We received just under a half-inch of rain, but our clay soil is so heavily saturated from previous rainfall that everything here is just a big mud pit again. We have had water oozing/seeping from the higher ground (neighbor's property) to our south for weeks, and the water runs down part of our gravel driveway like a constant little waterfall, so we really didn't need any more moisture anyway. We're going to have to call Elvis to bring a load of gravel to fix that area because the constant seeping of the moisture is carrying away the gravel. Wet clay can stay wet and unworkable simply forever, and ours is doing just that. It has been wet all winter. One day, I hope, it will dry up finally, and then the next day after that it will start cracking and we'll forget that it was sopping wet all autumn and winter. There just is no in-between with the wicked clay. It either is sopping wet or bone dry and doesn't waste any of its time being anywhere in between the two extremes.

Amy, I heard the Broken Arrow tornado was an EF-0 with winds, I think, in the 80-85 mph range. It also had a longer and wider path than I initially thought it would. Maybe that was OK's last tornado of 2019.

I like your definition of native---many plants can adapt well regionally, for sure, and I appreciate each and every one of them. After watching how the plantings, both native and well-adapted non-natives, ebb and flow over the years depending on weather and, specifically, on moisture levels, I've found it really interesting how some of them virtually disappear when the weather is not to their liking but come back strongly a year or two or three later when the weather and soil moisture levels match up with what a specific type of plant needs. Liatris is a perfect example of this. When we aren't too wet, it is everywhere in the fields here. Give us a wet year or two and it all disappears, and then it takes it several years for it to regroup, come back and thicken up again. You'll start wondering if all the liatris actually died because there won't be any at all for a couple of years, but then finally it begins to appear again after you're about to give up on it. The same is true of many prairie and woodland plants here in our area. Clay is the main culprit here, of course, because plants that need well-drained soil may tolerate dry clay pretty well but they won't tolerate wet, soggy, soppy clay for months on end. It keeps things interesting, though, because the plants we will see widespread and in great profusion in dry years can be quite different from the ones we see widespread and in great profusion in wet years. And then, of course, in our very limited areas of sandy soil on our property, it will be entirely different plants that thrive during those same periods. I now can identify small pockets of sandy soil just by what does or doesn't grow in an area.

Verbena bonariensis may be invasive for some folks, but on our property it is only invasive within the fenced garden, in well-amended soil that drains well in raised beds. It may pop up here or there in a meadow or near the house, but it tends to be short-lived and less persistent there. I think that cold, wet clay keeps it from spreading more here because it really isn't even a problem in the clay-based garden pathways directly adjacent to the raised beds where it can spread and be as thick as grass. I actually wish it would spread more in the fields and mix with the wildflowers, but it does not. Perhaps if we had well-drained soil there where the wildflowers grow then it would, but we don't so it's a moot point. Bees and butterflies both love it and it cycles in and out of bloom almost all year long, so I consider it a really useful plant for the wild things. We usually have some in bloom here from roughly February through November of most years, and occasionally I'll see one blooming in December or January if we've had a little run of warm temperatures. It is one of the most heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant plants we grow, but it has not been very happy outside the garden since 2015 because each year since then has had at least one very prolonged rainy period that lasted for months and that heavy moisture pretty much wiped out any verbena bonariensis trying to grow in plain old unamended clay. I suppose our wet periods keep it from taking over and becoming invasive. Perhaps I wouldn't love it so much if it were invasive, but then again, in hot and dry years like 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, it often was just about the only thing (okay, there also was frogfruit in bloom at the same time) in bloom during the worst of the heat and drought spells, and I have a deep appreciation for it for that reason.....so perhaps I'd love it just as much if it was invasive. The verbena bonariensis even outlasted our native prickly pear cacti plants that were here when we bought our land and all withered and died in 2011 and then did not come back. I'm thinking that since they haven't come back since then, they aren't going to and that's a shame. Before 2011, they were one of our most drought-tolerant plants but they also tolerated wet clay soil in winter fairly well. What they ultimately did not tolerate was 90+ non-stop days of temperatures 100 or higher with virtually no rainfall, but then not much else survived that either. The one thing I don't like about verbena bonariensis is that it is a spider mite magnet in hot weather, and we have mites everywhere here in the country so they inevitably get them. When the verbena becomes heavily infested with spider mites I just cut it back as close to the ground as I can, bag it up and dispose of it and all the mites on it, and it regrows in the blink of an eye. At least the verbena bonariensis isn't prone to thrips like garden verbenas are. I've never forgotten Steve Bender quoting a PA nurseryman, Lloyd Traven, who said "Verbena, when you MUST have thrips." lol. I think standard garden verbenas look lovely in flats or pots in nurseries or garden centers but won't buy them and bring them home for that reason---who needs to invite thrips into their gardens?

I have to be really careful with zinnias and be sure to plant the old heirloom varieties. I do love all the newer hybrid ones too, but they do not seem to be nearly as appealing to the butterflies and bees as the old O-P varieties that we have grown forever and forever. I could grow Magellan and Profusion endlessly, but it is better for the butterflies and bees if I grow older varieties too.

It is crazy what attracts bees though. In my garden, every single year, it is the comfrey, pretty much any blooming herb, and the chives in particular that are bee magnets. I'm also surprised how much many butterflies love the chive flowers. While the flowers on many herbs seem pretty low-key, often quite small and almost nondescript compared to other flowering ornamentals, they sure are bee magnets. One true test of what flowers attract bees the most? I just watch to see where the bee assassin bugs lurk. That serves two purposes....it tells me which plants the bee assassin bugs have determined attract the most bees that can serve as a food supply for them, and it allows me to kill those danged bee assassin bugs when I see them. For the record, year in and year out, I find the most bee assassin bugs on catmint when it is in bloom, and I try to watch for them and to kill every one I see in order to keep the bees safer.

I try to throw out gardening catalogs every single year before the new ones arrive. Otherwise I end up with vast piles of them. There was a lot of random gardening stuff in our spare room before we turned it into a bedroom for the grandkids. That whole re-do of the room made us purge a lot of unnecessary stuff in order to make room for the girls' stuff, so it was a very useful process.

Nancy, I simply hate having to drive a gazillion miles to find something like a couple of screws, or a plumbing part, or a spark plug for a lawn mower, but for those of us out in more rural/less civilized areas, that's just how it is. I try not to complain because we now have both a Lowe's and a Home Depot only 15-20 miles from us one-way and we used to have to drive 50-60 miles one way to go to either of them, so it has gotten a lot better.

One thing about some of the native plants here in OK is how very short-lived their bloom periods can be in the summer time. I find we have to have a huge diversity of plants in the meadows in order to keep something blooming all season long. I'd bet we have 60 or 70 different kinds of blooming plants in the front pasture/meadow, mostly native but probably some of them are just well-adapted non-natives that have naturalized themselves here, and even with that much diversity, there are times in the summer when there's not much blooming out there. Thankfully the plants in the garden beds and the ones that lurk on the edges of the shady woodland (where woodland meets grassland) usually are blooming at that point in time and will make up for the sparseness in the meadows in the worst heat. Many of the natives only bloom for 2 or 3 weeks, though a few bloom for a much longer time, so you see the blooms ebb and flow across the meadow constantly and an area that one week might be full of blooms will have nothing in bloom for several weeks after those go to seed. Once you're used to seeing what blooms and when and for how long, you can tell the time of the year by what is or isn't blooming in the wildflower meadows---a sort of natural calendar.

Tim's parents lived in PA and we used to visit them there, and they had so many flowers that bloomed so profusely, but their growing season was fairly short too because they often had freezes until late May and then freezing weather would resume in September. Gardeners there have to cram a lot of fun and enjoyment into mostly the summer months because that's all they have. Tim's sisters in PA have such an abbreviated tomato season compared to ours---we're often harvesting our first tomatoes before they even can put their tomato plants in the ground. It would drive me insane to garden in such a short-season area.

Jen, How early things can be planted before frost just depends on the weather in any given year. I find that my tomato plants generally are ready if started indoors 5-7 weeks before I think I'll be planting them outside, but then it all hinges on what the weather is doing. There have been years when our last frost/killing freeze occurred around March 7th or 8th and there have been years (7 of them in a row) when we had a late freeze the first week in May. That variability will drive a gardener batty (and kill a lot of plants) and is one reason I have so much floating row cover stored away and waiting for the evil, late cold spells. Even with cool-season plants, it isn't unusual to have cold weather severely damage them after they are growing in the ground, even when you've held them indoors and planted them a bit late precisely because the cold weather kept hanging on for so long. Our weather here is just so erratic that it is hard for any sort of planting dates, whether inside or outside, to be adhered to in a really consistent manner. I try to go more by intuition than by calendar dates when it comes to planting, but it seems like our winter and early spring weather take great pride in being very unpredictable and very erratic in nature. Microclimate matters too. Fred's garden only 3/4s of a mile from ours was on significantly higher ground and in general he could plant about 2 weeks earlier than I could in any given year, and he spent that whole 2 weeks playfully lording it over me that his garden was planted and mine was not. I knew better than to try to plant as early as he did, though, because we always stayed too cold significantly longer at our house.

