Dawn, your comment about your friends who refuse to garden because they hated it as a kid...maybe that's why I don't want a flower bed? My mom had one that was 2 railroad ties long x 1 railroad tie wide and I positively HATED weeding that monster. So now I have flowers mixed in with veggies, but no actual "flower garden".

Nancy's "pretty n sweet" and "midnight" (i think that was the name) peppers are doing well. Have you ever pickled the midnights? I love the color and would just grow as an ornamental, but I'd like to do something with them, too.

Tomatoes are meh. Hopefully this cooler spell will make them grow some fruit. So far all I've gotten are a handful of cherry tomatoes.

Dawn, take care of yourself while you're caring for everyone else.

My garden. Well, just watering a lot. I have red "full size" tomatoes that should be harvested tomorrow. LOTs of Armenian cukes... and Juliet and SunGold tomatoes. The PEPH peas are producing now. Seminole pumpkins are vining like crazy. They are in the area next to the Armenian cucumbers. What dumb gardener planned that?! Oh. Me. I did it. Obviously those two varieties are not staying in their designated spots.

Watermelon is coming along.

New bush beans have sprouted and look good so far. The pole beans look a little rough, but I like how they've filled in the livestock panel trellis, so I'll leave them for now.

The zinnias were pulled out tonight. I made a last bouquet of the freshest flowers. I need to rethink zinnias....where to plant, etc.

It's all good...and rough in spots.

Please...bring some rain soon. And cooler temps. The upcoming "cold front" seems to be less of a cold front every day. My least favorite weather is this. In winter when it's so cold, it's Earth's time to rest and recharge...so I get it. The garden "dies" at the first frost. BUT, I HATE, HATE HATE it when it struggles in this super hot summer weather.

I combined two hens and their babies tonight. After a bit of a scuffle, it appears that they'll get along enough to keep them together. This will save me some time and energy. It's so funny that those little chicks KNOW their mother. I do enjoy watching these babies and their moms. The entire process is so interesting.

However, it would be so nice if no one goes broody next year.

Luckily Rosslyn Kaye (who I kicked off the Broody Train) is back with the main flock and is no longer sitting on eggs. Yay!

Oh, in Norman we hit 100 today.

I think that's all.

I enjoy reading everyone's posts. I love how all of our situations and gardens are so different. It's encouraging. Love y'all!

Jen, That could be why you abhor the thought of a flower bed....that association with a childhood task that was miserable. It makes sense.

The kind of garden I can't stand is the one with all the plants lined up in perfect rows....nothing but vegetables. No herbs. No flowers. No mulch. Plants just lined up like little rows of soldiers, with narrow rows of plants and big wide bare soil pathways. I hate gardens like that and don't even want to step into them. I think that my mind associates those with my uncle on my dad's side who had a very large market garden and worked way too hard, slaving away in the hot sun, to keep that garden perfectly weed free in the 1960s and 1970s. I think he sold it in the 1980s. And my grandfather was the same way---putting an extraordinary amount of time and effort (and work and sweat) into a bare soil garden with neat little rows of soldier-like plants. I never saw a weed in either garden that I can remember and I remember thinking they both worked far too hard, day in and day out, in the ridiculous summer heat. I remember being firmly resolved I wouldn't be like them....and I am not. I think it is interesting that from a terribly young age, I abhorred even the thought of a bare soil, sort of sterile looking garden. And, of course, my garden is a crazy quilt of everything thrown in together. My uncle and grandfather undoubtedly would hate it.

Jennifer, I think that I am taking good care of myself, but I am not sleeping well, and that perhaps is inevitable at a time like this.

Just let the Armenian cukes and Seminoles slug it out. That is what I have done in the past, and I did plant them side by side on purpose, figuring out nothing else could grow vigorously enough to grow by them.....so letting them grow together at least protected everything else from their rampant growth.

Don't tell me the cold front is fading before it gets here. That will be too depressing and I have avoided looking at the forecast today in case the forecast for cooler weather is falling apart. They already slid the arrival of cooler weather for us from Monday to Tuesday and I was hoping that was not a bad omen.

I don't really know of any way to keep the hens from going broody since you cannot control day length.

We've hit 100 at our house a few times this year, but I don't remember if our Mesonet station has officially reached 100 yet. Really, on most days this summer, the issue more so that the heat has been the dewpoints. I'd be thrilled if we could have dewpoints in the 60s for a few days instead of having them in the upper 70s.

One thing I've noticed the last few days is how few wildflowers are in bloom in pastures and along roadsides. I believe the heat has sucked the life out of them and everything is going to seed now, even though it is too early for some of them to do that. Tim and I now understand why all the bees in southern OK appear to be in our yard and garden (and doubly so with hummingbirds)....there's nothing in bloom anywhere else, except for a few crapemyrtles in bloom in the medians along I-35. Oops here it is after 10:30 p.m. and I just heard 3 VFDs (not ours) paged out on a brush fire. Really? At night. I don't know how in the world these things are getting started, but having them at night when the temperatures are a bit cooler and the dewpoints a bit higher is a bad sign.

Today was a more relaxing day as we weren't on the go as much as we were yesterday. All we did today was have a picnic, swim in the pool, go to the movies to see The Lion King, go to the feed store, go to the grocery store, and take Aurora home, where we then sat and visited for a while. Except for that, we didn't do anything today. I hope to do even less tomorrow.

There's nothing new to report garden wise. I watered containers today and that was it. I need to harvest tomatoes and peppers tomorrow.

Dawn

I forgot a couple of things last night.

First of all, it is July (and this is not garden-related, but it is driving me crazy). It is not December. Not November. Not even October. So, while picking up milk at Wal-Mart on Friday evening, they had a huge Little Debbie Cake display set up in the aisle right by the milk. It was 4-sided, with dozens of boxes of product per side. One entire side was their Christmas Tree cakes. In July. I thought this was crazy. Then, it got worse. We were only picking up milk on Friday. Sunday afternoon, after the movie ended, we stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things on the way home. One of them was the sour cream, located back on the milk aisle. As I walked past the Little Debbie cake display to get the sour cream, I noticed that at least half the Christmas Tree cakes had been sold since Friday night. Why, why, why? I feel like I walked into a time warp and maybe it is November or December and I don't know it. I just thought this was nuts. I know that American retail rushes the seasons nowadays, but this is just strange. Who has any craving or desire for a Christmas tree-shaped snack cake in July?

We had a fire overnight. A grass fire in the middle of the night is more typical of the drought summers of 2008 or 2011. This makes me wonder what lies ahead if good rain doesn't fall. Granted, it was a small fire, and easily controlled. Tim was gone for less than an hour, but still....I am not ready for us to start having fires in the middle of the night when our humidity and dewpoints are about as good as they get this time of the year and the temperatures are dropping all night long. I was most aggravated by the fact that once I'm awake, I'm awake and not going to fall back asleep so I've been mostly awake since 2 a.m. It is time to go out and feed the chickens and let them out, but what I really want to do is to crawl back into bed and sleep. I'd do that, but it is nearly impossible for me to sleep during the daytime.

I did go look at our soil moisture levels because we are so dry, and I looked at our relative greenness numbers on that map to see if my eyes are perceiving the greenness correctly. The Visual Greenness map is one way to test that and it confirms my perception that we're a lot less green now than we were just 4 to 6 weeks ago. So, if you go by the 4" plant available water map that tells us that number, and which says we should be watering if our number is less than 0.50 our number this morning is 0.06, down 0.01 since yesterday morning. That's pretty low. We usually only hit 0.0 during drought, and we are awfully close to 0.00 now and we aren't even in drought. After all those months of excess moisture, the 0.6 is an unpleasant reminder that the soil really doesn't hold moisture indefinitely. Some of you are shockingly close to that number too. Here's that map:

4" Plant Available Water Map

On the Visual Greenness Map, we have fallen from the 90s a month or so ago to 54% now. As much of a decline as that is, we still are fairly green compared to most summers, but it is a dry greenness that burns easily if a fire starts. This makes me dread the coming weeks. The overnight rain missed us and there's no chance of any other rain for the rest of this week, so I'll be watering the garden deeply today or tomorrow.

