Dorothy,

It is the same way here.

Gonna be a weedy, pesty, hot, rainfall-challenged year.

Dawn

We always have some weeds in the yard since we don't spray them, but my problem this year is keeping the bermuda lawn away from my trees and shrubs. I put compost/mulch circles around all of them and now the grass is growing up through it. They're also the only places in our whole yard where the bermuda is greening up because they're the only places getting water. It's really hard to pull, too, especially where the soil is dry. Ugh.

A little off topic in a gardening forum, but yep its sprung for me too. I took my granddaughter fishing yesterday after school and we caught a really nice mess of good sized bass! Next to gardening I like fishing! On topic my cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and onions are doing just great, I hope they keep going strong. I've got my eyes peeled for those "white flies" or whatever they are that like to eat on the cabbage etc. My love of fishing offers me some good fertilizer for my garden. Once I finished cleaning and filleting my fish the discards went right into one of my garden beds. I hope to be able to add my fishing discards to all my veggie beds this year. I just love that I can do two things I so enjoy and that the fishing can help the garden.

Grannyjojo....I'm thinking that we need an "off-topic" day to fish!! It's been so long since I've fished...it's ridiculous! I live in OKC and have two large lakes close by...I just don't want to have to pay for fishing licenses...I would not get my money's worth, LOL...but I like to fish now and then :~)
So...the next time you go out, with or without your granddaughter...catch a nice bass for me!

Sharon

I think Spring has un-sprung here, we had frost last night.
I am sure glad I brought my plants in last night.

Larry

Heather, You might be able to hold back the grass under the mulch for a while by putting heavy cardboard underneath the mulch. I can keep the bermuda down for a couple of months that way. Just be sure you wet down the cardboard really well when you first put it down and then rake the mulch over it. If the cardboard is too dry, then when you water, the water rolls off instead of soaking down into the ground under the cardboard. I'm going to put down new cardboard and chopped/shredded leaf and grass mulch under my fruit trees this morning.

Grannyjojo, It sure sounds like y'all had fun fishing. It is cabbage worms or cabbage loopers that like the cole family of crops, and I've been seeing the white butterflies here for about 3 weeks so if you're aren't seeing them there yet, you should be seeing them soon, unfortunately.

It is great you can add fish directly to your garden beds. If I do that here, the raccoons climb the fence and dig up my garden. We have raccoons and possums all over the yard every night and they are being a huge nuisance. I think they're coming more into the yard than usual because the native areas along the river are so dry.

Larry, They forecast 40 for us at one point, 39 at another, and 45 at another. Instead of worrying about it, I put all the seedling flats in the insulated garage and brought the flats of pepper plants back inside the house and put them on the light shelf. I'm glad I did both because we went down to 40 degrees.

I expect frost on one or both of the two cold nights expected here next week. They'll be occurring almost right on our "average last frost date" if the frost does occur. I'm hoping that will be the end of it.

I only have one tomato plant in a container too large to move into the garage, so I wrapped a frost blanket around it last night just in case the temperature went lower than forecast. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Today is going to be a beautiful day. Even though I want to plant tomatoes, I'll probably wait. I could plant now and cover them up with floating row covers, but it would be just as easy to wait until mid-week next week and plant if the forecast looks good. I have plenty of other gardening chores like weeding and mulching that I can do today instead of planting.

Dawn

Larry, it got close here, but we are up on a hill and air drainage offers us some protection. But it was 34 at sunup at the house, and I didn't see any frost looking out across the lawn away from the house, although sometimes in the past at that temp I have. I brought all my babies back on the porch and closed the windows out there last evening and it only got down to 50 even with no heat in the house or porch.

I don't like covering up plants and besides my tomatoes and peppers are still too small to put out, so I will wait at least two weeks for them. The broccoli will go in at the same time.

My garden is a mess. It looks as tho I just threw plants at it. I don't have anything labeled, I did not measure the rows or spacing.

DW is having problems, we have been to the DR. in Ft. Smith and Texarkana. Now she is being referred to Temple TX.. The garden will have to sit on the back burner till my family members are in better shape.