Rebecca, When growing leeks here, I pretty much plant them on the same schedule as onions, shallots or even chives. Much depends on whether you're starting from seed or using bundles of plants. I like buying the Lancelot leeks in bundles from Dixondale and planting them at the same time I plant onions. If starting them from seed, I'd start them (and bunching onions) in late December or early January so they have lots of growing season. I'm pretty sure that when my chives reseed themselves in the garden, I usually see the new sprouts in January, so that tells me the leeks and bunching onions would be fine in that same soil in those same conditions. Of course, I'm quite a bit further south than your are so you might start yours a couple of weeks later than I'd start them here.

Isn't it funny when you look at your adult child and realize how much they are like you? When we took Lillie home at mid-day Sunday, Chris, who'd just gotten home Sunday morning after working a 24-hour shift, was out in his front yard, with a huge section of it dug up by hand, which is a pretty easy task overall because he has very sandy soil. He had done almost all that digging upon arriving home from work. He is removing all his lawn grass in the front yard and putting in perennial beds and pathways there and is eager to get started because he has a lot of spring bulbs that need to be planted ASAP. There was a huge pile of dirt/grass roots that he was screening in order to save the dirt and remove the roots. Back alongside the driveway there was a huge pile of bags of Black Kow cow manure that he'd just picked up at Lowe's. We had taken our Mantis cultivator with us to drop it off for him to use to incorporate his Black Kow manure into the soil, and he was talking about all his bags of decomposing leaves that he'll soon be able to add as compost. As we left his house, Tim said "he is you all over again" and I laughed because I could not deny it. Then, while we were grocery shopping I was getting messages from him about the compost bin he is going to build in the back yard. Clearly gardening fever has struck at his house. Lowe's doesn't even really have any plants yet, but they do have a fresh supply of all the soil amendments on hand and he has gardening fever big-time now. I'm happy to see it. Lillie loves gardening too (her grandfather had a garden when she was very young, though I don't think he has one any more) so she's always out working in the yard with Chris nowadays and that's going to be a major part of the rest of her Christmas break.

I plan to be out in the garden today doing a lot of clean-up. We'll see how it goes. I'm not a fan of cold winter weather, so in the winter time I tend to start a lot later in the day than I do in spring and summer because I like to wait until the temperatures have warmed up quite a bit from the early morning lows.

Dawn

I had hoped to do a little work out outside, but walked past both gardens and my shed and decided it was too cold, wet, and windy. It seems like Madge and I have fighting some kind of bug for weeks, so I think we will both stay in and rest.

My greens are actually growing a little. The Brussels sprouts look sick. I think this is the third time I have tried to grow them, and have been disappointed each time. I dont like them anyway, just trying to grow them for my daughter, she cant grow them either.

I have not been over to the wildlife garden in about a week, but the last time I was there I did not see anything that I thought was part of the 2# of wild flower seed that I tossed onto the soil. The wildlife garden gets more run-off than my food gardens so it may be wet for a long time. That is one thing about living at the floor of the valley, you get all your neighbors excess water whether you want it or not.

Nancy, I am surprised you could not find a 1/4 x 2" wood screw locally. I live out in the sticks, but can travel 6 to 9 miles and get about any kind of bolt or screw I need. The ones I use most often I stock at home. The #9 x 3" and #9 x 1- 5/8", used in treated wood are the ones I use the most, which I buy by the 25# box. The Ace Hardware and Tractor Supply, about 8 miles from me will sell bolts and screws per ea. or by the pound. You can buy a lot of the common sizes at Walmart, but they are already packaged and cost more than I want to spend.

Amy, I don't need enablement, but yeah, I may end up ordering from Almost Eden, that wasn't the only thing I wanted from there. And it's simply shocking as I watch my go-to mail-order speciality nurseries drop away the last few years. It may be that Select Seeds doesn't get any money this year from me.

For me when I lived in Chelsea, verbena bonariensis was coming up in meadow, gravel in driveway, etc. And I don't remember it being much for pollinator activity...I would probably avoid it, because at the very least, it will never die out on it's own :) I'm not sure if it would take over the world, but it will survive in Oklahoma. And the funny thing is I did nothing to spread the seeds...it just 'went' somehow...probably wind.

Dawn, in recent years I've mainly concentrated on spring and fall flowering stuff, because it's too darn hot to be out in the summer anyway..plus everything looks so awful in the heat and usually the dryness. Of course that often means that fall flowering plants look dreadful too (so careful choice there). Anyway, that's my plan now...I hide in the house during the July-Sept time, and enjoy garden the rest of the time. Including stuff like coral honeysuckle and witchhazel that will bloom in winter (not much of that, but a few things at least...lord save the northerners that are buried under snow).

Where did you get your witch hazel? I ordered a plant last year and it is the only thing that didn't survive. I think I need a bigger start.

I bought this one from Missouri Wildflowers (quite small), if you wanted a larger one, try MaryAnn at pineridgegardens.com. From when I bought one from her that I planted in Chelsea, hers would be 2-3 times size of what I got, which makes it worth it (imo). I bought this one because I was ordering other stuff and thought..well why not :)

They sure smell nice on warm January/Feb days (if you mean the winter flowering one and not the fall flowering one).

Y'all blow my mind with all your knowledge of plants and natives and non natives. It makes me feel like I really have no idea what I'm doing or know much of anything.

Dawn, you mentioned somewhere recently that you walked your property with books in hand to help you learn and identify plants. That's what I should do if I had time.

I'm still trying to figure out how y'all are using all this native/non native/wildflower seed.

Also, someone mentioned that coral honeysuckle blooms in the winter?! I'm still trying to get my plant to grow. It has grown some since it was planted 2 years ago. Maybe this will be the year it will take off.

Larry, my brussels are hanging in there. They aren't doing much as of lately, but they are living and look green and nice. The broccoli looks slightly okay too. I'll probably cover them all tonight once I get home from work.

There's arugula coming up in the greens bed, but I think that is about all. It's strange that the kale is not. That one really cold week awhile back bit them.

Oddly, the cilantro and parsley and even oregano look decent. The pansies are still pretty...small but pretty.

That stupid early freeze in October really messed everything up.

I would like to start more flower and herb seed, but my light shelf space is very limited. I can maybe add another light in one area. I am starting fewer tomatoes, so there's that. Okay...I am thinking WAY ahead to fall tomatoes for next year. In y'all's opinion is it a good idea to plant them after pulling the onions at the end of June? Is that too early?

I wasn't going to do tomatillos but ate a restaurant on Saturday with the BEST tomatillo sauce. The waitress said it was just tomatillos, jalapenos and garlic. Tomatillos might be back in.

As much as I love flowers, I'm still mostly thinking about veggie/fruit.

As we slowly transform our "backyard", I'll think more on flowers. I did plant a few perennial shrubs and all... and will continue with doing that. We need to finish the bed on the east side of the house. I have a plan for grabbing some rock from Mason's backyard before she sells her house. It matches the rock in our front yard flower bed. I'll wrap that bed around to the east. The hard work on the east bed is done. I just need to border it.

A potting bench is top on my list of things to do in 2020. Also, we must fix the chicken yard fence. About a 3rd of them have figured out how to squeeze out and I can't have them in the garden once it's planted with seedlings. I really want to make another pen on the opposite of the coop, but that project will probably wait until 2021. My current pen is okay for 22 chickens, but now that I know about broodies, I'm sure I'll been adding chicks each year. I'm not sure how this happened. I never planned on having this many chickens. I've heard Chicken Math is a real thing.

Organization is a must this year. I can't stand the shop being in such a mess. It makes me crazy!

Other than that, I'm going to do some rearranging of the house in January and February. And continue to work on making flowerbeds in the backyard.

What is on everyone else's 2020 list of things to do?

I'm just so in love with homegrown food. Speaking of, has anyone put frozen, breaded okra in an air fryer? Tom got one for Christmas. I have several bags in the freezer..and thought about getting out a bag for NYD. Also, do you think PEPH peas count as far as good luck goes ...you know, instead of black eyed peas? lol

Tom tried to buy black eyed peas last night and I was, "NO!" I have dried PEPH in the pantry.

