Amy, That is how I find missing tools too--right underfoot for months and then we are left pondering how we were stepping on the, tripping over them, chopping them up with the mower or scarring them with the string trimmer or whatever and yet not discovering them.

We are not allowed sunshine now because Mother Nature hates us and is saving all the sunshine for July and August when we absolutely do not need it.

Jen, To add to what HU said about melons and pumpkins, they are real heat lovers and do not do well in cool soil and cool air. Normally you grow watermelons by direct seeding and not until the soil temperature is consistently at or above 70 degrees for at least 5 straight days. Someone who really, really wants to plant early can cover their soil with thick black plastic for a week to 10 days to try to heat up the soil....or just be patient and wait until the time is right. Transplants can be used and often will give you ripe melons about 7-10 days earlier than sowing seed directly, but they need to be young transplants, no older than maybe 3 weeks old and definitely not rootbound. Research has shown there is very little benefit to trying to plant watermelons too early, though, because they need real heat to grow and just sit and sulk in cool soil. Pumpkins love heat even more. Their seeds shouldn't be sown in the ground until it is at least 70 degrees and they will germinate well until soil temperatures exceed 95 degrees, because heat is their thing that they love and need. Everything I said about watermelons also applies to them, especially the importance of not using old, rootbound transplants. Both need lots of space, so give them wide spacing.

Jennifer, Oh I realize what it is. My point is that after 15-20 years of the real-life drama in our face all the time, it is just the last thing I want to see on TV. : ) We've seen it all and heard it all already, and for far too long. Y'all enjoy it....we lived it locally and enough is enough is enough and we've had far too much of all that crowd. In a lightly populated area like ours where very little that is truly newsworthy ever happens, the local media covered all this soap opera crap among all these people for years and years like it mattered to somebody. Maybe it helped their readership or viewership or TV ratings, but after a while, all I wanted to do was turn off the TV when they started talking about Exotic Joe. Most people here just rolled their eyes and talked about what idiots these people are...and that was my point. We already "know" these idiots and have seen their show.

This virus is very unique and it attacks different people in different ways---sometimes the lungs, sometimes the heart, sometimes the brain, and sometimes the spleen and kidneys. Its viral load inside your body fluctuates, so you can test negative several times and they will release you and tell you that you are well, and suddenly your viral load shoots sky-high again and they 'think' you are re-infected. Based on all the reading I've done over the months, I don't think it is a reinfection. I think that the viral load drops so low they cannot detect it so they think you are cured, but you aren't. Then when it resurges you really aren't re-infected because it never left you to begin with. I have thought this for a long time now, and Dr. Birx said the same thing this weekend when asked about it---she thinks it hasn't gone away and they haven't been cured/reinfected, instead it was still present and temporarily undetectable. It is every bit as infectious as I said--that is why thousands of cops, firefighters, medics, doctors, nurses and other medical staff have contracted it---they have misunderstood how easily it is transmitted and were not always properly geared up to deal with it, so weren't as well-protected as they should have been. Twice, the Hubei province had to bring in 20,000-30,000 medical workers from across China just a few weeks apart (maybe 2 or 3 weeks apart) to help with their initial outbreak. Why? All the medical people got sick...twice. How in the world could they bring in that many replacement health care workers twice without realizing how easily it was being transmitted? How could most of Iran's governing council and legislature contract it? Because they didn't know how it could be contagious before a person had symptoms, and they didn't understand that 20% of the infected people just carry and spread it---never showing symptoms. How did the UK Prime Minister, now in ICU on life support, contract it? He underestimated how contagious it was in the same ways. That is one of the scariest parts---it can attack you in so many ways and you can become infected without realizing you're around someone who has it and is spreading it.

I have read literally every bit of info published about this virus since I learned about its existence in mid-January, and the more I read, the more it terrified me. If you remember, I wasn't around online much in January and February and said I was distracted by other stuff---well, scouring the internet, finding documents, translating them and reading them, taking notes and trying to learn from them---that was my distraction. I thought I would feel better the more that I knew and understood about it, but honestly, the more I learned, the worse I felt because all the data and info was just so bad.

Some viruses can lie undetected in our bodies for decades and never really leave us--the chicken pox virus is like that. If you had chicken pox as a kid, you vaguely remember it and forget about it, right? Then when you're 50 or older and your immune system is slowly weakening due to age, the virus that has long lain dormant in your body resurges as shingles. Bam! Same virus, just lurking and waiting for a chance to attack again. Other viruses can be prevented with a vaccine---like smallpox or polio. When I was a kid, the polio vaccine was a big deal because it meant little kids like me who took the vaccine (it was delivered on a sugar cube, yum yum) wouldn't have our bodies destroyed by polio. Except....my best childhood friend got it in shot form because his military family was deploying to an area where polio was common. That must have been before we had the sugar cube vaccine but my memory of the timing is fuzzy now because I was only 4 or 5 then, and his shot gave him polio. I think the vaccine we had was the Sabin vaccine and his was the Salk vaccine. He survived, but with a deformed body that never functioned well again. For him, the right vaccine was too late and then, somehow, the polio remained dormant in his body and returned to an active form when he was in his 40s, around the time we moved up here, and it killed him. I had no idea it could do that back then. To lose him after all he had overcome was just devastating.

Viruses are very complicated, and the Covid-19 virus is an RNA virus, which seems to be a worse class of viruses than the DNA viruses. It can recombine in many ways and can mutate, though it doesn't seem to be mutating quickly in any sort of major way yet.

I think if all of us really and truly knew just how easily we could catch this virus, we'd stay home 24/7. Dr. Birx sort of indicated that today, expressing for a moment the fact that her own family....91 year old mom, 96 year old dad, her daughter, and her two grandchildren (10 months and about 2.5 years) haven't left the house once. She said absolutely nobody comes in to their home and nobody comes out of it because those people in her family are "precious cargo" and she has no intention of losing them. Since Dr. Birx probably knows more about this virus than anyone else, except perhaps Dr. Fauci, I was really listening to her words during the Task Force briefing. She actually was speaking of her frustration as a grandparent/physician that she couldn't go to see her family and help with her 10 month old granddaughter's 104-105 fever over the weekend. She absolutely will not put her family at risk, and I see a lesson in that. I feel like she knows even more than she'll say publicly because part of working in public health also includes not setting off a panic, so she must temper her words somewhat.

At some point, Tim and I will have to go to the store again to get the sort of foods you cannot freeze---especially fresh produce. Everything else is pretty much in our freezer, but nobody likes frozen lettuce/veggie salad. When we do, we'll be there at the nearest Wal-mart at 7 a.m. when it opens for the first hour of shopping, which is reserved for old people like us, and we'll get in and out quickly, masked up, and with wipes and hand sanitizer waiting for us in the car. Oh, and canned cat food. I have months' worth of dry cat food stored and ready to use, but just didn't have the space to store a lot of canned cat food, so at some point in the next month we'll run out and the cats will have to live without it, or we'll buy it when we do a quick store run for salad. Right now I feel safe at the thought of going to Cooke County, TX, because they have no local cases. They do have two people who work in health care in their county who tested positive, but each lives in another county so their cases are recorded in those counties. If we lived in Dallas, Denton, Collin or Tarrant County, all of which have hundreds of confirmed cases (Dallas is over 1000 now) , we'd give up going to stores altogether and would have no salads until the garden is producing them and the cats would give up canned food for the duration.

