Almost 2” in my rain gauge since midnight.

I need to know about pill bugs. I planted 2 packs of bush beans, and got maybe 8 plants. I’ve kept Sluggo plus on those beds since I planted them, but there are still so many there. I did soak the beans first. Do I blame the pill bugs or the rain? I want to replant (and add some pole beans), but not until I do what I need to do.

I picked up a 12 pack of profusion zinnias at Home Depot to replace the pansies that finally gave up. And a couple packs of purple vinca at Walmart. That color is hard to find.

Think I got good fruit set during the past couple weeks.

If has been very dry here till last night. I heard two good rains go through, then another this afternoon. My tomatoes are so diseased that I doubt I can keep them producing till fall. It was so wet and cold early in the year, then the rain stopped,and I thought it would never rain again,

This is a picture of where mulched today trying save my peppers and tomatoes. The peppers look OK, but tomatoes are very sick.

I planted some fall plants between the 2 rows, but I don't expect a lot from them.

I have been busy on other things and the garden has had to take a back seat.

In the past 2 1/2 years there has been 2 people die and 2 wounded within 300 yards of my fence. I wish that I did not live in a high drug area. I have thought about moving, but I might jump from the frying pan into the fire.

I did not notice how bad the above picture was or I would not have posted it. It was very hot and muggy, then very dark with a very cold wind and I was trying to finish with the mulching. It had started raining just as I was taking the picture with my tabled, which does not rake good pictures anyway.. My south garden looks a little better, but still nothing to brag about.

Thought I'd get on the computer and post. Normally, I read and like comments on my Kindle, but my fat fingers keep any posts short. Kiddo is out of the house, so I'm invading his bedroom to access technology with an actual keyboard.

Larry, I think your bed looks great! I'll bet your pepper and tomato plants were glad to get that mulch. So much better than my muddy, weedy beds! I've only been able to harvest a few tomatoes and my onion crop was a huge disappointment. We do the best we can with what we have in the time that we have, right? I'm so sorry you're experiencing the violence and drug issues in your area. We've had a few sketchy neighbors over the years with addiction and theft issues, but nothing as stressful as what you've been dealing with. I can't imagine how difficult it's been, especially with the added tension of what might happen. I get your concern about out of the frying pan and into the fire also. It's a different world than the one I was raised in.

Dawn, I can't figure out how I've done some much weeding and how I have more weeds than ever. Could it be SO. MUCH. RAIN? I worked on 2 beds and the only difference I could tell is the pile of weeds I'd tossed out! Then I look at that sneaky bermuda weaseling its way into my beds. GRRR. I did get a few daylilies potted up before today's huge deluge (3 inches in about the same number of hours) and most of the rest later this afternoon. I'd had them heeled into the boxes they came in around the middle of May. Between Connor graduating, doing senior video (without a class,) and beginning my summer job, things have been crazy.

Moni, the Lavender Labyrinth looks fabulous! So glad you'll be getting to spend part of your summer with friends and family and wish I were in any kind of shape to go on a bicycle tour. Please, oh, please, post pics and your WordPress blog link weekly to remind us to check up on your fun!

Rebecca, I've seen more pill bugs this year than ever after all the rain we've had. Weirdly, though, I lost almost half of my hostas on the east side of my house LAST year. I figured I'd lose the rest this year, but they've been bigger and nicer than ever. Go figure. Also, I've had a bunch of zinnia volunteers from last year's flowers, but so far, none of my California giants or bi-colored ones. I guess they all reverted back. Fingers crossed that your fruit does well.

I forgot to mention that our electric company hired crews to trim trees in our little neck of the woods last week. One of my giant pines is a little "nekkid," but I expected that since they hadn't been trimmed since we moved here over fifteen years ago., I asked for and received a load of the chipped limbs Thursday and am really excited to let it cook into some great compost for my sandy soil. I had to shovel a few wheelbarrows of the chips that had flowed into the road that evening and used it to fill in some sunken areas in the yard due to voles. Of course, it was the "heat wave" day and I was sweaty and tired when I finished, but- woo hoo!- I'm going to have some great soil amending compost. I've had to really explain to my husband why it needs to cook, though. I hope he can find his way to leaving it there until it's ready!

Carol

Hey! Good to see people posting.

Sorry about your neighbors and diseased plants, Larry. So frustrating!

Carol, congrats on your wood chips. I am at the bottom of my chips...and keep "renewing" my request with Chip Drop. Did you have a son graduate too?

Rebecca, I think we got about that much rain too. It came this morning, though, on my way to work. I did enjoy the cooler temp today.

Dawn, I also can't believe it's already the last full week of June.

A friend gave an "eggplant" seedling to me back in April. It didn't look right to me, but okay. I kept thinking that's a tomato. BUT, she said eggplant...maybe it's a different type of eggplant and the leaves are a little different than tomatoes.... a little. (that was my thought process). There is a tiny fruit on it. A weird little fruit--I think it comes from one of those double blooms. My guess is it's a Brandywine tomato. She gave me one other.

So, I pruned it up and caged it. It looks much better.

Harvested a basket of beans. The pole beans are producing now. They are Black Seeded Kentucky Wonder.

Rebecca and Dawn, I took your advice and started fall tomato seeds today. If I get them in the ground in 6 weeks maybe they'll get a change to produce. I just need to find a place for them. Maybe I can put three in those mineral tubs from my neighbor. I started Early Girl, Eva Purple Ball and Arkansas Traveler.

In hen news, I walked out at the right time today. Just as that hawk flew over the chicken yard. I got them in the pen. Good grief. This is the worst predator year. They can't be in the yard if I'm not outdoors with them.

I looked for Stormy--knew she had to be in the pen/coop because I had just seen her a half hour before, preening on the stump in their pen. I check the nesting boxes a few times a day because I need to make sure they are sitting on the right eggs. A non broody was sitting in a broody box and I wanted to move her over, find Stormy and put her on the nest. In the process of moving them around, I pulled who I thought was Dolly (non broody) off a nest of fertile eggs, but it was actually Buttercup (broody). They are both buff orpingtons. Buttercup was in the SAME nest as Stormy. LOL. Anyway...I got everyone situated.

Tomorrow is Garden Monday! Yay!

Moni, I was wondering what adventure you had planned for this summer. I hope you have a great trip, and a safe one.

I suspect your garden may stay muddy all summer with the way this rain keeps falling. It is so frustrating!

Rebecca, When I read the word pill bugs my brain (for whatever reason) said pit bulls. lol lol lol. I had to reread that sentence again to be sure you hadn't adopted pit bulls to control your squirrel population. I haven't had any caffeine yet so it is possible my brain is still asleep.

I suspect the rain is keeping the Sluggo Plus from killing the pill bugs, because it dissolves quickly in rain. Otherwise, I don't understand how the pill bugs are surviving. Soaking the bean seeds first likely was the issue since it has been so cloudy and wet. Just plant them dry next time and they should sprout just fine within 5-10 days.

Larry, I bet it was nice to be dry for a while. We are more dry than wet now. There's this section in the soil moisture part of the Mesonet that shows your soil moisture level and says you need to be watering if yours is below 0.50. Well mine was at 0.47 yesterday, so maybe I should have watered, but I didn't. We finally got a half-inch of rain very late in the day, but they had forecasted 2-3", and I knew we weren't going to get that because we had rain going north of us and south of us while we sat here and waited and waited and waited for any rain to show up at all.

Diseased tomato plants can be productive, but sometimes they aren't. It seems like the luck of the draw. I almost never try to carry tomato plants until fall, and just plant new ones for fall. This year the stink bugs are so bad (I find 5-10 on each and every tomato every time I go out into the garden) that I don't know if I'll plant fall tomatoes. When the stink bug population is that high, they ruin the fruit and I could stay outside all day every day trying to kill stink bugs and it likely wouldn't help---more would just come in from the surrounded fields. We have never, ever had stink bug populations like this. They are hard to kill, but I snip them in half with my scissors or crush them with a trowel. They are smart though, so while you're killing one, the others are abandoning the plants and hiding.

