Eileen, The best organic product we've used to spray the yard (and to wash the dogs) for fleas and ticks is called CedarCide. We used it a lot our first couple of years here until the chickens and guineas had time to clean up most of the fleas and ticks. Because we live on rural acreage with parts that are heavily wooded and parts that are native prairie grassland, the ticks and fleas are a constant issue. However, in the yard area that surrounds the house, detached garage, other outbuildings and garden areas, the free-range chickens do a pretty decent job of eating the ticks and fleas. We use Frontline Plus on our dogs but nothing on our cats unless one gets a serious infestation. Cats can be really sensitive to the ingredients in flea and tick products so I try to avoid using those products on them. The hotter it gets, the more the cats camp indoors and don't go outside for very long at all, if at all. Our two oldest cats (they are in their late teens) have pretty much stopped going outside at all this week. The heat is on, and they'd rather be in the air conditioned house, which is fine with me. Using DE on the ground can help, but it only works while dry as moisture softens its sharp edges, so its effectiveness depends on how wet or how dry your area is. I used to use DE a lot, but I don't think it is really all that effective on much of anything, so have pretty much quit using it.

Sulphur helps a lot with chiggers. We're going to buy a bag tomorrow and spread it before the rain comes. May is the time of the year when we usually have our first big chigger outbreak and it always seems to catch one or another of us by surprise---not so much in the yard, which we keep mowed down short, but if someone walks off into the tall unmowed areas to do something. Or, in areas where we are mowing but the neighbors' pasture grass is tall and meets our short grass at the property line---that's the areas where you can get chiggers while mowing, for example. When I'm working along the fencelines of the garden, where the taller prairie grass outside the garden meets up with the fence, I spray from head to toe with Deep Woods Off and I do the same when mowing. I don't like doing it, but I do it. I try to spray my clothing and shoes more so than my skin, but must spray my exposed skin on areas like my arms and neck or the mosquitoes and ticks will have a field day. Sometimes I just wear long sleeves, even on very hot days, so the insect repellent can be sprayed on fabric rather than skin.

Even though we try to garden as organically as possible, if I felt like the yard needed to be treated with a chemical pesticide, I'd use it. It would be a pain in the neck because we'd have to keep the free-range poultry locked up for a few days until rain or irrigation could dissolve the pellets or granules into the ground, but we could do it. We'd just have to listen to unhappy poultry whine and complain for a couple of days.

Congrats on the marigolds. I love the marigolds but am trying to give up growing them. Because of the deer issue, my flowers have to be inside the two fenced garden plots with 8' high fences or they quickly become deer chow. The problem with marigolds is that spider mites love them, so after many years of growing them and noticing they are one of the first plants to become heavily infested with spider mites (not every year---maybe one year out of 4 or 5 the spider mites don't touch the marigolds), I've decided they are doing the garden more harm than good. I cut way back on how many marigolds I've grown the last few years, and this year there are none. The way I've used them in the past was as trap plants for spider mites, meaning I had to pull them up, bag them up and dispose of them as soon as they became heavily infested. This helps keep the spider mites from spreading to the vegetable plants. In a normal city garden, if you use the marigolds as trap plants, it often will help keep your veggies and other ornamentals spider mite free, but out here in the country where spider mites blow in on the wind literally every day, they aren't as useful because more spider mites just keep coming.

Because it has been hot and dry here in our county a lot already, we've had visible signs of spider mite damage on plants in the garden, especially pepper and tomato plant,s since April. It probably is going to be a bad spider mite year here at our place. Texas horticulturalist and all-around good guy and my favorite gardening guru, Neil Sperry, mentioned that spider mites were particularly bad on junipers in north central Texas months ago---maybe back in March. I remember being shocked when he said that. So, my spider mite sensors went into full alert, and sure enough, the spider mites of various kinds are all over our rural area extra early this year. They are very hard to fight, although there are predatory mites that will eat them. I sincerely hope you do not live in an area where spider mites are bad. Most city areas do not have them heavily like rural areas do, at least not this early in the year, and in rainy seasons they are not as bad. I just happen to live in an area that the rain has consistently missed for the last 2 months, so the heat and the spider mite population have exploded. That means we are having a typical summer here....in May....notwithstanding a couple of recent cool nights.

Nancy, The bunny story is true. I have a soft spot for the little cottontails. When our son was married, he had a young stepdaughter whom I adored. Her name was Maddie. Well. Maddie loved the rabbits, so we put out little piles of hen scratch for them every evening in certain spots and then she could stand and watch them come eat it. She was roughly 15-18 months old at the time and feeding the bunnies every evening was her favorite thing on earth at that point in time. The following year, we built a cute little Peter Rabbit garden together, with an adorable picket fence, raised beds to grow the veggies mentioned in the Peter Rabbit books, a rabbit statue, etc. We had a great garden together in her Peter Rabbit Garden, although she enjoyed playing in the dirt and water probably more than she even liked the plants. Oh, and we had to let dandelions stay in her garden because they were her favorite flower. There was just one issue---I wanted to close the garden gate at night to keep the rabbits out of it, and she wanted to leave the little garden gate open so her garden could be full of "Peter Rabbits". I think she was about 24-28 months old at the time. So, we left the gate open and fed the rabbits. While I won't go so far as to leave my garden gate open for the rabbits at night, I did let that tiny bunny stay, and I kept our cats out of the garden while the rabbit was living in it. That tiny bunny who had lost the rest of his family somehow wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes out in the yard with Pumpkin the cat, so I let him or her live in the garden. Rural life is hard on rabbits and most live only a few months, so I like to help them out when I can.

Amy, Your garden would be a lot easier to keep safe if it was fenced off from rabbits. I cannot imagine not having a fenced garden. I realize your DH doesn't want to fence it off. Good luck protecting the Egyptian spinach. You may have had too much rain in April and May and too many rain-cooled days and nights and that might be holding back your tomatoes from ripening. We have tons and tons of green ones, some of which are quite large and which seem like they've been green forever, and that is typical for this time of the year. However, we have reached the stage (likely temperature-related) where a tomato is breaking color one day, nicely colored up the next and ripe the next, so once they break color they are ripening very fast---out temperatures in the 90s likely are contributing to that speed. Peppers also are producing like mad. I thought I had pretty much stripped the plants of all usable fruit last week and now need to do the same thing again. I suppose the heat is good for pushing the harvest along.

Hazel, Have fun and enjoy the trip. Try to not worry about the garden too much. I don't like leaving the garden when it is producing either, but you're only going to be gone a few days. Because our gardens have to exist in Mother Nature's ecosystem, they're always going to be vulnerable to pests, weather, animals, etc. and we cannot keep them safe from those things 24/7 even when we are home. Worrying about it long-distance won't change anything.

The whole thing with Korean Squash is incredible, right? I don't understand why Korean squash seeds and/or plants aren't sold in every nursery or why local Oklahoma gardening writers don't mention them every month in the growing season as a great alternative to the commonly grown squash varieties that get decimated here by squash bugs and squash vine borers. I feel like Korean squash varieties are 'our little secret' here on this forum, though we are not trying to keep them secret by any means.

C. moschata squash of all kinds originated in tropical countries and have the same sort of rapid growth, pest tolerance and heat tolerance that plants here in Oklahoma need, but the one you see mentioned most at places other than this forum is Tromba d'Albenga, akd Trombocino Zucchetta Rampicante, trombone squash (surely a corruption of its Italian name) or even merely known as zucchetta. Know what? I've grown many C. moschata type squash plants, both for winter squash and summer squash, and zucchetta isn't nearly as tasty as many others. It wouldn't even make my list of top ten or top twenty C. moschata squashes. Yes, zucchetta grows quickly but so do all other C. moschata types and its flavor is nowhere nearly as good as many others so I rarely bother with it. While the C. moschata butternut types of squash are widely known in the USA, for some reason the Korean summer squash varieties are not yet nearly as widely known or grown.