I planted in my Stepdad's garden this week and will go to my uncles today or tomorrow and plant for him. All I have been planting is cole crops, onions and potatoes. I have tomatoes and peppers ready but will have to wait on the weather.

The 5 gardens I have tilled look good except for being too dry.

Larry

I spent all day last Saturday weeding and cleaning out flowerbeds. And I saw a big ugly grasshopper!! In March! I was hoping those two nights of below-zero temps in February would kill off the bugs.

Suzie

Larry, I hope your wife is okay.

You sure are helpful to your relatives, and your family must feel very blessed to have you.

Jo

Dorothy,

My tomatoes are ready to go in but I don't have time to get them in the ground yet. I started them at the same time as always, but moved them outside to harden off when they were only about 3 weeks old (I needed the light shelf for peppers!), and then the early heat has made them grow like mad.

I hope to start putting tomatoes in the ground next week on or after my average last freeze date (March 27th) if we aren't having too many fires. I was worried about not being here at planting time, but since our commissioners passed the burn ban, our fire calls have dropped a lot, and I am glad.

My broccoli will go in about the time yours does. I started it really late and haven't given it much attention, so it is a bit smaller than usual, but that's better than it being bigger than usual. It has been in the mid to upper 80s here a lot and the cool-season crops in the ground are suffering from heat stress and moisture stress even though I'm watering them regularly. I am ready for the cooler temperatures to return and give the cool season crops the conditions they need.

Larry, I hope your wife is OK. Since you're going to Temple, I assume y'all have been referred to Scott & White so I have great confidence they'll be able to help with her medical issues.

Your relatives must be incredibly grateful for your assistance with their gardens. I don't know where you find the time....I can only manage one garden, and can't imagine helping with 5 of them.

Suzie, I already have grasshoppers an inch long, so I wish mine were still tiny.

Grasshoppers are always worse in drought years, so prepare yourself for them. I was hoping last year's ravenous hordes of hoppers was the peak population, but with drought in much of the middle section of the country and the southeast, I suspect the hoppers will be horrible this year and it may be the peak year.

I have floating row covers and Surround WP to use to combat them. I would have put out Nolo Bait but it works best when they are 1/4" to 1/2" long and I haven't seen any that small....only the bigger ones, which is quite bizarre. Where were they hiding when they were small?

Cold winter weather does little to nothing to decrease the pest population. If anything, I think I see increased pest levels after a cold winter and not less. Insects are vey adaptable and have developed ways to survive extreme cold.

Dawn

Dawn, Jo,
Thanks for your concern, yes, it looks like DW will be going to Scott& White.

I am the lucky one, I have a great family.

One of the gardens I tilled was for a man I just met. He stopped and ask if I had any work he could do because he was about to loose his car. He saw all the plants I had sitting in the yard and said he sure would like to have a garden also. I told him that was an easy problem to fix. I went over and till up a spot in his yard, gave him plants and a large bag of sunshine mix and enough work to make a couple of car payments. I feel we both came out good on that deal.

My back wont let me do the work I use to do, but I can sure run my tillers.

Larry

Dawn,
" and then the early heat has made them grow like mad. "

Does that mean the tomato trees are going to resemble Redwoods?

"My garden is a mess. It looks as tho I just threw plants at it. I don't have anything labeled, I did not measure the rows or spacing."
Larry, that sounds like my garden every year! I had a gardening visitor yesterday and felt I had to explain that I CAN'T make a straight row. But things grow.

Trust your wife gets better soon.

I still need to get my onions out. And now, I'd like to plant most of my corn. Tomatoes will wait a couple of weeks.

George
Tahlequah, OK

George makes a garden like a seamstress makes a "Crazy Quilt," but boy, DOES it grow.

Larry,
You're a great guy! Your family and friends are all very lucky to have you in their lives. I hope your wife's problems will be resolved soon.

Suzie

I plant the way George does. I think I am incapable of planting in a straight line.

Seedmama, The tomato plants are so big I don't know how I will keep them alive until the fling. I may have to take cuttings in a week or two and grow the Spring Fling tomatoes from them.

The heat has the plants growing about an inch a day. That is normal in late April and May and June when plants are in the ground and the temperatures finally hit that "perfect" place for tomatoes, but I've never had it occur with tomatoes in paper cups in March.