Maybe I'll just cook and bake tomorrow. Maybe get out some of those frozen tomatoes and make salsa or something. That all sounds so enjoyable right now. I feel like I didn't get to cook enough or bake enough during December. I made zero candy.

I'm so hungry right now. I brought my normal workday lunch--a salad with a ton of different veggies, coconut milk yogurt and blueberries. BUT I am starving. Pretty sure my stomach has stretched over the past couple of weeks and that amount of food isn't working for me. Sitting here dreaming of garden fresh food isn't helping.

Rebecca, congrats on your lettuce and spinach.

And congrats to you, Nancy, on your table!

Dawn, I would like to think that Mason or Ethan would love gardening some day, but I don't see it. I love that Chris is following in your footsteps, though. How fun for you to observe that.

Well, I've just been rambling away, but should get back to work. Although, there's not a lot to do right now. We are on skeleton crew and phones and door are quiet.

Major Wheeler coral honeysuckle blooms pretty much every month of the year..it's a miracle :) It's only got a couple clusters open now...but it *is* flowering. I have an orange one (major wheeler is 'red') that is also flowering, though it doesn't have the profusion that the Major does during the main spring flowering season.

Tomatillos are delicious...I'd say they're worth the effort if you have gardening space.

Larry--that's what we were missing--an Ace Hardware. Oh well. I learned a lot about screws yesterday! Always a good day if one can learn something new. They didn't have the size we needed because we needed it.

My greens are beginning to grow a bit, too.

Yep, Dawn, noted the same thing about bees and herbs--but EVERYONE was crazy about the anise hyssop! I'm glad I have 3 various bunches of it. Will it just keep self-seeding every year? I note it is a "short-lived" perennial.

You have to be tickled that Chris has your love for gardening! That is wonderful.

I got more done in the garage today. That actually counts as gardening, since I had to clear it out to make room for me to get the winter sow totes ready. I had a lot of cardboard boxes in there that needed to be broken down. They are now and are in the shop, waiting to be used for gardens here or at Lincoln.

I'm running behind. Maybe I can get to planting up winter sow stuff in a couple days. I was cleaning my gardening corner of the garage and found the coffee filters, so will start the stratifying today. But also ended up spending the entire day organizing in the garage and in MY room. I am so excited! I ordered 2 table-top 6-drawer plastic storage containers. Finally, duh! Paint tubes, MY little collection of tools, seed catalogs, notebooks! I hope 2 of them will be enough.

I've never had a tri-tip roast before. I'm excited to have found one at our meat shop. It looks divine. I'll be anxious to roast it tomorrow; I'll marinate it overnight.

I hope you had a good day in the garden, Dawn--it's a little chilly for me to want to be out there very much, although I had the garage door opened for a while, as I was cleaning in there. Feels so good to get rid of stuff! There was a lot of stupid stuff in MY room. It is going to look empty! Uh, not. Empty is relative. It's a big room. Has all my quilting stuff, many many books, all the painting stuff, 3 tables and a small upright freezer. And TV. Haha. No need to feel sorry for Garry. HIS room is the living room, complete with his recliner. I'm sure he's tickled pink that I'm corralled out here with all my junk in one place. (I kinda am, too.)

Back to work.

Nancy, you have an Ace Hardware and Wagoner Lumber Company.

I‘d like to do some onions and leeks this year. Think I can wintersow the leeks and have them ready for planting at the right time? I think I’ll start my bunching onions this week. Wednesday should be a good day to start seeds. I ordered potting mix, should be here tomorrow. Need to sort seeds and figure out what I want to start first. Hoping to get a bed at a community garden this year.

HJ, I got an air fryer from my mom. Okra should do really well in it. I can’t wait to try it. Along with a ton of other things.

I feel eel like I can move forward with gardening stuff now. Holidays are over, things are getting back to normal-ish.

Rebecca, let us know what all you try in it. Tom did frozen tots the other night to experiment. They were super crispy. My daughter and her boyfriend use his air fryer all the time. In fact, I think he got a second one for Christmas. I need to check in with her too, to see all the ways they use it. They are into healthy eating, so I doubt they're doing a lot of fries/tots. I can't wait to try my okra! It's time to start using up all the food I put back this fall. Sometimes I forget about it and I don't want to do that.

Maybe I'm crazy....but I'm sure I ordered a bush bean from SESE called Fowler. I haven't allowed myself to look at my seed box yet, so once I do that maybe my question will be answered. I just can't go there right now. Not until after the Christmas décor is put away. Does Fowler sound familiar to anyone? Whatever bean I purchased from them last year, did better for me than any other bush bean. I can't find "Fowler" online anywhere.

Here's another thing that might make me crazy.

Jen, did you offer tomato seed to us? If so, I might be interested in some cherry types of tomatoes. Pretty sure I used up all my cherry tomato seed last year.

Tom and Ethan are still in bed. I had animals that needed attention so got up at the usual time. Did a few dishes, started some laundry and cooked eggs for breakfast. Also, put a simmering pot mixture on the stove. If anyone likes doing that, this combo is so good: orange slices, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, rosemary, cloves. It is delightful. Right now, in the living room, I smell rosemary the strongest. Hmmm...I only used one sprig of it. Maybe it's strongest 'cause it's fresh from my garden.

Cookie making and laundry is on the schedule for today. Ethan and I are going to see Star Wars again. Hoping to go early so I can get back to make cookies. We have a party tonight at our neighbors.

What's everyone else doing tonight and tomorrow?

That combo sounds delicious, HJ!! YUM. I wish I had all the ingredients--missing the most important one--the orange. I was writing when you posted last, and haha, I was writing just now and almost missed your most recent post as well! I'd second dbarron on the tomatillos. Love them!

Well, Rebecca, we USED to have an Ace Hardware. Then they turned it into Wagoner Lumber. I was in there a couple years ago. They didn't have much in the way of hardware stuff. Not like an Ace Hardware. I don't know if they're still an "Ace Hardware," or if Ace Hardware just comes up on the internet because they used to be. As you can see, doesn't say anything about Ace Hardware on the outside of the building, and it doesn't look like one on the inside. Having said that, I will go once more just for you and will report back. Furthermore, then have a great tool rental department. Okay, just saw where Ace had taken them out of their store offerings on a couple links, at least. Our Orscheln's is pretty good, considering that they aren't that big. https://www.tulsaworld.com/communities/wagoner/news/wagoner-lumber-under-new-ownership/article_1576fd41-6464-54b4-b733-a8319057cc64.html

Hoopes Hardware in Muskogee is wonderful! They're like the old hardware stores, and FULL of stuff. (Though now I see they are Hoopes Hardware and Bicycles--another small business squeezed by the big box places, I suspect.) I've meant to mention Hoopes to Amy, as they have an amazing display of Lodge cast iron!

I woke up at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep, so got up. I fell asleep about 6:30 and jumped out of bed at 7:30 thinking I needed to order shade wildflower mix right now! Haha. I got that done. But no mixes, so I had to made up a "mix." Was frankly a lot cheaper that way.

Mom and I have decided that 2020 will be the Summer of the Basil Taste Off. Anyone have suggestions? She prefers a milder flavor, less licorice aftertaste.

Thinking I’ll ring in the new year with hot tea and a Seeds n Such order.

I don‘t know what I’m going to do without the Annual Dawn Garden Grow List.

Rebecca, I bought a lot of basil last year, mostly on looks rather than taste. I'll share seeds, let me know what you're looking at.

H/J, I bought Fowler from SESE last year, but it's not on their website now.

Went to a pulmonologist yesterday, came home, got chills, took a nap, woke up with a sore throat. I thought I had dodged the bullet when Ron was sick, but apparently not. Went to urgent care (was there LAST NYE, too). Respiratory infection. Mutter mutter. Hope everyone has a better NYE than me.

H/J, yep, I have PLENTY of tomato seeds for practically half the world. I did the secret santa exchange & someone sent a package bulging with tomatoes. Plus my insane collection I already had. So if anyone wants some just let me know. Same thing goes with peppers & beans, though I don't have those listed yet. I plan to work on that tonight, seeing how we have a boring life & no new years eve plans.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xCcqkvtrdpR_Xz1r7k1Z538EoLWTSnKK0OpV2KY-ag0/edit?usp=drivesdk

Your secret Santa must have been Dawn.

That is CRAZY!! I will get back to you.

Amy, gosh darn! I'm sorry you didn't dodge the bullet!

Lime basil was my favorite, hands down. That might be cheating though. I have loved growing them all. Purple varieties. (I only have grown Dark Opal.) Genovese, my standard go-to. Queen Siam, Thai basil; Holy basil. Cinnamon was fun. Lemon.