The wild things are reacting as expected due to everything drying out. I had to drag out the green Little Tykes turtle sandbox and fill it up with water from the hose last night so the deer and other creatures that visit the compost pile area will have water to drink without walking a long distance to the river or to someone's stock pond. Our large pond (about 1/3 acre of surface feet, depending on how much water it is holding), which had been full continually since last September is empty now, the swamp is dry, and the creek is very, very low. I already have been keeping water supplied for the birds, bees, and butterflies, and now am supplying water for everything that roams our property.

Last night a medium-sized herd of deer (7 or 8) came to the compost pile looking for food. Since I haven't been doing much gardening, I don't think there was much of anything there for them to find. The same two deer with the small fawn that come daily were there as a part of that herd, but this time they had added another doe/fawn to the herd and the fawn is very young, tiny and spotted like the first one was. They seem very hungry, which I don't really understand. With all the heavy rainfall this year, there should be plenty for them to eat. I'm glad they are fenced out of our veggie garden.

Some folks got rain overnight or are getting it this morning. I'm green with envy!

Dawn

We got a little rain a while ago, it started just before 7:00 am and lasted about 20 minutes. The rain was wonderful but not near enough to help much, I did however fertilize a little late yesterday and the rain was enough to wash a little fertilizer into the soil.

Dawn, I like the plants in a nice straight row, but with lots of mulch. The straight wide paths between the rows makes it much easier for me to walk between the plants and to use my stool when I weed or harvest. I now have a stool in each garden, which really helps my ole beat up body.

My grand daughter came over yesterday. She, Madge and I went to the Olive Garden for lunch. There we met my first wife ( Loren's grandmother ) and her husband. We had a wonderful meal and visit. Then came home and harvested a lot of peppers and tomatoes for Loren to take home with her.

I wish I had known the rain was coming so I could have been read to burn a brush pile. It is so hard to find a good time to burn brush piles. I like to burn when there is snow on the ground, but no better than I can get around, that makes it hard also. I have water tanks, a pump and generator but it take time to set all that up and be ready just in case something goes wrong.

Garden wise, tomatoes are very sick, peppers, peas, sweet potatoes, and okra look very well. The zinnias are doing well, but I would like to find more flowers to plant in the wildlife garden. I am thinking of a wild flower mix that the Farmers Co-op sells. I would like to stick with the Ladino clover and other crops or wildlife food that will come back each year.

Out of all the varieties of okra that I planted, I may end up with enough plants to get some pods, but they are slow growing. The tomatoes look pretty bad (it IS late July, after all!), but there is a lot of fruit out there! I'm debating planting pole beans for fall and/or bush beans. The issue is...how hot IS it going to get? Can I keep them watered? If the spring pole beans got rust, will it be in the soil so I shouldn't plant in the same place?

The heat has really been doing me in, to the point I was lucky it rained since I couldn't force myself to go out yesterday. We got about 1/2 inch. Our 4" moisture level is way above Dawn's, and was even before the rain. But then, we got the floods this year. I've mostly only been watering pots and new seedlings. Today would be a great day for gardening, but I need to be clean for an appointment this afternoon.

I was amazed! Ron is considering my greenhouse idea for winter. I wanted to do it last year, but couldn't get him on board. (I have 4 cattle panels between the beds near the house that I want to cover with plastic). He doesn't have the energy he used to.

I don't like gardens in rows either, but Ron would like it. He used to fuss at me about it untill someone he works with called it companion planting. Then my jungle style was ok. My dad was raised on a farm. Our only garden was a strawberry bed, but I was too small to work in it. Got in trouble once for throwing dog poop in it when I was supposed to be cleaning that waste up. Mom had petunias at that house, and peonies. The peonies bloomed the last year we lived there. My grandmother had a huge garden, she preferred gardening to housework. I don't recall ever working in her garden either. (It would have been rows with bare soil, but it was Minnesota, so not so hot and dry.) I made dolls from her hollyhock flowers. I'm rambling! Best get busy. Have a good week everyone!

Just a quick post to say YAY! We are having a true cool front and I've been outside since around 7:30 this morning. Came in to make a shake and rest for a bit.

I just scanned everyone's posts and will read in detail later tonight. Did see the Little Debbie Christmas cupcake comment (from Dawn, I think). ME TOO! I saw those last week? What in the world? Is this some sort of weird social/psychological experiment. Odd.

K, load of laundry and back outside.

Got a half inch of rain overnight.

The tomatoes are going down hard. I pulled 2 Porter, 2 EG, and something I think was a cherry of some kind. All the beefsteak varieties are done for, including Big Beef. Even one of the Heidis is teetering on the brink. I see the usual EB and septoria, but they also have random branches that turn yellow, then brown, then collapse. So far, the sun sugar, Black Pearl, 4th of July, and gardeners delight are holding their own, but look sick. I will start pulling more things later this week, but I’m not sure about starting fall tomatoes this late. I’d have to really push them. Plus with disease already around...

Guess I’ll have room to play with root crops.

Wow. If that galia melon tastes HALF as good as it smells, it is going to be DEElicious!! What a LOVELY smell. Yep it does fall right off the vine, just as you all said. Wish I could take a picture of the smell for you all. Well not Dawn. She knows what they smell like. It is enormous! Probably too big for us. I'm going to have to plan this. Every time I plant to cut one, I need friends standing by who will take half of one.

I got around to picking peppers today, got a haul. Got a few more tomatoes that broke color; not all the garlic is dry yet (!).

I'm not sure I'm going to have to do away with all the tomato plants. There are a few who look pretty good.

Yes, HJ and Amy, I am so so tickled with the reasonable weather for a few days. Like you, Amy, I hardly ventured out the past two days. Dawn, I certainly hope yours will be cooler tomorrow. Keep us posted. I wasn't able to really take full advantage of the weather for gardening, as I was at school from 8:30-1:30, and came home tired. Those little kids suck the energy out of one. Oh, but you all know that! lol So much fun, though.

Garry got TWO big weed patches weeded while I was gone. Bless his heart!!! They both needed it so badly. Hallelujah! He did awesome, right? It was better than getting a present on my birthday!

We are two of the ones to be envied, Dawn. I won't even tell you how much rain we got, but plenty enough to do some real good. I am so thankful, but have survivor garden's remorse. Does that help at all?

What's a row? Is it long and straight? Just guessing. LOL However, Larry, you have good reason for doing it your way.

Amy, if you were able to do the greenhouse thing, would it work to house the citrus trees?

Jen, no on the Midnights. BUT what's her name--Renee-- says they are wonderfully edible, so wouldn't they make pretty little (HOT) pickled peppers? They'd be cute as Christmas gifts! Have you tasted the Pretty n Sweet? So sweet!

I DO believe there is something to our experiences as children in gardens. And believe that's why I go overboard on flowers now--my mother didn't grow ANY. (Dad experimented with a few.) And I HATED working in our enormous garden. However. I think there is a way to have children fall in love with gardening. Don't you all agree? Look at Jacob. Look at Dale and Carrie. And I'm sure many of you in this group have children who love it. Well, I'll have a chance to test it out with the kids at "school." (BTW, we've been having "school" at a nearby church, as the school got water and mold. We probably won't be able to get back in until October or so. And so the kids haven't really gotten to participate this year in it much. Grrr.)

Off to fix dinner.

I'm very confused. It seems that posts/comments are out of order...and this is especially bad because I just came in from outside and am very tired.

I read all the posts and found them interesting, but am confused, so will be back tomorrow to sort it all out.

They ALL seem totally out of order, HJ, I agree!!! WHAT the!!!

I guess I better jump over onto the Okie gardening forum. I have a tendency to read but not post. It’s 61 degrees at the moment, and I’m on our back porch listening to the birds. I tell you what, the highway behind our house has gotten a LOT busier since we moved here. That being said, it’s the worst between 7 and 9 am, and between 4 and 6 pm. Other times it’s normally not too bad, although a sunny day on the weekend usually means lots of motorcycles, all day.

The tomatoes have been producing well since late June. Our last frost was around April 20th(?) this year, and I planted them a few days later under plastic-wrapped tomato cages. I may do that every year, as it worked so well.

