Ha! Wow are those iris lovely. I grew many roses up north and loved them. But down here in the shade PLUS RRD, no appetite for them. And though I see that Joe Pye and goatsbeard are native here, I can't grow them on my property with the shade. Up in Mpls, they were ROCK STARS. I encourage those of you who have sun to go for it. I had my Joe Pye on the south side of my garage; it was another yard with too much shade, and yet that spot go enough. They were 6-9 feet tall and absolutely majestic, with their lavender blooms. The goatsbeard were a couple-3 feet shorter with feathery white heads. I sure missed them when I got down here.

Yes, not a fan of thorny blackberries. Okay, well maybe I'll plant the other two at the school, then. But I need to figure out what's eating them. I think I'll hold them here until they get bigger. Yes, I'm sure they won't be appetizing to many!

Those kids are funny--the odder something looks, the more anxious they are to taste it! I grew the very hot Midnight peppers last year--they're tiny with pretty colors. One little guy grabbed one off the plant. I told him, John told him, 2-3 times, do NOT pick them--they're HOT. He didn't eat it, but put it up to his nostril--and promptly burst into tears. They all loved the cherry tomatoes, too. This year they'll have lots more things to observe and taste and take home for Moms to cook.

Also, the 10"-12" tall American Beauty Berries I took to the school look very unhappy. So I'm going to retrieve them on Wednesday, bring them back here and will coddle them for a while.

Jennifer, I bet no one else here can say they had a cat vomit in their purse. I had a cat who was a spearmint gum freak, and if she smelled it and had access to an opening in a purse, there was gum scattered all over the place.

The bad thing about using my laptop and my desktop is that I start posts on each device--an Apple and a Dell. . . and they don't sync. So I'm never sure where I am in my head. It's quite amusing, though, how my mind jumps around, and how different the posts are.

GDW and I are binge-watching Ozark. Weird. I'll probably fall asleep. Got lots of stuff planted today! Yay. Not in the quantities the real farmer/gardeners do, but with lots of varieties of herbs, ,veggies and forks.

I could barely make it around the neighborhood on our walk this evening. My body is so sore. It's always like this at this time of year, but I've honestly been working out every. single. day. so thought it would be better, but it might actually be worse.

HU and I worked hard today...but not that hard. I don't know....but it's annoying to be so achy and sore.

HU and I sowed 4 rows of southern peas==4 different varieties. The beans are starting to show up as well as the okra. The squash plants have blossoms and little first fruits--all in the survivalist garden. It's basically planted now. Just a few things to squeeze in, like the pole beans once the corn gets bigger.

New elders are planted. Southern peas seed is planted in the kitchen garden too. Cucumber seed is in. Most of the tomatoes are planted and I walked a few plants to a couple of neighbors tonight. Many of the tomatoes in the survivalist garden has blossoms already.

Continuing to harvest lettuce, kale, spinach and asparagus. HU's collards look good too.

Finbar went to the vet today. That was a rigmarole. However, he is totally healthy and fine. You have to wait in your car and let them know you're in the parking lot. Once they have a room ready...and no other clients checking out...they call you in. They were so busy.

Anyway...I'm going to take a bath now. I'll catch up on everyone's posts tomorrow.

Thanks again, HU!

• Ha! Wow are those iris lovely. I grew many roses up north and loved them. But down here in the shade PLUS RRD, no appetite for them. And though I see that Joe Pye and goatsbeard are native here, I can't grow them on my property with the shade. Up in Mpls, they were ROCK STARS. I encourage those of you who have sun to go for it. I had my Joe Pye on the south side of my garage; it was another yard with too much shade, and yet that spot go enough. They were 6-9 feet tall and absolutely majestic, with their lavender blooms. The goatsbeard were a couple-3 feet shorter with feathery white heads. I sure missed them when I got down here.

Nancy, Sorry you were ill. Rainy and windy? Well yuck, that's no fun. We were Warm and windy except for one little thunderstorm that formed on the Texas side of the river. It had thunder and lightning so I had to come indoors until it had passed by, but a break in the air conditioned house was not a bad thing. I bet it was truly lovely to have the whole outdoor nursery to yourself.

Rebecca, Oh, we have been doing the protein shake and bar thing too. They're not my favorite meals, but Tim and I both do drink protein shakes for breakfast every morning so we could adapt to having them for more meals if we needed to. I hope the meat situation doesn't get bad, and suppose it just depends on how quickly the processing plant employees recover, and on whether they can stop the cycle of infection and re-infection.

You plant so many flowers because you love flowers? I totally get that. Who doesn't want more flowers? I don't know any gardener who looks at their plants, declares that they have too many flowers and just need less of them in future years. I always start more flowers than I'll ever space for, and then Mother Nature reseeds stuff all over and I end up having to make the painful decision to pull out some of the volunteers because there's just too many of them and they are too crowded. I was doing that just this afternoon, in fact.

I have gotten less graceful as I've aged too, and I don't like it. However, it is what it is. When I start bemoaning the trials and tribulations of aging, Tim reminds me that we're lucky to be aging....we have friends who died a lot younger than we are now and aging into their golden years was a privilege denied to them. And, conversely, when he is feeling his age and complaining about it, I remind him of what a privilege it is to still be here...aging. Still, aging is not for sissies.

I'd suggest you feed the onions with whichever fertilizer you have that has the highest nitrogen amount in it. Onions are all about nitrogen as it is the number of their leaves and the size of their leaves that determine how large your onions ultimately will be, along with adequate water. Either nitrogen or water will give you decently sized onions, but plenty of both will give you huge onions.

Nancy, In the place where our beautyberries grow naturally in the woods, they do best either with morning sun and afternoon shade or dappled shade all day long. Out in full sun they can struggle a little in the hottest weather. When they are happy understory plants, they form large colonies via suckering.

Jennifer, I just don't think any amount of working out prepares one's body for the busy spring gardening season. I always come inside tired, achy and sore, wondering what is wrong with me and when did I become such a wimp. Then I think back over previous years and realize it is the exact same thing every spring. I just forget from one spring to the next how bad it can be.

I'm glad Finbar was fine.

I worked hard today, planting and weeding, and I can see the mulch needs to be replenished in some spots. Overall, considering how little I've worked in the garden since last autumn, it is not in as bad of shape as I felt like it would be. All the raised beds are mulched well enough that there's only a few weeds in there, albeit big weeds after all that rain. The pathways have thinner mulch and more weeds, so that is largely the area I'll have to work on with more weeding and mulching after the planting all is done. One nice result from all the weeding is that the compost pile is getting fed....and fed a lot. The perennials that are in bloom are spectacular, and the rosemary is huge and gnarly, like a rugged old tree growing out of the side of a cliff. It is in the corner of one of the tall raised beds and has spread all over the place and is hanging back down to the ground, and twisting and turning and just taking over all the available space. I need to cut it back really, really hard as soon as it finishes blooming. The autumn sages have their first big round of blooms and they look great, adding brighter colors than we have from the usual dianthus, chives, echinaceas and johnny jump ups that always are in bloom in April. Their red is just as vivid as that of the poppies. The garden is full of cosmos volunteers.

I found the first leaf-footed bug eggs in the garden today, and destroyed them. Last year at this time there were a lot of green stink bugs around and I'm not seeing any yet, so I think that is a good sign. There's also tons of lady bugs in the garden, including quite a few larvae that are turning to pupa. I worked carefully around them so I could minimize disturbing them. Just a few minutes ago I saw a mosquito perched on a light fixture in the living room and killed it. Perhaps it was all the wind today, but the mosquitoes were not a problem outdoors for once. Maybe it is just that we are drying out a lot now. One red wasp seemed to follow me around the garden persistently but not in a threatening way. I assume it was looking for caterpillars to prey upon, and except for a few inch worms, I didn't see any inch worms around.

Tomorrow there is severe weather in the forecast. It shouldn't reach us this far south until late in the day, so I hope to get a lot more work done before it gets here. I got off to a late gardening start this year, but am working hard to catch up so I won't feel so far behind for the whole season. All that rain made all the perennials grow like crazy, and that is a plus I suppose. There are some big monster perennials s that really need to be divided, and that will enable me to replant them in some areas that currently are a mix of annuals and perennials. Maybe this fall I will have time to divide them, because there isn't time to divide them now.

I worked the whole day without seeing a single snake or snake skin so I am a happy camper. See there, it doesn't take much to please me---just an absence of venomous snakes in the yard and garden.

Texas opens back up quite a bit on Friday, which could be good or it could be bad. They are opening up retail stores, including malls, restaurant dining rooms, museums and theaters, so theoretically a family could eat dinner out Friday and then go to a theater or to the mall. The reality is a little fuzzier. The governor says all establishments should restrict the number of people in their buildings to 25% of authorized capacity. So, does that sound nuts? You're going to have probably 75-90% of the people wanting to go out and do something because they're sick of being stuck at home so much, and the open businesses restricted to 25% capacity? I don't foresee this going well. If the Covid-19 cases don't skyrocket over the next two weeks, then the Governor will reopen more types of businesses and will let everyone go to 50% capacity. Some businesses already are opting out of reopening so soon, and are notifying their customers via social media. I imagine we will not cross the river to go anywhere in Texas on their first open weekend because it is likely to be kinda crazy. I base that just on seeing how crazy-busy that Home Depot and Lowe's were in Texas this weekend---like there wasn't even a lockdown. I was thinking that if everyone else was going to restaurants, malls, other retail stores, museums and theaters, then maybe a smart gardener could find less of a crowd in the nurseries and garden centers? That is something to contemplate, only I need to really get caught up on planting, weeding and mulching this week before I go out looking for any more plants to plant.

Dawn

Dawn—That report you read about the “skyrocketing” cases is odd. According to the official numbers from Texas itself, Sherman County has 14 cases, while Grayson County has 23. And yesterday the CDC advised that any asymptomatic person who tests positive for coronavirus can continue to work at meat packing plants. I am afraid my cynicism has now won out over concern, and I have started fact checking the media on everything. Once I saw a story about how the pandemic was “ravaging” Tulsa, I became deeply suspicious of how they are interpreting numbers. Everyone is focused on case counts and deaths, rather than hospitalizations. We have no idea how many people are asymptomatic or how many people have actually had it, but how many people are being admitted to hospitals is the true measure of our problem (a number that is suspiciously and frustratingly hard to find). We can only do so much to prevent infections (at least half of all transmission being in health care settings and intrafamilial), but keeping the medical system operating is the big goal, right? I don’t know. The story changes constantly.

My poor old kitty died yesterday. Been my house companion for fifteen years, but he had been sick and slowly wearing out. Thankfully the weather was nice enough, so we had a nice spot for him in the yard.