Nancy, I agree that non-gardeners do not and will not understand. That's fine. I don't understand other people's devotion to their particular favorite pasttimes either. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

My dear, sweet sister-in-law retired a couple of years ago and now has a vegetable garden (albeit a small one) for the first time in her adult life and is loving every minute of it. I'm so happy for her. They might help her understand my gardening obsession a bit more too. I'm glad she has found that gardening brings so much joy to her life!

Dawn

I think that rabbits and deer, both, vary greatly on what they eat and when they will eat it, depending on local conditions, and, perhaps,...whim. Unfortunately, at my place, they will mow down 30' of beans in a single night. So, I try to keep them down. We got a kitten some months ago. Taffy has become a big time hunter, clearing barn rafters of sparrow nests and going after mice like crazy. I bet he'll help with rabbits too,. I've seen him chase squirrels. But I've never seen him get one. I hate to do it. But starting about now, I have to start shooting squirrels that venture into our yard, or we won't harvest a single apple or peach. They're terrible. Several times now Jerreth has told me some morning, "You better pick the apples (peaches, etc.) today. I saw a squirrel. I used to reply, "But they're not really ready. Oh, okay, I'll do it after lunch." Well, after lunch the trees would be picked clean!

I may have to try the Korean summer squash. This year I plan on using immature Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkins for summer squash. I also plan on doing a good grow out of Scarchuks Supreme, acorn squash. Though Scarchuks is a c. pepo. I know it was bred for resistance. But "resistance" in a c. pepo is nothing like RESISTANCE in a c. moschata. Still, many times before I've had Scarchuks Supreme produce when other c. pepo varieties didn't.

I haven't encountered chiggers yet, this year. This is really not normal. But ticks have been horrendous. I get them all the time when I'm milking. They jump ship from the goats to me.

George

Thank you all for concern and kind comments. I have had a few good days lately and some not so great. If I could just stay home and eat my own cooking. Being out and about Tuesday knocked me out of 3 days. Probably MSG.

Everyone's gardens sounds as if things are moving in full speed now. I have learned several things this year.

Most important without this group I would be making lots more garden errors than I am. I am so thankful for the advice of this group. There is not another one like it anywhere. You all help me work smarter not harder.

After visiting and touring a couple gardens recently I realized one I need to downsize and 2 don't count on anyone for help. My garden is a mess and I know it is not getting better. I can't wait to get the onions out and clear that area of bind weed. Be careful where you get yourhay.

I am moving greenhouse tothe garden to use as trellis for cukes. We will see if they climb it. Mine tend to want to lay on the ground.

DD's dogs knocked DH down yesterday. They were just playing and ran by too close and clipped him. Twisted his knee. Waiting for the doctor to call back about an x-ray. There will be no heavy work in the garden for the near future, and since it is his right knee, I will be driving. He makes me nervous when I drive him around. Do I sound unsympathetic? I don't mean to, just trying to change gears in my head.

DH would fence the garden...against chickens. Wouldn't stop a rabbit. He was prepared to cage the beds. A flower bed is not pretty with fence taller than the flowers. We had a green plastic fence last year...that didn't keep the chickens out and it was ugly. I will not weed if I have to fight my way through sharp fencing to do it. I know myself. And, a chicken wire cage over a bed is not esthetically pleasing to me. It would make me sad. I know it would save the plants, but part of my pleasure in gardening is visual. There are plants spread every where in the yard except for the chicken run. There's no easy way to fence the garden, because it is the whole back yard. Darn, I sound cranky today. This is an ongoing argument with DH.

H/J I understand about the investment in your plants. I hate when cats spray. It's a smell that takes forever to go away. I do hope you have fun on your trip. Did you say DONKEYS? That's a new one! I keep forgetting to look for squash bugs :( I don't want to hear about spider mites either, Dawn. I haven't planted any marigolds yet. The so called petit ones were anything but petit, so last year I had one volunteer. Maybe there will be one this year.

I do feel sorry for the baby bunnies. I had one that I kept watering. Not on purpose, but that was when I'd see it. I saw a giant rabbit on the other side of the drainage ditch the other day. It was no baby.

I went back and looked at pictures from 2014, that Cherokee Purple was maybe 8 inches tall on May 5. There is a pic of a big tomato with blooms on the 19th, but it's not the CP, I thInk it was a cherry. Unfortunately there were no more pictures. That was a facebook memory that showed the CP tomatoes. I'm going to have to go find it. I wonder if we bought tomatoes at the farmers market?

George, my dogs used to love to chase squirrels. The one old girl I have left looks at them, sighs and says I'm to old to run. She sniffs for rabbits though. Do be careful with those ticks, there's some new disease to worry about now.

Kim, I'm sorry things are not going better. My cukes like cattle panels.

Kim, I let the cukes vine for a few inches on the ground and then I spend a few minutes weaving them through the trellis to get them started climbing. Once you get them started, they climb it just fine. I do the same thing with other vines---muskmelons, true cantaloupes, Crane melons and icebox watermelons. If you help them get started climbing, they continue on climbing with no further assistance.

Your garden is a lot for one person to maintain. If I was trying to keep a garden that size going, I'd probably put down 3' or 4' wide black plastic and use it to keep the weeds down. Yes, the ground will heat up underneath the black plastic, but the weeds will cook to death and, if you do have mulch, you can put the mulch on top of the plastic. And, without the plastic, the ground heats up anyhow...just not quite so much. So, you know, plant a row or block of whatever and have the black plastic on the ground in between it and the next row or block of plants. Once you have the weedy part handled, it frees up tons of time for planting, watering and harvesting. Lots of folks I know use the black plastic in between rows and don't even mulch at all. They use the standard black plastic that looks like trash bag material and buy it on big rolls at Lowe's or HD or wherever. Since it doesn't absorb rainwater, it also funnels all rainfall to the soil where the plants are growing.

Did you get bindweed in your hay? I have had a lot of bindweed to clear out because of the way I abandoned the garden late last summer to work on the kitchen remodel. I'm astonished how much there is. Obviously when I wasn't paying attention last year, it was growing, blooming, reseeding and giving us a million new tiny bindweed plants to deal with this year. I pull new ones out almost daily, which is a PITA, but I am determined to keep them from growing long enough to flower and set seed. I'm also (against my wishes) the queen of lambsquarters this year. Oh well, more fodder for the compost pile.

If you have to cut back on the size of the garden, focus on growing whatever is the most foolproof and also gives you the best profit margin. You can do this. You are doing it. Now that you're off to a good start, just refine what you do and how much of it you do so that it can be manageable.

George, Taffy sounds very helpful. You need a little yappy dog that will chase squirrels all day! Little yappy dogs aren't very helpful but a lot of them will chase squirrels relentlessly.

I've gotten into chiggers twice, but very minor numbers and I scrubbed my skin until it was almost raw to get rid of them. I'm being more careful from this point forward. I don't think Tim and Chris have gotten into them yet. I think they got on me once when I was inside the garden, just standing there weeding in the poppy patch (a mixture of poppies, zinnias, verbena bonariensis, larkspur, lantana and moss rose in one corner of the garden), I had kept it pretty well-weeded but apparently not enough to keep the chiggers out. The other time was when we were working on replacing the one section of the garden fence.

C. moschatas do so well here that sometimes I wonder why I grow anything else, but even though I like them, I miss being able to grow any kind of C. pepo or C. maxima I wish to grow, which was great for about our first 7 years here before the SVBs finally found us and ruined everything.

Amy, I hope the news on DH's knee is as good as it can be.