All of us have to weigh the risk, and as this thing spreads more and more, I am less and less willing to run the risk. Our county has 2 cases, Carter County has one, so the grocery stores in our county probably are okay (I'd feel better about that if I didn't know we have a lot of people in our county awaiting test results) and even Carter County might be okay....except a lot of counties around it have more cases, and lots of people go there to shop because their Walmart is a big super center.

I don't even mind staying home so much as I mind "having to" stay home. If it was only my choice, I bet I could do it forever, but because it feels like it is forced upon us by the need to stay safe from this virus, I sort of resent it and wish we could just go out to eat Mexican food or whatever. I wish I could spend every weekend shopping for plants, but that feels too risky as time goes on. I have plenty of seeds. I'll just have to grow the flowers I want from seed.

HU, Learning the hard way is sometimes required, so yes, she'll learn the hard way, and Jen will be too nice to say "I told you so".

Marleigh, That is how it was in real life....any one of those Tiger people would be on the news and we'd roll our eyes and leave the room, returning after the news people quit blathering on and on about their latest antic.

Paula, I'm glad you're moving on with the garden, and sorry you have to work through all this mess.

You move your daffodils, by the way, by waiting for the foliage to turn yellow/tan and die back, which will signal that all the energy the plants need for next year now are stored in the bulb. Then you can dig up the bulbs, move them and replant them. Easy-peasy. If your current bulbs are crowded, you can divide them as you replant.

Nancy, I did figure it had to be toadflax. I love toadflax. They look so delicate but they are really tough survivors!

As for the Tiger show, I was kind when I referred to them as white trash....a better description would be to say they are a train wreck. I have zero interest in watching it. I think that is why people like watching it though, because people love to watch other people who are outrageous train wrecks. People who live elsewhere (mainly in Texas) would ask us over the years if they should bring their kids up here to the tiger/wildlife park in Wynnewood to see the tigers, and we'd kindly direct them to a true wild animal park run with great care and dedication by conservationists down near Glen Rose, TX....Fossil Rim. Going to Fossil Rim is like going on a non-profit safari run by conservationists whose goal is to save as many animals as possible and to educate the public---they are everything the tiger park could have been and never ever remotely was in any shape, form or fashion.

Next week's weather is depressing. Tomorrow should be sunny and warm but I won't believe the sunny part until I see real sunshine, and then we have rain, clouds, mist, drizzle, fog, doom and gloom every day until we hit the near-freezing days next week. This whole winter/early spring feels like we moved to Seattle. When are we ever going to have sunshine that lasts?

Dawn

I didn't have the same kind of handle you did, Jen. The duct tape worked great on my hori horis. (Not good enough, apparently, to make it sure-fire findable, however.)

Well, our weather this morning is cloudy, foggy and icky. Apparently there have been some scattered rain showers in our area, but I don't think they reached our house. Good! The weather is supposed to get better and we should have some sunshine at some point, although they said on the morning news it might not happen until this afternoon. We'll see.

When Tim left for work this morning I told him to "be careful and don't let anybody breathe on you". lol. He assured me that he goes straight to his office and rarely even sees another person all day long because they all are practicing social distancing. It sounds like he is lonely at work, and I find that sad. It seems to me that if everyone who is essential is holing up in their offices (obviously the cops out on the street cannot do that like the guys in management can) and communicating with one another by telephone, then it seems like they all could stay at home and do the same thing.

It is so typical of Oklahoma weather that we'll be in the 80s today and tomorrow before another cold front sweeps through, and then next week we'll have some early mornings in the 30s. Our weather is broken.

The wildflowers look really great, although I think they'd be blooming even better if they could get some sunshine every now and then.

I killed a mosquito inside the house this morning. I'm just not ready to deal with those skeeters yet.

I worked on the new garden space at my daughters last night. It’s so much fun. I told them I don’t mind doing it alone but they all chipped in including 7yo grandson who told me he hates gardening and doesn’t care to help. He was a trooper. We cleared the tomato area and planted carrots hoping it’s not too late. WE cleared out a bed 15x30 and began hauling compost to that area. And the mosquitoes were horrible.

i have bought several types of bagged potting mix and have been terrible disappointed with all of it

at my wits end with that.

Kim, I am not too happy with my potting soil either. I use to get a custom mix from a nursery in eastern OK., I would use it and mix in with two others, along with compost. I felt that I could adjust for what ever I needed, now I am starting from scratch. So far I have been doing OKAY, but not like I would like to, but there is always a learning curve a person has to go through.

I have got to get some of my junk running or I wont be doing much gardening or mowing.

It looks like the kids here will be doing classes online till next fall, oh how the world has changed. I think it is great that they can do that, but that takes all the fun out of skipping school.

Kim, I think the bagged mixes are worse and worse every year, and I've just switched over to using yard and garden 'debris' as much as possible to build beds hügelkultur style, and then top them off with our compost mixed with whatever native soil we started out with. It is harder with containers. I used to mix up my own version of Al's 5-1-1 mix, but running around to different places to get all the ingredients was exhausting and would be so much harder nowadays than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Then you have to mix it up, and haul it around to fill the containers, etc. I think all the soil-less mix companies are more interested in maximizing profit than in providing a good product and that is sad. Chris and I have been fixing soil-less mix lately by screening out big chunks of whatever shows up in it, and then adding Black Kow composted cow manure.

I'm glad the family all joined in together to help you with the garden. It is a marvelous family activity and perhaps they'll love it and find more time to do it with you leading the way.

I don't think it is too late for carrots, and they ought to germinate pretty quickly in these temperatures which will be a thrill for your grandson. My grandkids think growing carrots is such a cool thing to do.

I knew the mosquitoes were going to be horrible with all the rain we keep having and I hate wearing insect repellant. It is going to be a really long spring at this rate.

The good news is that the purple martins finally returned home to us today, so they'll start doing their share of mosquito control now that they are back.

Larry, It is like the world changed overnight. I know it must be really hard on all the kids that they cannot see all their school friends daily. I know we all must do what we have to do to stay safe, but that doesn't mean it is easy. At least they have the option of online classes and such. Without that, I wonder how the schools would catch up and finish the rest of this school year? Back in 1918, the kids kept going to school...and maybe that is one reason that millions and millions of people died. I am sure that the social distancing we are doing now is paying off---some countries that shut down before any of our states began doing so are seeing the number of new cases dropping, which is encouraging. I just hope we as a nation are patient enough to stay shut down long enough for it to work.

It is hot and humid today for this early in the year, but we're lacking sunshine. We had about 3 minutes of sunshine this morning and the sun keeps trying to pop out from behind the clouds, but then the clouds rush in to cover up poor old Mr. Sun.

Everything seems so early---the monarchs were early, the bees were early (because most plants bloomed early), the hummingbirds were early, and most all butterflies and moths were early. Then, the purple martins were late? Maybe they were eating their way slowly across Texas. Now it is the dreaded black buffalo gnats that are out, and biting is their game. They seem at least a couple of weeks early.

I'm looking forward to the coming cold front. After a couple of days in the 80s, the 60s will feel really nice again.

Dawn

Dawn. You know the 100% sure-fire way to find a missing tool, huh? Well, I couldn't wait, so ordered the new one yesterday. Mowed the front lawn today. While pushing the mower next to where the 9-bark was, felt something strange under my foot. Yep, the missing knife. It had been buried under an ever-so-thin bit of spilled potting soil. I feel positively spoiled now. I have Garry's newish one (the one I lost yesterday), and he has a brand new one and we have another brand new one coming.

LOL See below for before and after of the knife formerly GDW's, now mine.

