Yay Oklahoma Garden Crazies!

Onions and herbs are trickling in here. Spring bulbs too. Oh and lowes by me hard some roses. I picked up a Mr Lincoln. Love red ones.

It's still early and there's tons of plants in the stores that I wouldn't buy and actually put into the ground yet. I don't think there's anything wrong with buying plants to hold in the greenhouse or house or a cold frame for a few more weeks. The key lies in knowing it is too cold to put warm-season annual plants in the ground this early.

It seems like the plants arrive earlier every year. It used to be that I could find the very first and extremely early tomato plants in the DFW metro area in the 2nd or 3rd week of February. Now the early tomato plants (and for the last 2 or 3 years, pepper plants as well) are hitting the stores at the end of January. It also seems like that back 8 or 10 years ago, even after I found the plants in the DFW metro, it still was a month or so before they showed up in local stores in Gainesville, TX, or Ardmore, OK. Now, they often show up here just a week or two after I see them first appear further south.

One year, the tomato and pepper plants arrived early in Gainesville's Wal-Mart, and then it snowed a few days later and no one brought the plants indoors or covered them up and they all froze. They haven't arrived quite as early since then.

I don't worry about experienced gardeners buying early and putting tomato or pepper plants in the ground now because experienced folks know it is too early. However, I'd hate to see new gardeners spend the money for plants and put them in the ground only to have them freeze.

A couple of weeks ago I bought three Spanish lavender plants in 5" pots, and the plants already were loaded with blooms. I put those out on a table on the patio during the day and in the mudroom at night. The flowers are just covered with lady bugs all day long, which is one of the reasons I bought them in the first place. We have a lot of lady bugs around and not much for them to feed upon in winter. There's so many lady bugs on the lavender plants that I wish I'd bought more lavender. I did see chickweed starting to bloom yesterday, and there's already dandelions and spring beauties in bloom so at least now the insects have a few flowers to visit.

We are at the point now where I buy something garden-related every time I go to the store. It isn't always necessarily plants, but so far this winter I've bought seeds, starter flats, Jiffy mix, seed potatoes, rhubarb (I'm pretty sure my plants drowned/rotted in the 78+" of rain we got last year), lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower plants, a flat of strawberry plants, lavender plants and tomato plants. Oh, and I bought a 9-pack of broccoli plants merely because the variety name amused me---they are the "Lieutenant" variety, and Tim is a police lieutenant, so even though it is too early and the plants are likely to bolt, I bought them anyway. I also bought one bundle of onions to plant early for use as green scallions. My actual main crop of onion plants should arrive from Dixondale next week and I'll likely plant them the day they arrive as long as it isn't raining. Hmmm, add to the list two large green containers from CostCo. If I think about it longer, I'll likely come up with something else.....

And that something else would be a bag of Espoma Tomato-Tone fertilizer and two bags of Espoma Garden-Tone fertilizer.

I'm actually a really frugal person and don't spend money on much of anything that's not a basic necessity, except for the garden. That's where my spending occurs, and anything I need or want for the garden is, at least in my eyes, always a necessity. The garden feeds us, though, and we get large yields, so I always consider it to be money well-spent. One trip through the produce aisles buying only organic produce in winter quickly reminds Tim how much money our garden saves us over the course of the calendar year even though it requires an upfront investment at planting time. The flowers? I always have tons of flowering plants for beneficial insects and just to make the garden pretty too. If I'm going to spend most of my day working in the garden during the long gardening season that runs here from roughly February through the end of November or even into December, it can't just be a productive garden, it also has to be a pretty one.

I have been staying away from the box stores KNOWING they will have temptations.....but we went to Atwoods this weekend and I'm now the proud owner of 3 nice bundles of onions...(2 1015Y and a Red Corona bunch). All my tomato starts are in cell packs and under lights! And I've contracted a small landscaping business from Norman to come tomorrow and clean out last years raised beds as well as the front beds of the house. The whole front of our home will be edible landscaping!!! There I'm planting winter squash and probably colorful okra plants. I've got 36 peat pots of cabbage sprouting too! Peppers are going in cells next.....but probably after I grab at least 2 tomatoe plants from a box store to get this party started.

