The picture of south garden did not post. I will try again.

This is south garden. No room for anything. I still have plenty room in the wildlife garden,but the wildlife try to eat everything I plant.

Sharing some pictures. HJ wanted to see the Four O’clocks.

I apparently have some hybrid morning glory plants too.

Canning lids on Amazon are like a dollar a piece. Lehman's is cheaper but I couldn't find bulk lids.

Are the factories that make these not operating or is it just more people doing it?

I haven't got anything to add. I watered pots yesterday, but sweet potatoes were still moist. Gave the peppers water. My water bill doubled from June to July. I didn't get near as much rain as Marliegh did. I kept being in the donut hole. I guess I should check the pots out front.

I Googled where are canning lids made and came up with numerous adds for them. Most were priced Amazon-like, but the reusable Tattler brand is actually cheaper! https://reusablecanninglids.com/products

If you buy in bulk Ball offers a discount which was 144 for $60.

I'm fascinated by the tattlers. Apparently there's a trick to doing the lids for processing, which is explained on the home page. I expect at a dollar a lid and the price of a jar canning is getting expensive to the point we will wonder if it is worth it. Reusable makes sense.

BTW, I wasn't on Lehman's website before, but both bulk and. boxes were out of stock.

I just ordered some Ball lids from here:

https://www.uhomely.com/

144 lids for around $80.

HU

Hey Y'all. I'm just checking in. I see y'all have posted some good stuff up there with pictures even. I'll come back and read those later tonight.

Thanks for the seeds, Larry. I've already put out the Zinnia seed. And we're back in arugula!

It's been delightful this morning and I was able to get some stuff done--little things that are easy to overlook because they're...little things. Only bad thing is I picked a watermelon that was not ripe. Why can't I get the hang of this?!

So...I have a heirloom Italian squash plant. Help me with this....if I take seeds NOW from the fruit, can I replant the seed now OR do they have to...sit for awhile? It's planted about 40 feet (I think) from any other squash, so more than likely isn't cross pollinated. But maybe. It's still worth it to try if I can.

As I was eating lunch I watched Roots and Refuge latest videos. I think some of you will appreciate it. It's just nice because their climate is so close to ours and it feels good to have videos that you can relate to...if that makes sense. They are cool in Arkansas too, right now. The giant tomato in the video is worth watching too!

Okay. I'll post the video then I'm back outdoors.

I'll be back to catch up tonight. :)

Edited to say that Jessica in the video found some jars (not lids only) at the Lehman's place y'all mention. Not sure if anyone needs jars too.

Jennifer, I would give the seeds a try if they look mature. One of the thing I like to do if I am growing a summer cover crop, which is often Buck wheat, is run the brush hog over the old plants to chop them up and knock of the seeds. I then drag a disc over the stubble, which tills in more organic matter and covers most of the seeds. ( some too deep), but in a few days I will have a new crop coming on. I dont do the recycling of the plant all at the same time. I leave some for the critters, till the new plants are producing, buck wheat matures fast. I wish I could give you good advice on the plants you are working with, but I have never tried it.

Fishing was good! 4 for GDW, 4 for me.

Dawn thought of a you tuber you might enjoy.

Dale and Carrie. They have some sweet videos with animals and kids and new farm.

these are the kind I like. Real people doing real life

I was cleaning fencerows yesterday and ran across this passion vine. I have lived in this area for 63 years and have never seen a passion vine around here.

It is in a vulnerable area where I’m surprised the cattle haven’t eaten it. There are a couple of small ones near the large vine. Does anyone have experience transplanting these? I think this is so beautiful.

Beautiful, Rebecca!

Larry, your gardens look so good!

Amy, I've looked at the Tattler lids too. I have no idea about them, though.

Kim, Dale and Carrie have been at a couple of our Spring Flings. There's a picture floating around of Dawn holding their daughter Mary when Mary was very small.

I"ve helped them with children's gardening workshops and their booth at the OKC Home and Garden. They're usually paired up with Bill Farris from Prairie Wind. It's funny because I JUST messaged with Carrie. She is taking another friend's baby rooster.

HU and I just made dilly beans. They look so good!

We also got carrots, parsnips and beets planted. Fall garden is started!

Thanks, Jennifer, the garden does look pretty good for this time of the year. I have not felt like working on it a lot because I have been spending more time in the wild life garden. I want to have plenty room to grow food, just in case the economy takes a turn for the worst. I also wont to teach the kids and grand kids how to grow food. I am hoping economy does not get that bad, but if it does, I think there will be a lot of people that wont even try to grow food. I think we have become a nation that had rather have a handout rather than a garden.

If you notice in the picture of the north garden, that clump of stuff that looks like weeds, is Egyptian spinach, it must be up to about 7 feet tall. After hearing remarks from Johnny Coleman and Amy, I had to order some to try. I have eaten a little raw, but none cooked. Madge says it looks to much like a weed to eat. It is getting ready to bloom, so I had better get rid of it or I will have a garden full of it next year. I may go out there and top it, and then get some of the new shoots just to give it a try. I would hope that Madge and I both would like it, because it grows like crazy, and with no care. If we did like it I think it would be a good plant for the wildlife garden, and just let it grow wild

I need to go check my trap in the wildlife. I am trying to find out what is eating all my pumpkin plants. I know that the deer were eating some of them, but an electric fence seemed to stop the deer, but what ever is eating the pumpkins now does not make a track in the bare, loose. soil. A man will break through the crust and make a track from 1/2 to 1 inch deep, I know a deer would also.

The girls were over Sunday, and I had my granddaughter order seeds for what she would like for me to grow this fall. She was asking about carrots, I hope they are not on her list, I have tried carrots before and they were a big flop, they were not sweet like the ones we buy.

Takes a little frost to sweeten up carrots. Just leave them in the ground through the winter , cover them a little and dig some as needed.

HU

Thanks, HU, I did not do that. I only remember growing them one time, about 16 years ago. If my granddaughter did not order seeds, I will get some at the Co-op when they come in. I also need advice on growing winter peas. I as granddaughter to order, green beauty, I think. Anyway it was a long type of snow pea. The problem I had with snow peas in the past, was that I dont see well enough to pick them. The peas and leaves look too much alike.

No ground hog in my trap, but something did get into my south garden and ate 3 cantaloupes. What ever it was, it was too short to get into the electric fence. I think it is time to string another wire.

It felt quite warm out, but maybe because I was picking beans in the sun. Or maybe I got spoiled by the cloudy days we've had recently.

Larry, so sorry about your cantaloupe. Speaking of cantaloupe, HU, I cut into the one you brought in from the garden. Oh man! It is good. I'll try to leave some for you if you're still coming over tonight. Ethan doesn't like cantaloupe (weirdo) and Tom can have some of the next one. Actually, there's probably some ready now.

So...I want more cantaloupe next year. :)

Larry, carrots are tricky for me. My biggest issue is getting them to spout. Once, that happens I've been somewhat successful with them. Sometimes I leave them too long once it gets hot (spring carrots). This is a first time for fall carrots and I'm looking forward to them. The ones I pulled out a few weeks ago looked pretty, but I haven't tasted them yet. They are in the refrigerator.