I'm going to work on my spread sheet, too, Jen. I love that the table was broken and had to be fixed. I decided it was time for DEEP cleaning in the jumbled up room! So much fun, and I was so motivated.

Edited for tomatoes, Jen.

I would love to have:

Black Krim

Lemon Boy

Hillbilly

Big Brandywine

Speckled Roma

Mr. Snow

Egg Yolk

Sorry, you're sick, Amy. That stinks.

And WOW, Jen! That's a lot to choose from.

I will look over that list tomorrow.

I wish I was (or is it were?) staying home tonight.

Nancy, we are tasting Genoese-type basils. Those are the only ones mom likes. I’ll have Thai basil, lemon basil, and possibly purple basil for me,

Gotta have at least one of the purples, Rebecca, just for the color!

Sure Nancy, just pm me your address. Thru Facebook may be easiest, I've had trouble getting messages through here.

Larry, The way it works for us is that the local sources that require somewhat less of a drive never have what we need when we need it, but then, go in there for something else a couple of days or weeks later, and you'll find exactly what you needed 2 weeks ago, which they didn't have in stock at the time.

dbarron, Increasingly, I hide out from the heat in July through September as well. I mostly just harvest and water as needed during that time frame, and I am pretty stingy with water (for good reason) so there's not that much watering going on. I've just never understand the intelligence of watering very heavily in the summer time, thereby creating lots of lush, new growth that requires, naturally, even more water. I sort of do the opposite, watering as little as possible so the plants do survive but also don't put out much rampant new growth that would require more water. I used to water more than I do nowadays, but learned it was a one-way street to big water bills and perpetually thirsty plants.

As for the heat, I got heat exhaustion at least twice, and probably it was three times, during the summer of 2011 while we were out in the heat/drought fighting multiple wild fires daily, often pretty much all night and then most of the day too, or all day long and well into the night. I was doing my best to stay in the shade and stay hydrated, but you cannot take care of all the firefighters' meal and hydration needs if you're always hiding in the shade. The end result of the heat exhaustion was that I now have zero tolerance for heat/getting too hot, so I have to stay inside in extreme heat. I don't think my heat tolerance ever will go back to what it was before 2011....I've ruined it for sure. I may be out there gardening hard like a maniac from January through early June, but after that I'm hiding out in the indoors in the air conditioning like a bear in a cave. As I've gotten older, the cold weather bothers me more too, so I often drop my plans to work in the garden in winter if it is too chilly, too windy or the wind chill is too high. This means that my time in the garden shrinks even less over time.

I used to say that I could see the time coming when my edible gardening would be reduced to nothing more than containers on a deck, but in my mind I was thinking that would be years from now, maybe when I hit my 70s. Well, I turned 60 in 2019 and I think a deck garden is getting closer and closer. I wouldn't completely abandon the in-ground garden but I would convert more and more of it to pollinator plants and less and less to edible ones. Surprisingly, I feel pretty much okay with that. A lifetime of gardening from sunrise to sunset every day that I was able has worn me out and I am choosing my gardening battles more carefully nowadays. I don't want to think of it as a big gardening change I'm going to make because I'm getting older. I want to think of it as just another way of doing things as a part of life's journey as I continue to evolve as a person and a gardener. Just yesterday I was standing outside looking around the side yard/back yard and trying to choose a place to put edible containers in 2020. Because I have grown gazillions of nightshade family plants in the front fenced garden every single year since we moved here in 1999, I can tell there is a build-up of some tomato plant type diseases in the garden soil and that means I need to avoid growing nightshade type plants in the garden for a couple of years. It is easier and more productive to rotate the nightshade crops completely out of the front garden for a couple of years than to try to rotate bed by bed each year. I just grow too many nightshades for a standard 3-year rotation from one bed to another to work for me. Most years, every bed in the garden has nightshade plants in it at some point, so even when I rotate tomato or pepper plants from a handful of raised beds to a different handful of raised beds, I don't think I'm rotating enough. The thought of only having herbs and flowers in the big front garden this year practically makes me break out in a rash, but I know it is the smart thing to do.

I have to stay off of Almost Eden's website because going there gives me such a strong urge to spend a lot of money.

I agree about the poor gardeners buried under snow. I don't know how they survive. The lack of green, growing plants drives me crazy during our relatively short winters. I couldn't live someplace where winter is short and spring is too cold for much planting.

Jennifer, It was so instructive to spend the time with guidebooks learning what all the plants were, and whether they were considered a good thing or a bad thing. I was younger and more patient then than I am now too, and that helped.

Usually with perennials like coral honeysuckle, the first year they sleep, the second year they creep and the third year they leap, so 2020 should be the year that your coral honeysuckle really takes off. Mine does bloom sporadically in winter, and I love that.

I bet your kids will be gardening someday. It just seems inevitable, doesn't it?

Nancy,

Your anise hyssop should reseed every year. My garden is full of plants that seem to be perennials because they're always there year after year without me replanting them, but they are just reseeding annuals. I love reseeding annuals!

A person can never have too many boxes. I hoard them almost as shamelessly as I hoard leaves. I'm always stowing boxes in the garage to sit and wait until I need them.

Any day spent in the garden is good, but I didn't stay out there very long because the wind chill was so bad. And, we had a fire, and in fact 2 fires....while our firefighters were en route to assist with a fire in another VFD's fire district, a fire broke out in our fire district and our firefighters had to turn around and come back to it. Really, now that all the vegetation is dry and either dormant or dead, any day that the wind blows is going to be a bad fire day. The fire in our district was started by a motor vehicle. Luckily, someone saw it spark the fire and called 9-1-1 right away, which helps because the sooner the firefighters can make it to a fire, the less time it has to run and spread.

I wish we had an Ace Hardware. I believe the one closest to us is one county away, so it still is quite a drive to it. Sometimes I just have to bite my tongue when I'm inclined to whine about nothing being close to us, because one of the attractions to moving up here was to get away from it all. I cannot have my cake and eat it too, I guess.

Rebecca, I think winter sowing the leeks would work fine. They do not seem as vulnerable to summer heat as onions are, and mine always have made it through the summer just fine. They do tend to have pretty long DTMs whether started from seed or transplant.

It is time for things to get back to normalish. I enjoy the holidays, but the gardener in me always is ready for them to end so we can get on with the start of the gardening year.

Fowler is a great bush bean. It always is very productive for me in the summer heat, which you cannot say about all beans.

We spent New Year's Eve as we always do---at home, in our jammies, watching TV, and with dogs and cats demanding things like sitting on our laps and being petted nonstop. Really, for a lot of years that is how I spent NYE. Tim usually was at work. Now that he is an Asst. Chief, he no longer works on that handful of holidays that the upper level of management personnel have off, but he did work all those holidays for at least 30 years so we never developed a habit of going out on NYE. I'm okay with that. The big party amongst our group of friends is a Halloween party that one family we're close to has every year, and then there's the VFD Christmas dinner party. That's twice a year I get out and socialize and that's about all this stay-at-home hermit can stand to do.

Amy, I'm so sorry you're sick. I am not exactly sick, but fully recovering from that flu crud I had a while back has taken about a month, and now the cedar trees are pollinating and our pollen level is high and my allergies are awful. As I get older, it seems like fall allergy season runs right into flu season which then collides with spring allergy season. I feel like I never get a break from the upper respiratory stuff any more. Tim also pointed out that when you have grandkids, you may be catching viruses that they bring to your house with them. Maybe so, especially with the younger one, but I don't think I can blame any of this on them....I've had the flu and bad allergies much longer and much worse than they have. I believe the kids have excellent immune systems whereas mine is aging and tired and doesn't work as well as it once did.

Jen, I am a reformed seed hoarder, and it has simplified my life so very much. I'll never go back to keeping a huge box of seeds always ready to be used because that is stressful in and of itself, which is something I didn't really think about all those years that I kept buying and hoarding too many seeds. Just the stress of trying to use seeds before they lose their viability is exhausting. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of seeds in my seed box, but nothing like there used to be. It does take a lot of self-discipline to avoid ordering seeds I do not absolutely need, but this year I've been doing a great job of it. I just put seeds in a shopping cart at a website, and then go away and leave them there without ordering. I get the joy of shopping for seeds without the actual seeds. I probably have enough seeds in my box to last 3-5 years even if I didn't order a single thing, but I used to have probably 10-15 years worth, so I really have been cutting back.

The wind and the cold are annoying me, y'all. I absolutely despise walking out into a frosty landscape and having to break up ice in the feeders just so the animals have water to drink. I hate feeling like I am freezing while letting the chickens out and putting out cracked corn and sunflower seeds for the chickens and the wild birds. I hate feeling like I'm freezing to death, even while wearing a heavy coat, very early in the day. I know it is January and it is supposed to be cold, but since the first frost and freeze hit in October, I feel like we've already been too cold for too long. I'm over it.