My Kennebec potatoes are not dead yet, but they’re big enough to harvest. We’re harvesting as we need them. My goal this year was 3lb per plant, and I topped that goal at an average of 3.5lb per plant, which I am really happy about. Yesterday, I dug a 3’ row, which yields over 10lb of potatoes. I have around 81’ left to dig before the frost. I plan to leave them in the ground to feed off of the plants until the first frost, when I can dig them up and store in our then-cool garage for the winter. Kennebec is quickly becoming a favorite of mine for the flavor. It’s a really creamy potato, which I like. Next year I wouldn’t mind trying some russets.

I was sent Honeynut mini butternut winter squash seeds from a very nice lady in Virginia last winter. I only have 1 plant, but it is really thriving. I counted 17 butternut squash on it yesterday! The squash bugs are hitting my other pumpkins and winter squash pretty hard, but so far they don’t seem to like the butternut. I’m okay with that, because I like butternut better than any of the others.

My climbing beans are doing pretty well too. I’m going to grab some pictures later. They have a very odd growth habit this year. They’ve started out as a bush, and now they are finally climbing after the bushes has been covered in blooms and beans. The bean pods are flat, and the seed was rounded and fairly flat as well. The pods are a little tougher raw, but they really taste great. Any ideas as to what type of bean this could be? I have a 10’ row for seed saving, and another 10’ row for picking. I wouldn’t be saving seed if I didn’t love the flavor so much. Oh, and the Japanese beetles just won’t touch them. They went over 3 weeks without any rain or supplemental watering whatsoever, and they did great, not seeming to wilt at all but continuing to grow. I’m really curious as to what these plants are. I also have sprawling cucumbers planted next to them that are doing quite well, now forming their first cucumbers.

My next projects are two 15x15’ plots where we removed some trees on the northern side of our property last fall. This opened up a lot of sunshine, especially in the fall. I’m going to dedicate one plot to a spring/fall garden, since it is the only suitable place on our property (it receives over 6 hours of sunlight all autumn). The other plot will be dedicated to a sweet corn plot. My raised beds are also the dedicated potato plots now. It is hard to rotate in my garden, as certain spots are only suitable to certain plants. It’s the consequence of shade and the tolerance of shade to other plants. So I’m focusing more on the soil where plants have continually grown to ensure that it stays fertile for the succeeding plants.

This weather is definitely not bad. We were holding 90-92 degrees all last week for highs, and now we’re holding around 80 for a couple days with 50’s at nights, jumping to mid 80’s by day with low 60’s by night at the end of the week. It’s a major difference!

I have to go for now. I’ve got to work today, but I’ll snap some pictures of the garden when I get home later. There’s really not much see yet, as I cleared quite a few spring crops a couple weeks ago.

Wishing you all a great day.

The posts are still out of order. So odd. I did see that Jacob posted, in case anyone missed it because of the wonkiness of the thread. Although, this comment could be at the top and no one will see it either.

Good to "see" you, Jacob.

It appears the order of the comments has been reversed, so newest is first. I have noticed this on facebook, too, so it must be the latest tech "advance". Some of us are too old for change. And it means you have to scroll to the bottom to read in order. You still post at the bottom, too.

Since it appears I was the last to post on the previous thread I copied and pasted here, because I didn't know if it was seen. Took me a while to find it!

Nancy, the long beans were Long Bean Taiwan Black Seeded, originally from Baker Creek. I like them in Asian style stir fries. They are ...tougher or chewier...than regular green beans, and they are a cow pea, so they grow in heat when green beans don't. Those were saved seeds, I hope they didn't cross. Glad you got good germination.

Driving T posts in the heat sounds like hell on earth...literally.

Ron is in the garden by himself and there are bad words. I best get out there.

AGGH. Well, I guess we'll just have to deal with whatever the heck's going on, Amy. Bad words here, too. What were Ron's bad words about? LOL

Larry, I understand why you like the wide rows but at least you do mulch. What drives me crazy about all that bare soil is that weeds pop up in it, and wind and rain erode it. You also need room for your stools. One of our neighbors who lived up the road from us a couple of miles continued gardening very late into his life--probably until about a year before he went into a nursing home. In his later years, someone else had to rototill for him, but then he planted, and he made his rows wider, and then he would take a metal folding chair out there and sit down in it, hoe in hand, and work his way up and down all the rows doing his hoeing and keeping his garden neat and tidy the way he liked it. He might be out there all day long, sitting in that chair, but he was happy and he was able to keep his garden weed free, so it was worth it to him. He wasn't ever going to be happy just sitting in the recliner indoors all day, and this allowed him to garden for as long as he could.

It sounds like you and Madge had a lovely meal at Olive Garden with everyone and I bet Loren was thrilled to get to visit with both sets of her grandparents.

Amy, Well, August is coming so I'd expect it is going to get pretty hot, but this is such a weird year, so who can tell? My okra was slow like yours last year, but not this year. I have wondered if excess moisture slows it down since that seemed to be the issue last year. This year, by the time I planted the okra, excess moisture wasn't an issue because the heavy rain here stopped in early to mid-May. Since then, we've had precious little rainfall at our house and the okra is growing and producing like gangbusters.

Beans in a spot where you had them before? That is risky because rust is fungal and the fungal spores can persist on mulch and plant debris. I think you might be able to do it though, especially since we are mostly hot and dry now. If I were trying to come back in and plant a succession crop of beans where I'd recently removed bean plants with rust, I'd remove all the debris and scatter powdered sulfur on the surface of the ground. Sulfur works well against bean rust, so if you do see rust start developing on your new plants, use a sulfur fungicide on them early to nip it in the bud. It also would help if you were to plant one of the rust-resistant bean varieties. If you don't know which ones are rust resistant, let me know and I'll list a few.

Hollyhock dolls are such a happy memory! I hope ladies with gardens still make those with their granddaughters.

Jennifer, The Debbie Cake thing makes me crazy. What are they thinking? Why are people buying them? Tim said that maybe everyone is buying the Christmas tree cakes to eat while they watch Christmas movies during The Hallmark Channel's 'Christmas in July' movie marathon. Surely not! How many people would be watching Christmas movies in July while eating Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes and...what....drinking hot cocoa? Summertime is for watermelon, ice cream and iced tea, not Christmas tree cakes, no matter what movie a person is watching. With Christmas tree cakes on the food aisle, can Christmas decorations be far behind? I think we saw it in stores last year in September.

Rebecca, I agree with you about it being awfully late to start with fall tomatoes, especially with diseases running so rampant this year. We always have a lot more plant diseases in wet years. As hard as drought years are, they really are low-disease years.

Nancy, Galia is famous for its fragrance, but so are most heirloom muskmelons---when Hale's Best Jumbo melons are nearing maturity, the garden smells so awesome and you can smell it from 100' away before you even reach the garden.

Yes, row crops are single-width, perfectly straight rows...so picture something like one single row of bush beans, perfectly spaced 8-12" apart, with an empty aisle of bare soil about 3' wide on either side of them. It is the home garden version of a commercial field crop. Most home gardeners I know who garden this way will hammer a stake in the ground at either end of the future row, run some string or garden twine from one stake to the other, and use that string as their guide to keep their planting perfectly straight. (That's never gonna be me doing that!) My grandfather gardened that way so he could take his tiller down the 3' wide paths and rototill out all the weeds every so often. Many of the "old farmer" crowd around me gardens that way, but younger (generally organic) gardeners here tend to do wider beds---3 or 4' wide and chock full of plants, with more narrow pathways, and all of it mulched to keep down the weeds and prevent soil erosion. It is a matter of style/technique and also space---farmers and people with lots of land may prefer to rototill every year and plant narrow rows, easily maintained with small tillers or cultivators, and then maintain the wide pathways mechanically. For a lot of the farmers, this is how they farmerdor at least until they began growing large commodity crops, and it is how they've always gardened. I have seen a few of them, late in life, switch to raised beds once their kids "made" them stop driving the tractor, which usually occurs after they've fallen off the tractor a few times and their family fears for their health and safety.