HU, I should have taken the time to grab those other beans last night. I have another couple of quarts. I might give them to Marilyn. She was complaining about having nothing new to can today. She's never heard of dilly beans. If she doesn't want them, I'll just put them in the freezer.

The (crappy) rain gauge was laying on it's side this morning. I don't know how much rain we got, but it wasn't much.

Not sure what I'll work on this afternoon. Possibly a nap. I didn't sleep great last night--kept waking up. I might have emailed HU around 4 am about rain...or lack thereof.

What's everyone else up to today?

Could just can some more dilly beans this evening if you got 2 more quarts and if Marilyn doesn't want them.

HU

Marilyn doesn’t want the beans, HU.

now people are talking about having a hard time finding pickling lime. You can order it online still, but will pay a large shipping fee (according to one friend).

Also, another person cant find a pressure canner but ordered one. she won’t get it until November!

I wonder if freezers are still on back order....

I tried to look at freezers on Lowes website and they were out of stock.

HU

I looked in Lowe's last week, and no freezers of any kind. You may could get a combo, I did not check on them.

I have not felt well for some time. I just go out and work for a few minutes and come back in to rest. I have been working on the wildlife garden, I love that. All the work I do over there is done with a tractor, its sorta like riding the bumper cars at the state fair. It must be a sin for a grown man to enjoy working with machines like I do. I moved several tons of dirt the past two days. I am trying to contour the land so it will not have water standing on it. Working on a piece of property like that is sorta like gardening, you always find something else you want to do, or add. I have another tree to take out ( tree and stump) , then another stump, a very large stump. I have found that I can hire an excavator cheaper than I can fool with tacking them out myself.

I have to break down and repair some of this junk that I have. It is much easier to operate a piece of junk than it is to repair it.

Jennifer, thanks for the info on the carrots. I must try them again. Its sorta crazy, you will do things for your kids of grand kids that you wont even try for yourself.

Those of you in need of pickling supplies who live N/E might give High Gravity in Tulsa a call. They sell beer-making supplies, but also carry all kinds of fermenting supplies and cultures. Nice folks, family business. Not sure how much proper canning stuff they have, but it might be worth a try? They always have tons of food-grade buckets and jars and those sorts of things, plus citric acid and cheese making salt and all that. Might have lime and other stuff tucked away, too.

https://www.highgravitybrew.com/store/pc/home.asp

Jen—Last I heard, Berkey water filters were back ordered for months, too.

Did anyone get a pack of seeds from China? Madge did, she ask me if I wanted them, this was before we knew what to do with them). I told her I had rather not have anything from China. She through them away. The package was packed to where you could not tell what they were, but listed as jewelry. Even the Chinese know the way to a woman's heart. There may be aliens growing somewhere in the landfill.

Jen I’m glad to know I’m not the only one with tomato failure this year. I do have friends who have shared a few. You know they are a real friend when they share garden produce. 😊

Larry, we have a lot in common. We have a ‘73 4020 JD that is used for everything. We bought it used and after about 20 years put a loader on it. My husband uses it more like a dozer but I’ve almost convinced him it’s cheaper to hire a guy with an excavator than to continually make costly repairs to the tractor. He is at his happiest when he’s moving dirt or clearing out trees, or like Dawn’s Tim he mows and trims several times a week 😁

We‘re sure enjoying the cooler temps and frequent showers. I put out about 150# of annual rye last night just to hold the fresh dirt where we’ve been clearing and reworking around the ponds. I did most of it with a little whirlybird seeder that only holds about a quart. I used to have canvas bag that I carried on my shoulder and hip. Anyone have one you like that is small enough to carry about 15-20#? I have difficulty walking so can’t carry much more at a time.

My tomatoes are blooming but still not setting many, had hoped the cooler temperatures would help with that.

HU, Did you find any canning lids yet? Are you looking for the 2-piece lids or just the flat portions? Everyone here has been sold out for weeks and I understand that is pretty much a nationwide thing unless you just happen to stumble upon them in a store that has lower-traffic. I buy lids in bulk from Lehman's, so have all we need in the regular size (not so much of the wide mouth ones), but the ones I have the most of are the flats because the last time I bought some, I think there were 345 in the bulk package. I don't have as many rings, but then they are reusable so I don't think we're in danger of running out this fall or next year. Lehman's is a great source, but sold out (as happens every summer, even when there is not a pandemic spurring more people to preserve food). You can order Lehman's bulk lids now, though, and you'll be on the list and they'll ship them to you whenever they get them. It might be months....but you'd have them for next year then. The last thing I ordered from Lehman's that was not in stock, took maybe 8 weeks to arrive, but it wasn't jar lids. Those might not be back in stock for a while because I'm guessing the wait list of people who need them is pretty long.

I assume you've looked at the grocery stores and at big box stores like Lowe's (some of the Lowe's down here carry a lot of canning supplies and some carry none), and I've also seen them this year at Atwood's, Tractor Supply Company and Orschlein's. Other places I've found them in years when canning supplies were hard to find were Ace Hardware, Big Lots and, occasionally, in craft stores (in small quantities) that sell Mason jars to crafters.

I don't care much for Mainstay jars which are thin and seem to crack more easily, but the lids were not a problem in the year that I used them.

My best guess would be that U-Line will have them online. I buy bulk packaging supplies from them. They often have them when no one else does. Let me find their canning lid page and link it. When I order from them, my stuff usually comes very quickly, often within 1-2 days after the day I ordered, because it ships from their warehouse at DFW Airport in a normal year. (I assume that hasn't changed.)

Canning Lids at U-Line

Jennifer, I think everything related to food preservation is sold out, on back order, etc. including freezers, but Tim and I saw tiny freezers in two different stores over the weekend when we were out chasing down building materials for the deck and doing our regular weekly shopping. The Sam's Club in Denton had the smallest upright freezers I've ever seen: 5 cubic feet. Still, if a person needed extra freezer space now, that's 5 cubit feet is more than they have at present. The store had maybe 5 or 6 of them on the display floor. And, in one of the home improvement stores, and I believe it was a Home Depot, there were a few 5 cubic foot chest freezers. Again, not much capacity, but at least some.

I'm not surprised about the canning supplies. I always get all of them I need in February or March, whenever the spring shipments hit the stores because there's nothing worse than not being able to find what you need when you need it. The cashiers look at me funny when I'm coming through the checkout with a ton of canning supplies in late winter or earlierst spring, but I don't care---if they were canners, they'd know you need to buy the supplies when you see them. One drawback to living out in a rural area is that if the local stores run out of canning supplies, we're going to have to drive a minimum of 60 miles, round-trip, just to look at other stores that might have the canning supplies in stock. One year I had to order stuff (seems like I needed liquid pectin, Clear-Jel, a new jar lifter, cheesecloth, etc. and every store was sold out of every single thing) online from Canning Pantry or some similar website and it took probably 2 months for it to arrive. By then, I didn't really need that stuff any more, but it taught me to always stay stocked up.

