As a completely off topic question, am I the only one who hears Jim Nabors (as Gomer Pyle) reading the subject line every time it comes to the top?

I love them all. I never had trouble growing nasturtiums by direct sowing. In fact, I think I used to read that they resented transplanting, but ws'ing is a little different when you plant them with the soil intact around the roots. But as soon as they started blooming nicely, the bottoms of the leaves would get covered with aphids, and they'd die. I had this white powder stuff I got and poofed on them (hard to get at the undersides), but it didn't work well, and I didn't like breathing that stuff or getting it on me plus I was working and didn't have time to trouble shoot like I can a little more now. Of course I wouldn't have known the hose trick which might have worked. Maybe conditions have changed. One year I had aphids early on the rose buds but not so bad the last two years, so maybe I've got a different balance going now. Or maybe not. Thanks for sharing your nice photos.

I think kayjones has an excellent idea - tuck your "dead" plant where the sprinklers will hit it and see what happens. I had a chrysothemis "Black Flamingo" that died. Thru neglect, the empty pot was stashed under a shrub and forgotten. Months later while repotting houseplants, I sought out that pot only to find that it was not available because the "Black Flamingo" had returned from the dead! I also tried to propagate a ZZ plant from a leaf. The leaf finally died and I dumped the potting soil into a big bucket to reuse. As I did so, I spied a small tuber amid the dumped soil. I repotted it and now have a small - VERY small - ZZ plant (no wonder they're expensive!). - June

Helen, That is too close. I've had close calls like that before and they scared me to death. When I've had that sort of a close call, it is hard for me to go back into that area again because I am so afraid another snake will be there. I did notice that it was pretty wide and wondered if it either was about to give birth, or if it had had a really good day and found something good-sized to eat. You know, it is that time of the year. I think the copperheads here usually reproduce in August. I don't really have any suggestion about how to pick tomatoes in an area where you already have found snakes. Sometimes with beans or southern peas, I carry a 3 or 4' long metal green fence post with me (I use them to stake tomato cages) and stick it into the area where I am about to pick beans or southern peas. I move the foliage around a bit and look carefully at the ground and at the plants themselves trying to make sure there's not a snake in there. It is easy to do that with legume plants that are more lightweight and move around pretty easier. It would be harder with tomato plants that are sprawling on the ground as they are heavier and cannot be shifted around easily with a stick or pole. I've always felt pretty safe in the garden early in the day, assuming that the snakes already are out of the garden by daybreak. The encounter with a timber rattler that was headed into my garden, not out of it, a little after 9 a.m. one day a couple of weeks ago made me stop and think twice about that. Even though they tend to be nocturnal, I've had them in the garden more than I'd like during the daylight hours. Copperheads are not as aggressive as some other venomous snakes, or at least at our house they aren't. Even the timber rattlers would rather warn you to go away than to waste their venom on you. Chris stepped on a copperhead one night when he was getting out of his car when he was in college. It didn't even bite him, for which we were grateful, but as he pulled his leg back into the car and closed the door, it slithered under his car and headed straight for us and a bunch of our friends. We were sitting there in lawn chairs, so Tim had no choice but to shoot it because it was coming right towards us. Another time, back not too long after we moved here, Chris and I stepped right into a bunch of copperheads. It was a mother and a bunch of babies and they were moving across the pasture towards the pond in broad daylight and we stepped right into the middle of them in tall grass, saw them and then jumped and ran away. It is hard to believe that the adult at least didn't strike us. Ever since that happened, we always mow 6-8' wide paths through our pastures and only walk in the mowed pathways. At least that way we have a good chance of seeing the snakes before we step on them. Please be careful! You've had too many close calls lately. Dawn