I understand about the fencing conflict. I want the whole yard fenced, and Tim doesn't. So far he's winning that one, which explains why I know longer try to have nice landscaping around the house....there's no point in planting it all if it just will become Deer Chow.

It seems like every year there's more and more tick-borne diseases to worry about. It makes you wonder what is next.

Speaking of diseases, a 40-something-year-old-man across the river from us in Gainesville, TX, has tested positive for the West Nile virus......and we haven't even been that wet here. They are as dry as us, if not worse. It sure seems early for West Nile to be starting up.

Dawn

I had started a post and apparently never hit submit. I simply am not all here today. Still waiting to hear from the doctor. Made an appointment with an orthopedist for Tuesday, but meanwhile he's in pain and stupid doctor has not called back. Missed my outing at the Asian market just WAITING. Don't want to go get sweaty in the garden if I'm going to take him some where. I need to harvest beans. I can't pull out the pressure canner (there's no room in the freezer) because I might have to leave. I suppose I could clean house...nah.

I went back and looked at the picture from facebook memories of the tomatoes. I have decided they weren't Cherokee Purples, too small and red. I believe they were the beefsteak tomato DH brought home in the big pot with it's own cage, like Dawn got this year. I think they were the only 2 tomatoes we got off that plant, it was sickly and buggy. But it does illustrate the usefulness of an SET, "Sacrificial Early Tomato".

I could understand fencing the whole yard, especially in your situation, Dawn. I would have had a cougar proof fence after THAT incident. My yard IS fenced. It's not rabbit proof. And for a while there was a black and white dog that could jump it like it was nothing, but he hasn't been seen lately. It keeps my dog and my chickens in. I just don't want a maze of fences. The chickens really don't seem unhappy in their back third of the yard. I throw them extra greens and kitchen scraps every day to supplement their feed. DH even built them a chicken swing. ROFL. They don't seem to be interested. This morning I watched all 5 running in a row. Then I realized the one in front had something everyone else wanted.

Thank you Dawn I AM doing this. Lately I have lots of negative people around me and as I literally have culled some there are more lol. My mom just told me "you wouldnt recognize a normal nice guy if you tripped over him" Shes funny. But its true. Several older farmer friends are so negative I have to limit my discussions to the weather.

Back to the garden my korean summer squash had horrible germination. I only got 2 out of 20 seeds. My other stuff on the same dripline all came up. I was sad but I will plug in something there. Cant have an empty dripper ;)
My melons are blooming like crazy and watermelons are coming right along. I am going out later to plant a filed of crane melon and hales best jumbo. Oh and my minnesota midgets all came up nicely.
I am going to use black plastic boxes drippers and mulch on my sweets. I need a nice crop this year.

Amy, I know it may seem ridculous to some people to spend money on Sacrificial Early Tomatoes, but I don't care....those early tomatoes make our hearts sing. I'm happy with one or two SETs. Tim, were it up to him, would probably have a dozen of them, but he isn't the one carrying them outside and inside daily to avoid the cold nights. He could eat BOLT sandwiches every day forever and forever. I can make a perfectly good dinner, all nice and yummy and made from scratch and he's happy. Or, I can throw together Bacon, Onion, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches at the absolute last minute and he's happy. Yesterday we had Steelback Trout. Today it is going to be BLTs. He'll be just as delighted with BLTs as he was with the trout.

Is there a way to rabbit proof the whole yard? It seems like that would solve the non-poulty part of your gardening issues. I wonder if y'all could run a strand of electric fencing down low enough to keep rabbits from coming underneath the fence? I assume that is how they're getting in. If they are coming between the fence and the gate, then that's a harder problem to solve. I don't think our 8' fence would thwart a cougar, but I haven't had a cougar encounter in so long that I'm okay with that. If the cougar thing started happening again, I don't even know what I would do. It was so stressful last time and I don't think I could go through that again. I haven't even heard one in ages (and I'm okay with that too).

Our chickens do that Keystone Cops chase sequence every single time one of them has something good like a grasshopper or whatever. It is quite entertaining and sometimes it goes on all day long.

Kim, I've been there, done that with the old farmer guys and their negativity, but you already know that. You can outlast them. You certainly will outlive them. (grin) Someday you'll be gardening without them yakking at you, telling you what you're doing wrong (because, you know, you aren't doing it their way) and you'll realize how calm and peaceful and quiet it is.

So, which weekend is the first market and is it in Lubbock? What do you think you'll have ready to take? I hope you will have enough that it will make it worth your while to go. Do some people there sell non-produce stuff like fresh eggs, honey and the like? Homemade soap? Maybe from goat's milk? I'm brainstorming to come up with things you could raise that might be less labor intensive than fresh produce, something that could supplement the produce income without adding too much to your workload.

I'm shocked that the Korean summer squash had such poor germination. I have a ton of melons growing too, and just in time because their favorite weather apparently has arrived. I think that the melons I have growing are all the usual icebox types. I've got seed for....what the heck.....I cannot remember the name of it---the yellowish/orange-meated drought-tolerant watermelon....hang on, I'll think of it.....Desert King. Have you grown it? Once it sprouts, it doesn't stop growing no matter how little rain you have and its rind doesn't sunburn. I haven't grown it in a few years, but we bought a locally-grown Desert King last year at Fischer's Meat Market & Grocery Store and I saved seeds from it. I also have Crane growing and another one I think is Crane, but I saved its seed from a melon grown by a friend and so this year, until it grows out beside Crane and I'm sure it is Crane, I'm just calling it Charle's Melon after the friend who gave it to us. I'm pretty sure it also is Crane, but I want to be sure before I just start calling it Crane.

Often, the cool-season crops are hanging on and hanging on and I'm having to shove them out of the way in order to get the hot-season stuff in the ground. That's not a problem this year....the heat is pushing and shoving what's left of the cool-season crops in our garden and telling them to move on because summer is here. I don't have a whole lot of hot season crops left to plant...mostly just various kinds of southern peas, including Red Ripper and Yellow Ripper, because I always plant succession crops of southern peas all summer long since they're one of my favorites.

I'm predicting I'll be canning the first jars of Annie's Salsa sometime during the first week in June as it all is coming together---tomatoes are ripening in increasing loads and soon we'll reach the point where we cannot eat them all fresh, the green bell peppers are sizing up quickly, jalapenos are ready and more are sizing up every day, the garlic leaves are indicating it is time to dig (so early!) and the onions are soft-necking and falling over (only 3 varieties out of 9 so far). Often, most of the ingredients are ready but they all are not, but this year they're all going to be ready together.

I am worried about what this wicked heat will do to the dill, but there's nothing I can do about it if the dill decides it is done. The heat is here. It won't stay. I think we cool off again in a few days, but to the plants, that is largely irrelevant. They are responding to what is here now.

And, the Min-Max thermometer at our house just rolled over to 100. I don't think that's a cause for celebration.

Dawn

Okay.....blond confession. I always pull a few weeds here and there when I am working in the garden. So yesterday I am moving drip line and pulling grass in the squash area all is well until today when I notice a tag that says broom corn. WOW thankfully I did not have time to pull all the "grass".

Well I am doing somethings new at market this year. One I am selling famous pepper seeders my local friend makes for a split on the sale. And I am making something called a botanical wax sachet. Made from my stuff in my yard. I abhor detest and can't stand artificial fragrance. An encourager of mine said good things come out of our frustration. So when I saw these I knew I had to make them and encourage people to buy real organic fragrant pretties. They sell 2/20 but I will not be charging that much. June 3rd is the big day. For produce I have spring mix salad, baby greens for cooking, onions, beets, baby carrots, radishes, herbs and that's it.

You could get a regular business going on these gems, Kim! I must have some! Of course would rather give you the business. . . . my DIL will go crazy over them, too.

