keep up the good deeds, Anita!!! You will be rewarded many times over! glo

This may be time consuming but the first defense against hornworm is locating the eggs..every evening I inspect the leaves (underneath) so many leaves to inspect so ya are gonna miss some..I do..the Hawk Moth is the culprit...the big parent..4-5 inches wing width..biggern...she usually comes out in the late evening to lay the eggs under the leaves. I saw only 2 last year and took care of them early....stomp. I don't really know is there is a prime time for the Hawk Moth to lay the eggs because this year in late March I killed one laying eggs on the young maters still in their cups awaiting transplant. Right now the plants are thriving and I do my usual inspection fer pests so far so good. As far as planting distance I can see why ya had a jungle...in the future I would do a good 3 foot for determinate and even more for indeterminate.. Second question..Brandywines (3 species something like that)..aint had good luck with them (because of my region) though others have. I have heard they are at the top of the heirloom maters in taste but are finicky about conditions. There are several peeps out there that have grown BW in success.. Happy gardening.. p.s if ya see a hownworm carrying a lil sack of eggs on it's back..ya can kill it quick, or let it die a slow death because the parasitic wasp has already laid it eggs on it..the babies eat it.

I was abused by an obviously narcissistic father who had drug and alcohol problems and obviously highly favored my younger brother over me. I had watched my mother be abused many times in front of me. My father came home drunk or high almost every night and would beat my mother and I, but never laid a hand on my brother. We were only 2 years and 10 months apart and my mom only had my brother because, she thought it would make it easier if my father got the boy he had always wanted. I was an unplanned child born out of wedlock off of a drunk one-night stand at a college party during my mother's last year of college my mother was only 22 while pregnant with me and had me 2 hours before her 23 birthday. I was her first child and she had no clue what she was doing, but loved me anyway. My father however made no effort to be there while I was born and instead went out with his friends and called my mom a whore and a worthless slut the whole time. Telling all his friends he now had a slutty daughter to take care of too. That night he got arrested based off of 2 charges with a DUI and he was involved in a bar-fight. My mother had to leave her newborn baby who was born sick in the hospital to go bail him out. Then they got married to please his parents who were christian and she thought the abuse might get a little better, but sadly that wasn't the case at all. When I was 3 he started blaming everything on me. Like his drug and alcohol addiction, marrying my mom, his parents being mad at him, his arrests, everything was somehow my or my mothers fault. He used to hit, kick, slap, punch, burn me with cigarettes, throw things at me, and lock me in the closet for hours at a time. My mother moved us into her room and kept a knife under her pillow. Eventually we moved in with my grandparents who also had my aunt and uncle living with them too. Even here my brother and I never slept alone. We kept our windows and doors locked tightly, we had knives under the pillows, in drawers, under the couches, in the bathrooms, everywhere, and my uncle who had a gun license kept a gun either on him or near him at all times. My grandparents are very wealthy people as they own multiple companies and we had moved out when I was 4 and lived there until I was 7 when my mother finally gained full custody of us. My grandparents fired my father who had been working for them and we were able to move back home. While we were still living with my grandparents my mother had started going out with my uncles best friend. My mother had known him for almost her whole life and trusted him. He moved in and gained love from my brother and I slowly, but surely. My mother still loved me very much, but had started favoring my brother not as much as my father, but enough so it was noticeable. My mothers new boyfriend also preferred my brother to me. I was very hurt and couldn't understand then, but now I do. I realized that no matter how much she tried she couldn't get over the fact that I had caused all of this. Everything was fine for about 2 years then my 3rd grade year when I was 8 it all changed dramatically. My now step-father proposed, they got married, we moved to a new house, they started talking about having a child together, and then the worst of it came my father came back and tried to get visiting rights to my brother and I he was deemed fit in court as he had being seeing a psychologist and had a job, but still drank and smoked he no longer did drugs either. We were forced to go kicking and screaming all the way there was still mental abuse but no longer physical. He was dating a woman who could not have children of her own and clearly wanted to take our mothers place, but we wouldn't let her and she would get angry and leave for weeks at a time which my father blamed us for even though we were only there every other weekend. He even confessed that the only reason he wanted us was to stay with this wealthy woman and her parents. She knew I was a tomboy loving sports and I hated dresses and loved hanging out with the boys, but she forced my brother and I to fit her picture perfect American family mold that she had become obsessed with. They got married 3 years later on New Years Eve during my 6th grade year. In the summer of 4th grade my mother and step-father announced that they were having a child. A baby boy to be exact and my brother and I started to lose more and more attention as if we didn't exist anymore. Then they had another child a 2 and a half years later. Another boy and my parents started to forget about me and even my once favored brother ceased to exist. It's still like this. I love my mother with everything I have and I know she loves me. I adore all 3 of my brothers who are protective of all hell even though they might be younger. And I love my step-father very much as well, but can't help,but think he likes his own boys better still. Thank you for listening venting helps me and have a great day/night!

Good question Nik. I can't find any documentation stating that pruning in the rain causes more fungal infections... but there's a lot that says pruning in the colder/wetter months helps to reduce the risk of infection. I am no pro at all... and you are all more experienced than me with roses... but I think the idea is that if you leave the old growth on, the moisture from rain can combine with the older, decaying growth and cause higher risk of disease, fungus, infection and other stuff that likes to grow in decay and moisture. But if you cut it off that reduces the risk. That's what I have read anyways. I have been reading a lot more about all sorts of gardening info since I found this forum. You are all inspirational in that way. :) Curious... what made you think pruning in rain would increase fungal infection in the past? Did you read it or hear about it somewhere?