That is terrible about the crime encroaching on your property. I just hate to hear that. It seems like crime is so bad everywhere any more.

Your photo looks fine to me!

Carol, It is nice to see you posting here.

I'm right there with you on the weeds. I weed every day, sometimes all day long (it is a very large garden, after all) if the weather permits, and there's still new weeds popping up daily. If I skip weeding for a few days, it looks like I haven't weeded the garden at all this year, but I have weeded---tons and tons of weeds have been pulled. It is all the rain and the cooler temperatures---we are staying in the right moisture/temperature range for warm-season weeds to sprout endlessly. It is driving me crazy, and I'll keep weeding for as long as I can until the garden becomes too snakey to weed safely. Once the weather gets really hot, like last week's terrible heat indices, I surely do not stay out there weeding in that miserable weather, and that's when I tend to lose control and feel like the weeds start winning.

Hooray for the wood chips! I hope your husband can be patient and ignore them while they cook.

Jennifer, Congrats on your 'eggplant'. lol. I hope it produces well for you.

It is a horrible predator year. My chickens spend more time hiding than free-ranging.

Last night the coyotes were right outside our house hooting and hollering at the top of their lungs. They were so loud they woke me up. It was scary to have them that close---they were literally right outside our house in the yard, and I was hoping all the neighbors' dogs and cats were safely indoors and not trying to stay out all night. All our dogs and cats were indoors (and the coyotes are why I insist all our animals be indoors at night).

Chickens are going to do what chickens are going to do. I'm surprised how often two hens will happily share a nest,

I should be out in the garden. I should be in the kitchen processing tomatoes. I should be, should be, should be....and so, I shall get off the computer and venture out into the fresh mud. Garden first, kitchen chores later.

I know I am the only person whining about too many tomatoes. Sorry, y'all, I wish you all were overrun with tomatoes like we are. By the end of this week, I hope to have harvested all the usable fruit and removed all the tomato plants growing in the ground. Yes, they are sickly-looking with septoria leaf spot although they are bouncing back and making lots of new, healthy growth, but the stink bugs are making it hard to get good fruit that hasn't been stung by them hundreds of times. I'm going to keep the 12 plants in pots and try to fight the stink bugs on them for as long as possible. I have no complaints about the tomato plants' productivity though. By the end of this week, or maybe even sooner, I'll have all the tomatoes we need processed for salsa and cooking and frozen and put away in the freezer.

Even the 12 tomato plants in pots are too many plants for just fresh eating type tomatoes, but those plants are still so healthy that I won't touch them yet. I always can make fresh pasta sauce or fresh salsa from the occasional large harvest they produce above and beyond what we can eat fresh. I plan to do that tomorrow for dinner. One of the container plants is an OP Campari type and it has about 40 red ripe tomatoes on it that I am going to harvest when I go outdoors. I've been ignoring it because it is hard for me to stand still long enough to harvest that many fruit from one plant, but today I'll force myself to do it. In a couple of weeks I may cut back all the container plants by about 50% to spur new growth for fall while also keeping their size more manageable. They are getting so tall that the wind is really blowing them around now when we have thunderstorms.

I have tons of bush beans to harvest today. I planted 7 varieties, and 5 of those are producing well. The two varieties that aren't producing well are at the wet, low end of the garden and not in a raised bed and their growth has been stunted. It really doesn't matter if those 2 varieties produce well or not at this point because the other varieties are doing so well. All this rain and cooler weather has been great for the beans. Usually spring beans are dropping blossoms due to the heat by late June, and so far that hasn't begun happening yet. Before long, we'll have a year's supply of green beans put up in the freezer and then I can take out the plants whenever I choose. I have candletree plants waiting to fill up the bush beans' space, so the bush beans may be short-timers because I'd like to get the candletree plants in the ground soon. Succession planting flowers instead of veggies has been really fun. I'm amazed at how quickly those little succession plants are getting big and getting ready to come into bloom. Actually, the first succession plants, which are Moulin Rouge zinnias I planted to follow short day onions, already are blooming. I think those plants have been in the ground about a month, but they were probably 5" tall when I transplanted them and then the rain pushed them along quickly.

I hope you all have a great day. I hope to get a lot done today in the rain-cooled air. It probably won't stay rain-cooled long, and who knows how hot and steamy it will feel outdoors this afternoon. Still, since we didn't get the heavy rain they had forecast, at least the garden will not be too wet for too long.

Dawn

The weather! Friday and Saturday SO hot and steamy! Sunday cool. We had 4.5" of rain between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. It made everything so much worse for many who were flooded the first time. Lakes were right back up. Feel terrible for all those folks, including at the marina a mile east. 4 1/2 inches yesterday--here's how fast it drains at our house. I COULD go weed in the beds this evening if I felt like it. I don't. :) I expect I'll be working at the school for 4 hours every Monday. The kids are adorable, but you know what energy zappers they are. I leave at 8:30 from here and get back at 1:30. I'll wait and tackle the yard tomorrow. I hope tomorrow is as pleasant as today is.

Couldn't fertilize the tomatoes at the school because that bed is full of standing water again. GRR. We're actually not even having school at the school for now, because it took in water with the heavy rains, so the floors are going to have to be completely re-done. Many folks in Wagoner suffered similar damages.

I finally have two more tomatoes. Beautiful Mortgage Lifters. GDW said, "Those have just barely broke color." I said barely was just fine with me. And then without consulting with me, he pulled 8 beautiful but medium-sized onions. I asked him why those 8 and he said their necks were pretty broken. So then I had to show him Dixondale's info on harvesting them. DARN, should have shown that to him when you first shared it, Dawn! Oh well. just 8.

The bush beans at school are producing well, and they got their first tomatoes day before yesterday--but I fear the tomatoes are just flat gonna give up after yesterdays storms. We DO have four in raised beds, though, and I'll take them back-up tomatoes as soon as they get large enough. All the plants I started on Saturday are up except for the tomatoes. I probably drowned them, since I didn't have the flat pulled far enough back on the deck, so it filled up with water-- as well as the small pots.

I'm getting Japanese beetles, but not fast enough! And to add insult to injury, one was crawling on me under my T shirt; quick ran in the house ant took the T off, and there was the little sucker, who flew away before I could grab him. Good. You will have a slow agonizing death since there are no green plants in the house.

This was my first year for trying gladiolus plants here. Had to look up the plural, which I thought would be gladioli,m and it is, but I've never heard ANYONE say gladioli. Gladioluses, nah. So that was my solution,. I knew it would be dicey with my not-enough-sunlight issues. But two are looking not half-bad, so we'll see.

I might be able to leave about half my tomato plants; but will definitely be yanking another half. I had to look up Compari type, Dawn--they sound yummy!

Carol, congratulations on your wood chip score. Doesn't it just make you feel mulch-wealthy? :)

Larry, I am having less than desirable results for many of my tomatoes, and those guys will be leaving. I thought your mulched rows looked darn nice!

When we discussed Roselle a year or two ago, weren't you, somebody--maybe Amy. Maybe Dawn? Weren't one of you telling me they might do just fine in my part shade beds? Here's some of what do really well in said beds: echinacea; malva sylvestris; coreopsis varieties; lantanas, bee balm, cleome, verbena bonariensis.dianthus; ammi; rose campion.

Time to fix supper. Happy gardening, all!

Why can’t someone make a perfume that smells like fresh, ripe basil?

I need to crawl under this and remind myself what this is. I never grow them this big, usually aim for medium size because I’m impatient.

