Gorgeous! A work of art!

Nancy, my MGs just won’t bloom either. It’s a weird year. I also have Aji Dulce peppers from your plant, and no idea what to do with them.

My PEPH are weird. I don’t think that’s what they are. The first packet I planted, from David’s, only a few came up. Those are climbing the trellis and have yellow flowers. Second pack was from BI, and they look different, I should get a picture. But, the leaves are shaped differently, and they show no sign of climbing, just a thick stem going straight up, no tendrils to grab the trellis. Weird, because I’ve never had trouble with BI mispackaging seeds. I wonder what I’m growing.

TMD opens Saturday, the day we leave for Texas, of course.

Whats up up with these tomatoes?

Rebecca, Dawn keeps telling me to be patient about MGs and morning glory vine. :)

As a matter of fact, I was just researching. Not uncommon for them not to bloom until mid-August. LOL

Nancy, Yes, and it drives me crazy to wait for them. Some varieties are later than others. Heavenly Blue never blooms until latest July or earliest August when I grow it. Grandpa Ott's blooms earlier. Early Call might be the earliest. This year I am not waiting for them. I am yanking them out when they sprout (this pains me because I love Morning Glories) because I get about a million volunteer MGs every year all over the garden and I am incredibly tired of dealing with them. I am going to yank out all of them from now on when they sprout in the garden, no matter what. If I must have morning glories somewhere, I'll plant them up by the house and not in the fenced garden, and if I do that.....I won't have MGs anyway because the deer will eat them all. Last year for the first time, MGs popped up in the back garden. I was horrified. They've never been a problem back there before.

Rebecca, Have a nice trip to Fort Worth! I haven't been there since March, I think. Won't TMD be open for a couple more weeks so you can get plants on the next weekend?

The damage on your tomato plants could be one of two things. Oh, well, I guess it could be both of those things. Oh wait, it looks like possibly 4 different things. Can you tell I am typing as I think? Make that 5 things. It looks most like spider mites. They would be on the undersides of the leaves, at least until they start venturing out and making webs (mine never make it that far, I think I have native predatory mites that start killing them before they can get that far). You've had spider mites before right? The other pest possibility is tomato psyllids, which I've only seen in person twice, and last in 2008 or 2009. What makes it look like an early stage of tomato psyllids? The white stuff on your leaves. That stuff could be so-called psyllid sugars, i.e. their waste products. Nothing else on your plant looks like psyllid damage though, so the white could be powdery mildew. That's option three. Option 4 comes to mind because of the green and yellow coloration of your leaves which is almost patterned. This can be from spider mite damage. It also might be magnesium deficiency which usually shows up as yellow leaf tissue and green along the veins. For number five? The brown spots on the leaves could be related to advance magnesium deficiency but I think I see some concentric circles, so that would indicate Early Blight. Other than the above, I don't see anything wrong. There's probably at least 3 different things going on. Guess what I think? I think if the whole plant looks like that, I'd baby it along to let any existing fruit finish ripening and then I'd remove it and replace it with a new plant from TMD. Now, I'm exhausted. Tomato diagnosis is hard and I have to go let the dog out.

I'll be back in a while.

Dawn

Dawn, I pretty much figured blight, but everything else confused me. Don’t we say every year that it’s a bad year for tomatoes? I doubt it’s a deficiency, as they get regular doses of both Tomato Tone and MG. Guess it’s spider mites. I might go broke treating it. TMD will be open later, but I’ve got so much blight going on, and those spider mites, that I kind of want to hunt down a few hybrids. I’m afraid what I get from her would be dead in a week.

Nancy, I’ll try to be patient for the morning glories. It’s hard. Patience isn’t one of my virtues.

Rebecca, Our climate is not kind to tomatoes. That is one reason I like to start over with fresh plants for fall. No matter how well the plants have done, by mid-July they are tired, pests are attacking them, they've used up tons of energy producing lots of fruit, diseases are attacking them, the incessant heat is wearing them out, etc. Maybe for all those people who put their plants in the ground in early May, keeping the same plants going for fall is an option---their plants have been in the ground only a couple of months, after all. My plants go into the ground in March, so they're a lot older, a lot more tired, a lot more worn out. New plants are much preferred for fall and it is really hard to win the battle against spider mites anyway, and I understand why you'd want hybrids for the second half of the year. They have hybrid vigor and are bred for certain disease tolerances.

Kim, Very nice! Are y'all roasting hot there now?

Larry, I've always thought that you and Madge are a love story for the ages. Now I know that y'all are a hilarious love story for the ages.

I don't know what your tall plant is. Some sort of bird seed that sprouted maybe? Whatever it is, I think it is pretty. When it forms seed heads maybe that will provide a clue.

Nancy, We don't discuss sanity (or lack of such) here....for obvious reasons. You know, I always say that you don't have to be crazy to garden here in this part of the country, but it sure helps. If we were sane, we would have given up gardening and taken up some other hobby long ago.

Jennifer, I do the same thing with animal's names more so than with people's names....so far. I really think it is just that we cram so much into minds nowadays and the short-term memory is so crammed that it has a hard time pulling the right name at the right time.

Nancy, Good luck with the fox. Remember that old saying.....as sly as a fox. You're probably going to have to trick her somehow.

Dawn

Dawn, the pictures I posted were of EGs, which are usually indestructible in my yard. Usually! lol. They’re also my mom’s favorite tomato, above the OPs. So, yeah, will check Fort Worth for tomatoes. They’re really impressed with Bolseno over on the tomato board, might try that next year.

Dawn, thanks. Madge of have a good time, we are joking all the time. I am always trying to thing of tall tales and funny stories to tell her. She says she enjoys it.

Nancy, I tried to get back and tell you that you don't have to believe everything I post. As far as I know it is all true, I just try to put a colorful light on it. We could talk all night about the crazy things Madge and I have done.

I hate this tablet, it is so hard for me to use.

Got the fox! Actually friend Mark did. We were up sitting on the ground visiting her after the neighbor dog came barreling over with owners on her heels, and Snowflake dived into our little culvert. So Mark leaned down and we petting her as she stuck her head out, and said he could get her if I got the cage. I did; he just picked her up gently by the nape of her neck. Slick as a whistle. She's now inside a hard plastic cage, INSIDE another all metal big dog cage. I wasn't sure she couldn't chew through the plastic. LOL. A very unhappy little fox tonight.

Okay, so you really didn't have to use the Draino and plunger! LOLOLOL

Rebecca, you and I will wait together impatiently. LOL Thanks, Dawn!

"I'm saying this is the south, And we're proud of our crazy people"

One of my favorite Julia Sugarbaker quotes.

Because y'all were talking about sanity...and Oklahoma is sort of the south. Southern Living considers us the south. The census considers us the south. True, deep south southerners do not.

Poor little fox.

I do not mind making paths in the garden as long as there is shade. I just wish the work moved along a little faster.

I'm carefully watching Rosa. Tomorrow is Day 19. Stormy hatched on Day 19. Rosa isn't looking so good. I've been making her leave the nest for a few minutes each day to drink and eat. Now...what to do with Dolly and Stormy once Rosa's chicks hatch....I'll move them out of the nursery area. Maybe keep them in the old coop and stuff the cracks with cardboard to prevent a snake sneaking in. Hopefully.

I have so much to say about the garden, but am tired. And it's probably not that interesting anyway.

HJ, I know. I feel so badly for her. I SO wish we could have snapped her up this morning and could have set out immediately for Wildheart. Sigh. But Annette reassured me it will be fine. But she WILL survive this one overnight, and then she will have a good good life. (AFTER her quarantine, medical treatments, and so forth. Yep, she has some more anxious days ahead of her.)

Your gardening is ALWAYS interesting to me.

I just had a sort of epiphany. This may not be the appropriate place for it. But as tender as our hearts are, yours and mine, about the little fox, thing of God's heart for His children and creatures. This is life on earth. When I think of how I feel about this one little fox, think how God feels toward us all (all His creatures) when he sees the predicaments we land in.

Finally managed a little time to read and catch up!

The fox story reminds me of all the wild animal pets we had growing up. Squirrels, skunks, raccoons and cottontails. They were fun, but I doubt I ever do it again! I survived drinking out of the water hose, riding in the back of a pickup, swimming and wading creeks around venomous snakes and whole lot of things I probably won't introduce my grandkids to.

Lots of funny stories revolving around some of the wild pets, but it would take days or weeks to write them down!

I think of lot of those things may serve to make us stronger, or maybe we only survived because of our strengths?

Most of the gardening activity right now involves picking and trying to keep up with all the produce. All but two small onions are out of the ground, but I still need to finish digging the garlic. Okra is slowly growing, but still way behind. Cucumbers are really starting to put on in large enough quantities to be able to put up pickles.

