Sherry, yes that's it. I had been trimming branches from a sycamore trr eariler in the day. It must have gotten on my clothes because I found it up near the house on another plant. I put it back where I found it eariler and now can't find it-so I put some leaves from the tree up where I left it. Will keep checking for it. thanks, molly

OK...not fair! I'm at work and the pictures are blocked on this posting (who knows why!)...anyway, I'm reading skinny leaves and white flowers...are they zephyranthes (rain flowers)? If they are, I had pink ones when I lived in Dallas...I loved those little flowers, right along with Bletilla (Chinese ground orchids)...I haven't seen those since I moved, but I'd like them! Anybody here grow those?? Sharon

Hi Traci, Welcome back. You know, first about the tomatoes....last year I worked so hard to get them into the ground, maneuving my way around 3 late freezes, etc., only to have almost 13" of rain fall in about 18 hours on April 29-30th. I have heavy, red clay and even though it is well-amended and the tomatoes were in raised beds, it was a struggle to keep them alive. For six weeks I wasn't sure if they'd live or die. We had water standing underground for weeks. If you stuck a trowel into the ground you found standing water just 3 or 4" down. The tomato crop was late, but very plentiful and it all ended well....but, you know, I think I am almost afraid to plant them this year. I might plant this afternoon or tomorrow, but I'll be planting into very wet soil after 2.6" of rain fell here in the last three days. You know, if it wasn't for the weather, gardening here would be a cinch. I think that this week might be our last really cool nights, but I never feel safe here until the first week of May arrives. (A couple of years ago we had a frost on May 3rd, so maybe I shouldn't even feel safe then. lol) In some previous years I have planted tomatoes as early as the first week in March, but the older I get, the less likely I am to plant early...instead I'm going later every year it seems. First, plant what you like to eat. Secondly, plant crops that are low maintenance and produce a lot of veggies for the space they use. I'll list some in a second. Third, plant crops that are very pricey in stores. For example, if you like to cook with fresh herbs, plant them! This winter my adult son was preparing a meal and needed 4 types of fresh herbs. He went to the grocery store and spent $3 for each of those 4 herbs in tiny little packages, so $12.00 for a very small amount of those fresh herbs. It made me think about how much I'd pay for basil, rosemary, mint, sage, dill, oregano, etc. if I had to buy them instead of growing (and also drying the excess) my own. If I were planting in a 12' x 24' bed, I'd plant the following (assuming you like them and eat them): tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, bush green beans OR pole beans if you have a fenced or trellis along one side of the garden for them to climb, okra, sweet potatoes (if you have the right soil for them), eggplant (if you like it) and maybe cucumbers (they do have more disease and insect issues than many other veggies). I'd plant the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant from transplants, the sweet potatoes from purchased slips, the beans and okra from seed, and the cukes either from seed or from purchased transplants. If you like southern peas like black-eyed peas, crowder peas, lady peas or cream peas, they are very low-maintenance, but can take up a quite a bit of space...I love them so that it would be worth it to me to have them. If you want watermelons, I'd go with a spacesaver like Sugar Baby or Bush Sugar Baby and for cantaloupes or muskmelons, I'd go with Hale's Best Jumbo because it is very productive. If you like zucchini or summer squash, they're easy but squash bugs and squash vine borers tend to hit them pretty hard. If you like carrots, they're easy from seed, and so are radishes, but only sow 15 or 20 or 25 at a time, wait a couple of weeks and then sow another little batch, etc., because no one needs 200 radishes at one time. Herbs are relatively easy from seed, but you can plant from transplants if you want an 'instant' garden. It is obviously too late here to plant all the cool-season crops like onions, peas, potatoes, lettuce and other greens, broccoli and other cole crops, etc. This ought to be a great tomato year because we rarely have a truly excessively wet year 2 years in a row, except perhaps for parts of northeastern Oklahoma. I hope you have a great year and talk with us about what's going on in your garden whenever time permits. I'd also try to plan the layout of the garden to get the maximum benefit of the space available, and I'd use plants to provide shelter for other plants. Pepper plants, for example, are brittle and easily broken by wind, especially when they are carrying a heavy load of ripening peppers. I like to plant a row of them right beside the okra. The okra serves as a windbreak for them and also gives them a little shade since they're prone to sunscald. Carrots can go in a row close to the tomato plants (or even in between tomato plants). The carrots will mature fairly quickly and be harvested by mid-summr and by then the tomato plant roots will be expanding into their area. If I were planting radish seeds and carrot seeds, I'd mix them in rows together, putting in a 2 or 3 or 4" of carrot seeds in a row, and then a radish. It can be hard for carrot seeds to break through the soil surface if it crusts over and dries out, so let the radishes break that crusty soil for the carrots as the radishes sprout more easily. I think of it as 'working smarter, not harder' in the garden when I can get the plants to help each other. Dawn

What? It's none of the above? I can't imagine what it is then. Oh--is it if they had sex on the first date? I can't think of anything else. Wait, that ain't right--just re-read your last post Jasdip!