Well Rebecca, what I was remembering last night is a little different than what I’m seeing now on the screen shots. They’re also saying May is above average. Or is orange average? I could have sworn June and July were both below average. Wishful thinking??? ;)

Keep in mind though. The Weather Channel said we would be above average March - May, and so far that's been way off! Maybe I should find what source they use for their averages.

I adore oatmeal bars (I've only ever had raisins as the fruit filling, so will be fun.)

Nancy, this recipe is great because I can use any kind of jam or preserves in it. Raspberry, peach, and blackberry are all good. I think raisins are a very divisive subject, so I try to sub other fruits for them.

I forgot TMD was closed on Mondays. As this is my only day off between now and Saturday...wahhhh!

Megan, I think orange is slightly warmer than normal, so June will be slightly cooler than usual, by that map. Honestly, I don't pay attention to any weather maps that aren't done by our guys here. Even though they aren't always right, I think you really have to be here and live here to understand our weirdness, and have an outside shot at actually predicting it.

I'm having a peanut butter and blackberry jam sandwich on oatmeal bread, and then outside!

Oh! Almost forgot. What is your favorite garden hat? Right now mine is an OSU ball cap, but it doesn't cover the back of my neck or ears. I generally don't like wearing hats, but I sometimes need one.

Oh my

I have read reread and several posts just now showed up.

Thank you all for your sweet thoughts words well wishes. I am still mending and vertigo only bothers me when I first lay down.

Walmart had promix on special 9.78. Normally 17. I made Mrs boss buy 2 bags and I bought 1. I wish I would have had the money to get them all. There were about 4 left. Probably last year's bar code but it's not expired or moldy or anything. I would have bought one for the door prize but they are huge and I already have one ; )

Speaking of the fling, I am bringing a guest. Total honest sweet person. I figured since I am not staying all night at Monis they could help with the drive. It's gonna be a perfect day. 2 five hour drives with a party in the middle. I better go get potted up and inventory done.

I just GOT my new gardening hat about a month ago. Well, my ONLY gardening hat I've ever had. And until you mentioned it, totally forgot I got it. Laughed. This is going to take some getting used to. Thanks for the reminder. I liked the brim, figured it'd keep the sun off my neck.

I know there are plenty of people who say they don't like raisins, which I cannot fathom. Oatmeal raisin bars are one of my favorite bars.

I hope the chiropractor fixed you. My day has been busy. Lot of cooking this morning, potting up is the highest priority at the moment. I could and probably should spend the rest of the day on that or getting stuff in beds or both. So, okay, here I go.

So, I got a lot done today. Planted lots of flowers out front - zinnias, cosmos, celosia, African daisies (not vendium, some new colors I found at Southwoods), dwarf snapdragons, mini sunflowers, hollyhocks, petunias, the one tithonia that survived the freeze. Filled a new 60 gallon grow bag and planted the 4 Early Girls. Started more basil and tithonia to replace the ones lost to the freeze.

I am SO going to hurt tomorrow. And I'm not close to being done. Peppers and the rest of the tomatoes need to go in. More grow bags to fill.

Showered and pizza ordered. Tramadol and muscle relaxer on board.

Nancy, I might do oatmeal cookies instead of bars. I like to use other dried fruits in mine - cherries, blueberries, chopped apricots. Maybe one or the other. The bars are super easy, though. And yes, the chiropractor fixed me up good. I had no trouble using my arm to plant today. I have to find a better pillow, though.

I already knew what tree the squirrels lived in. Today I found their front door. Now I just need a tall ladder...

I need to post, because babysitting the older grandson tomorrow and Wed. Current plan is to take him to Oxley to look at birds through his toy binoculars. Then Wed, Smashed Thumb and Worley's greenhouses. The baby will stay with his other grandma. My plants are outside. Full sun for a couple of hours, then I covered them with a heavy sheet so they would be shaded. They're on the patio table, with welded wire fening wrapped around it so Sasquatch can't reach them. I've been afraid she'll grab the sheet and try to run, but so far so good.

Rebecca, I'm ok with cookies. Cookies are my weakness and doesn't much matter what kind. But I won't turn down cup cakes either.

Oh, Dawn, I've always said we should live our lives backwards, so babies would be slow and take naps and grandmas would have energy to spare!

We did have a nice dinner last night. I enjoy family get togethers. Especially if we're out, so I don't have to clean first. I admit to being a little depressed about this landmark birthday. Funny how when Ron hit 65 last year it didn't bother me.

Megan, your weather scenario would be great, tomatoes grow in warm May and fruit in cool June.

Rebecca, so sorry TMD was closed. I almost went down there, too. Good thing I was lazy. My hat.

Get those squirrels Rebecca.

Cute hat, Nancy.

I had a good day. But, part of it is that I've planned for some time off! I'm SO excited about this. The plan is to stay home from May 26 to June 5 or 6. Yay! Just think of all the stuff I can get done. Something to look forward to.

Shopped with my friend and bought several herbs at Prairie Wind....and some flowers at the Greenhouse. She bought a ton of stuff! But her gardens are already established and I'm still building mine. AND they've (my work) has changed my pay days, so there's that.... I have to wait till the end of the month now, instead of every other week.

Y'all, I'm trying to harden off my plants for SF. I'll do my best.

I was so happy to plant three more tomatoes. This is the weirdest planting year I've experienced so far--a little here, a little there. So glad to have a shade cloth.

Wasn't supposed to be a cute hat, HJ. Was supposed to look, uh, no nonsense. LOL I'm happy with it cuz it doesn't have a floppy brim. And after Rebecca brought it up, I went and got it, put it on and had it on all day. Nancy gets a gold star for wearing a hat! All day! I may be able to DO this! Do you have a gardening hat? I know one should wear a hat, and I'm thinking this one will work as I forgot I had it on. Also, haven't had transitional glasses for the past year; thankfully will get my new glasses next week.

I'm thrilled to death that you'll have some time off, HJ!! Yay!! I used to do that when I worked my day job. I'd save time for a week off of nothing but gardening stuff. It's the best, and I know you'll revel in it.

LOL. How tall a ladder do you need, Rebecca? You need a tough young man to help you out! I would just as soon not see you on a tall ladder. . . just sayin'.

I agree, it is a weird gardening year. I've just been lazing along, putting in plants now and then, here and there, no rush. My peonies and hydrangea aren't going to do much this year as they both thought it was time to do stuff a month ago. That's fine. . . gotta expect that once in a while, and I scolded them. Said, "Okay, now maybe you've learned a lesson. Pay attention to the weather, like the oaks have. Take a lesson from the iris!"

My little outlaw Tom the cat. Jerry has been in and out all day, and is quite perfect. He followed me around as I threaded my way through the plants on the deck, stopping to watch and learn from the ones I tended, very attentive and consistently wanting pets. He went to the screen door if he wanted in. YES! Tom. Lay right inside the house watching for a few hours before he decided he'd venture out. Then did, and was doing just fine, exploring every nook and cranny on the deck, then moseyed on down the deck to his under-the-deck getaway, and disappeared. And about 4 pm began crying from under the deck. Tough love. Thought, "Oh for crying out loud. He can find his way out." At 5:30, I plunked down their dinner dishes on the counter, opened their cat food. GDW bet he'd be at the door, hearing the familiar food routine deal. And he was. But when I opened the screen door carefully, the cat was scared to come around the corner of the door to come in. . . so I held the plate out past the opening, and led him in. Now here's the strange thing. As he rounded the corner of the door, he growled that defensive warning growl. He is a hoot. He doesn't know whether he's a wild tiger or lover. He's both, but seldom docile. His emotions are so highly charged that when he wants to show affection, and he often does, he is hurtful and very aggressive. Claws, bites. . . can't sit still for the life of him. He fascinates me. Love the little guy to pieces, but wouldn't be surprised some day if he doesn't turn wild.

I had three different folks or folks with relatives visit today. Gave a few herbs away to one lady who wants to grow herbs. Another lady had her car filled with flowers she'd just gotten at Walmart. A guess would be that she just spent $150 easy there on that load, and she said that rarely does she stop there that she doesn't go home with several. We all know the illness. . . . makes me so thankful, once again, for David's grow cart, My best advice to anyone who is a gardening fanatic would be to invest in grow lights and shelves. . . to check out DIY systems for making them, and then to DO it. The cost, compared to buying seedlings, is well worth it. An expense quickly justified in 2-3 years. And like Amy said earlier, the satisfaction of seeing a planted seed germinate is pure joy.

Kim, if you can drive 5 hours for a party and then 5 back, I should be there in plenty of time, having only 1.5-1.75 hrs to go. I'd like to kidnap you for a restful weekend here this summer--just think--would only be another 1.5-1.75 hours further east for ya. Just sitting out on the deck and relaxing and visiting. Think about it.

Wow, Dawn. I just now saw YOUR post. Didn't see it all day today, until now! Crazy. I just want you to know that there were some real valuable word nuggets embedded in that post. SO thankful I found you all last January. Feels like a lifetime. In a very very good way.