I'm still getting plenty of peppers, but a lot of the plants are looking pretty sad. Not sure what's going on with them, but I'm not that worried about it! The tomatoes are starting to show signs of decline, but overall they are still cranking out fruit. I'm still seeing a little blossom drop, but most are still setting new ones.

I had one of the members in OFG ask what my secret was on tomatoes and it kind of stumped me. Secret? I didn't realize planting in decent soil, mulching and normal feeding and watering was so mysterious? I guess they were looking for the magic pixie dust additives that seem so popular? Sorry guys, no magic pixie dust used here!

Bruce, That is so true. The secret, honestly, lies in the soil. By that I mean good soil. It doesn't matter what else a gardener does if the soil is poor. For folks like us who put in a significant amount of time improving our soil, the proof is in the pudding as my dad used to say. Oh, and trying to get them planted on time. Timing really matters. Magic pixie dust has me laughing!

I got fruit set--maybe a dozen more fruit---during the early July cooler weather and brief rainfall. Nothing is setting now though, so I am guessing your nights must be slightly cooler than mine or something. The first fall tomato, still in a pot and not even in the ground yet, has a fruit on it that is slightly larger than a golf ball. That bloom must have been on the plant in early to mid-June when I bought those plants and it must have been pollinated at that time. I do remember a flower or two on that plant, but didn't expect fruit from those flowers because of the heat.

It is warming up again, temperature-wise, and the dewpoints are not especially kind either. Next week we are are forecast to hit 99 around Monday or Tuesday so the brief reprieve from the wicked temperatures is about to end.

I worked outdoors as long as I could this morning, but was in by 10:30 a.m. All I did was weed, and I felt like the humidity was sucking the life out of me from the moment I went outdoors.

My pepper plants look sad too, by the way. The leaves are a little droopy. Not wilted like they are going to die, but just sort of hanging down more than usual and looking unhappy. I don't know why but expect it is just the heat because the sweet peppers look sadder than the hot peppers, which fits with what we know about peppers, which is that in our climate, the sweet peppers are less tolerant of the high heat than the hot peppers are. They all are producing well, but they just don't look happy.

Nancy, I am sure the little fox will be fine. In an odd way, she might feel somewhat relieved that she is in a safe place and doesn't have to fend for herself. It really seems most likely she was bred to be a pet and then escaped or was released into the wild? It makes you wonder about her human family and if they are looking for her, or don't care, or set her free (whether or not she has enough natural instincts left to enable her to survive on her own) or whatever. With the way she took up with y'all and Titan, I really think she had a family and that they had a big dog. Hopefully she'll be happy at the animal sanctuary.

We have raised and released small animals like squirrels and bunnies who lost their mamas too early, and rehabilitated an owl that crashed through the skylight in our first chicken coop, cutting open his head and banging up a wing. After a few weeks of the easy life in a turkey coop with a fenced run, we released him back into the wild. It seems like we always were rehabbing a wild thing here and there when we first moved here---they weren't used to humans and seemed to come around very readily as if they were curious about us. (A deer once came up to the house and peeked in through the breakfast room window, which cracks me up to this day.)

Jennifer, I love that quote and I loved that show. I've always considered us southerners and felt we are a part of the south---whether we lived in Texas or in Oklahoma. I think a lot of folks in TX and OK always believed themselves to be southerners, but understand from older relatives that post Civil-War reconstruction was so brutal in Texas that, almost as a survival technique, Texans began aligning themselves more with the Wild West than the Old South. It makes sense when you think about it. Southern Living magazine has been a staple in my life for as long as I can remember and always will be. I love so much about it, but especially all the gardening and decorating articles and photos, the Grumpy Gardener's input and, of course, Rick Bragg's column.

Rebecca, EGs usually are indestructible. Mine still are producing and look a little better than yours (not much better), but they've been fighting Early Blight and spider mites for some time now. The difference between them and some other varieties is that most years they win that fight and other varieties don't.

When I first woke up this morning, I checked the weather and the relative humidity was 99%. Ugh. I didn't even want to go out into that sort of thick, heavy air, but I did. It isn't too bad out there until maybe 9 o'clock and then it just warms up so insanely fast.

We got a brief rain shower yesterday that dropped about one-tenth of an inch of rain here. It wasn't much, but obviously was better than nothing. The cracks in the ground are widening again, so whatever moisture we get just doesn't last long.

Dawn

Due to accident I haven’t been able to Garden last couple years. This year my husband made several raised beds for me. I have 6 long green pod okra in a raised bed about 4x 8’. They are about 4-5’ high and beautiful but no blooms. I fed about 10 days ago with superbloom but still not blooming. Are they too crowded?

I don't think they are too crowded. I have 8 plants in a bed that size and they are producing just fine. Mine look too crowded but it is because they are Stewart's Zeebest, which is a very densely branching variety that always looks too crowded even if you space the plants 4' apart. Normally, as long as okra plants are at least 18" apart there is not crowding issue, and I've seen some people grow them 12" apart. Your plants may be too pampered and may be continuing to focus on foliar growth even though you feed them a bloom booster. Okra plants produce best when they are hot and dry, so I wouldn't water them and I wouldn't feed them again. I don't know how long yours have been in the ground, but most okra plants 'should' be producing pods roughly 70 days after the plants emerge from the soil. There are lots of folks on our Oklahoma facebook pages complaining of big happy okra plants with no blossoms or pods yet, so for whatever reason, in this crazy weather year, the okra plants are being somewhat slower than usual. My okra plants have been producing for only 2 or 3 weeks now and I am very, very far south in OK (almost in Texas). If you're further north, perhaps the recent rounds of rain in June or early July has kept them too happy and making too much vegetative growth. They'll start making pods when they are ready.

Ok, this is what is growing out of what was labeled as PEPH from BI. I think it’s pretty obvious that’s not what it is, but the question is, what am I actually growing? Maybe I’ll send the pictures to BI. They don’t usually screw up their packing.

Lost a Creole today. Not sure to what, but with everything attacking my tomatoes now, it could be any or all of it.

I'm not sure why you think they aren't PEPHs? They look exactly like my southern peaslook when they are young. Of course, until they produce peas and you can see the hulls turn purple, you cannot be sure if they are the right variety. Regardless, the leaves look like southern peas. Southern peas can exhibit quite a bit of variation in leaf size and shape, especially while young.

If yours are not growing in full sun, and sometimes even if they are in full sun, they may get lanky trying to reach for the sun and may vine a little or a lot. Southern peas often do bizarre things. I've had PEPHs reach across a pathway from one bed to another and then climb tomato plant cages all the way to the top (6' or 8' tall depending on the specific cage) and then cascade back down to the bottom, and those were so-called bush varieties. I have found that a lot of bush varieties of both southern peas and beans are only bushy if they don't have anything to climb. Put something near them that they can climb, and they'll climb endlessly. Bush Lima Beans do the same thing. My bush lima beans have nothing but each other to climb but if they had a trellis to stretch and climb, they'd be 4 or 5' tall now, instead of just being a big, tangled mess. The so-called half runner beans? They will climb 8-10' tall. You cannot always trust legumes to behave themselves.

I'm sorry about the Creole tomato. It simply is that sort of year and also that time of the year.

I look at my garden in amazement every day, shocked it still is alive and producing in this heat, and given the lack of rainfall here. Of course, I have watered a lot to keep it going. Had I not watered, pretty much everything would be dead and the garden would be full of something yucky like crab grass, foxtail grass, pigweed and bind weed.

The heat today was ridiculous---not just the temperatures but the heat index numbers. When I looked at the Heat Index Map around 1 or 2 pm and saw how high the heat indices were in NE OK, I couldn't understand why there wasn't a Heat Advisory in place for the NE quarter of OK. An hour or so later, they issued one.

Both our high temperature and our heat index exceeded today's forecast by several degrees. That just makes me dread the rest of this week because each day is supposed to be hotter than the day before and we do not need for the temperatures to be overachieving.

The window of opportunity to work in the garden in the morning hours is getting shorter and shorter every day. The garden feels really good for that first hour or so of the day before sunlight hits it. Then, it is all downhill after that. Even with the garden out in the garden, I seem to last for a shorter period of time each day. Pretty soon all I'm going to do is walk out, open the gate, walk inside, say "Whew, it's too hot" and turn and walk back to the house. August is still ahead. I hate August.

Need some help. Someone brought a tomato to SF & my tag is half faded. All I can make out is "Ma_____ Pink". Produces pinkish beefsteak fruit. Any ideas?

Dawn, it makes me thing they aren't PEPH because they aren't climbing. They have a trellis but no tendrils to grab on and climb. The ones from the first pack I planted are climbing. These are just growing straight up, ignoring their trellis.

Eeee!!!