Dawn, I took your advice and replanted the bush beans, no soaking this time. This is when a seed stash comes in handy. I had backup seed.

Also direct seeded mini butternut squash and yellow crookneck squash. And more cucumbers. I feel like I’m wasting seed trying to get enough cucumbers started.

Also: when using cattle feed tubs, put them in their home place BEFORE filling them with soil mix. Oof.

Rebecca, your basil and tomato look great!

Hey, Nancy. (I feel like I haven't said 'hi' in awhile.)

Dawn, how often to your fertilize your tomato plants starting from their beginnings. And what with? I need details. I know your soil is healthy, but what else are you doing? Do you spray anything on them to help with disease, etc.?

Mine are barely okay. They are a little better than last year, I think, except the SunGolds are slower. Does anyone else experience Sungolds being very disease-y? Mine are always so, but still produce an enormous amount compared to other tomatoes.

This morning was spent weeding one of the asparagus beds and putting woodchips on it for mulch. The asparagus is still producing, but I'm allowing most of the spears to fern. Even the ones that aren't super thin. It got a little out of control while I was gone.

I did find another snake in the woodchip pile.

The weeds and grass had gotten out-of-hand around the plastic compost bin. The volunteer squash plant is next to the compost bin and weeds/grass all around the squash too. Two squash bugs. I found two squash bugs and two groups of eggs. This squash is a mystery. It's making fruit, but I do not recognize it. I did not grow squash/pumpkins of any variety last year. Thinking back to what we purchased in the fall and winter. Maybe butternut squash. I've never grown butternut. Or a Halloween pumpkin, but it doesn't look like a pumpkin. I'll include a pic of it on my Garden Monday post when I get around to making it tonight. And try to post a pic here too. Anyway...the plant is thriving in the compost pile.

Those items took my morning. Was grateful for the cooler weather because I worked in the sun this morning.

Rebecca, Yes, I always try to get the tubs in place before filling them, and then I hate to ever move them again afterwards too.

I don't know what it is with cucumbers this year---so many people are having trouble either getting them to sprout, getting them to grow or keeping them healthy. It might be the rainy weather. I'm hardly seeing any cucumber beetles, which is rare, but I don't miss those little rascals at all.

Jennifer, Well of course I never treat the tomato plants the same way in any two years. I don't have a plan or a routine because it changes depending on all kinds of factors. How and when they are fertilized depends on which bed they are growing in, when it last had compost added, how often, how well the last tomato plants grown in the same bed performed, what I may or may not have done to the soil in that bed since then, how much it is raining, etc. If I've done my job of soil improvement well enough, I really don't have to feed the in-ground plants very often. Usually I work Espoma Tomato-Tone into the soil before I plan, following the label directions which tells you how much to put in your growing area for every x number of square feet. Then I plant. Then I water them in. They grow, I harvest, the end. I know people who feed their tomato plants every week or two, but I normally don't. They'd probably be happier if I did, but I never have time for that. Sometimes around the end of May or the beginning of June, I'll top dress the tomato plants by scattering either Tomato-Tone or Dynamite Mater Magic onto the surface of the ground around each tomato plant. I rake back the mulch a little, scatter the fertilizer a handful at a time, water it in, and rake the mulch back over the soil. This year I haven't even done that. The tomato plants in large containers get a water soluble fertilizer sometimes. Well, I guess I haven't actually done that this year either. I probably should feed them when I can find the time. I like to feed them Neptune's Harvest, which is a combination product that contains both liquid seaweed and liquid fish emulsion. I haven't fed them this year because they haven't really looked like they need it.

I'm really good at soil improvement, which allows me to be really bad at fertilizing plants. I much prefer they get all the nutrition they need from the soil, but sometimes that isn't possible and they need to be fed. Your plants will tell you if they are hungry---their color will fade, they growth will slow drastically, and they'll just look a little off. They won't produce well. Tomato plants that are fed occasionally probably are happier, especially if the soil is not yet the quality that it needs to be, but a person walks a fine line between feeding them enough and feeding them too much. If you feed them too much, the tomato foliage turns a very dark green---sometimes almost a bluish-green, and that's a sign you're overfeeding nitrogen and are going to have tons of foliage and probably not so many tomatoes. We had a neighbor a couple of miles up the road that always overfed his tomato plants---they looked like giant evergreen trees and were beautiful and very dark in color. They never produced tomatoes though. Not a one....and he was so convinced that he was doing things right that he was not open to suggestions that he needed to back off on feeding them so much nitrogen....so, he never got tomatoes.

Tim and I have discussed several times how odd the garden is this year. I think it is because of all the rain---it likely is leaching out the nitrogen, and nothing looks the right color but particularly the tomatoes. They have very little foliage. I don't mean that they did have the foliage and lost a lot of it to Septoria Leaf Spot. Nope. They just haven't put too much effort into growing foliage in the first place, but they've still made tons of tomatoes---so many tomatoes that we worry they will sunscald without adequate foliage to shade them. It hasn't happened much yet, but there's been maybe 3 or 4 tomatoes that I harvested because they were beginning to sunscald. I find it interesting that they have made the fruit anyway. I have no desire to feed them because the last thing I want at this point is more tomatoes, so I continue stripping the plants of all the fruit that's breaker stage or beyond and then taking out the plants. I hope that all the in-ground plants will be gone by the end of the week, and the freezer will be full of gallon zip-lock bags, each one filled with 8 cups of salsa-ready or sauce-ready (you use different screens for salsa and sauce) tomatoes. Really, I feel like I am at that point now---all the in-ground tomato plants could disappear tomorrow and my reaction would be relief that I can put away the tomato strainer and not have to spend another afternoon in the kitchen processing tomatoes. I think I have enough tomatoes processed and in the deep freeze to allow me to make all the salsa we want/need and also have plenty left over for cooking. Today I kept 8 or 9 big tomatoes sitting on the counter and didn't process them with the rest, figuring we could eat that many this week before they get overly ripe. Most of those are Brandy Boy or Black Krim or Indian Stripe from containers. One is Greek Rose, also from a container, and the others are Azoychka from an in-ground plant. The flavor of contaienr plants is better because it is easier to limit their water. I'm even questioning my plan to keep the 12 plants that are in the containers because 12 plants is too much for just fresh eating, so if I keep all those plants, I'll have to keep processing tomatoes. I am suffering major burnout from too many tomatoes.

If you're trying to figure out how often to feed your in-ground plants, feed them something and watch to see how they respond. You should see a color change in the foliage---it will darken a bit to a richer shade of green, and you should see new growth that is a brighter green when it first appears. They probably will need to be fed again 2 weeks later, or maybe 1 week later if heavy rain is leaching the nutrients out of your soil. What you want to avoid is explosive growth that is all foliage and is not accompanied by blossoms or the formation of more fruit. I had to feed my plants a lot more often than I do now in our early years when the soil was not as well-enriched as it is now. As the soil got better and better, I fed them less and less and now I rarely feed them at all.

Sun Golds do tend to get every foliar disease that comes along, but they generally set fruit well anyway and also tend to put out lots of new healthy foliage throughout the summer. Sun Sugar is the same way. Really, the only real difference I see between Sun Gold and Sun Sugar is that the Sun Sugars are a little more crack resistant. I don't know if their brix tests exactly the same, but their flavor is so similar that I think it would. If I have a bowl of Sun Gold and a bowl of Sun Sugar in front of me, I can't tell them apart unless the Sun Golds are cracking and the Sun Sugars aren't. This year, with all this rain, even the Sun Sugars are cracking.

Finding snakes is never a happy moment around here, unless it is one of the cute little rough green tree snakes twining itself around a canna leaf or something similar, as they tend to do. All other snakes are persona non grata, so to speak.