Nancy that sounds like a dreamy weekend. With all the stress in my life right now I need it. Lay around talking about gardens. Yep where do I sign up. It will have to be after the second weekend in October since I am booked until then.

Today I had a big goal and met it wow and it only took 8 solid hours. I potted up all the plants I had ready. Personal and work plants. I know it was over 300. I kept thinking how fun it is to play in the dirt. Loving the sun no wind what a great day.

I did not get the list for fling but I definitely will tomorrow. It will take me awhile lol. I want to bring a variety.

And I like your hat it is very serious. And cute. Dawns post did not show up till recently. And I bought a garden hat. I got it at sprouts and it will keep the sun off of my neck

Good morning all! How's everyone enjoying what I consider the perfect weather? At least in my neck of the woods. I had 4, yes 4 glorious days off from work but now reality is before me and it's time to, how I put it, work so I don't have to work. I'm spending a bit on my back patio this morning because the weather allows, drinking my morning coffee and listening to all of the birds! And wow! I'm hearing calls I've never heard before! I just love it! I sit and watch the dark sky grow orange and pink, from where I sit the Koch "city" is just out of sight!

Yesterday was oh so nice, I "think" I've finished my plantings. Sunday and Monday I put my tomatoes and peppers in the ground as well as some pots, green beans, cucumbers, marigolds, (they never fail me!) and my new to me yearly effort, okra. I'm trying to simplify a bit this year and with my asparagus and garlic, I'm satisfied. I set out my hummingbird feeders and within 30 minutes here they come! It's as if they've been patiently watching and waiting thinking "finally! What took her so long???"

The rain Saturday filled up 6 of my rain barrels as well as a couple of other containers. I'm such a miser when it comes to water. This year though, I'm caving in and turning on my hose, (old habits, though, you know the saying) so I also will lug buckets of water to my roses, clematis, irises, mint and the potted tomato and pepper plants. I'll just have to see how my water bill reacts.

My mower is in the shop and if it's not ready by my next day off (Friday) I may have to buy a couple of goats! I could start a dandelion farm if there is a market for that but I have a feeling that market is overly saturated!

Amy, I'll bet if that DH of yours let you have worms, he'd become hooked! Really, hardly any space, just the size of the container and absolutely zero smell! And they are fascinating to watch.

Heres a question, what is Spring Fling??? Sounds like loads of fun and fine fellowship! It also sounds like it's coming up on Saturday which I have an all day meeting in OKC.

Ok! Sun's up and I must start my workday! Cheers!

I have all sorts of garden hats....straw hats with big brims, a couple of hats very similar to Nancy's, baseball type caps, etc. I usually am not very good about wearing them until the weather starts getting hot. Chris often is the one who reminds me...."are you in your garden? are you wearing a hat? are you drinking something and staying hydrated?" He cracks me up....when did he become the parent and I become the child?

I posted my prior post early in the morning, so guess the GW garden gnomes were withholding that post just for the fun of it. At first when I wasn't seeing people's posts, I thought it was just me and that I was losing my mind until other folks here started mentioning the same thing. I guess it keeps us on our toes.

By the time Tim and I brought groceries, gardening supplies, hen scratch, pet supplies, plants and ran a million little errands, the day was pretty much shot and we were tired. Then he still went out and mowed very late in the day (after dinner) because he's going to be out of town next week, the grass is getting tall and he's noticed I ignore the mowing in order to work in the garden. Well, duh. Given a choice between the garden and mowing, I can tell you the mowing is going to lose out every time....at least until the grass is so tall that it is getting snakey. One thing I'm loving about the cooler nights is that there hasn't been much snake activity in the garden yet, and that makes me happy.

In my own defense with regard to the mowing that I usually don't do, for many years after we moved here I did 95% of the mowing because of Tim's work schedule, and I mowed 2 acres at least twice a week with a push mower, even in the hottest summer weather. Then I got out the string trimmer and did all the weed-eating too. AFTER we got the riding mower, then Tim took over most of the mowing. Funny how that worked out.

I don't feel guilty when I don't do the mowing now---Tim has a zen thing going on when he is on that riding mower where he is so lost in the joy of mowing that he doesn't see, hear or notice anything else. There could be an elephant walking across the back pasture right in front of him and he wouldn't even notice it. Chris and Lillie were here the other day and we were laughing about how Tim seriously zones out and forgets the rest of the world exists while mowing. I totally get it, though, because I lose track of the rest of the world when I am in the garden. That can work against me. One day when I was out in the front garden and the driveway gate was not locked, four men materialized out of nowhere at my garden gate.....they were not up to anything bad, as far as I know, but they startled me and that scared me. I kindly said I was not interested in discussing religion with them and invited them (also nicely) to leave. As soon as they left, I locked the driveway gate. A woman alone in the country too far away from any neighbor for them to hear her scream does not need to be surprised by strangers. Lesson learned that day! I did have a gun with me in the garden, but I really don't want to shoot anybody....that would totally ruin the 'garden as sanctuary' type thing. I really didn't start carrying a gun to the garden until the cougar year, which I think was 2008, but I've tried to continue the practice because of rabid skunks (one chased me once and I'm happy to say that I managed to outrun it, but I was shocked at how fast a demented skunk can run, even if it is running wobbily) and venomous snakes. Oh, and raccoons with canine distemper out in broad daylight can be pretty alarming to run into as well. I had to call up to the house to get Chris to come shoot one once as it was in the driveway between me and the house (I was at the mailbox) and it seemed determined to not let me come back up the driveway without a fight. It was obviously very ill and very near death and he put it out of its misery. That was during the huge outbreak of canine distemper in coons across the river in Texas a few years back, and our population of them hasn't been quite the same ever since---we still have them, but not tons and tons of them like we once did.

When I look at plants at stores in the Springtime, mostly I am looking at them and saying "Nope, I can raise that myself from seed...." It makes me wonder why I bother looking at them. (Laughing at myself here!) I did buy four ornamental sweet potato vines and a couple of sun coleus yesterday. They are for containers near the garden shed. I got a few other odds and ends, but nothing fancy or special. I didn't step foot in the garden at all yesterday, but intend to make up for that by spending the whole day out there today if nothing interferes in that plan. The stores here are a very odd mix of leftover cool-season plants that no one has purchased (and no one should be buying cool-season veggies and planting them this late anyway) and warm-season plants in huge abundance. Some things make me laugh.....like single bean plants in containers......how many containers of bean plants would a person have to buy to get the same stand of beans they'd get from a $1.00 packet of bean seeds? It makes me crazy. Oh, and corn plants in containers....and the corn plants I saw were at least 18" tall. That would be another crazy thing to buy as transplants.

Nancy, It amazes me how every cat has such an individual personality and how different cats can be from one another. We have one cat, Tiny Baby (no longer tiny and no longer a baby) who is a one-person cat and I am his person. He freaks out if anyone else tries to let him go in or out or feed him or anything. If he even sees a 'stranger' (and anyone but me is a stranger as far as he is concerned) he runs and hides and won't come indoors if that stranger (including Tim and Chris) is visible in the house.We have had him since 2011, so it isn't like he doesn't know our entire family and our friends---he just prefers to pretend that I am the only human on earth. He wouldn't even come to me to come inside Sunday because Lillie was with me. She had to go into the house where he couldn't see her, and then he happily came in and went into the sunroom, ate and went right to sleep. Our oldest cat, Shady, loves everyone and will accept petting and loving from someone he's just met. I think he'd follow anyone to their car, get in it and go home with them. He is a real people-loving cat. Pumpkin? He is your best friend if you are feeding him or playing with him, but ignores you otherwise. He has to be busy all the time and plays super hard until he exhausts himself, and then when he comes indoors, he climbs up on top of a bookcase and sleeps the sleep of the dead. I don't think an earthquake will wake him.

Rebecca, Squirrels are goofy. My dad and mom's next-door neighbor, Frank, fought them like crazy in the 1980s and 1990s. They live in the city limits, so shooting them was not an option. Those squirrels would get up in his pecan trees and pull a green pecan, take a bite from it, and toss it to the ground because it was still green....all day long. His driveway would be littered with ruined pecans and he harvested exactly zero of them every year because the squirrels ruined them all. Meanwhile, my dad's peach trees sat 20' away from the pecans, and the squirrels never touched them. Here in OK, my peach trees are the only things the squirrels do bother. Frank decided once to wrap his tree trunks in silver metal flashing from the home improvement store. I think the flashing was 3' tall. He placed it a few feet above the ground so the squirrels couldn't get a running jump and jump from the ground to the tree above the flashing. Ha! They got in the trees anyway, so he added a second piece of metal flashing, wrapped entirely around the trunk, directly above the first one. The squirrels somehow circumvented that and got into his pecan trees anyway. As far as I know, that poor man never won a single battle against those squirrels.