The first photo is my non blooming okra. The 2nd is 2 zucchini plants that are huge and producing like crazy. I planted radishes around the squash and zucchini and let them go to seed and they are blooming. I heard that deters squash bugs and so far have not had even one! Dawn, I think you are right that I’ve been pampering the okra too much. I will now ignore it for awhile and see what happens. Tomorrow we will pull out 1/2 of the tomatoes - they aren’t producing and have a gray mold on them. The Porters and Sungolds are growing and I bring in several daily. Or at least I pick several- the little tomatoes I eat soon as picked. Rebecca I have PEPH about a foot tall and they look like your pictures.

I'm going to backread everything and post tomorrow. I have gardening things to discuss, but my mind is on animals.

The cats are oddly doing okay right now. Finbar isn't bugging her so much. Maybe because his food bowl is empty and he's bugging me. lol. She is a love too. Really is a lap cat. He's ornery right now--that late kittenhood ornery.

And the baby chick! I'll never be able to sleep tonight! I'll have to go check every hour. Rosa is weary of me already.

I see people have posted interesting thing. I'll catch up and respond....

Jen, Mamie Brown's Pink.

Rebecca, There are many strains of PEPHs out there (some with their own names to differentiate them from others) and some climb less than others or more than others. There's not just one PEPH pea, which can be frustrating. I suppose all the others were selected out of the original PEPH. If BI sells it only listed as PEPH though, I wouldn't think it is one of the various strains that may be either more bushy than the original or more climbing. I suppose time will tell.

Jennifer, I'm glad the animals are doing alright. They're definitely front and center for you right now with all that is going on. Your current egg obsession is all the fault of the hens who went broody. Chris went through this thing a couple of years ago where he bought an incubator and ordered fertilized eggs and was hatching them out in the incubator right and left. It sort of drove me nuts because on days he worked his standard 24-hour shift, guess who had to keep an eye on the incubator and make sure the temperature was in the right range, the humidity was in the right range, etc. and then when the chicks hatched, I had to get them out of the incubator and into the brooder, teaching them to drink, etc. It was during Spring planting season so it wasn't like I had a lot of spare time. I was glad when his incubator obsession ended although we got some interesting chickens out of the whole ordeal.

farmgardenerok, Everything looks wonderful. Your plants look very healthy so I think it is just a matter of time and patience.....you know, a watched pot never boils and all that.

I've always felt that eating tomatoes in the garden is the perogative of the gardener. I think of the bite-sized tomatoes as a gardener's own form of Gatorade and like to eat them (especially SunGolds) while working. My husband has no idea how many SunGolds never even make it up to the house before they are devoured. He does like tomatoes, but he is not a tomato maniac like I am.

It is time to get some sleep. Morning comes early and the window of opportunity to beat the heat is getting awfully slim.

Dawn

Long long day. Got little fox up to rescue place. 2 hr drive. Mission accomplished. GDW medical appt. Words fail us. Not good. Wiped out this evening with shell shock. SO angry with medical care here. See my FB for further explanation.

Nancy, I understand your medical frustration, I have been waiting for a call from Joplin Mo. For near 2 months. My old doctor has retired and had told me that I would probably never cancer free. My new doctor is young and aggressive and tells me that if the cancer is still contained in my abdomen ,"only", he may De able to help me. My insurance has approved me going to Joplin, but still no word from Joplin on me coming there.

I still get up and try to garden some every day, but I would like to know what the odds are on the time I have left. When I get to weak to garden I want to turn the gardens back into a lawn to make if easier for Madge to care for the place.

Larry, I am astounded and dismayed with your situation--and ours, right now. UnbeLIEVEable. UNacceptable.

WHERE do you live, Larrry???

Nancy, thanks for your concern, but I am actually a very blessed man. My dad died at age 35 with cancer, my baby brother at age 62. My mother had cancer over 50 years ago and will be 94 in October, both of my children are cancer survivers.

I can walk 1/4 to 1/2 mile a day, by breaking that up into short stretches and riding my very small tractor when want to go somewhere on the place I can do pretty much anything I want to do. I plan on making the rows in my garden 8+ feet apart and mowing or brush hogging between the rows. I hope to have a living mulch between the rows.

I still have a bump or two in my road, but I am not going to slow down any more than I have to.

We've experienced the "great" healthcare too. Been trying for 5 years now to figure out what's going on with my husband. According to one doc, it's perfectly normal to go to bed a size 42 & wake up 6 hours later a size 50. Or to He just gained weight & needs to lose a few pounds. Maybe, but literally gaining 4 extra sizes overnight?

Thanks Dawn! I figured you would know. The one last night had some bad cracking from the rain, but the taste was pretty good. Hope the others don't split like this one did.

Husband is pup sitting a Felon today. The owners got the pup from Lexington's inmate training program so they named him Felon. If all of their dogs turn out like him, I'd say the program is an amazing success. Great dog, very well behaved though a bit intimidated by our tazmanian devil.

Nancy, I live about 15 miles south of Ft. Arkansas.

My doctor tells me that the machine he wants to run me through is in Joplin, the next closest is around Dallas.

Nancy, I am just so sorry you and GDW are going through this. It is ridiculous. There's got to be some way to get a doctor to do something other than what....an office appointment and medication and then the next office appointment pushed way out there weeks or months away? Then what? More medication that probably also won't work? It is like y'all are on an endless hamster's wheel, running, running, running and cannot get off of it, and nothing improves either. I don't understand it.

Larry, I'm sorry you're having to wait to hear back from Joplin. It is just as ridiculous as Garry having this stomach infection drag on for months with endless doctor's appointments that don't seem to help any. When I found out I had cancer in 1999, things might not have moved along as quickly as I would have hoped, but we certainly weren't waiting endlessly for appointments and scans either. I hope you hear from Joplin soon.

Jen, That is peculiar about your DH's overnight weight gains. It seems like some doctor somewhere ought to be able to explain why?? This must be maddening for y'all to not get an answer.....a legit answer based on medical science.

I love Felon's name. It just makes me laugh. I am glad that Felon is a good dog.

The heat is ridiculous out there today. I keep hoping a pop-up thunderstorm will find us and cool us down, but it hasn't happened yet. The garden is hot and miserably dry, but not as much as the parts of our property that aren't irrigated. We're developing some big cracks in the ground out there where the deer feed by the compost pile. Today I removed a few more tomato plants that are through producing and not worth nursing along until fall. I weeded the asparagus bed. I weeded two more raised beds and deadheaded zinnias, marigolds and purple coneflowers. I would have liked to stay out and weed longer, but the heat index was pretty unbearable by mid-morning. I guess the chickens are done with the summer heat. They sit by the back door and wait for me as if they are going to follow me indoors. I can't blame the for wanting to come inside, but it's not happening. The cats and dogs are perfectly content to hang out indoors. I know they must be bored. I've been cutting catnip and bringing it indoors for the cats. It isn't the same as playing outdoors, but it does amuse them for a while.

The garden is very full of bees. As planned/hoped, it is chock full of blooming plants for them, so anything in the garden that needs pollination is getting it. In fact, it is hard to deadhead spent blooms because the bees get riled up and start flying in circles around my head when I start cutting flowers. I deadheaded and got away from all the blossoms as quickly as I could. I have no wish to get into a territorial dispute with the bees.

The grasshopper population is huge and getting bigger daily. I need to spray the Beauveria bassiana product to attempt to kill them, but I just hate to do it. I am afraid it will harm the beneficial insects more than my research leads me to expect. It would be a bonus if it kills the squash bugs as well though. I cut the squash bugs in half with my scissors when I see them, but there's still a lot of them in the garden. Today I cut several of them in half and took great join in watching both halves of their bodies falling to the ground. At this point, I don't even know why the squash plants are still alive and still producing. I've thought about just going ahead and pulling them out and planting something else in that space just so I don't have to deal with squash bugs any more. I won't do it, though, because we do like squash and zucchini and I like having the extra ones to feed the deer. So, the squash plants get to live another day.

I'm not making big plans for a fall garden, other than fall tomato plants. Maybe carrots. We'll see. I cannot plant greens down here until pretty late because we often stay in the upper 90s and low 100s through the end of September, so greens aren't planted until late Sept. anyway. All the numerical indicators I look at, combined with long-term forecasts, lead me to expect we're still heading into drought and probably sooner rather than later. The early July rainfall gave us a brief reprieve, and removed the two small areas of Moderate Drought from our county on the Drought Monitor map last week. This week? A new part of the county is back in Moderate Drought on this week's map, so the reprieve didn't last long, and I can feel the hot breath of Moderate Drought breathing down our neck. We might not make it back into Moderate Drought on next week's Drought Monitor map but it is coming....and it doesn't matter if it is next week or a week or two later. I know better than to try to start a fall garden during drought.

