Hi Trubby,

Well, join the club. And, we're not getting older, we're getting better.

When I saw "Re: I Think I Am Getting Old", I assumed it would be the standard spring complaint.....you know, "I worked in the garden all day long and, boy, am I stiff and sore!" Silly me. I should have known to expect more than that from you. : )

So, will the sweet young thing get a second chance, or have you sworn off all women?

And tell us more about the pre-schoolers. They sound too cute.

Finally, I know that you like to share (and it is so very kind of you), but could you possibly keep all that cold air and cold temperatures up there with you where it belongs? Some of it is escaping and running down here into Oklahoma, sparking worries about freezing temperatures and frost damage and such. I thought it was your job to keep the cold weather in its proper place. Was I wrong?

Is there anything up there yet that resembles spring, or are y'all still stuck in winter?

Dawn

Hey Sis.

"We're not getting older we're getting better?"

So, in other words - it don't get any better than us?

Is that what you are saying?

The "sweet young thing" and the "second chance"?

Nah.

Not unless she uses the proper bait. Bait being a good sharp shovel and the willingness to help me go dig up two or three little cherry trees that I have been eyeballing for a while. Good Cherries. I think they are Bing cherries. Not sure though - but this tree has consistently produced every year since I've been here. And I have permission to get some of the babies.

The pre-schoolers? They are soooooooooo cute. They are part of a Christian type daycare thingy that a friend of mine has going on. There are like seven or eight of them. I go over and talk to them once or twice a week. Take them on walks and stuff.

Don't know how I got roped into it, because I am not even a Christian and I don't even like them kids.

Next week we are planting Strawberries. *note to self - buy cattle prod and more B-B's*

As for the cold coming down. I had it all covered. I had this whole wall thing going on down there on the border. I dug the rocks out of my garden, transported them (at great expense might I add!) down to the border. Built the wall (by myself! again!) and had the whole north wind thingy covered.

Wouldn't you know it?

Mongols showed up and flat out tore it down.

I did my part.

You just need to control the Mongols from down there.

Oh - wait a minute - I meant Mongrels.

Spring? Oh yeah! It's here. Asparagus is up. Spinach is going good. Lettuce isn't doing well for some reason and I don't know why. Forsythia is in full bloom. Trees are starting to bud out.

I haven't seen any Martins yet, but I could have sworn I saw a bat moving back into one of the bat houses.

The frogs are singing at night too.

That's pretty much it. I don't think we are going to get what we got last year.

My Dear Brother,

That's right, it don't get any better than us. Just ask mom. She'll tell you it's the truth, and you know that our mama don't lie.

See, it is a true sign of your maturity that you'd rather plant trees than go out to dinner and a show, even if it would have been a date with a woman young enough to be your......much younger sister! (Ha, you thought I was going to say "daughter", didn't you. I didn't say it, but maybe I was thinkin' it.)

Those kids are lucky to have someone like you taking them on nature walks and teaching them about gardening. Who knows? You may discover you like kids after all. Life is full of surprises.

I was sure your plot to contain the wind would work this time. (sigh) However, all your hard work and efforts are appreciated, even though the Mongol mongrels destroyed your wind-blocking wall.

So, you ARE seeing a few signs of spring. It's about time.

As for that lettuce, just give it a good stern lecture about proper behavior and I am sure it will shape right up. I know that your good stern lectures always make me straighten up and behave myself. (OK, maybe not.) What's the lettuce doing? (Or, not doing?) Sprouting? Not Sprouting? Damping off? Being eaten by aardvarks and wildebeests? Or, did it sprout and now it is sitting there, sulking, and not growing? Some veggies don't know when they got it good. How can anything not do well in your highly-enriched soil? I think there is a conspiracy afoot.

I would think your Martins should be back any time now. Our pecan trees are starting to leaf out and they are always the last trees to do so here. Everything has been slow and late this year, but I have tons more hummers and butterflies than usual for April.

How can it possibly be April? March flew by. Between the recurring rounds of rain, hail, high winds and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I can't get anything done in the garden, and you know how I hate being behind. The deer are in a bad, bad mood. Usually, I have a lot more in the ground for them to eat when they jump the fence into the garden. Right now, they walk up to the garden fence, look to see what is inside, then sadly shake their heads and walk on by.

I am hoping to spend hours and hours in the garden today weeding and doing a little mulching. I'd like to spend the whole day out in the garden, but those pesky household chores like laundry and cooking and cleaning keep getting in the way.

Your favorite sister,

Dawn

Hee hee, Trubbadubbado! What's a date? I thought it was something that grew on trees??????? Course, you sound like a young-un to me! Maybe meeting someone at a garden club or something would be your niche!

I've been single since 1988 and am getting up there. Gardening does keep me young, and so does raising my butterflies and moths. My granddaughter is a big help! Altho there are times I wish I had a fella around to help with the heavy stuff.