Southwood reopened over the weekend, so if it isn’t packed I am going to stop by the nursery this week when I have to go out to see my midwife, anyway. Hopefully it won’t be a total zoo! I couldn’t get echinacea seeds to germinate for the life of me this year, so I’m just going to buy one. And a tarragon plant, because I am not sure why I don’t have one. And maybe a new hosta for the front bed. And they have a lovely pink iris on sale and I don’t have any pinks. And and and…

—Marleigh

I'm sorry to hear you lost your cat, though it sounds like it was time for him (worn out). It's a kindness sometimes, even if you have to have them put down.
I had excellent echinacea germination, too bad we're not closer or I'd give you a pot of three from my transplants Sunday.
We had dime sized hail yesterday and there was some carnage, my hostas are sure gonna look ragged this year. Seedlings were lost, the pepper and tomatillo in the barrel are now gone (after the thai basil was frozen by those late frosts)...I begin to think the barrel project is just DOOMED.

Marleigh, I agree it is odd and don't understand why Sherman County was included at all, but it freaked me out even more when I first read it while we were in the city of Sherman. lol. Then I realized it was Sherman County and was so surprised, saying to myself that there's not enough people that live there to have a big outbreak. Well, it could be big in comparison to how low their population is, I guess. Maybe the Texas Health Department has a lot of people waiting on test results that aren't showing up in the numbers there yet? After watching the big population centers in TX like Houston/Harris County, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth including Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin Counties all along, I cannot see how Sherman County was on that list. Clearly the Texas Dept. of Health (or whoever) sees something we aren't seeing. Perhaps they are predicting where they think the next big outbreaks in Texas will be. I feel bad for all those meat plant workers who are getting sick. It seems like they work in pretty difficult conditions anyway, and I know they feel the pressure of being essential personnel who need to keep the meat supplies moving. Getting the virus on top of all of that is just too much.

One thing that really bothers me about all of this is that we see such strong differences from one US state to another that it is hard to get a feel for the overall picture. Obviously none of us expect to see our area get hit as hard as New York City but it would be nice if we knew what the 'average' state could expect. Another thing that really bothers me is the way so many people test negative, are released from the hospital, go home and then die, supposedly of Covid-19, after a week or two. Why is this happening? Does the viral load drop so low it is virtually undetectable in testing and they are pronounced well enough to go home and then the viral load surges over the next few days and they die? Do they feel themselves getting worse and then they die, or are they walking around living out their 2 weeks of quarantine at home and then abruptly die without warning? And, why does Covid-19 attack the body in so many ways---some people have severe lung damage, others have damaged hearts and circulatory systems, others have brain damage and others have damaged spleens and kidneys...but none of them seem to have everything damaged. Is the virus finding any given person's weakest organ and attacking it? If so, how does it know what the weakest organ is or does it accidentally just accumulate in the weakest organ? So many questions, and so few answers. They haven't had long enough to research enough to have a lot of answers, but I watch for and read the research coming out of China and other places whose outbreak predates ours.

I am so very sorry about your kitty. I know that 15 years is a long time but not long enough when you love them so much. I hope your kitty's passing was peaceful. We have had several cats live to be 18, 20 and 23, but I'll say most of them don't make it far past 15. Our oldest two cats currently are 13 or 14 years old (they were adult cats when we rescued them and their age was estimated) and one of them is in much more robust health than the other.

When I cannot get seeds to germinate, I take them out to the garden and broadcast sow them where I absolutely, positively do not want the plants to grow. This guarantees they will germinate and I'll have to dig them up and move them. lol. I call it contrary gardening and it is shocking how often it works. Echinacea plants don't like our clay, even where it is well-amended, as it seems to hang on to more moisture in the winter months than they like, but I have a couple of plants that have held on for a few years now. They are planted at the highest elevation in the garden, so presumably have the best possible drainage I can give them.

Enjoy your trip to the midwife and to Southwood. I hope you come home with armloads of beautiful plants.

dbarron, Oh wow, that hail did a number of your garden. I'm so sorry. I don't think the barrel project is doomed forever, but maybe doomed in the spring months of 2020. Sometimes I wonder how we all survive spring in this region as the weather has so very many ways it can kill our plants. I always breathe a big sigh of relief when it starts to get really hot at the end of May, and the severe weather gives way (most summers) to drought. I can deal with drought by watering, and that's a lot less worrisome that having the prospect of tornadoes, hail, microbursts, derecho winds, etc. always hanging over our heads and our gardens.

In areas where we have lots of reseeding annuals give us lots of volunteer seedlings every spring, I try to avoid thinning them out until after the worst spring storms are over. I just know that if I thin them, a thunderstorm will come along a few days later and will kill the rest. It never fails. The same thing is true of thinning stone fruit on trees. I hate doing it because as soon as I thin the fruit on our trees, the hail comes and takes out a lot more of the fruit if not all of it. You cannot postpone thinning fruit too long though.

I need to head out to the garden now and tackle those weeds that plague most of the beds. I am making great progress though so I don't even mind doing the weeding because each bed looks so much better once it is cleaned out and then planted. Then I'm going to plant at least some of my late home-raised tomato plants and hope for the best. Of course, planting today probably means baseball sized hail tonight, but a person could say the same thing on pretty much any random day in this region in April and May. You cannot let the prospect of hail at this time of the year stop you from planting or you'll never plant.

Why can't we just have nice spring rain without all the noise and fury of severe weather? I watched the weather forecast on TV this morning hoping the forecast for today's storms had gotten better, but it actually had gotten slightly worse. At least I have all day to work outdoors before the storms hit around or after dinner time.

Here's today's Convective Outlook in case anyone wants to read it. Note that some of you are in the red area on the map that indicates Moderate risk of severe weather. Moderate is worse than it sounds---it is the 4th highest of the 5 levels they use in this forecast. The main risk is very strong winds---the outlook mentions 65 knots which I believe is about 74 mph, and large hail. I noticed that mid-level cape values will be high and that's never good. The squall line that forms likely will push damaging winds quickly through many areas as it passes. The risk of tornadoes is low to very low, but does exist. If there is any good news at all in the Convective Outlook it is that the highest instability will be on the Texas side of the river, not that I'm wishing severe weather upon those folks either.

SPC Convective Outlook for Day 1

Have a great day everyone and I hope all of us escape serious storm damage tonight.

Dawn

Thinking I’m taking an Uber to work this afternoon. Have to be there at 3. With the type of wind predicted, there’s no trying to cover anything. The extra tomato plants are under cover, though. ,

I'm sorry I wasn't more clear, my daughter and her 2 dogs came to visit. I have 2 dogs (an old beagle and Sasquatch) and my son's dog lives with us. He currently rents a room from my daughter and her 3rd dog doesn't get along with son's dog. I didn't know my daughter was coming and was surprised by a black dog coming through the back door. Ron was out front and let the dogs in the back yard before my daughter came in.

I had promised Bruce some squash seeds, but when it came time to mail them I had no padded envelopes. I really didn't want to BUY any and was trying to think of the least populated store where I could get one. When Ron walked in with seeds from SESE. I was as pleased to see the padded envelope as I was the seeds. Forgot I ordered them.

I'm debating getting more smart pots. I had a whole bunch of what I think is either 2 or 3 gallon size. They're good for herbs. But I can't find enough of that size. Most of what I have are bigger. I like to put them in a kiddie pool, it makes them easy to water. But real Smart Pots are more expensive than I'd like, and I'm not finding a 2 gal size. I would like made in America products and can't find country of origin on most.

I did buy a tactical vest to wear in the garden, LOL. I need something to put my phone in and I hate things around my waste. Most of my clothes don't have pockets. I saw a cute gardening vest at Duluth Trading, but they don't have my size. Walmart had smocks I could have used, but they were incredibly ugly. So I tried Men's hiking/utility vests. Still expensive. Google finally took me to a "first responder" uniform supply and they had this light weight tactical vest on sale. Supposedly they manufacture their own items and they're in CA, so that was a plus. So what should I put in the concealed weapon pocket?

Now that the tomatoes are in the ground, wind and hail are forecast. We have debated how to protect them. I think I will pull the cages and put buckets over them. Don't know about my beautiful lettuce. (We had fresh picked salad last night), or turnips or spinach that is just reaching nice size. Maybe if I cover the tomatoes we won't get hail. That is my kind of contrary gardening, Dawn.

I want to know why the virus is showing up at meat packing plants. A friend in Illinois (might be Indiana, I forget) said they had a packing plant that was showing high numbers of positives. Is it because they're still operating? Is it like that at all manufacturing/processing plants that are still open? Restaurants? We aren't hearing that. Is it because these people come from poor (as in poverty) living conditions. Are they not following protocols? This might make me believe in conspiracies.

I want to go look at plants. I want a tarragon, mine died over winter. I want coleus. The Miss Huff lantana didn't survive the winter. (The sage made the most beautiful flowers.)

Need to go.

Well. That'll teach me not to watch the news. I was skimming happily along here out in the yard, a little of this, a little of that. Then I happened to check out my friends at OKGW and saw Rebecca's post, and then Dawn's. Yikes. So I have all the stuff on the deck tucked back agains the house and under the roof as best as I can. And now I'll try not to think about it.

My heart goes out to you, Marleigh, for losing your kitty. When my precious 15-yr old Daffy was dying 3 years ago, I told Garry how sad I was, but added that we HAVE to have a cat here where we live, did he agree? And he allowed as how we did need a cat. So Daffy died, and I still miss her. I think GDW shed more tears than I did. We buried her in one of the flower beds. The next day, Garry said, "Are you going to call the vet to see if they have any kittens?" THE next day! I looked aghast at him and then said, "Well sure." So we did, and 2 days later had 2 little gray tabby brothers. I tell you. . . it was the BEST medicine for both of us. We were so occupied with them that it made missing Daff a lot easier.

I'm so amused by the evening primrose, Dawn. They are something else, aren't they? Perhaps I won't be so amused one of these days. And I had a giant hyssop and a few verbena bonariensis in that mess--I've got my fingers crossed for them--not sure where they are, presently. Also, to my chagrin, I see 4 o'clocks have multiplied out there. Time to go on the rampage agains them. The echinacea have also gone slightly amuck, but that's a GREAT thing, and though the bronze fennel does, too, it is just so beautiful, and will provide many a meal for the caterpillars.

Thank you for the tip on the beauty berries, also, Dawn. I'm going to take them out and bring them home. I think they'll do very well here--and will be iffy there. I'll find something else for them. Maybe nine bark. What would a good berry bush be?

Is there a flower that's easier to grow than alyssum? I keep forgetting how easy it is. Which delights me--I planted it everywhere--in most of the deck containers, and a flat in on the grow cart for the school. It germinates in 2-3 days.