It was 90 degrees here today in the shade (only 86, I think, at our Mesonet station in Burneyville and 88 at the Gainesville airport). I don't think my sugar snap peas are going to survive. After a week of temperatures too close to 90, when we hit 90 today they turned yellow and brown and laid down on the ground and surrendered. I feel sorry for them. I watered them and they perked up a little, but they essentially look like they normally look in late May or early June when the heat is killing them. Too much heat too early is not a good thing.

Our VFD is out at a fire right now, the second fire call since dinner time, but I'm at home cooking "fire food" for tomorrow. When we scheduled a day-long fire-training event open to all the fire depts. in the county, I don't think anyone thought they'd be participatng in it in temperatures in the upper 80s like we're expecting tomorrow. What happened to March? Who took it? Where is it? Will someone please bring back our March weather?

I'm starting to miss the snow and cold winter weather.....

Dawn

Wow, what a difference a couple of days make! My SPRING has gone back to almost WINTER. Its in the 40's today with a freeze warning for tonight! Yuck! I'm gonna make sure and cover my "cool season" crops this evening before it gets dark. I sure wanted to work in my garden/yard and do a little more fishing this weekend, now that I'm off work. It sure just seems like the "good" weather has it in for me. I worked Thursday and Friday (12 hour night shifts) and the weather was great for alot of outside activities....now that I'm off (Saturday morning through Wednesday afternoon) its cold, misty and the wind chill is in the 30's. *Sigh* I guess I'll just keep working in my shop to have everything for my gardening nice and organized...yeah, that NEVER happens. hehehe But hey, at least I keep working on it!

Spring sprung a leak here also. We were cloudy and cool all morning. Then the wind kicked up. Then after dinner the wind died down and sun came out. I went out around 3 and started to work on the greenhouse again. I have to be careful when I do. Started a fire a few weeks ago. Keep the water hose close. Another reason I haven't been doing much on it with all the winds we've had. Today wasn't as bad and by wetting everything around down good the sparks didn't start anything today. But doesn't sound like I will get a lot done tomorrow. 3-4 cool days and nights in a row. I think our coolest high will be in the lower 50's but lows in the 30's for sure and possibly lower. Jay

Jay, are welding your greenhouse frame together?

Larry

Larry, hope all goes well for your wife.

The weather has been so warm, I have really felt like I'm falling behind on everything(which is not uncommon), but the cooler weather has changed my outlook. I guess, I'll just have to wait til later to fall behind =)

Re: crooked rows, I was told by a long time gardener that "crooked rows hold more plants, because the bends make them longer", so I figure I'm just optimizing my space.

Michelle

Larry,
No I'm basically bolting it together. I started out going to make it out metal fence posts for the sides and bent heavy commercial grade top railings for chain link fence for the top. Then use a wood frame. I had over 50% of the wood frame up when I quit last spring. This winter when I started back I decided to remove all the wood and use 2" med. wall metal tubing for the frame and 1 1/2" tubing from each side post across to the other side for bracing and support. So I have to drill every post and the tubing. It is easiest to cut the tubing,angle iron and flat iron with a chop saw on site and also I cut each bolt off flush. All of these procedures produce sparks. The fire I started 2 weeks ago was using the chop saw on angle iron. I was cutting 8 pieces and on the 7th one a wind gust blew some sparks and started a fire. Once I get it all built it will be fairly easy to dismantle and move. And way heavier made than most of the commercial grade houses you can buy. I've seen too many of the houses that lose their covering or blow away in the high winds and also collapse in heavy snows. So I buried each pipe 30" and poured cement around them at least 24" deep. I had most of the supplies on hand so they basically cost me nothing. It is 18 x 20 and I will have around one thousand in it when I'm finished if I ever do finish it. LOL. For now I will have solid sides and ends and pull film over the south top at least and maybe the whole top. In time I will cover all of it with a polycarbonate sheet or roll. Jay

Jay, sounds like a very sturdy greenhouse.

I try to save my welding projects till winter because it is so hot wearing all the protective clothing. I wet every thing down also because the sparks starting fires. I don't like welding in a wet environment, but its not a lot of fun standing in a fire either.