I've got my 8 "sacrificial lamb" tomato plants on the northern edge of the garden that I planted so I could transfer tobacco and tomato hornworms to them. They look better than the plants that have been producing heavily, so those 8 plants plus the 8 new ones I have for fall (still in containers) may be our fall garden. We're headed for the 100s early next week so I probably should plant the fall tomato plants in the ground tomorrow.

I also need to harvest peppers, okra and squash tomorrow. I don't think the first lima beans are quite ready yet.

I found a small cluster of datura plants popping up in the corner of the watermelon bed, so I dug them up and transplanted them to places where they can grow on for the rest of the season. I removed about half their foliage and watered them in well, and expect they'll survive being transplanted in mid-July. If they don't, I have some seed I can scatter to replace them.

I hear thunder! I need to go outside and see if a storm is coming, or if it is going to pass by us.

Dawn

Now mind you, I only have 12 different tomato plants out there, including Principe Borghese (which I haven't picked, will tomorrow); Mortgage Lifters, got too hot for those 2. These newbies are from the 2 Heidis, 1 Carbon, 1 Cherokee Carbon, New Girl, and finally Baker Family Heirlooms. I just picked tomatoes day before yesterday. And there will be a bunch more tomorrow, I'm sure. Oh, and 2 Sungolds. Not tons of tomatoes but tons enough for me!!! I'm tickled. Have 15 pints of Annie's salsa sitting on the counter. Lots of BLTs. Think BLTs again tonight. Two dozen more on the "ripe, to be dealt with" table. Thanks so much to all of you who have helped me. I LUB you guys!!!

Oh. I roasted a big ole bunch of Sungolds day before yesterday and stuck them in quart bags in the freezer. Put a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar into mix, along with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Roasted them 25 minutes at 425 degrees. I almost swooned upon tasting them. They will make a dandy fancy spaghetti or fettucini dish upon using.

I'm just now sitting down. It's been quite the day. Ethan was in a wreck that probably totaled his car. Luckily he wasn't hurt. Other than that, it's been a good day...just busy.

Nancy, I'm sorry about health "professionals" not taking care of Garry. Ridiculous and frustrating.

Dawn, I hope you got rain.

I've got a baby chick. And a cat who is scared of the other cat because he chases her.

Wanted to catch up on gardening stuff, but it's late and I have to get up earlier than normal to drive Ethan to an ACT prep class.

I typed a long post and lost it and it is too late at night to start over. So, just the most important thing.....Jennifer, I am so glad that Ethan was not injured.

It Doggone it, Dawn!!! That's so frustrating, isn't it! But yes, you hit the high point. How's Ethan, HJ? Bet he was a bit shaken by the whole thing. Bet YOU were, too. So thankful he's okay.

Larry, life was never promised to be easy, right? I feel for you. I'm angry for your, regarding health care. Feel for Garry. Hate it all. Amy spent a great deal of time today doing a study of doctor specialists per capita in Dallas, Chicago, Mpls, OKC and Tulsa. Although it solves nothing, it explains why those of us in the Tulsa areas are so angry with health care. They're dead last. And unbelievably, OKC fared best at #1 in many if not all categories. Can't remember exactly, Amy. So now am thinking IF the urologist office calls tomorrow, as they said they would, I may ask for a referral to OKC. Meanwhile, at least the urologist called in yet one more antibiotic for GDW today, which I went in to get.

Thank you to all of you for your concern. I SO appreciate it.

Been binge watching a good series (British detective) since after dinner. That darn Garry, roping me into these.

Larry, life was never promised to be easy, right? I feel for you and have to remind myself about it. I'm angry for you, regarding health care. Feel for Garry. Hate it all. But as Garry and I agreed tonight, we're so much luckier than SO SO many human beings. Gotta keep things in perspective. And sounds like you have your master's degree in that perspective thing. God Bless You!

I am SO relieved today I didn't have to think about a little 3 1/2 month old aberrantly colored, but GORGEOUSLY aberrantly-colored little white fox. When we took HIM (so now I think of him as Snowball rather than Snowflake), Annette immediately had one of the workers video him when she put him into his large temporary very comfy cage, after a big flea-killing, tick-killing thorough bath) with a little fleece den, fleece-bottomed lining, and big bowl of good food with supplemental vitamins. He was so full of fleas and ticks (the ticks which she was picking off like crazy until he got a little distressed), and also has worms. . . she is going to take it a little easy. Can't give him worming medicine or tick treatment until they get him stronger. She wrapped him up in a towel after giving him a thorough bath and was snuggling him up to her, and then handed him to me to snuggle, for the first and last time. We were there about an hour, and when we left, he was snuggled up in his little fleece den in the big cage, and was one sleepy and content little tiny fox. His chicken gizzards were in his little den with him. LOL. The crew there fell in love with him, of COURSE. She had a video of him on FB showing him in the cage with his food, and there were like 200 comments. Later last night and today, I see it is missing. I noted in the comments that two different people thought he might be their missing little marble fox (except both of theirs were older.) Maybe that particular video exceeded their video limits. Not sure. But they definitely will remember us and told us to be sure to ask about him whenever we wanted, and to visit them any time we would like to. I will ask about the now missing video tomorrow.

And now. . . I will say: I hate that human beings breed these animals for fur or for "exotic" pets. Ticks me off bigtime, to say the least.

https://www.google.com/search?q=wild+heart+ranch&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS763US763&oq=wild+heart+ranch&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3j0l2.7903j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

So the fox saga is ended. Thank you GOD!!! LOL

Nevertheless, like our ugly skinny elderly little bulldog last year, when we get them to the right place, it costs! Dang. But a great charitable gift. Still funny. We save this little fox, I worry about him for a week, try to get him to hang here, then go to all the trouble of figuring out how to trap him and get him to a safe haven(two hours away), and then feel compelled to give them a hundred bucks. LOLOL. hahahaha. I have to pay folks to take these little critters that show up here. Cracks me up.

Nancy, You have such a good heart and I'm so glad the little fox ended up in a place that can deal with his needs, can get him back in good health (all those ticks!) and help him have a brighter future. He might not understand it, but it was his lucky day when he showed up at your family's home.

The whole medical thing is just one big ball of frustration at this point. OKC does have astonishingly good health care facilities and doctors, and perhaps y'all will find more responsive medical personnel there. For those of us who live in lightly populated counties without big medical facilities, it is a blessing to have OKC within driving range because that often is where the more serious medical problems are resolved. (Being so far south, a lot of people here also get sent to the big medical facilities in the DFW metro but that's partially because the DFW metro is quit a bit closer to us geographically.) Where we live, the cancer and heart cases, for example. all get referred to doctors and hospitals up in OKC or down in the Dallas area, and I'm not sure why they choose Dallas over OKC---not because OKC is not the equivalent quality but more often just because it is 20 or 30 miles closer, I think. I've noticed that when they are choosing where to fly trauma cases after a bad wreck or explosion or whatever, the Medical Center of Plano is often the first choice because it is the closest Level 1 Trauma Center and the distance matters a lot in trauma cases.

Hopefully y'all can get a referral today to someone that will be more proactive about the infection that is plaguing Garry. There's so many antibiotic-resistant infections nowadays that it is scary.

Jennifer, Whatever kind of vehicle Ethan was driving----it did its job. It protected him from harm. Gotta love that even though it is regrettable the car might be totaled. Cars are expendable and we all have auto insurance for a reason. As long as Ethan is okay, that's all that matters and I know we're all so grateful he wasn't badly injured.

Congrats on the little chick. Now, watch for snakes because they are out in full force and are hungry....and heartless. I hate having baby chicks in the middle of summer because it can be such a battle to keep the wildlife from getting them.

That cats will be fine. They both will adjust to one another and likely will become best buddies. It just takes time, and sometimes it takes a long time. They'll be just fine and will work things out between them as they become more used to one another.

We didn't really get rain. We got raindrops. Thunder. Lightning. Clouds. Lots of drama but almost none of the wet stuff. After about 2 hours of sporadic raindrops, we might have had enough to add up to 1/100th of an inch in the rain gauge. Someone in our county got rain but it wasn't us. So the drought-like conditions drag on.

The rain-cooled air all around us cooled us down a lot, from the mid-90s to the mid-80s, so I went outside in late afternoon to harvest all the squash, figuring I'd get ahead of the chores on my list of things To Do on Friday. It sort of worked out. Despite the fact that we didn't get the rain, for some reason we got the Dewpoint of....78! It went up from 70 in the early afternoon to 78 in the late afternoon. I couldn't figure out why it felt so insanely hot when I was out there in the garden because it was only 83 degrees and very cloudy when I went out. When I came into the house with 5 gallons of squash, I was dripping sweat and feeling totally miserable. After I dumped all the squash on the table and grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, I checked the weather on my laptop and our temperature was 89 but our heat index was 103. That led me to check the dewpoint because there was such a large gap between the temperature and the heat index. So, we got the yucky stuff but not the rain which is just so frustrating. On the other hand, not getting rain makes it easy to decide at this point which plants are worth watering and worth having and which ones aren't.