The cooler weather was nice early, but it didn't last long here. Our dewpoint was still too high and the heat index got unpleasant pretty quickly, though it still was nowhere near as bad as last week's worst heat indices. Our local TV met said it would be worse tomorrow as the south wind brings more moisture our way. I didn't need to hear that. I need to get out and weed tomorrow. Today I mostly just harvested, processed the harvest, and planted the moss rose in the little red wagon. Well, I weeded a little, but I didn't get even one whole raised bed weeded, so there's a lot of weeding to do this week.

For the rest of this week, I hope to spend the early morning hours weeding and harvesting, and then spend the hot afternoon hours in the kitchen processing the harvest and putting it up for future meals. I also cook something from the garden for lunch and dinner each day, so we're eating fresh too---but that is fairly effortless. Processing the excess produce is what is so time-consuming, but the big deep freeze is getting pretty full, so I'm close to being done with all that. I put three more gallons of tomatoes in the deep freeze today, and a gallon of green beans (packaged in smaller quart bags for meals all inside the gallon bag to keep them organized) and 8 bags of onions that are salsa ready---enough chopped onions in each bag to make one batch of salsa. Sometimes it seems like I don't get a lot of any one thing done in one day, but when you're doing it all day after day, it adds up.

The hardy hibiscus started blooming this past weekend---maybe on Saturday, and the first cleome (seems like I put those transplants in the ground just 3 or 4 weeks ago) is about to bloom, following right on the heels of the zinnias that were succession planted at the same time. It is good to see the succession plants coming into bloom so quickly. I believe the fairly mild weather gets credit for that.

All the swallowtail cats have disappeared and they were getting big so I'm hoping they still exist, in chrysalis form, somewhere in the garden. Maybe the dill and fennel will get a chance to regrow before the next female swallowtail lays a bunch of eggs. I may have lost track but I think we've had at least 5 different sets of swallowtail cats so far this year.

The bush bean plants are covered in small beans so last week's temperatures in the mid-90s didn't seem to impede bean production, and that makes me happy. The jalapeno peppers are about ready to harvest again. This will be the third round of picking for them, which isn't bad for late June. They seem a little slow this year, but at least they are growing and producing.

That's all from here.

Dawn

Today's garden jobs were pretty dull and basic. I came, I saw, I weeded. Oh, and I harvested. Tomatoes, of course. I was out for four hours and spent most of that time weeding the asparagus bed, the pathways on the south and north side of it, and half of two other raised beds--the ones bordering the paths I was weeding. Tomorrow I'll weed the other half of those two beds. I harvested tomatoes, about 60 in all, and I took out about 12 more tomato plants, deemed "done" by me. Of course, I could have left them and babied them through the heat and kept them producing for a while, but the huge stink bug population is a good reason to not even attempt that. I wonder where they will go when all the tomato plants are done? Probably to the bean (they are already there) and okra plants. Today I did see the first stink bug on the container plants growing up by the house. Until now, those plants had been stink bug free but I knew it was just a matter of time before the stink bugs found them. That leaves maybe 10-15 more in-ground tomato plants remaining in the front garden. They're all at the low north end of the garden, sort of the leftover area for plants that didn't make it into the raised beds. I often move hornworms to those leftovers, but we aren't seeing any hornworms yet this year. Those plants are on the hit list for tomorrow or the next day. I'm doing everything I can to ensure I do not spend time in July in the hot, steamy kitchen canning anything. I am sitting here now, staring at all those tomatoes I harvested, knowing I need to go into the kitchen and run them through the tomato machine. I don't want to do it, but I will.

Oddly, there are no leaf-footed bugs in the garden. Usually they are as much of a tomato pest as the stink bugs. This year, I've killed maybe 6 or 8 of them and haven't seen any more. It is odd, but I'm not complaining. Squash bugs are the same---I killed the first 2 or 3 rounds of them and haven't seen any since. I haven't seen any SVB moths either.

So, off I go to the kitchen to see how much tomato juice, seeds and pulp I can get all over the counter tops and walls. Well, not really, but if you walk in there while I'm running the tomatoes through the tomato strainer, you'd think that making a mess surely must be my goal.

It is hot. The temperatures are bad enough and then that heat index doesn't help. I feel like I'm just counting the days until October gets here and the cool weather returns.

We need a laugh button. Laughing about tomato juice, seeds and pulp everywhere. THAT is ME in spades.

I'm not imagining it. Everything IS indeed later this year. Well, not onions, potatoes or garlic. But I'm feeling a little better about it. Things are slowly happening. I saw four Swallowtails and Silver Spotted Skipper in the bee balm a little while ago. Finally! They were zipping around, so I didn't try to see what kind of Swallowtails. I've seen a couple monarchs and I think a Viceroy. Yay!

My tomatoes are barely okay, too, Jennifer! Well, Black from Tula, Brandywine Red, one of the Cherokee Purples and Indian Stripe are awesome, and Heidis are coming on, and Sungolds. Everything else is mediocre at best. I will be happy to start anew. And yes, the Sungold is NOT pretty. But producing heavily, of course.

We still have not raised award-winning onions or potatoes, but both are significantly improved over the first two years. In fact, we have some nice big onions--not all, but some (they're still out in the bed), and likewise for potatoes. The garlic---I planted just about 2 or 3 times more than I needed; have dug up about a third of them, a third of which are super and 2/3 smallish. But about 2/3 of the ones still out there look big, so I may have to give some away.

I picked the first Gaya melon. I should have left it just a bit longer. Will melons ripen after they're picked? It was a large one, surprisingly heavy. I'm anxious to see what they taste like. I read on one site to put them in a brown paper bag, not referring to a specific melon.

The storms Sat night-Sunday knocked some of the taller plants around; happens every year. So I think I'll go cut all the nicotiana back--do the rest of you have problems with it? I WAS surprised it didn't take out two really tall sunflowers or the hollyhocks.

Dawn, I cannot begin to imagine doing half the canning you do. No WAY.

And now off to fix dinner.

Dawn, when I run tomatoes through the machine I put my collection bowls on a rimmed cookie sheet. It catches most of the juice.

Ron brought in our first undamaged tomato yesterday. I was on the phone and didn't find out where it came from. :( I have been seeing fruit worm damage. I've thrown some out. (I miss my chickens. Didn't feel so bad about tossing tomatoes to them.) I've harvested enough green beans to make a meal. I'm pulling carrots. Got all the beets I think. I need to plant more beets in future. And salad turnips. I did not have a great garlic crop this year. I think the bed they were in needs amending. It is also in the wetter end of the yard. I got a few onions. Swiss chard is going crazy and kale still looks good.

Without the big tree out front (north side of house) I have enough sun to grow things that don't like a lot of sun. I've got a collection out there. Besides the pansies that grew all winter, there is the ornamental ginger Nancy gave me, my 2 citrus trees, an oxalis, 2 turmerics and a ginger and coleus. I was just going to put the citrus out there to harden it off, but it is the first time they haven't immediately dropped all leaves.

We now have 4 thornless blackberries in pots, while we decide where to put theIr permanent home and if we're changing the fence out.

I noticed a cone flower is blooming, yesterday.

There are of course a million weeds.

Amy, keep us posted on your blackberries. It seems that they grow well in Oklahoma according to all the pictures I've seen on social media lately.

As the wood chip pile (and snake home) dwindles away, I've considered making that area a berry patch. The soil should be nice there.

What is a Gaya melon, Nancy? I've noticed you mentioned it a few times. (I guess I could look it up. lol)

Dawn, what is the tomato machine you speak of? I might need one. Probably not this year, obviously with my poor tomato production.

