The condition you describe is called ‘Blossom End Rot’ and is caused by a calcium deficiency. This deficiency is, in turn, caused by the stress of not enough water often enough.

Here is the ‘fix’:
1. Step up the watering. Always water thoroughly enough that the entire root ball is well soaked and some extra water runs out the drain holes at the bottom. It is very important that tomatoes stay in evenly moist soil. This might be two or three gallons each day if you have large pots. It is almost impossible to over-water tomatoes; they should never wilt or show curling leaves.

2. Spray the plant leaves with a liquid calcium solution such as ‘Rot-Stop’ made by Bonide. Follow label instructions. This will get enough calcium into the plant to minimize future damage in the short term.

3. Add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of Bone Meal to the soil surface and scratch it in. This will get some calcium into the soil, but will take 3 to 4 weeks to be fully available to the plant.

4. Because you will be flushing some nutrients out of the pot with the extra water, step up your fertilizer program. Feed ‘weakly, weekly’ with a liquid soluble fertilizer that has less Nitrogen than Phosphorous and Potash. Linders ‘Prothrive 10-54-10′ or ‘Fish & Seaweed Emulsion 2-3-1′ or something similar will be effective. Mix this at 1/4th the recommended dose and use it once each week.

You did not say how big your pots are, but as a rule, the bigger the pot the easier it is to keep the tomatoes sufficiently moist. Fifteen inch pots are a good minimum size. Next year add the calcium when you first plant the tomatoes in the pots and follow the above schedule for water and fertilizer as soon as the plants have attained a bit of size. All the above-mentioned products are available at Linder’s.

Happy gardening!
Linders

Some annuals, like pansies and lobelia, do great in the cooler temps but once we have long, hot days they start to stretch and look bad.

A couple of things to try would be to cut the plants back or move them to a different location. When you cut back plants, it is just like when we get hair cuts ourselves. Instead of putting energy into the already long, leggy foliage and spent blooms, the plant can focus on producing new, luscious growth and blooms. Do not be afraid to cut your annuals back all the way to the ground. In doing so the plants will come up looking twice as nice.

The other option would be to relocate your plants. For example, pansies prefer full sun in the spring when temps are cooler but once we hit the end of May try moving them to a partial sun location where they won’t be beaten on by the hot, intense sun all day.

You’ve discovered the one challenge in growing the winter-hardy mints.

One idea is to grow the less hardy varieties instead. Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolens) and Pineapple Mint (M. suaveolens var.), for instance, are only marginally hardy here and die back or die out completely most years. These are wonderful as teas in the summertime.

The Peppermints (M. piperita) and Spearmints (M. spicata) are the most winter-hardy, and multiply readily from a creeping rootstock. Try planting them in large pots and burying pot and all, leaving about an inch of pot above ground. You will still need to monitor these plants, since any stem that leans out of the pot to trail on the surrounding soil will take root. Be ruthless in removing these and dispose of them. Do not compost! These hardy mints are among the most fragrant and flavorful though, and are well worth growing.