That's so unfortunate about the school. Did it flood or did it get water damage and mold from a leaking roof or something? I think that kids who grow up around gardeners are the luckiest kids on earth. Our neighborhood in a Fort Worth suburb in the 1960s and 1970s had tons of gardens. Even the folks who didn't have full vegetable gardens usually had fruit trees and flowers. The men were VERY into lawns---back then a perfect green carpet of lawn, meticulously maintained, was very much expected socially. So, the front lawns were perfect, and there were flower beds around the houses, and then the back yards were beautiful jungles of fruit trees, veggie gardens, cutting flower beds, etc. with some lawn space left for kids and pets. One neighbor raised meat rabbits, another had chickens, and another had goats and sheep on their 2-acre lot. There were no anti-farm animal city codes back then. Our next door neighbors had a greenhouse and pecan trees, though the squirrels usually got the pecans. They had a huge brown turkey fig taller than their house most years. Growing up there was crazy-wonderful because I could go yard to yard and see what was growing any day of the week. My mom didn't like gardening at all, and was too lazy to maintain flower beds, though my dad would plant them for her, letting her tell him which flowers she wanted, and then he would nag her to maintain them....so I usually ended up watering, fertilizing and weeding the flower beds for her....until we moved up here to Oklahoma. Of the 4 of us siblings, 2 have been life-long gardeners and the other two are not at all into gardening.

Jennifer and Nancy, I don't understand what is going on with GW nowadays. How do the posts get scrambled? This makes no sense to me.

Jacob, It is good to see you here. I've been wondering how you, your family and your garden have been doing this summer. Don't you hate having the highway close to your home? I don't like the highway noise. We are not that far west of I-35---about a mile or so west of it---although it has no exits anywhere near us, and when we first bought this land, you couldn't hear the highway noise. Then, someone bought the ranch across the road from us which was very heavily wooded and cleared away tons and tons of trees to restore it to being proper ranchland, and when we lost the buffer of all those trees, the highway noise became much more obvious. If I am busy, I don't even notice it, but if I am sitting quietly in a chair, the highway noise assaults my ears. Still, it is nothing like living in the city.

It sounds like you are having a very good garden year, especially with your potatoes!

Your description of the bean plant growth makes me think they might be a half runner type. Half-runners start out like bush beans, and then at some point, often after they already are blooming and producing beans on their bushy plants, they put out runners that will climb endlessly if there is something for them to climb. I've had them climb 10'. If there is nothing to climb, they sort of vine on top of themselves and become a big tangled mess. The half-runners I've grown in recent decades include State, NT (non-tough) Half Runner and Mountaineer. You might Google those three varieties and compare photos of the plants and bean seeds to yours to see if there is any resemblance.

The cool front hasn't cooled us down as much as it has cooled down many of you further north, but today is a lot cooler than yesterday, so at least there's that. We'll take it....anything we get this week is better than temperatures of 95-100 with high dewpoints giving us high heat index values. I'm sure next week we'll return to the more typical summer weather, but I hope to enjoy being outside more this week.

I harvested a ton of peppers this morning and need to go back out and harvest green beans, okra and tomatoes, but I spent so much time deadheading and weeding that I was too hot before I knew it and needed to come in and rest. I'm thinking I can go back out and harvest some more later today.

I feel surrounded by death this year, but then, once you're in your 60s, it is likely that your surviving older relatives are in their 80s and 90s, so that is not unusual for someone in my age group. Until recently, we still had mom and her two sisters-in-law. Well, one sister-in-law, who had been in very frail health for a couple of years now, passed away last night. Complicating things, her older son and his family are on a cruise and will have to disembark from the ship at the next stop and fly home so they can make funeral arrangements and such. My other aunt is wheelchair-bound from an immune disorder that developed in her latter years, but her youngest daughter did bring her to visit my mom last week. I'm glad they got to see each other. I guess we'll all see each other at the funeral in a few days, although I don't think my mom will be able to leave hospice care to go to it herself.

When I was a kid, we had so many aunts and uncles....I just counted them up....we had 23 aunts and uncles when I was a kid, though 5 of them were actually cousins, but their parents were my dad's oldest brother (he and his wife died before I was born) and oldest sister (and my dad was the second youngest) so those 5 cousins were my dad's and mom's ages and I don't think any of us kids realized they were cousins and not our aunts and uncles until we were teenagers. It is hard to believe that of all those, we have only my mom and 1 aunt left now, and my mom is a short-timer. All your life you have that older generation of your family sitting between you and mortality/old age/death, until suddenly you don't.

Dawn

My garden has been sadly neglected the last few days. I had hoped to get some weeding and feeding and planting done while it was cool but since we’ve been spending the first 5-6 hours a day fencing and 2-3 again just before dark the garden has only been visited to pick tomatoes, okra, beans and peas. Didn’t even splash any water yesterday and things looked sadly wilted. We finally got all the wires up though and soon as get to Stillwater and get couple of gates and hang them that project will be finished. We were fencing off some land we gave our daughter and grandson - they work and he works plus going to school at nights so we just did it. Plus my husband is very VERY particular about how things are done and they just take the easiest way a lot so we did this for them and us too. As Larry stated - “we leave it to them in the best condition we can and hope they will maintain it”. I tried reading the posts and catching up But as you all mentioned- they are in terrible order and I don’t have time to read through all again. Hopefully that will straighten out before I have time to read again.

Dawn I put cracked corn out for the doves here too but my problem is crows. Nancy, your beds are beautiful. Yes, time and efforts are a valuable gift.

Enjoy this cool while it lasts.

The posts are also in reverse for me!!

Well, I just got home and apparently we’re headed for a bike ride, so I guess the pictures will have to hold off. Today was actually my first day driving alone with my drivers’ license....I kind of liked it! I‘m driving a blue ‘74 Chevy C10 at the moment. I just love, love, love that truck. I’m only getting around 10-12 miles to a gallon at the moment (which is average for the engine in this one), but I’m trying hard to get it up to at least 16, with efficient driving. Gosh dang it’s a pig! But it was even better when some guy with a raised up pickup came next to me at a red light and started revving his engine like he wanted to race. Then he sped off as soon as the light turned green. NOTHING annoys me more than someone like that. It was so pleasing to drive by him when he was stuck behind a semi truck going 5 mph down the road....That sure got him far!! Slow and steady wins the race....

Dawn, your description of that bean is an exact description of how mine are growing! Half runners- I will note that for this variety. The seed was 34 years old, but it’s done well. I want to grow more bean varieties next year. They are too much fun, and they take up so little space for what they produce....Mine are spaced at 6-12” in 4’ rows, which seems to work best.

Jennifer, no idea what that bug is, but I’ve seen something similar on my squash bug infested spaghetti squash.

I'm seeing all the posts in the correct order on my laptop, using Goggle Chrome. Are y'all on your phones or on tablets or something? Maybe that is where the problem is occurring?

I worked in the garden on and off today. Oddly, it felt worse in the morning when our dewpoint was higher (I think the dry line wasn't here yet) and the temperature was lower, and then it felt pretty good in late afternoon when the temperature was higher but the dewpoint was lower. It felt great out there after dinner, with no direct sun. I spent forever weeding and deadheading and didn't even get half the garden done. Of course, there's some places that now are too weedy to weed safely, mostly along the fence lines, so I can't do anything with those areas, but I can try to clean up all the raised beds and pathways. Tomorrow is a new day and I'll just start up where I left off today.

I barely saw any stink bugs this afternoon. I think I saw only one and promptly snipped it in half with my scissors. I also snipped a milkweed bug in half with my scissors and removed the leaf that contained its nymphs and drowned them in a watering can full of water. I saw a bunch of grasshoppers and killed a couple, but plenty more flew away as soon as they saw me. There's lots of assassin bugs in the garden and plenty of spiders, so they probably are the reason I'm seeing lots fewer pests. There's so many small weeds sprouting that need to be pulled, but since I haven't weeded much lately, it isn't surprising to see them. I've been waiting for a cool day to deal with them and am happy to have one or two or three in July. Often we don't get that cool weather until October.

Farmgardener, Fencing is so tedious. I wish you were able to spend your time doing something that is a little more fun.

We have a little crow trouble, but the crows often are too busy escorting some bird they perceive as a threat away from us, and the doves gobble up cracked corn during that time. Heaven help the owls because the crows harass them with no mercy.