I've considered just getting ALL my tomato seedlings from you. LOL. But seriously, the Juliet tomato from you is lush and disease free and producing like a maniac. If all of your tomatoes do that, then it's no surprise that your kitchen is piled up and you're sick of tomatoes.

This particular plant had a couple of spotted leaves early on, but I pruned it once. It is out of control (in a good way). It hasn't been pruned since--branches sitting on the ground, growing over the raised bed and on the ACTUAL ground. No disease. (Knock on wood)

One note. It is growing in a bed that has never had tomatoes until now. And it is the only one in that bed.

My own tomatoes are so sad right now. I pruned off all the diseased foliage. That left very little. SO, I need advice. Do I fertilize with nitrogen to grow the foliage or not? I want fruit set, but these plants need some green. There are fruit on them all, though...and they have blooms.

I did harvest my first full size tomato and eat it yesterday. It was an Early Girl. It was delicious which is surprising because of the rain and...it's an Early Girl. Maybe it was my mind tricking me that it was delicious.

The asparagus beds are both mulched with wood chips now.

The spot where the peas were growing during the spring is almost empty. There are a few more cabbages to pull. Empty other than the Seminoles that are growing there now...which was the plan. So, now it will be all Seminoles. Am I ready to deal with the squash bugs? Not really, but I want pumpkins.

Last night I fertilized the back-up peppers still in their little pots. And the watermelon seedlings that need to go into the ground very soon. The onions it that spot were all pulled but I want that bed to dry out or better yet, I want to add some soil to it. It's framed but it's basically at ground level. The soil has had compost, etc. added for 5 years, so it's not bad soil, but not so good when it rains like it has this year. I want it raised. Onion harvest was pitiful.

There's still a lot of clean up to do. The herbs all need to be cut back. It's a mess.

But, so much good too.

I waited to come to work until all the broodies were back on their nests. Candled the eggs and saw baby chicks moving in some of the lighter colored ones. There's something going on in most of the eggs...but we will wait and see what we get. I don't have a proper candler--just used a flashlight.

Need to work now.

The war has begun. I will be victorious.

First time I have been here in awhile. I have missed you all but this packing is so time consuming. I get my uhaul tomorrow head to Quitaque friday to pick up lumber rain barrels and bathtub and Saturday head HOME.

My grand son and great niecenieces and nephews. Love

Cute kids, Kim. I've missed you.

I am so sorry, but I am not sure where your home is...or what's going on in your life. More updates when you have time. <3

Nancy, I think I am just a messy food processor, but especially with tomatoes. Sometimes the parts (juice, pulp, seeds, whatever) just spurt out of the chute sideways instead of running down into the bowl like they should. I just hate the way the kitchen and I (because you know I'm wearing tomatoes by the time I'm done) look at the end of a work session. I clean it all up good as new though, so usually by the time Tim gets home he doesn't even realize I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen processing tomatoes. When he comes in and the kitchen and I are both a mess with tomatoes everywhere in various stages of being preserved, he gets that deer-in-headlights look on his face and disappears before I can recruit him to help or something (not that I would, canning is not his thing any more than gardening).

Things were later here, but about a month ago the heavy rain stopped, and we've been hotter and drier, so everything really has caught up. That sort of amazes me---to see things happening now at the usual time even though we were behind in so many ways earlier.

Melons do not ripen after they are picked. Their flesh may soften some, or the color of their rind may change, but those post-harvest changes are not indicators of continued ripening.

I don't have much trouble specifically with nicotiana getting knocked around by wind, but sometimes is happens. Usually mine are pretty well shielded from the wind by other taller plants around them. I do stake roselle plants as they grow because they get very heavy and will fall over (roots still in ground, so they are leaning over, I guess) every time the wind blows. Because they get so big, I stake them with metal t-posts meant for field fencing. My sunflowers end up leaning over a lot, and so do some of the zinnias. I have more trouble with plants failing to stay upright in wet years than in dry years, most likely because they get bigger in wet years. Right now half my Texas hibiscus is lying on the ground. I think the heavy rain pushed so much growth that it cannot hold itself upright. I need to stake it so it will stay upright. Right now it is blocking a pathway and I've just been stepping over it.

I used to do a lot more canning...literally every day all summer long. I have cut back and cut back and cut back every year for the last 5 or 6 years and think I'm getting close to having it at a manageable level now. When my friend, Jo, quit canning completely in her 70s, I was so shocked that I didn't even know what to say. Now, at only 60, I'm thinking I'll retire from canning at a much younger age than she did. I kinda miss the heavy canning load, but then not all that much. I have so many other ways I enjoy spending my time and it is good to not be completely exhausted all the time in the summer too. I miss making pickles. Maybe I'll find time to plant cucumbers for fall so I can make a bunch of pickles.

Amy, I do that sometimes, or I put it on a large cutting board that has a rim to catch the juices, but I still tend to make a mess. It isn't so bad in the beginning, but the longer I work on a given day, the messier it gets. I'm almost done for this year. In fact, I may have finished processing my last bunch of tomatoes today. I'm going to try to use all the future harvests for fresh eating only, even if it means I have to whip up a dinner of pasta, chicken tortilla soup or tomato-basil soup just to use up the tomatoes. Of course, yanking out all the in-ground plants helps. That leaves only the ones in containers to deal with, and all of them are in part-shade and shouldn't produce as heavily as the ones I have been growing in-ground in full sun. I did make a batch yesterday from container-grown tomatoes, but shouldn't get such a heavy load again, I hope.

Our Swiss chard is very happy too. I always plant too much, but it is so pretty and it grows itself with no help from me, so what's not to like about that?

We have a million weeds too. Some days I feel like I am winning the war on weeds, and then a day or two later I look at the garden and it seems like all I see is weeds! It drives me crazy. I think that pulling weeds just makes more weeds sprout, but I pull them anyway. Today I was weeding out crabgrass that came up in a patch of catnip, and the cats were all over me, trying to make sure I wasn't pulling their precious catnip. It cracked me up. They had such worried expressions on their faces like I was going to mess up their little bit of catnip heaven. I did not. I only pulled the crabgrass and bindweed in their catnip patch. No catnip plants were harmed, and then, of course, all the catnip looks pathetic now anyway because the cats had to lie down on it, roll around, chew on it, etc. So....that is on them, not on me. lol. I miss old Yellow Cat. He was the only cat that really loved catmint and he would come defend his catmint plants when I was weeding. The other cats don't even acknowledge that the catmint exists.

Jennifer, There are various tomato strainers through which you can put vast quantities of tomatoes to prepare them for cooking, freezing or canning. Depending on the machine you have, they can remove the skins, remove the seeds (if desired, and if you're using a screen that catches them all), and turn your tomato pulp into either a somewhat chunkier version for salsa or a very fine puree for sauce, catsup, etc. I'll link one that is a lot like mine, but there are various ones available. I do have the 4-screen set, so it can be used for regular tomato products, salsa, pumpkin or berries depending on which screen you use. Do NOT buy the electric engine that is sold as an accessory. Tim bought me one as a surprise (I didn't want one as I already knew too many people who had trouble with them) and it didn't make it through 1 batch without breaking down. Shop around online to find the best deal if you decide to get one. I found a special where I got the machine plus the 4-screen set for exactly the same price that most places were selling the machine with just one screen. Here's the modern-day version of the one I have:

Roma Tomato/Food Strainer & Sauce Maker

I'm glad Juliet is doing so well for you. This is a plant that I do not necessarily grow often because the very first time I planted it, I had six of them and six red Jelly Bean and between the two of them, I could have picked tomatoes all day every day in summer and never harvested them all. They wore me out! It is good to have a plant that wants to produce as heavily as Juliet does.