Jennifer, I hope you get tons of stuff done during your week off. That is a nice time of the year to be outdoors in the yard and garden before the serious summer heat arrives.

Rebecca, The aches and pains are the price we pay (and pay and pay) for doing what we love. I hope you are not hurting too much today.

Kim, That is too much driving for me, but I can understand why you're willing to do it. After about 90 minutes in a car, I've had about all I can stand any more. I used to love road trips, but the older I got, the less alluring they have become.

I have a lot of potting up to do, but will save it for a rainy day. Tomorrow might be that rainy day, but then there is not a very large amount of rain in our forecast---maybe a quarter-inch of rain is expected here, so it might not be the kind of rainy day that keeps me indoors for long.

I don't pay any attention to national weather projections either, especially those looking out months in advance, other than as a curiosity. I wait to see what our local meteorologists have to say after they interpret the models and data that they are seeing. Mostly I go with my own gut feelings. We're gonna get whatever weather we get and will just have to deal with it. If the mets cannot accurately predict our high and low temperatures more than a couple of days in advance, why do we think they can tell us in April just what sort of weather we'll be having in July or August? Sure, they can see big global patterns and can tell if those patterns will keep repeating up to a point, but I still don't get overly wound up about what they project months in advance. About the only thing we can count on here in OK is that summer will be hot---it is just a matter of how hot it gets. If they say it is going to be cooler than average, well so what? Maybe it will be 1 or 2 degrees cooler, but will we even notice that small difference? Is summer so much nicer if we're only hitting the upper 90s on the hot days instead of hitting the low 100s?

I'm thinking all the forecasters look at many models and many outlooks and interpret those, added to their understanding of global patterns in the current year and such, and arrive at what they think will happen. They probably pay particular attention to NOAA's 3-month projections, but honestly, a lot of the time those show EC (equal chances) of us being either above average or below average, so they're only a starting point and sometimes don't seem very helpful at all. More data would have to be examined and studied in order for anyone to decide anything more extreme than those 'equal chances'. Here's what the current 3-month projections for temperatures look like:

Multi-season Temperature Projections

All the OK mets are talking about the tornado drought we're experiencing. I don't think we've had enough heat in place at the right time to cause tornadoes. If we warm up significantly next week and beyond (which seems inevitable), then that could change. I am not really fond of cool Spring weather, but am grateful we so far have been spared the horror of April tornadoes.

Y'all have a good day today. I hope you're all as happy going about your daily activities, whatever they may be, as I am going to be out in the garden today.

Dawn

Saw this on fb and it made me think of my little orchard in q

I saw that yesterday and thought it was so cute. I probably wouldn't have giggled at it if I'd been thinking of your orchard in Q. Have they flattened it down yet? I hope not.

I have a brief noonday report from the garden. I declared winter and freezing temperatures over and removed all the plastic that was wrapped around the tomato cages to protect them from those wicked north winds. Then I removed the rest of my low tunnel hoops (I had removed most of them last week, feeling I wouldn't need them anymore). Only the onions are still under hoops, but their hoops are covered with bird netting to protect the onions from hail damage. I probably can only leave those hoops on the onion bed another week or two. I'll have to remove it when onion leaves start pushing against the netting and trying to grow through it, which then becomes a tangled mess that will damage the onion leaves, which I want to avoid.

As for the birds.....flocks of seagulls are all over this morning. I assume they are inland seagulls making their way north to lakes and such. They are not highly organized fliers....they sort of loop around and gallivant all over. Some of them come down lower to the ground and then they fly up and rejoin the flock again, and then eventually they all head on northward again after wasting some time. The geese, on the other hand, are flying high, fast and loud this morning, headed north at a really good pace. Some of the flocks I can see quite well, and others are so incredibly high that even after I hear them I have to stand and stare high, high, high into the sky before I finally spot them at a pretty high altitude.

In the garden, four more SunGolds are ripe this morning, so I picked them and brought them indoors. They are from a different plant than the one that produced ripe fruit last week. The Cherokee Purple and two of the four Early Girls are heavily loaded with fruit. The two other Early Girls still are a bit behind and have fewer fruit, but at least they have fruit. All of those plants are in the group of seven that I planted around the end of the third week in March. The remainder of the tomato plants went into ground a couple of weeks after that, and some of those are just now beginning to bloom. I think it is going to be a good or even great tomato season here, if none of my neighbors kill my tomato plants with their herbicide drift, which happens some years and is the reason I now plant tomato plants in the back garden as well as the front garden, though I won't be planting back there until early May most likely.

Something is eating holes in all my brassicas. I am sure it is some form of cabbage caterpillar pest---whether is it cabbage loopers, imported cabbage worms or the larvae of the diamondback moths, but whatever is doing it is only doing it when I'm not out there. I have searched and searched all the brassicas and only found 1 small cabbage looper. There's a lot more damage than one mere looper could do.

There's more blooms on the edible podded peas. They are late, but better late than never.

All the greens plants are huge---spinach, collards, lettuce, kale, and mustard. I am having to harvest daily to keep them from getting too big and crowding one another. I just harvest using the cut-and-come-again method, save some for us to eat and feed the rest to the spoiled rotten chickens.

The garden looks enormously happy in today's very low wind and bright, full sun. As long as the garden is happy, I'm happy. It is almost warm enough to feel hot for April.

Haileybub: Spring Fling (or SF) is our annual family reunion. It started out as a plant swap, but after all these years I think we'd enjoy it even if we didn't have plants. It's nore or less an excuse for a bunch of garden nuts to get together and talk shop.

Dawn, if you want to talk about something crazy to be sold in pots... dill. It seems the thought, “I should plant some dill” crossed my mind and it appeared.

I’m slowly getting my tomatoes in and have ended up growing a ton of varieties. I hope these work out! My tomato salads will be pretty with all the colors I should have. I’m also doing a couple experiments. I grow my tomatoes in shipping crates for tractor parts. My largest (a fender crate) is where I grow my cherries - but I’ve put a couple slicers in there to see how they perform because my slicers have never done well in my other smaller crates. Im also growing slicers in some mineral tubs and comparing 1 tomato per tub to 2 per tub. I’m testing a cherry in one of the crates that slicers didn’t like. Lastly, I had a double tomato in a pot, so I snipped the smaller one at soil level, am rooting it in water and will put it in seed starting medium this weekend to see how it takes. I know propagating tomatoes by cuttings is often done but I haven’t tried it before that I remember. If keeping better notes wouldn’t keep me out of the garden, I might do it more.

I have a bunch of pepper varieties too. It’s an exciting year in my garden even though not a lot of new veggies, but new varieties and techniques. And largely thanks to the generosity of this group - particularly Bruce. (Ouch, saying that did hurt a little. Haha)

I’ve been debating on a new okra variety - one that stays tender longer but with all the other experiments, I think I’m going to wait till next year. I plan to grow Cherokee black beans with the okra so the okra can serve as a trellis. Another good reason to stick with a variety I know so I can say with some certainty if this did/did not impact the okra growth. Last year was a wonky year for okra. Anyone else remember that?

I got a fennel planted. I wasn’t a fan of fennel when I tried it and it’s not something I feel compelled to continue trying in hopes of developing the palate for it. So, I’m growing it for the butterflies, which of course means they’ll go for my parsley instead.

Rebecca, I’m also taking some time off work. I have a dentist appt Friday after lunch and will take the rest of the day. I will also take off on May 4. I plan to squeeze in as much gardening as possible both days and hoping to plant the peppers on the 4th... May the 4th be with me.

hahaha, Jen. I agree, it'd be just as much fun without plants! LOL. I have two door prizes; can't decide which, so maybe will combine them. Yeah, that's the deal, YIKES. I gotta get into gear!

My gosh. I just backtracked here a little. I just now am seeing Bruce's post and Amy's hat post. WHAT is going on. Probably user error.

I have an unholy mess on the deck. Back to work.

I usually back up to my last post or further the way gnomes are messing around.

It is incredibly close isn't it. I went to field first trying to get beans in before the rain. It's coming this time and I am going to wash my car and hang out laundry on my new line i just fixed to make sure. That ought to do it then I can hide in greenhouse and make plant lists

Well, Nancy, it is a cute hat. Or maybe you look cute in it. I don't know.

At some point you mentioned all the animal care you must do each morning before getting started on the day, Dawn. I was thinking about that tonight. There is a lot of that at my house too--feeding the cat (he gets his wet food too in the morning), taking the dogs to their yard, feeding and watering, (plus I clean up poop in the morning) decide if they stay out or come in depending on weather, feed and water the big hens, let them out into their pen, take the "baby" hens to the old coop, feed and water them, dump the droppings hammock, feed the turtle. Then check on all the seedlings--see if anything looks in distress from lack of water. I feel like I've put in a full day before I leave each morning. lol. But it's all stuff I enjoy doing because I'm a weirdo.

Do you have a picture of your "tractor parts shipping crate" planters, Megan?