• Oh ugh! I just thought of your hostas, dbarron, and then thought of my lone hosta, a monster Empress Wu. This is its fourth year and it is gettin' BIG. Made me feel a little big nauseous. I had just gotten through saying that I don't really care about hail damage on things, since we're all used to starting over. . . easy come, easy go, right? But NOOOO!!! Not the giant Hosta!

I can say with certainty that I never WAS graceful, Rebecca! And now am less so. Now, however, I actually look down at the ground when I'm walking.

I save all my padded envelopes now, Amy; learned my lesson last year. I can't stand buying them when as you all know, we get so many of them from the seed companies. So I have a pretty good supply. It has taken me forever to write this one little post. I keep getting totally sidetracked. It's a little unnerving to be sitting out here on the deck. . . it's rather quiet--like the proverbial calm before the storm. I wonder if I'd think so if we didn't have a storm predicted.

I only have 10 plants in the ground to worry about. I have about 20 pepper plants that are plant in an area I would worry about if they were taller. All my berry plants and sweet potatoes face a bigger threat from the deer than they do from the wind. Madge was telling me yesterday to expect wind at about 80 mph, I dont know if that forecast has been changed, but 80mph is about 2x what I think I can stand. I will bring all my backup plants into the house, so we all can blow away together.

I planted 13 sweet potato plants in the wildlife garden, into the sorriest soil I have ever seen. I will get it into better shape, but it will take a few years. This is part of the wildlife garden was a large brush pile, and before a very dense forest. The dozer and excavator packed the burned clay soil into something that just came out in clumps as I tried pulling the middle buster through it.

The deer found the sweet potato plants the first night after I planted them. There was a beautiful collard plant growing on top of a pile of compost that I had dumped there to mix into the planting holes, so I think I will plant collards over there to fill in where I had planned for sweet potatoes, i am not as picky as the deer are.

I got my helper back today, everything was just piling up, he can work so much faster than I can. Plus, he is 18 now, and at 18 you never have enough money.

I'm caught up. Read everything. :)

But, not going to comment on much because I feel like I could write a book on several of the topics.

But, I will say that I'm very sorry, Marleigh. When Charlotte died 2 years ago, I was miserably sad. That's why I have Finbar now. And that is why he is a brat. Or one of the reasons.

Amy, Happy Birthday. I didn't say that yesterday and I'm sorry. I saw it when I checked my FB in the morning and meant to get back to it and just never did.

We got a tiny amount of rain. I was hoping for maybe half an inch. Don't think we got it. But I'm very happy we didn't have a damaging storm. There's not many rain chances showing in my area for the next 10 days (of course that could change). I will probably have to start dragging the water hose around. Seems early for that.

I hope everyone is safe. I know things are bad in some places. I hope Bruce is okay. It is heading towards Shawnee, I think.

I didn't do much today. Had a staff meeting (Zoom), did a couple of loads of laundry, cleaned up the kitchen a bit (and I mean only a bit). Cleaned up the area around one of the older elderberries. Harvested some asparagus. Looked at the garden. Planted the zinnias around the chicken pen. It all looks good. Had Pilates tonight (Zoom). I made the broccoli, cheese, quinoa casserole last night, so I just had to put it in the oven to warm up, which is where it is now while Tom grills pork chops for himself and Ethan. I feel much better today. Sleeping until 8 seemed to help. I know that one of the functions of sleep is to repair our bodies...and that is why I allowed myself to stay in bed so late. It's good to feel good.

I almost want to go for a walk.

Amy, I meant to mention that I looked at the Duluth website today. They have gardening vests (on sale, but still expensive) in stock. They had everything from a XS to 3X, I think. I especially like the floral one.

Did you all know there is a documentary series on the coronavirus on Netflix? I'll probably watch it, but need to put it on pause for a moment.

We got a lot of rain, but that's it. No tornadoes, no high winds, no hail. I'm thankful.

I think Finbar and Tiny would make quite a pair, HJ, don't you? Tiny is also a hunting fool. Our cats have caught many lizards, and six voles/mice so far this spring. I wish they couldn't catch the lizards, but applaud them when they bring us a mouse. I'm beginning to think Tiny is the major hunter, as we saw him catch the last 3. I have to keep an eye on them, however, with birds and hummingbirds. I know I know. It's a conundrum.

I miss seeing Amy and Ron and Eileen and Larry and Rebecca. Now we're thinking Marleigh (and hubby) needs to join us for lunch, too. That is, if we ever get to have lunch together again. Pouting.

Amy--I began a new strategy last year regarding containers. I decided I would allow myself to buy one nice container a year. I can live with that. Especially since I ran into a 2-for-one sale last year at Walmart. LOL So now I have four. I'll settle for my plastic totes until I get them replaced with nice containers. These 20-gallon Walmart plastic totes hold a LOT of dirt for $5 a piece! I'm just now beginning on getting the container plants together. Alyssum in several of them--the bacopa in a smaller one; my annual hibiscus in one. Cannas in one, hollyhock in one. Ornamental ginger, 2nd year, in one. . . right now I have 5 elderberry twigs planted in one. Almost hoping they don't make it--why the heck do I WANT 5 more elderberries? I just wanted to see if I could grow them, and they look pretty good right now. Mixed feelings about that.

The pawpaws I ordered for "Garry" are doing amazing! He just got them in the ground less than 10 days ago (had them in a holding pattern through our last frost). They are taking off! Yay! We put them in a clearing in the back 40. It's mostly shady back there, but in that clearing there is a fair amount of sun.

My newly liberated 9-bark in front of the climbing hydrangea on the oak tree is happy, too, I'm happy to report. Dawn, you encouraged me to let it be for now, and I did--well, it is one happy shrub! It's putting out shoots like crazy and is going to happily bloom.

I got 3 oak leaf hydrangeas this spring, after a sermon from Lori Darling (LOL). I'd been meaning to, anyway, but after her sermon, had to. So I saved two for me and gave one to the school. I must say. My two are happier than the school's. This is actually a fascinating experience. . . the difference between our property and the school's.

I've never had optimum sun in my own yards, in 30 years. But have it in spades at the school. Now here's the other thing. At the school, the cold and wind is ALWAYS much stronger than here, and, often, adversarial! Here, hardly ever strong, unless a horrid unusual storm. It appears that we live in a kind of sheltered area (which makes sense since we're surrounded by forest.)

And I feel so fortunate, in a way, to have two gardens that couldn't be less alike. I was always so envious of full sun. Well, the school has full sun in much of the area--but the WIND, The COLD. The poor drainage! And what a great lesson in gardening! Right?

Whoa, I see someone else has posted, so I'll cut this off. Best to all of you and I hope you came through the storms unscathed.

I was finally able to get the gardens " almost " ready to plant. I was holding off because we were to get very strong winds last night. We did get strong wing, but much less than forecasted, we did get a lot of rain, I am not sure how much it has set back my planting, but we are very wet again. As soon as it drys enough to plant, I plan to plant no matter what. We have a strong breeze and sunshine now, I may be able to plant a row or two in the south garden today. The area I plan to plant has not been worked and I will just go in with post hole diggers and make a hole for the plant, planning on mulching later and not disturb the soil.

Rebecca, I hope the weather didn't get your plants and that the Uber worked out okay.

Amy, I love that your daughter brought the dogs to visit. If you're ever in the Denton TX area, their is a Duluth Trading Post store right off I-35 there. I love that store although everything they sell is expensive. The items that we have bought from Duluth all have been high quality and hold up well, and still look almost new even after we have worn them for years. I haven't bought one of their gardening vest though.

If I were wearing a tactical vest in the garden and it had a concealed carry pocket, I'd keep a handgun in there, so I'd always be ready for snakes, but that is just me in my ultra-snakey location. When I am out in the garden, I keep my phone in a plastic bowl with a towel over it to shield it from the sunlight. I place the bowl on a table I have beside the shed. By leaving the phone in a static location I don't have to worry about the phone sliding out of a pocket while I work and then losing itself there in the jungle. Been there, done that, and it is not fun to frantically search all the beds for a lost phone. Long ago I had a fishing-type vest that I wore in the garden with lots of pockets, and I liked it. Now that I am thinking about it, I don't know why I stopped wearing it or what became of it, but that was probably 15-18 years ago so I'm not surprised I don't remember.

There are several theories about the meat-packing plants, but all of them speculative and not backed by any research. The most logical ones say that the employees on the line work very close to one another---literally elbow to elbow---so any illness spreads quickly. There's also pressure on everyone to come to work to keep the production line moving. Add in a virus that can remain asymptomatic in some people while they are able to shed the virus and spread it while showing no signs of having it, and it all sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. I don't know about meat-processing facilities in other states for sure, but in Texas a huge majority of the workers on the line are immigrants from south of the border and many of them pack several families into one house, living in ultra-crowded quarters, so once someone in the home is ill, they tend to all become ill. I have read where a lot of meat-packing plant employees also say that they have been pressured to come in to work even while ill, though they didn't specifically say that what they were ill with was Covid-19. I suspect the solution would be for all the meat-packing plants to wear serious PPE clothing and masks like what is used in hospitals, but we don't have large stocks of those items yet. Perhaps the government can get the employees the PPE if it is going to insist the meat-cutting and meat-processing facilities are essential businesses that must remain open.

I don't know that this is any sort of conspiracy designed to hit the meat processing plants, but more than likely just a congruence of a lot of factors coming together in a most unfortunate way. My main concern with Covid-19 always has been that a certain percentage of the people who get it can show absolutely no symptoms. Everyone who goes out shopping or whatever always says "no one around me was coughing" and that gives them/us a false sense of security (I am the same way) because all of us fail to take seriously the fact that there are people who get it, carry it and can spread it simply by walking around breathing or speaking, while they show absolutely no symptoms whatsoever. How do you combat a virus that leaves some people showing no symptoms?

Nancy, I love pink evening primrose (and the white version also) whenever I see them growing alongside the highway or in a median or whatever. I hate them on our property. If you have one of these plants, you'll eventually have a million. They never stop reseeding and spreading. Never. Ours traveled sharply uphill from the bar ditch to our garden, to our yard, to the back 40 behind the house, 400-500' from the road in less than 2 years. I take out the ones that pop up in the garden and in beds, but it would be impossible to keep our 14 acres free and clear of them. They are about the most aggressive spreader I've ever seen.

What kind of berry bush? Something for human consumption or for the wildlife? Do you mean for your place or for the school? I wouldn't plant anything at the school that produces berries not fit for human consumption because I think kids would be tempted to try any berry they saw and you cannot be at the school 24/7 to ensure it doesn't happen.