Should be about time for the hummers, too, isn't it? I cleaned and made nectar and hung mine a few days ago. Wonder how long that nectar will stay good???? With the cold we've had, I would think it might keep a bit longer than it does in the summer.

OMG - I went crazy with host and nectar plants this year again! I guess if I was that old, I'd quit buying them! LOL!

I had a bumper crop of the winged critters last year, and it was so fun!

Dawn, have you ever grown Cape Fuchsia? I bought one at the Farmer's Market in Norman, and am hoping the hummers will like it. Don't know about it's hardiness, so guess I should look it up.

My granddaughter and I planted a huge pot of strawberries - one of those big saucer shaped pots. It already has some big ones on it, beginning to turn red.

I don't have room or enough sun to do many veggies, as you all know. But I plant tomatoes for the hornworms (beautiful sphinx moths that will pollinate plants that other bees and butterflies cannot reach). I didn't get one single tomatoe hornworm on my Husky Red cherry tomatoes last year. I think the foliage was too bulky to be edible for them.

I have a few herbs - parsley, lemon balm, fennel, lavendar, garlic chives, etc. But my backyard (south facing) is pretty shady. So no veggies. However, this year I expect to have more sun back there since many of the trees either lost big limbs or were lost entirely. We'll see how my shade lovers handle that.

Susan

Okay call me nosey....call me a dumb blonde...call me whatever....but answer me this one question:

Are you two really related, Dawn and Trubadabadoo? (or however you spell it...lol). My couriosity or just plain noseyness is really getting to me.

BTW.....you write some interesting posts. We need to lighten up on here more often so keep it up!

G.M.

I don't think we are going to answer that.

More fun letting you wonder.

*chuckles to self*

Whatever....if you keep writing posts like that one I am sure it will keep my active imagination going for sure....lol.
A little mystery is always fun.
Just keep having fun and giving us something to laugh about.
G.M.

Dawn,

I ain't asking Momma nothing because she never shuts up!

More on my young-un's

Properly cooked, I like them just fine.

I can remember Granpappy taking me out into his garden when I was about their age. He would spot a bird and tell me "That's a yellow bellied sap-sucking scissor swallowing North American Kestrel" and I would go "Yep - that's a bird alright!"

There is this one little girl that is just too cute for words. She is the one that heels well. She has these humongously thick glasses and she constantly walks into things. Mostly because she gets this - uhmmm - stuff on the lenses. So you have to follow her around with a bottle of windex and a squeegee.

Where did March go? Heck, I am still trying to figure out where 2007 went. I know I participated in that year due to the fact that I am still breathing.

My lettuce? It is strange. The first sowing sprouted fine so I went ahead with the second. It sprouted fine, so I went ahead with the third sowing. Well It sprouted just fine.

Now it is all just sitting there. All the same size. All not growing.

I know what is going to happen.

Instead of the normal steady crops of lettuce taking us right on into the hot weather, I am going to get one huge crop all at once.

Generally in this garden, I can sow a crop of lettuce as soon as the first one sprouts and it all works out good. And generally, I can get six or seven sowings. Not this year though.

I suppose I could can it up like the other greens - but with the spring work season coming on strong, I just ain't ready to start canning yet.

It will be alright, I reckon.

Miss Susie Lynn:

I ain't coming down to move that heavy stuff for you - alright? And I sure ain't looking to get hitched up!

Unless you make really good cornbread and greens. And maybe some buttermilk too.

No butterflies up this way yet.

But it's coming!

True story on the Hummers:

Down in Honduras, there was this Gal I was sort of tracking down. I kind of wanted to marry her.

One day I came home from whatever it was I was doing at that time and found her there cooking me a surprise dinner.

It was pretty good, so I asked what it was. She told me it was Sopa de Colibri.

I said "alright then, show me what a Colibri is."

So, all proud like, she takes me out to my back yard and shows me.

She had taken a hammock and made sort of a butterfly net which she had used to capture a whole bunch of my hummers that came to feed on the feeders and flowers I had put there for them.

So, I am standing there in shock trying to figure out just how in the world one responds to something like this. I mean, to me, that is like telling you that the fried chicken you just ate was really a Bald Eagle.

Needless to say, I didn't marry that Gal.

It did change the whole dating thing though. Now, I make sure to ask things like this - "you're not going to make me eat any hummingbirds are you?"

G.M.

My baby sister is named Dawn.

Not this Dawn though.

Just how far north are you? Those temps sound awfully low, but I'm pretty sure you're not Santa Claus.

Susanlynne,

I haven't grown Cape Fuschia, but am thinking of trying it this year. I've seen it in the nurseries quite a lot the last couple of years.

It's a South African native, so I assume it should be cold hardy to either zone 7a or 7b.

Is the one you bought a named variety?