Happy to get some beans planted tonight! I had to drive to Ardmore to say good-bye to my sister-in-law who is going on a great adventure traveling her their fancy RV....but I got about 40 beans in the ground first.

Other than that, I moved all the tomatoes and tomatillos outdoors. I did move them into the shop tonight in case the wind picks up. Two tomatillos broke tonight. I have to figure out a better way next year. I know part of it is April being weird and the hardening off process delayed....but it's more than that. It's starting seed too early and my lights need improvement.

Started hardening off the eggplant and peppers this afternoon.

That is all.

Oh my gosh. It is so late and I'm not one bit sleepy. Thought it was like 11:30. Nope, it's 1. We had to watch a spirited ball game; that always throws me off if it's on late. Planting got derailed today. GDW just had to go to Muskogee, and then the eye doc's office called, so we got our glasses too. I'm fretting because most of the plants are on the deck, or still on the deck. If we were to have a big wind tonight, it would not be good at all. HJ, now that's all I can think about since you mentioned it. Oh well.

You are doing an amazing job on the gardening, especially considering your other "jobs," Hazel. Good job!

And it's going to be cold tomorrow. . . 57-59-ish.

I went to pull peppers off the grow cart to stick them outside, and they'd grown so much just in a couple days I had to unload many of them little pot by pot. I got them outside and lopped some more off. They are dandy pepper plants, nearly all.

Amy, I should have held off and gotten a hat like you got--the brim is so much wider! I didn't realize that.

I like your approach, Megan, your experimenting with a few plants and various ways or varieties. I like it very much, in fact. Since I also am not growing many things this year, I will appreciate my various varieties of tomatoes and peppers and pay attention to them.

Kim, if you really did what you said you were going to do, rain is coming! It'll be good to see you on Saturday. And I was dead serious about you coming down or over to just relax and strengthen a friendship and love of gardening. As one of our previous house "guests" said, "It's like being at a resort." If I haven't gossiped about that here, I'll fill you in! :)

Thank God our glasses arrived. GDW almost wrecked twice today after getting his new glasses. He went the past 3 months withOUT glasses because the previous ones were so bad. He could actually see better without them. So we went to Muskogee today and I was seeing disaster on the drive, but held my tongue. (Only twice have I intervened. Once it saved us about 30 miles going to Mpls, and the other to save us from a bashed in fender.) I DID mention to him that I was a little unnerved by his close calls today, and he said (Dawn, plug your years), "Well, honey, I was so busy reading all the signs I couldn't see before, that I wasn't looking at the road."

Dawn, I laughed so hard at your telling of the seagulls' "migration," vs the geese.

I can't even begin to tell you how hard I laughed about that. That is seagulls in spades! And geese in spades. THAT little story you told says so much. What, I'm not sure, but so much. I'm still laughing. . . spot on about the seagulls. I think other birds could learn something from them. I guess, though. . . seagulls are the free spirits of a large part of the bird family. Gotta kind of admire that, right?

Like every other year here or anywhere else I've gardened, it's a crap shoot. I have no idea what to expect, and in fact expect nothing. I'll have disappointments with all these plants, and I will be deliriously happy about unexpected successes. Isn't gardening glorious. . . . one little success is worth all the failures. Garden on, friends!!!

Amy, Living life backwards is in keeping with my idea that we all should have had our grandchildren first because they are so much more fun than our kids were. Of course, by saying that tongue in cheek I am referring to how we can have a wonderful bunch of fun with the grandkids and then send them home with their parents. I do not envy the parents all the tough work and sleepless nights of raising kids, but we've been there, done that and are ready for just the fun stuff now.

I do not mind aging as much as I thought I would, which doesn't mean I love it either. I was not at all prepared for how a woman's body shape changes after menopause. It perplexes me because now my body deposits fat in some areas that never had excessive fat before and doesn't put fat in places where I always had it. I suppose I knew it would happen, deep in my heart, because I certainly saw over the years how the older women in our family, and older friends, changed after menopause, but I guess I didn't expect it to happen to me. I also didn't expect all the gray hair (only Miss Clairol knows for sure how gray it is, but if I ever stop coloring my hair, I think it will be white....), the wrinkles and the aches/pains. When we moved here in 1999 I could work in the garden from sunrise to sunset every day of the week for months on end and wake up ready to do it all over again each day. Now I have to pace myself and work a lot less hours per day out there, and then pay for it in multiple aches and pains that never stop. I am better now at pacing myself, but mainly because I just don't have the energy to work nonstop in the garden as I once did. I also remember being shocked when our dear friend, Jo, gave up canning in her late 70s. I just couldn't believe she'd ever stop because she preserved anything and everything for decades. Now, I am about to turn 60, and am giving up as much of the excess food preservation as I can. I am a wimp compared to her and expect that I could give up all canning within the next 5 years and not really miss it. That full canner loaded down with jars and water involves a lot more heavy lifting than I even care to do any more. I can guarantee I will not be canning food when I am in my late 70s, if I'm fortunate enough to live that long.

Another part of it for me is that when we moved here to this farming/ranching area, almost all our neighbors were roughly our parents' age, so were in their 70s and 80s, and we were the young whippersnappers, even though we were in our early 40s, so we weren't exactly spring chickens either. Now, we have been to so many funerals and lost so many beloved neighbors in, let's say, their 70s through 90s, and I feel their loss acutely---they were so kind and so good to us and helped us learn about rural living and all. I treasured all friendships with them all the more because they reminded me of our parents, three of whom are now gone (and my mom's mind and hearing are going now, so even though she is here she is not necessarily all here.) Now I have noticed increasingly that we are becoming the older neighbors and our conversations with folks our own age certainly have changed.....why oh why are we talking about arthritis and cataract surgery??? How did this happen??? How is that we have friends who are not all that much older than us who are great-grandparents? Why does time march on so relentlessly and carry us with it??? There's so many mysteries in life! Not only that, but I've noticed that when I see newer, younger neighbors out jogging or walking at a brisk pace, or pushing babies in strollers or jogging strollers, I look at them and think "that used to be us". We also have a ton more houses and neighbors than we used to, and our area is about as developed as I hope it ever becomes. That is a pipe dream, because at the old folks die, their kids don't want to or cannot afford to keep the farm or ranch so they sell it off, and usually in smaller pieces to folks who want to live in the country but not to farm or ranch. I expect our wide open spaces will continue becoming less wide open and more heavily populated each year as time goes on.

Megan, I actually understand about the dill---if the seeds never sprouted or if a person just wanted some and it was there, why not buy it? I usually have a garden full of dill, fennel and bronze fennel volunteers, and this year there's not many of them and it is making me nervous on behalf of all the swallowtails. I do have tons of parsley though and am putting in a second planting of it this week. Hopefully they find the first planting and eat those large plants first so that this week's smaller plants will have a chance to grow and get big. With the bean and corn plants though, they are quick and easy from seed and not cool season so there's no rush with them so I cannot imagine buying those.

I have grown tomatoes in containers of all sizes and it was fun experimenting but what I really learned from those years was that I preferred the tomatoes in the ground....now that the soil really is in great shape. The containers were great, though, in the years when the soil was not nearly as well amended as it is now and so that soil issue limited what I could grow and where I could grow it. Looking back, I can see how the continual improvement of the soil over almost two decades really pays off now, but there were plenty of times in our first 10 years here that I was frustrated and grew a lot in containers because it seemed like the soil never was going to be good enough no matter how much I amended it. Thankfully, we finally hit the point where the soil is good enough and now is, in fact, mostly great even though it seemed for so long that we'd never arrive at that point. Tim and I could open a museum of broken tools we destroyed in the effort to break up clay and amend it. lol. I bet if I dig through the old potting shed and the garage, he has a stash of those broken tools somewhere because he is a pack rat who just doesn't throw things away.

Most years I grow far too many peppers and then struggle to preserve them so they aren't wasted, but this is the year I have cut back sharply on how many peppers and tomatoes I grow, mainly because I wanted to grow more flowers but also because I do not want to spend all day every day this summer canning. When I see pepper plants in a nursery, I think to myself "I need those" because I am growing so many less this year, but then I remind myself that growing less has an ultimate goal and I'm not going to mess up that goal by bringing home more pepper plants.

Nancy, I think it is GW and not user error. Every day I see posts that I didn't see the day before. I think they are getting lost and floating around in GW for a few hours before we see them, but I'm just guessing about that.

I agree that the Spring Fling would be just as fun without plants because, really, what it amounts to is a big family reunion of all of us here. I remember attending my first Spring Fling in 2005 and quickly learning it really wasn't all about the plants. Tim and I have been Spring Flinging ever since.