Once your plants are diseased, you may have to fertilize every week or two to push them to make more foliage, but you will need to be spraying every 7-10 days with a fungicide to keep the new foliage healthy or it will be just as diseased as the existing foliage. If your plants are that bad, you may want to put in fresh plants for fall, in a different bed so they won't be as prone to get the fungal diseases.

Early Girls can have really good flavor, especially when they are the first fruit of the year. I hope you enjoyed yours. Our Early Girl and Early Doll produced tons of tomatoes and produced them early. I'm pretty sure I made a salsa batch that was nothing but Early Girls---that's a lot of ripe fruit at one time off one or two plants.

Today was just a standard day in the garden....I weeded, weeded, weeded, harvested tomatoes and watered the containers, while dodging cats, butterflies, bees, wasps and hummingbirds.

Oh, and they had a fire and I didn't go. I was in the garden without a radio so missed the first page. Missed the second page for an All-Page fire. (I am not believing we are having any sort of All Page grass fire so soon after all this rain.) By the time a friend was texting me and asking if I was going, I was so hot, sweaty and dirty that I told her I wasn't going anywhere, but that I'd turn on the radio, listen, and see if I thought they needed me. Then I texted my fire chief (Tim, lol) to tell him I was missing a fire. He didn't care. He knows that sometimes I'm just not going to stop what I'm doing and go. In this case, I would have needed to take a shower, wash my hair and put on clean clothes, which I wouldn't have minded if I thought it was a big enough fire, but I didn't. (Turned out, it was only 30 acres and they put it out fairly quickly.) And, what is the chief going to do? Fire me? I'm a volunteer. : ) I am not ready for these fires to start up. My mind-set is still 100% focused on the garden. I guess I need to start carrying my radio out to the garden with me and mentally prepare myself for a summer fire season because it appears we are going to have one, but I still cannot believe we already are dry enough for fires to be starting!!! I'm just really not ready for this.

I need to go cook dinner.

Dawn

Hello! Is everyone busy gardening and then dropping in exhaustion once them come in for the night?

There's stuff to talk about, but I am so pooped. I'm going to make list and come back tomorrow to talk about it.

1. Butternut squash and SVB

2. Lime Green Salad tomato

3. Carrots!

4. Soil is...dry?!

Hope everyone is well.

Yes, dropping in exhaustion every day! Typical for this time of the year.

Can I read your mind?

Butternuts are not 100% immune to SVBs, but are C. moschata so do have the solid vines that tend to prevent the SVB grubs from tunneling through them, which means they tend to have few, if any, SVB issues. Squash bugs still bother them though.

Lime Green salad tomatoes. The plants stay small, but tend to produce well. How do you know when the fruit is ripe? Its skin color turns amber (sort of like regular tomatoes look just before they start breaking color at the blossom end) and the flesh inside will be a sort of chartreuse green. If the fruit still is very firm and hasn't slightly softened as ripening tomatoes do, then it still is too green. The flavor is vaguely spicy, sort of like the flavor of Aunt Ruby's German Green, meaning a sharp, tangy, acidic flavor with some sweetness, if you've ever grown those.

Carrots from Spring plantings should be ready to harvest by now if the rain didn't set them back too much. You can plant carrots for fall anytime from now through about mid-July. They sprout quickly in warm soil.

Soil is dry? Of course it is. lol. Our soil has been more dry than wet for most of the last month. I think we have had two good rainfalls (meaning at least 1" of rain fell in one day) in that time frame, but I've had to supplement water. I've been watering the containers roughly every other day, and yes, feel somewhat shocked by how quickly they dry out when it isn't raining constantly, and have hand watered the succession plantings of flowers every day or every other day for their first 7-10 days in the ground, but then not too much after that. This week I watered the whole garden (over the last two days) with a sprinkler! Since most of the tomato plants are gone from the main garden now, I really don't have to worry about not getting the foliage of anything else wet. Birds of all kinds come and bathe in the mist from the sprinkler, so watering the garden turns it into a little bird jungle for a couple of hours. The birds tend to stick around and eat caterpillars, grasshoppers and (hopefully) stink bugs, so it is a win-win situation. I'd rather not be watering, but this is the situation we're in now.

While your soil may vary from the soil moisture level shown at your nearest Mesonet station, I find the soil moisture map I am linking below to be a good general guide. In general, if it shows 0.50 or less for your soil moisture level, your plants (except for the ones that thrive in dry soil) likely need to be watered. Ours has been in the 30s for a while, and I probably should be watering more than I have been. Our soil is shockingly dry considering it was super-waterlogged from mid-September through at least late April. It had some very wet periods in May, but also some dry ones as the rain slacked off and the heat began to set it, which really accelerated in June. Raised beds usually are dry more quickly than grade-level ones, so I have to keep an eye on all my raised beds. The same height that allows them to drain away excess moisture during periods of excess rainfall also means that they dry out more quickly in hot dry weather. Heavy mulching of the raised beds and the pathways surrounding them helps them hold moisture a bit longer.

Soil Moisture Map: 4" Plant Available Water

I've really been trying to catch up on the weeding because once it gets too hot (usually in July), I'm less inclined to spend a lot of time weeding and also, once it gets too hot, usually in July, the garden gets too many snakes out hunting for meals (this usually is when my frogs start disappearing from the garden) and I don't weed once the snakes are in there....and it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle....more weeds = more cover = more snakes. I don't like it, but it is what it is. If I can have the garden pretty weed-free and well-mulched by the end of June, that helps it stay under control longer in July. By August it usually is a mess though. Yesterday I did quite a bit of weeding and was pleased with how much I got done but I still don't like all the grass creeping in around the fence lines.

Because it has been dry, the spider mite population is exploding, especially on the bean plants. I've been walking a fine line with them for the last two weeks, wanting to continue harvesting as long as possible but also not wanting to let them just sit there in the garden too long, serving as spider mite incubators that will send tons of spider mites out onto all the other plants. I'll probably pull them soon, stripping them of all the beans of usable size. I could leave them another couple of weeks, but I'd rather get them out of the garden sooner rather than later since bean plants are such spider mite magnets in the kind of heat we've been having. We've had huge yields from them, so I have no complaints---there's tons of beans in the freezer now, and we've been having them with dinner 2 or 3 nights a week. When I pull them, I'll probably throw them on the compost pile. It might be smarter to bag them and dispose of them and their spider mite population in the trash but I think the spider mites will just move to the pasture around the compost pile. When you're surrounded by fields full of spider mites that blow in on the wind, you just have to accept that you're going to have them too.

I was hoping I had processed my last bunch of tomatoes earlier this week, but there's a lot more to harvest today, so I guess I was wrong about that. Maybe this bunch will be the last. I'm dead serious about not wanting to deal with more tomatoes, so probably will take out the rest of the in-ground tomato plants over the next 3 or 4 days. I want July to be as work-free and stress-free as possible, and having piles of tomatoes all over the house is stressful. Once you have all you can eat fresh and there's plenty already processed and preserved, who needs too many more? I even took out one container plant this week (there's still 11 or `12 left....I guess I've lost track of how many there are....) and replanted that container with Cora periwinkles grown from seed and one globe amaranth plant, also from seed. They were leftover plants that needed a home and that tomato plant only had two fruit left on it. It was a large-fruited variety (Greek Rose) that tends to not set much in the heat, so it was easy to let it go now that we are hot and dry. I do love having almost all the tomato processing done already because I dread long, hot afternoons/nights in the kitchen, and those are almost behind me now before the really bad summer heat sets in.