Today is demolition day in the garden. I've already been taking out tomato plants one by one after harvesting the last viable fruit off of them, and today I'll take out even more of them. I could have done it yesterday afternoon but it was too miserable out there so I left it for this morning. There's no point to continue watering the tomato plants and caring for them when they aren't going to set fruit for a couple more months. I just don't see the point in fighting pests either on tired old plants that have been in the ground since March and have produced heavy loads of fruit, which leaves them tired and depleted. So, it is hasta la vista baby, for all the tomato plants from March and early April except for just a couple. I'll leave the 8 sacrificial lambs on the northern edge of the garden as they are in much better shape since they're partially shaded. These are the ones I move tomato hornworms to, but since they haven't produced much (they weren't put into the ground until May), they're not tired and worn out, and they did set some fruit whenever we had cooler weather.

After taking out the tomato plants, I'm taking out all the squash plants. It isn't even their fault. They're all still alive, healthy, a nice pretty green and producing. They're just loaded with squash bugs though and I hate squash bugs. No matter how many I kill, there's a billion more, and they are laying eggs like mad. I could spend my whole two or three hours of daily garden time doing nothing but removing squash eggs from each and every leaf, and I bet I still wouldn't get them all. So, I'm going to pull those plants, bag them up in black garbage bags, tape them shut with duct tape and line them up in the hot sun so the sun can cook the squash bugs and eggs to death. I know that there are SVBs in all the zucchini plants (I planted Costata Romanesco and Cocozelle this year, and they both are immense favorites of the SVBs), so it is just as well that I go ahead and get rid of them before the SVB grubs can drop into the soil to pupate and give rise to the second generation of the moths. None of the zuke plants look that bad yet, but it is inevitable the SVBs will kill them, so I'll just beat them to it. The only cucurbit I'll have left is my precious watermelons, and I'm determined the squash bugs will not move to them so I have a lot of bug killing to do today. I just don't see the point in continuing to water the squash plants when they've become squash bug factories. The heat returns this coming week with a vengeance. The last time I looked, my forecast for next week had a lot of highs in the 101-102 degree range. With no rain falling, I have to make wise choices about what plants are worth watering and the tired old tomatoes and icky buggy squash plants did not make the list.

As far as vegetable production that leaves us with the new fall tomato plants, the 8 or 10 remaining older tomato, plants, the watermelon bed, peppers (I need to put up shade cloth over them this weekend to help them with the heat), okra, southern peas, the Lima beans and the pole beans. I think I'll take out the pole beans. They haven't produced a single bean and I am not inclined to attempt to carry them through the rest of this miserably hot summer. They're not looking that great....grasshoppers, spider mites, etc. so I won't miss them either. The Lima beans may not make the cut either. The plants look great if you can ignore the fact that every single grasshopper-eaten leaf looks like Swiss cheese, but have set only a few beans. They're not earning their keep and if I take them out, that's one less bed of non-productive plants I have to water. Gardening today is going to be sort of like doing triage after a disaster----with the focus being on who can be saved. Or, in the case of the garden plants, it is even more specific than that---it is not just which plants can be saved and carried on through the summer, but which ones are worth saving. All the flowers and herbs are staying. With so few wildflowers blooming in the dried-up fields, I want to keep the herbs and flowers going for the sake of the butterflies and moths, hummingbirds, and a multitude of good insects and small wildlife.

So, today is sort of a sad day for a gardener---removing plants at the height of the growing season, but with the weather being the way it is, it is the smart thing to do. I see drought conditions returning more and more to our county every day. I see it in the cracks in the ground that continue to enlarge, etc. and with no rain falling, the drought conditions here are going to escalate quickly now. The brief respite from the early July rainfall is over and the heat is back, so I'm just trying to prepare for it by choosing which plants get to stay and which ones must go. Oddly, taking out the tomato plants doesn't bother me that much. With the plants I'm leaving, we'll still have plenty of fruit for fresh eating and there's no need to have more than that since I've taken off a year from canning. We got a nice greenup of the grasses and fields after the rain at the start of the month, but the green already is fading and next week's heat will just speed up that process.

I have to get outside as soon as possible after sunrise this morning so I can tear my garden apart before it gets too hot. I don't even mind deconstructing the garden as much as one might expect, partly because gardening here makes a person learn to be practical and realistic. We'll still have plenty of plants left. I'm glad I choose to make this a big flower year as most of the flower varieties I grow are very well-adapted to heat, and to a lesser extent are somewhat adapted to drought. I don't grow any flowering plants that are high-maintenance and that have high water needs for the obvious reason that they are a poor fit for my climate and weather. Sol, even with a lot of the veggies being removed today, we'll still have plenty left, and having plentiful flowers all over the garden somewhat cushions the blow of giving up the veggies.

Y'all have a good day today and watch out for the heat index numbers again. .The eastern third of the state has a Heat Advisory yet again. Oh, and it is Friday the 13th, so be careful!

Dawn

Nancy, so sorry I didn't see the video!

Dawn, yes...so thankful that Ethan wasn't hurt. The guy's insurance has already called to get Ethan's statement. I dread looking for another car for Ethan. He thinks he's getting a BMW or something. LOL. Uh, no...start looking for a 2005-2007 Honda, Buddy.

Nancy, a few years ago I noticed a change in how doctors' offices ran. When my kids were very small, the offices were very personable..and knew you by name. You could call the nurse and even the doctor would call back. Now, everyone has to have a code and it's all about insurance and it's...just different. You call and it is an automated answering machine. "press 1 if you need this" Press 2 if you need blah blah blah". Back then, our pediatrician took care of business--getting us into specialists quickly if needed. It's just different. And not for the better. Everyone and every situation/illness is a code now. I don't know if I'm explaining that correctly, but it's how it feel. It's one reason I'm trying so hard to live/eat in a healthier way...and learn about medicinal plants. But, regardless, some illnesses and situations need medical attention. And that attention isn't the same as it once was. Errrrr!

So, the baby chick is still alive and well. Why are they so cute?! S/he is a reddish blonde. The other eggs haven't pipped yet. Today is Day 21. I know at least one of those eggs were fertile. If they don't hatch by tonight, I feel that I should move Rosa and Jules to the "nursery" area with the eggs. Rosa needs to show Jules how to drink and eat soon. Plus, Rosa needs to eat and drink as well. They are in the regular coop and neither Rosa nor I feel safe letting the other hens around the tiny baby.

Because I think too much about stuff (this is me rambling about chickens. skip now if uninterested. lol), Jules hatched from a dark brown egg. I suspected she would be reddish because my red sex link hen lays dark brown eggs, although my hen is not the bio mother. AND, I suspect that the chick in the light brown egg that hasn't hatched yet will be black. Because my black sex link hen lays light brown eggs. It will be fun to see if that is the case. My neighbor has both red and black sex links.

So...the garden. It mostly looks rough. The peppers are still pretty and producing very well. Apparently, things were mislabeled because there are a ton of bell peppers and only 2 jalapeno plants.

I forgot to water the eggplants so they were near dead. For some reason I thought they were on the soaker hose with the tomatoes and peppers. They were not. Oops. They were watered deeply and look better now, but it's possible they have spider mites. They are in an area of the garden, next to the peppers, that get the most sun. Next year, that spot is for okra.

Southern peas aren't doing so well...they are chewed up. And have been mostly ignored. Watermelons are growing--they are a small variety. Just noticed the first tiny fruit.

My tomatoes are still setting fruit. I wonder if it's because, although the heat index has been awful, the actual temperature has been in the upper 80's and very low 90's....until now. They also get shade in the late afternoon.

Beans are sad. Armenian cucumbers are doing well, although I've noticed there's not much new fruit set.

The poor asparagus ferns have been eaten up by asparagus bugs. I just haven't taken the time to deal with them, other than squishing them while walking by. I wonder if this will affect their production next year. We love our asparagus. Yum. I gave them a good, deep drink on Wednesday.

Kane decided to dig in my herb bed. I caught him before much damage was done, but he dug up the Valerian. Why that particular plant?! It's the one herb in that bed that I care most about! It couldn't have been the tansy, which is plentiful.

The volunteer "SunGold" has ripening fruit. So far, the fruit looks a little more yellow than the "real" SunGold fruit. I will taste them tonight.

Tomatillos are putting out fruit, but not quite ready yet.

I have decided to keep the plants that are in the garden until they are "done". I'm not planting anything else with the exception of lettuce this fall. My focus is on the paths and building a couple of new beds and maybe some hoops. Collect shade/frost cloths...and get everything tidy for next year. I suspect that next year's spring garden will be small and then, hopefully, I'll work on a fall garden. That's the plan for now, although I'm fully aware that life throws the unexpected at us quite often.