Kim, I hope the rain made it there. I hope it will arrive here at some point today but if it doesn't, I'll figure that is God's way of telling me to get on out there to the garden and plant. I am very particular about how I plant. I make myself weed and mulch as I go so that once a bed is planted, it is in great shape. Then, every day, I make myself weed the planted beds before I plant more. This forces me to maintain control of the garden because otherwise I just ignore existing beds and keep planting and planting more beds even as the already-planted beds become a weedy mess. I am trying harder than ever this year to keep the weeds to a minimum even if it kills me to make myself weed and mulch when all I really want to do is to plant. Sometimes I feel like I am so incredibly slow to get the planting done, but at least when I finish, everything that is planted is weed-free. I cannot say the same thing about the as-yet unplanted areas where the weeds are thriving.

In big news for our community, even though we had grass fires yesterday (ggggrrrrr---caused when people's so-called 'controlled burns' got out of control), Tim went up to the fire station last night and rolled back the Fire Danger sign outside our building from "Extreme" fire danger to "Low". That's a monumental change. We'll see if the sign gets to stay at Low for a significant period of time. This doesn't mean we are less busy because you still get tons of calls for medical emergencies, wrecks, and other odds and ends, plus the training season kicks off with more weekend training sessions now that there's not so many wildfires, so I do not necessarily think we get less busy---we just are busy with other kinds of stuff. There's also all the spring Festivals with parades and such and they all need fire trucks, plus we try to attend all the other VFD's fund-raisers, though we almost always miss the ones scheduled on the same day of the Spring Fling. Even if we intend to stop in at one of them on the way home, by the time we are almost home, we're watching the clock and thinking the dogs need to go outside more than we need to go to that fundraiser that evening. I do hate missing them though because these are our brothers and sisters in the fire service with whom we work year-round. There's just not enough hours in the day.

Jennifer, It sounds like you're making great progress with the planting. It has been a weird Spring, but I also think that each Spring is weird in its own way. I just happen to like the weirdly warm early Springs a lot more than I like the weirdly cold late ones.

I did a ton of garden chores yesterday that did include, finally, some planting in the afternoon. I tried to pace the planting carefully because we were nearing the 80s when I started, and plants are not real happy about being transplanted in that heat. So, I choose to plant a ton of the hybrid zinnias I've raised from seed since they tolerate heat so well. I transplanted these varieties into the zinnia bed: Art Deco Mix, Pinca Mix, Benary's Giant Lime, Zahara XL Pink, and Dreamland Red, Dreamland Coral Pink, Dreamland Rose, Dreamland Pink and Dreamland Yellow. I still have some of the Art Deco Mix, Pinca Mix and Benary's Giant Lime left to transplant into another bed as well as all those bright yellow ones that I had to have this year---mostly Profusion Yellow and Profusion Lemon Yellow, but several others as well. I have places to put all of them so it is just a matter of getting it done. If it doesn't rain too much today, I could get the rest of the zinnias transplanted. Then I'll yank out all the volunteer zinnias sprouting in the pathways because I won't need them for anything. They were my safety net in case something disastrous happened to the flats of zinnia seedlings. I also have pepper plants and herb plants awaiting their turn to go into the ground, and other kinds of flowers that are not zinnias.

There's tons of mosquitoes here now and I'm not thrilled about that. They probably are a good reminder to me to keep my eye on the weather because our temperatures are starting to approach the point where chiggers become an issue. The garden still is largely insect-free except for the desirable bees and butterflies, and whatever caterpillar is feasting on my brassica plants. There's plenty of holes in the plant leaves but I still cannot find the caterpillars. So, I am thinking maybe it is snails feeding at night. I'd put out Sluggo, but I'm waiting for the rain to fall first. There was a huge parade of harvester ants from their bed in the garden to the garden yesterday. I don't know what they are finding and carrying out, but there must be something because there were so many of them that it was like they were holding a convention in the garden.

I need to go back to bed. The old dog, with his failing kidneys, woke me up to take him out and then I was, and remain still, wide awake but he is back asleep and snoring. If I don't go back to sleep myself, suddenly it will be sunrise and then I'll be getting sleepy and wanting to go back to bed instead of getting up and moving and heading outdoors.

Dawn

I know, Dawn! What is the deal with suddenly getting a belly when that was never an issue for me before?! There must be a way to beat it. I'm going to step up my game on exercise. Good grief. Where is my waist? lol And my natural auburn hair???

It is raining here. So glad half of the beans were planted yesterday.

This thread is like a new thread every few hours. New posts pop up from previous days when they weren't there before.

I've been getting rain all day. I'm not sure when it started but at 6 a.m. when it was time to get up the sidewalks were already wet.

Nancy - that explains why I woke up to a notice on FB that you accepted my friend request! I was surprised because I woke up around 12:30 - one of those where you wake up and think it's nearly morning so you can't go back to sleep right away - and was on FB for a bit and didn't see anything. Then at 6 a.m. see that you've accepted between my restlessness and a.m. alarm.

Amy, you'll appreciate this story because we share in dealing with troublesome pups and Bruce you'll like it because someone is giving me a hard time. My Jack - who is a mutt to the nth degree but we suspect some pointer because he has webbed paws and often stands in a pointer pose - hates to get wet. HATES. Yesterday, he didn't want to do his business because the grass was wet with dew. <eyeroll> I didn't even bother with coaxing this morning. I put on a hoodie and leashed him and we began down the street in the rain. He was very unhappy. Around the corner, he squats and I praise him afterward but when I go to pick it up, I couldn't find anything. Granted it was still dark but I'm fairly certain the little snot squatted so he could go back home. Also Amy, last week I was complaining to DH that Jack was getting into my beds but DH thought it was squirrels - nope. It was Jack. I caught him in the act. Though, at least I'm only dealing with Jack so far.

HJ, the gnomes got you today. I didn't see your post until after I'd read thru but scrolled to reread something and surprise. I have pictures somewhere but buried so deep on my phone that it will be easier to take new ones. The fender crate is about 2-3ft wide by 6ft long. Most of the others are smaller in the 1ft x 2-3ft range because they transported mechanical parts, not giant fenders. All are near hip high which makes it nice for harvesting. Unfortunately, I don't have access to them anymore but I plan to build something that high as the termites continue to get them. I lost 1 already this spring and have mineral tubs filling in its spot for this season. The height is already a benefit to being hunched over and I know that I will only grow more appreciative of not having to stoop. Dawn, I'll continue growing my veg in containers because the neighborhood greenspace and playgrounds to my east drain through my yard and the HOA treats the grass. My husband has our grass treated too and eventually I'll win that battle but I don't have the energy or money for a fight with the HOA. I have a couple projects I'm completing this spring and will then begin a slow process of trying to make changes to control the runoff as I'm physically and financially able. Either way, I won't be able to control it enough that it doesn't have the potential to affect my food crops so containers it is.

Dawn and HJ you're scaring me on the weight gain. I already tend to get poochy in the front - if more of that is in my future, I can only imagine the looks a 60-year-old "pregnant" woman will get. I can't fathom friends being great-grandparents and don't want to. I'm still coming to terms with them becoming grandparents. My girlfriend who I went on a double date with to prom just sent her daughter to prom and my head is spinning about that one too. I swear we were just there 20-some days ago, not 20-some years ago. However, I'm claiming winner in the gray hair department. I started going gray at 15! Probably younger than that but I know 15 is when I began noticing and when my friend who sat behind me in biology would "generously" pluck them throughout class. I let some of it show now because my hair also grows fast and along the hairline roots were obvious 5 minutes after I walked out of the salon. Only my hairstylist knows how gray I really am - I could ballpark it - but I tip well so she won't tell. LOL

Dawn, I'm hoping to see some zinnias volunteer and was really hoping a few of those pics I shared on FB were zinnias. The ones I grew last year came from a seed packet a family friend had purchased to start last spring, but she passed away before starting them. I grew them for her last year and will allow them to self-sow and continue growing in my yard for as long as they'd like.

Kim! Is it raining for you today? We've had a light rain all day. Not enough to measure, really, maybe .3" but enough to get wet if planting outdoors. It's a little cool, too. We should have gone to Muskogee today and I should have planted yesterday! Aagh.

HJ--my natural hair 40 years ago was very dark brown. Now my natural hair is not dark brown! And furthermore, I never DID have a waist!

I haven't seen any mosquitos yet. That isn't a disappointment. In fact, we haven't seen much activity in general, except at the bird feeders. A few of the finches, wrens, bluebirds, woodpeckers, half a dozen hummingbirds (this might be a good year for hummingbirds since they usually dribble in one by one.)

The zinnias sound wonderful, Dawn. In all my years of planting flowers in Minnesota, I never did grow zinnias until the last year of gardening. And probably wouldn't have here, had not a friend dropped some seed off to me. But this year, I actually did buy 4 different packets--love the big ones and the scabiosa look-alikes.

I'm potting up stuff for Saturday, but I just can't seem to switch into high gear. Nobody else in the house is geared up, either. In fact, I believe everyone else (the dog, the two cats, and Garry) are all sleeping. No wonder I can't move fast. Might wake someone up.