Larry

Larry, good thoughts and prayers to you and your wife! You're such a super swell fellow and I wish you all the best - you deserve it!

I haven't gotten near the gardening done this year that I had hoped to do. Looks like tomatoes and squash will be on this year's menu - and Okra, too. I have been helping DD out with darling GD. She is just getting too cute and about to take her first steps. Don't want to miss out on anything, you know? Nanny has taught her to play "peekaboo" and clap her hands and say "YAY". Oh, these wonderful milestones. My health is declining this year like I didn't realize until I started getting outside to try to clean up, etc. Looks like it may be my last year for gardening, unfortunately. Will have to move on to lighter activities next year.

I was so surprised to see my Flame Acanthus, that I grew from seed and planted last year, start to leaf out! It is supposed to be late to wake up in spring, and is only hardy to zone 7. I feared that I lost it to our atypical zone 6 type winter! But, no, both plants have green foliage, and I am excited to see the blooms this year. Dawn, this would be a very good plant for you, attracting hummers and butterflies with its orange-red blooms. Very drought tolerant. Beautiful shrub.

Watering the yard has done wonders to "wake things up". Hahaha!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Flame Acanthus image

Susan,

Thanks for the suggestion. I love flame acanthus but don't think it would grow in my slow-draining clay since it needs well-drained soil. The only place I have well draining soil with sunlight is in the veggie garden's raised beds, and even that soil can stay wet (really wet!) a couple of months after one of our big traditional drought-breaking downpours of 8 to 10 to 12 inches or more of rain in one day.

In the small area where we have sandy soil that drains well, there are trees that leave precious little sunlight but tons of shade. That shade is full of four o'clocks because they're one of the few plants I've found that can survive weeks of no rainfall in almost full shade and still bloom and yet tolerate those heavy drought-breaking rainfalls we sometimes get at the end of April.

If I thought flame acanthus could live in heavy, slow-draining clay or that it could survive and bloom in full shade, I'd have planted it eons ago! It is native or at least very well-adapted to some of the drier parts of Texas and I've always loved its blooms and its toughness.

Dawn

Susan - glad that your flame acanthus is showing signs of life, but it worries me. Mine has been in the ground 3 years and it's not showing anything yet. I would hate to lose it, and everything else that was dormant during the big snow and deep freeze is up and growing.

Dawn - you should give it a try! Surely you can find a spot in your landscape that it would thrive!

CJ - mine just started to leaf out this last week, so don't despair yet. The cold front we're getting may be holding yours back for awhile. I was surprised mine did leaf out so soon, and also they were just seedlings I planted last year. Since they are kinda marginal in Oklahoma, I figured our cold, cold winter might have done them in altogether. But no, they seem be be tough as nails. You may get seedlings at least, because it's my understanding that they can be prolific self-sowers. I hope my hummers like it! Be sure to let us know when you see it come to life. I can also save seed if I get good blooms this year. It's so easy from seed.

Susan

Your little rhyme has been running through my head for a week...

"The grass has ris. What grows like a weed...IS".

I'm calling official spring this weekend. The highs and lows will be 70s/50s in the Tulsa area. My tomatoes are going in the ground. I'll cover them if I need to, but my gut is telling me this is the last of the cold spell this year.

We had some light showers last night and the cedar apple rust galls I've been watching came to life. Will be sraying Immunox on my apples tomorrow.
{{gwi:1090229}}

More pleasant news though...My strawberry plants are FLOWERING. My kids check them daily to see if we have berries yet, and I keep explaining that we need flowers first to make the berries...They were RIDICULOUSLY excited when they saw these!

Those little pellets there are Dingus bunny poop courtesy of Dody!

{{gwi:1090230}}

Jo

Question? My figs still look dead. They seemed to ship really late last fall (right before our first frost) from Edible Landscaping. Almost a month after I placed my order. I don't know if I should be concerned or just wait. I checked the fig forum, but the info there seems so zone specific.

Jo

Thanks for the good word Susan. You being in OKC may make yours show life just a bit earlier than mine. Actually, I was surprised when mine returned after the first year. I haven't noticed any reseeding, but the hummers do love it!
Carol

Jo,

Were they in the ground or in containers? And, if in containers, where did they spend the winter? Also, what variety are they?

