The missus had me spending Saturday trying for a better crop of tomatoes
than we had this blow torch of a summer. Maybe the global warming will
make maters a winter crop around here ;-)

Selection of starters was pretty sparse - I bumped into a guy at Home
Depot that said the Natural Gardener had little to offer. HD had about
6-7 types from Bonnie Nursery - a few bush varieties, Early Girl,
Carnival, Goliath. They all had 60-70 day maturation dates so I got all
three and a Husky cherry. The problem with Bonnie is that just about
everyone carries them so that limits the number of varieties you can
expect to find.

Next spring I'm going to start my own. Anyone have a favorite seed store?

Oh yeah, the 5 okra I did plant from seed are producing about 2-3 pods
each per day. After that rain last week I missed a couple of days and
got a half dozen 8 inch monsters.

My potted herbs and single strawberry plant are doing very well. The
string of pots are home to a plethora of baby anoles that scamper all
about when I water. The strawberry has some big long branching stems
that I'll get rooted pretty soon.

I had a bunch of purslane pop up this year from volunteer seed. Since it
has been a couple of years since I grew any on purpose it was a nice
surprise. Two red ones came up in between the pavers on my patio.
Nothing special there except the pavers sit on solid concrete. Talk
about hardy. The others, white, yellow and another red, preferred dirt
and it shows in their prolific growth.

Was surprised this morning when I cam across an althea that was
harboring about 1 billion white flies! I blasted the crap out of them
with a high pressure wash but they filled the air like smoke. Since we
have a couple of semi-vegetarian dogs I shy way from toxins.

I remember once at my parents house in the Rio Grande Valley the white
flies were so numerous that they actually looked like real smoke
drifting down the street. My dad said early morning joggers would wear
those mosquito hats so the flies wouldn't get inhaled. Yuk! To top it
off, when I stopped for gas in Falfurrias on the way back to Austin a
bunch flew out of the engine compartment when I lifted the hood. That
was about my creepiest insect moment.

Any body else with gardening news?

jOhN