Hi Courtney!

Well, if you believe the forecasters.....actually, we sat and watched rainstorms form to our west AND to our east the last two nights. Then they all went around us, joined together north of Marietta and headed towards the next county! Last night that storm dropped a couple of inches fast and the area near Lake Murray had a flash flood watch. We did have TWO rainshowers at our place yesterday....one in the morning and one in the evening. Together they added up to one/one-hundredth of an inch of rain. Yippee!

So, while someone is getting rain in Oklahoma this week, it hasn't been us. At least not so far. But, that's OK, my garden is finally drying out and it is good to see some of the plants growing instead of sitting and sulking!

Either way, I am going shopping today with a group of 'girls' ranging in age from 17 to 48 (I am the oldest!). One of the young ladies is celebrating her 18th birthday with a shopping expedition and lunch in Sherman, Texas, which is the city closest to us (a mere 60 miles away) that has many great places to shop. Since I am the shopping diva, my son's girlfriend and I will be 'leading' this expedition 'cause we know where all the stores are. It should be fun....and no husbands, boyfriends, brothers, etc. are allowed, so it should be a LOT of fun.

If it is not raining and not too wet tomorrow, I am enlarging a mixed border that sits directly in front of our house. I am making it deeper and wider. I have removed bermuda grass and raked out the roots and rhizomes FIVE times over the last two weeks. I've added organic material. I've already planted some native trees (oaks and persimmons) and am now ready to add small shrubs, perennials and some annuals for color. I've raised all the annuals and perennials from seed and they are inpatiently sitting there is plastic cups waiting to go into the ground. I do intend to use a fabric weedblock so the bermuda has less chance of coming back into this bed.

After that project is done, I am going to work on a small bog type area near the pond. It gets boggy on its own when it rains a lot and the pond overflows a little into it, so I have decided to remove the grass, add some organic matter to it and plant a few plants that are tolerant of occasional standing water.

And, all along, I continue harvesting fruits and veggies.

If I am stuck inside, right now is a great time to scan the seed company websites for clearance seeds and plants. I like getting seeds at clearance prices in the summer time, and they will grow just fine next spring.

Over the weekend I made four kinds of homemade ice cream for us to eat at the fire station after all the hard work was done: vanilla, chocolate velvet with chocolate chip, vanilla with oreo cookies crunched up in it, and peanut butter. This weekend son's girlfriend and I are going to make some homemade banana ice cream, and maybe peach and pineapple too. We have been on a homemade ice-cream making (and eating!) binge this week. What a fun summertime activity!

So, I have a long list of possible projects, rain or shine. What are you going to do?

Dawn

Ho Hum is right. I just emptied my rain guage, got a tad over 2" last night. The lightening show was really good though.

When I run into old college friends who live in states far away they always ask about the lightening storms here, not the tornados. Watching lightening storms in this part of the country is unique. It's truly, well, striking. Back where I grew up in PA I remember lots of really really loud thunderstorms but not much lightening. I guess it's the lay of the land.

Hank,

I love to watch the lightning from inside the house. It is truly amazing. We see a LOT of spectacular lightning here, don't we?

The weather that has most amazed me since we moved here has been the thundersnow and thundersleet. The first time we had thundersnow, I was totally in shock. I had never seen snow fall while thunder and lightning were booming and crashing all around. Since then I have seen thundersnow at least two more times, and thundersleet once. It is my understanding that they are fairly rare. The weather here astonishes me.

Dawn

God's light show was the single most missed event when we lived in SoCal. In 3 1/2 years we didn't see lightening once. We knew coming back to the midwest we'd get to see some again. My kids love to lay on the floor and watch it "upside down" through the windows. Even the little guy is loving it now.

We had family come down from Nebraska this weekend, which keep me pretty busy. The bonus to moving here was that we'd have more opportunities to see family, mine being in NE and TX, and hubby's all being in AR. It was a really nice weekend, but Mom and I took a "garden walk" this morning and I can tell I'll be running out between rain storms this next week trying to get all of the weeds pulled.

Mom and I also went to the Nursery to get her some more plants that aren't available in NE. A few of them will need to be brought in during the winter, but the Hardy Hibiscus and Althea should be alright outside. Her neighbor has some of them and they come back really well every year. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed though.