Most well-established figs can tolerate temperatures down to about 10-12 degrees, but often die back to the ground and come back from roots. Since your plants were so small, they may not be able to come back from the roots if the roots were very small.

Dawn

Jo, figs leaf out late. The buds are just breaking on my old established plant, which came through the very cold temps better than I expected. I wouldn't give up yet, although I am concerned about the late arrival of your plant. Sometimes figs will die to the ground and return from the roots, so I would just wait and see and make sure it is well watered.

for the rhyme. My mother told me it is an old timer's expression.

They were Chicago Hardy in 4" pots.

Because they came about a week before freezing temps were predicted, I put them in the ground right away and covered them the night before the first freeze.

I packed a couple of feet of straw around and over each one, then covered that with a heavy blanket, then covered that with a large garbage bag that I duct taped around all the insulating materials.

I took the stuff off after I felt like the last REALLY hard freeze was over, probably about a month ago.

It's reassuring to know they leaf out late. Mine are just little tiny 9"-12" twigs sticking out of the ground, and I've been compulsively checking them several times daily for ANY sign of life.

Jo

I want to correct my above post to state that the figs I got were quart sized Chicago Hardy. I got them during a sale and paid just under $40 shipped for all three. Which seemed like a very good deal at the time ($10 each), as ten dollars is the usual price for the 4" pots.

I wish that we could edit these posts. I just found the thread where I asked you all what to do with my figs when a cold snap was predicted. it looks like they were in ground for closer to two weeks before I covered them.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/okgard/msg1112174425857.html

Jo

Jo, Since they were in quart pots, presumably they had a good root system when you got them and you also had them very well-covered, so there's a good chance they survived and are just slow to leaf out. It is a good sign that Dorothy's fig made it through the tough winter because your weather was not that different from hers this past winter.

Hopefully their roots remained moist all winter because moist roots are less likely to freeze than dry ones.

Here in our county, figs are leafing out and have been since at least last week, but then we were in the 80s a lot the last couple of weeks, and even hit the 90s one day, so almost everything is leafing out now--even my chaste tree is leafing out and it usually is one of the last trees here to break dormancy.

Almost all of us had some winter temperatures that took our plants at least one zone colder than usual and that might have killed a few plants but at our house nothing in the ground died, although plants I was overwintering in the garage did not survive.

I hope your figs made it. I should think that if they are going to leaf out on the existing trunk, they will leaf out by mid-April. If they froze back and are regrowing from the ground, they may be later than that. Now, stop "watching" them. You know that a watched pot never boils!

Dawn

Carol, they are supposed to be prolific reseeders. Like I said, if I get blooms on mine, I'll save you some seed. They were super easy to grow from seed. Bout as easy as zinnias and cosmos. I can't wait til they bloom!

I bought a few new plants for the hummers this year, too, including Salvia darcyi (red blooms, hardy to zone 7), Stachytarpheta 'Red Compacta' (Dwarf Red Porterweed-they LOVE this, I had last year), Cuphea 'David Verity', Dicliptera suberecta (Uruguayan Firecracker Plant), Melochia tomentosa (Pyramid Bush), and Gaillardia suavis (Fragrant or Perfumed Gaillardia, native to OK).

The Porterweeds are odd looking plants. I call them my Medusa plants because they get these snake-like wands that bear flowers that come out 2 or 3 at a time. They also come in purple and blue. They grow in a circle around the flower stems, and the hummers are so funny to see when they're going round and round and round the stems to get nectar from the flowers. The big butterflies like it, too.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf Red Porterweed

its going to real hard to not put warm season stuff in the garden when its 86 this sunday.

Susan - thank you for the promise of seed! I haven't checked my plant in a couple of days, so maybe with the rain over the last few days and warmer weather coming up it'll show some life. Need to take Dawn's advice and stop checking!

MK unless you live down near Dawn, resist the urge. I won't even be putting my broccoli in yet, although that's mainly because it is not well hardened off, having spent several days back on the porch under lights.

my poor plants are so root bound I am DYING to get them in the dirt. They are starting to yellow and I am concerned