After:

Before:

when this thing is over and Ron retires we will bring the cement mixer around for a nominal fee to mix soil for people. I can still get Worley's potting mix, and do for small containers, but big things, like mineral tubs we mix compost, peat and vermiculite. He bought the small cement mixer at harbor freight a couple of years ago because he was tired of mixing on tarps. For young people, you put your items to be mixed on a tarp, then pull one corner to roll it across the tarp. Then pull it back and then another corner so it rolls a different way. Etc etc. Ron loves his power tools.

Oh, I forgot to say, home grown fresh asparagus is like a homegrown tomato. YUM!

Amy

will you come to Texas😉

Yes, it is, Amy! I fixed it last night. And have a lot more that needs to be harvested.

How do y'all preserve it? Blanch and freeze?

I'm horrible about leaving my tools around. Tom is very unhappy with me when the mower gets one. I'm trying to do better. I did better last year about laying them where the mower can get them...but still lost them in the garden. I blame the Seminole pumpkins!

Yours look pretty now, Nancy. :)

Dawn, that's what I was going on about on my last post. IF this virus is that bad, we're all doomed. I suppose every single person could stay in at all times and never leave. It's hard to imagine that. People will die for other reasons, of course....and their own families will have to deal with their remains. BUT, even if every single person regardless of work stayed indoors for a couple of months--somehow it probably will still exist in someone, somewhere. But especially if so many people are still moving around to go to work--regardless of how important and essential their work is. So...what are we supposed to do? It's like we're just delaying it for a bit. All it will take is a handful of people who have it to start spreading it again... once they allow us to live freely once more.

I've been looking at the ACE2 gene. I'm not smart enough to understand it, but my own DNA has one of each variant for all the markers on that gene. What that means? I don't know. LOL

I started to watch I Am Legend last night, but couldn't get through the opening scene or two. The part where the military is scanning people to see if they are infected and evacuating the ones who aren't. Upsetting. And even the opening when the doctor on the news is talking about manipulating viruses to make them work for us...couldn't do it.

HGTV for me!

Honestly, I don't watch TV much except...and even then I don't watch covid stuff constantly, so I'm probably not "in the know." I have a lot of things that's keeping me busy thank goodness.

Which brings me to the Tiger King. "Enjoying" it isn't quite the right word, Dawn. haha. It's not that interesting to me. I like documentaries, but this one isn't enjoyable to me. We've still only watched one episode and thankfully Tom (or Ethan) hasn't mentioned watching another....so I may be off the hook.

I am wiped out! And sunburned.

Jen, I still haven't mailed the cuke seed.

Oh, and does anyone want a giant box of plastic pots (previously purchased plants came in them)? If you're in the OKC area, I can drop them off on your porch. I haven't touched any of the pots since January. You would only have to spray down the outside of the box.

If no one else does, I'd love to have them, HJ. I'm running low again, I've used mine so much that they're starting to turn brittle & we don't eat enough yogurt to replace them fast enough. But only if we can figure out a way to meet. Living with an immuno-compromised sister in law, I'm trying to limit my outings.

I Am Legend is a great movie, but possibly ill-timed right now. I started re reading The Stand a while back and decided against continuing it. For some reason, reading a book about a flu that wipes out civilization isn't the best idea at the moment.

Hi, HJ. We don't have much in Wagoner. But we do have a nursery. I sent them a message asking if they could use plastic pots, and they replied with an enthusiastic yes, "if they were free." Of COURSE they were free, and I was so happy to unload a bunch on them, and they were grateful. I suggest you do the same. :)

I am now officially too old to compromise on so many things. But I tell you the truth when I was too old at age 50. And 30. I just almost never was part of a group who liked such and such.

Jen, I don't mind dropping them off on your porch. I promise I haven't touched any of the pots since January. The box, I'll have to touch to move it but you could spray it down. I could put the seed on your porch too.

Some of the little pots are the 6-pack kind. Are you okay with those too? I don't remember what exactly is in there. I had planned on bringing the box to SF. Just let me know.

And, Nancy, if Jen doesn't want them, I'll check with a nursery close to me. :)

Nancy, what do you mean by such and such? I'm confused. <3

I'm super tired, so that's probably why I'm confused. LOL

I'm so wound up most days because my days are so different from what they were 6 weeks ago that it's hard to settle down.

AND Jen, sorry I forgot. Yes, The Stand is not a good idea. Remember the opening of the 90's movie Yikes! with the song Don't Fear the Reaper?!!! "40.000 men and women everyday." (Although I like that song a lot". ) More cowbell!

Have you read the Dark Tower series? Seems like every INFJ I know has read it. (I only know 2 others besides you and me. lol). And they are private about what they read. haha.

I read Dark Tower when I was little. I went through a 'dark period' and read everything King, Dean Koontz, John Saul, you name it. I was a voracious reader as a kid. I really need to get back into it, it's been too long.

Thanks HJ! I'm home pretty much all the time, and if not my husband or sister in law is. Just drop them off whenever is convenient for you. Thanks bunches!

Nancy, See there? Ordering a new tool worked. lol. Oh well, at least y'all will have an extra one now.

Amy, We have a concrete mixer but Tim and Chris use it for mixing cement when they are working on home improvement projects that require cement, so I guess I won't commandeer it to mix up a soil-less mix. I used to mix up my version of Al's 5-1-1 mix in a child's wading pool or a 4' wide stock tank, using a shovel to mix it, but that was really tedious work. Or, I'd mix up smaller batches in a big wheelbarrow.

I wonder when all this social distancing will be over and we can return to normal life? I'd like to think it will be soon, but the last thing we want is for them to end it too soon and for the virus to start up spreading all over again. It continues to spread down here, and two counties, one to our direct east and one to our direct west, just reported their first confirmed cases yesterday, so we are more surrounded by it than we were before. It was more fun looking at the map and seeing counties see in white and not in red. I wonder if our really rural areas are just lagging behind the more heavily populated areas and eventually will have a lot more cases, or if we'll luck out and only have a handful.

I'd just like to be able to go to the store and look at plants and buy them. Is that asking for too much? Just that one simple little thing.

Jennifer, Yes, you blanche your asparagus and freeze it. You blanch small spears for 2 minutes, medium sized spears for 3 minutes and large ones for 4 minutes. I then like to lay them out on top of paper towels to air dry for a few minutes before packing the spears into either freezer containers or zip lock freezer bags. A person also can preserve it by pressure canning but we like it better frozen.

I think we are seeing remarkable positive effects from social distancing, so it seems unlikely we all will get this virus. As bad as it is, we aren't seeing many millions of people dying like they did with the influenza pandemic of 1918. I wonder what this one would have been like if we didn't have modern-day communications and it had hit us out of the blue with no one really knowing it was coming or how to stay as safe as possible from it? I suppose there is no way to really know that but I think we are very blessed to live in modern times. I wonder, too, if some people are more pre-disposed genetically to get it and to have a hard time surviving it because I keep reading stories of entire families struck down by it. When all is said and done, the main effect it will have on the majority of the American population is likely to be the economic effect. However, I don't want to forget the absolute devastation caused to each family who loses someone they love from this disease---it might not be happening to us, but it is happening to a lot of people. And, yes, part of the purpose of social distancing is merely so spread out the infection so that the health care systems are not overwhelmed and collapsing. People who do get it then will have a better chance of survival because, in theory, their hospitals will have enough beds, enough staff and enough equipment to help them and potentially save their lives. Social distancing isn't really intended to keep us from getting it ever---just to keep us all from getting it at the same time. If the goal was to keep everyone from getting it, then a country would have to do a border-to-border total shutdown with no one working and no one traveling and literally no one leaving their homes and it would have to be strictly enforced for a long enough period of time to work. That just isn't practical, so the next best thing is to slow the spread out over a longer period of time.