We also got to go play a little golf this weekend. I'm seriously thinking I need to teach DH how to count!! Him and my Dad we're cheating BIG time, but since it was Father's Day, we let them have it.

I hope all the Dad's out there had a wonderful Father's Day!!

Courtney

Hi everyone!
I am up early again...the weather radio went off and woke me. We are under tornado watch. It is yucky looking outside.

I am so disgusted with gardening....lol. Many, if not most of my flowers are doing good, some are doing great even. But Oh my, that pitiful garden! In one word....DISGUSTING!

I am not even close to being the gardener most of you all are but in all my years of gardening I have not seen anything like this. Things just will not grow! If this continues I doubt I will plant much of anything next year.
One conclusion I have come to is that I need chicken manure! I see how my friends who are camp hosts at the lake are doing with growing in 5 gallon buckets and get absolutely amazed at their results.

My raised beds must be conpletely nutrient depleted for everything to be doing so poorly. I have a hard time getting excited over the growth of my tomatoes because they should be 4 times the size they are. And those little pitiful pepper plants...lol. The canteloupe is barely growing at all...and my okra is SLOW as can be. If things grew any slower they would be dead.....lol.

I do have some really gorgeous flowers right now. My hydrangeas are happy little guys with all the rain...I don't think they have ever looked better.
The annuals and most perennials are doing good too. The hibiscus is slow to get blooming but will be soon. It actually seems like the annuals are doing better this year then the perennials for some reason.

Harvest? Still waiting for something to harvest here! lol
Losing hope for tomatoes but maybe there will be some eventually. The plants are not looking very happy so not sure on that. Cantelope and okra may never produce either.
Of course my squash croaked long ago from mildew. So I don't have much of a garden at all. I have gotten so disgusted I don't even look at it very often.
The peaches will be ready to come off pretty soon. I need to check them today if it doesn't rain. They are small though. I should have removed more from the tree...I will learn. I just couldn't bring myself to take many off, I was so happy that the baby peaches survived the freezes we had in spring.

Dawn, I read in another thread about all your ice cream making and it was all I could do not to come hunting you up! Oh my that sounds so good. And it was actually hot enough some days to enjoy the cold ice cream....lol.
How did your shopping trip to Sherman go? That sounds like a lot of fun. I sure do need to get over there to see my friend's baby before it is grown and walking...lol.

We have been shopping for a new 5th wheel. We want a larger one....lol. The one we have is still so nice and new looking inside but I want more kitchen space and more storage so I can run away from home for longer periods of time...lol. That has been taking up a lot of time...have been to Cleburne, Texas twice and need to go again soon. We finally have the model picked out so it is getting closer.

Uh oh thunder....better shut off computer.....
See ya!G.M.

Courtney,

Men cheating at golf? You are kidding, right??? Oh, say it isn't so! Sometimes I think they make up the rules for golf as they go along..... Sounds like y'all had a fun father's day though.

This morning's very early lightning show was massive. You would have loved it. It was like being surrounded by dozens of strobe lights. The cats and I watched it from the front porch for quite a long time.

Merry Heart,

Our weather radio went off shortly before 5 a.m.! I went ahead and got up to turn on the TV and look at the radar to see where the 'reported tornadic circulation' was located and also to go out on the porch and watch the storm move in. I've been awake ever since and I really need a nap!

DS drove down flooded I-35 thru Gainesville around 6 a.m. to be at work by 8 a.m. and they closed down the highway due to flooding shortly thereafter. He was on the phone with me a lot describing places where he saw high water from Gainesville down to Sanger, at least once it was light enough to see!

DH and I went to Cracker Barrel to eat breakfast out, and the water in Gainesville was so high that we couldn't go anywhere else even if we had wanted to. Many businesses and some homes flooded and they had to evacuate the nursing home located back behind Home Depot. The creeks, service roads, parts of I-35, Grand Avenue, the Rodeo Arena, and other low-lying areas were buried under tons of water, and the emergency management personnel in Cooke County, Texas even requested assistance from Love County, Oklahoma, which is fairly rare, though not unprecedented. (They come and help us when we need it too!)

I understand Gainesville and Sherman each had almost 8" of rain between midnight and approx. sunrise, so the flash flooding was horrendous.

Luckily, little rain fell on our side of the Red River. We had 1" yesterday and 1/2" more overnight. I am so grateful we did not get the 8" they got just over the river from us. I would have given up on the veggie garden had we received that much more rain.