I have morning glories, moonflower vines, hyacinth beans and firecracker vines going. Now just where did you think you were going to put those, Nancy. And so yesterday I was reconstructing a "temporary raised bed" in full sun on the gravel/wedds at the inside end of the driveway area with a big tomato cage anchored by rocks for the firecracker vines. I ended up spending an hour and a half on itt and it's still not filled with dirt. So there it sits unfinished and the vines are still waiting to be planted. Sigh. The moonflower vines by the corner of the deck, and the wonderful BLUE morning glories and beans together to climb up the raised bed fences.

Back to plants.

Dawn, I'd take some of your lime zinnias off your hands, if you have extras. Mine didn't sprout this year. Lots of people had difficulty with WS this year because of the weird weather.

I have a new 100 gallon grow bag to fill, somehow. At the time, it seemed like a good idea because it would be a great place for onions next year. But it seems like I'll need it for a few things this year. Maybe part of it for a cutting garden. The idea of filling it is daunting. I still have to finish amending last years tomato, pepper, and eggplant bags with fresh compost and Tomato Tone, and plant those.

I have to get used to pacing myself, and setting priorities of what to get done in the garden. I am 48, so I guess that's part of it, but the lupus is changing and I'm having to work around the pain and fatigue of that, too, plus my rotten back. Oh, and hold down a job, too. I decided the gray wasn't a priority. And I've always carried my weight in my stomach, so I've never had a waist and see no need to worry about it anymore.

Squirrels knocked over a few of the zinnias I potted up for SF. Mom and I are bringing her big ladder over on Sunday, to get to the squirrel door.

Jennifer, I think that for many women (I won't say all because I do know some really skinny post-menopausal women), hormonal changes control the way fat is deposited around the abdomen and not on other parts of the body where it used to be deposited. Because it is a hormone thing, it is hard to combat if you're one of the women affected in that way. It really wasn't a big issue for me until the last couple of years....hmmmph. It is what it is, I guess, and I go back to my original statement to Amy that I think we have to consider ourselves lucky to live long enough to encounter these issues because not everyone lives long enough to get older....or old...or mature or however we want to describe it. Lately I describe it as old, fat and tired. (grin) As for natural hair color, one of the best-looking guys I ever knew started getting silver hair mixed in with jet black hair when we were 17 years old and it looked awesome on him. Why doesn't it work that way for all of us? Really, life is taking me back full circle....I had cotton blond hair as a toddler, and it got darker and darker as I got older...and now it is going back to cotton-blond, or if I am being honest, cottony-white, but y'all may never see that white as long as Miss Clairol keeps doing her job.

Megan, I wouldn't fight an HOA either. They have deep pockets. At least you know you need to be committed to containers. I like container growing for many things, but just prefer tomatoes in the ground. It doesn't matter in a wet year, but it does in a dry, drought-like summer. What worked best for me in those years was a drip-irrigation line on a timer so it could water the containers for me morning, noon and night in order to avoid strongly fluctuating moisture levels that can lead to BER.

Megan, The worst part about being post-menopausal is the shifting of the weight to the abdominal area. Maybe it won't happen to you---it doesn't happen to everyone. Back in the fall I ate super-healthy Keto-style and got down to 122 lbs and a BMI of 19-something, which sounds good and looks good on paper. Guess what? My arms and legs got so skinny I looked like a survivor of a concentration camp but my abdomen didn't loose any volume or weight. (sigh) So, rather wickedly I threw healthy eating out the window and have gained back 8 lbs. and just don't care at the present time. I've been enjoying grains and sugars, which I usually don't eat, and I am pretty sure I am more addicted to them than to eating healthy. If my body is going to do whatever it wants to do with no regard for my feelings, then I'm going to do what I want to do. There are post-menopausal benefits---the horrific migraine headaches that plagued me for all my adult life completely vanished with menopause. Gone! Just like that and never have come back. So, if being thick around the middle is the trade-off for being migraine free, I think maybe I should stop complaining. It IS hard to let go of your image of yourself as a younger person as you see your body change, but let's face it.....these are some of the normal changes that accompany aging. We just have to adjust to them and accept them.

Nancy, I am seeing tons of mosquitoes. I'm wondering if they hatched out after that 8+ inches of rain in late February because after that rain fell, we were really, really warm for March and then April came back with the cold. The mosquitoes are oddly non-aggressive so far. I kill each one I see,but they aren't really buzzing around me like they're after me....they are just sort of hanging around. Something that has appeared in huge numbers this week is the flies. Oh, and the bird migration is so cool. I mentioned having huge flocks flying high and fast all day yesterday, and this morning I saw an image of the flocks of birds over OK captured on radar because there were so many of them. That is pretty danged cool.

Today we have a huge flock of vultures hanging around because a very large deer apparently was struck by a car in the roadway in front of our house overnight and the deer made it into our bar ditch before it died. I cannot even look in that direction because I can't stand to see the vultures tearing apart the deer. I know it is nature's way, but that doesn't mean I want to watch it. Since I stayed indoors almost all day, I didn't have to look at it. We got slow, steady rain so it ought to soak in really well, but we only got 0.40" at our house. Still, I didn't want a whole lot because I want to be able to get more planting done. Supposedly a lot of rain is coming next week and beyond, so I'd like to get the rest of the flowers in the ground tomorrow and get corn, pole beans, squash, etc. planted soon in order to get ahead of the coming rain.

I love zinnias but ours had reseeded for so long (about 15 years) with me only occasionally throwing out seed of a color that need to be replenished that I felt it was time for a reboot. The zinnias had gotten to where they were largely pink, yellow and orange, and I wanted to bring back some of the rose pinks and lavenders and purples and such. Oh, and the lemon yellow and lime green. So, I think now with all the ones I either already have in the ground or plan to put into the ground tomorrow, zinnia diversity will have been restored. I do have some other seeds to use for the back garden once I start planting it, but think I'll just sow those directly in the soil. The butterflies love zinnias above all else, so I've always grown lots of zinnias for them, and there just isn't a brighter, more cheerful-looking bunch of flowers in the July and August heat than those zinnias.

Tomorrow is going to be a combination day of planting zinnias and hopefully a few other things (unless I discover we are too wet) and potting up stuff for the Spring Fling. I cannot believe it is Wednesday already. I don't know where the week has gone---it is flying by. I'm starting to feel that way about April a little bit too, but I know where it went---it flew by as we raced to cover things up, bring them in, take them out, protect them from wicked wind, over and over again.

Rebecca, I don't know if I'll have extra lime because the place I have left for zinnias is going to require a lot of them to fill the space. I'm actually worried I won't have enough of the lime green, but if I end up with any extra I'll bring them with me to the SF. I wish I'd planted two seed packets of the lime green instead of only one.

When you get to the squirrel door, what in the world are you going to do????

We have a squirrel who thinks he is stealing cracked corn from the doves every day. Ha! I put out extra corn there near that tree so the squirrel can enjoy it. A corn-fed squirrel leaves me and my plants alone. He freezes when he sees me, which is stupid. I've never been a threat to him and never will be, unless he starts eating tomatoes, in which case he is a dead squirrel (one of the advantages of country living is you can shoot varmints if you need to).

Did all of y'all see Lee's warning that the pattern of recurring cool nights will continue for a while? I'm not talking about frosty, freezing nights but just cool ones. Hmmm. At our house, in the years we have recurring cool nights late into Spring, we also usually have plenty of rain. That's a good thing. Our plants need all the rain they can get before summer's heat sets in.

More and more wildflowers are blooming daily now. We're still pretty far behind what would be normal for the end of April, but I feel like at least we are starting to catch up.

Dawn

Hilling potatoes I realized yesterday is not my favorite thing. Not sure if I am doing it right but I only got 300 or 400 feet done on a 750 foot row. I went fast since I have allot to do this week so I went down one side shoveled dirt around the one side then came down the other and did the same. Mr boss had tilled both sides so I had decent soil to work with instead of dry hard crusty clods. It was hard work still. Mrs boss ordered seed plates but I am going to hand seed more beans today. I did 30 ft at 2inch spacing and that was enough. 950 feet to go lol roflmbo. My friend said I have never had to use a mechanical seeder I just do it by hand. I asked her have you ever seeded 630 ft rows times 20. I am not doing it the traditional way by digging a trench either. I want to make sure my seed is in the moisture so I poke each one in with my finger. It's slow but since I have no top drip in that area and the weatherman lies I have to make sure it has moisture. When I get those plates it will go much faster. In 48 hours I will be over halfway there. Anyone want to call me make sure that I am up at 2 on Saturday.

I purchased a pack of zinnia seeds with plans to plant but I have not yet. Reading on here, sounds like they reseed? Should I pick a more permanent spot in my yard? They are supposed to be "giant" with 5" flowers. From anyone's experience, do they do well in hot, dry weather? (Drought resistant at all?) it is such a beautiful flower!

Dawn, we aren't going to discuss what I'm going to do at the squirrel door. I'm not sure it's entirely legal. But I'll pay my fine in tomatoes.