With the Ace2 genes, what they found early in the China part of the pandemic was that people with the most Ace2 genes (specifically Chinese males of a certain age) had both the most and the worst infections because the virus was able to attach more efficiently to the Ace2 genes. This has not necessarily been studied well in each population as the virus has torn through various countries, but it will be interesting later on, when they do all the after-the-event studies, to learn if they discover this to be true in other areas. I'm especially interested in seeing if they can figure out more about why Italy, Spain and now France have been hit so very hard---is it still affecting people with more Ace2 genes harder, or is that a data point from China that isn't being seen across the board in many nations.

What is terrifying is the speed with which it transmits and tears through nursing homes...almost like wildfire. I never thought a few months ago that I'd be saying this, back in the pre-pandemic days when we couldn't imagine something like this occurring, but I am relieved my mom passed away before this virus hit here because someone her age and in her poor health wouldn't have stood a chance against this virus, and I'd rather she die in her bed with her children and grandchildren surrounding her, as she did, than quarantined all alone in a hospital or nursing home with no one to hold her hand, talk to her and comfort her.

I cannot and do not want to watch any movies or TV shows that are too much like what is occurring today. I use TV to escape, so have been watching a lot of HCTV and some of the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel. I do watch the presidential task force's daily briefing so I can stay current on what is happening that is newsworthy, but that drags on for so long, that I often find myself in the kitchen cooking dinner while the voices drone on in the living room. I will stop what I am doing and dash into the living room to see what Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx are saying when it is their turn to speak.

Jen, I agree about The Stand and other books like that. Who wants to read gloom and doom when we are living gloom and doom?

Y'all, keep watching your forecast for early next week. It is looking like that massive cold front will push all the way down deeply into Texas, and much of Oklahoma will be looking at the possibility of freezing temperatures for 2 or 3 nights and for a hard freeze in some of the more northern areas. Some parts of northern OK are expected to have a wintery mix. Because why? I don't know. Maybe a belated April Fool's gift for us all? I have listened to the gardener's voices in my head this year, even when I could not imagine why they were telling me to go slow and not plant too much, and not planted a lot of any warm-season plants yet even though keeping them happy in flats on these hot days is not easy, but now I'm glad I listened because it is easier to carry flats of plants back into the house next week than to cover up row after row in the garden. My son, on the other hand, planted early and will have an entire garden to cover up, but I gave him all the equipment to use to do that.

Here is how the 6-10 day outlook looks today:

CPC's 6-10 Day Outlook

I don't think I've ever seen that much dark blue dipping that far south on the outlook this late in the year. I "think" we will be safe from a freeze down here along the river, and certainly am not expecting a hard freeze, but frost will be a possibility. It is shocking to see forecasts for places in northern OK that will have a hard freeze and/or a wintery mix of precipitation.

Meanwhile, our plants have to get through near-record heat today. Because this is Oklahoma so we might as well have record heat ahead of record cold. Weather whiplash.

When I know weather like next week's cold front is coming, I want to rush to the stores and buy all the plants, because I know they won't cover them up and protect them properly and the poor plants will freeze. Sadly, this does not seem like the year to spend a lot of time in nurseries and garden centers, at least not this week or next.

Dawn

To water or not to water. Supposed to rain over the weekend, but I want new seedlings to be well watered before the cold. Monday's forecast low has come up from 28 to 31. No tomatoes in the ground yet. Ron bought strawberry plants to put in with the asparagus. I told him we'll wait to put them in the ground after this cold spell.

Ron says stores have one designated entrance and in the case of Home Depot and Walmart in Owasso it is the opposite end from the garden stuff.

I got 2 milk weeds to start from old seed, I am thrilled.

Oh NUTS!! The forecast is worse. . . WORSE. All my plants are hanging out on the deck in a holding pattern. I planted SOME tomatoes at the school and here, and then chickened out about planting anything else.

such and such. . . haha, HJ. Just meant I'm often out of the loop. RATS! I thought I hadn't submitted this so edited. LOL.

I didn't get the front bed weeded. 'bout half. Now going to go dig up some privets, elms, Bradford and gallery pears.

Dawn. I see what you mean about Hackberries. I just thought they were all elms. LOL. Stinkin' hackberries.

Today was intense. Work was productive but wow are my brain and nerves fried!

Nancy, I have 11 tomatoes in HU's garden. They were plants he brought over awhile ago and getting pretty big, so I planted them. They will be covered in the upcoming days. Will you cover the ones at the school? Maybe we'll squeak by without a frost/freeze. Maybe. It's okay to hope, right?

Amy, congrats on the milkweed. Keep us updated with your strawberry/asparagus bed.

Jen, I'm like you with reading. As a kid (and even young adult) I read a lot. I don't read much now. I enjoy it a lot, but am so tired at the end of the day, that it's hard to stay awake even if the book is amazing. it's hard for me to sit and read in the middle of the day. I tend to really get into a book and want no interruptions. I'm always impressed with people who can read in public. Also, I get attached to the characters in books and hate to say goodbye to them. It really is a thing with me. It's like grieving the loss of a friendship or something. Weird. And it has gotten worse with age. I have a book that is the last of a series of 3. I've been reading this book for well over a year and have 2 chapters left. I can't finish them, because then the characters are gone and I like them. Weirdo.

And, I went through a dark period too as a kid. But read the Dark Tower series as an adult. Ethan wanted to read it when he was about 12 but I told him that I would rather he wait. I wish he would read it now.

I'll bring the box of pots/containers and seeds over in the next couple of days. I'll let you know in advance.

Dawn, I know that ACE2 has something to do with diabetes, hypertension and something about angiotensin-converting enzymes....and other things. But, I'm not smart enough to understand it all or even most of it. Basically none of it. haha. . My personal "raw data" only has three markers on the ACE2 genotyped. The others are not. Probably because it's mostly an ancestry company (or is it? dun dun dun!) It's just interesting that on all 3 of those, I got a different variant from each parent. A C/T, a G/T and another C/T.

(Like with one of the red hair SNPs I got a T/T--a T from each parent which gives me a 10 x greater likelihood of having red hair. )

Anyway...I've read a couple of articles about how the "enzyme" thing could be a reason why some younger, healthy people get so sick with the virus. It's interesting if nothing else. To me, anyways. But I find genetics and people in general interesting.

We are going to work on the new and improved hoop tonight. We found a great video that makes the process look much easier. I wish we had found the video last year. If this works out, I'll share the video. How cool would it be to use it in the warmer months for insect protection and then put plastic over it for those cold months (venting, of course on warm winter days.)

Take care, All!

Amy, I watered. Lately, what rain falls is real sporadic and patchy and hasn't amounted to much in recent days, so I just water the young plants that need it. I'm glad your forecast low has come up and hope it stays up because 28 is sort of dicey.

I had heard some stores are doing that sort of thing with designated entrances and one-way aisles but haven't been in any stores here to see if those practices have arrived in our area yet. Meanwhile, in Vermont, they are trying so hard to stop "non-essential" shopping from happening that they classified seeds and gardening supplies (in fact, the whole lawn and garden area) as non-essential and won't let stores sell those items. If I lived in Vermont, I'd be pretty mad. I consider anything used potentially to grow food to be essential. Congrats on the milkweed seedlings. I have worked so hard to grow those from seed, and then....last year's plants self-sowed in our garden. Why can Mother Nature start them so easily and we cannot?