Jennifer, I answered this on the FB page. I don't see the two little black dots on their back section in the photo, so think they are leaf-footed bug nymphs....unless you can see the black dots and tell me I'm wrong. Assassin bug nymphs don't have those two black dots. There are other differences, but to me, this is the easiest way to distinguish between the two. This is what LFB nymphs look like:

Image: Leaf Footed Bug Nymph Photo Showing the Black Dots

Jacob, Enjoy your truck! I love, love, love old trucks.

Has anyone who's having trouble with posts being scrambled alerted Houzz Admin? If you do, you might tell them what you're using...a computer, cell phone or some other device so they can check into it.

I'm looking forward to another nice day out in the garden tomorrow. I think we might start out a little cooler tomorrow than we did today.

Dawn

I am seeing posts in order the way I always do, on my iPad, but I haven’t been able to see any new posts for the past 2 days, and now I can. So there’s that glitch.

Back when Spike owned GW or even after iVillage bought it, they referred to these glitches as the Garden Web gnomes being hard at work messing things up. When Houzz bought GW and likely saved it from extinction, I hoped that with all their resources, they could keep it running well. So......the Garden Web Gnomes apparently continue making mischief anyhow.

Jacob, The growth of your beans with the big bushes at the bottom and the runners climbing the trellis do remind me very much of half-runners, so perhaps that is what you have.

The rest of your garden looks lovely.

I had planned to work outside in the garden all day today, but have been unable to drag myself out of the house to do it. Maybe this afternoon I can summon up the enthusiasm to go out there. I hate that I am not out enjoying the cooler weather and getting things done. Early this morning we received the news that our dear friend, Jesse, died after a relatively brief battle with Stage 4 cancer. While relieved that his extreme pain and suffering have ended, Tim and I, and everyone else who knew and loved Jesse (one of the founding members of our VFD) is profoundly saddened by this news. Jesse was very much a mentor and a father figure to all of us, especially those of us who lost our own dads many years ago. It is hard to imagine a world without him in it. This is the second death of one of our loved ones this week. (My aunt passed away Monday.) I feel like I've had about all I can handle emotionally this week.

Y'all have a good day and get some good work done out in the garden if you can.

Dawn

So sorry for the loss of your friend, Dawn. I hope working outside in your garden gave you some peace. It always does for me.

I have enjoyed our cooler days. When it's 84 degrees and it FEELS like 84 degrees. It was chilly this morning. I slept SO well last night.

I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts and looking at your pictures. Thanks for sharing your gardens and lives.

I have my first ripe Brandywine of the year! Yay! All the plants that aren't mine from seed (what is wrong with me?!) are setting fruit and making new flowers. All of mine in the back garden look like crap. There's ripe fruit but I'm not seeing any new flowers except maybe on one of the Sungolds. Seriously, if there is not new flowers this weekend, I will pull the plants after all the fruit ripen. I just don't know what went wrong there. I really need to rethink tomatoes. How many years is recommended before planting the same plant variety in the same area?

I have cleared out one and a half herb beds. I have a plan for those. Won't bore you with the details right now.

Ethan is watering our neighbors' garden and many ornamental plants while they are out of town. I went over and picked her okra. Geez. I have never had such a reaction to okra. I was itching from head to toe. I had to get in their pool (in my clothes) to try to rinse it off. It was miserable.

The two hens who are sharing the old coop with their babies are doing well together. They keep separate, but aren't fighting. SO glad. Rosa and her baby, Jorie are doing well too. Their habitat makes me a little nervous. It's not completely without predator issues. I've done my best with it, though, for the resources I have. I have been picking up Stormy (wearing long sleeves) and her babies and taking them outdoors for a few minutes. Hopefully they'll be sharing the kennel with Rosa and Jorie soon. Tom is putting the finishing touches on a brooder/momma hen box. It will be a lot more secure than Rosa's. I'll make a divider in the kennel so each hen will have half to scratch around with their babies, etc.

I can't even express how much I've enjoyed our nice summer days this week. I wish all summer days were so nice. Now, we just need a good soaking rain.

I had to deal with veggies today. Love growing them, dealing with them, not as much. :) So I ground up the ripe tomatoes sitting out. . . that only amounted to 4 pints, but still. So stuck em in the freezer, because none of the jalapenos are hot. WHATEVER! But by gosh the Thai chiles. . .. . ouch ouch ouch ouch. I sauteed up tons of green not hot peppers of all kinds, with our homegrown great onions and some with mushrooms, and froze. And for dinner tonight! We both got a laugh out of this--very fattening fried de-boned chicken thighs--looked like enormous chicken-fried chicken-- with sauteed summer squash, pickled cukes and onions, and pepper/onion/mushrooms. Sounds fairly healthy, right? Cept the squash had very buttery Ritz crackers on top, baked.

I've been sharing the amazing butterfly population I'm growing. Would encourage you all to join the Monarch Watch if you haven't already. I just completed the application earlier last month and now am certified as a Monarch Waystation. I invite you to check out Monarch Watch on the internet.

Dawn sorry about Your Mom.

Sounds like everyone is very busy. We're enjoying cooler weather for now.

I had a nice surprise. Was chosen for yard of the month in Grove. If u are interested there are pictures on the Grove chamber of commerce face book. Only flower garden.

Happy summer.

Sorie, Thank you and congrats on having your yard chosen as yard of the month!

Nancy, Yes, there's days I don't want to deal with the veggie harvest either. I think after so many decades of dealing with it all, I'm just over it. I'd like to not can anything ever again, I think. I wonder if the world would stop if I retired from canning? I thought that by doing minimal canning this year, maybe I'd miss it. Nope. I don't miss it at all.

Jennifer, Thanks. I guess working in the garden brought me some peace but not enough. I just feel really unsettled. And, both funerals are scheduled for Monday, and both Visitations for Sunday, about 75 or 80 miles apart, so we're going to have to choose 1 visitation or the other as I don't think we can make it to both since they're being held at the exact same time and then for the funerals, we'll attend the one in Texas first, but not stay for the burial, and rush home as quickly as possible to attend the second one. I'm just relieved that one is a morning funeral and the other is an afternoon funeral so at least we didn't have them both scheduled for the exact same time. In both cases, I have no idea why the funerals were pushed ahead to next week, but they were.

Is your soil in back with the non-producing tomatoes somehow different from your soil in the area where your producing tomatoes are? I would suspect that is the difference somehow. Here where I live, believe it or not, most people around us have sand.....except for Fred and our friend, Pete, who have red clay like us. I guess decades ago, our sand eroded away so we have the clay subsoil as our soil. Anyhow, the folks with sand have lots of trouble because (a) their sand won't hold nutrients or water well and (b) they often have root knot nematodes. So, if you were in my neighborhood, we'd be back there examining your soil to see if a band of sandy soil cuts through your property where those non-productive tomato plants are growing. I'd think that no matter what your soil is back there, it must have a nutritional deficiency of some sort. Maybe you need a soil test for that specific area?

This weather has been so lovely and I wish the cool break we're getting could last longer. It feels indescribably good early in the mornings, but really has been unseasonably nice all day long. Unfortunately rain hasn't come with it. I'm pretty sure our garden is having its driest July that it has suffered through in several years. Our Mesonet station has had about three times as much rain as what has fallen at our house, and its soil moisture numbers still are horrible...so ours would be even worse. Some of the cracks in the ground (in the pastures, not in the garden) are now 1.5" wide or wider. When you think about how much rain we had from Sept thru mid-May, that is ridiculous. Our bermuda grass continues turning browner and browner and I don't care. One day I will care....when a nearby wildfire is headed our way, I'll be thinking 'crap, I should have watered the lawn', but until that day comes, let the bermuda be as brown as it can be.

We are having too many fires now. Fortunately the green grass that remains, often mixed in with brown dormant grasses, slows down the fires, but there's starting to be quite a few little fires here and there. None of them have turned into big ones yet, for which we're grateful.

We have a 30% chance of rain next Monday (Nooo! Not on the funeral day!) and that is it for the 7-day forecast. That means we'll end July will probably no more rain for the month than what already has fallen. I hate going into August dry because the heat usually really cranks up for the first two weeks in August. In our first year here, Tim's older sister and her family came to visit us in August and our high temperatures were in the 110-113 range while they were here....not the kind of weather they are used to. I'm watching the weather on the evening news right now, and we have two days ahead that will have a high heat index, but they aren't even back to back, so we'll get a break in between them at least.