Larry, There's no sin in loving to work the land like you do. You've got the land and the equipment so you might as well do what you enjoy doing.

Marleigh, I've heard the same about Berkey water filters. We bought ours back in the winter, and then our son decided that was a good idea months later, and they were sold out when he tried to order one. I still was getting their marketing e-mails every week or more often as recently as last week, which I really don't need since we bought extra filters and stuff when we bought our filter, so I finally unsubscribed last week. I imagine they'll remain sold out for quite some time to come.

Larry, A lot of people have gotten those seeds, but I have not, and I'd toss them in the trash if they did show up here. I read one story online last week that somebody planted some last year (so apparently this brushing scheme has been going on for a while) and they got giant hogweed. The ones I've seen photos of have often looked like morning glories or something similar.

farmgardener, I hope your tomatoes make a good crop for fall. We have had plenty and I'm sort of tired of them so have been yanking out some of the plants after harvesting the last of the fruit that they set earlier in the year. I just saw the first leaf-footed bug on one of the plants yesterday, and was thinking that this was the latest those pests ever have shown up here. That only makes the third or fourth leaf-footed bug I've seen this year, and that is a rarity.

The cooler weather was nice while it lasted, but the heat is supposed to return today. We did not get the recurring rain showers that most of y'all have had periodically all summer, so it is getting really dry again. That half-inch of rain that fell last week didn't last long at all, so I watered the garden this morning. I watch the radar every day and often see storms scooting across northern and central OK and never making it this far south. Well, we did get rain yesterday--a whopping 1/100th of an inch. As you can imagine, no one was impressed with our rainfall here. The cats sat out in it and didn't even come up on the porch, which I thought was pretty funny. It was just a very light mist that didn't last but a few minutes and if you were out walking in it, you were asking yourself if it was rain or fog or just your imagination.

Have a good day everyone.

Dawn

Farmergardener, I have both kinds of seeders hike you are talking about, and seldom use either. I also have a 500# seeder that I hook to the smallest tractor ( a b2100 Kubota) and seldom use it. If my kid helper is not busy in the hay field I will ask him to install the seeder if I have a seeding project. Most of the time I just place seeds of different kinds in the bucket on the Kubota, ( and broadcast by hand ) I will have already carried compost and my tiller to the wild life garden. Another way I work the wildlife garden is to take the pasture cultivator ( a 9 shank, 7 foot wide ripper) and bust up the soil, then drag a disc over it to farther break up the soil. (I will have the disc attached to the rear of the kubota). If the soil is still too rough I will back-drag i with the bucket on the John Deere. The next step is to come back with the pasture cultivator and just barely drop the teeth into the soil. this is to make straight shallow furrows. depending on what I am planting will determine which furrow to use and how many to skip. I then drag a piece of 4' x 12' of conveyor belt over the area to cover the seeds. I know this sounds like a crazy way to do anything, but my mom use to say " poor people have poor ways", this is just the junk I have to work with. My next broadcasting project, I want to try placing my generator in the bucket of the Kubota, and place my leaf blower across my lap and drop the rye seed into the intake of the leaf blower, and just try to blow the seeds where I want them as I drive the tractor.

The ( whatever it is) did not get into my cantaloupe last nigh, I tossed out 2 or 3 damaged cantaloupe near the edge of the garden and they were eaten instead.

Dawn , I found some "Mainstay" lids at a Walmart and got a dozen packs for $20 for a last resort backup.

I then found some Ball lids at : https://www.uhomely.com and ordered a dozen more packs (144 lids) for $80. A little steep but can't run out of lids now. I'm not worried about the bands so much , got plenty of them if they don't get too rusty.

I can still get the wide mouth lids at the local grocery store , it's the regular lids that are scarce for me.

HU

I'm watching storms out by Enid that look like they're moving due east. They could graze us if they don't fall apart.

The mystery cucurbit is a melon. No idea what kind. It fell off the vine when yellow. It tastes a bit like cantaloupe. It tasted like cucumber when young. It is...what is it called, fluted? Rounded ridges from blossom end to stem. My theory is that the store bought melon that I composted and grew from seeds last year was a hybrid and it is reverting to one of it's parents. It could also be a reverting version of the Asian melon I grew last year. I'm going to save seeds because it likes my garden! It has to fight a rampant patch of whippoorwill peas that want to take over the world.

I'm getting more tomatoes than I need. Daughter ate an heirloom tomato that she grew. Her dogs dug up her tomatoes early on, so she's been waiting a long time. She also doesn't know what it was because no labels are left. She said it was "wonky" looking, so something like Gary 'O Sena maybe. She also has black brown boar growing.

Why isn't my cardinal vine flowering? It's grown thick and tall but no flowers?

All the lovely cool weather and I've felt like crap and not been out in it. I should go take pictures. Daughter's boyfriend mowed for us the other night. Mower we have needs carburetor overhaul. Ron hates carburetors. It was estimated 15 days to get it repaired. That must be a symptom of things you can't find.

The melon. That one fell off. Don't know what caused the brown spots on the side.

I must do something.

Larry, that is so true about doing things for your kids. I would grow anything my kids requested. The only thing they've requested is seedless watermelon. LOL

But, they eat what I grow--Mason more so because she is a foodie like her Dad and I. Ethan is a bit more picky. He's been that way since he came off baby food.

Since we've already started our fall carrots, my chore will be sure to keep the soil moist enough to allow the seeds to push up and out.

We haven't received any of the mystery seeds.

Marleigh, I must get one of these Berkey water filters everyone has and are talking about. I've noticed them mentioned on several of the "homesteaders" videos...they were not selling them or pushing them, but just mentioned them. We have one of the Primo water coolers. We haul the jugs to Natural Grocers every week. I guess I'll be waiting for awhile though, if they are on back order too!

Dawn, the cooler weather was so nice. It spoiled me, I'm afraid.

There's a couple of freezers on Marketplace. One in Norman for $75. It says it is working, but it is one of the smaller chest styles. I should go check it out.

Dawn or Amy, if you have time will you look at my question about the heirloom squash. Or nevermind, I'll just ask again. I have an Italian heirloom squash plant. Because it's an heirloom, the seed should produce true, right? If it hasn't been cross pollinated. It's sitting away from the other squash by quite a distance. Would I need to let the seed from the fruit sit awhile or can I plant it right away. I just know so little about saving seed. I should study up on it this winter. It's a nifty little bush plant and I would like to try to get a couple more plants going for the fall. Then next year--zero squash.

HU, the dilly beans and okra jars sealed. I noted the "sweet and spicy" on the lids of those.

Also, I decided to actually count the lids we have at my house. Without breaking it completely down, we have 214 regular and 163 wide. That is NOT including the box of full jar sets OR the Mainstay one. There's a few weird random ones that you can look at next time you're here.

Remy Rotella passed away. She owned the sample seed shop.