The back garden will need work soon. I can't believe it's been 4 years this fall that Tom and Ethan built it for me. How is that possible? It was built of untreated wood, which is still holding together for now, but in a year or two it will require rebuilding. (We made the decision to build the newer beds with treated lumber. From what I understand, it's safer than it was in the past). Also, Bermuda is sneakily invading the back garden. I'm keeping it back, but it's still there--deep in the soil. When we rebuild, I'll work on getting the Bermuda out as well. I was new at the 'bermuda removing process' four years ago. Bermuda seems to be thicker back there as well. It's funny how different areas of your property and garden have different annoyances. Along the south side of the east garden, it's ragweed.

Someone mentioned cotton somewhere. We mulched our front flower bed with cotton seed hull. Guess what's coming up?

Rebecca, I accidentally picked up one of your Creoles at SF. (Remember when I was having a moment of being unable to tell a tomato from a zinnia?! lol) Just noticed it finally has fruit! Oh, and the zinnias are doing well in my daughter's flower bed. They are different colors and very pretty.

Sure wish the labels on the tomatoes didn't fade. What type of pen do you use to label your plants? The SunGolds are obvious...and the Early Girls have a certain look...but the others--I don't know. One is a bit more pink that the others. Okay...I'm just babbling now and need to get back to work.

Hazel we mulched with cotton gin trash this year. Got this from the gin in Minco - previously from Guthrie but that was 35 years ago. We mulched garden and flowers. Flowers look great but the vegetables, esp the tomato and beans look almost like herbicide damage. Have you or anyone else ran into this with cotton gin trash mulch? It is a wonderful mulch and breaks down to beautiful compost, but wondering about the effects. And yes, I do have cotton coming up too but it’s a novelty the grandkids like to watch.

Jennifer, Isn't that just like a kid? BMW dreams......lol.

I agree that medical coding runs the medical world, and heaven help anyone who can't get a diagnosis that is easily coded. Managed care has given us this mess....doctors have to cut costs every which way they can and that includes the horrible automated phone systems.

I'd say gardens are expected to look rough in July in Oklahoma. July just isn't the prettiest month here. If the heat isn't roasting the plants to death, then the drought conditions are, or it is the grasshoppers, leafhoppers, leaf-footed bugs, stink bugs, blister beetles, squash bugs, cucumber beetles, flea beetles, hornworms, fruit worms, earworms........and we won't even try listing all the possible diseases. Any garden can look great in May or June, and then it all can fall apart in July or August. Notice I didn't even mention the weeds. By mid-July, we have bigger fish to fry. Who cares about weeds when it is 145 degrees outdoors with a heat index of 165? Okay, slight exaggeration, but y'all know what I mean.

I actually feel sorry for the plants. We can go outside and work a few hours, get hot, come indoors, chill out and recover in the air conditioning, etc. Those poor plants? They're stuck out there 24/7.

I've got 3 or 4 ornamental cotton varieties going in the garden. Red Foliated is doing the best, or maybe I just think that because it is the one I think is prettiest. I love cotton. Can't help myself. I love fields full of it when the foliage is healthy and waving on a gentle breeze. I love it in bloom. I love it when the white fluffy cotton is about ready to harvest.

I used to buy garden markers from seed companies and was happy with them. Then they obviously changed something in them because the labels started fading in less than a year instead of lasting forever and forever. Now I tend to use Industrial Sharpies. You can order the Industrial ones online or, sometimes, I can find them at Lowe's or Home Depot, using in the tool section where they have construction marking pencils and such. Here's an example of what to look for: the word Industrial is right there on each marker.

Industrial Sharpie

Farmgardenerok, I've always steered clear of cotton gin trash because of the herbicides used to defoliate cotton before it is harvested. I suspect your cotton gin trash contained some of those herbicide residues. Hopefully it is present in such a small amount that it will not remain in the soil for multiple years.

With some herbicides (I have no ideal what the parts per million amount is expected to be with cotton defoliant type herbicides), the herbicide carryover damage in mulch and compost can be seen at rates as low as 1 to 3 parts per million and the residue can remain active in the soil for several years. Usually the herbicides involved in the whole herbicide carryover fiasco are the pyridine carboxyli acid types (picloram, aminopyralid, clopyralid, etc.) that are used in pastures to control broadleaf weeds. I don't think any of those are used as a cotton defoliant, but I don't know which herbicides are used to defoliate the cotton.

Since tomatoes and beans are extremely sensitive to herbicide carryover and herbicide drift, it isn't surprising that those are the two crops that appear to have herbicide damage. I hope it remains minor and doesn't hurt your yields.

Out in my garden today, I gave it the old college try. Instead of starting by removing tomatoes, I started by removing the squash plants because I did not like the skyrocketing population of squash bugs. Before I began pulling plants, I set out two squirt bottles---one containing a commercial form of insecticidal soap and the other my own homemade concoction of Medina orange oil and water at a fairly high ratio since I wasn't spraying it on any living plants that mattered. As I pulled each plant, I sprayed the nymphs with insecticidal soap as they ran on the ground and tried to flee, and I sprayed the adults with the orange oil. It was fun. Killing things, even pernicious garden pests, shouldn't be that much fun. Six giant black trash bags later, I had all the squash plants pulled and crammed into the bags to roast in the sun. I was completely worn out after wrestling some of those big vining plants into the bags. I didn't even feel like I had enough energy left to tackle the tomato plants, but I tried. After I had pulled and removed six tomato plants, dragged them out of the garden and put them on the compost pile, hauled the cages away to storage, and put the stakes in the shed, I was tired and I stopped for the day. I think I still have 8 or 10 tomato plants to remove. Wrestling a big tall, wide, fairly happy tomato plant out of the tomato cage and out of the ground is not for sissies. I'm pretty sure I left some roots in the ground and that some of the plants just broke off and left a lot of roots beneath the ground. Well, that's nice, they can decompose there because I'm not going to dig them up. There is at least one positive from all this---my least favorite job after the first freeze is cleaning up/cleaning out all the tomato plants and cages, and since I'm taking out so many now, I won't have that many to deal with in November or December.

Now I'm done with the garden for this week, other than going in there each day to water the plants in containers (including the fall tomato plants). I'm herewith switching to summer survival mode.....water, harvest, flee back indoors to the comfort of the air conditioning. The pests and the weeds can have a field day because I'm not even worrying about them in this heat.

Our forecast for next week is deteriorating, and now they're forecasting at least one day with a high of 103. Summer time? I'm over it. I'm just counting the days until October, but they're still far, far away out there in the future. Our hottest weather doesn't even arrive until earliest August, so things will get worse before they get better.

I just got a photo on my phone of a huge fire on the Texas side of the river. I didn't even really look at it (if you've seen one big smoke plume, you've seen them all), but I feel bad for whoever is stuck dealing with it. It is an unpleasant reminder that the summer fire season is beginning.

Now, I've got to go deal with those piles of zucchini and summer squash. Once I've processed them, I won't have to stare at them, looking at me silently, wondering how I'm going to use them up.

Dawn

We leave Saturday morning for Fort Worth, so seeing 103 on the weather map makes me think I’ll be in the pool all afternoon every day.

Im going to basically flood the garden tonight, because it’ll be on it’s own until Wednesday evening. Hate that it’s going to be that hot for them, but when I get home I’ll know who is getting replaced for fall. I can do that the next weekend. Riddle says they have fall plants available. Potatoes still aren’t dying back. Should I drag them into the shade?

Quickly, someone go comment on the thread by the new gardener doing flower beds. I did, but I'm not as experienced as the rest of you.

H/J, I'm so sorry about Ethan's wreck. If it makes you feel any better all of my kids had wrecks, and 2 of them totaled 3 vehicles (#2 wrecked two vehicles).

I've told Nancy, but I don't think this group. There is a recent law that requires doctors to be part of corporations. My GP had an individual practice with his twin brother. They got hefty fines for a couple of years and finally went to be part of Omni Medical Group. I've googled this and can't find anything but medicare rules that changed. But it was enough to cause them to close their practice. This meant the receptionist (whose daughter was in softball and Girl Scouts with mine) no longer answers the phone and takes care of us. (She works there, but not the same as she did.) This GP's office used to be less than 1/2 mile from the house. I miss the personal care that we got.

Dawn, I'm sorry you didn't get rain. I saw radar showing rain in the thumb of your county, I was hoping. I guess I will have to do some watering tonight.

While I don't envy you working in the heat, cooking those squash pests in black plastic bags sounds like an excellent idea. I'm not planting squash this year. Not even Korean Kudzu.

Been wondering what British detective show Nancy's watching, since I think I've watched them all. I've been binging on season 10 of Doctor Who, which is now free on Prime.