Here's the current 4" available water map. Look how dry most of the state is!

4" Plant Available Water Map

Dawn

Congratulations, Sorie! I will look for pics of your yard!

Dawn, our "available water" is dismal.

Did Tim's sister and family ever come back after visiting that first August?

Nancy, I want to deal with the produce but lack the time often. I did come home today and slice all the cucumbers to freeze for chicken treats. That cleared off one counter. I do love spending time in the kitchen, but I'd rather be outdoors. I have okra ready to pickle and made one batch of refrigerator pickles. I've frozen all the Juliet tomatoes (and am still freezing them because that plant is a producer!) and will make salsa, tomato sauce, etc. this fall or winter. I stupidly made tabouli tonight with garden produce, but it ate up a big chunk of my afternoon. It is SO good, though. I've never made it completely from scratch.

I really need to get out and water and move Stormy and chicks to their new brooder box. I need Tom's help and he's grilling chicken for he and Ethan right now.

I have been so sleepy lately. I fell asleep during a staff meeting prayer today and did that "jerk awake" thing. I hope no one saw me. LOL

Dawn, the soil in the back garden probably needs compost now that you mention the soil health. In my mind, Ethan and I just dumped a lot of homemade compost in those raised beds. It was my first homemade compost. However, because time goes so fast, that is not true. It wasn't just a few months ago. It was the summer of 2015! Honestly, other than some mulch it hasn't been fed much as far as compost goes. The soil we filled the beds with in the spring of 2015 was brought in. It seemed a mediocre quality.

I want to grow something I've never grown back there next year. Maybe onions. I'll dump some compost on it this winter and get it ready.

Is it weird to already be thinking about Garden 2020? I'm already making a layout in my mind of what will be where.

Trying to figure out if this is EB, septoria, or something more sinister. It’s not working from the bottom up, it’s taking out random branches. I’m cutting off what I can in hopes of getting some fall growth, but there aren’t going to be enough leaves to sustain the plants. And, still debating grabbing a few new plants.

Rebecca, my plants look the same, but still producing some. My PEPH are just starting to get purple peas, will be picking soon. My okra is producing, but my peppers are trying to stall out. I will water for a while this AM, the ground is cracking.

My wildlife garden is a little sick now because of all the clearing and trimming I had done over there. The trimming itself was not bad, the bucket truck and my tractor pushing and piling brush sure mashed a lot of plants. I hope to have it in much better shape this fall.

The highway mowing crew came through mowing the bar ditches. They mowed up higher ,, just to the edge of my zinnias. That was higher than they mowed in other areas. I dont know why they did that, but it pleased me. With the weeds cut you can easily see the zinnias as you drive by on the highway. I want to expend the flower areas in the wildlife garden. I am thinking that I want to plant a bunch of poppies and other wild flowers.

Jacob, I love your truck also. My first truck that I bought all by myself was a 1968 GMC With a 327 v8 with a 4 barrel carb. It liked gas also. All my dealing with trucks before were farm trucks. I was not a very nice boy, and my driving showed it. When I was a kid we had a 1947 international, 1957 GMC, and a 1960 GMC. I started driving by myself on the highway when I was 13. I did some very stupid things in the 1957 GMC, 1960 GMC and a 1957 Buick Century we had. BY the time I started buying tires my driving habits changed.

MY 1968 GMC was the first automatic trans. I owned, I ran standards till I bough my 2008 f250 super duty, It had become to painful to shift gears, plus my f259 has a Tommy lift on the back that can lift a 1000 pound up to bed level (old men need all the help they can get)

I like my 250, but it rides like a log wagon and drinks fuel. I agree with you , that how you drive makes a big difference in fuel millage, 14.6 is the best I have ever done in the 250, but driving around home it gets 10 - 12 MPG.

I bought seeds to plant for greens in the home garden, I will toss the left over seeds into the wild life garden. I also hope to have some poppy seeds by fall. My plan is to scrape of a spot and through the poppy seeds on top of the soil. A big concern is that if they need light, how well will they reseed themselves after the soil is covered with other plants.

Larry, the Chevy has a 350 v8, and it’s automatic. It’s a 1/2 ton. I can drive standard, but I’m not very good at it LOL. I drove my grandpa’s ‘95 standard F250 back to the house when we were doing hay this past June. He followed me in the tractor, staying well away from me hahaha. It’s a learning experience. My dad bought the Chevy a few months ago for himself, but he just doesn’t drive it much, as he has no real need to. I was wanting to buy a 1978 3/4 ton Chevy with a 292 earlier in the summer, but my dad talked me out of it, stating that he wants his to be driven so that it does not go all to hell! So now I’m helping quite a bit with maintenance, learning how to work on these trucks, etc., with him, and in turn I’m driving as I need it. We’ve talked about him likely to be selling it to me eventually. I have a 1971 standard beetle I’ve been restoring slowly over the past year. I plan to sell it by the end of the summer. Restorations are meticulous, but it’s getting there. Beetles just don’t sell for a whole lot, but I don’t have much put into it, so I should come out with some profit. Most importantly, I’ve learned a lot. See, I guess I drive on the safe side. Insurance isn’t cheap, and if I get a speeding ticket, into an accident, etc., it sky rockets at my age. Play it safe, conserve gas. haha. I guess those consequences work? Another project in the making is a supposedly running 1974 Massey Ferguson MF16 tractor waiting for me to pick up soon. I’m very excited about this one. I love garden tractors.

I worked at a neighbor’s from about 9:30 am to 9:00 pm last night. I also worked all day Tuesday for a lady in town. Wednesday we were gone for quite a large portion of the day. We’re headed camping this weekend. Thus, Ive got some catch up to do in the garden today before we leave. The weather is back to average now.

Jennifer,

Yes, Tim's family did come back to visit, several times, and I don't think we ever had weather that hot again during one of their visits, but I also think they were smarter in future years and came in June, having learned our hottest weather tended to be in early August.

Yes, the plant available water on that map is very dismal. I'm thinking that some parts of OK are very much in danger of slipping into a flash drought and, if rain doesn't fall, they may end up in drought soon. Oooh, a new Drought Monitor was released yesterday. I wonder what it shows? So, I went and looked to see what it shows....and it shows the part of SW OK I was thinking of is now in D-0, as indicated by the color yellow, and this is not technically a drought stage, but is considered pre-drought. We'll have to watch the map weekly and see what happens with them because some of us have conditions that are not too far behind theirs. Here's this week's Drought Monitor Map:

Oklahoma Drought Monitor Map

Most purchased soil is inferior quality no matter what the supplier tells you, and it needs a lot of work to turn it into good soil. This is why we don't purchase soil and instead just work to add organic matter to what we have. You know, if you add 8" of organic matter (not all at once because the tiller couldn't work it into the ground all at once) to the soil, you've raised the soil grade 8" and then can build your new edging around it to hold it in place. That's what we did. Yes, it is a slower process, and buying enough organic matter to add 8" at one time is cost-prohibitive, but you're getting better quality stuff. Tim and I decided long ago it was better to spend our money on good quality stuff than to buy crap soil (we already had our own crap soil, after all) and I'm not sorry we did it that way. I know people who have bought what seemed like good soil and brought in all sorts of stuff they didn't want....nut sedge, too many various weeds to count, soilborne diseases and even root knot nematodes. If we were building new beds nowadays, we'd do it hugelkultur style, and wouldn't even have to purchase amendments, but our first couple of years here we bought bags and bags of Black Kow, mushroom compost, Texas greensand, lava sand, dry molasses, soil conditioner (a blend of pine bark fines and humus) and more. Once I got a good-sized compost pile going, we didn't have to buy much, but it took a few years for me to get a huge compost pile operation going that would produce enough compost for a large garden. Friends gave us old spoiled hay, which helped a lot in the early days, and Fred gave us cow manure once, but it did bring in a gazillion weeds, and I never wanted to use local manure again...and have turned down all subsequent offers of it, especially since herbicide carryover became such a huge issue.