All the flowers that I've transplanted into the garden as succession plantings to earlier veggie crops are doing well. A lot of the ones that went into the ground as small transplants in May are blooming well now, and even the ones that have been in the ground only 2 or 3 weeks are getting ready to bloom, so the transition from veggies to flowers has been pretty seamless. I noticed oleander aphids on the butterfly weed plants in the border yesterday, which doesn't exactly make me happy as my garden usually is aphid-free naturally, but I'm not going to obsess over them either. There are not that many of them, and the garden has plenty of beneficial insects, including assassin bugs, praying mantids, minute pirate bugs, dragonflies, damselflies, green lacewings and ladybugs all over it, so the lady bugs and perhaps some of the others will make quick work of those oleander aphids. Tim mowed about 90% of the front pasture with all its wildflowers last week---necessary as the spring wildflowers were going to seed and soon would be dry enough (I know, hard to believe in this wet year) to become a fire hazard. With the July 4th holiday coming up and plentiful fireworks, as always, to be set off on people's property here out in the country, we wanted the pastures mowed down short before the holiday arrives. For better or worse, when we mow the pastures, all the insects there move to the garden and I've seen that this week for sure. All the early season daylilies have finished blooming now and the mid-season daylilies are in full bloom, the hibiscus and crinums are in full bloom, and even the Russian sage is blooming. The butterflies and the bees are delirious with joy because almost everything in the garden is blooming now, though some perennials constantly are coming into and going out of bloom since a lot of them do not bloom all summer long like annuals do. The viper's bugloss that Lisa brought to the Spring Fling is becoming a real bee magnet, and I am seeing lots of happy honeybees.

I need to get outside and get busy. I am slow and lazy this morning, which probably is just a reflection of the fact that it is the end of the week and my body is tired. We're expecting our highest temperatures of the year so far this weekend according to our local TV mets, but not our highest heat indices. Oh, they'll be bad, but not as bad as 110 which was our highest heat index a couple of weeks ago.

The mosquitoes are not as thick here now as they were a month ago, so that's something for which I am very grateful. They do not tend to bite me (I take a B complex vitamin daily which seems to prevent them from even landing on me), but they follow me around and are annoying nevertheless.

The coyote and coon populations are huge, so I'm really having to watch the chickens, cats and dogs very carefully because the coyotes are right in our yard, immediately outside the house, at night...and so are the coons.

That's all from here.

Dawn

Jennifer, here's a link to Dawn's tomato press that's less expensive: Weston model 07-0801

More later-gotta get some work done!

Thanks, Sandplum! That is something I really want. I don't need it right now because I don't have many ripe tomatoes, but hopefully next year will be like 2016 and 2017 for me--lots of tomatoes!

Dawn, you did a great job reading my mind.

IF my squash plant is butternut (oh, I hope so!), then it is a C. moschata, like you said. I did have SVB moths flying around it and think I found a small SVB grub. It was very small. And trying hard to chew into the stalk. I squished it of course. I've never seen a SVB grub that small. I usually don't see them until the plant dies and they're falling out of the dead plant. Ew. I love butternut squash so much and would love to get a good harvest of them. There's several fruit on this plant. They are growing in compost so probably don't need to be fertilized, right?

Yes...I was wondering about the coloring and fruit size of the Lime Green. I might have picked it a little early. For some reason I thought the outside stayed green too and was surprised to find a light orangey fruit. Thought I had mislabeled, but not really because the plant looks different from other tomatoes. I have two. It tasted okay--a little tart. Maybe 'cause it wasn't quite ripe. The inside is a gorgeous color of green. It was a free package of seeds. I think either Rebecca, Jen or Megan got a free pack too.

Carrots! Lovely carrots. I had success this year! They were crowding out and shading the shishito pepper (Actually I think it's the hot banana pepper I got from Bruce but the tag was accidentally switched with the shishito...by me) so thought it best to harvest them. Their tops were so tall, but I couldn't see the root pushing up from the soil so expected to find a skinny, underdeveloped carrot. Nope. These are lovely. I mixed up the seeds and scattered them all around the bed so have orange AND purple carrots. LOVE. They smell so nice too. Only the ones near the pepper plant were pulled so I have a whole bed of carrots to pull. Yippee! I'm going to start more seed when I can find a place for them.

While scrolling through FB, I saw that someone had to pull out their hose for the first time this year. Me TOO! Last night.

Dawn, I accidentally left the chicken door open a couple of nights ago and was surprised to see them out in the morning. At first I thought that Ethan had let them out (he's an early riser for a teen). Then remembered that I had closed the little chicken door so I could deal with broodies without interruption from the others. As it got dark I wondered why there weren't going into the coop. DUH! I shut their door. So went out and opened it, but then forgot to close it. Seriously. The pen door was closed, but our pen is not 100% predator proof. Something that was very determined could find a way in, which is why they have to be in the predator proof coop WITH the door locked during the night. That could have been a disaster because we have all sorts of critters lurking around at night too, Dawn, more than we've had so far out here.

K, I need to finish work. We have a date night tonight and I want to leave early to take a nap so I don't fall asleep at 10. We are going to Picasso in the Paseo Arts District. One of my favorite restaurants.

Have a good day, Everyone.

Got back yesterday from camp, so today has been laundry and unpacking day. I noticed there were a lot of weeds, so I'll have to get out and deal with them at some point. But right now I'm too pooped to care.

It's too hot to type on the laptop, even in the shade. My fingers stick to the keys. I helped at the school this morning but it was too hot to work on my own stuff this afternoon. I DID get birdbaths set out in the veggie beds, the big center bed, and near the hummingbird feeders, for pollinators. I wanted to get the garlic and onions out, but not in full sun. I'll wait until this evening or tomorrow morning. I'm getting more tomatoes finally. . . but they have produced dismally. I will be anxious to get more planted. I have roselle, cardinal vine, marigolds, lots of zinnias, hen and checks, new tomatoes all growing in their pots, as well as the columbines I began 4 months ago. I think the columbines are FINALLY large enough to set out! I'll be anixous to get cucumbers and c. moschata squash planted--Seminole, crookneck, and early Bulam. Other than greens, cilantro and flowering kale, don't think I'll be planting anything else in the veggie beds. Maybe beets.

Oops. We have to go to dinner. Later!

Fed everyone. Brought in a blushing Gardeners Delight. Ate my first Black Pearl tomato. Hybrid alternative to Black Cherry, which is a disease magnet over here. Not bad, not as good as Black Cherry, but it’s still alive. Lost several more tomatoes today, but all the special snacks I left for the damn critters are gone.

Im still curious about the Porter strains. At least 3 of mine are currently going down with either septoria or EB, whereas the ones from last year (via Bruce) just kept cranking them out all summer with minimal disease. That and the shape of these tomatoes (about a 2-3 bite ribbed round, not last years grape shape), still makes me curious about the difference. These are just a shade sweeter too.

Nancy, the huge monster tomato is a Beefmaster.

Right now my healthiest plants are Bella Rosa, Big Beef, and Brandy Boy.

Dawn, you were right. The second planting of green beans did it. Just stuck them in over the weekend and they are already popping up.

Cucumbers are frustrating me.

I'm coasting at the moment and gardening is being fun this year. There are weeds, sure, but it has been mostly manageable, with lots of mulch down. There have been many failures, but have planted so much stuff, can't even remember what has failed sometimes. The first round of tomatoes--now that's a fairly big fail. . . but don't care. I have plenty to eat and some to freeze. Round two hopefully produce enough to have plenty of salsa.

BUT. DAWN, I have a question. I have all these peppers that are producing NOW. Should I chop, blanch and freeze so I can get them back out when I make salsa? I notice when I just chop and freeze, they're "tough."

I assure you, I planted the onions on THE single worst day they could have been planted. But time was of the essence since they needed to go in according to Dixondale, so I did it. That night we had wind and freezing rain and below 32. I had run out to cover them best as I could with polar fleece and plastic bags. I figured that was a big fail.