Honey's latest? I came out of the shower to catch her gleefully pulling stuffing out of a couch cushion. I have decided she can't have any more stuffed toys, since I seem to have taught her to pull stuffing out of things and I can't afford to replace all the pillows, dog beds, and furniture she has done this to.

Have a good weekend everyone.

I use a china marker (or grease pencil, depending on what you call it) & they seem to last longer. Aluminum mini blinds work well when you write with a pencli, just press firmly so it indents on the blind. Even if the writing fades, the impression is still there.

I got the industrial markers and used on mini blinds and the markings are holding up just fine. BTW, this is an inside joke to myself. Back when you were all talking about using mini blinds for labels, and one could find them at any thrift store. Not at OUR thrift stores. I actually stopped at the two I know about and thought, "Well this is a bunch of hooie." Well, guess what- -mini blinds at Walmart are like $4.50 or so and can furnish a LOT of labels. Why would I search thrift stores for cheaper miniblinds. Can't come much cheaper than thiis

Kind-hearted? No. No. I will admit I have a kind heart if the exact perfect entity shows up. Well, really, it's not a kind heart, it's more of a "DAMN, this is something I need to fix."I am most certainly not a kind heart or a bleeding heart. We have no trouble shooting squirrels, possums, raccoons. Like I've said before, our particular yard is the Garden of Eden to critters. We have the best-TASTING stuff. But none of you critters are starving.

No. I am not a kind heart. Until a creature shows up, like the elderly skinny ugly bulldog last year, or this freaky beautiful fox this year--and it registers in my mind that I have to do something

Furthermore, it is not my KIND heart than compels me to donate money. It is GUILT. How can I drop off an animal who needs so much attention and care. . . . I can't.

The yard/the gardens. What dies, dies. So many things frying. Yep, I am for my first time here seeing the heat and no water thing. And I'm with you, Dawn. If you live, you live. Good luck. Even the basil are frying. I don't have a problem pouring the water on with stuff . . but the if the heat beats em down anyway, then see you later. Or not. Perhaps we need to be thinking in terms of hotter and hotter summers. . . that's what I'm thinking. (By the way, my cholla cacti are loving it.)

The swallowtail cats finally have shown up in multitudes on the fennel. Loving it.

What a great exercise in observing what nature is doing this year. My pepper plants are just fine. Many herbs are doing great. Cosmos in back bed, fine. Lantana, WAY TOO big and obnoxious. Tomatoes, not quite ready to pull out, probably next week. Day lilies, ferns, elephant ears, giving up the ghost. Hydrangeas out front, coleus, my little elderberry bushes, needing careful attention for water. Zinnias--i swore after the 3 previous years here of them mildewing (heavy rains) they'd be banned. They weren't . . and this year, they are stars. The grasshoppers are getting bigger and bigger of course. The yard is kind of a disaster, and yet not really. The veggie garden, corn isn't going to do much. Just not good enough deep soil for it. Still have to dig up potatoes in the next few days. Tomatoes were stars, but will probably pull them out next week.

As always, this year's garden was not my vision. But it is so very interesting. Even all the evil bugs. I had the two cutest little heliopsis bushes that were enchanting. Saw them today after last viewing 4 or so days ago, and they are gone. Little tiny black caterpillars decimated every single leaf on both of them, Any of you know what those are? I was so ticked off, got my bucket of some vinegar and Dawn and went out and wiped them all up. Normally I'm much too lazy to do it.

Can't begin to say how many things are not good out there. And yet, I grew SO many things, that although it is not my vision, still have lots of stuff there that is okay. Crazy.

With it all, I'm definitely in Dawn's camp. We do what we can do, and when Mother Nature takes over, we let it all go, to try again next year.

I'm ok with nature's decline and denouement....it's abject THIEVERY I cannot stand. I had 4 tomatoes...the squirrels got those. I planted no less than about 30 tepary beans - 26 came up and were thriving. I NETTED them with a fantastic labyrinth no squirrel could navigate. Wrong. I have 8 left. I had 5 tennis ball-sized mini watermelons on. I now have 1 and two just set. I have netted them (ever try making a "sealed package" over and around watermelon vines??), but I fully expect them all to be gone and the netting neatly folded to the side.
Let's see, what's left? Carrots, kale, peppers.
If I could catch and release every squirrel in this neighborhood, I would. I'm not sure it would make any sort of difference.
SIGHHHHH

Sharon

Sharon. Sigh. Big sigh. HATE this stuff. I feel bad about how much trouble the squirrels cause. Rebecca? Things are better for you now, I trust? I am sorry to say, Garry does shoot squirrels at the bird feeders in back. This neighborhood is squirrel heaven. And since none of our near neighbors garden or even have bird feeders, for the most part, of course the critters love our yard. The squirrels learn to steer clear of our yard for the most part, through cruel lessons each year. And having Titan has helped SO much, with deer and other critters.

I really am not happy about shooting the squirrels, by the way. All our neighbors and we have had problems because of their destructiveness--in air ducts, attics, and so forth. I'm not worried that our "thinning" of the herds has hurt their population at all.

I hope you're enjoying Ft. Worth, Rebecca. Stay cool!

Dawn, I broke into a sweat just reading about your pulling of all the plants. SO hot!

Squirrels are much better now. I won’t share what I did to them. But it’s permanent.

At sister’s new house in Colleyville. All I can say is DRY HEAT. It’s lovely as far as heat goes. Dry heat! My lips are already drying out. Air temp is 98, heat index 101.

Said in evil squirrel voice...."hahahahaha, missed one!" SO RUDE

Rebecca, I think the potatoes would be okay either way. The fact that yours aren't dying back tells me they likely haven't made very many tubers yet, because the tubers would signal a degree of maturity that would cause the plants to die back. Normally. It is just that nothing is normal this year, so I don't know what the heck is going on with your potatoes. I have had potatoes in the ground last into July some years without dying back, and I got tired of waiting for them, had succession crops I wanted to plant and I just went and dug them up anyway and had a fine crop. I do think those also were very hot years, and I remember the potatoes were in the ground and not in the newish raised beds where I grow them now, so it had to be before voles found the front garden.

I hope you have a nice time in Fort Worth, and yes, the heat likely will drive you into the pool daily...there's nothing wrong with that either.

Amy, I thought you gave fine advice when I read that thread yesterday and really had nothing to add, so I didn't comment.

One day there was good rain south of us. I think the very next day there was good rain north of us. Another day it was east of us. I feel like the rain never is going to actually hit us....it just skirts around us all the time. So frustrating. At least for the next 7 days I don't have to get my hopes up because the 7-day QPF shows us getting nothing.

Jersey always tore the stuffing out of everything. Now she's down to only tearing it out of stuffed toys she gets in a stocking at Christmas. She had torn the stuffing out of her bed repeatedly and I would unzip the cover, stuff all the stuffing back in, sew up the little holes she pulled stuff through, etc. She had a lumpy dog bed but it was all her fault. Then we bought new dog beds for her and Jet a couple of years ago and she got to sleep on a non-lumpy dog bed again. She liked it. She hasn't torn any of the stuffing out of this new dog bed, so either she finally grew up (she's 11.5 years old now) or she discovered that an intact dog bed was more comfortable than a shredded one.

Nancy, I bought a cheap $4 or $5 mini-blind at Wal-Mart the last time I needed new plant labels too because we no longer have mini-blinds in our house. We replaced them with wood blinds with 2" slats several years ago and I guess I finally ran out of all the old ones I saved to cut up for blinds. Or, someday I'll find a pile of old mini-blinds in the garage stashed away in some out of the way spot. Even buying a new blind is a lot cheaper than buying real plastic plant labels in those little packages sold near the seed racks. You get a ton more plant labels for about the same amount of money.

Things are frying. The heat is so awful. Sometimes I look at the plants and say to myself 'why do y'all look so bad'. Then I realize they have had above-average heat and below average rainfall for 2 months now, and it all makes sense to me. I probably should be surprised that they don't look worse.

There's lot of caterpillars hitting flowering plants hard right now. The ones you're seeing could be the larvae of silvery checkerspot or bordered patch butterflies.

Sharon, I'm sorry about your squirrel troubles. It seems like so very many people are having squirrel trouble the last 2 or 3 years. I bet there was a huge squirrel population explosion during the wet years of 2015-1026 and the relatively wet year (for much of OK) of 2017, and now everyone is saddled with those squirrrels, their children and their children's children. I'm not sure what it takes for their population to cycle down again. Out here in the rural areas it cycles up and down because there are predators to help control them. There in town where so many of y'all live, I doubt you have enough predators, except perhaps for people who have an energetic dog out in the yard, so once the squirrel population goes up, I expect it takes it a long time and a couple of consecutive drought years to help the population cycle back down again.