Hi all. Not much in gardening news. . . I decided we won't be planting any vegetables for fall. There's no room at the school, and very little room here. Maybe I'll throw some collards in here. We took advantage of the past two cool days to go fishing--both days. Tuesday was more successful than yesterday. Yesterday was a comedy of errors. We DID catch four catfish. And then the boat died a couple miles from Whitehorn Cove. . . I wasn't bothered--had the trusty trolling motor--but when it broke, things got a little dicey. We were waiting for a call back from the highway patrol when a boat came by. They were the same people who put in when we did up at Rocky Point--so it was like we "knew" them already. We all got a laugh out of that, and they towed us to Whitehorn. We had a drink, and then one of the regulars brought me home so I could get my car. Then I returned to Whitehorn to pick Garry up. BUT when I got there, Kevin (one of the owners) said let's go look at it. Garry was certain it was the ignition. Nope. Kevin found the loose battery cable. What a riot. Took about. 30 seconds to fix. SO. We jumped in the boat and made it back to Rocky Point. Then came home, unhooked the boat, and drove back to the marina so I could get the car. Now we're taking the boat to the good boat mechanic, as there are a few other issues with it. Next step, buy new trolling motor.

It'll be too hot to go fishing anyway, for several days.

I'll have Garry stop by Lincoln on the way home. I'm anxious to see if the swallowtail caterpillars have devoured the fennel clump there. Oh--Passion flower vines, farmgardener.. They showed up here by magic last year, in the back--crazy spreaders (we got the white ones). I took cuttings and they were quite easy to grow. Great as host plant for the fritillary butterflies.

When I was at Lincoln on Monday, as best we counted, there were between 30-40 caterpillars on the stand of fennel. I was intending to take them some of my fennel if needed, but just now when I was looking, I have over 2 dozen on mine, just by casually looking. Good butterfly year.

Well, we're on our way to boat place.

Not sure how much rain I got, but we got dumped on pretty good. Glad to not have to water tonight.

This is the weekend that the remaining tomatoes get to decide if they are on board for the long haul or are ready to be put out of their misery. At least a couple of them will be replaced by pole beans. Carrots and beets are up for fall here too. Ready to see about spinach and lettuce too.

Rebecca, how are you starting your spinach and lettuce? I want to start it indoors soon. BUT, I got rid of my light shelf to put in a pantry cabinet so need to do one of those "counter top" type of light situations. Hoping I can find one online if not in a local store. If nothing else, I'm sure I can rig up something.

What varieties of lettuce are you gonna try?

Nancy, I have some dill that is covered with caterpillars right now. The last ones disappeared so I'm wondering if birds got them. I threw a net over them all. Do you think that will be okay? I'll come back to edit this post with a picture.

Glad you're getting your boat fixed. And that you have a sense of humor about your boat adventures. :D

Sorry about Remy, Amy. I didn't know anything about her, but can tell she must have been an awesome lady.

I didn't do much gardening today. Harvested green beans that we had with dinner. Harvest more okra. LOL. It's a daily thing. And a few tomatoes. Also watered some stuff.

I guess that is quite a bit of gardening. haha.

I was thrilled to see that the Indian Gherkins are making fruit FINALLY. It's only been since April that they were planted!

Oh, I also tore out some of the Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck vines. As I was working on that, I noticed that SVB had gotten into areas of the vine that were tied up to the trellis. I wonder if those spots were weaker from being tied up...especially when the wind pushed and pulled on them. I thought SVB moths only laid their eggs at the stem, but I guess not.

The largest and oldest fruit fell off today. Some of the others are almost finished and new one is just starting up. I killed a 1000 squash bugs too.

Here's the thing. I think these plants need to sprawl. That's what the Seminole did last year. That way they can root in along the vines and not only depend on the main stem. Does that make sense?

So, I did gardening today after all.

Kim, This is the place where Dale learned gardening several years ago. A lot of us here know Dale and Carrie, and Dale tried a gazillion times to get me involved with his app when he was developing it, and I just kept telling him I didn't have time to get involved in any more projects. He and Carrie and the kids are having so much fun at the farm, which is new to them as they previously lived in town and turned their entire back yard into a lovely and productive garden. I just don't wach You Tube, have no desire to do so and no time to spend doing it. Lillie watches a lot of junk on there and we've been trying to get her to understand you cannot believe everything that some people on there say because they often make outrageous claims just to get 'clicks'. There was one You Tuber who had her convinced that unicorns are real. (sigh) She has become a lot more discriminating about who/what she believes from You Tube nowadays.

Larry, At our house, it would be raccoons in the cantaloupes. Since our 8' fence keeps them out of the garden, last night they were in the garage instead when Tim went out to close the garage door. Tim and 3 raccoons running around inside a 1200 s.f. building that holds his supply of junk he might need some day. What could go wrong? Two raccoons finally left the garage, but the third was hiding from him amongst all his stuff that he keeps in that building and he couldn't find that coon anywhere. He came indoors feeling defeated. I suggested he put Jesse on a leash and take him out there to sniff it out. That worked. Jesse has a nose for raccoons apparently, and the half-grown coon had no desire to be in a garage with the dog, so the coon fled the garage, Tim cleaned up the birdseed the coons had gotten into, and Jesse walked into the house proud of himself and feeling about 9' tall, carrying a new rawhide chewy bone that Tim had given him as a reward for finding the coon. Jesse has been here since October and he finally put his hyper energy to work doing something good. He is a very good boy, but an overly energetic one.

HU, I'm glad you found some lids. There's nothing worse than needing them and not being able to find any.

Amy, The mystery melon sounds interesting. The fact that it slipped off the vine when it was ripe tells us that it probably is in the muskmelon family. The brown spots likely are some sort of bacterial infection that began after something (perhaps stink bugs or leaf footed bugs) pierced the rind (or attempted to).

Cardinal climbers are prone to grow foliage like mad with lots of water or very fertile soil and to bloom better if slightly dry or in poor soil. Maybe your plant is too happy making foliage to focus on making flowers. In the years I've grown them, they usually begin blooming in mid-summer. Perhaps the cool spell messed it up, although honestly, I would have thought the cooler weather might have pushed it into the bloom since the cooler weather would feel more like fall.

Jennifer, Your squash would come true from seed if you aren't growing any other squash near it that could cross with it. When you want to produce pure seed that is not cross-pollinated, you have to bag the blossom before it opens so pollinators can't reach it, then you hand pollinate it yourself with pollen from one of the male flowers on the plant, then bag the blossom again to exclude pollinators from reaching it and adding some other pollen to the mix. You can remove the bag when the flower wilts and the fruit begins to enlarge and you're sure pollination did occur. You can use little organza bags like the ones they sell on wedding supply aisles to hold rice or whatever. Or, once the flower is pollinated, just tape it closed with masking tape so no pollinators can come along and cross-pollinate it with pollen from another plant. SSE says that for distance isolation, you'd need to grow any other squash at least 800' away (and possibly farther, I'm just going with the smallest distance they list) to ensure cross-pollination did not occur. The other way to isolate squash from cross-pollination is to grow different kinds of squash that would bloom at other times. This is known as time isolation. So, if you have multiple types of squash growing in your garden, and if you didn't bag the blossom, there's a chance your fruit will be cross pollinated and won't come true from seed. You have to let the fruit get fairly mature so the seed will be mature (with summer squash, we harvest them for eating while the seeds are still immature), and I've never saved a squash seed and tried to turn around and plant it in the same season. Usually by the time a squash fruit is mature enough to produce mature seeds, and then you scoop out the seeds, save them and dry them, it is too late in the year to plant them. If you have a mature fruit now, you could try it, but be aware of the likelihood of cross-pollination.