I am sorry your garden is doing so poorly. Mine has perked up and is producing some things now, but it is still very poor in comparison to most years. All the friends and neighbors to whom I usually give tons and tons of tomatoes are getting rather anxious....I haven't given away any tomatoes yet. I have been using them up and preserving them. Usually by now I am sick of tomatoes and can't give away the excess ones fast enough.

The weeds are growing faster than the garden, which is just wrong, isn't it! The flowers are looking pretty good and the trees and shrubs are growing at a very fast rate. The veggie garden is sad looking.

The shopping trip was fun. All five of us bought shoes, and the three young ones (son's girlfriend, her best friend, and the best friend's childhood friend from Colorado) bought clothing as well. We were worn out. I went shopping again on Saturday! Well, it was raining, so why not?

Father's Day was different. First, the fire dept. had to go work a wreck at the Red River bridge which took a few hours. Then we went into town to see a friend whose wife passed away on Saturday. Then we stopped at the cemetary so son's girlfriend could visit the graves of 3 high school friends who were buried there. Then it started raining. It was just that kind of crazy day where you don't do what you had planned to do. Tonight we are going to grill the steaks we'd planned to grill yesterday. Well, unless it starts raining again!

So, the new 5th-wheel is closer to becoming a reality? That is great! What fun you are going to have.

You need a little electric ice cream maker for your next trailer! We have had so much fun making homemade ice cream lately. I swear we are becoming addicted to it!

I have been cooking a lot lately, and usually I slack off some on cooking in the summertime, since DH will happily grill day after day after day. I made Taco Soup to take to the bereaved family yesterday, and then today I made cajun sausage balls and chicken-bacon wraps for the firefighters. Tomorrow I really must weed and pick tomatoes again, but it will be hard. I have a To Do list that is a mile long for tomorrow. Oh, well, that's life.....

Dawn

I guess it is the veggies that are having a tough time this year.

My little cherry tomatoe plants that I bought at HD and just planted a couple of weeks ago, are really taking off, though. By that, I mean, I haven't seen flowers on them yet, but they are putting on lots of little green tomatoes! Never had that happen. Course I have lots of honeybees and other pollinators in the garden. When you butterfly garden, you never need to worry about pollinators because butterfly plants attract lots of bees, too. These plants are only about 8" tall and we've already picked tomatoes off of them, and lots more growing.

Mildew is gonna be bad this year. I have some zinnias already afflicted, and I KNOW my monarda will succomb. I can just cut it back to the ground and it will regrow foliage.

Courtney, my Hibiscus Fantasia is gonna be gorgeous this year. Of course, hibiscus can take a lot of water. But I have buds everywhere on it. I think my Kopper King may bloom, too. Love the foliage on that one - looks like maple leaves with bronzy overcasts. The blooms are a pale pink.

I have liatris putting on blooms - awfully early. My oriental lily 'Aubade' is getting ready to bloom its head off. It is a white with yellow stripes, and the blossoms are so huge, I'm going to have to stake them. I'll post a pic later.

My little heuchera grown from seed last year:

Someone was asking about Monarda and mine just started blooming:

Oh so lovely pink calla lily:

This hosta 'Blue Angel' is a good 5 feet across. Monster!

Bought at the Herb Festival about 4 years ago. Do not know what this daylily is called, but it blooms about all summer, and the blooms are humongous.

Native plant Crotolaria saggitalis, host plant for Bella moth. Note the fruits. They are prettier in reality. Common name for this plant is Rattlebox.

Leaf of Begonia evansiana (hardy begonia):

Back of leaf:

Entire plant:

Lilium (asiatic) latvia:

My oriental lily 'Casablanca' is about to bloom, too. It's always a smell-stopper!

Susan

Well, I was going to post a photo of my tomatoes (thank you again, Dawn), but I'm too tired to figure out how to do it and I can't find any instructions. I've put in almost 15 hours in the last 72 trying to balance the payments on a $1.5 million insurance policy--this in addition to my regular work hours, and I'm not an accountant--I can't even balance my own checkbook. So I'm giving up but thought I'd post a bit before going to bed.