One thing about soil-building is that it is never ending, since heat eats compost (i.e. makes it break down quickly). Going no-till has reduced how quickly our organic matter breaks down, because we aren't fluffing up the soil with a rototiller and introducing fresh air, which then helps compost break down more quickly. Still, it shocks me how quickly soil reverts back once its organic matter breaks down. I added 4-6" of compost to the front (southeastern) corner of the garden in the winter/spring of 2018 and had gorgeous soil there, after doing the same thing in 2017. Guess how that soil looked at the beginning of this season? Like I'd never added any organic matter to it at all. That is frustrating. There's no way I can add 4-6" of organic matter to every bed every year, so I just do the best I can and hope our heat doesn't eat up the organic matter too quickly. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm trying to replenish soil that was conventionally farmed, so it had nutrients taken out of it without having organic matter given back to it for decades, and that sort of restoration is slow.

It is not weird to be thinking of Garden 2020. The best time to plan for next year is this year when things are fresh in our minds. I've been planning for 2020 since at least May.

Rebecca, Your plants look like they mostly have Septoria Leaf Spot with maybe just a tiny touch of EB on a couple of leaves. Both have been incredibly common this year thanks to all the moisture and humidity. I do not know why it is not working its way upward the traditional way, but had the same thing on some of my plants this year too.

Larry, My pepper plants stalled for a week or two, so I watered them like crazy and they quickly bloomed and set a lot of new peppers. I was relieved that all they apparently needed was more water than they were getting.

I'm so pleased to hear that the highway department showed respect for your zinnias. That is just so awesome, isn't it? I really think most people nowadays are trying their best to do the right things to help out the bees, butterflies and pollinators. I've noticed our highway guys delay mowing as long as possible to let as many flowers live as long as possible and set seed before they mow.

Poppies reseed very well, but in the pastures where there is a lot of competition, the amount of reseeding drops each year. I suspect we could plow up the front pasture and a billion poppy seeds would sprout because they are lying there under layers of thatch, but we've never tried it. I just overseed with poppies every few years to ensure we keep the poppies going. In the garden they reseed just fine, despite my heavy mulch.

Jacob, The insurance premiums for young adult males are ridiculous, aren't they? Our son always has been a careful driver. He had one minor accident as a teenager...slid off a gravel driveway and hit a tree. He and Tim fixed the car themselves (it was just minor stuff) because it was cheaper than going through the insurance company and having them raise his rates. Later on, he had a major accident on his way to work, but he was in his late 20s then and it didn't make his insurance premiums rise nearly as much as it would have if he'd been 25 or younger.

Enjoy the camping trip. Our weather still is slightly cooler than normal, but the temperatures are rising daily and the heat really cranks up next week, and we'll end next week with high temperatures near 100, as usual.

I need to get out there and work in the garden while it still is cool, but am having a hard time getting motivated. I noticed today that the ground near our house is cracking, which is something we try really hard to avoid, though we ignore the cracking soil everywhere else. So, I have the sprinkler on, watering the lawn (including the bermuda grass I wish would die) and guess that is what I'll do today...water the lawn on all 4 sides of the house, and also run the soaker hoses that are set up around the house's foundation. Our next-door neighbor's house in Fort Worth suffered from severe damage when her soil cracked badly when she was in a rehab center undergoing rehabilitation after her stroke, and we learned a lesson from that. She had to have extensive foundation work with new concrete piers poured, etc., had to have her wood floor lifted, repaired and nailed back down (her hot water heater pipe busted when the house shifted and tons of hot water poured onto her hardwood floors, warping them), had to have cracks in the walls fixed and everything repainted, etc. We figured that whatever money we spend to keep our clay soil from shifting too much around the house is worth it to avoid having that sort of thing happen to us.

A couple of things were happening in the garden yesterday. Let's see if I can remember them. The white cosmos that I planted when I took out tomato plants started blooming for the first time yesterday. The pink, rose and mauve cosmos had begun blooming a couple of weeks ago. The garden is chock full of frogs. I've been leaving the northern edge, where I once had tomato plants and now have zinnias, unweeded for them so they can hide more from the snakes that inevitably show up to feed on them. Hummingbirds are simply everywhere. When our hummingbird population suddenly spikes like this, I'm never sure if it is occurring because the babies all have left the nests, or if hummingbirds from further north already are migrating, or if we are just seeing so many because all our trumpet creeper vines are blooming---we have them in at least six different places and they are hummingbird magnets. We always see a huge spike in hummingbird visitors in late July and early August, so what we are seeing is typical. Unfortunately, the purple martins apparently are gone. That, too, is typical, as they first desert the Martin houses in early July when the heat cranks up, but remain around at least a couple of weeks, living in the trees, and we'll still hear them and see them until....suddenly, we don't. Well, we haven't seen or heard them since last weekend, so I think they've gone south. They must leave so early for a good reason. There's still tons and tons of assassin bugs in the garden, and I'm seeing fewer and fewer pests each day. It is good to watch the system work.

One thing that has been driving me nuts is the oleander aphids on the yellow butterfly weeds in the perennial border. No matter how often I hose them off the plants with a sharp stream of water, they're back the next day. At first the ladybugs came after them, but then the ladybugs disappeared so apparently the flavor of the oleander aphids (remember, they are eating milkweeds, so they would taste bad) doesn't really appeal to them. So, I did some research. I wanted to avoid using a chemical pesticide. So, technically, I did. Honestly, though, I did use a chemical, just not a garden chemical---Windex. After reading that Chip Taylor had experimented with using it to kill oleander aphids and it didn't harm his milkweed and his caterpillars (you don't spray the Windex if any caterpillars are on the plants, obviously) that fed on those plants later on seemed fine.....well, I thought, why not give it a try. I just sprayed the Windex directly on the oleander aphids, soaking them well, around 8 p.m. one evening. Then I watched the plant for damage for a couple of days. There was no sign at all of any damage to the plant, but the next morning after I sprayed, all those orange oleander aphids were black and dead. I suspect that a person could mix a little ammonia (or, perhaps, rubbing alcohol) with water in a bottle and get the same results, and I might try that if more oleander aphids show up. After hosing them off the plants daily for weeks, I was tired of dealing with them. That is my garden experiment for the summer and I'm happy it worked. I honestly thought that in this heat, the Windex might damage the plants, but if it had, I just would have pruned away the damaged parts. I didn't even hose off the plants....I wanted those dead aphid bodies lying there on the plants as a warning to any other oleander aphids. I also saw and cut in half another milkweed bug, and killed all its babies too. The only other pests doing visible damage in the garden are grasshoppers (tons of them, unfortunately), spider mites (typical) and stink bugs, so it isn't the worst pest year ever. Oh, there still might be a few unwanted army worms and similar caterpillars around, but the wasps are carrying them away, which I enjoy seeing.

Have a good day everyone.

Dawn

I'm mowing. Took a break to read all your stuff, guys. What a hoot you all are! This is a pic of my new favorite thing. Gotta keep it right next to me so I can smell it until it's time to be eaten. :)

Oh my..................... I am so tired, I'm going to probably fall face first onto the keyboard. It was hot enough that I would only mow in the shade. So since I couldn't finish mowing until after 4 pm, I weeded in shady spots in between. I had to get my broken eyeglasses fixed this morning, so we ran into town for that and to get strange but important things from Walmart. . . plastic canvases for killing weeds, large package of dog food, bird seed, and a very few groceries. Got home and were taking a break and I freaked, and realized I had to mow the lawn. So GDW and I worked all afternoon, me mowing with breaks, and Garry weed eating, with breaks. But we then went down for our now routine Friday evening dinners at Whitehorn Cove Marina, Locals Restaurant. Because of the horrible floods and no business at the Marina or the restaurant, we have pledged to visit them at least once a week. And get this! They have great food, truly!!

Purple Martins congregate in large flocks after nestlings fledge and "stage" together to prepare for migration. They roost in huge groups together which is often considered a nuisance by the owners of the roost land. In Tulsa they used to roost downtown in Bradford pears surrounding a bank's drive through. It was quite messy. ;) Last I heard they had moved to the airport. This is not really a good thing, because when they come in to roost in the evening they are thick enough to show up on radar. Tulsa Audubon used to have an event where they observed the birds coming in to roost. It happened about the 3rd week of August, which was probably the peak of this staging activity. The event is scheduled for Aug 10th this year, but they're holding out to see where the birds choose to roost this year. It is quite a spectacle.