I love sweet alyssum and used to grow a lot of it, but it cannot handle our clay or our heat, so I don't plant it much any more. We simply get too hot too early for it to have much of a chance here. I've let the chamomile take over the areas where I used to grow sweet alyssum as the chamomile is more tolerant of the clay. It also burns up in the heat since it is a cool-season herb and our cool season is short. We've already been in the 90s a few times this year, so I'd say our cool season down here is about over. The chamomile still is blooming, but the plants are starting to go to seed.

Larry, I am glad you got your helper back, sorry you got more rain and hope that it won't hold you back from planting for too much longer.

We never got the strong winds at our house---maybe winds up to 40 mph or so briefly as the line of storms moved through, but nothing like our specific storm had produced a couple of counties west/northwest of us as it moved our way. I believe they had winds out there in the 60s but the storm has lost strength between there and here.

Jennifer, I don't think we got much rain either but I haven't been outdoors and checked the rain gauge yet. Being so far south, the storms didn't arrive here until at least 9 pm, maybe a bit later. We watched them (and their big pink hail cores) on the radar forever, and saw them slowly weakening as they came our way. I heard maybe 4 or 5 hail stones hit the roof when the rain first hit and that was it, so I guess those were a few stray hailstones left over from earlier in the evening when this storm had produced 3" diameter hail in Stevens County. We had a lot of wind and lightning, but not so much rain, or at least not for long. I have relieved. Nothing got demolished by hail and the ground doesn't look so wet that working outdoors is not possible. As a bonus, our high temperatures today will be about 15 degrees lower than yesterday's high of 90. Our storm spotters and Emergency Operations Center sent us a constant stream of storm info to our cell phones on our emergency apps and GroupMe apps so we knew what was coming every step of the way. Honestly, at times I wanted to shut off my phone so I wouldn't have to read the endless stream of info, but then I'd rather have that info than not have it, especially on a day when tornadoes are possible. We dodged a bullet because the storm that hit us strengthened more after crossing the Red River and hitting hot, humid air in Texas, so it got worse again after leaving us. Storms are strange that way.

I'm glad you let yourself sleep in and that it helped you to feel better. You wanted to go for a walk? Did you go or was it too late or too stormy?

Nancy, When we moved here we had nothing but full sun because we chose to build the house on the highest part of the property, which was just a fallow pasture uphill from all the acres of woodland. We moved here in the second year of a multiyear drought, and our temperatures hit 110 or 111 that first summer, and I wondered if we had moved to hell, lol, because down in Texas, when we occasionally hit 103 or 105, we thought we were having the absolute worst heat ever. Turns out we were wrong about that as Oklahoma heat has proven to us over and over again. Obviously in drought and with that sort of heat, planting for shade was a top priority in our early years here.

I have worked for many years to get trees going, growing and reaching a nice size so we'd finally have some shade near the house. Well, we had two trees near the house when we moved here--but not close enough to the house to shade it. We had a post oak, that finally died after the heavy rainfall of 2015---I knew it would because post oaks cannot handle 80+" of rain, so when it got sick and began declining, I was just glad we had nearby Shumard red oaks that will shade the area that the post oak once shaded. We had the pecan tree, but it shades the garden and not the house. I think we planted 20-25 trees, all of them tiny saplings dug from our woodland, around the house to give ourselves shade. Now we have too much shade for this gardener, and need to selectively remove a few of the trees. One nice thing about trees is that they shade out Bermuda grass eventually so I don't want to take out too many of the trees either---just enough to have some sunny spots for flower beds near the house.

I never have a good sense of how windy and cold it is when we are at home because the woodland blocks so much of the wind. It isn't until we come up our of our creek hollow and valley to the higher ground a mile away that the wind hits us and makes us realize how lucky we are to have such a sheltered location. Sometimes we'll drive to Gainesville or somewhere and get out of the car and be stunned by the strong, cold wind because we didn't feel it at home at all.

I'm going to head out to the garden now and finish the planting I started yesterday. I didn't cover up the plants I planted yesterday because I felt like the hail wouldn't hit us, but then I had to worry about the hail until the storm had passed. It might have been simpler to just cover them up and not have that worry. I'm going to enjoy today's cooler weather tremendously, mainly because it isn't going to last. We'll be headed back towards and into the 90s in a couple of days. With the cold sticking around so late, and the heat arriving so early, it feels like Spring is being compressed smaller and smaller.

Dawn

We got pummeled by rain last night and had some really high winds, but thankfully no damage! The wind has helped dry the plants off and kept any major puddles from forming, so it all came out in the wash. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sky go so dark during a storm, though. They told us to head for the shelter, but by the time we got our shoes on the danger had already passed. It was moving pretty fast. There was so much lightning during the worst of it the sky was continually lit for about fifteen minutes. It was pretty wild.

I use a Roo Apron in the garden, because I never remember to take a basket and all my tools and my phone and…so I just load the Roo up with everything and off I go. It’s handy to have a way to harvest and keep my clothes from being completely covered in dirt. It’s quite comfortable to wear, even when pregnant, which is about the best endorsement I can give anything. 😆

https://rooapron.com

Hope everyone else’s garden is safe and sound this morning!

—Marleigh

We came out of things ok. We had a brief bout of pea sized hail and exactly 1" of rain. They didn't sound the sirens here, but did at my daughter's 10 miles south.

Dawn, I've never fired a gun. While I understand the snake issue, I think it would make the vest pretty heavy. I want my phone on me in case I fall. Daughter is saying are you going to wear the vest when it's 105 out and you go out to water. (No, but my phone has a wrist strap if I don't have to be using my hands a lot.) I figure there will be enough pockets for reading glasses, a pen and notepad, seed packets, maybe a rag for wiping dirty fingers.

H/J, it was the flowered vest that sent me on my quest.

Nancy, you are growing those elderberries for me, right? LOL. If we ever get to meet again.

Ron has picked up a number of nice looking containers, usually at end of season sales. He just brought home 4 ceramic planters from Aldi (I asked for 2). The bags I've been using work great for smallish herb plants. My rosemary is in one, and the mountain mint. I can put them in a kiddie pool and make them easy to water, or set inside a fancier container. But when I went back to look at where I bought them, they're only meant to last 2 years. Is it worth the convenience? Smart Pots are supposed to last longer. Then I thought maybe I should be more frugal and use some of the recycled food containers I've got, or the 5 gallon buckets. I don't have a flower bed this year, things will have to be in containers. I have to have Ron's help with big containers. Hassles.

Well, Ron says we're going to Smashed Thumb. PLANTS!

Hey H/J, I just saw something that made me think of you. Someone doing covered beds with fiberglass window screen material rather than netting.

Went to Smashed Thumb. She couldn't find Liatris or yarrow. They put everything under cover last night and she couldn't find them. I got some coleus, celosia, some other things I've forgotten. On the way out a black and blue salvia reached out and grabbed me and forced me to take it home. It was still windy out today.

Oldokie is looking for Green Zebra or Cherokee Green. I think I sent my Cherokee Green seeds to you, Larry, didn't I? Did you use them? LOL If you have any left, you might forward to Oldokie! Meanwhile, I told him/her that I could send plants, as I have at least four extra.

BUMMER, Amy. How far is Smashed Thumb from you? Can she save some? I have given up on Salvia for me. Just not a happy plant in our yard. So sad. I love them. I'll let you know if I can successfully grow the elderberry sticks. Let me know how mountain mint does--if it grows prolifically, you'll have to save me a piece. IF we ever see each other again. lol

Why, yes, Dawn! That IS one nice thing about shade. . . ending the Bermuda.

We ended up with 1 1/4" from last night. The marvel to me is that since we're on a slope and DON'T have clay--it runs off and/or soaks in quickly. We would have been fine to plant here today. Except we were at the school planting. Even those raised beds were fine to plant in. I scattered cosmos and Garry and I planted tithonia and zinnia, peanuts, and bush beans.

We also moved ALL the CA poppies and bachelor buttons from the smaller bed they had been sharing with the onions, over to the big round bed. There were a ton of the poppies! I hope they make it. Will they make it? They had just begun blooming about a week ago.

Nancy, seems like I remember seeing something like that. I will have t go through the seeds and see what I can find. They are mixed with my seeds now, and in order, may take a while. I will look and see if anything like that is in there. I will get back on here after a bit.

I planted 7 more tomato plants just a few minutes ago. I waited till the wind went died down. I just don't have any get-up-go anymore.

Don't worry about it, Larry. Oldokie doesn't live that far from me--said she/he could drive down and get the plants. :). Don't try to DO so much!!!

I lost one tomato plant, but that’s it, and I still have plenty of extra. I’ll replace it Saturday. Everything else looks surprisingly good. I swear I can see the growth in 36 hours and a storm. Neighbor said we got a good shower of small hail.

Nose looks better. And I’m getting better at covering the bruises with makeup.

I was at work during the storm. At one point with the sirens going off, we had about a dozen customers plus 6 employees crammed into the ladies room. No social distancing, but lives were more important.

Nancy, I did not get back on here soon enough to see your message, but I did not find any seeds like you were looking for. I did however find some Old German seed that I think I want to try. When I was going through them when you first sent them a Bush Beefsteak caught my eye. I have plants ready to plant from those seeds.

Rebecca, I got a kick out of your remark about the make up. Madge puts band aids on spots she wants to hide. I am just now beginning to see what that woman really looks like, she, I, and our dog have not been to the beauty shop in a good while, thanks to Covid-19. I think Madge looks better, I can't say that about me or the dog.

That roo apron is cool, Marleigh!

I bought an old fashioned apron thing that almost looks like a dress. It has pockets. I have this dream of looking cute while gardening. But, I'll probably never look cute because I'm too worried about the sun on my skin, so I wear an oversized denim shirt and a big unattractive hat. LOL. But...I want to wear cute tank tops and cut-offs with cute little aprons and that floral vest, Amy.

Ask HU...I look like a gardening dork.

Maybe when the apron dress thing comes in, I'll look cuter. Probably not.

Dawn, I did take the dogs for a walk. It was lovely. That storm smell and feel at twilight. But we had no concerns about bad weather because we were on the edge of it.

Rebecca, glad your garden looks good...and your nose. That is so crazy. Is it painful? Does it interfere with your sleep? Ouch.

Larry, feeling it too! My hair needs professional help!

Nancy, I have something called Lime Green Salad Tomato. It was a free packet that came from somewhere last year. I'm not super impressed with it though.

I worked today and have felt emotional and cranky all day. Then it dawned on me. This is Lane's BD. Because the days are jumbled and I kept thinking today was Friday, it slipped past me...in a way. But it didn't really. Somehow my emotions KNEW it was his birthday and my emotional upset made sense. I'll take him gifts tomorrow.