Merry, I'm sorry to hear about your squash. My zuchs are actually putting on fruit right now. I, too, had a bad problem with mildew, but I cut off the worst leaves and sprayed the plants with chamomile tea. I got lucky one Saturday and was able to set the container out on the fire escape (oops!) to get sun for several additional hours, and it seemed to do the trick. They look really scraggly, but they're still blooming to beat the band, and I'm pretty hopeful.

My tomatoes have grown like crazy and have lots of blooms. I'm growing only grape varieties this year, all from seed. I'm so excited that they're doing well, even though I had a slight run in with some caterpillars. They've moved on, though, so I'm hoping to have tomatoes soon.

I lost my only lavender plant--I think it was just too damp and not sunny enough. I may replace it, but if this weather doesn't clear up soon, it might not be worth it.

I have special circumstances with my balcony garden--because of the overhang, most of my plants don't get a lot of water from the rain unless the wind is blowing pretty hard. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm nuts when they see me outside watering in the middle of a rainstorm. They do get damp, though, and I can end up watering too much. I'm having lots of luck growing mushrooms! I went out tonight about 630 pm to water before I had to sit down to work. About an hour later when I went outside, I had itty, bitty mushrooms growing around my tomatoes--AGAIN. Arg.

My biggest problems are the something that's eating my sunflowers and aphids on my eggplants. I've sprayed the eggplants with water to knock them off and put cut up banana peels around the soil, but they're just relentless. I need to get back out there with the squirt bottle, but I just didn't have time tonight. As for my sunflowers, I don't have a clue what's eating them, but as long as it's not eating my tomato plants, it's okay.

I couldn't believe how much rain Texas got today. How horrible. This spring has definitely been one to remember, that's for sure.

I can't keep my eyes open any longer, so I'm off to bed. May there be drier days ahead for all of us.

Katyar, I don't know what cultivar or species of lavendar you had growing, but I recommend lavendula x intermedia 'Provence'. It can take the soggier soil better than most lavendars, albeit they all like good drainage.

About a month ago I purchased another one at Home Depot because they were selling 'Provence' in 5" pots for about $3/pot. I planted it and even with all the rain, it's growing and doing well. It grows really fast and will take the adverse conditions better than most lavendar.

I heard on the news the other night that our rainy season is nearing its end, and we're in for a dry summer now. It would be nice to get "some" rain in July so I don't have to water so much. THe City of OKC sure isn't making much money this year, are they? Ha!

Susan

Susan,

What lovely photos! I bet your yard is looking great right now. Your liatris are early, but mine in the cultivated areas are always earlier than those in the 'wild' areas.

I have already lost some zinnias to powdery mildew and the honeysuckle has it too, so I guess I need to spray.

Katyar,

You poor thing! I hope you get some rest.

I am glad your tomtoes are fruiting. Nothing like yummy fruit that you grew yourself!

In Love County we have been a lot drier the last couple of weeks, so we probably are moving into a more regular weather pattern? Maybe? It is still cooler than average, but our nights are starting to stay in the very upper 70s. Once the nights start staying in the 80s, I consider summer to have 'officially begun' regardless of the date.

Today I was FINALLY able to work in the garden for a few hours. Lately all sorts of other obligations have been keeping me away from it. It felt so good to play in the dirt this morning!

Dawn

I think my lavender was "Provence," but I'm not sure. I'm thinking of hitting the 50-75% sales at a couple of plant stands this week and seeing if I can find some more. (I like the lavender, but I tend to want to water it all the time.) I also need a few more petunias and such.

Do any of you adjust your watering due to higher levels of humidity? The humidity is causing me to have monster mushrooms in, like, 30 minutes (I wonder if I could patend that process?). I think I'm going to back off a little until it dries up some.

I have one planter of Fairy Tale Zucchini that has not grown one inch since I planted it almost 6 weeks ago--not ONE INCH. I've fertilized, watered, coaxed, cajoled, and nothing. However, they haven't died, so maybe they're just resting?

My sunflowers are blooming, but the foliage looks horrible. I'm hoping that I can give them a boost with a little fertilizer, but as long as they're blooming, I'm happy.

Someone in another thread suggested the Louise Riotte books, and I ordered several of them last week. They're great--my favorite right now is the one on ponds, it's just so interesting. Makes me wish we still had the farm I grew up on--we had a huge lake and a pond, and my grandparents down the road had a nice pond, too.