I hope you get something edible out of your garden than the squirrels do not steal and devour.

I keep looking at our dry cracking ground and wondering why I try to keep the garden green and in bloom. I guess it is because I can. Not just for us, but for all the bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, wild birds, turtles, skinks, frogs, etc. At least as long as the garden is green, all these little creatures and many more have a habitat that is green and producing food for them. There's cardinals in the garden all the time. If I sit still they come pretty close to me. I think they are eating grasshoppers and other pests. There's also hummingbirds all the time. There's many flowers in there for them, plus a hummingbird feeder, and tons of little insects for them to eat. I have greatly upset Mr. Turtle by removing the squash plants. The bumble bees weren't happy either, but there's tons of other flowers in there that they like, including catip and comfrey. Mr. Turtle liked to live under the squash plants and eat squash bugs. Now that I've removed the squash plants, he headed over to the area with southern peas, zinnias and sunflowers, but he comes back every few hours to check the former squash bed for squash bugs. Perhaps he is living in the shade beneath the sunflowers while he searches for other kinds of insects to eat. So, for the sake of all those creatures, I'll keep watering the garden at least once a week for as long as I can keep it alive. Sometimes the early August weather defeats me anyhow.

The point where I usually give up and stop watering is when our Keetch Byram Drought Index hits around 600. While the KBDI applies to firefighting, I have tracked it for so long at the same time that I am trying to keep my garden happy in the hot, dry months that I know what it means for my garden when the KBDI hits different points. At 600 and higher, I can keep the garden alive, but it is very hard to keep it producing. At 700, forget the veggie garden....I'd better be watering all the trees and shrubs in the yard, no matter how well-established and old they are. But, when we are in the 600s, it is like the moisture from irrigation can only help the garden up to a certain point and I know that. I do, I do, I do, truly I do. So, often, I will stop watering once it hits 600. Now, this is where it gets complicated.....or it is the point where my brain spaced out and has been out to lunch for the last couple of weeks.

Our KBDI was in the 500s and going up about 11 to 13 points daily before the rainfall in early July, and that rain knocked it back down into the upper 300s. So, every time I look at our KBDI number on the map now I sort of rejoice because it still is so much better than it was. Even though I know we got a lot less rain at our house than the mesonet station did and even though I know that our KBDI still would be a lot higher than the Mesonet station's official number for our county, I still feel better seeing that lower number (now back up to 492, I think). I guess I have been spaced out or in denial. Last night after dinner when I sat down to the computer and looked at the KBDI map, I abruptly awakened from whatever coma my brain has been in since the July 1st (or whenever it was) rainfall and realized that the KBDI map still shows color---so if your area of your county is at a different drought stage than your Mesonet station reflects, the color in your part of the county shows that by being the color of whatever KBDI stage your area is in. Where has my brain been? Was it on vacation? Out to lunch? Our part of the county is red, so our KBDI here, even if not defined by numbers, is in the 600-700 range. Well, crap, crap, crap. That explains why the zinnias wilt daily, even though there is some moisture in their soil. It explains why the pepper plants look like crap 24/7 even though they also aren't bone dry. It explains so much....the huge and sudden explosion in the population of spider mites (their reproductive cycle speeds up when it is hot and dry, and they become a huge problem on drought-stressed plants). It even explains why the watermelons look great---they love it hot and dry! Even though my garden gets watered and looks green compared to the rest of the surrounding area, it still is heat-stressed, drought-stressed and in an area with a KBDI above 600. I know that this means----it means I should just give up and stop watering. Let it go. Let the annuals die. Let the perennials get right to the edge of death, and then water them just enough to pull them back into the land of the living.

I don't know what I am going to do. (sigh) I even told Tim that we are in the higher KBDI category and that I am not going to accomplish much with the irrigation except just sort of keep the plants barely hanging on. I don't want to stop watering. I don't. Even though I know it would be the sensible thing to do.

A couple of times this week, the chairman of our county fire board has sent out communications about fires and how this year's second fire season is about to begin or perhaps already is underway. I tried to ignore their content, tried to push it out of my mind, tried to tell myself that things aren't that bad yet. Well, after looking at the KBDI map, I guess things are that bad, and it shows in my poor hot, tired, dry garden.....that isn't really dry because I water it well, but it is too dry, if you know what I mean.

On the bright side, I don't have to blame myself or the plants for how bad they look. They look bad because the conditions are bad, not because I am not doing my best to give them water, mulch and weeding. (At least with fewer weeds, there's less competition for the moisture I give them.)

I don't want to pull the trigger and stop watering. I want all the wee little wildlife to have a green sanctuary from the heat. So, I'll keep watering for another week or two. I'll shade the plants I can with shadecloth. I'll add more mulch to try to keep the ground cooler and more moist. And, I'll hope all those efforts aren't for naught.

I keep telling myself we're midway through the summer months now. I've kept the garden going this far, and I can get it all the way through to autumn if I try, but even though I say those words to myself, I'm not even sure I believe them. I just hate this weather.

Fun stuff is still happening. I've been seeing a doe with two fawns at the compost pile and adjacent deer feeding area every evening around 5 pm, so I put out sliced summer squash and zucchini for them along with some deer corn. The fawns are super tiny and so cute. It is like watching little puppies frolic, play and eat. Well, this morning she brought 3 tiny fawns. I thought she had twins because she's been bringing only 2. I doubt she had triplets because why would she have been bringing only 2 to eat? Maybe she is bringing another doe's fawn, or maybe she has picked up an orphan and is raising it with her two. Either way, seeing three tiny fawns eating is the best part of the day. This morning I gave them thinly sliced watermelon. It was like watching human children have watermelon---they were so delighted! That made me so happy.

Dawn

Because I have more gardening enthusiasm than common sense, I went back out to the garden at 6:15 p.m. By then the weather had cooled down a bit, and the heat index was only 100.

I spent two hours spreading 24 bags of cypress mulch in the pathways. The paths really needed a new layer because the mulch is decomposing and is pretty compacted and a few weeds were starting to sprout. I put down a new layer of mulch on 5 paths, weeding as I went. There's a lot more that needs to be done, but I used all the mulch I had, so I stopped.

I watered all the containers and one raised bed with some plants that looked horrifically dry---the dahlias in particular. They perked up after heavy watering. I'm thinking of putting up shade cloth over them this week as they get sun until about 2 p.m. and it clearly is just too much for them in this extra hot/extra dry summer.

How hot and dry is it? The lantana leaves have leaf roll, as do the remaining tomato plants. I promised to get them more water tomorrow because I was running out of daylight. I hope by hand-watering the plants that clearly are suffering the most, I can avoid irrigating the entire garden quite as often.

I'm glad this week is over, but don't expect next week's weather will be any better. According to the forecast, it is expected to be a lot worse.

Tim mowed the grass while I worked in the garden. So, at least part of our yard and garden looked better by the end of the day than they had looked at the start of the day. Well, the grass hadn't been mowed since July 3rd, so it was tall and green from the rain that fell at the first of the month. Except for being too tall, it looked really good. I bet tomorrow it will look bad because Tim probably cut it short and we lost all the green. Oh well, the green wasn't going to last long next week with highs of 100 or more daily.

Halfway. We are halfway through summer. I need to keep repeating that to myself. We're halfway there.

Hey Y'all. I know the new thread will made tomorrow, but just saying hi to everyone.

We got a weird rain that wasn't much of anything, but a couple of miles to our north, it poured hard for awhile and the wind was crazy. We were driving into it to pick up cat food. I so enjoyed the cloudy sky, but wow--the humidity. Chickens are panting hard and that's with a fan. Luckily, we had a little breeze tonight.

Not looking forward to the hotter days ahead.

Farmgardenerok, I just mulched my flower beds with the cotton seed hull. I'm sorta new to gardening and am afraid to use so much of the stuff that people safely used for years until herbicide issues. It makes me sad. I did, however, use it once about 3 years ago around tomatoes because I saw an old gardening show and the gardener used it. Luckily it didn't cause issues with my plants. But, you are right, it breaks down so nicely. The soil in that area of the garden, is much better.

I am exhausted (as always). Ready to go to bed. Have to work in the morning.

Trying to decide what to do about the new chick and Rosa. The chick hatched early Thursday morning--Day 19. It's Day 22 now and the other eggs haven't hatched and no signs of doing so. It's time for Rosa to show the baby how to eat and drink. Actually, I did today. Much to Rosa's displeasure. I took her/his little beak and dipped it into water. I've done that several time during the day, as well as dropping some chick feed into the nest. Now, both Rosa and Jules are enjoying that.

I'm so disappointed and worried about the other egg that I KNOW was fertile. It's the one I've been watching all along.

Anyway...y'all hang in there. It has to get cooler at some point. It has to rain at some point.