Happy New Year's everybody!

Dawn

Hazel, thanks for the idea about the simmering pot. Not having all the ingredients... I am using the peel of a cutie, some dried cranberries, cinnamon powder (dont have any sticks) some dried mint flakes and a star anise in my very small crock pot. It smells yummy.

Dawn the cedar trees have been pollinating for a bit already. And yes, the pollen level is high. It seems I just got past rag weed season...

and now, I am back full time on all the allergy meds I have to my disposal... but I am going out for a bike ride anyway... it's supposed to get near 60 today.

Happy New Year ALL!

Moni

Good grief, cedar trees are pollinating? Sigh. I feel better after a dose of antibiotics, though my throat is still raw. I know that my little petri dish grand children probably bring us germs, though they tend to just have runny noses and some times coughs. I haven't heard they were sick enough to go to the doctor. I think Ron and I need to remember to use hand sanitizer when we're out. Of course he's still working so he's exposed to more people than I am, but this seems to happen for us at Christmas time when he's on vacation. I'm thinking fire cider, elderberry syrup and maybe some vitamins.

Jen, children will surprise you. You think they're not paying attention or not interested in what you do and suddenly they're planting tomatoes in the flower bed. When the kids were at home I was an avid (rabid?) birder. The kids made fun of me and rolled their eyes. Then the youngest (at about 10 yo) got into an argument with some other kid over a blue jay, which the other kid called a blue bird and Travis adamantly insisted was a blue JAY. He WAS paying attention.

Did you see the meme that says I have come to the conclusion buying seeds and actually planting them are 2 different hobbies.

Our NYE involved the youngest working on his truck till 8ish, daughter was here with fiance who was trying to help, but he had a tooth pulled that day so he was miserable. We had Chinese food (I crave egg drop soup when I'm sick). We watched Netflix and Hulu. At 11 Ron said happy new year I said not midnight yet. At midnight he woke me up so we could go to bed and listen to the fireworks. Dogs were scared.

It's really nice outside now.

Re Fowler beans. I THINK I have a few left. I will share some and we can see if we can save seeds from them...unless they're a hybrid, do you know Dawn? It appears they're on seed savers exchange. BTW, the Tania's pink pod bush bean is at SESE now after I searched and searched for it 2 years ago. I liked those, too.

Happy new year everyone.

Hi Kim! I can't wait for you. If you're able to post again, what all are you planning to put in your garden?

Amy, you probably know this....but is it common for certain seed to not be available some years? I really wish I had known that because I really liked the Fowler bean. I do remember that someone here couldn't get seed last year, but I ordered early and got it. So, maybe I should try Tonia's pink pod? I hope I have a few Fowler seeds left, but I think I planted them all for a fall crop. Bummer.

We had a party last night at the neighbors'. It was fun, but I was so ready to come home. I practically had to drag Tom out the door without being obvious. Most people have a drink or two and have a relaxed, great time. I just get sleepy. Plus, I had battled a headache on both Monday and Tuesday--not a horrible one, just one of those nagging ones that prevent you from feeling great. Was so happy to wake up headache free this morning. Today, Mom came out for lunch but didn't stay long. We ran to Kirklands because she liked a little light-up tree that we put in our outdoor wagon/cart thing that Tom made for me last year, along with some light-up gifts. She wanted a tree/gifts like mine, but they were sold out.

I took a nap and am about to drag the Christmas tubs to the house. The tree is coming down. I love this tree and am sad to see it go. It's okay though, it will be back in eleven months. I'll switch out my hand soaps to winter ones instead of Christmas ones...as well as the kitchen towels. Ethan wants to leave it all up until the 12th day of Christmas. He'll need to get a tree for his room next year so he can do that. I suspect he will live with us through-out college.

Do y'all think it's dumb to spend money on all red tubs for my Christmas décor? It would make it super easy to find them in upcoming years. Also, some of our old tubs aren't in the best of shape. I remember way back when I was a little girl, my parents just had a couple of cardboard boxes in the attic. Pretty sure people didn't use plastic tubs back then.

Jen, I'm going to look at your list tonight or tomorrow depending on how long it takes to put the tree away...AND if I decide to go to Walmart for red tubs. I can't wait to look at your list in detail. I'll need to actually sit at a table or desk and make notes. That is a serious list. haha!

I bought 4 red tubs years ago when they were on clearance, simply because they were $2 instead of $6 for the gray or blue ones. I like it because all Christmas stuff is easily identifiable. But I'm too cheap to spend a lot of money just to have red totes.

Nancy, your comment about Dawn being my 'secret santa'... a lifetime ago when I first started getting interested in growing tomatoes from seed, I asked a question on here. And Dawn being Dawn, she answered back with a novel- length dissertation about how, when & where to start seeds for the best success. Then she offered to send a "couple" of her favorite varieties. When I got it, there were 30 or more seed packets, complete with detailed notes about how well they produced for her.

Got outside & did a bunch of wintersowing. My game plan this year is to plant all the oldest seeds first, then the rest later if the old stuff isn't viable. It can either sit in my box going to waste or get put in a pot. If it doesn't germinate I'm not out anything, and if it does then I'll have extra plants.

I did some wintersowing this afternoon, to set my intentions for the year. Perennial flowers, so I can grow, bloom, and prosper this year and for years to come. And one pot of bunching onions, just so I can take the bitter with the beautiful. Plus, oat grass pots for Audrey, so I can continue to nurture her.

Gallardia, morning glory, lupine, larkspur, rudbeckia, hollyhocks (trying to trick them into blooming this year), foxgloves, and black eyed Susan vines.

I have crocus bulbs to plant too.

Dawn, be sure to get a list of what Chris and Jana want to plant in their yard, so we can load them up at Spring Fling. Better yet, bring all 4 of them with you. I know I will have plenty to share.

Ok, got my Seeds n Such order in.

Tomatoes: Amelia, Bella Rosa, Dixie Red, Goliath Early, Mountain Merit, Patio, Porter, Tribute, Sweet Chelsea

Cucumbers: Spacemaster, Little Leaf, Ashley

Warrior bunching onions

Super Sugar Snap peas

Maxibel and Fortex beans

Dolce Fresca Basil

Big Smile mini sunflowers

Zinnias: Art Deco mix and Queeny Lime mix

Getting Newton Basil and an experimental tomato as early bird freebies.

Hazel, I have numbered tubs of different colors. I got tired of marking stuff out, and write other things on the tubs.

Now I have tubs in the garage, and the shed... and I have 3 lists. one total, one in the shed, and one in the garage.

If I decide to put something else in a tub, I just change the list... and am done... without having to many markings on my tubs. :)

Moni

It's been one long day for me. I wanted to go out and work a little, but stayed inside. It is so muddy outside that is is hard to do anything. I tried to work a little yesterday afternoon and the ground was so soft that the ladder would sink into the soil and become unstable, the soil was too slick and soft to walk on, the tractor, mower, and truck would sink into the soil, and it was too wet and cold to paint anything. I have seed that I could plant, but that would be a waste also.

Madge and I both are still fighting some kind of bug, ( I really think that it may be allergies ) that makes us feel crappy. We did have Black Eye peas, greens, cornbread and bacon today, so I guess that the rest of the year will be okay.

I have not ordered any seeds yet. I plan on growing a lot more flowers. I use to grow a lot of flowers when I was younger, that was when I lived in town and had a lot less room to grow anything, plus I tried to make the home look nicer when I was in town. I have been away from town for 25 years. Most of what I plant this year will be for bees, butterflies, and critters. For the first time I am planning to make an honest effort to grow in containers. I bought 20 mineral tubs for $1.00 ea.. I have some 4" french drain and will get some type of clothe to put in them and try to make some selfwicking containers, which is also new to me. I will also make some kind of attachment to use on the tractor so I can lift and move the containers. I also want to build a new light shelf. The one I have is made of scrap wood and looks a little rough. I can understand why Madge does not like me dragging it into the house. The new one will be made of PVC, and be easy to disassemble and store in the shop. I will have to look around and see what supplies I have, if I dont have enough t8 or t12 lights I just may go back with LED's.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you have less mud than I do. With the freezing and thawing and rain we are having the mud may be knee deep by spring.

Well it takes a long time to get back here. I am transitioning from Samsung to iPhone 6 and it’s not going great lol

I am planning a huge garden this year. Talked to the great nieces and nephews and they want to help.

i Have lots of seed and hope to get seeds started next week.