But the Covid stuff is getting to me too. My opinion on it all isn't the popular "Hollywood" opinion and I have good reasons for believing the things I believe. BUT, I'm okay for other people to believe and take actions the way they need to. I don't judge anyone for those things. I want them to do what makes them comfortable. I'm just an intuitive person...and see things that aren't being said. Things that aren't shown, if that makes sense. I can't keep being "around" people who are so chatty about their doom and gloom while standing at my office door in a mask. I have work to do and while I respect them, I can't keep being upset like this. So...I'm telling anyone who is "around" me, I will not talk about Covid 19. Will not. With a few exceptions of my family and one or two friends. It's not that I'm not concerned. I am concerned. BUT I'm concerned about different things involving the situation.

My kitchen garden is planted other than the peppers and a few herbs. SO excited about this. Everything is looking pretty finally. Or almost pretty. Not quite pretty. It's time to start adding wood chips to the pathways. Oh, and flowerbed on the east side of our house is coming together. I dug it up last fall because I needed a place for the Hardy Hibiscus that Amy and my friend, Kari gave me. (they both are waking up now!). We "framed" it with some rock/stone and smoothed out the free Norman compost that we applied last fall. As well as picked out a bunch of trash. Hey, it's free. And it wasn't going on an edible garden.

It's so fun to see your vision slowly taking shape, isn't it? I just need a lot more money and 48 hour days to get it all done!

Hey, does anyone grow Roman chamomile? YUM! That plant smells absolutely scrumptious!

I dragged the water hose around tonight because we are getting dry already. Ugh.

And I think the volunteer seedlings that I showed y'all a few weeks ago are sunflowers, BUT the LB petunias are just starting to show up too. I'm sure about these this time.

Nancy, the red bee balm continues to thrive in the little back garden. Thank you for that plant. Its grandchildren are doing well and living amongst some green peas seedlings.

Okay...it's time to wrap this up or I'll talk about every plant on my property. lol

Night!

I got the tactical vest yesterday. It is much heavier than I expected. Lots of pockets though. If I don't like it I will give it to my son and he can wear it to the range. H/J did you get the apron that crosses in the back?

I've been lazy today. Can't make myself do anything.

That's the one, Amy. I got it from an online shop called Grandmother's Kitchen. In my mind, a grandmother was sitting around sewing these, but nope. Not even close. It's called an apron dress or something like that.

You worked hard yesterday and sometimes the body needs to rest after a hard day of gardening. It's not lazy--it's resting.

I worked today. Got home and decided to make dinner early so I could go outdoors (about to do that). Everyone can eat when they're ready. Sometimes if I wait too long, it will be gone by the time I'm ready to eat. I have to leave instructions to NOT eat it all. It's one of our favorites tonight--tortellini pesto bake.

What do I want to do outside? I could start planting the peppers and then deep clean the coop tomorrow. I've been waiting for a very warm day to do that because I use water when deep cleaning. I really can't make any excuses for not doing it any longer. It's hot enough. Did y'all see that it's supposed to be 98 on Monday?! That's what my phone app said, but David Payne just showed a high of 90 on Monday. Either way I'll need to get out the shade cloth to try to save my lettuce and spinach.

HU is coming out tomorrow to put trellises up for the tomatoes.

And now I'm heading out!

That's a bummer, Amy. Maybe for early spring and late fall gardening, eh? I was pretty lazy today, too. I went back to town to plant a few more things, but mostly just visited with John while he was moving plants that I decided needed moving. LOL.

HJ, you're speaking to the right group if you want to talk about every plant! I find myself thinking that way. . . I could talk about them all, like you. And yes, I love the Roman chamomile, too. Just dawned on me that although I have none here, I have four clumps at the school. After the next time I'm there, it'll be three clumps at school. Maybe two. LOL. I'm happy you love the bee balm. Bee balm is one of the first flowers I loved when I began growing tons of herbs and flowers in Mpls. My friend (who happened to be a very knowledgeable master gardener) brought me a flat of the red stuff. I always think of her when I see my bee balm (and rose campion). Thinking of you on Lane's birthday. Blessings.

And I chuckled at your talking about the vision coming to fruition. Truth is, I had no vision. Kind of just flew by the seat of my pants. But it's still nice!

Terry came over from Inola and picked up his Cherokee Green tomatoes. Nice meeting you, Terry--nice meeting all you OK garden friends. We laughed at how handy it was that we were only half an hour away. And Dawn, your ears may have been burning, as we were talking about how thankful we are for your knowledge.

What a beautiful day it was. Tomorrow we'll go fishing for the first time this year!

My one and only Juliet plant was stripped bare of leaves today, looks like what a hornworm would do, but none visible. Seems awfully early. I pulled another Juliet from the giveaway crate to replace it with on Saturday.

I really want to make focaccia bread with some of the rosemary out of the garden.

Ran across this over on the vegetable forum

https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/9582f3a60e9a437f_8-8128/home-design.jpg

HU

One of the times I was on a walker for awhile either my daughter or sister bought me some scrub tops. I own 4 or 5 and they are my favorite tops. They are loose and comfortable and have at least 2 good sized pockets, some even have a snap to make sure nothing falls out (like a phone or keys). My walker was the old aluminum kind, couldn’t walk fast enough to keep up with a rolling walker - I tied my old cloth tool belt ( from HD) to the walker for storage but the scrub tops were so much handier. Perfect for working outside and totally washable- plus they come in every color and design imaginable. I even bought a couple at a local thrift store for a couple of dollars.

Thankfully we missed all the hail and winds that hit Guthrie north of us, down side was we didn’t get a drop of rain. Much better to drag a hose and water than suffer the hail damage. My tomatoes are looking rather pathetic, still small and a couple are showing curling already- they are in fresh soil from the field, part of which was an old burn pile. I thought that would be a bonus but time will tell.

Have a great stand of green beans and pole beans, cabbage are beautiful, and okra is coming up. Can’t believe it’s already Friday again.

Here I am feeling so far behind and trying hard to catch up, but I'm behind because I've been busy in the garden, so that's a good thing.

Marleigh, Those dark skies can be scary, especially when they suddenly darken. I am glad you didn't have any storm damage to worry about.

I hope your pregnancy is going well. My 'baby' is about to turn 36 years old next month, and I barely remember what being pregnant was like. What I do remember is that every bit of discomfort and pain was repaid one billion times over with joy in the 36 years since then.

Amy, Yes, a gun is heavy but it sure beats being trapped in the fenced garden by a timber rattler who sits between you and the garden gate. I'd say that 85% of my timber rattler encounters are at the garden gate, either coming or going. Why do the rattlesnakes use the gate when they could slither through the fence? They make me crazy....stark, raving mad. If I ever give up gardening it will be because of them. And, honestly, a handgun is nothing compared to having to haul a long gun out to the garden like I did daily during the summer/fall of the cougars.

I've used a 5-gallon bucket tool tote for years and it has one of those liners filled with pockets, both inside and outside the bucket, so it holds everything I need and more. Since we put the little 7' x 8' garden shed directly in the garden about 3 years ago, I don't have to drag everything up and down the driveway from the house/garage to the garden any more and I am so much happier. I do a better job of putting tools away, too, since the shed is right there. Having said that, I cannot find my pruning shears this week---not in the tool bucket, not in the shed and nowhere to be seen in the garden. I know for sure that I last used them in October, harvesting roselles in advance of that huge, early freeze. Where they've been since then? That is anybody's guess. I checked the mudroom in case I carried them almost into the house with me along with a bucket of roselles and didn't find them there either. They aren't in the greenhouse or the garage. The mystery of the missing pruners, and I know how this ends....I can look for them endlessly and I won't find them until I buy a replacement, and then the missing pruners will mysteriously appear out of nowhere.

I hope the trip to Smashed Thumb was fun.

My only comment on fiberglass window screens is that the grasshoppers eat holes in them in years when the hopper population is large.

Nancy, I have moved poppy plants when they were small and not blooming with no problem whatsoever, but never have moved them while they're blooming so don't know how they'll tolerate that.

Rebecca, I have noticed your life is sort of adventurous lately. I wouldn't worry about social distancing either during a severe weather sheltering type incident. We have community shelters at all our local schools, at our small senior citizen housing community and in the basement at the courthouse and they made it clear (via social media) that the shelters would be open and available and everyone was on their own as far as bringing masks with them. They also asked people to try to maintain social distancing, but said they wouldn't limit how many could come into the shelter. To me, that means no social distancing will happen because those shelters in town always are packed. Out here in the country, pretty much everyone has their tornado shelter because there's no such thing as a community shelter out here in the middle of nowhere. Those of us who have shelters always have made it clear that any of our neighbors are welcome to come shelter here, and Covid-19 won't change that.

Larry, Tim's been cracking jokes about the beauty shop/barber shop thing for a while, saying "now we get to see what people really look like". lol. I interpret that to mean that a lot of people at work aren't looking quite as pretty as usual.

Jennifer, I hope Lane had a blessed birthday in Heaven, and I am so sorry for your pain and grief. No wonder you felt out of sorts.

None of our friends discuss Covid-19 any more, except to mention they are going stir-crazy at home. The people who go to work at a building that is not their home every day are much more content than the ones trying to work from home. I think everyone just wants for it to go away and for life to get back to normal, whatever normal will be from now on.

I've grown German chamomile forever. It reseeds everywhere in my garden---in beds, pathways, and even right into containers if the seeds get carried that way with the wind. It is one of those plants that you only have to plant once or twice because it will reseed forever if you have it in a place where it is happy. The plants pop up between mid-February and early March, grow quickly and are in bloom within a matter of 3 or 4 weeks. They will continue to grow and bloom until it starts getting too hot for them. If you deadhead them, you can keep them going for a bit longer, but it is very dependent on how early you heat up. They are cool-season plants and don't have a lot of tolerance of hot weather. When you deadhead them, you can save the flowers and make tea. It already is getting too hot for them down here and, since we're headed for a high of 95 degrees in a couple of days, I predict they are pretty much finished for this year. For years, my heaviest stand of them has been in the asparagus bed, where I like seeing them because they help shade the ground and keep weeds from popping up in between the asparagus plants.

Amy, I agree with Jennifer...it is not laziness, it is resting, and the older we get, the more we have to pace ourselves and rest. I'm not saying I like it, but that's just how it is. I've really had to learn to be happy about the need to rest more because being frustrated by it just wasn't doing me any good. Putting a couple of chairs and a table in the garden, in the shade right beside the garden shed, is one of the best things I've ever done because I can just sit down in the chair, drink some iced tea and enjoy the garden while I rest up for a bit before returning to the garden chores. Of course, the table and chairs aren't in the shade in the morning hours, but it is an umbrella table so there is artificial shade if needed.

Jennifer, The temperature forecasts are nuts, and it isn't good to have this sort of heat this early.