There's entire books written on seed-saving because doing it correctly involves close attention to detail and the details you need to know will vary from one type of plant to another. The book I have is called Seed to Seed and was written by Suzannne Ashworth in the earliest 2000s, and mine is the second edition, so I assume the first edition was written much earlier. Carol Deppe, I think, has a more current book but I haven't read it. I think George did like Carol's book though. Seed Savers Exchange has a lot of seed saving info on their website, or you could join George's seed savers group, which is Green Country Seed Savers over a proboards.

I have canning supplies like pickling lime, pectin, pickling salt, rings, jars and lids stashed everywhere. Sometimes I open a cabinet and find some in a spot where I'd forgotten about them. So, when I run out, I'm usually not out---I just have to find the hidden ones. I've tried to consolidate all of them in one of the old kitchen cabinets that we moved into the sunroom when we redid the kitchen. I kept that cabinet specifically to hold canning supplies so I could keep all of them in one place. It kinda worked--I have canning and food preservation supplies in three cabinets in the sunroom, and some in a cabinet in the kitchen, and some in a cabinet in the laundry room, so they aren't all in one place yet. Maybe I'll take time today to round up the ones in the kitchen and laundry room and add them to the supplies in the sunroom cabinets.

Amy, I was so sad to hear of Remy's passing. She had survived breast cancer, I believe, quite a lot of years ago (or it seems like a long time ago to me) and she was just a ray of sunlight always. I hope she had time to make arrangements for someone she knew (she is very connected to tons of people in the heirloom seed world) to take her seeds and try to keep them going. I guess time will tell. She was just a normal gardener like all of us who loved to grow things and she really loved to cook with the produce she raised. There's great recipes on her Sample Seed Shop webpage. There's not many left like her who try to grow all their own seeds themselves and I always admired that.

Nancy, Sorry about the boat. What an adventure y'all had.

It sounds like a wonderful caterpillar year at Lincoln.

Clearly I'm planting nothing for fall because I hope to be focusing on the landscape and because my peppers, tomatoes and flowers in the garden still are going strong. I'd have to remove plants to make room for more plants, or tackle the weedy beds on the east end, and I just don't want to do that because it is snake season. I'll get it all back in order eventually. Oh, and kale. The kale is still going strong in flower pots sitting by the garden shed. I yanked out the ones in the raised bed garden to make room to house landscaping plants being held there for the new landscape.

Rebecca, It is great that you got rain and can start working on the fall garden. The rain keeps missing us and we are incredibly dry, although we still look good on paper since we had so much rain months ago.

It got awfully hot here yesterday and felt unbearable, probably because we all had adjusted to the temporarily cooler weather. I think our highest heat index was 103. We've certainly had worse weather this summer, but that 103 felt awful after the long run of abnormally cool weather.

Jennifer, Wasps are voracious eaters of caterpillars, so if the birds aren't getting your cats, the wasps might be. They'll fly right in, pick up a caterpillar off the plant, and take it back to their nest to feed their young or their future young. If you watch the wasps when you're working in the garden, you may witness one flying away carrying a caterpillar.

I'm surprised that the SVBs got into your Pennsylvania Crookneck squash since it is a C. moschata. I've never had them get into any of our moschatas. I don't know if the vines being tied up had anything to do with....probably it was just hungry, hungry grubs fighting to survive on the only food source they had found. Normally they cannot tunnel easily through the solid vines of C. moschatas so go instead to C. pepos or C. maximas or, if you grow any of them, C. argyrospermas.

Yes, I believe C. moschatas are happier sprawling because they can root into the ground which helps them to grow more and more and more. It also builds in a certain resiliency in case SVBs infiltrate part of their main vine. Even when I grow the Korean Summer Squash on trellises, I let them sprawl along on the ground too, to a certain extent, so they can root into the beds in more places than just the original spot where I planted them.

It is too hot for gardening. I water and I harvest and that is it. For August, that is enough.

Dawn

We got a little rain last night, it looks and sounds like we may get a little more. I hope I dont have butternut and pumpkins splitting.

My butternut vines are dying. I think my garden needs to be fed every now and then, but because of my high mineral count I shy away from most fertilizers, other than compost. I did go to the wildlife garden and get my small tractor and dump a bucket of compost on the sweet potatoes that the deer exposed when the ate the leaves off the plants. I need to work on the two other tractors and get them back among the living. When you have a bunch of old junk there is always something that is broken down, at least they are old enough that I can work on them, the new stuff I just don't under stand.

Something is eating my cantaloupes. I have not been out yet today, but would not be surprised to find more damage.

My neighbor and I are going together to plant a fall garden, within the wildlife garden. I think he enjoys getting out there as much as I do. The big difference is, he is young enough to work. With this Covid thing neither one of use get out much, but we still see one another about every day. We don't get close to the other, he sits on his side by side and I on the tractor. We lie, spin yarns, and solve all the worlds problems.

Cantaloupe is so good. I've just harvested our second one. So far it seems easier than watermelons. I just can't get the hang of watermelon. The one time I felt like I "had it" was two years ago--that was the year I hurt my foot and was stuck on the couch. Coyotes got them before I did. There was lots of them and they got them all. I want more cantaloupe next year for sure. I think we put in 4 plants this year--HU and I.

Larry, I'm happy you have a neighbor to visit with and plan a fall garden together.

Are sweet potatoes difficult to grow? I've considered doing them next year since I'm not doing squash. To me, sweet potatoes and winter squash are interchangeable in recipes.

Dawn, I've actually had SVB get into Seminole--or try very hard. It was the year I decided not to do squash anymore. And I didn't for 2 years. But brought it back last year with success. This year...just wow. We did get a few small butternut in the SG and a few PDCN in the KG.

The garden is full of wasps this year. And a specific kind is hanging out near the backdoor. I have those brown spiders (not brown recluse) that live in the cracks in the patio. I think those wasps are after them. I've seen it and it's weird and freaks me out and I don't like it.

Hopefully that netting will help protect the caterpillars and not hurt them.

Thanks for the advice on seed saving. I'm going to study up on it.

I know we disagree about YouTube. But it's funny because whatever I am currently thinking about, I'll watch a R and R video during lunch and Jessica is talking about that same thing that I'm already thinking about. Maybe it's because of seasons... and our climates are similar. It's just weird.