Kim, I always bend and pull weeds when I see them while walking down a path, but they still seem to pop up in new places almost overnight and I'll say "I know that wasn't there when I walked down this path yesterday". It sort of drives me crazy because if I don't get them early in the season, then that's just more of a mess for snakes to hide in, and once it is snakey enough, I can't weed.

I'm glad to hear the broom corn lived to see another day.

I think your first market offering sounds great---it would be easy for some of us to forget how much further west y'all are and how hard it is to have a lot ready by early June when you had freezing/near-freezing temperatures (and snow nearby) just a couple of weeks ago. I love the botanical wax sachets and bet they will sell well. I don't use artificial wax burners or any sort of candles made of artificial ingredients in our house either, but like to boil real potpourri in a pot on the stove. Mine usually just consists of whatever fruit peels (especially apple, orange, lemon, etc.) I remember to toss in a zip lock bag in the freezer plus maybe some spices like a cinnamon stick or something.

Nancy, They do look cool, do they not? It is too bad Lubbock is so far away.

Dawn

Just popping in with a few pictures.

Love the pictures.

Ha! They all look awesome, Rebecca--and you grow good cats, too! He? She? Cute! And cute white whiskers! I've only had two cats in the past 36 years. The first was Kitty, a cute little tuxedo cat; she died at 22, and now Daff, who is 14. I love Asiatic lilies but the deer seem to like them even more than they do day lilies. I have two but one's in a container and I put the other one right next to the deck this year after the deer promptly broke into the center bed last year and ate them to the ground.

I just went to get Kitty's picture. . .must have misplaced it temporarily, but look what I found instead--my granddaughter Evyn, who will be 17 in June.

Did you all get a lot done today? This was our first humid hot day. I think it maxed out at 97. It zapped me good. Glad I mowed yesterday. Got hardly anything done. Fertilizer out on everything, half a dozen cabbage worms obliterated, one (count 'em, ONE) bag of cypress mulch out), and nearly had heat stroke with just that. I best get acclimated quickly; can't spend the summer sitting in my chair. Now I know what you were talking about melting while outside, Dawn!

Famous pepper seeder, Kim?? What do they look like?

Did you ever get your DH into the doc, Amy? It would be SO awesome to have an 8' fence around our place. . . . never would happen, but man oh man would it be nice.

Plants and flowers: growing. That's about all the news. Grow faster you all!

George, Garry shoots a squirrel every day. One every morning, almost. After having them create a big mess in the shop ceiling that did it. Two years ago, I didn't like killing them, unless we ate them. Yes, me, this northern transplant. LOL So we did that about four times before I temporarily put that on hold (until now, maybe forever). Actually they tasted fine, once one got past the rodent factor, but there were so many little bones! Any of the rest of you tried cooking squirrel? :)

Beautiful, Rebecca, love the lilies!

Kim, I was surprised at the poor germination on the Korean squash, I think all mine germinated. what temps did you have after planting? Those sachets look lovely.

Cute grand daughter, Nancy. They grow up too fast.

Took DH to minor emergency. He got x-rays and pain pills. Ortho appointment Tues. Had to do it on a holiday weekend. He is so much better at being nurse than I am, and he's had lot's of practice. He is NOT a good patient. He won't sit down and let me do things. Nothing else happened today except collecting eggs.

I will look for a pic of my cat.

Miss Priss (she answers to Cat, she's had several names in her life, including Nameless), she took over the new dog bed, and neither dog would challenge her.

Love the photos. We've had several tuxedo cats over the decades.

The heat drove me indoors by 11 a.m. so I didn't feel like I accomplished a whole lot, but I removed the lower foliage off the tomato plants in the first bed to facilitate better air flow and hopefully help keep the plants disease-free longer, and then I sprayed them with Daconil. I do not prune early in the season as I want as many leaves as possible to be there on the plants to fuel photosynthesis and help the plants set a good load of fruit. However, once the plants are carrying a full load of fruit, I try to get that bottom foliage out of there because there's where diseases begin....and climb upward on the plants. I noticed the mulch beneath these plants is getting thin and need to add more to it to prevent soil splash. Actually, I had intended to spend the afternoon mowing and mulching, but the heat changed my mind. My sprayer, which I rarely use and don't much like, kept acting up and it took me forever to get it to work properly and to get the spraying done. I didn't get the other big bed of tomato plants done, but may manage to get it done tomorrow morning before the rain arrives in the afternoon.

I harvested more onions as they soft-necked and fell over, so now the first onion bed is about half-empty, the onions pulled so far are curing upstairs in the spare bedroom, and I plugged Saffron yellow squash plants into the open areas of the onion bed. By the time the small seedlings are enlarging and needing space, all the onions will be out of that bed. So far the onion sizes are not uniform at all---everything from tennis ball sized to softball sized, but we'll eat and enjoy every one of them. I've never had to cure onions indoors, but the chickens discovered last year that they love onions (after never, ever bothering them before), so it seemed like a good idea to cure them out of the reach of the poultry.

We set a record with our 100-degree day (not a record we wanted, lol) but it really was the humidity that made it feel even worse---the heat index topped out at 105. Even now, at almost 11 pm, it still is 82 degrees and, when I checked a few minutes ago, the heat index was 86. Honestly, that's just ridiculous for May. I don't think we're expected to cool down much more overnight. It must be going to be one of those weekends....the ones where your plans fall apart....because Tim spent the whole evening out at two back-to-back fires before he ever actually made it home from work.

I was working in the garden when Chris got home from the gym and he came out to the garden to fetch me and drag me indoors because it was so hot. He does this fairly often on the days he doesn't work. He and Tim both know I'll stay out too long if I'm focusing on getting something done, so both of them are good at persuading me to come indoors to cool down. Often, it feels so good inside that I do not go back out. That was what happened today.

Considering that we have 10 acres of woodland filled with oaks, hickories and pecans to feed the squirrels, they don't cause us much trouble in the garden and we've never had them get into the attic (as far as I know). However, Tim and Chris would have no problem shooting the pesky things if they turned into a problem. I'm not gonna cook 'em or eat 'em though. Nancy, if you're ever so inclined I have a good recipe for roast possum (I'm not gonna cook and eat one either, but the recipe is tasty and can be made substituting pork for possum, lol).

I need to get some sleep so I can be up and out early tomorrow to beat the heat.

Y'all watch the weather---it could be particularly nasty east of I35 tomorrow, and we're not far enough west of I35 that I feel like we're out of the woods down here either.

Dawn

LOL. I draw the line at possum. (And probably am over the squirrel-cooking, too.) Thanks for tomato tip. I was just wondering about that today, taking off some of the lower branches. Will get to it!

I will try to get some sachets done this weekend and post pictures. I am excited to use my herbs and flowers in a more permanent way. So far I only ordered lemon oil. I like a nice summery fragrance. After I get a couple of markets down I will order more scents. I have lots of stuff ready to do it but forgot molds. So I think a muffin tin will work. Have to go to the thrift shop and see if they have one in the morning.

I planted the squash and cucumbers and chard and melons the same day. Same amount of water. Just weird that's what. It's because I wanted it too much. Or the birds did. Something got a lot of my sunflower seeds too. Good thing I had 100 of those. My fallen onions and bolted onions are coming out and I will put cardboard down to get ready for my sweet potatoes.

I agree, Kim! I love my herbs so much. . . need to use them more for everything. And am so excited to have things like nicotiana and the brugmansia and other good smelling stuff! I tried growing some sweet peas. . . I'm guessing that can be quite a challenge down here. Unfortunately, they're just now beginning to bloom, and of course now it's gonna get hot. But I at least found out I can do it, so will try it again. Hmmm. Bet they might do well in the fall. . . they're a sweet reminder and remembrance of my wonderful grandpa and grandma. And also perhaps my very favorite wonderful flower smell. Like what heaven must smell like! :) But to capture that in a wax sachet. . . . Wow.