When we grew strawberries in our asparagus bed, the strawberry plants did really well and they did produce strawberries, but I had to fight every single pill bug, sow bug, miscellaneous other insects, wild birds, turtles and possibly squirrels for every single fruit. I found it hard to keep bird netting over strawberry plants interplanted with taller asparagus plants and just gave up on keeping them covered. The drought years of 2011-2014 gradually killed all my strawberry plants and I didn't replace them because I was tired of fighting the wild things for the harvest. I hope you have better luck protecting your fruit than I did with ours.

Nancy, With lots of mulch and covering the plants, everything you have hopefully will get through next week's cold spell. Will you have to carry in your deck plants? I'll have a ton of plants in flats to carry inside--about 10 flats worth I think, but at least they all aren't in the ground. They'd be in the ground if the weather would calm down because at least this recent heat is drying out our soil, but in this case I guess the rain and wet soil did me a favor because I won't have rows and rows of plants to cover up in the garden. Our forecast isn't great, but is only in the 'frost will be possible' category, not in the danger zone of freezing. That is as long as the weather doesn't get worse than expected. I struggled for years to understand the whole phenomenon of having frost occur under certain conditions even when temperatures only dropped to 37 or 38 degrees, and finally just had to accept that it happens and I need to cover up my plants whenever we have forecast lows of 40 or below. So, next week I'll be covering up on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights unless the forecast miraculously improves a great deal.

During the 7-year stretch where we kept getting late freezes here the first week of May, I ordered so much frost blanket-weight floating row cover year after year that our FedEx guy, a gardener himself, recognized the product and would stop and drop the rolls off right at my garden gate, knowing I only had a day or two to get everything covered before the late frost and late freezes hit. I had just hit that point where I was going to plant when the weather was good and cover up when it wasn't because waiting until May to plant warm-season crops was unthinkable. I think the last year that happened was 2011--with 31 degrees on May 3rd, but it might have happened one more year after that. Does it make any sense whatsoever that we had seven years in a row like that with a freeze in May in an area with an average last freeze in late March? Nope, but it sure helped me understand that Oklahoma weather rarely makes sense. About the only thing I'm sure about with OK weather is that it will find a way to surprise us every year.

I hate those hackberries. They pop up everywhere, worse than elms. Sometimes I feel like I spend half of spring just trying to keep the oaks, pecans, elms, hackberries and mulberries from taking over our entire garden and turning it into a forest.

Jennifer, I'm sorry work was so tough and hope you were able to unwind and relax some. Life is stressful enough nowadays without work being so intense.

Hope is good, but when in doubt, always cover up the plants. Until I got really good at automatically covering up plants any time we're expected to go below 40 degrees, I had to deal with lots of plant damage and with occasional plant death far too often. I finally decided it was better to just cover them up instead of crossing my fingers and hoping and praying. lol. I'll be carrying flats of ridiculously tall pepper and tomato plants (and salvias, petunias and other flowers too) back indoors on Sunday, and hope I finally can get them planted around Thursday. Between the ridiculous amount of rainfall that kept us waterlogged forever and these late cold nights, my garden is fairly bare and I have terrific plants in flats, tons of them, that migrate between the outdoors area just outside the mudroom on nice days and nights and the mudroom floor and table on cold nights. It will be nice to finally get to the point that I can plant everything in the ground and get off the whole merry-go-round of carrying plants back inside for safety. I could put them in the greenhouse but we put cheap plastic on it in a hurry last year, and it isn't holding up well, so I want to get it off that greenhouse and put a better quality plastic on the greenhouse. Trying to save money on a greenhouse never seems to work out here. Lesson learned.

One year, before you joined our group here, I had a forecast in late April or early May for an overnight low of 50 degrees, and the weather had been nice, so I certainly didn't cover up anything. We dropped to 32 degrees and 90% of my fully-planted garden froze. Only one partial row of tomato plants, and they were True Black Brandywines, didn't completely freeze, and they were the row at the highest elevation in the garden, right beside the driveway. It was devastating and I was in total shock. Who ever in their lifetime would expect a low temperature 18 degrees lower than forecast? I couldn't make any sense out of what had happened. Then, one year later, the exact same thing happened to George. Luckily, he had shared his Baker Creek Family heirloom tomato with people at the previous Spring Fling, and Carol had either seeds or plants to share back with him after he lost all his BCF plants that year. I have concluded that if you aren't crazy when you begin gardening in Oklahoma, you'll find yourself crazy before long because gardening here means hopping on the crazy train every spring.

Genetic stuff is interesting, and I wish the scientists knew more about this disease, but it just is too early. A few months from now, after they've studied the current cases, maybe they'll know more....maybe before the probable second wave hits? When it was in China and Europe we kept hearing how it was mostly hitting older people hard, but here in the states it is killing everyone from a 4-day-old baby (maybe born with it?) to teens to young adults, middle aged adults and old folks. I wonder why it is hitting broader age groups here? I wonder if they'll figure it out? I wish we could fall asleep and wake up and find this was all just a crazy nightmare. I keep longing for a return to a more normal life, but that seems a long way off at this point. I haven't seen my friends live and in person for what seems like such a long time!

It was a ridiculous 93 degrees here yesterday, which is too hot for cool-season crops, so I am glad that's over. Today will be more like normal April weather, and I guess we'll have that for a couple of days before the next big cold front rolls through. How crazy is Oklahoma weather that we'll go from record heat the last two days to normal weather to possible severe weather (down here) on Saturday to very cold temperatures, and for some people a chance of a wintery mix....all in one week's time? Maybe the weather settles down after that. I've been watching the 6-10 day outlook, but have avoided spending too much time looking at the 8-14 day outlook or the experimental week 3-4 outlook because I do not want to know if more nutty weather is expected after next week.

Mosquitoes are ridiculously bad here. There's just clouds of mosquitoes in the air if you step outdoors at night, and they flock to a human instantly. They are bad all day, but get so much worse around twilight. When we let the dogs out and then back inside again at night, skeeters come in with them and we have to spend some time finding and killing the mosquitoes before they find us. There's nothing pleasant about hearing the sound of a mosquito buzzing around your head and you're trying to find it and swat it first before it can land on you.

I worry about all the hummingbirds. I know they can stay warm or even go into torpor if they need to, but I just hate that all this cold weather is hitting after they already are back. I probably need to put out a couple more feeders to ensure they have all the food they need. I only have 3 feeders out so far and usually end up with 6 or 7 hanging around the yard and garden by May.

Have a good day everyone.

Dawn

Dawn, do you have a heat lamp like is used for chicks? You can make a perch for hummers and put the heat lamp on it. I heard about one that slept above a porch light to stay warm. That was back when we had bulbs that got warm. I don't know if it will work.

I had a fly buzzing me earlier. Sounded like a BIG fly, but I never saw it. Not ready for bugs in the house.

Monday's forecast low is up to 33, but I think the lows and highs for the rest of the week have gone down. And that is for Tulsa with it's heat island. Might get colder here. I don't want to leave tomatoes in the dark garage for a whole week. They are in clear tubs, so maybe I'll stack against the house and put blankets over them at night. Some of the tubs are not in good shape. Don't want to keep moving them and have the bottom fall out.

My daughter's gender reveal was last night (on facebook). We will have another little boy.

lost my post again

can I use well aged home compost mixed with peat moss for potting up seedlings like tomatoes and herbs

Amy, congratulations on the coming grandson. I have 8 granddaughters, 3 grandsons, and 4 great grandson. Then I have a ton of them on Madge's side. I am closer to some of Madge's grand kids than I am to some of mine. Some of mine I seldom see.