But, again, not every YouTuber is trying to convince people of ridiculous things. Maybe you won't always agree with them, but several are legit people even if they prune their tomato plants or use Bt or wait until tomatoes are fully ripe to harvest...stuff like that. Several really want to help people. And R and R, she always says that she lives and gardens in the south, so things that work for her, might not work for people in other places. I think she tries to be honest and just talks about what works for her personally. It's very inspiring to me. I don't agree with everything they do, but it's rare that I agree 100% with anyone online or offline. Even more so...I know that I can't live their life because my situation is different. I want to be Shaye from the Elliott Homestead when I grow up (she's younger than me. lol), but I don't live or garden in her climate. Nor do I have that awesome root cellar under my house. Anyway...rambling.

I know you don't plan on ever watching a video, but I think you would understand the difference in a legit youtuber vs a ridiculous one if you ever watched a "good" one. But, I get some people would rather watch other things for entertainment: the news, police shows, comedies, dramas, sports, etc. I like to watch gardening/homesteading stuff. There's not a lot of that on TV, so I watch YouTube instead. And I get that some people can idolize YouTube "stars". I've seen it happen, of course, and then they are let down by something the "star" does or doesn't do. I don't get that emotionally involved with them.

Yikes! Racoons in the shop! Good call on taking the dog to sniff and shoo it out.

I slept in so late today and can't believe it's already 11. Trying to decide what to work on now. I did a little job related work already. Now...what. Maybe I'll wander outside and see what needs my attention.

We had thunder last night but didn't get a drop of rain, so maybe I'll water a little.

Have a good day, Friends.

Sweet potatoes do best in soft sandy soil so they can get big.

Just plant the slips in hills sometime in May after no more frosts. They grow vines that spread out kinda like morning glories. Then dig them sometime in late summer or early fall before the first frost.

https://bonnieplants.com/how-to-grow/growing-sweet-potatoes/

HU

Re Youtube and other videos. I've come to think that books vs videos is in part a generational thing. I've noticed that my friends who are 20 years younger like videos far more than people nearer my age. Now--what about friends 40 yrs or more younger? Even more so. And apps to make our lives easier? Uh no. I'm still thinking about getting a Roomba, though.

We have a new neighbor! A young man bought the A-frame across the street/road from us. He's very pleasant. Bought it for a lake house. YAY. It is a shambles. GDW and I trying to figure out how one could fix it up rather than just tear it down. But that's his plan. He's an engineer. He has an enormous dumpster in front of it right now and comes up for 2 days a week to work on it.

Speaking of sweet potatoes. I LOVE growing sweet potatoes--for the potatoes and for the foliage. So pretty.

I hate that caterpillars are such easy picking for the wasps and birds. But I opt for the "let nature take its course" route, hoping to achieve that magical perfect ecosystem. And, after all, the wasps are also pollinators. We have so many bees and wasps here now--and a lot of birds, lot of grasshoppers. But I applaud those who DO grow and protect the butterflies! I don't have enough nectar plants this year--almost exclusively the echinacea purpurea. I'm growing some zinnias right now in my sunnier bed, but they won't be ready for another month, probably. Though I don't have lots of butterflies, I've had a remarkable variety out here. I probably have more than I think I do, because of all the shrubs and trees. . . and so many of them love to fly through the tree tops.

We haven't seen many (knock on wood) raccoons out here--or possums--or skunks or armadillos here the past couple years. Wonder if Titan has anything to do with that. I WISH we had possums. But Titan absolutely hates them. Raccoons, glad to have not seen any. No rabbits, either.

Garry's paw paw trees are doing great! They're both over 3' tall with lots of leaves. The American beautyberris are coming along nicely, as is the spikenard. I just realized I have a missing oak leaf hydrangea. Garry wouldn't have dug it up, because he knew it very well. lol. I do still have one. What a mystery.

Rain-- we had just over 2 inches for the past two days. I'm thrilled for Lincoln. Means John doesn't have to water. And thrilled for us, too. Time to fix dinner. . .

For me, cowpeas are the easiest thing to grow, okra would be, except for pulling up the stalks. Sweet potatoes give me the most bang for the buck, and the are very easy to grow. I have to fight the deer, rodents and grub worms, and I have to have help digging them. I am trying to bank on sweet potatoes and winter squash because the storage is much easier than the other foods. I am also going to try to over plant turnips and different kinds of greens, because I think I can plant more than the deer can eat, and if things get out of hand my neighbor said he would fill my deer tags for me. We have a slaughter house about 2 miles north, if we need it.

My neighbor and I are already talking about next year. I think we agree that I can start the plants and he can keep them alive in his greenhouse till the weather stabilizes, then we will plant his large garden, my 2 smaller gardens, and then use an acre or two of the wildlife garden, by doing so we should we should be able to grow a lot of food. I think that he and his wife plan on canning a lot, I dont think Madge and I will be able to do that. Of course a lot depends on what the economy looks like next year, but we are going to put a lot of work into the soil anyway. It is easier to grow a cover crop and not really need it, than it is to need amended soil and nowhere to get amendments.

Hi all

y’all have been busy and I am at a convention so no time to really catch up.

concerning my reference to Dale and Carrie I have been following them since they first came to the fling. Fascinated by his story Very similar to mine. i knew Dawn knew then that’s why I suggested it so she could see how much fun they are having.

i personally thoroughly enjoy you tube. I do not have a television so it is my only entertainment. I get to pick exactly what I am looking for and usually get educated in the process. And honestly I am lazy about reading. Except here and church I don’t read much. I need reading glasses to make it easier so I won’t get headaches.

can’t wait to get back on the garden

Nancy, I'm thrilled for you! 2 inches of rain right now is WONDERFUL. So happy for you.

About videos...I know people who are a whole lot older than you who love TV which is really just vidoes. But, on YouTube anyone can make videos so it opens it up to...EVERYONE, not just Hollywood or the famous and beautiful. BUT I suppose older people just like their TV, dang it! They like their programs. haha. YouTube is just a different way to be entertained. I'm sure people many years ago who were older thought that TV was full of ridiculousness.

Personally, I like both. YouTube just opens up many more doors. Y'all know that I fear ever being closed-minded--I never want to be that person who refuses to look at something because I have a narrow experience with it and feel that I already know everything so can no longer grow. People both older and younger than I can teach me things. I want to always embrace that.

But that's just me.

Nancy, I saw a swallowtail butterfly today. I left the netting over the cats and hope they all make it. We'll see. They're such pretty caterpillars.

Kim, I like to read. I'm just so busy that it's hard to read now a days. I can give up some of my stuff like my job or gardening or chickens or canning, but probably won't. As much as I enjoy a good fiction. I agree with you about Youtube.

I talked to Carrie today. We're trying to make arrangement to get my friend's little roo out to their property, but they have an illness in the family that is slowing it all down. They are super excited with their new property and animals. I hope they do well.

HU and I planted our fall beans tonight and canned four jars of diced tomatoes--not a lot but we had fun doing it.

Larry, the zinnias have sprouted already. Yay!