My flowers are looking great after the rain. Can't wait for bloom time.

I kinda want to stick a couple cucumbers in with the snow peas, since there's room on that trellis.

Oh, y'all, I'll never catch up! Been texting with Eileen, who is buying out an estate sale.

Went to Smashed Thumb Greenhouse yesterday. Got lantana, coleus, a couple of peppers, a couple of tomatoes. Took the grandson, in the rain. He got to hold a bunny. But it was cold and all the plants were out front, in the rain, so we didn't stay long. We went home and napped. If I slept, I dreamed about Curious George, since I've seen about a dozen of those in the last 2 weeks. Really? You tell a monkey "stay right here"? Worse than telling Honey to stay right here.

I have violas in the pot I had coleus in last year. If I stick a couple of coleus in with the 2 surviving violas, will the coleus kill the violas, or can they live under the coleus until fall? The pot may be 12" diameter. I would like to keep the violas going, one is a deep, deep purple and the other is an interesting yellow with purple markings. I may go buy another pot. But can I put anything in with the violas?

Haileybub, I'm considering worm towers. But I'm so far behind, it probably won't be this year.

Dawn, it's kind of annoying when our children treat us like children. WTH. Of course, if one has fallen in the garden and broken bones, or worked till one is dehydrated, then I guess one deserves it. With you I would be asking do you have your gun to fend off wild life. BTW, daughter was in Houston Tues and wed and FB had a video of wild hogs running through a Houston neighborhood!! Her company gathers their people every spring. A memory came up of the first year she was supposed to go and Houston was flooded. Every time she goes there, something happens.

Seagulls. I am compelled to say, there is no such thing as a SEAgull. They are Gulls. It's kind of a thorn in the side of birders, despite the seagull being Utah's state bird. Many of those gulls will end up scouring McDonalds parking lots for dropped french fries. Those will likely be the fairly common Ring Billed gull. From Cornell: "Migrating Ring-billed Gulls apparently use a built-in compass to navigate. When tested at only two days of age, chicks showed a preference for magnetic bearings that would take them in the appropriate direction for their fall migration. The gulls also rely on landmarks and high-altitude winds to provide directional cues."

I put my tiny kale plants outside the other day and immediately saw a @#$% white butterfly. I know many here are butterfly enthusiasts, and they are welcome in the flowers, but those that leave their eggs on brassica can go away!

Nancy, I really like my hat. It is sturdy and fits my head, which most don't. It also has a high SPF, which many don't. The sun umbrella I bought previously didn't survive OK wind. I need to look for another.

I was using Loreal to stay blond, but my scalp rebelled. There's a lot of white in my hair now. I've considered going red with henna. I'm afraid I would look more like Bozo than Lucille Ball. My poor mom, who is about to turn 88, is thin now. She's lost a lot of weight, and her skin just hangs on her. So if we live that long, we will loose the thick waist and have no butt at all. None. For an early Mother's Day, I bought her a memory foam cushion with a cut out for the coxis. She sat on it at the restaurant Sunday. She's not able to sit on hard chairs long because she has no cushioning fat. It is about 3" thick and she's found it helps her get up out of a dining room chair with the added height, so another score.

Megan, my Sasquatch likes water, and mud, and...pretty much everything, ha. I've seen her giant footprints in beds, I'm going to have to fence them. I think your dog may be a little too smart!

Must go DO something!

Well the dogs must be pooping 6 times a day. Good grief! Just cleaned up what I could of that. There are a million tansy plants coming up if any one is interested in another thug. There were many lady bugs! I usually see them on dead nettle and dandelion but these were in tall grass. Really tall grass. Really tall stupid crab grass. :( The last rain made it grow a foot. I can probably find some sculpit volunteers. I guess I should go put this on the plant thread. The Elbon rye is going to seed! Do you suppose if I planted rye where the crabgrass is in the fall it would crowd out the crabgrass in the spring? I have lots of little white dutch clover in the yard, and some coming up in the drainage ditch. There is also lots of vetch out there. I was hoping for wild flowers, but I'm not seeing them. Maybe when it's warmer.

Who was growing greenthread? could you take a picture? I don't know if it's green thread in my bed or some stray grass.

Does any one know what this is? I think there were Phlox here last year.

It's nothing I've got. :)

Amy, I’m starting the greenthread from seed so right now it genuinely looks like a piece of green embroidery floss that’s unraveled, but strait.

Finally I can say I got a lot done today. It was ugly for a while, but better when I finally finished. I got the SF guys and gals all organized and ready to go and even managed to get some stuff planted in MY beds. This is good. Tomorrow I can focus on planting my stuff. I told Amy and Eileen I might have a bonfire and torch the remaining things. LOL

Jacob, how are you doing over there in your neck of the woods? Still cool nights, huh. I'm not all that happy with the cool nights for the peppers, but the cool nights for some other stuff is just peachy. Funny how that goes.

It seems all the potatoes sprouted at once. They weren't there yesterday, today they're here. I got them in so late, will be interesting to see what they'll do. Peas look good and are getting some flowers, I've got mung beans growing like weeds, courtesy of Eileen. Spinach spinach and more spinach. I sure am enjoying the dirt in my amended beds. It's good stuff. Not deep enough yet, I'll give it another go this year, adding more stuff. But sure beats digging 3-4 inches and running into rocks.

Kim, I'm always unsure about hilling potatoes too. Everyone says to keep them mulched so the soil doesn't touch the foliage that cause disease, but how in the world do you hill them without soil touching the foliage?! I'm actually going to spray mine with a fungicide tomorrow. It the one thing I spray. Usually only on the potatoes and columnar trees.

Dawn, I'm not ready to look like a "woman of the waning moon"....not yet. So, I will try to fight it a bit. I'm not a girl who spends a lot of time on makeup and hair and such...but I like being thin (although I never notice other peoples' sizes or body types...just my own) and I like my once natural hair color.

Amy, red hair is the hardest to color. It's so difficult to make it look natural even if you were once a natural redhead. Blondes really have it much easier. My Mom was strawberry blonde, my dad had dark auburn hair, I had my dad's hair color, and my sister was a "true" redhead. I carry the redhead gene from both parents according to 23andMe, but neither of my children have red hair. Ethan has plain brown hair, but if you look closely there are quite a few bright orange hairs mingled in. I suspect he will have a red beard like some of the brown haired men in my family. I keep trying to color my hair a neutral brown, but it pulls red after a couple of washes. I would let it go silver--some women (and men) look amazing with silver hair. My coloring wouldn't work for silver hair though.

I'm very much enjoying my salads this week. I've started harvesting my greens. I have two lettuces and have been adding arugula. It is so yum in a salad--a bit peppery. I need to find a way to grow this stuff year 'round. I love having a daily salad. I'm so happy with how this garden has turned out. So happy.

I am hoping to have time tomorrow night to get the plants ready for SF. The tomatillos and tomatoes have been sitting on the shop porch all day. This is their first night outdoors. Sink or swim.

Tom is brining the turkey breast and I also need to make food tomorrow night. I wish I didn't need to work tomorrow.

We've had events every night this week. The house is a mess. The property is a mess. Tonight, we went to a meeting at Norman City offices regarding the property to the south of us. Many other people in the area were there...and none were happy about the prospect of a development there. I'm not sure the developers' rep, the attorney, and the engineer were expecting such a large turn out. When they started talking, it was almost like they thought we would be excited by their plans. I think they were surprised by the comments. I loved one guy who came in and commented on the wildlife...and how the horned toad is on the endangered list...and the woodpecker is close. Come on, Norman! You're the hippie city...don't do this. It's zoned agriculture...but "they" are seeking to change that.

I'm exhausted, but only because this week has been so busy. I didn't get my Home Alone Monday...although I had fun plant shopping with my friend.

Can't wait to see everyone on Saturday. Wish everyone could be there. It's a bummer that there isn't a date that works for everyone...but that is nearly impossible.

If we held it for a week like Woodstock everyone could have a chance, jus kiddin pmac.

I am going silver white but most people can't see it yet. I tried dying my hair but it's too thin to mess with that. I was born with Jet black hair and then it came in white blond. The color doesn't bother me is the thinning thanks to thyroid disease

Hazel, I'll wait with some anxiety to hear the outcome of the proposed development, this sort of stuff really bothers me ) :

Ive tried for 15 years to go blonde (I was a towhead as a kid) but my hair pulls dark. Light ash blonde comes out strawberry on me. And I haven't colored in about 6 months, I've reached that don't care phase. Though I have been tempted to get purple or pink streaks. They're not just for cool kids anymore. As long as I stay off of People of Walmart, I'm good.

Lol people of Walmart. I have seen with my own eyes so ya stay off that.

I'm sure someone can identify this beauty! Any idea?

Looks like an osteospermum to me. . . I've not grown them, but better get on that bandwagon. That's a beauty! Flower experts?