Nancy, I'm glad you have tomato plants for Terry, and no, my ears weren't burning. I was out in the garden for a long time though, and my ears might be sunburned, or at least a bit tan.

Rebecca, I haven't seen any hornworms yet, but I guarantee you they are out there. I have seen them before as early as March. I cannot imagine what else would strip your leaves off that Juliet if it wasn't a hornworm.

Cut that rosemary, make that focaccia bread and enjoy it! Isn't the whole garden-to-kitchen-to-table experience one of the best things about growing our own? My Arp rosemary is a huge monster filling an area about 4' x 4' and I have going to prune it back relentlessly just as soon as I find my missing pruning shears. We'll have rosemary all over the house. Maybe I'll make a wreath of it.

At our house the weather has done a total reversal in April. After being extraordinarily wet all winter and throughout March, the rain pretty much stopped here in April, missing us more than it hit us. I am not complaining. We had enough heavily waterlogged soil to carry us through the dry month of April with no real issues. However, in just the last few days the soil has gone almost totally bone dry. This is not unusual and is, in fact, a hallmark of clay soil. It stays wet forever and then, suddenly, one day you notice it has gone from wet to dry in the blink of an eye. We're now at that dry stage. In the garden there is some residual moisture in some of the raised beds, but not in all of them, so I've been careful to water in plants well when transplanting and to keep seedbeds moist where I've recently sown seeds. In the yard and pastures? You guess it. The ground is cracking open. Good, old clay. Always so predictable. The other half of the equation is the heat. We have had lots of days when we have hit the 90s here in April and if not the 90s then 88 or 89, even when most all of the rest of the state was nowhere near the 90s. So, basically, April was giving us May and even June temperatures, except when it was slapping us upside the dead with a late freezing night or two. I cannot help thinking this is a bad thing. Between the moisture drying up and the warmer than average weather, I can't help thinking we are headed into a hotter and drier than average summer. The other morning, our TV meteorologist commented that we have been having some nights that are 10-15 degrees above average, and that caught his attention almost as much as the extra warm days.

One of the great things about a warmer than average and drier than average summer is that there's usually a lot less plant disease issue.

Other than finding and destroying about a dozen eggs of the leaf-footed bug earlier this week, I'm not seeing many pest insects yet, which is a total turnaround from last Spring when the garden was overrun by the constant hatching of green stink bugs in numbers we've never seen here. There are some beneficial insects in the garden, most notably lady bugs galore,ants and plenty of bees of various kinds and butterflies. I've seen a few crickets in the mulch, and one grasshopper. It is, for once (knock on wood) a seemingly normal year where the pest and beneficial insect population seem equal.

Have a good day everyone. This is a grandkid weekend, so I'm heading out to the garden early to get a few things done while I can.

Dawn

Enjoy the littles, Dawn!

I have to admit, working from home isn't the horror I thought it would be. Though I think part of it is the fact that everything is closed so I can't go anywhere; once the world opens back up to normal I may feel differently. Our agency is looking at extending telework permanently and has asked for everyone's input. I think one or two days in office and the rest at home would be nice, especially in the spring when I can go outside for an hour or so before work & then go back out as soon as I log off.

Tomatoes are shooting up, peas are starting to produce. The turtle got the honor of trying the first one; this tiny pea pod (you could just barely see the bumps from the peas forming) fell off so my sister in law gave it to him. And I have one almost ripe strawberry. Harvest season is beginning.

We're going to brave Lowes and get what we need to fence off our pumpkin/gourd area. They're starting to get ridiculously big so the barrier of mineral tubs isn't going to last much longer. Hopefully between the three of us (husband & sis in law) we'll rig something that will deter the dogs but can still be taken down easily.

I feel like I keep forgetting to talk about things on your posts. I need to make notes when I read them.

Amy, you mentioned something about window screening for insect protection. The insect netting that we purchased is very similar to that.

Nancy, when I say I have a "vision" I should clarify that it's a very loose vision....if that makes sense.

Four years ago I was certain that I wanted a garden shed/chicken coop combo on the other side of our property--where the large wood chip pile is now. It was going to be super cute with a cottage garden look around it. I was disappointed when we ran out of our remodeling money because I did not get that. We had enough left to redo the old shed with new siding, etc. BUT, I am SO glad that the coop is where it is now. SO glad that that dream didn't happen. So, I adjust my vision as needed. I still have some specific things I want to do, like change the backyard to beds and pathways. HOW that happens, will change I'm sure, but it is in process.

Dawn, are German and Roman chamomile the same? I hope these reseed. They are planted in mostly shade--a bit of morning sun.

Dawn, it's good to hear about your working in your garden again. Hey, maybe now that it's drying out, you'll be able to move forward on your landscaping plans. Maybe?

Well....I just got a call that my friend (who I help with her kindergarten class) just found her husband dead this morning.

I found the cucumber seeds.

Jen, Thanks, we are having a blast together. Tim is off today and they have spent the last couple of hours setting up the pool and now are splashing around in it, waiting rather impatiently for it to fill up. Right now, the water is about a shin depth, so it will take it a while to reach its 4' depth....but they don't care. They are having fun.

I think being able to telework part time would be great. By being in the office part of the time and at home part of the time, you would have the best of both worlds.

Let me know what Lowe's is like. I want to go there Sunday after Chris picks up the girls. I heard from friends down in Texas that Lowe's is a circus today because everybody is there.

Jennifer, Roman chamomile and German chamomile are very similar but not the same. The Roman one grows low to the ground and sometimes is used as a lawn substitute. It did not grow well for me in dense, compacted, red clay. The German chamomile could become a weed, I think, because it is such an aggressive reseeder, but that is okay---it is in bloom pretty early when there's not a lot of other blooms in March, so it gives the bees and butterflies something at least.

I hope at some point we can start on the landscaping, but we're back to the old 'never enough time' issue where every weekend is either spent mowing or with the girls. I'm hoping maybe we can start soon on building the deck and then can spend the summer putting up fencing and building beds. Then, we could plant in the fall. The whole goal this spring was to be ready to plant by April 1st so we could beat the heat and the drought. Well, that's not going to happen and I don't want to plant landscaping plants too late in Spring here because it seems like a bad summer is expected. Any time we go through April pretty much bone dry, we end up with a painfully dry summer, and I don't want to have to irrigate heavily to get new plants established and happy. I know a bad omen when I see one, and the hot, dry April weather that is carrying over into May seems like a bad omen. That 95 degrees on Monday worries me because that is a lot of heat....I hope it doesn't make the rhubarb go dormant early.

That is shocking news about your friend and her husband. My heart goes out to her and I will pray that God will give her comfort and strength. I cannot imagine going through what she experienced this morning.

Rebecca, Yay! I don't usually find missing seeds until I've purchased their replacement. It never fails. I'm hoping to sow cucumber and melon seeds next week. I'd say I might be able to do it tomorrow, but the girls are here so my chance to get into the garden is slim unless I wake up an hour or two before they do, which is possible. The little one reminded me today that I needed to go to the store because we don't have any lollipops. I said lollipops? We finally figured out she meant popsicles---to her, swimming pool time means popsicles, fudgesicles and watermelons and we don't have any of those three for snacks. I guess in the morning, maybe we'll make a quick run to the grocery store for her "pops". I have lots of healthy snacks, and they will eat them, but once they are playing in the pool, they love taking a break and sitting on the patio furniture eating popsicles. It is a tradition.

It is so hot and dry here, and the strong wind isn't helping. We actually had a grass fire just south of us today, but they got it put out pretty quickly. In the garden, not only is the chamomile drying up and going to seed, but so are the cilantro and the parsley, both of them last Spring's plants that overwintered. I already have new parsley and dill planted, plus a few dill volunteers and one bronze fennel plant, so the swallowtail cats still will have some plants to feed on. Basil volunteers are popping up too. We've definitely made the switch over from cool Spring weather to warm almost-Summer weather. I don't really mind it. I'd rather be hot than cold. There's a ton of butterflies out today. I think they are liking the warmth quite a bit.

Oh, and when we were clearing the ground to set up the pool (it is only 15' in diameter, so we don't have to clear a huge area), the girls raked up acorns from the burr oak and threw them on the compost pile. They told me that we are going to grow some oak trees in the compost pile. Yep. That's what I need. More trees to shade what little sunny ground we have left for gardening. I think the acorns laid on the ground all winter, so probably are not viable, but if I see them pop up in the compost pile, I will pull them out of there quickly.

Hope everyone has a lovely rest of today and weekend. The weather is so nice, provided you like being really warm outside.

Dawn

Just sorta skimmed over the posts. I didn't eat lunch or dinner and I need food NOW. haha.

It was a productive day, though.

Dawn, I will say this in case you're making weekend plans and are being cautious about going out. Lowes was like the old days. People going in and out. All the guards were gone. Maybe 20% (and possibly not that many) were wearing masks. Which is a huge difference from last week when maybe 20% weren't wearing masks.

At Walmart, there were still "in" and "out" doors and no one could go in through the nursery center. It was maybe 50/50 on mask wearers/non mask wearers. The greeter did tell me that the carts were just sanitized.

There are a lot of people out and about...enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. A LOT. HU and I went to TSC at 10 and it was busy as well. We were getting handy panels and were pretty focused on our task at hand, so I didn't notice mask wearing. HU followed me there in his truck and it seemed like there was a lot of traffic even that early.

Okay. More later. Food now.

Cowpeas are showing up! Super exciting. This happened just today. This morning.

Yesterday we put together a few more trellises for the tomatoes in the S. Garden.

I seem to be missing a tray of Cal Wonders. So weird. I looked everywhere for them. Couldn't find them so bought a 2 of the orange lunchbox little sweet peppers (can't remember the exact name), a mexibelle and a Cajun Belle. I'm excited to try these for the first time. I have 36 peppers and that should be plenty for us. I still have frozen chopped peppers in the freezer from last year.

HU sowed a few pole beans amongst the corn...and there's some winter squash plants next to the corn. We are experimenting with the Three Sisters thing. Neither of us have tried that.

That's a small update on the garden, but I have an actual "in person" meeting that I need to get to. We will be sitting several feet apart--no worries.

Happy Saturday!

Edited to say that they've backed off the high of 98 on Monday. Thank Goodness! It's still gonna be hot, though.