I love the lemon smell, too. . . . maybe a use for lemon balm? hmmm, maybe I'll check into all this a bit more, how to use herbs. . . GDW was very proud of himself a couple days ago. He told me he walked out and toward the end of the deck/porch and said he smelled. . herbs! And they smelled quite good! Wow, he's coming right along, don't you think? heh heh..... he has been conscientiously watching over his fruit trees. I spotted a bit of rust on one of the apple trees, mentioned it to him, and he said he noticed it too and was going to ask me about it. So we'll get it taken care of.

Speaking of bacterial stuff. . . have any of you every used a hydrogen peroxide/water treatment? I used it on the hydrangeas the first two years, cutting off the affected leaves, and it cleared things right up. I have to spray the bee balm, seeng that pesky mildew. What do you all use on bacterial stuff. And Dawn, did not enjoy hearing about spider mites! Aggh. Haven't see any yet in 3 years, but I suppose they'll show up.

The cat is Audrey. She's was a rescue kitten from the Sapulpa animal shelter. One tough little cookie, excellent mouser, thinks she rules the house, loves neck skritches, duck pate, running Indy car laps around the house, and her stuffed mouse toy. Currently under the covers wrapped around my feet asleep.

I'm thinking about my carrots and beets. Is everyone else's still growing? Some of mine are starting to beet/carrot up, some aren't. I do know that some aren't thinned as well, but I thought the ones with space would be a bit bigger. The beets are Detroit Dark Red and the carrots are a chantenay type. They were sown mid-March. Biggest beets are maybe quarter sized, carrots about nickel sized, but I can't see how long. Might have to sacrifice one and see.

And how come I can only get sunflowers if I wintersow them, but my neighbor just has to hang up a bird feeder and he's moving seedlings around all spring?

Sugar snaps are still producing, but not sure how much longer. The slugs seem to like them, and fungus. I'm going to give them time, then yank them and plant green beans, and I'm sure I'll plant more this fall, after the cucumbers taper off. I'd better have the permanent trellis area done soon, then.

Duck pate! What a prima donna! She has a VERY special human in HER life! LOLOL Hmmm. Maybe I'll let Daff try it, Daffy thinks she died and went to heaven when I open a can of tuna. But by the third day of it, her body rejects it. We had canned salmon patties a couple days ago and she liked that a lot, too. Otherwise she is totally uninterested in human food. I'll try duck pate, but bettong she won't think it's great. Kitty was a pet shop cat. Five weeks old, totally unsocialized, like a feral cat. In her lifetime of 22 yrs only ever bonded with my son Wade and me. Took her a year or so for her to even bond with me, but once she did, one of the best friends I've ever had. And she loved adventures and learning. LOVED riding in cars! Daff was a feral kitty, too, and I got her, ratty and dirty and full of fleas and worms. . . and again, another really good friend. She's mellower than Kitty was. Kitty was a crazy funny character. Daff's just easy to get along with and LOVES being outside, but never wanders. She's like me in that regard.

Learning a great deal about gardening in this place from y'all, as usual. From what i read above, if my onions are bulking above the soil and tops are flopping over, this is an indication that they've grown as much as they're probably going to?

"...if my onions are bulking above the soil and tops are flopping over, this
is an indication that they've grown as much as they're probably going
to?"

Yes. That's what it means.

Folks, I have cooked and eaten squirrel many times. Recently taught a nephew how to do it, as that was something on his bucket list. But I don't do it that often anymore. I'm too busy to mess with it. Still, if I shoot a nice big, fat squirrel, I might well process it. I hate to waste. Possum's alright. But since coming to Oklahoma, I haven't processed one. We raise plenty of our own meat and the larger animals tend to be more time/cost effective.

I caught and killed a small possum in the milk shed last night. They want to make holes in the walls and mess with my bee keeping equipment. He was quite small. He will be fertilizer under a hill of squash!

George

George--I braised the squirrel slowly in a rich mushroom/onion/wine gravy. . . but the ones I used were pretty small, so, yes, lots of work. . . we had lots of possums when I first got here, but then got Titan and he HATES possums, so generally made life unpleasant for them here. They had some very noisy face-offs. Haven't seen any yet this year.

This is a picture of the jalapeno seeders. The handle comes out and is a blade of sorts to scrape the seeds and pulp out of any type of pepper

. My friend is an amazing potter and has a studio on mainstreet in Quitaque. She sells her pottery at specialty shops all over the place. I am priveleged to be able to carry her seeders at my booth

Those are very cool! I hope you sell hundreds and hundreds of them, as well as the botanic wax sachets. Let us know when you get some sachets done?

Goodness, I finally caught up with all the posts. Haven't been on in a week and a half due to getting painting done inside the house. I think I am about finally done, thankfully, and can pour myself back into the garden.

Thursday I did create 3 more raised beds but I stayed out a bit too long and got sunburned. My shoulders still ache and honestly, I knew I was getting burnt but I could not stop till I was finished. Now to fill it up!! My cucumbers still weren't greening up after all the rain we got so I threw some more seed in the ground. If it makes it great, if not then at least I tried for more. Although, they sprouted within 2 days so here's hoping for a bumper harvest so I can can some pickles. My peppers are so pitiful that I am thinking about going to a local greenhouse and buying some from there.

My garden is just not thriving yet and it's got me a bit disappointed. I keep telling myself it's ok, but darn it I want to be harvesting now. Honestly, I feel like a gardening failure this year, lol.

I didn't realize just how much rain we'd received till I picked up the pool cover and peeked inside. It was a bit over halfway full and we had drained it to a little over 1/4 full. Crazy, huh?!?

I did get some organic stuff to feed the garden with. How often do ya'll feed? Once a week, every other week?

Have a happy Memorial Day, my fellow gardeners!!!

Rebecca, I get bigger and better beets and carrots in Autumn than in Spring because we just get too hot too early down here. This year is an example of that. Yours may have suffered from a bit too much rainfall which can clog their roots and interfere in proper nutrient uptake, which then results in slower growth.

The sunflower seeds won't grow because they know you want them to grow. You have to treat them roughly and ignore them and then they'll sprout, particularly where you don't want them. You probably could get them to grow by soaking them in water for 2-4 hours, then wrapping them in a coffee filter or paper towel, and then putting them in a ziplock bag and set it out in the open where you'll see it and remember to check it every morning and every night. Check it often, and plant them the day they are showing sprouts. If cutworms or crows don't get the sprouts, you'll have sunflowers in no time.

Kim, More and more onions are flopping over every day and so I harvest them and bring them in. I have some curing in the shade at the west end of the garden right now but I'll need to bring them indoors before the rain (if we get any) arrives later tonight. The potatoes seem to be right behind them. Often, the majority of the potato and onion harvest happen in June, but I'm not complaining. A harvest is a harvest is a harvest, and an early harvest tastes just as good as a late one. My garlic is ready to dig but I didn't get it done today. Maybe tomorrow.

I haven't used hydrogen peroxide on plants but some people do. There is very, very, very little that I'll spray on plants ever. I'm about as anti-spraying as a person can be, and it doesn't matter that much to me if it is a product that is synthetic or organic in origin---I don't like spraying if I can avoid it. We get hot so early, and many plants suffer damaged foliage when sprayed at temperatures of 90 and above, so we're already sort of hitting the danger zone even if I liked spraying stuff and wanted to spray.

For the record, the heat is attacking us again today and I'm already tired of it---our high temperature is lower than yesterday (only have hit 97 as a max temperature so far but with a max heat index of 110, so it feels worse than yesterday). I have the sprinkler on for the poultry to play in, and they and the wild birds are having a big lawn party out there in the shade. So, even if I loved to spray whatever on our plants, I wouldn't be doing it in this weather....except maybe for compost tea, liquid seaweed, liquid fish emulstion or Garrett Juice. Those do not damage the foliage. However, liquid fish attracts cats....all cats, including bobcats, and also coons. I live in a zoo.