Enough from me--I'm going to go enjoy my "work-free" evening!

Katyar,

When planting lavender in containers, I use clay pots because they dry out more quickly, which is important as lavendar doesn't like to stay wet. I have planted lavender in clay using cactus soil purchased in a small bag at either Lowe's, Home Depot or Wal-Mart. I chose this soil because it is VERY well drained and does not hold excess moisture. Then I used only gravel for the top inch or inch and a half. The gravel mulch helps keep water from pooling on top of the soil. The lavenders in these pots (one is Provence, the other is Munstead) are doing quite well despite this year's heavy rains. I know if they were in the ground in my clay soil, they'd be dead by now.

I TRY to adjust the amount I water containers during periods of high rainfall and high humidity, but it is hard to get a handle on it when it rains everyday. You can combat the mushrooms by sprinkling a little corn gluten meal on the soil surface, or by spraying with a baking soda spray (1 T. baking soda to 1 gallon of water) to slightly alter the pH of the soil surface.

With eggplants, they ALWAYS do best for me if I plant them, forget about it, ignore them, and give them very little water...keeping the soil dry and letting them have only enough moisture to keep them from wilting. Last year I quit watering my veggie garden in June, and you KNOW how dry it was. Most things died, but a few tomatoes and peppers and ALL the eggplants kept producing. In fact, I got more eggplants than ever before, and that was with almost NO rainfall and with NO irrigation. The ground was baked hard like concrete but those plants produced like crazy. The eggplants were still producing and covered with fruit when the first frost hit.

I love all of Louise Riotte's books. I had already read them before we moved here and didn't remember she was from the Ardmore area until I began re-reading them in the early 2000s. Her pond book taught me so much about what you can do with an earth-bottom pond that is managed naturally.

Dawn

I never intentionally water my lavendar at all. It may get some run off from watering other plants, but I just give myself a stern talking-to, and direct that hose elsewhere. I have mine in a place where it gets marvelous drainage, though.

One of the previous owners, put in a "boardwalk" across the front of my property on the upside of my sidewalk. The boardwalk is about 3' wide with a couple of steps down. The lavendar is planted right on the border in front of that boardwalk, so the water just drains down and away from the plants. There is a slight slope to it.

I never water it, I never feed it, I just trim it back in the spring (trim off all the old blooms and cut it back a bit (about 1/3).

That's it. I never even deadhead it. It just keeps on producing more and more blooms. It starts blooming in April and blooms until frost. I have honeybees all over it, and butterflies love it, too.

Like I said, I tried several species and cultivars, and 'Provence' just works the best for me. Now, you may be able to grow and be willing to try out different species/cultivars, but I'm one of those folks that, when I find something that works, I stop there! Especially with lavendar. Just the fact that it grows for me is amazing IMHO! LOL!

I lost my rosemary in last year's icy winter. But, it wasn't one of the hardier ones. I need to get 'Arp', because it is the best for Oklahoma I've heard.

I don't do well with sage - I'm talking about officianalus (the silver one), and the tricolor. Probably because I wasn't listening to my hose again. Some days are just a struggle with that hose.

Herbs generally do very well in Oklahoma, though. We are in a temperate zone, meaning have somewhat similar conditions to herbs which grow in the Mediterranean. Not just culinary, but medicinal herbs as well.

Butterflies love herb blossoms - and foliage (like the Black Swallowtails love parsley, fennel, dill, and Rue). I grow Agastache foeniculum for the butterflies and bees, too. I grow plaintain (edible) for the Buckeyes. I have garlic chives and the hairstreaks love it when they bloom in late summer. (I love the garlic chives!).

I mix herbs in with my flower beds because most of them are very attractive, too. Rue is very attractive, and so is parsley and fennel. They add interest and texture to the garden.

Guess I best hush and go watch 'So You Think You Can Dance'. Dawn, are you watching this one, too?

Susan

Susan,

I keep trying to watch it, and I enjoy it when I see it. I've missed it this week though....too much going on! Harvest time is hot and heavy right now.

When it is not raining, I am outside harvesting, and when it is raining, I am inside figuring out what to do with all the harvest.

In the garden yesterday, I noticed a new bunch of small swallowtail larvae on the parsley and dill. They are coming in waves this year, so late summer will be gorgeous with all the butterflies in the air, I think!

Dawn