I have no idea what I'm doing with gardening. I'm sort of winging it, I guess. Wow. Just now remembered to order onions. I think I'll put kale, spinach, and beets out in the garlic bed. I'm NOT going to plant as many tomatoes, I'm not I'm not. And not as many peppers. I know I gave Jen quite a list, but I'll plant some here and some at the school. My little friends at the school are so anxious for it to be gardening time. Isn't that great?

Oh. I need to find potatoes, too. Ouch.

I'm also excited for you, Kim! Hi and good to "see" you! I hope you have a splendid gardening year! How's the 16x12 space working? I could do that if I got rid of the fabric, books, and art supplies. The smallest living quarters I've had was a 400' sq studio apt, and I was painting, to boot. It actually worked just fine. I tend to "live" in only one room, anyway. Here it's MY room. In Minneapolis it was in my bedroom, which was 14x14. I like the "small living" concept a LOT. GDW and I have talked about what a waste of space this house is for us. As it is, my major goal for 2020 will be living more sustainably, with an eye to doing away with plastics as much as possible, saving water, and cutting back on electricity. We already do well in many areas, but this plastic stuff is driving me nuts.

Happy NY to everyone. I have the same idea in mind, Larry, regarding what I'll be growing--not for critters, but certainly for the bees and butterflies.

I've gotten SO sidetracked this morning. First ordering onions--then trying to find a place to order potatoes from. Then messages with friends on FB. Aggh. Guess I'll go DO something. :)

Okay, Jen, after looking at your list I am DYING for a garden tomato. I might not make it until May or June. Cravings are intense right now!

Here is my list. If I've been too greedy, just give me what you want to give me.

Juliet

Austin's Black Cherry

Baxters Bush Cherry

Black Cherry

Black Krim

Chang Li

Dr. Wyche

Dwarf Golden Gypsy

Dwarf Mr. Snow

Hardin's Miniature

Isis Candy

Matt's Wild Cherry

Dwarf Orange Cream

Rebel Starfighter Prime Heart (What?!!!)

Snow White

Tiny Tim

Thank you. I'm going to be on the north side of OKC tomorrow if you want me to stop by and pick them up to save you the hassle of mailing them.

Moni, I like your tub system. I went to Walmart and bought red tubs. I just did it. It will help with organization. It really will. We need all the help we can get. Honestly, I might buy orange ones for the Halloween/Fall décor next fall. Maybe we can store all of Ethan's old toys that he won't part with (but won't keep in his room) in the old ones and put them up in the rafters of the shop.

I did clean out several decorations that we no longer use (honestly, I do this every year--especially the first year we moved out here. This is half the size of our last house.).

If anyone collects Hallmark Barbie ornaments I have three to give away. One is a Native American Barbie. It came out right after Pocahontas back in the 90's when Mason was a toddler. There's a Cheerleader Barbie and also a Celebration Barbie "special 2000 edition" For many years Mason was the only child, only grandchild and only niece, so she got tons of ornaments each year. Don't judge me for giving these away. lol I kept the ones that are sentimental to us. If you want these, let me know. A friend took the Disney ones. She has 4 trees in her home. A regular tree, a Star Wars tree, a Harry Potter tree and a Disney tree.

The Christmas stuff is mostly put away. The remaining things I'll need help with, so I'm going to allow myself to get out the seed box. I do want to start some seed next week.

Lights--what does everyone use for lights? We need to replace most of ours. I don't want to spend a fortune, but want good ones.

Also, one of the cats peed in my giant elephant ear pot. (Someone keeps forgetting to shut that door!) If I just put that pot outdoors on the front porch, the plant will die back, but do you think the bulbs will rebound in the spring? When I've had them in the ground they've come back every year (Two houses ago). The only time I've had them here was in 2015 and I think the bulbs rotted in the ground with the ridiculous amount of rain we got in such a short time. ANYWAY, the pot smells now and I don't want it in the third bedroom. Advice?

Honestly, I want to go to our old house and dig up one of the bulbs. Those came from a plant my Dad gave to my Mom in the 70's.

HJ, I work just north of the capitol. If you can meet somewhere around lunch (11ish to 1ish) that'd work. Or you can swing by my work & I can run out just about any time.

Only Christmas decorations I put up this year were a wreath in the front hall and my nativity set. We've had so many dogs I didn't want to run the risk of them breaking the nativity so I haven't even thought of putting them away. That's on my to do for this weekend.

I’m fixing to start trolling for feed tubs y’all.

You all go to fast for me to keep up. I've been trolling posts for weeks and think that I'll jump in when I get caught up, but I never get caught up. If I do, I'll come back and update you all on all my goings on but for now I wanted to chime in and offer up some seeds...

Nancy - I need to check my seed stash but I'm pretty sure I can help with Egg Yolk and Lemon Boy.

Rebecca - I tried several varieties of dwarf basils last year if you're interested in trying any of those varieties. I specifically looked for Genovese types (flavors or leaf size) because that's what I use in the kitchen. I'll have to check my stash to remember what all I have as I apprarently didn't get them on my grow list - I just have Dwarf Basil (multiple) listed. Lot of good that does me! Message me on Facebook if you want some because I'm struggling to keep up with the posts here and don't want to leave you hanging. I need to see what variety of basil my MIL just gave me as a dried herb. Just opening the jar it smells like licorice so you'll know to avoid that one.

Jen, that sounds great. I'm going to visit a friend with some health problems. I'm going to her house at 9:30 and usually stay at least a couple of hours. I'll message you on fb.

Rebecca, I keep reminding my neighbor to ask his 'girlfriend' about the feed tubs. In fact, he just knocked on our door (and is here now) and I reminded him again. We had planned on visiting her property in the fall, but never got around to it. If we do get around to it this spring, I'll ask her in person. She had a big garden and greenhouse that I want to check out.

Hey Megan!

Hey HJ!

Nancy - I checked and as I feared, my Lemon Boy andEgg Yolk seeds came from Totally Tomatoes and as I fussed about this spring the termination on all my TT seeds was awful. Don’t fret though because all that means for you is that I’m going to order seeds from a different source. Egg yolk was hard to find so that one might be in question but I’ll let you know. I’m happy to share seeds with you because I will start maybe 6 plants of each.

Rebecca, the basil to avoid is perpetuo. Oh, and I think I’ve suggested this before but 4H clubs and maybe FFA programs are a good place to start asking for tubs, especially if you offer to donate a few dollars per tub to their program. They’re like other student programs, always raising money for something.

Megan. . . no worries--Jen has em all and is sending to me.

See those little nubs on the stem of this brussel sprout plant? Is that the beginning of the edible part?

Also, the broccoli and cauliflower has the edible parts developing. We'll see if they make it to "full size".

Duh! I just thought of what I will do with the old tubs. Garden supply storage, of course! Trays, small pots, shade cloth, frost cloth and more!

Yes, those are sprouts, Hazel.

Moni, Tim and I think the cedar trees started pollinating here about 4-6 weeks ago, which of course is so much earlier than usual, so maybe what I should have said is that they might be peaking now. There is a property next to us that has a solid couple of acres of them just about as thick as grass, and another that has probably 45 to 60 acres of them not quite as thick. While many of us try to cut them down and keep them to a minimum, many others just let them run wild and reseed all over, so we have a shocking number of cedar trees around here. I'd been trying to stay away from taking allergy medicine, but it is time to take it daily again.

Amy, I know! I was so happy to be over the flu and feeling good again, and then here come the allergy symptoms after just a few days of feeling really good again. I even told Tim that it felt like cedar season had begun, but surely not....and I believe that was in late November. So, the next time we were out, we looked at the cedar trees and were stunned by have heavily laden they were with pollen. I am going to guess that the early autumn freeze followed by several periods of warm weather got the cedar trees going early again. I think this is the third year in a row cedar pollen season began early. I can't help thinking an early start to the pollen season is just another complication for anyone with allergies who also is dealing with the flu, a cold, bronchitis or pneumonia. There's also been a lot of strep throat going around. I suppose it is just that time of the year. Tim, Chris and Jana all are exposed to tons of sick people in the jobs on a daily basis, and I'm not, so usually I'll get sick once and that's it and they might get sick more often, but they also bounce back more quickly...especially Chris and Jana since they still are young and probably have more robust immune systems. This winter the kids have been perfectly healthy. Aurora had a cough for a couple of days, but it lasted no time at all, and Lillie hasn't been sick at all. Perhaps they are just old enough that they aren't bringing us every virus they encounter any more. I do remember what it is like with infants and toddlers who seem to have a runny nose more often than not at this time of the year.