And wintersown jugs will happen this weekend including my onion experiment!

You all are cray cray, heehee. My onions will be here soon so I will join you cray crays.

But knowing there will be temptations is what makes it fun to go into the stores at this time of the year! That's why I go there. (grin) Later on, when the stores are chock-full of all kinds of plants, I am so focused on all the transplants I have growing and also on getting them into the ground that I don't spend as much time in the garden centers---they are almost too much of a distraction in March and April. Right now they have fun stuff but not so much stuff that looking at it sends my gardening brain into overload.

Fire season is cranking up and today I had to hurriedly move all my plants out of full wind/full sun into a more sheltered area before I rushed off to a fire on the edge of town. The plants were taking a pretty good beating from today's wind and I felt like they'd already had enough of it. I simply hate when fire season and growing season overlap. There's not enough hours in the day.

My light shelf is set up indoors and I might sow seeds of cool-season plants tomorrow, though I'll still probably wait until Sunday to start the tomatoes and peppers. I had to order more tomato seeds over the weekend because I didn't have seeds of Tim's favorite tomato. Hmmm. Not sure how that happened, but y'all know I wasn't going to order just 1 packet of seed, so I ordered a bunch. That's. Really, How. I. Roll. (laughing hysterically here)

I guess I will be at the mercy of the stores supply of tomato and pepper plants. I am a humbug about starting plants, I don't know why.

Doing hole composting in the garden seems to be really improving several beds that were pretty bad looking. I see lots of worms there now.

I am really starting to associate spring with tornado time here in Moore so I have mixed feelings of garden excitement and storm fear. Seems we are really rolling the dice here.

I ordered from Baker Creek and didn't even look at the tomato seeds because I knew I had so many. Now I am really sorry that I didn't because I don't have Tess's Land Race. Either I forget to buy it or they are out of stock when I try. Maybe next year.

Momfryhover - (sorry - that's a carry over from GW days - that's still your name to me!) Do Not Fear....I'm just a couple miles from you and drive past your neighborhood every. single. work-day. I've started way more than I can plant so I'll shoot you an e-mail. I'll happily share! I owe ya for the Kale you shared last year! And I most heartedly feel ya about the tornado season. I grew up in Moore off of 12th & Eastern. I "get" it. And this year's forecast is to be "weather aware" because of El Nino. We are prepping the cellar early this year.

Carol - sorry. That Tess's wasn't on my start list. How the Heck did I miss that one?

Thanks Paula. I haven't started anything yet and still have some garden tasks to do before planting time. I never save seeds from tomato plants because I grow so many different ones each year. I have no shortages of seeds to start, but I wanted to grow Tess and just didn't think about ordering it this time. Al offered to take me on a road trip to Baker Creek, but I told him I had already ordered from them. It's that 'seed addiction' that several of us suffer from you know. LOL

Nancy (you'll always be Momfryhover to me too), I totally understand why you feel the way you do. Moore and the general area around/near it have suffered from so many strong tornadoes in the last few years that it is just mind-boggling. Moore must be a simply superb place to raise a family because, despite the seemingly high tornado risk, people continue to flock there to live.

On bad tornado days I am just glued to The Weather Channel on the TV and Weather Underground's Jeff Masters' blog on my computer, watching everything and just hoping no one (and especially Moore) gets hit on that day. When Dr. Forbes starts pointing out tornado warnings for the central OK area, I start thinking of all of you up there and just can't bear the thought of another hit to an area that has suffered so much already. Spring is such a two-edged sword. We wait so long for it to get here, and then once it arrives, our weather becomes high-risk far too often.

Oklahomans are getting the message though. When we put in our tornado shelter in 2000, it was one of only a couple of shelters on a 3 or 4 miles stretch of our road. Now most homes on our road have either an in-ground shelter or a safe room. In our part of the country, it just makes sense.

Paula & Carol, Now, Tess' Land Race Currant is a blast from the past! Its' huge productivity finally wore me out and I quit growing it. I just grow too many plants to have the time to keep Tess' well-picked. I still have seed of TLRC if y'all want some. Just email me your snail mail addresses (I ought to know them by heart after all these years, but I don't remember things as well as I used to) and I'll send you some seeds. The TLRC seeds I have were packed for 2010, so likely grown by the wholesaler no earlier than 2009, but I generally get good seed germination on tomato seeds that are that old and even older. You might have to sow more of them to make up for a lower germination percentage.