On the book vs video, I like both. I've always been a voracious reader, though I've all but quit books in the last few years. I have Kindle on my phone and tablet, and I read a lot of blogs. But videos are nice because I can have it playing while I'm working. I like R&R, but like HJ said I don't necessarily agree with her. Theres also a guy in Jersey that I watch, he's turned his whole property into a "food forest" as he calls it. And also Gary Pilarchik from Rusted Gardener, and this guy called "unemployeed hillbilly" or something like that.

Our squash/pumpkin/gourd collection is pretty much dead. The last two are barely limping along. We have one watermelon that's about the size of a golfball. OSU Factsheet says you can plant pumpkins until July 30, so I'm debating whether to try a few & see if we get anything. Also planning to throw out some lettuce and peas, but I have to yank the beans to plant peas. I have one bean plant that puts out tons of flowers, forms tiny beans, and then they disappear. I don't have space for non-performers so pulling them may be best. I grew carrots for a living much and they'll be ready to harvest once we get that first cold snap.

Starting to get a few peppers, but not enough to really do much with. I made half a jar of cowboy candy and have a jar of fridge peppers that I add the new ones to as I get them. My grand plans for canning are a bust this year, which from the way y'all are talking may be a good thing.

I watch you tube every day. I cant hear well enough to watch TV. Most you tubes have closed caption and I can pause and read it at my own pace. I dont watch a lot of gardening videos. I like to watch repair and history videos. I also watch a lot about other countries.

I came in at 11:00 last night. I installed another hot wire around part of my garden. I strung it about ankle high, hoping to keep the coons away. There was no critter damage, but I have cantaloupes rotting like crazy. I have grown cantaloupes no more than 6 times in my life, and never with 100% success. I have the cantaloupes planted, along with butternut, in the new ground I added to the south end of the south garden. The butternut vines are dying also, they look like spider mites may have come to visit. I think that I counted near 40 fruit, but I was hoping for a lot more. I am thinking about feeding the butternut. I have some kind of commercial fertilizer in a plastic jug on the deck, it is so old that the plastic jug has broken, so I need to get rid of it anyway. I think I can harvest the butternut that look like they are about ready and toss the old fertilizer on the ground and see what happens.

Jennifer, I am glad you are getting zinnias to sprout. I just came in a while ago from checking the gardens and picking a few things. I noticed the humming birds were working the zinnias in the north garden, the few that have survived the attack of the cucumber plants. The zinnias were planted too close to the trellis, and it looks like the cucumber plants have zinnia blooms on them. I think it looked neat, the humming birds thought so also.. I have a lot of birds in my garden every year, but seem to have more this year. I really enjoy the birds, and for some reason I have been overrun with Mocking birds, I am happy about that, I like to watch them, they seem to be such jerks that nothing can get along with them, if they are not trying to pick a fight with the crows, or cat, they are picking on me, and I am the one that runs the mower that chases out the crickets and grasshoppers for them to eat, such ungrateful birds..

Pretty much every garden center in town is stripped clean of most summer plants, and it’s still too hot for fall plants. I just ran in to get fresh potting mix for the greens containers. I lost everything in my two porch planters because the drain holes clogged up, and I grew mud soup. Not sure what I can wintersow now for fall that won’t get roasted undercover.

Thinking about yanking my only Sungold plant. It’s at least half defoliated and only giving me a couple currant sized tomatoes a week. Not sure if it’s not too far gone to come back to life for fall. My new for fall planted tomatoes are growing soooo slowly.

Damon Lane’s fall forecast shows normal/average temps this fall. In Oklahoma, what constitutes normal? The only normal thing is inconsistency.

Jen, do you mind sharing your Cowboy Candy recipe?

I like the Rusted Gardener too. Have you watched One Yard Revolution? He is pretty inspirational as well. I literally teared up at one of his early videos where he was talking about building up the soil. I haven't watched his videos lately because I'm super busy right now...and he's in such a different climate. It's amazing what he's able to do with just a "regular" front yard and back yard.

And...whether we agree with the way R and R does her gardening or not...it certainly works for her. She grows so much food.

Larry, YouTube videos have literally saved us 1000's on car and appliance repairs. Luckily Tom is able to watch one and apply it. And our current hinged hoop situation is from a guy who has the best design I've seen yet. I'm glad I found his video. I also like to watch history stuff on youtube. My current fascination is with the Sumerian tablets. And also watching stuff about other ancient writings...seeing how they match up (or don't) to the Bible. Some of it is just opinion, of course, but not all of it. AND once again, I don't have time to watch much of that right now in this season.

Rebecca, I looked at garden centers today too. They didn't have what I was looking for. And it's not that pleasant wearing a mask in the hot temperatures. Makes shopping very uncomfortable.

We couldn't find another pantry like ours at the stores either, so we will need to order one. Our new one is already full of jars.

I'm tired and heading to bed. Hope everyone is having a relaxing and/or productive weekend.

For cowboy candy I figure out how much syrup I'll need & do 2 parts sugar to one part vinegar. Bring vinegar & sugar to a boil & simmer until you have a syrup. Dump in sliced peppers, onions, garlic, whatever you want, & simmer for about 4 minutes. Fill the jar(s) & put the lid on, then put in the fridge once they cool. Eat whatever didn't fit in the jar for a snack. Sometimes I put dill sprigs, basil leaves, etc in to see how they turn out. I tried doing cucamelons with the peppers & they turned out pretty good. If I want more of a relish I'll chop everything into smaller pieces.

Had a stern talking to with my tomato plants. Some I planted in April are still less than 2ft high, so I planted the last of my seedlings next to them. The old plants have until the new ones catch up to start producing, otherwise they're getting yanked. We'll see if threats of violence work this time.

I haven't read this in days and am trying to catch up, so I'm going to go backwards.

If you are making a Cowboy Candy that is not made from an actual, safety-tested, safety-verified recipe with carefully measured quantities, be careful. What you're making if you throw stuff in a jar and put it in the fridge is the equivalent of refrigerator pickles, and most refrigerator pickles (other than those made following fermented pickle recipes) fell from favor years ago because the CDC discovered listeria would grow in refrigerator pickles after only a few days in the fridge. The latest recommendations I've seen for refrigerator pickle type products is that you should consume them within 3 days if you are in a high-risk group for listeria (which includes anyone aged 50 or over) or otherwise consume them within one week. The kind of candied jalapenos that became extremely popular on Garden Web about 10 or 12 years ago on the harvest forum are made using a standard sweet pickle (bread and butter) canning recipe (even the Mrs. Wage's mixes will work), and substituting jalapeno peppers for the cucumbers.

Jen, I don't understand what is wrong with the tomato plants. It is so weird that they have stayed so small, but it seems fitting for 2020 which I guess we'll remember as the year when nothing much was normal. You know, when the Tomatoman's Daughter posted that they wouldn't have fall tomato plants to sell for fall, that puzzled me too. They said their seedlings just wouldn't grow. Why? That is the puzzle. Normally, since we can control the temperature, light and moisture of seedlings in flats, they are easy to grow. I am puzzled about why theirs wouldn't grow (I'm assuming they start the fall plants in the greenhouse) this summer but it is just another one of those weird things.