I did see that meme about seed buying and seed planting and it made me laugh out loud. The seed buying....that is the dream, right? The seed planting, though, that is the actual reality. Some gardeners live more in the dream and others live more in the reality, and most of us have some sort of combination of both the dream and the reality. I have really, really cut back on the seed buying, but still have a huge accumulation of tomato seeds from past years. With everything else, from veggies to herbs to flowers, I've stopped buying more than I can plant, and am trying harder to plant all the ones I buy. So, at least I'm partially reining in the seed madness. This is the first year I haven't ordered a single veggie or tomato seed, and most of the flowers I ordered were wildflower seeds. It feels odd to not have seed deliveries flooding in. Because of the landscaping projects, I suspect I'll be buying more plants than seeds this year, which is a big change.

Kim, I'm glad you're getting all settled in and ready to have a big garden again. I know how much you've missed having that garden.

Jennifer, Last year we bought the orange storage tubs for all the autumn, Halloween and Thanksgiving décor and I am so glad we did. It was so easy to spot them and pull them out immediately when it was time for autumn decorating and I was thrilled with not having to figure out which tub in the attic had which stuff in it. So, this year, we bit the bullet and invested in the red ones for the Christmas décor. I am so excited to have them, and they immediately made me feel more organized. We are going to recycle the previously used gray storage tubs to the garage to store Tim's junk. Did it hurt to go out and buy all these red storage tubs right after Christmas at full price? Of course it did, and the miser who lives inside my head kept telling me to wait another 2 or 3 weeks and they'd be on clearance, but I couldn't do it. I wanted the Christmas stuff taken down and put away promptly. I do consider them a worthwhile investment because they'll keep us organized and save time and frustration each year when it is time to bring out the holiday decorations. We even moved the 2 artificial Christmas trees from their old, torn, tattered and taped up original cardboard boxes to the red plastic tubs. I believe overall it will simplify our lives and decorating a lot.

Rebecca, I'll see if Chris and Jana want to come to the Spring Fling. They both usually work on weekends though, so it is the luck of the draw, schedule-wise. You know, I am sure that back in the fall he sent me diagrams of his plans and I know what he intended to plant, but for the life of me I cannot think of any of it. I know they are more interested in blooming perennials than shrubs or trees, and they invested heavily in bulbs of all kinds, especially lily and daylily bulbs. What happened with those....Chris was visiting websites and making lists in May or June of all the lilies and daylilies he wanted for the yard. He'd show his lists and the photos to Jana and she'd add some others she liked. Then, at some point, he thought he read where they said that sales were closed for summer 2019 and they wouldn't ship again until fall 2019, so he ordered a ton of lilies and daylilies on sale, expecting them to ship in the fall. Well, somewhere there was a misunderstanding and tons of bulbs started arriving in the mail very soon thereafter, and they had nowhere to put them. So....molasses feed tubs to the rescue! We took him 6 or 8 of them, he filled them up with soil-less mix, packed in the bulbs close together since the tubs were just their temporary home, and the lilies and daylilies have been happily growing in them ever since. Now he is ready this month to move all those to the planting beds he created in his front yard this week. I believe that this week he planted his carefully selected mix of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, crocus, anemone, guinea hen flower, red fritillaria, and whatever else he ordered. Back to the lilies...Once he knew he could temporarily plant them in the molasses feed tubs, he went back and ordered more lilies and more daylilies on sale all summer long, so now he has amassed an army of lily and daylily bulbs, ready to move to the garden whenever he has time to transplant them. I'm not even sure he has room for all of them, much less anything else. It is possible that Chris is a gardening maniac who wants to plant it all, and we didn't even realize that before he bought the house. They have specific rose varieties picked to plant this spring, etc. They really did their planning last spring while it was raining every day, and that carried over into summer along with all the bulb purchases, and then this week they built and planted the first two beds. He said they've been stopping traffic because everyone in their neighborhood wants to see what they are doing to replace all the lawn grass they've torn out.

Moni, To label our tubs, I tape clear plastic page protectors to them. Then, we can slide a sheet of paper inside the page protector on each tub and, if the contents change, we slide out that sheet of paper and slide in the new one. I write on the sheets of paper with black permanent markers.

I'm the most organized I've ever been, but it has taken me 60 years to get to this point. Now, if only we could apply all the great household organization techniques to Tim's garage/shop, where junk just piles up. When we were younger, he knew where everything was from memory. It would amaze his friends. Some friend would stop by and say "do you have a whatever..." and he could go straight to a location and get it in the blink of an eye. Now he stands there and looks around and says "it is in here somewhere". Then he has to dig and paw through everything to find it. So, just like last year, cleaning out/cleaning up/reorganizing that building is on our To Do list, and I hope we have more success with it in 2020 than we did in 2019.

Larry, I hate that the mud is slowing you down. It is the same here...mud everywhere. I hope you and Madge recover quickly from the bug you have.

I'm hoping the mud dried up before spring. We cannot rent a sod cutter and remove all the Bermuda grass until our clay dries out more. Right now it is so wet that I fear the sod cutter would bog down in the wet soil and get stuck. It is hard to have just the right conditions for cutting sod....you need the soil a bit moist, and certainly not rock hard like it is in the summer, but you don't need it wet and soupy like it is right now. I look at all the mud and puddles and just roll my eyes because I'm so tired of looking at all of it. We need to get Elvis to come spread a new load of gravel on the driveway, but it is in the same boat---probably too wet to be workable at this point, so we need it a bit drier so his equipment doesn't bog down in the mud. The good news is there is no rain in our local forecast until at least next Thursday, but the bad news is that the ground dries up so slowly in the lower temperatures and less intense sunlight in the winter.

Jennifer, I have no idea what lights we have because Tim chose them while I was elsewhere in the store doing something else, but I know he bought LEDs and they are nice and bright, but the lights themselves stay cooler than the other ones we had before and don't build up a lot of heat, and you can put more strings of them together since they use less energy.

It is good to see your little Brussels Sprouts. Yay!

I've been working on my tomato grow list and it is an unbearable form of torture to keep chopping it down smaller and smaller. I was aiming for only 6-8 varieties since they are going to be grown in containers, but I think that when I'm done with it, it will be closer to 12 varieties. There's just no way to make it any smaller if you factor in needing a couple of cherry types, (I could do only one cherry tomato plant, but how can you choose between SunGold and Black Cherry?), some blacks/purples, some pinks, some reds, at least one orange (Tim's favorite Nebraska Wedding) and a couple of late types for production in late summer and early autumn....then 10-12 varieties is the bare minimum. I think if I can cut the list to 10-12, then I will have done really well when you consider my usual long grow lists. Rotating all the nightshades out of the front garden this year and next as a form of crop rotation means growing no potatoes this year. I don't like growing tomatoes in feed tubs, and there's nowhere else to grow them where voles won't get them. (Voles will go up through the drainage holes in the feed tubs, but only for potatoes....not for tomatoes or peppers.) I am feeling iffy about using the back garden at all with all the other stuff we have going on because, realistically speaking, there's only so many hours in the day for planting and maintenance,, so there likely won't be many other veggies. Probably onions, cucumbers, beans and southern peas, maybe all squeezed into one raised bed in the front garden, with all the surrounding beds filled with flowers. That means that onions will be the only cool-season veggie, and I am okay with that. Oh, maybe kale and lettuce. See there....cutting back is impossibly hard.

Anyhow, I'm going to finish my tomato grow list and post it in the next few minutes. I've been working on it all week. I went through the seed box, pulled out all the packets of tomato seed that I wanted to plant, then began editing that big pile down to an ever-increasingly smaller pile. I piled up the seed packets in groups by color, then had to choose our favorites from each color, and while doing that, I tried to take into consideration which ones produce early, mid-season and late, as well as which ones' flavor we absolutely, positively must have this year. Ultimately I put back tons of seed packets into the seed box, and ended up with the ones that made the final cut this morning. It is odd to not plant any paste tomatoes, but not planting them is essential if I am to have the year off from canning (still gonna make pickles though) so I can focus on the landscaping projects. If I had more self-discipline and didn't love all the various types of tomato flavor so much, I probably could cut the current tomato grow list in half, but I lack that self-discipline and enjoy the wide variety of flavors too much to do another round of cutting. As it is, we'll probably have twice as many tomatoes as we need for fresh eating, but then I can just whip up tomato-basil soup or fresh pasta sauce for dinner when too many tomatoes start piling up on the counter in the summer time.

Dawn

Jennifer, my husband bought several of these lights off Amazon for his shop

They really are amazing in the difference between these and the old style fluorescent shop lights - I have the old style lights in my potting shed/greenhouse but am seriously considering replacing at least a couple with these newer ones. I’ve had the old ones for over 12-15 years so I don’t feel guilty about replacing them. They are LED so use much less electricity and they are linkable - they can just plug into each other

Thanks! I will check those out. I'm starting more seed than I did last year. I had enough lights for last year, but this year I need to light up all those shelves! Maybe I can buy a couple of those each year to replace the ones that I have.