Nancy, You may never have issues with spider mites. They are a big problem on heat-stressed and drought-stressed plants, and especially in low humidity situations. You may generally have enough moisture and enough humidity to keep them in check. Down here, I generally do not. There are various solutions, most of which involve spraying the undersides of the foliage (which is where they reside) with something, and it is impossibly hard to spray the undersides of tomato foliage with all the dense growth. In general, while I see tons of spider mite damage, I generally just ignore them. The plants keep growing, they keep producing, and eventually we reach a point where the spider mite predators (which include predatory mites, which seems like justice to me) start wiping them out. It can take a couple of months, though, for the predatory mites and other beneficial insects to wipe them out. I rarely lose a tomato or pepper plant to one, though they can be very hard on bean plants in hot, dry weather. Spraying the undersides of foliage with Garrett Juice, compost tea, liquid seaweed or fish emulsion may not kill the mites but it seems to have some effect on them and slows down the amount of damage I see.

So, I don't freak out over spider mites. I'm never happy to see them, and I don't want to do anything that attracts them, but I can ignore them and the ugly stippling on the leaves pretty well and just carry on as usual. Now, if we had tomato russett mites, I'd be more upset., but we usually do not.

George, We generally just tolerate possums. Really, I am kind of fond of them as long as they aren't invading buildings, in which case you've got to do what you've got to do. Since they kill venomous snakes, I'd like to have a gazillion of them. Instead we tend to just get one or two here or there every now and then. We had one coming around looking for food every night for a couple of months, but I haven't seen it in several weeks now. Maybe it just wasn't finding enough on the compost pile because the chickens were getting there first.

Kim, I like those jalapeno seeders!

Melissa, I have had a half-painted breakfast room for so long that now it seems normal. I need to get the second/final coat of paint on the wall and ceiling and declare it finished. Maybe tomorrow or the next day. It is hard for me to stay indoors and work on stuff when my heart wants to be outdoors. So, the heat is helping....because I don't want to be outdoors now. So, good for you for staying indoors and getting the painting done even when you'd rather be elsewhere. I don't have that sort of discipline.

Sunscreen is your friend!

Please don't fret too much about the garden. You only have 24 hours per day to get stuff done, and you've got the kids who need your attenton, the new house that you're still getting painted and floored to suit y'all, your MIL's illness and such, and it has got to be hard to find time to garden with all that going on. Things will settle down, you'll finish the in-house projects, your MIL will finish her treatment, and eventually you'll have the yard and garden you want---it just takes time. You are not a failure. You're an extra-busy person this year is all. I know that you'll keep working away at it until you have the garden and yard that suits you and that works with the soil, available sunlight, etc. that you have there. Starting over in a new (to you) place is hard and demands a ton of time, soil amending, bed building, etc.

There's no easy answer to the question of how often to feed. It would depend on your soil fertility, the availability of a soil microherd of bacteria, etc., to break down the organic fertilizer and make it available to the plant roots, etc. It even depends on rainfall. It also depends on what specific organic fertilizer you're using. I fertlize when plants look hungry---you'll recognize the signs: off color that is too pale, slow growth, failure to thrive, etc. When you see those signs, feed the plants. It isn't something you do by schedule or calendar---you just feed when they need it. Once you know how often they need it, you'll be able to sort of establish a routine. If you've had lots of rain, they likely do need to be fed as constant or heavy rainfall can wash nutrients out of the root zone or can clog up the roots with water so that they cannot take up the nutrients. As long as you're using organic fertilizers, which tend to have fairly low N-P-K numbers, you probably cannot overfeed them...or, at least, you'd have to try pretty hard to overfeed them. Different plants have different nutrient needs too. Fruiting plants like tomatoes, squash and peppers need feeding more often than leafy crops because of the large load of fruit they carry.

I hope everyone has a sweet and meaningful Memorial Day weekend. It is so easy for us to get caught up in it being sort of the unofficial start of summer, but I try to focus on the fact that we are honoring those who've given their lives for our country. When I was a kid, everyone used to go to the cemetaries and put flags and flowers on the graves of all the servicemen and servicewomen who gave their lives for our country. I wonder if people still do that nowadays? During the Memorial Day holiday, we always have red poppies in bloom....like the fields of Flanders poppies....and I like that. When we first moved here, all the old soliders used to stop and take photos of the poppies and pick some to take home, etc., and I was glad the old guys got such pleasure from the poppies. Most of those guys are long gone now, but the poppies reseed every year and carry on. That's one of my favorite things about the poppies.

Stay safe from the wicked weather expected later today. I cringe every time the NWS says "large to giant hail". I'd rather endure just about any other weather thing than giant hail. Of course, I'm pretty sure if tennis ball, baseball, softball or grapefruit sized hail ever falls here, we'll have a lot more to worry about than plant damage.

Dawn

Nancy, to be fair, she gets cat food duck pate, but sheesh, she's eating duck while I eat hamburger. Spoiled brat.

Dawn, I definitely plan on a bigger fall crop of carrots and beets, but I wanted to see what I could do in the spring. I guess I have my answer, then, and it's time to pull whatever is there?

I'm eating soup from the freezer, potato chips, and watching the Official State TV Show of Oklahoma - severe weather coverage.

Got your Bingo card?

Where are the clouds???? Good Bingo card.

Rebecca, I'm watching the same type of show, though surely on a different channel. Our local CBS affilialte has a local chaser on a tornado warned cell near (about 5 miles west) Ravia (Johnston County). NO confirmed tornado on the ground so we just watch and wait and wait and watch. I've been watching this cell forever since it popped up in/near the NW corner of our county and we've just been watching it move from one county to another, occasionally dropping hail or showing rotation. I feel bad for anyone who's getting hit by this thunderstorm and its' possible tornado, while simultaneously being relieved it isn't near us.

I've been watching the storms in your part of the state and MO as well.

Our best chance of severe weather down here actually is after 1 a.m. I hope it isn't going to be a sleepless night. Well, Tim sleeps unless the weather radio's alarm goes off. I toss and turn and check the radar on my cell phone every hour or so.

At least the air temperature finally has dropped below 90 and the heat index now is below 100. We'll take whatever little bits of heat relief we get, even if they come with hail, strong wind, tornadoes, derechoes, whatever.....

Today the squirrels, the wild birds and the poultry all played together in the sprinkler, which I set up underneath some tall shade trees for them. They romped in its mist and made all sorts of happy sounds. Then I fed them some summer squash and zukes to get moisture into them. I grow tons on purpose so we have pleny to share with our poultry and their wild friends. A hot day around here turns into a mini-amusement-park type day for the poultry.

More storms are popping up and more hail. Gonna be a long night.

With the heat setting in, maybe this weekend will be our last white-knuckle weather-watching experience for a while.

Nancy, Now we need a Garden Bingo Card to go with the weather one.

Dawn

We do need a gardening one, too. Yes, I'm watching radar. . . I agree; it could be a long night.

I just looked at the national radar for a while. Wow. Gardens are going to be taking a pounding all the way from here to the Atlantic coast. Hopefully people and their pets are weather aware and sheltering as storms move through their areas. I feel like we are obsessed with weather here sometimes, but hey, we're in Oklahoma where the weather seems to do its best to make gardening challenging so it is an obsession I understand.

Time to buckle up and hang on around here.

Since nothing is happening here, I'm watching the radar for all of you and hoping and praying you stay safe and your homes and gardens are not damaged. It looks like it is going to be a wild ride for hours yet.