When do you get ready for bugs in the house, I need to tell Madge when it is okay so she will get off my back for leaving the doors open? I noticed the wasps buzzing around the tractor muffler a few days ago, that may have been liking the heat. Something was buzzing my head yesterday while I was mowing ( the motor is behind the seat ) , but I never saw what kept hitting the top of my head.

There are 4 nights I want to watch over the upcoming days. At this point the forecast is 40 to 38 those nights, but that is Ft. Smith, and I am often 6 degrees colder here.

I have plants that need to go into the ground, but Madge said her daughter was wanting to come down from northwest Arkansas next week so I will hold off planting till I see how many plants she wants. I have between 65 and 70 sweet potato plants and almost that many pepper plants. I only have around 20 or 25 tomato plants large enough to give away, but 50 -75 soon to be ready for first pot-up. I am running out of pots.

My garden is still not ready to plant. I have been thinking about just buying some plastic ground cover and covering the weeds up and planting through the plastic. I have most of the garden mowed close. I will need to either burn, or spray the weeds around the planting area, I am not wild about either idea.

I should be having a new carburetor coming in a few days, but it seems that my orders are a little slower now. My daughter works in shipping, and said freight was really dropping of. First she was having trouble getting drivers to go to Ca. because a lot of ships were not coming into port, now everything has slowed down, except food and medicine. She is working from home, but thinks we may be in for a tight spell. I think this will be a hard recovery, and so many will lose loved ones. I expect that this virus started in somebody's Lab.

I got a sculpit/stridolo plant from someone at spring fling a couple years ago. Can you tell me if it can be dried? That one plant went nuts and is now spreading, so I need to trim it up quite a bit. If I can dry it, all the better.

You got it from me, but I have never tried to dry it. Supposedly the Italians have a festival and cook it as one of the early greens. Other things I've read was to use it like parsley. Here's a recipe.Stridolo recipe. To be honest, I have never cooked it. Ron thought it was a weed. He wanted to pull the bed up and start over. The stridolo and walking onions are duking it out. The good thing it has done is shade out most weeds in that bed.

Larry, I have a dog who likes to stand half in and half out. That is how many bugs come in. I got rid of the ants on my end table by moving the bait to the windowsill and sprinkling cinnamon on it. I am MUCH more tolerant of bugs since I started gardening, but I do prefer they live outside. We have 4 grandsons. Boys have been predominant in my husband's family for a long time. But, I read that it is the man who determines gender, and this baby's daddy has girls. I was hoping.

My husband was saying bad words about carburators when he worked on the mower. Turned out to be bad gas.

Amy, I have 6 biological grand kids, all girls. My brother had I son, but he and his wife dont plan on having children. My dad's branch of the family tree will die out, as far as carrying the family name.

Isn't funny how you can work out/exercise every day, but gardening is its own special type of workout. I do a lot of different muscle groups and different types of exercises, but gardening uses muscles I forget about over the winter.

The first 2 bags of asparagus are in the freezer. There's still 3 bags of okra we need to eat up. It is fun to grocery shop from the freezer.

There are many items left on today's To-Do list, but it's time to sit. Sit with feet up.

I've ignored a lot of my work related stuff because I'm going in to the office tomorrow. I'll get caught up in the morning.

Today was productive though, despite the To-Do list's remaining items.

We got the insect netting on the new hoops. I'll come back with a picture of the hoops from yesterday without the netting. I didn't get a pic tonight. We just need to add a handle.

HU came out and put a really nice hoop situation over the tomatoes so they'll be well protected with the coming frosts. Proper social distancing was maintained at all times, of course.

I'm slightly annoyed because a package from Vermont came in and only my watermelon seed was in the package. Apparently the lima beans and Black Turtle black beans are on back order. I hope they come soon.

I got a sculpit from Amy a couple of years ago too. I think I pulled it out last year. It was a big plant. That, and the tansy I got from Dawn 2 years ago. I put those plants in the wrong place. I like both plants, though.

If y'all still have pesto in the freezer from last October, here is a recipe you must try. It is so good and so easy. I had forgotten that I had made and froze pesto. Love the stuff. Glad I remembered it was in the freezer. The only thing I changed in the recipe is gnocchi instead of tortellini. pesto pasta bake It was dinner tonight.

Larry, if Ethan doesn't have a son Tom's family line will be in the same boat. I feel that way about wanting my daughter or niece to have a female child to carry my/our mtdna haplogroup. It's sort of a rare one and I would like for it to carry on. For some reason.

I do have a second cousin whose daughter could also pass it as well. All of my first cousins (mom's side) are daughters of my mom's brothers. SO, they have their mother's haplogroup and not our grandma's.

Okay. Coming back with that picture. Maybe two.

LOVELY, HJ. By the way, HU. . . . I think you should think about moving over here. And then you could garden at my place! Otherwise, I need to find an HU here. Or begin hiring someone. I'm distressed since the hip and right leg have been bad for the past 4-6 weeks. This is a totally new phenomenon for me. Not happy. But can't even begin to think about going to a doc with the COVID. When it eases up a bit, believe I'll make an appt up in MN.

Dawn, I moved 5 flats of small seedlings back to the grow cart today, 3 flats of peppers into my everything room for overnights for the next several days, 5 totes of tomatoes and a couple other things out next to the house; other flats of hardy plants on the deck (Natives).

I may have an art show with garden signage!!! LOLOLOL

Madge and I moved my plants in just a few minutes ago. I don't know what I would without her.

I have been feeling drunk, I think my allergies are acting up. I often have vertigo when that happens and I am stumbling and staggering around like a drunk man.

I mowed yesterday and today. I cant get the garden ready, so as I was mowing today, and Madge was spraying roundup, I had her to spray a strip in each garden. If I have to, I will just dig a hole and plant in the sprayed strips without any soil prep. When I have this vertigo I cant hardly look down without falling down. This drunkenness is not helping me get caught up, and from the looks of all the pollen I see, the drunkenness is not going to get any better for a while.

Amy, We have a heat lamp like that somewhere, and I know there's bulbs in the light bulb box, but we normally stay away from using them outdoors because something...coons, possums, skunks...just whatever wanders through, likes them and tends to pull them down. I'm afraid they'll do that and set the porch on fire because it is a wooden deck-like porch, not a concrete slab. Maybe Tim could hang it in such a way they couldn't pull it down, but we haven't been successful with that in the past. I usually just leave the porch lights on for them, and they'll often perch on them or near them...poor little hummies.

Congrats on the upcoming birth of another little boy. Some families just seem to run all boy or all girl, don't they? Looks like yours is all boy.

Kim, Yes you can.

Jennifer, I do think gardening makes us use muscles we'd never use otherwise. I don't care how ready I feel for gardening season physically, new muscles and joints find ways to ache like they never have before. The had thing is that it seems to get worse with age. I'd love to be 40 again! I could work out in the garden for 12-15 hours a day and not get knocked out by the heat, the cold, the aches, the pains, etc. Now I pay a much heavier price for a much shorter amount of time spent out there working.