Has anyone grow calypso/orca beans? I’ve read that they taste a lot like black beans but are they similar enough they can be swapped 1:1 or is the flavor profile different enough they could be used some other way?

Hailey, I bought a couple of those too! The nursery said it's an African daisy, but didn't say if its osteospernum or venidium. Aren't they stunning? I'll need to find seeds for next year. The pots I bought were $5 each.

I have to move all the snap pea and potato bags this week to make room for the fence crew. And have to have the yard mowed around the marks the utility people made.

I can't decide what to wear to SF. Cute shoes or outdoor shoes? Shorts or capris? What SPF? (Note made: shave legs.) What if I get lost?

Back to cookie baking...

Kim, If it is any comfort, hilling potatoes is not my favorite thing either. I don't do it. I just plant them 8-10" below ground in the first place, and then, once they have broken through the ground and it is time to hill them, I pile on the mulch instead. Inches and inches of mulch. Instead of hilling up a couple more times, I pile on more mulch. Insane amounts of mulch. If it means I don't have to hill, I'm all for it. I realize this works because my potato patch is small. There's no way at a place your size that you could mulch all those potatoes, which is too bad.

I'd give you a 2 a.m. wake-up call except for the fact that I will not be awake at that time. Sorry.

Hailey, Zinnias are great in our climate. I've grown them every year for as long as I can remember---dating back to my childhood in the 1960s. They love heat and tolerate drought well---I don't mean that they are xeric and never need water, but just that they don't need as much water as most other flowering plants do. They reseed prolifically. I just redid our zinnia bed this Spring after 15 years of letting it reseed itself because I wanted to add a lot of compost to the soil, and I wanted to start over with fresh seed in certain colors. After 15 years of reseeding, our flowers had gotten too predictable and were mostly the more common colors, so this year I added lemon yellow (a lot brighter than the yellow of other zinnias) and lime green. I think I added purple. Or, at least I added a mix that includes purple---let's hope that some of the plants from that mix actually are purple. Just be sure to give your zinnias good spacing. They need good air flow to avoid powdery mildew, which is about the only problem that I think zinnias have. Butterflies love zinnias too.

Rebecca, Whatever you're going to do to the squirrels, we support you. More tomatoes, less squirrels, you know. Good luck with it.

Go ahead and plant the cukes. I'd only hold back if powdery mildew is an issue with your peas, because you wouldn't want for PM to start on the peas as they near the end of their lives and then transfer to the cukes as they are sort of just starting out. Most years my peas don't get PM....so it isn't something I worry much about. If I see it starting up I just go ahead and yank out the pea plants to get the PM out of the garden before it can begin to spread.

Amy, I'm laughing about Curious George. I loved those books. I probably wouldn't appreciate them as much now as I did when I was a kid.

I think the violas will survive under the coleus. I just finished interplanting Lemon Yellow Profusion Zinnias with my pansies and violas today, with the idea being that by the time the now-tiny zinnia plants are taller than the violas, the weather will be heating up and the violas will be about done. My violas either come back every year or they reseed themselves....one way or another, they come back. I just saw seeds on a viola yesterday and was shocked. It seems too early for them to go to seed, but we have had some days with high temps at 88 or 89, so maybe the violas think summer is here and they are done.

Yes, I think Elbon rye (or even just plain old winter rye grass like people use to overseed lawns) would crowd out the crabgrass if you plant it in the fall, but I haven't tried to do it. I do know that when we overseed the lawn with annual or perennial rye grass (both are annuals here, by the way) so we have a green lawn in bad wildfire seasons, all the summer grasses are late to appear because the rye grass shades them and keeps them from really getting going in the Spring time.

I don't recognize your plant in the photo, but it looks vaguely familiar. Do the plants have square stems like the plants in the mint family?

So what kind of gulls scour the Wal-Mart parking lot occasionally looking for food? Do we have a name for those. (grin) I love gulls. Feeding them at the beach was one of our favorite thing to do when Chris was a little kid.

I suppose having our kids treat us like we are children is karma for the times we have treated our parents like they are children. Of course, we can look at it in a positive light and say that our children learned their nurturing behavior from us, but it does make me think "oh, he thinks we are getting old....". lol. Well, of course, we are getting older every day---all of us are getting older---us, our parents, our kids, our grandkids....our pets. I still maintain that getting older isn't that bad when you consider the alternative.

Jennifer, Getting older is interesting. I don't like all the physical changes that come with it, but I do like the mental/psychological changes that occur over the years. It is funny when I look back at things I worried about in my 20s and 30s and now realize that it was just a waste of time to worry about them. I do think wisdom comes with age, so that's a plus. I know I am a lot more laid back now than ever before, and I think that's a positive. The body changes after menopause suck, but guess what? That's life. At least we're still here, still alive, still kicking and still gardening. I look at some of our older friends who are on the verge of being wheelchair bound and am so grateful that at least we still have our mobility (despite all the aches and pains that come with it).

I'll probably color my hair forever. At least that's what I think most days. Then, other days, I look at my cousin who has lovely silver hair and think I wouldn't mind having hair like that. I think the hard part is to go from coloring it to letting it grow out to its now-natural shades of gray and white or whatever it would be. For me, that would be the hard part.

Hailey, I agree with Nancy that your flower is an osteospermum. That particular one is Blue Eyed Beauty, sold by Park Seed. Osteopermums are cool-season flowers so generally don't last long here (at least in my part of OK) before the heat burns them up. They were in bloom down here in the Feb-Mar time frame...of course, March was warm, and then April turned back cold, so this year they're probably going to stay in flower longer than usual.

Rebecca, Wear whatever is comfortable! Keep in mind that we'll be handling plants and eating, so white probably is not the best color to choose. (grin) Based on that reasoning, I ought to wear brown or black so that all the stains hide.

I worked my fingers to the bone in the garden this week and planted, planted, planted. Weeded, weeded, weeded. Mulched, mulched, mulched. Still, in the end, at least it seems like I made progress. I hope to make more either next week or the week after. We'll see what life throws at us and what the weather throws at us as well. The problem is now that it is warming up, everything is growing like weeds----especially the weeds. I have been working hard to get the warm-season flowers in the ground so they can get off to a good start before the weather gets too hot. We still are rain deficient here for April, so probably will end April that way. It looks like May will bring more rain though, and with it, all the thunderstorms and stuff that we don't especially want.

See y'all tomorrow.

Dawn

I have no idea what's in the to-go tubs. Hopefully what's supposed to be. I carefully followed my check-off list,
that's all I know. I did these all
yesterday, so was left to my own plants to try and stuff in today. I stuffed a lot in, I know I did. I threw away many many white styrofoam cups and stacked many many little black nursery pots. Why does it not look like anything's missing from the deck!

Rebecca,
after I said I wondered if I had clean jeans, I actually had to go look! It's supposed to be perfect weather tomorrow,
but I tend to get cold easily. I just
recently began wearing short-sleeved T shirts after a bruising cold
winter. Don't you have to wonder how I
ever survived Wyoming and Minnesota?

I didn't work my fingers to the bone, exactly, this week, but I did plenty. Mostly I was just confusedly trying to deal with all the unplanted seedlings.

Oh! You have to see what was growing 6 feet from our front door. GDW found it while mowing the weeds out there.

So then we had to comb the rest of our place, but nope, just that one. Well, at least now I know what they look like. Bruce confirmed we found what we thought we did. Can you believe it! SIX feet from our front door next to a clump of monkey grass.

I'm not washing my hair tonight. I did last year so I'd look decent. And it rained inches and inches before leaving and all the way coming back, and drizzled the whole time we were there. So.

Isn't this just the strangest growing weather. Stuff that doesn't mind cool is huge and happy. Warm weather lovers, nada. Poor hydrangeas will never forgive me for this. Same with the peonies, who are begrudgingly trying out a few tiny blooms, just to see if it'll freeze again.

Remember all those little tiny lavenders I wanted to try, and every single one germinated. And got no takers for the little tykes. I just planted probably a dozen little lavenders in a couple beds today. I can only hope they don't actually all flourish. If so, I will be hauling bunches to SF next year. Same with your Cape Daisies, Rebecca.

Same with nicotiana. I knew better than to grow any, as it self-seeds. But I did. And it did. Well, the yard should smell good this year, right?

Okay. . . see y'all tomorrow, God willing and the creek don't rise.

Nancy, It is beyond hysterical that there is one and only one morel and that it was only six feet from the door. Watch for more next year, and probably a bit earlier than this one if your weather is warmer next April.

OK y'all, before I go to sleep tonight, I'm going to start next week's thread, but haven't decided yet if I'll call it April or May. Apray? Mapril? Somehow, May seems more appropriate, but then March was warm and gave us Spummer and April was cool and gave us Sprinter, so we can only guess what May will bring us.

I love nicotiana so much that I don't care if it reseeds. Of course, that attitude gets me in trouble a lot because too many reseeding volunteers leaves one with weeds--- just a better class of weeds to remove.

Dawn