I'm going to go start a check-in thread for everyone to check in tomorrow morning or whenever your storms end tonight...or tomorrow...or whenever.

Why thank you, Mighty neighborly of you, I hope the same for everyone. . . be safe.

Boy, Kansas and Missouri have gotten hammered the past month, haven't they?! And Arkansas, and and. . .

I got so much done today! Worked for an hour rested for 30 min, all day. Had so much energy compared to none yesterday. I went to town on the lower tomato branches as you suggested, Dawn. . . lot of unnecessary undergrowth and yellowed leaves. That was awesome. I got a bunch of stuff fertilized, a lot of Bermuda grass weeding done, added much needed mulch here and there. . . I cannot believe how much everything is growing with the warm weather. The peppers especially are coming alive and are beginning to look good with lots of little blossoms and tiny peppers. Some of the tomato plants are LOADED, and most all have at least some. It's comical and fun that I have them scattered all over in various beds. As well as cabbages and to some extent broccoli. I don't hold out a lot of hope for the broccoli. One head. I think the rest don't have time to finish. No matter. Impatiently waiting for everything, from onions, potatoes, peppers and tomatoes, to flowers, which are most all developing flowers. . . it's like waiting for Christmas!

Rebecca, is it done there? How are the rest of you?

Cheers to you all, blessings.

It split right here, like the Red Sea again for the moment. We'll see. . . I'm waiting to hear from relatives and the rest of you. . .

A little rain here, and some noise. Hail and much heavier rain missed me by about a mile.

Crazy storms here and there. , . . I think I'm gonna give up. What happens happens! LOL Glad they missed you for now, Rebecca.

When I harvested beans yesterday, I suddenly realized there were no flowers. Blossom drop from the heat? They are bush beans, are they done? I got almost another pound of pink pods and about half a pound of Contender.

I had lots of energy yesterday, too, Nancy. I spent it doing things inside, which really needed to be done. The heat and humidity about did me in when I picked beans. Brought in the last of the salad turnips.

Glad those who've posted escaped damage last night.

Should I harvest my beets and carrots? 2 of the carrots from the batch planted first were bolting. Little bitty PALE carrots. The ones planted there were supposed to be red and black, the BC India varieties, which are supposed to be heat tolerant. Maybe it got too cold for them early on. I'm pretty sure there were no actual freezes after they were planted, but we did have those days when it was close.

We are currently freezing 4 pounds of green beans. I was going to pressure can them, and then and then realized I never ordered the canning burner for this stove. We bought it last year and the burners are so cheap and flimsy I've been afraid to put a canner on them. DH says "Isn't that why we bought the outdoor propane burners?" Uh, no, you THOUGHT I would can outside. It is NEVER going to happen, because a) I can barely lift a canner full of water from sink to stove, let alone outside b) I fall a lot and carrying all that stuff out the door and down 3 steps is a recipe for disaster c) it is windy and you have to keep a pressure canner at constant temperature d) it's hot out there e) I DON'T WANT TO. I know people can outside, on propane burners (with windscreens) but they are much tougher than I.

Amy, With the carrots it might have been the heat. I don't know if I'd harvest the whole crop based on 2 bolting, but if more start to bolt, I probably would.

It could have been blossom drop if y'all got hot enough. It also could have been that they stopped blooming because they already were holding/maturing all the beans they could. I wouldn't give up on them yet, primarily because our temperatures this week are so much better than they might blossom again and form more beans.

Sometimes bush beans produce all their crop in a fairly compact time frame---maybe over about 3 weeks. Sometimes it is spread out over a much longer period. What I have found works well is that after I've harvested a lot and the plants seem tired and not really ready to produce more blooms and beans is that if I take scissors and prune off the top half of the plant, that kicks the beans back into a vegetative cycle. They regrow and go back to blooming and setting beans again, and sometimes they do it even when the weather is fairly warm.

I don't want to can outdoors either. The heat is bad enough in the kitchen with the AC running. There's no way I want to do it outdoors with the kind of heat that is common here in canning season.

Dawn

I laughed so hard about you canning outdoors on the propane burners, Amy. Had to read that one to GDW. We both got a good laugh. Thank you! :) GDW says, "And the bottom line is, 'I DON"T WANT TO!;" I must say, the first two were enough to convince me I wouldn't be doing that.

Maybe my mode of gardening is work really hard one day, do nothing the next, as I am exhausted tonight. I will be in bed by 12:30, which is a reasonable time for me. Up early for church. . . then into dirty jeans (I swear I could stand these jeans up at the end of every day and they'd stand on their own, and still, I insist on wearing them at LEAST two days of heavy yard work and sometimes 3). I feel like a bit of a degenerate cooking dinner in my filthy jeans and T shirts, but I do, honest, wash my face and hands and arms first. Just call me Pigpen. When GDW and I first reconnected 3 yrs ago in August, I looked just like this, as I was slaving all week in jeans moving my Mom into assisted living in Buffalo Wy. But the next time he saw me a month later, he visited me at my "contemporary" condo in Mpls, and I was in dress uniform, hair fixed, a minor bit of make-up, semi-dressy slacks and tops, nails done.. He must have been scared to death wondering who in the heck I was. My condo (that I had just moved into 4 months earlier) was a very cool contemporary eclectic mix, with off-white carpeting, and wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling paintings (of mine) ranging from small to large, mostly abstract. His jaw dropped, and I laughed pretty hard. . . I think at first he was pretty sure he'd made a terrible mistake. . . that I wasn't who he thought I was or who he remembered. (But I knew he was wrong, and have since proven it. LOL) Ahh. But I DID bring my wonderful bamboo floor lamp and Oriental writing desk and very cool custom couch (that I bought on Craigs list for $200) and wonderful large framed print sumi ink black stallion for my new home here, AND ALL my quilting fabric (which was one round trip for him before I moved, hauling back many boxes of fabric in the truck) AND all the painting supplies and classical music CDs! And the severely pruned collection of books.

And now I'm Pigpen, and am quite comfortable and happy, happy as a pig rolling in mud. And he is mightily relieved, as you can imagine. I don't cost him much. No nails done, no expensive hair appointments, no clothes, prefer home cooking (and he prefers my home cooking). Work like a son-of-a-gun in the yard, don't ask him for help but if he offers I accept. I'm a cheap date and good bargain. And I'm even "kind of religious," to boot. He told me a couple months into our reunion, in the interest of full disclosure, "Umm, I have to tell you I'm kind of religious." I laughed, surprised and delighted, and said, "Ha! Well, I'll tell ya, I'm kinda religious, too."

So now a friend just dumped 3 bags of sand plums on me at church this morning. And I've got to deal with those on Tuesday. Need to go to town to get some small jars. AGGHH. I really have no idea how you all do all the stuff you do! I love growing the stuff. But canning? OMG. Freezing, no prob. (I see a new freezer in our near future.) Onions, potatoes, good to go. Tomatoes, peppers, no problem. I can do those. Sauerkraut. . . okay. Pickles........... now sand plums, and GDW has visions of apple butter and pear stuff. The lady who brought me the sand plums has a bachelor/widowed? neighbor who is a jam and jelly, pickle-canning freak, and has all these wonderful exotic specialties. I told GDW tonight that he could do that; after all, he concocts the hummingbird nectar with great precision every 3-4 days. Know what? He didn't tell me I was crazy. He said well maybe he could do that if he didn't get the stuff cloudy.. . . .. . oh my gosh.........

Gotta get the tomatoes staked up better tomorrow, finish clearing and enlarging this enormous southeast "bee balm/cleome/daisy/coreopsis" back bed, relocating many flowers and herbs that heretofore were IDKs or inappropriate for their locations, and do the laundry. . . and if time, to mulch mulch mulch.