Larry, Chris married a woman with two girls and we adore those girls, and neither he nor Jana seem to want another child, so I guess our branch of Tim's family will die out with Chris, as far as the family name being passed down. Tim's sisters had only girls and now all their grandchildren are girls so far, but then those kids would carry their dads' last names anyway and not their moms'. I suppose this probably would really bother Tim's dad if he were still alive and I know, from experience, that he'd be putting the pressure on Chris and Jan to have a baby boy just to carry on the family name, so it probably is just as well that he is not here any more to do that. Chris always had mostly girl cousins growing up--six girls cousins and two boy cousins. When I look at them all together as adults, it amazes me how all of them look like they could be brothers or sisters, and that is cool, but the family name dies out regardless because his two boy cousins are on my side of the family.

Jennifer, Your hoops look nice, and ready to protect your plants from late cold weather too.

Nancy, That moving flats in and out gets so old so fast, and the kittens are more than happy to attack all the plants when I bring them in. I'd forgotten how hard it is to keep little kittens out of stuff. Just yesterday they figured out they could jump up to the fireplace mantel from the floor, and were having a grand time trying to eat fake lavender plants that sit there, and I had to move the real orchids to the laundry room so they'd stop trying to eat the flowers. I don't have to move in plants until Sunday afternoon and most of them I'll just leave in the mudroom, which gives them some protection from cats.

Larry, Allergies are so bad here right now, but I don't think mine are quite as bad as yours. Our worst pollens now are tree pollens, and we have quite a lot of mold, naturally, after all that rain.

I am glad you have Madge to help you.

Even though Tim is not a gardener, he is a lot of help when things need to be lifted, carried, dragged around or hauled someplace else. He dropped a flat of tomato seedlings about a month ago, and now he is afraid to move any flats. He'll move heavier stuff and say "I'll leave the flats for you", and I swear, I did not even yell at him the last time he dropped that flat of tomato seedlings because it wasn't like he did it maliciously or anything. Not long after that, Tim went to pick up a flat of tomato plants at Chris' house, and Chris nervously said "Dad, maybe Mom should carry that". It was all I could do not to laugh out loud at that. He and I are total opposites in some ways---I grow plants, he kills them. He loves to mow, I hate mowing. So, each of us does what we enjoy and are good at and somehow it all works out.

I hate that we have to deal with this last cold spell, but I am hopeful that it will be the last one.

Dawn

Dawn, It would be very easy to fix a light like you were talking about. We have an add-on deck/porch, and I went into the switch box for the back porch and added a ground fault circuit and another hot line so I could have the options of having direct power or protected power on the back porch. I wanted protected power for my tools and unprotected power for a motion sensing light. I use to have a heat light hooked up for an old dog we had at the time. That light was hooked up high enough that he could not get to it and was in a fixture screwed to the wall. That old dog would lay down in his bed under the light and pretend he was on the beach in Florida.

Jennifer, I like your hoops. I had my helper build a cold frame with sheet iron back and PVC hoops. The idea at the time was to have a place for my great grand son ( on Madge's side ) and I to plant an early bed, but this social distancing thing put a stop to that. I will have my helper drag it out into the pasture till fall, then we may be able to try a fall bed.

Dawn, this allergy thing I have had all my life. I tried shots about 30 years ago and they did not help much. Now I have medication that I use which does more good than the shots I use to take every week, but I have to make sure that when I feel an attack coming on, I have to take more medication or to change my environment. I have even taken physical therapy for the condition. I know that sounds crazy, but it helped.

I did not carry my plants out today. After I got back from the Dr. I slept a lot. My plants look okay, but some are getting to large. I still have small plants to pot up. I hope to give away a lot of plants, I also want to use the wildlife garden as an overflow area for my extra plants, if it ever gets dry enough to work an area to plant them.

I have canceled two Dr, appointment since this virus thing started, but I felt like I needed to keep this one. I know this post is chopped up like crazy, but I am tired and sleepy and just want to stretch out in this recliner and go back to sleep.

HJ stopped by today to drop off her extra containers, so now I've got lots of little pots to fill! My tomatoes need thinned, but I'm leaving them in the big container until after this cold snap. I tried a new wintersowing method. I cut the bottoms off of a bunch of yogurt cups, then buried them up to the rim in a mineral tub. The cups served to keep the seeds separated, but being a larger container the roots have plenty of space. Most were old seed so I wasn't too worried about them not sprouting. So now I'm going to have to decide which ones to grow, and what to do with my extras.

Peppers are pretty lousy looking, so I'm debating whether to try starting some more this weekend. Maybe starting them now will give me a decent crop later in the season? Or should I wait and do a fall garden?

That's a clever idea, Jen. I wanted to look around your garden, but didn't know if that was...weird, so just glanced and you have lots of good stuff going!

And, I KNOW! What are we supposed to do with all of these extra plants?! I only have extra tomato plants this year (and lots of them), but was so proud that I would have extra plants to share this year at SF. And some fun varieties too! Thanks to you, Jen.

And again it's a bummer that we aren't meeting for SF because you could have picked up peppers. I can share a jalapeno, pimento, and cal wonder, if you would like those. I didn't start a ton of peppers this year, but I would happy to share those with you. You're only about 15 minutes from my house.

Larry, I'm so frustrated because I had a question for you and now I can't remember what it was. Duh.

Y'all the picture of the hoop over the lettuce and kale is the hinged hoop with insect netting. Tom and I built that one. The empty spot in the bed is where Finbar killed some of my lettuce. I'll sprinkle some more of the Red Sail and Drunken Woman seed. Those are pretty lettuces. Maybe a few more of the Jericho Romaine too!

I am going to come back with a pic of HU's hoop. It has plastic over it. While I was at work(TOTAL social distancing, right?), he came over and vented it (It's vented in the pictures) and took the buckets off. I crawled in this evening and gave the tomatoes a drink of water. They look great! We're going to completely cover it all back up on Sunday, being careful to be socially distant and maintain a safe space between us, of course.

Other than that, I put cages around the columnar trees. They'll be ready for frost cloth. Not doing the Christmas lights again, although the taller of the trees had to have chicken wire added to the top.

My Black Turtle seed came in. Just waiting on the lima beans.

Work was wild today! Absolutely wild. I couldn't get anything accomplished because things were changing before I could finish anything...I suppose that is good in a way, right. It's just crazy while it's happening.

Rebecca, you okay?

Jen, most of my peppers go till fall anyway, matter of fact a lot of them dont really shine till fall. I have not started any bell peppers other than "Orange Mini Bells", and they are not doing well. The Ashe County, and Poblano are doing good. I may not have any of the regular bells this year. I normally just buy a 6 pack of them anyway, but I have over 60 pepper plants any surely I wont need that many.

My last planted tomatoes are about the same size as yours. They are just starting their true leaves. I need to pot them up soon, I have too many of them also. I have some Baker Family, Bush beefsteak, and 4th of July that I am really interested in. The others are just fill-in. I had my granddaughter buy Early Girl and Big Beef after this shut down started because I really had no idea what was going on and I wanted some early tomatoes to plant if I could get ground ready. Well I have 7 tomatoes that are larger than I would like, and still dont have ground ready. I am still in a mud pit, I need to get some potting soil and plant some of the larger plants in containers. This will be a first for me, I have never grown a tomato in a container. The Bush Beefsteak and 4th of July were to be my container plants, but I may have to do some shifting around.

HJ, feel free to look around next time! And yeah, it's weird, but I'm the nutcase who stops and checks out the neighbors' gardens when I'm walking our pups. If you have some extras I'd be happy to trade you for them. I need to see what exactly is growing, and since I have *ahem* a few pepper seeds, I may try starting a few others. I really think it was user error. I moved them outside when they were still pretty small, and I think I left them outside too long and in too much wind the first couple days. I had a lot of seedlings, then a bunch looked like they were broken a couple days later. So I'm almost positive it was my own fault.