Jennifer, sounds like you are going to feed an army! I am trying to plant more than we will need, but this old man just does not have the go power that he needs. Night before last I was trying to get 21 tomatoes planted in the wildlife garden. The grain rye cover crop was shoulder high, I had mowed a 42" path down each side of the trellis. I then was trying to till along each side of the trellis. I was just not man enough to do it (too much root mass and too little man). I had both tractors over there, compost in the large tractor, potting soil and plants in the little one. I wound up just digging holes with post hole diggers and tossing in a little compost and potting soil.. I have to crawl on my hands and knees to plant because it is tough for me to bend. I was just beat by the time I got the last plant in. I did not hear my neighbor drive up behind me in his utv, he could see I was about shot. He told me "to leave those tractors there and get in, he was taking me home". I was sure glad he did. I went back yesterday and got the tractors. Yesterday eve Madge came into the living room and ask what my neighbor was doing in my wildlife garden? I got on my small tractor and went over there. My neighbor had installed his tiller on his tractor and was tilling along each side of the trellis. My trellis is over 75 feet long, I would have never been able to till that with my small tiller. I felt like hugging his neck. I dont like the way he tills, he tills too much, but I am not going to gripe, I will mulch close to the plants, and plant flowers out away from the plants.

I have been busy. I had a crew roofing my sisters house in south Arkansas, they finished yesterday, and today my sister and 2 of her sons are coming up to get material to roof their barn , plants for the garden, and jars to can the produce. Mom had ask me to look after my sister, so I am trying to do as mom had ask. My sister has had a hard life, there has been a lot of bad choices in that family. It is sad, but some bad choices can follow you to the grave.

I had better get off here, I have a lot of work to do today also.

Rebecca, were the pink podded bush beans with your cucumbers? They have not turned up yet.

H/J, I grew Kentucky Wonder pole beans on okra and popcorn my 2nd season gardening. Ky Wonder are very vigorous beans and overwhelmed both the okra and popcorn. I think the three sisters garden was growing dent or flint corn. They are supposed to be more sturdy than sweet corn. Also, 4th sister, either sunflower or bee balm. https://rodaleinstitute.org/blog/the-three-sistersand-that-fourth-sister-no-one-really-talks-about/

Larry, I am so glad your neighbor helped you. For future reference, I grew tomatoes in cereal rye stubble one year. We had cut the rye and I just dug holes in the stubble after it dried. It served as a good mulch.

Ron didn't feel well yesterday, so we didn't do much. He is better today. We were going to go buy a new washer dryer set, but that was postponed. We watched a movie on Netflix, then another on regular TV. I cooked salmon and asparagus for dinner (one of the things I do well.) He usually cooks. He's continuing his sick leave to avoid the virus.

We have a top loading HE washer that we HATE. Bought 2nd hand. It makes horrible noises and doesn't get clothes clean. I went to the trouble of getting agitator balls on amazon to try to make it clean better. It also leaks, dripping into the tub constantly, so if you don't catch it immediately after it shuts off it drips on the clothes and makes them wet again. So, I had clothes in it and forgot them. Decided I'd better rewash them. Put them in the dryer, turned them on and forgot them again. When I went to get them out they were still wet and smelled, so I washed them AGAIN. Next time dryer didn't dry, AGAIN. Lightbulb moment. Ron put it on air dry one day because of SOMETHING. It was a good thing he was mowing and I had time to cool off, cause I was mad.

I don't see any days in the 90s in our forecast, but about a week out they're saying nights in the 40s WTH its MAY. Ron is anxious to put the lemon trees outside, but not if we go into the 40s.

The bush beans are finally coming up. I hope it doesn't get too hot for them. I thought the broccoli was buttoning, but the heads are getting bigger. They need attention. Everything needs attention. Ron did find more of the fabric pots I was looking at, so I shouldn't need more this year.

Have a good weekend.

Sounds like everyone is doing well. We are good here, actually not really too sad that we can't go out and about lol. I had to go out yesterday and it felt good just to get out of the house and drive, but then once I got to the store I was wishing I was back home. It just seems like a hassle these days. I stopped in Home Depot and they had the garden center blocked off to where it was an exit only which was good. Didn't see many people wearing masks, but I still had mine on. Got some organic gardening soil and some seed trays that I've been looking for. I refuse to actually go into Walmart. I have been doing small grocery pick-ups from Walmart at Guthrie when needed which isn't too often. I tried to do a pickup from the I-35 location in Edmond but the line was so long I had to reschedule till the next day and then come super early. The wait is at least an hour, no thank you.

If any of you live close to Edmond or even don't mind the drive, there is a co-op in North Edmond called Conscious Community Co-op. It's local farmers, bakers, makers, etc. They have such a variety! I bought some pure maple syrup and it is SO good. I also got some mozzarella cheese that's A2 and used it last night on homemade pizza. YUM!! They have a facebook page too. They were giving away packets of seeds from a vendor who donated seeds so people could start their own gardens and be more self sufficient. They also have boxes of seeds that are free too that include tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, radishes. Anyway, I have quite a few seeds now to get me going and I'll just harvest seeds going forward like I used to.

I love reading what everyone else is doing and just imagining I can see it all. Sure wish I could visit ya'lls gardens and just wonder through. It gives me ideas on what I want to do. I really want to get rid of the grass around my beds now so it's easier to maintain. If ya'll have any suggestions on the easiest and most cost efficient way of doing it that'd be great. I have a drip irrigation system I bought from Tractor Supply a couple years ago that I need to get out and hook up. I also want to build a trellis out of leftover lumber from when we replaced our privacy fence last summer.

Hope all have a great weekend!!

Hi Larry. God BLESS your neighbor!! And you, for looking after your sister. Words of wisdom --some bad choices can follow you to the grave.

What kind of trellises are you making, Jennifer? I'm still trying to come up with ideas for the school--lots of things will need to be trellised. I'm headed there after I post this, with cucumber, okra, marigold, gourd, melon seeds, probably more that I'm not thinking of at the moment.

Absolutely shocking and sad about your friend's husband. A sad reminder that we cannot take our loved ones for granted, and that each day could be the last for any of us. I thought about you as I was doing my walk-around this morning, thinking of all the things I could say about so many of the plants.

We still haven't made it to any of the big stores. There really just hasn't been a need for it. We do the pick-up from Walmart--and I've got plenty to do without worrying about deck containers yet.

Amy, congrats on getting new washer/dryer. When ours went out last summer, I finally settled on a low end Whirlpool HE machine. I actually am in love with it. Simple, no fancy buttons. No fuss, no muss. Not kidding. I love it.

Yes, that's ridiculous, that stretch of lows in the 40s!

On my walk-around this morning: I am so tickled at how my elderberry bushes are taking off now in their third year. Ninebark and Black Lace Elderberry are blooming. The sage and cat mint are now in full bloom, as are the tradescantia and purple oxalis (green one has been flowering away for nearly a month). Echinacea and rose campion are just beginning. The two tomatillos are flowering like crazy, and that makes me happy!

Garlic is HUGE. And I am laughing and loving the cilantro crop, bolting now in its designated spot and all around outside the beds. I should have no problem growing cilantro from now on.

Garry and I cut my hair day before yesterday. It's not perfect. But it'll grow, right?

I'm wondering, friends--does Tulsa have anything like the Conscious Community Co-op that Melissa mentioned. Sounds wonderful!

Yikes, Dawn--the poppies did not look happy the other day when I was back. I hope they're a little perkier today. LOL Oh well, it had to be done.

We finally finally got to spend a day on the lake yesterday. And we not only didn't get any fish, we didn't even get a single BITE!! Maybe we forgot how to fish. (Actually, we were only fishing for catfish--we probably would have done better with bass.) But it was exquisitely beautiful out there, though a bit too windy.

Okay, gotta run. Best to all of you.

I don’t know of a co-op like that here, but I would love one. I so miss Cherry Street Market, on hold during the virus, of course. Mother Road Market has a lot of good local stuff, but it’s definitely retail, not a cooperative.

Started training a new yard kid today. He was thorough, if not as neat as others. Bonus is he (accidentally) mulched a few plants with grass clippings.

I don‘t like Lowe‘s making the garden center exit only. I could be out so much more quickly if I could run in that door and out, rather than drag the entire store to get to one place. Even better would be to allow things like garden soil, compost, and mulch to be purchased on the app for curbside pickup. A friend who works there says the CEO wants to discourage people from buying that stuff, but can’t legally prevent it.

Everything is looking good here. Peas started blooming. Onion stems are getting bigger, I like how they look, but I don’t know what I’m looking at, lol. About when do they start bulbing up?

Amy, there were a few loose PEPH peas in that spot, but no beans.

Larry, Tom and I couldn't have this new garden without HU's help. HU has done most of the work and I'm just there to help. My kitchen garden usually produces pretty well, but, you're right....if this new garden produces as much as we've planted, it could feed an army. We'll put up a lot of it and share a lot of it too. And you're totally "man enough". You're getting it done as best as you can... even with less than perfect health. You certainly impress and inspire me. And thank goodness for good neighbors! I like your idea of planting flowers where your neighbor tilled too much.

Amy, I grew Kentucky Wonder pole beans my first year out here. They are very vigorous, aren't they? HU wanted to plant half sweet corn and half field corn (?). We put the bean seed alongside the field corn only because it's bigger and sturdier. And also the winter squash is planted next to the field corn and not the sweet corn. We're just doing this as an experiment for fun. Thanks for the link. That was an interesting read.

We're also showing a couple of nights of lows in the 40's. It's still really warm out there right now. The coop is hot and the chickens are panting.

Melissa, I see a lot of stuff about Conscious Community Co-op. If it were closer to me, I would shop there every week. It's just such a drive and that is inconvenient for busy people. I wish they would open a location in Norman.

Nancy, we just made a simple trellis from those handy panels and t-posts. We'll have to tie up the tomatoes. In my kitchen garden the tomatoes have (or will have) cages. I just don't have 55 cages, so trellises it is! I think those handy panels are $16 at TSC.

I don't have Ninebark or Black Lace, Nancy. I have 3 of the Ranch variety. And my new ones are Bob Gordon and Oklahoma John. So far they all look healthy this year.

The new blackberry plants are still living. Phew!

And even the raspberry cuttings from Jen haven't died. I am hopeful!

Love having more fruit and berries. Do want to make another strawberry patch, though.

The columnar apple trees have fruit! Yippee!

Rebecca, I agree about the garden center being an exit only. If you need to only but a bag of dirt or a basil plant, why make me walk through the entire store?!

Now that the two little granddaughters are sleeping, I'm trying to catch up....and there's so much to catch up on.

Jennifer, We took the girls shopping at Wal-Mart in Ardmore today so they could buy Mother's Day gifts and cards to give their mom next weekend. It was the first time they'd been out to a store since all of this began. We tried to maintain social distancing, and told them to touch things as little as possible (and they were really good about that) just to be as careful as possible, but really, it is hard to imagine a much safer location to shop in Oklahoma right now since Carter County has only had a grand total of 3 virus cases. We felt pretty comfortable there. Not many shoppers were wearing masks, but all the employees were. And, since we were there, we let them pick out new swimsuits to keep at our house, new pool floats and beach towels. I grabbed a few groceries while Tim helped the girls choose just the right card for their mom, which always takes them forever. I was only looking for a few specific food items, like fresh fruit and canned cat food and dog food, but didn't even notice any particular shortages of anything---even the toilet paper and paper towels were fully stocked and, in fact, piled up everywhere.