Guess what? You were so happy with your Husky Red Cherry last year that I ordered seeds and am trying the following this year: Husky Red Cherry, Husky Red, Husky Gold Cherry, Husky Gold, and Husky Pink. The seeds were late to arrive so the plants are still small, but I expect they will do just fine.

I've been wondering what all your shade lovers are going to do since the ice storm tore up your trees. Do you have enough good shade left in any particular area that you can move them into that spot if the rest of the yard ends up being too sunny?

Merryheart,

First my brother tells you "I don't think we are going to answer that" and then, a few posts later, he answers it anyway. And they say that women change their minds!

Jeff,

I think the ground is just too cold for the lettuce to flourish. Well, if it all is ready to pick at the same time, you can share it with the pre-schoolers.

That hummingbird story is a terrible story! It made me want to cry thinking about those poor little hummers. Uhm, you didn't eat that Sopa de Colibri, did you?

Carol,

I'll give you a hint....he is not Santa. Is that enough of a hint? Well, here's another....he lives on the wrong side of the Oklahoma state line. Now, you'll have to drag the rest of it out of him.

Dawn

Dawn - If Jeff lives where I think he lives (by the temps) then he had better drop anchor or he will blow across the state line into Oklahoma.

Y'all have me in stitches this morning! Now quit it, so I can breathe!

Don't worry, "brother" (guess you can be mine, too, since I never see or hear from mine anymore), I am not looking to get hitched or anything remotely close to that. As to lifting heavy stuff, I have finally resigned myself this year to buying smaller bags of things. Yes, it's more expensive, but it saves my back a lot of problems. Already had back surgery once, and it looks like I'm close to another one in the near future. Oh, and I've never eaten greens before - I guess I'm more of a northerner at heart, being from Kansas. Don't like cornbread stuffing either - but love the bread. I do make a mean fried chicken, gravy, and mashed taters!

Dawn, my CF is not a named variety. The lady was selling both the yellow and the red. I bought the red, thinking the hummers would like that better. I believe it is hardy and will survive in my partial shade. I understand they do well in it, too. Will let you know. If you get or are near a FM, you might want to go and see if the lady is selling them there.

I've got many new natives to put out, including asters, liatris (not spicata), agastache (orange blooms), and that new milkweed, gomphocarpus, referred to as "hairy balls" because of the seedpods. If you want to try it next year and mine sets seed, I'll send you some. Kind of hardy to find.

Dawn, I'll be curious to see if you get hornworms on the Husky series, since I saw narry a one. The foliage is entirely different that most maters.

#1 - I wouldn't eat hummers, but folks from other lands do eat some strange things, like caterpillars for instance.

#2 - I love my hummers in the air, wings beating.

Susan

Susanlynne,

I saw a clearwing moth in the garden this morning. Isn't it too early????? I was surprised.

Dawn

I love fried chicken, but if I don't know the cook real well, I sort of steer away from them birds now.

Might be a bald eagle or something else (like turkey buzzard). Not saying I won't eat them in a pinch - but I now like to know beforehand just what kind of meat is on the menu.

I have to agree with ya Sis. The ground might be a tad bit cool yet. I might have pushed it a bit this year, but the weather has been so nice that I had to plant. Peas are looking good though.

Speaking of brothers. I am actually going to see my younger brother next week. Not by choice. I am being forced into it. It is a long complex story which has me sick with anxiety. Plus the fact that not many people are willing to keep an eye on a dog pack the size of mine. That is even if they can get close enough without getting drug down like a sickly wildebeest.

Trubby,

I think you really ARE my brother. I too have a younger brother I seldom see, and it is for the best if we don't see him because it is so tense and upsetting when we do. So, you see, you and I MUST have been separated at birth.

Please don't let the situation get to you. You are a tough old bird (gotta be, to live up there in cold-and-frozen you-know-where) and you can handle it. If you lived closer to me, I'd watch your dogs....but then, I have a dog pack about the same size as yours, so I am used to it. : )

As for planting early, well, all I can say is it runs in the family.....I always plant too early, especially tomatoes. BUT, if I cover them up and protect them well from late frosts, I'll have ripe tomatoes anywhere from late April to mid-May, so early planting pays off most years. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it: early IS good.)

I just came in from mowing about an acre of rye grass, and then I put the clippings on top of the rows of onions and potatoes as a second layer of mulch. The wind has been blowing like gangbusters all day and it is COLD, but our high temperature got up to a balmy 62 degrees, so it is quite nice out, except for the wind.

I would have mowed more, but I ran over a bunny nest and had to stop mowing. Mama rabbit ran off, and the babies were low enough to the ground that they weren't hurt, but I was worried I'd hit another nest, so I stopped.

In a couple of hours, I'll be back out covering up tomato plants one last time, and then our forecast looks great after this last cold night.

Dawn