Our roommate has been hinting around that she needs to go to Walmart, and we really do need some stuff. So I think we'll be getting out tomorrow. Hopefully earlier in the day, before all the goobers get out.

Larry, I get allergies this time of year, too. I also get vertigo, for which I've never been able to figure a cause. I know if I cock my neck up, like looking at a top shelf in a closet, I will get it. Had my ears tested twice, not in my ears. Thought for a while it was MSG in food, since my mother had a severe reaction to that. Sometimes I think it is allergies, sometimes I think I was dehydrated. It may be a combination of things. Does meclizine help? It makes me sleepy, but better than being sea sick.

Jen, it seems they are making Walmarts very difficult. You might want to do order pick up, ot go to a smaller store. Around here, the smaller, lesser known places are well stocked. I pulled some stridolo out of the garden to put in tonight's salad.`

Everything in my garden is growing at a snails pace. I think I need to put some garden tone on it. I tried to yesterday but Ron put it in a tub on a shelf I can't get to. I put Citrus tone on my lemon trees. They are in front of the window by my chair. It stunk all night. For a while I couldn't figure out what it was and was looking for cat poop. Then there was the light bulb moment, fertilizer. It doesn't really smell like cat poop, but it is pretty bad.

My cardiologist is doing virtual appointments. He will call me at my scheduled appointment time. I postponed the appointment with my primary care doc.

Ron mowed ALL day Thursday. Then used the chipper ALL day yesterday. The noise of those engines was getting to me and I was hoping the neighbors weren't going to come out and shoot him.

We got out this morning and went to Wally to buy some stuff for Easter dinner. I'm going to make a proper dinner even if we aren't inviting other family over.

It wasn't very crowded and people were being respectful. Again, half had on masks.

We also dropped the recycling off and I dug out a few plastic jugs to fill with water for frost protection. We don't buy milk in plastic jugs. I'm sure people wondered why I was digging through the recycling dumpsters. And I might dig through the cardboard bin when I start working on the path around my garden.

In the picture above, I want a fence about half way between that hinged hoop and the garden. I want to keep the hinged hoop out of the garden so I can easily grab lettuce each morning without having to go through a future gate. I also want the grass in-between that bed and the garden to be wood chips. That's going to be a lot of work, though. I'm up for it. I also want to put in a culinary herb area right outside the backdoor. My big garden and little back garden should be kitchen gardens...sorta like a potager, but without a proper potager design. They have my design. Or lack of. Then, HU's garden is the Survivalists Garden. (He named it and I like the name.) Rows of food that will hopefully have large harvests and can be put up for the cold months.

Then...there's the future pollinator garden that will be behind the shop. I am working on it too, but it's horrible now. Just a dump for the compost items.

And we won't even talk about the backyard where I want zero grass.

Speaking of, crepe myrtles and chaste trees--what's the frost going to do to them?

I actually went into panic mode and ordered a frost blanket that will be big enough to cover the hydrangeas out front, HJ. The weather isn't going to bother the crepe myrtles or chaste trees. I'm not sure I'll cover the tomatoes that are out--whoa! I WILL cover the tomatillos. I don't have any backups for them.

We went to the school today just to see how things looked. (I'm not putting anything else in the ground until after this cold spell.) Sadly, a lot of the plants looked pretty beat up. Oh welll! We'll still have lots and lots of stuff--they don't have dirt in four of the beds (they're 4x14 feet)--and probably won't right away. $$$ Wish getting these beds started weren't so expensive. However, at least we have the pile of wood chips and the huge mound of rotting grass and leaves, and three bales of hay. So it COULD be worse.

I need to tell John to go looking for someone who has some rotten firewood. I already took them half of our half rotted firewood, but I kept enough to make my hugelkultur. I see Johnny recommended them to Larry--Johnny, did you know you're still on last week's thread? I'm excited to get mine going. I'm going to plunk it in the sunniest spot I can find.

HJ, I love your hoop tunnels! You guys are moving right along, and now with HU's help, having the Survivalist Garden. Woo-hoo!

Jennifer, here are my last planted Roselle,in the left front flat. These were started 4-1 and ready for pot up. This brings my total up to 32.

To the right are my Ashe county pemintos, about 27 of them. Back behind them is a mess of tomatoes and peppers. I left the sweet potatoes in the house. Just after this picture I took all this mess back into the house, I will bring them out again tomorrow if I feel like it. It started raining again, which does no help my mood

Hey Guys,

We lost a good man and friend, George McLaughlin (Macmex), last night. His son just posted on facebook.

Bon, I saw that! I wonder what happened? He was just commenting on stuff on the fb group. Wow.

Larry, your plants look amazing. I sure hope you'll be able to plant them soon!

Thanks, Nancy!

HJ, I’m ok. Just busy and tired. Working and getting the garden in order. Work is stressful right now. Plus, a coworker‘s father is in hospice, and we don’t know when she will need to be out for an extended period of time.

Did my mom’s grocery shopping at Reasor’s this morning. Most people were alone, wearing masks, and social distancing well. I can’t find Minute rice for her anywhere, but other than that, things were mostly stocked. I picked up a few things for me at the Walmart pickup. Part of it was potting mix, and I didn’t have to lift it. I can stay on budget better when I don’t go in.

However, I need to go in Lowe’s tomorrow after work for clear lawn bags to wrap tomato cages in the next few nights. I thought I had more than I do. Unless white ones will work. I just need something to put over the tops of the cages, they’re already wrapped. I wrapped the cages to protect the little ones from the wind. Or do I need to cover the tops?

Our lowest prediction is 30, but the 3 stations I watch are all over the place.

I bought the potting mix mix for the lettuce bins, because the weather made my lettuce bolt and I felt the soil needed to be replaced. However, right now I need those bins to hold seedlings the next few nights. Funny how things work out. When this is over I’ll fill the bins with summer lettuce.

I also raided mom’s house for old sheets, for more coverage if I need it. Lilies are too tall to cover. Should I cover the peony?

Hazel,

I don't know what happened. I don't want to know, I just want him back. I just picked up small livestock from him and Jarreth 2 weeks ago. He's supposed to be here to grow out the mutual flint corn and save other heirloom seeds. Everything's wrong. I don't want this.

I have so much in my garden with yalls fingerprints and love, but George stamped the most. I got out to the garden and see him every in everything. I don't wanna do this.

Apparently George's father.

At least we know. These days, people just disappear (digitally) and you often never know what happened.

I believe Our macmex is a jr

His father passed so I am sure he will be off here for awhile. Prayers for him and his family

Bon it’s good to see you

Good morning all. We have made it through a windy, rainy night, and I am still fighting this allergy attack, at least I hope that is what it is.

I am so depressed about all this water I am dealing with. I believe that this years garden may be more important than in years past. I think I will buy more pea seeds. Peas grow pretty well in the unamended soil I have, and we really like peas. I still have a lot of brassica seeds I can freeze and save if needed. I am not a doomsday person, but I believe you need to keep an open mind and do what you can to protect and provide for your family and neighbors, and anyone else if you can.

I miss Dawn starting the weekly thread, I hope she is okay. I think about all of you often. Robert, oldbusyone is the only one I have met, but I feel like I know all of you.

I have a lot of planting and potting up to do this week. I also need to get some containers ready to plant. I would like to make some self wicking containers, but I am not sure just how I want to do that. I think I want to make a box about two of three tubes wide and make it where I can lift it with my tractor and move it for mowing, and just leave the containers out on the lawn or along the driveway.