Dawn

Dawn, it does kind of wear you out, but you never have to worry about not having tomatoes for salad and snacks when you grow Tess. Just 5 seeds would be all I would need because probably only 2 would make it to the garden. Most years I go to Baker Creek at some point, but last year Al stopped there for me and this year I ordered from the catalog and just forgot a few things. I'll send you a PM. Thanks.

That's true. It especially wore me out the year I let it grow up 8' and then cascade back down another 8' to the ground and I had to stand on a ladder (in a sloping garden) to pick the ones at the top. After that, I started trying to cut back on plants that took me too long to harvest, which explains the recent absence of Principe' Borghese from my garden. Now, you know of course, that talking about Tess' makes me want to grow it again. Maybe next year.

I got your PM and sent the envelope with the seeds of Tess' off to work with Tim this morning so he could mail it from the post office. If I put it out in my mailbox here it'd take it an extra 2 days to get to you. Our mail service has become pokey and unpredictable. They've changed our routes a few times lately and I never even know when to expect the mail anymore, but it seems like it comes several hours later than it used to, and it is getting later all the time. Oh, and I sent more than 5 in case the seeds' age really does cause germination issues. I wanted to be sure you had enough seeds to play with if they are balky about germinating.

I don't care how long and how hard I work on orders for Baker's Creek and for Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, I always forget something that I had intended to order. Oh, and the same is true of Tomato Grower's Supply.

Thanks Dawn. When I think of growing Tess, I always remember the day that Al had been in the garden for 15 minutes but when I spoke, it scared him because I was sitting down behind the Tess vine picking all of those little tomatoes and he didn't even know I was anywhere close. One of my friends loves those little tomatoes, so I have help using them all.

Dawn, Thanks so much for the Tess seed I received today. I will think of you when I spend all that time picking them. LOL

Carol, You're welcome. I hope those seeds germinate for you and that the plants grow well. They're a little older than most of my seeds. When you're picking the fruit, you can be thinking "so, this is why she no longer grows this variety" (grin). You'll have grandkids there to help you pick all 50 million of those little Tess' tomatoes, so that should help a lot.

Dawn

HeeHee, probably so. Of course Al and I stand out there and eat a lot of them also. Tomato seeds are usually good for quite a few years. I am thinking that I will not grow as many tomato plants as usual, but you know how that goes.

Dawn, I just saw a picture of my Tess's Land Race plant before it even had fruit on the vine. It was in my 2010 garden and is in the active thread "Vertical Trellis Input Needed :)". It is in the 8th message down and the link says "2010". That trellis is a 16 foot cattle panel with a fairly sharp bend at the top. Tess is on one side and Zuchetta squash on the other side. They are fighting it out for space at the top (8 feet) even before there is ripe fruit on the tomato plant.

I noticed that! I remember how well Tess did for you that year. Remember Diane's photo of the huge Tess' Land Race Currant plant about to swallow up her children? I always think of that when we are discussing Tess.

Such a good enabler. I just went to Atwood at Gainesville. ..99 cent plants

You must be on your way home. I hope you told them I sent you. (grin) Just kidding.

I haven't been there this week, but I was there twice last week. You're shopping in my neighborhood (since we have nothing like Atwood/s, TSC, Home Depot or Wal-Mart here in Marietta).

I knew I was close. I like Atwoods and who could pass up 99 cents. I needed to pick up a few tools too. I was so busy at the talks this weekend I didn't get much shopping done.

I hate it when life gets in the way of shopping. I try to have a well-balanced lifed during gardening season: spending half my time gardening and the other half shopping for the garden. Well, I'm just kidding about that, but Tim would say that we do seem to spend an inordinate amount of time at this time of the year looking for this or that, and he's probably right. I like having all the right supplies, tools, etc. on hand before the hot and heavy part of the garden season starts. I hate having to leave the garden to go buy something that I should have sitting in the potting shed.