And YIPPEE! I have 9 precious Fowler beans! Went through my seeds last night/today and found those little boogers. I'm going to try hard to remember to save some seed from them.

Thanks, Dawn! It is good to see those little brussels sprouts. This is my first time growing them. We really enjoy them--they are a favorite around here.

Hazel I would take the elephant ear out of the pot, ditch ALL the soil, wash the lower part of the plant and the roots, and replant in fresh new potting soil. That should eliminate the smell.

Maybe you can put a bunch of skewers all around the bulb in the pot to keep the cat from accessing it again?

Moni

farmgardener, I like the fact that those lights are linkable! My shop lights are even older than yours and I wouldn't mind replacing them with LEDs---when you have as many lights on a light shelf as I have, they create a ton of heat. I usually have to close the HVAC vent in the room with the light shelf or the room stays too hot all the time because of the heat from the lights.

Jennifer, When I have bought Fowler, it was from SESE, and they don't have it every year. Since they and their network of growers grow their own seed locally, as opposed to buying it from the big multinational seed producers who raise seeds outside the USA and sell them to all the big seed retailer), if there is a crop failure in their fields, often you won't see the seed in their catalog for a couple of years until they can build up their supply again. Sadly, a large storage barn at SESE burned down several years ago, taking a lot of their seed supply with it, and I feel like they've never fully recovered from that and still are working to get adequate supplies of many rare seeds back in stock again.

Regarding cats in containers....I use wire cages around the perimeter of large pots, and either skewers, plastic forks with the prongs sticking upward, rocks as mulch or sweetgum seed balls as mulch to keep cats out of containers.

I have nothing new to report this morning. I feel like I'm still in a semi-sleepy post-holiday mode and not ready to get too busy with gardening just yet. Maybe it is the cold weather because I don't like working outside in cold weather, but more than likely it is the antihistamines taken to combat the effects of cedar pollen. Even the non-sedating antihistamines make me feel drugged and slowed-down. I think my body is just really sensitive to all antihistamines, so I avoid them as much as possible but cannot avoid taking them during cedar pollen season.

As for gut feelings for the upcoming gardening year, the big one I'm getting right now is to just slow down and not plant anything too early. I don't know why, but that is what my intuition is telling me. For summer? I have no feel for it yet. We have had above average rainfall in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and I worry that this prolonged rainy spell is giving people a false sense of what a dry summer will be like when we have one of those or, God forbid, a dry spring. I am not even that surprised 2015 thru 2018 have been wet, as nature always balances itself out long-term, and 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 were very dry. I just don't think the wet years continue much longer, and I guess time will tell. The drought and wildfires in Australia are worth paying attention to. First, for their own sake and the effect they are having on the plants and wildlife, which is just heart-breaking. Secondly, I have noticed that often, though not every single time, when Australia has a wicked summer, we will have a pretty bad summer the same year. I hope this isn't that year.

Dawn

Thanks for the advice on the elephant ear, Moni and Dawn. It's sitting on my front porch now and didn't freeze. I think the heat from the house has helped, although when/if it gets much colder than 31, it will freeze. I'll get some fresh potting soil and change it out. I found blocks of wood to put around the soil to prevent Finbar from using it because he goes outside.

Does anyone know if there's some sort of invention that one can put around the soil of potted plants to help prevent this kitty issue? If not, I should invent it.

Oh, Dawn, I hope this summer isn't hot and dry...well, hotter and drier than normal. We were pretty dry in July and August in 2019, but I know a lot of you weren't.

I didn't even garden in 2011 and just remember that summer being so unenjoyable. We lived in the city and people would wait till twilight to walk their dogs and run the kids around the yard for some exercise. Even then, it was too hot. Our AC struggled that year (probably a lot of people's did) and had repairs. I've joked on here how Ethan's piano skills improved greatly that summer. Mason was a lifeguard at Earlywine and it was miserable even at the pool. No thanks.

I can't imagine what those of you who were trying to keep a garden going were experiencing.

That is sad about SESE's storage barn. Of all the places I've ordered seed, I've mostly ordered from them.

Any thoughts on Texas Bluebonnets? My friend gave me some seed. I have no idea what to do with it. I should start researching it, I guess.

Jennifer, You're welcome. I have had some of the big green elephant ears survive several winters in the ground, but they always are iffy, probably because our clay soil holds too much water for them in winter, even when I've amended it pretty heavily. I bet if I had sandier soil that drained better, they'd survive winter more consistently.

There are some cat repellents available, but I don't know anyone who has used them and felt like they work consistently. They also usually need to be replaced frequently after rainfall or irrigation, making them pricey to use....even if they might seem to work in a specific case.

We were pretty dry in July and August 2019 too, but otherwise wet the rest of the year. The type of drought I worry about isn't one that has a couple of dry summer months---that is normal for us---it is the one where we are abnormally dry from about March through November. In our worst drought year here at our house we had a little under 19" of rainfall for the whole year, and almost none of it fell in summer. That was in 2003. In many ways, 2011 was worse during the summer months with low rainfall and high heat. That year, I think our rainfall through late August was around 12" for the whole year, but then we got some autumn rain so the year ended up being rainier overall than 2003. Another horrible year was 2005, with less than 24" of rain for the whole year and 2006 was almost as bad, and I spent a lot more time at fires than I spent in the garden. I find it hard enough to keep the garden happy and productive in an average year, and for us an average year is about 36-38" of rainfall. Trying to keep a garden producing with half of that amount, or even 75% of it, is almost impossible and requires more irrigation than I am willing to do. Really, even with periodic dry spells each summer, which is pretty much an every summer thing no matter how much rain falls otherwise, we haven't had a bad drought year since 2015, so I fear newer gardeners who have only grown plants the last few years will be caught by surprise when our usual droughts return. I'm actually surprised we have had 4 rainy years back to back---that is not normal at all. From memory, at our house, we had major and prolonged drought issues in 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and half of 2009, 20ll, 2012, 2013 and 2014. We had nice, mostly wet years in 2002, 2004, 2007, part of 2009 and in 2010, and then the last 4 rainy years, but most of those wet years still were too dry in July and August. I didn't mention 2001, but it was a bizarre year with a few very wet months and some in which no rain fell at all, so it is hard to categorize. I don't remember it as a great garden year though.

Even though I have extensive experience with drought here, after having it wet for most of the last 4 years, I worry that I'm forgetting how bad prolonged drought really can be and that I won't be ready for it when it happens again.

Texas bluebonnets prefer sandy or rocky soil but I have had some success with them in our horrible clay in the front pasture. Texas bluebonnet seeds have very tough coats, by design. Not all of the seeds will germinate the first year and this is deliberate so that they all don't germinate at once and die in drought. By germinating over several years, they increase their survival odds. They usually will germinate sporadically over a 3 year or 4 year period. Some of the bluebonnet seed sold today is acid-scarified to guarantee more even and earlier germination (mostly in the first year) and that is the kind I buy. I normally sow bluebonnet seed in the fall, usually in October or so. It will sprout roughly in November, but sometimes as early as October or as late as December before we get too cold. The plants then will remain as tiny rosettes down low to the ground---hard to spot unless you are searching for them, especially if they are growing in a meadow or pasture with many other plants. When the temperatures reach the right range for them, which can be anywhere from late March to early May depending on what the weather is doing, they suddenly will put on a huge growth spurt and quickly bloom. Mine generally start blooming in April of most years and the blossoms can last into May, and occasionally June, if we don't get too hot too early. The heat makes them go to seed. We are careful to avoid mowing our wildflower pastures/meadows until after the spring and early blooming wildflowers have gone to seed so that they can reseed successfully for the following year's flowers. To me, perhaps because I grew up in Texas, nothing says Spring like blooming bluebonnets. Down in Texas they normally are in bloom by Easter, so legions of Texas children have had their photos taken in their Easter clothes sitting in a patch of roadside bluebonnets. Here in OK, they bloom a bit later most years. Bluebonnets are happiest in poor soils, by the way, as rich soils will make them grow too tall and flop over and flower poorly.

I love bluebonnets and would grow fields full of them if I had the right soil for them. Instead I sow tons of bluebonnet seeds and am just happy with whatever I get.

Dawn

Back in 2011 and 2012 I couldn't even grow okra.

okmulgee boy

too hot for okra , imagine that .

okmulgee boy

I was working in the garden department at HD. It was soooooooooooooo miserable!