I sat on the patio yesterday and decided I would not fill all the holes in the garden, I will hold that space for fall stuff. I have buckwheat I can throw in. May even have some other ground cover.

Gotta go XOXO

I enjoyed the old truck stories, Jacob and Larry; made me chuckle, thinking of GDW. He has a 91 Ford he's very fond of. Nice thing about all the oldies are that folks can actually mechanic on them, unlike the new ones. And thanks for sharing the pictures, Jacob. . . the flowers look great!

Sorie, I tried to find your picture but missed it. I got June's. I'll go back later today and give it another try.

Dawn. Re oleander aphids. GRRRRRR. And milkweed bugs and beetles. Garry and I made a quick run to Southwood and Sanders Nursery in Broken Arrow, since I'm on a new mission--which is to plant many more natives. I found a shrubby St. Johnswort, asclepias tuberosa at Southwood. But scored big on asclepias incarnata at Sanders; large healthy plants. I asked the main planting lady if they used insecticide, because I wasn't seeing aphids on the many plants. She said NO insecticide but chuckled and said the reason they looked so good was because the young praying mantis army found the plants. And sure enough, on the way home, I found a few on a couple of the plants. I nipped the very tops off and tossed them out the truck window. It's crazy that we'er all encouraged to plant natives but hardly anyone carries them! I had a list of 11; and between both stores got ONE--the St. Johnswort. The asclepias weren't really on my list, but need lots more, so snatched them up. I had settled on those eleven natives because info said they can grow in partial shade.

At any rate, on our way home, Garry asked me if I was happy to have all the milkweed. I sighed and said, "Kinda." He asked why KINDA. I explained to him that they are the single biggest pains in the neck because of the aphids and milkweed bugs and beetles. AGHH! Haha, Dawn, re Chip Taylor.

Amy, I don't think we have ANY place for Purple Martins. I wish we DID. The hummingbirds have increased in number here, too, but I think it's young ones growing up. We haven't the number we had last year. Still think it has to do with all the flooding here. The lake is STILL 9 feet above normal, and we can't put the boat in anywhere. . . July 27. That's two entire months of trouble with high water. I expect it's that way all the way to the Mississippi.

I think I'll begin pulling out tomatoes since I have four new ones in. I planted two big batches of dill this afternoon and will sowing some every couple weeks.

I've been so distracted by the butterflies and trying to keep track of them all! Good learning stuff. BLTs for dinner--yay!

Nancy, I've always wondered why they cannot come up with a melon-scented product that smells like an aromatic melon fresh off the vine. I'd love for my house to smell like that all the time. I hope you enjoy your melon.

The heat is back with a vengeance. We need to mow but have been so busy with funeral preparations that we haven't had a chance. I'm not sure when we'll get to mow...Tuesday at the earliest, and I'm not going to kill myself out in the heat. Today is going to be a bit more of the same with any spare time spent at the fire station---it takes a monumental effort to prepare the fire trucks for a firefighter funeral because those big trucks have to be hand-washed and waxed, and cleaned and shined and polished inside and out---we had several people working on that literally all day long yesterday. Our engine will be leading the funeral procession from the church to the cemetery so it has to be perfect...and the two guys working on it discovered a flat tire yesterday, which is a problem because you can't just run to the tire store and buy a big tire like that. Usually we have to order them and wait days and days.....fortunately, one of our firefighters uses a big rig type tire service company is his professional career and called them, explained the situation, and they came right out and brought the right-sized tire with them and repaired the truck. We are so lucky that had access to a tire that size on such short notice!

Tim and I had to make a run to Hobby Lobby to buy black bunting for the fire engine and other two trucks we're taking to the funeral, and black morning ribbon for the American flags. I knew before we walked in the door that the store would be full of harvest/autumn home decor and probably Halloween stuff, and it was, but I wasn't even prepared for the sight of a store full of Christmas stuff. Why oh why can't the retailers let us have each season run its course before they start pushing the next one?

I feel bad for all the businesses around your lake that are suffering from the loss of business because of the flooding. We have seen businesses here suffer from that as well as massive flood damage in recent flood years at Lake Texoma, and I think the worst year here was 2015. Some buildings rebuilt at great expense after 2015 then flooded again, though not quite as badly, a couple of years later. Some years it seems like they barely have time to rebuild from a prior flood before the next one wipes them out again. It is a tough business to be too close to the lakes in flood years. Our lake has been back to normal for a while now, and the Red River is starting to look low---not as low as usual, but big island-like sand bars are re-emerging--so it is getting back to its usual low flow stream more typical of August, which is right around the corner. Unfortunately for the plants and all the wild things, there is little chance of rain over the next 7 days, so the lake, river, ponds and creeks will continue to fall lower and lower.

We're supposed to have higher heat indices Sunday and Tuesday, with a slight break from them on Monday thanks to cooler air as the front bringing the rain chance comes through, according to our local TV weather guys. I hope they are right, because on Saturday we got hot enough out there and Sunday is expected to be worse.

Amy, Well that explains where the purple martins go. I miss them once they've left here to go find their bigger flock. We still have plenty of birds everywhere, but I miss seeing the purple martins flying and listening to all the sounds they make. It will be so very long until we see them here again next Spring.

I will not plant anything new in this heat either. We are so dry already and the worst heat and dryness of the year lies just ahead of us. I know that some of my younger recently-transplanted flowering plants will fill in more and spread out some and help fill in some of the gaps in the beds, which is a good thing because I hate having open space in between plants---it just leaves space for weeds to sprout if I'm not paying attention and keeping them out. I put the last transplants in the ground right after the July 4th weekend, I think, so some of them really haven't been in the ground very long yet.

Nancy, Finding natives is a challenge, but I bet someone in your part of the state carries them and you just haven't found them yet. There's Bustani's in Stillwater, and they open for fall sales in September, I think, although that would be quite a drive for y'all. There's Prairie Wind in Norman. They have a lot of natives. I can find just about any native or well-adapted non-native at Redenta's Garden in Dallas, but it is an awfully long drive. We made the trip more often when their original location was still open in Arlington. I'm pretty sure that the very first native plants I ever bought---back in the 1990s sometime---were from Redenta's Garden. Well, I may have bought something at Weston Gardens in Fort Worth before I found Redenta's Garden, but if I did, it was right around the same time.

We 'brought back' native Goldenrod on our property just by not mowing our southern fence line. We didn't stop mowing so the Goldenrod would come back--we'd never seen it and didn't know it was there. We stopped mowing because the plum thicket sprang up along the fence line several years ago and started growing there, but as a bonus after we ceased mowing that area, we got the tall goldenrod (it currently is about 6' tall and not even blooming yet) and shining sumac. We leave about a 100' long area along the southern property line/fence, between it and the driveway, unmown now, and in a way I'd like to leave more, but it is a fire hazard to not mow along the fence line, so we mow the rest of the area. When wildfires come from our south, we don't want for them to be able to continue right out of the adjacent pasture onto our land near our driveway, garden, greenhouse and house. Otherwise, we wouldn't mow any of that strip of land.

The oleander aphids always are present on all the milkweeds in the pastures, and normally don't even move to the milkweed plants inside the garden, but this year they are horrible. When the lady bugs abandoned the plants after a couple of days, I just started hosing off those things twice daily, but they reproduce so quickly that they repopulate really quickly. I am not sorry I used the Windex on the plants but of course, you cannot do that when you have cats on the plants, and new cats just appeared the last couple of days. There's so many wasps in the garden that I don't know how any caterpillars survive. The entire garden is just one big butterfly magnet at this time of the year, and having more flowers than usual means we have more butterflies than usual. I'm starting to see a lot of queens now, and more and more sulphurs of various kinds. We always have tons of sulphurs thanks to all the partridge peas in the pastures near us, but they've been late to show up this year although they're making up for it now. I used to wonder where all the butterflies come from, but through research, I learned how many of hour native understory plants in the woodland are host plants and realized that's why we have so many butterflies. We've always been super-careful to not remove native understory plants from the woodland for this reason.

BLTs for lunch or dinner (or breakfast!) make for great meals. That's what we're going to have today.

Well, this week is done and now it is on to the next one!

Dawn