That's just a portion of the ones out there, about 4 times that many. This will have been a GOOD onion year! About 1/3 of them are good-sized, of the rest almost all are small medium to medium. So a lot better than we thought it'd be. The garlic are fairly wonderful. The potatoes, the best yet, but still not great. Tomatoes thumbs down on productivity. Peppers will be fine

Our son in law and two of his four kids delivered nearly 2 dozen baby toads to us yesterday. What a cute and lovely visit. I had confessed that we use tick killer in May in the yard proper, except for the beds. I felt bad, thinking about it. And yet, remembered that the same day Garry spread it, it rained a lot. So we figured it was a lost caise. NO pessticide is good. None is justified. We are just so frightened of tick disease since Titan almost died last year and our neighbor Tom was so SO sick the year before with Rocky Mtn tick fever. So the compromise is to put the tick killer in the immediate back lawn and not the rest of the place. And excluding all the beds. Nonetheless, as George affirmed, the toads would likely be harmed or die. I just hope they stay in that big center bed, which is pure. 30-plus feet long, 20 feet plus at the widest point. Praying for little toads. They were so cute. I put up little houses for them and little soaking pools.

I also put out drinking places in the veggie beds and the center bed for pollinators, and moved a bird bath up by our feeders for the hummingbirds. After all, I have the cats water every day and Garry gives Titan water every day.

We have too many Sungolds of course. Need Sungold recipes. And we have too many slobbery loving cats and dog. Puh-leeeze.

No sungolds for me this year, though I may have to start some for fall tomatoes.

Harvested a cherry tomato (forget which one, but it was a dwarf variety I got at SF) and one pretty & sweet pepper. Saw a few more fruits, so hopefully I'll have plenty later. And my raspberry plants are out of control. No fruit, but the 3 plants from last year are now dozens.

I'm so tired and should be in bed sound asleep, but here I am, and I'm going to go backwards because I remember the last thing I read....

Jen, At least the raspberry plants are spreading. If something is going to be out of control, then why not raspberries? Welcome home. I hope camp was fun and successful.

Nancy, I plan to coast for the rest of the summer. Maybe succession planting only flowers and herbs for veggies is going to be a part of my routine forever now.

You don't have to blanch peppers, but I suppose you could do it if you want. I never do. I don't notice that they get tougher after being frozen though. Mine get softer and mushier, but since I'm using them in cooking, it doesn't bother me.

Dry the SunGolds in a dehydrator or in your oven set at its lowest setting...for my stove, I think that is around 200 degrees. Dry them until they are like raisins, then throw them in zip-lock bags and keep them in the freezer. In winter, when no fresh home-grown tomatoes are available, thaw them and toss them into salads or soups or stews.

Rebecca, A lot of people seem to be having a lot of trouble with cucumbers this year. I'm betting it is the weather, but that is just a guess.

Your Porter tomatoes that are ribbed shape sound like they were cross-pollinated.

I hope the tree rats enjoyed their special treats.

Jennifer, We have forgotten and left the coop open before. It happens. Usually no predators get into it on those nights which simply amazes me.

The squash probably won't need fertilizer. Just keep an eye on it and watch for the growth to slow down or the color of the plant to fade... both would be a sign that fertilization is needed.

If it is a butternut squash, you should be able to tell by the shape of the fruit---they will be in the classic butternut shape, even when small.

Predators are very bad this year. Perhaps all the flooded rivers, lakes and ponds stirred them up.

I did the usual work in the garden---harvesting, followed by weeding and a little deadheading.

In the garden, we had a ton of butterflies today. Also a ton and a half of beneficial insects. The dill plants have swallowtails cats, and the butterfly weed has monarch cats. Any day that I get to see both in the garden on the same day is a great day.

I'm taking tomorrow off so I can clean house. I'd rather be out in the garden though.

Dawn

Thanks for the Sungold tip, Dawn. It made me chuckle to picture little Sungold raisins! I will get on it.

We're having lots of thunder right now. Fun, as it's not that cloudy. But has cooled slightly. It was SO hot and humid. (Oops and I see there is a "Significant Thunderstorm" warning. We're getting a bit of rain but the radar has it mostly missing us, which is fine with me. Oddly it's going west and north--totally backwards.) And I had company--a friend and her 15-yr old daughter, who loved the garden and said she'd like to come help. lol. DARN. Too bad her Mom is carless during the work week, as the husband has it at work. I asked them if they'd be more comfortable in the house but they insisted on staying outside.

I saw my first Giant Swallowtail today--yay! The ladies asked me if the bees every bothered me because there are a TON of bees out there now. And they don't bother me at all. They're too busy gathering pollen, I guess.

I jumped out of bed at 6:30 this morning and got all the garlic and rest of the onions out. We'll add more soil to the bed and get something else in that bed and the potato bed.

In view of how much trouble folks have had with cucumbers, I am glad I decided to plant them in July instead of spring.

I'm kind of brain dead, so will go fix dinner--BLTs!

Dawn, it was a hot day to work outside so it's probably good that you stayed in and cleaned.

I watered this morning first thing.

Harvested some stuff tonight.

Nancy, here I am wishing I had started MORE Sungold. LOL. Only have two this year. I miss the six that I had last year.

Congrats on the onion harvest. Mine was pathetic.

Picked up some garden soil today. Need to put it where the onions were and where the watermelons will go. The seedlings are still little but look healthy.

I know I say this every day, but I'm SO happy about my beans. I'm getting real harvests this year.

I found another dog vomit fungus area. Weird. It's not rained since Sunday. Unless there really is a dog (or other critter) vomiting on my garden.

Dawn, I think my squash does not look like butternut. It looks like patty pan. I have never grown, purchased, cooked, or taken as a gift patty pan squash. How the heck did it get into my compost?! I'll take a pic of it tomorrow.

Nancy, I wish we'd had some of that thunder and clouds! We saw a lot pass by to our east as they headed from SE OK down into TX to wreak havoc there. I guess I'm not sorry, obviously, that the hail and strong wind missed us.

Chris and Jana were down at a food/music festival in Carrollton yesterday and stopped by here for a while on their way home. It seemed like they had a lot of fun, but kept mentioning how extremely hot it was down there. They also had to get off I-35 and detour through the back roads to get home because traffic on I-35 was so backed-up and just not moving much at all. After they left, I found out perhaps one reason why....something, presumably the heat, had caused one of the traffic lanes on I-35 in the Carrollton area to buckle, and they had cut down traffic in one direction to one lane instead of four. There also appeared to be several wrecks. These are just a couple of the reasons I love living out in the sticks where we don't even have 8-lane highways. If a road buckles here (except for I-35) then that road either closes or goes down to one lane only......it does keep life simple, no? I'm really not ready for it to be hot enough here for the roads to buckle and hope the DFW keeps the extreme heat down there because we don't even want that sort of heat up here.

Tim had a really busy week at work as his department has been moving into their new police HQ/Station 1/jail facility the last couple of weeks. He was so tired that I've tried to go easy on him this weekend and not ask him to do too many things from the Honey-Do list. I believe the final stage of moving at work occurs on Wednesday, and he expects a hectic week until then, but after that, maybe things will quiet down a bit. Right now, I think he has been going back and forth between the old station 1 and the new station 1, trying to get things done. Their new facility is huge and gorgeous (isn't anything brand new always breathtakingly lovely when you've been working in a really old building?) and I know they will love it when they get all settled in. Chris and the rest of the fire crew from his station went over there during a few quiet minutes on Thursday and got the whole guided tour from some of the FD's upper management and really enjoyed being able to see it. I believe the future new fire station (Station 7) is going to be built right beside Station 1.

A man and his lawnmower....around here, that seems to be the key to happiness in the summer time. Once he gets the lawn mowed and 'under control', then he can truly relax. I don't get it...but I'm a gardener and not a lawn person, which works out well for us, because he is a lawn person and not a gardener.

Dawn