GDW is on a rock border mission. He confessed to me today that where our utility easement "alley" is, he'd long thought of digging up rocks there so he could mow it instead of tediously weed whip it. But it's hard work. . . . to state it mildly; and he didn't know what he'd do with any reasonably sized rocks he might run into, so he never did anything about it. But now he realized he could make rock borders around all my beds, so that's what he's tackling--and I'm here to tell you all it's a heroic mission. And I'm astonished at the difference it makes with the beds. It makes them look "finished," like they actually are a plan (which they never were!). I spent 5 hours today with my best loved new tool for decimating Bermuda grass, the hori-hori (tedious, yes, but ever so effective). digging it out of an area about 8x10 feet. Meanwhile, GDW had uncovered at least a dozen 20-60 lb rocks from his utility easement alley. And so it goes with our chores. I do all the little doo-dad stuff, while he's out performing miracles.

I do laundry and vacuum, and meanwhile he has put in new shocks on the truck. It doesn't seem fair that I do all this little insignificant stuff (which to me is nothing) while he's performing miracles, but it's working out so NICE.

Well I've rattled on far too long. . . and how little of it had to do with gardening. I was so overwhelmed with all the "little" things I have to do out in the gardens tonight that I told him just to take all the rocks away, plow it under and let it go to the weed lawn again. And we both laughed, knowing that's not gonna happen.

Kim. . . thinking of you. . . my pioneer woman. BTW, found your friend on the internet, who does the pepper seeders. . . wonderful reading about her. Would love to get a couple pepper seeders and your sachets when you get them ready.

You are too sweet Nancy. Pioneer woman is a little uh refined for what I am lol. City girl gone rednek is more what I think. I so desire to be in a home with working facilities and a wide open kitchen.

Melinda is the sweetest lady. Very talented and her husband is a jewel too. They have the most unique home here and have a great studio. I love to visit and see what she's working on. Pottery is my secret passion. Someday. It should be interesting adding her seeders to my booth with all the peppers I grow. This year I have 7 kinds I think. Gotta work on my display today and my sachets. My friend is saving me # 10 cans to use, all mine are rusty. So many things to do this week my mind is running 90 mph.

I finally got the perennial cage cleaned out and herbs planted. I had mallow, parsley x2, savory, cilantro, dill, sage and I still have lots of room left. It is going to be a pretty oasis in the middle of the garden to hang out. I planted Malabar and purple pole beans around the perimeter.

The other day a customer came by to get aloe and offered me 20 for my borage. Shocked I said "you seriously think I would sell my girls food, it's their favorite" It is as big as 3 tires stacked. No way I would dig that to sell knowing it would just die.

Apricots are falling fast. I will have to freeze what I get for little man. The neighbor has 3 different types of apricots they come off in succession so we have apricot for weeks here. That is the best way to have fruit.

Little man will be here the 4th for a week then the 23 to July 27 !!! Oh the fun we have in the garden. It is the best time of the year.

Did I tell yall my helper has allergies. Well yes and she feels much better staying indoors so I am without help for a while. It's OK. I love what I do and next year I will just do it more manageable.

Kim

Nancy, There are lots of people who can outdoors for various reasons, and some of them post regularly at the Harvest Forum, but their summers likely are not as insanely hot as ours. I haven't even started canning yet and we've already hit high temperatures of 100 with heat index numbers as high as 110. If I even wanted to can outdoors (and I don't) and I went outside to can in that sort of heat, Tim and Chris would be out there dragging me indoors and suggesting I might need a psychiatric evaluation.....and I'd likely agree with them.

I relate to the Pigpen description. My standard gardening uniform has become super-large men's white T-shirts (I usually by 2XL) worn over whatever jeans, capris or shorts I feel like wearing that day. Of course the white t-shirts are filthy by the end of the day and they pile up in the laundry hamper all week until I get enough whites for a load, but a little bleach restores them to their whiteness again (more or less). Before that I ruined every t-shirt I had with clay stains, grass stains, tomato stains, etc. and had nothing decent to wear in public. I like the white T-shirts really large so that when I bend over to work, I don't have a shirt ride up and leave a little sliver of my back exposed at my waistline to burn while weeding. Been there, done that. Sometimes I change into a clean shirt before cooking and sometimes I don't, but like you, I wash the garden filth off my body really well before meal preparation commences. I don't even want to discuss how dirty the knees of jeans and capris can get from gardening. Yesterday we ran to Home Depot to purchase 1 little thing and it wasn't until we were on our way home that I looked down at my pants' brown knees and then just laughed. I am sure I wasn't the only person in HD yesterday with pants that looked like that.

Due to their small size, especially compared to the size of the plum pit, I find it easier to make jelly than jam from wild plums. If I want to make plum jam or plum butter, I use domestic plums because they are so much larger. Wild plum jelly is easy. Just be sure to strain it well without squeezing the pulp of it will be cloudy, which only affects the look of it, not the flavor or quality. You can do this. It is easy and wild plum jelly is mighty good eating. I think its' beautiful clear garnet red color (even if you make it with yellow wild plums, you get the red juice color) is one of the prettiest jelly colors around!

How To Make Plum Jelly:

Plum Jelly

It sounds like you and GDW are the perfect team with each of you tackling different outdoor tasks.

When the gardening tasks seem overwhelming I remind myself to tackle one square foot at a time or one raised bed at a time or one type of weed at a time. (This week, I believe I'll be tackling lambs quarters and bindweed.) It can help to break down the overwhelming To Do list into smaller chunks. Our back garden was so hideously overgrown with weeds and invading trees this winter/spring due to 2 very rainy years in 2015 and 2016 when I never even got the whole thing rototilled and planted, that I felt like I'd never get it cleaned up and planted this year. So, I started small a couple of weeks ago with the easiest spot---the place where I did clean it up and grow corn last year, and then just bit off little chunks and worked on them daily. Even though finishing the whole thing still seems iffy and I'm having lots of ant issues, I've got about 65 or 70% planted now and hope to have it all done by the end of this week, weather permitting. (Rain could spoil my plans to get it all done, but we need rain, so I'll be happy if it does rain.) I don't mind ants in a garden as they are mostly beneficial but these are fire ants so we are at war right now. Then I found a harvester ant bed, and I like harvester ants and they are very beneficial so they cannot stay in my cucumber trellis area. I'm having a hard time convincing them to leave and I don't want to kill them. We'll see who wins this war this week.....and I hate to think of gardening as a war. That's the wrong attitude so I need to adjust my attitude. A margarita might help with that adjustment. No, not for breakfast(!) but maybe later today.....maybe a frozen margarita could turn my ant battle frown upside down. The war is with the ants in the back garden, not the garden itself, and I need to remember that because I love my garden.

Kim, From one city girl turned redneck to another......I feel like you and I each chose the best life for ourselves at this stage of our lives. I never could go back to living in a city and I bet you couldn't either. With regards to the home you want....you will get there. It takes time. I know that someday you'll have the home you want with full, working facilities and a wide-open kitchen and it will mean so much to you because of all the time and effort you will have put into creating it. In the meantime, you've got the garden and can pour all your energy into it. When you think about it, you are a modern-day homesteader and it takes a long time to develop a homestead into the vision you have in your head. I know that you can do it.

Borage is so easy from seed. I bet you could start some now in paper cups and have some to sell the next time someone asks! Mine reseed endlessly so I haven't had to start any new ones in a hundred years or so (slight exaggeration, you know).

I'm so glad your little man will be coming to visit and stay. He's going to have 101 things he wants to do in the garden during his visit. I agree succession harvesting of fresh fruit is the best. It is so much more fun to have the harvest spread out over a longer period than to have too much to deal with at one time.

Oh, here it is Monday morning and time to start the new week's thread but I cannot resist closing out the old one first! I'm too old to read the old thread, remember what I just read and then respond to it on the new one.

Dawn