I would have enjoyed plant shopping at Lowe's, or anywhere else, but have heard so much about what a huge mob scene it is that we just skipped it. When we drove by on our way home, the parking lot was awfully full so I was glad we weren't planning to go there.

I went through about an 8 or 10 year phase of trying to have a 3 Sisters Garden. I particularly wanted it to work to keep the coons out of the sweet corn, and it really didn't. It can work if you are very careful with plant selection. Like Amy said, the native people grew field corn or flour corn so their corn stalks were very sturdy and tall compared to the corn stalks of most modern-day sweet corns and that makes a big difference. If I was going to do it again, I'd choose an heirloom flour corn or field corn. I did it with Seneca Red Stalker one year and that worked pretty well. Most pole beans were rampant enough growers to completely cover the corn stalks, but I found that half-runners, like State or Mountaineer, were perfect. They still climbed a lot more than all the plant descriptions said they would, perhaps because of our long growing season, but they were more contained and controlled than the average pole bean. The squash was the hardest part. In the years before the squash vine borers found us, I just grew pumpkins and they did great. They did not really keep the coons out of the corn though. The hardest part with the pumpkins, or with the C. moschata type winter squash that I replaced them with after SVBs showed up here in our eighth year of gardening here, was that the corn finishes up first, and you have to carefully step over all the squash vines in order to harvest the corn. That can be tricky. The native tribes tended to wait until the corn was dried, like we would do if growing popcorn or flour corn, so they weren't harvesting until they could harvest all their dried beans and dried corn together. I am sure they harvested some of their corn at the milk stage to eat as fresh corn, but they didn't discuss that much since it didn't involve much preparation for food storage, and Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden was all about the whole process--from soil preparation through food storage and cooking. Then, with the squash, they harvested it and mostly dried it for long-term storage too. You can read about some of the Indians' food storage methods in the book Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden. Harvesting beans to use green as green beans is a bit trickier, and if the beans are too vigorous, they bury their corn ears beneath their growth and that makes it hard to find and harvest the ears. I always grew tall sunflowers as the fourth sister. The Three (Four) Sisters Garden always was a glorious mess, but harvesting was difficult, and in our snakey location, sort of nerve-wracking. I finally gave up on the concept, but still sometimes grow corn and sunflowers side by side. One thing that helped with the corn was to let the corn plants get 2 or 3' fall before sowing the bean seeds beside them. That way the corn stalks had a head start and were able to gain some height before the bean plants began trying to strangle them. One of my prettiest Three Sisters Gardens, strictly grown for fun, was the combination of Multicolored Broom Corn, purple hyacinth beans and Collective Farm Woman melons instead of a squash. I grew these together at the east end of the garden to try to block herbicide drift. I suppose it worked the two years I did it, but it was more for fun than for an edible harvest. The purple hyacinth beans were very vigorous growers, but so is the broom corn, which often got 10 or 12' tall, and the combination stopped traffic when the beans were in bloom. People wanted to know what the purple-flowered 'trees' were.

Larry, Just do what you can do now, and don't judge yourself for it! I remember all those years when you planted and maintained several gardens for yourself and for others, and know you miss those days. I miss the days when I gardened harder too, but need to work at a slower, less-intense pace nowadays and I've learned to accept that. I'm happy to still be gardening.

Amy, I dread the day we have to buy a new washer and drier. The ones we have were probably from some of the earliest generation of HE models, and were made back when Sears still made and sold good appliances, if anyone here remembers those days. They have held up very well, but I know all these newer ones don't and won't last for 20-something years like our original washer and drier did. Tim works with a guy who had to get a new washing machine two years in a row, and he was extremely unhappy about it and told Tim that all these new ones are similar versions of useless junk.

They lowered our forecast high for Monday from 95 to 91, so that is some bit of an improvement. When that cold front comes at the end of next week, the nights are going to be sort of chilly for May, but our lowest night currently shows a forecast low of 53.

Melissa, I'm glad to hear you're gardening, and would love it if we had something like the co-op here. I am FB friends with a lot of the people involved in that and love what they are doing there.

When we went to HD last weekend, it was like you described but we were in and out pretty quickly first thing in the morning when they opened and I didn't really mind the way it was set up because at least I finally was able to stop in somewhere and buy some plants.

Nancy, It is a shame the fish weren't biting but I bet it was glorious being out on the lake anyway.

Jennifer, With onions, it depends on when you planted them and whether you're talking about short day, intermediate day or long day length types. When I plant in mid-February, the first short-day varieties usually start bulbing up in mid-April but aren't ready for harvest until mid-May. Some of the intermediate day length types bulb up at almost the same time, and others bulb up about a month later. With the long day length types, those don't usually start to bulb up for me until late June and aren't ready for harvest until mid to late July, and it depends on the variety because the three I grow---Copra, Highlander and Red River all bulb up at slightly different times. You'll be able to tell when onions are bulbing up because the bulb will be trying to push itself up right out of the ground. If your soil is nice and loose, the onions will literally pop up out of the ground a bit as they enlarge. If you are growing varieties sold by Dixondale, you can look at each product description and it should state the Days to Maturity for any given variety.

The only time I spent in the garden today was just a short period spent hand-watering young plants and recently transplanted seedlings, and then I went up to the house and watered all the tomato plants growing in large pots. Some of those have been in those large pots for quite a while now, and.....one SunGold plant produced the first two ripe tomatoes today. They were very low on the plant, buried deep in foliage near the stem, and I might not have noticed they were ripe if I wasn't standing there hand-watering. So, Tim and I each popped a SunGold into our mouth and savored the first taste of a home-grown tomato in 2020. It will be weeks yet before we get the first slicing tomato, and it will come from the Better Bush plant that was planted at the same time as the SunGold. Both were purchased at HD and were Bonnie Plants, solely for the purpose of having early tomatoes as always, particularly since I started our seeds so late this year because of all the endless rain and mud. The first flowers and fruit now have set on some of those seed-grown plants though, so they'll be producing ripe fruit sometime in June, I think. I would expect the Better Bush, which has 8 or 9 tomatoes on it so far, would produce the first ripe one before the end of May, which is a lot later than usual so we are very impatiently waiting for that first ripe tomato and the first BLT sandwiches.

It has been extremely windy down here, with wind gusts in the lower 30s for the last 3 or 4 days and that, combined with very little recent rainfall, is drying out everything quite a lot. I noticed the rhubarb plant's large leaves were trying to curl up today from the stress of all that warm wind. Even in morning sun and then shade for the rest of the day, rhubarb just isn't crazy about our climate. There were tons of butterflies out today, and lots of birds singing, and it was a nice day to spend 4 hours sitting and watching the girls play in the pool. Four hours. That's about as long as they can last in the pool (and I'm glad) before they're so exhausted they just have to give up, get out of the pool and come indoors. We coasted through the rest of the day and evening with pizza for dinner, and watching the movie Frozen II for the umpteenth time.

I'm hoping to make a quick trip to HD tomorrow morning early in the day to pick up as much mulch as we can squeeze into the truck so I can spend the rest of this week weeding and mulching the garden. Well, maybe not on Monday. It might be mostly too hot for that sort of work except very early in the day, but then the weather will get better after that.

I can't believe how warm it is already---part of SW OK hit 102 and 103 today, and I'm glad we were nowhere near that warm here, only 88 degrees. I'm looking forward to the cool front at the end of the week as it will return us to what should be close to normal temperatures for May. We spent a lot of time in April running 10-15 degrees above average and I'd rather not spend most of May doing the same thing. June heat is bad enough in June, we don't need it in May.

Dawn

Dawn—Are you familiar with Joseph Lofthouse and his plant breeding in Utah? I am growing Glass Gem corn in my Three Sisters this year, because that’s the seed I have and it’s a beautiful plant, but I want to try his Astronomy Domine landrace corn next year. He has some other landraces, especially beans, that I am going to order, and he’s trying to develop an out-crossing tomato. Really fascinating stuff.

Does anyone have experience with growing potato onions in OK? I don’t particularly want to grow giant crops of storage onions, but I would love to have some permanent onion populations in the garden. I’m thinking a mix of potato onions and walking onions would probably do okay with enough soil prep? The clay, the clay, the clay.

Did some weeding yesterday and watered everything after all the wind dried it out. The tomatoes are suckering like crazy, so I pinched all those. Planted some fennel and scallions all over the garden in little pockets, so hopefully something will come of them. My first direct-seeded cucumber is up—cukes and melons are taking forever to germinate this year. Probably all the temp fluctuations. The flea beetles are INSANE right now, but I saw quite a few ladybugs working intently yesterday, so fingers crossed for some hungry bugs doing flea beetle elimination.

—Marleigh

Marleigh, I have walking onions right now with the bulbs sprouting on top. We use them mostly for green tops. I grew potato onions...when? We still have some, which is pretty amazing storage. It would have been fall of 2018, harvested spring of 2019. They made small onions more like shallot size. They produce on top of the soil, in a rosette around the main plant. I'm considering getting more this fall. I got mine frome SESE. I actually bought SEEDS for these once. The variety was Green Mountain. The source I got them from no longer has them. The Experimental farm Network lists them, but they're sold out.

I've had this idea percolating for a few years now. We have an area where cables are buried. You can't dig or till there. This year it will be my pot garden. It will be pretty much covered all summer. That should kind of kill the bermuda. At least slow it down. If I planted flint or dent corn, I could plant pinto or black beans on it (couldn't I?) Anyway a bean for drying, something I've not done because I didn't want it to tie up space all summer. And moschata squash under it. In the fall cereal rye, to keep the bermuda out. Does the corn finish up early enough to plant turnips or other edible winter crop? Maybe, for rotation grow a heavy duty cow pea the following year, or something to feed chickens. Even wheat. I could find another spot in the yard to do this so I could rotate.

There is a place in Collinsville called Farm Hippie which is touted as an indoor farmers market and open all week. I have not been there, but was wanting to go before the virus. I follow them on facebook. They appear to have handcrafted items as well as bread and produce. Rebecca, Tulsa Farmers Market was open at Whittier Square yesterday. They have moved it because Cherry Street is under construction.

We are looking at an industrial Speed queen washer which will be expensive, but is supposed to be well built. NOT getting one with digital settings. Dials only. And an agitator.

I think I read about half of Buffalo Wild Woman's garden. I have a bad habit of reading half of something, then life gets in the way and I forget.

Guess I'll go look for next week's thread.