Jennifer, Tim will watch YouTube repair videos to see how to repair the washer and drier, for example, and he likes them. I don't watch any YouTube stuff---there is so much out there and some of it can really lead brand new gardeners astray because they don't know who gives out reliable info or info that applies to our climate and who doesn't since they are brand new to gardening. I know lots of people like them, but I don't and I have too many other ways to spend my time more productively. I'm not much of a TV person in general though. I prefer reading books and magazines to TV time any and every time.

I think August is the worst month to find stuff in garden centers, and I totally agree it is too hot to wear masks comfortably outdoors. I'll shop for plants in Sept or Oct. It isn't my choice when....it will depend on when the fall shipments of plants arrive. Lately, it has been so hot in September that the autumn plant shipments seem later and later every year. Sometimes it is October....and only October. Whatever hasn't sold before the end of October gets shoved aside to make room for Christmas products. I have to check the stores weekly in Sept and Oct to see when the stuff is arriving, and it seems like it takes forever some years.

Rebecca, There is no normal for Oklahoma weather, is there? I totally agree that all that is typical, average or normal for us here is the kind of inconsistency that drives gardeners batty. When a meteorologist does a long-range forecast like that, I see a difference in how the material is presented by a met who is not a gardener compared to how it is presented by a met who is a gardener. Luckily one of our TV mets down here is a gardener, so in his forecasts he often mentions how the upcoming weather might or could or would affect gardeners. I really appreciate that extra bit of info.

Larry, Mockingbirds seem to love gardeners. I usually have one that follows me around the garden on a daily basis. It just sits near wherever I am working and sings, all day long if I am out there all day long. If I move 30' away, it moves with me. It is sort of bizarre, but at least I have bird song all day long.

Lately we have a youngish hawk sitting in the trees in our front yard just a few feet from the front and side porches, making that screaming cry they make, so it clearly is hunting. It drives me crazy. I yell at it and it doesn't even go away. I am not sure if it is hunting rabbits, chickens, snakes, frogs or feral kittens, but with thousands of acres of grassland and woodland on all sides of us, I wish it would find someplace else to go and sit.

The only plants I have that seem to be bothered by spider mites this summer are the verbena bonariensis plants, which always seem to get them. The spider mites aren't on any of the veggies or on anything else. I think they popped up on tomato plants briefly, but the beneficial insects must have gobbled them right up because they were gone in the blink of an eye.

Jen, I wouldn't plant pumpkins this late. Even those planted by late July often struggle to mature a pumpkin before the first frost which, if y'all remember last year (most people had sub-freezing temperatures on Oct 11 or 12), can come in early October some years. If that were to happen again this year, then we are only 9-10 weeks away from a potential early first freeze. In 1999, we had one the last week of September! I built a quick sort of redneck-style hoop house alone in two days to save my garden from the early freeze that year. It wasn't pretty, but 90% of my plants survived the first freeze. And, that July 30th date is the end of the planting range, so it applies to far southeastern OK and not to the rest of us. If I plant fall pumpkins or winter squash down here in southcentral OK I need to have them in the ground by mid-July in order to harvest anything usable from them and even then that only happens if the first frost isn't until mid-November or later. For fall gardening, even planting two weeks later than what is ideal for your part of the state can give you a total fail on warm-season crops. Remember that fall crops grow more slowly as daylength, temperatures and sunlight intensity fall day after day. That's why we always have huge numbers of people working frantically the night before the first freeze to cover up and save their tomato plants loaded down with green fruit---because nothing has had time to ripen yet in fall's cooler weather. It happens almost every year.

Kim, I hope the convention was wonderful, and I'm glad you like and watch YouTube, but it is not for me. Even if I sit down to watch TV deliberately, I start multitasking...reading a book, using my computer or phone, etc., and miss 90% of what is on the TV screen. When I finally tune back in and glance at the TV, I ask Tim what I missed and he just sighs and rolls his eyes because he knows I caught the first 3 minutes of whatever we were watching before I got busy doing something else. For me, I guess the TV is just on for noise while I'm doing something else.

Nancy, I'm glad you got the rain. That must have been awesome. I wonder what became of that oakleaf hydrangea?

New neighbors can be awesome. We had one we thought would be, but he refused to control his dogs and keep them on his property, and they caused issues around the neighborhood....so he turned out not to be so wonderful after all. Most people in rural areas know that it is imperative to control their own dogs and keep them on their own property because everyone else has chickens, goats, cows, horses, cats, kittens, etc. and don't need any of them, and particularly the babies, harassed by dogs that run free.

Most of the new neighbors we have moving to the country nowadays seem mostly interested in growing a certain 'medicinal' plant and I really don't want to have anything to do with that process either, as crime often follows when some less savory types want to steal those growers' plants.

Jennifer, I find watermelons incredibly easy to grow but I only grow the smaller icebox melons. There are multiple reasons for that, and the main one is that I can trellis them so they take up less space and seem less vulnerable to soil-borne diseases and pests. We also get a ton more little melons, especially from Yellow Doll, Yellow Baby and Tiger Baby, spread out over a longer period of time so the harvest comes in amounts that are easy to eat quickly. When we grew larger melons, we often had more than Tim and I could eat that were ready to harvest all at once. You also do not get many watermelons per plant when you grow full-sized watermelons. We've never had coyotes get ours because we've always had a fenced garden. Fred had terrible problems with coyotes when he grew Black Diamonds on 2 or 3 acres of sandy soil at the old home place (not the same place he lived...this was down on the river NW of us). Sometimes the coyotes would get most of his watermelons before they were ripe, even though he grew acres of them. It drove him mad. Even our four foot fence kept out the coyotes, and of course, the 8' fence keeps out everything except the frogs and snakes.

In a typical year, I plant half of one long bed with trellised muskmelons, and half with icebox melons. The icebox melons mature earliest (some in as little as 60 days), and the muskmelons mature a bit later, and then there's more icebox melons after the muskmelons, so the two combined keep us in fresh melons for several months if I've done a good job of choosing a variety of DTMs so that everything doesn't mature at once (desirable with foods we can, but not desirable with food only grown for fresh eating). One year we had so many melons that I dehydrated some, which made the melons almost too sweet to eat because dehydrating them down concentrated all their sugars in pretty small pieces after all the water was removed by the dehydration process. I also have made melon balls of both muskmelons and icebox watermelons some years and frozen them. We like to eat them half-thawed because they are less mushy they way. I don't remember if I grew more melons in those years (I think I had two beds of them instead of one, and my beds were about 35' long) but we have had some great melon years here. While melons prefer sandy soil, they do great in well-amended clay as well. I get higher yields in the sandy soil in the back garden, but the plants in the front garden produce larger melons, even if I have the exact same varieties planted both in the front and back gardens.

Sweet potatoes are sort of the same way---they prefer sandy soil but also produce well in well-amended clay, and the quality of the produce varies depending on the soil in which it is grown. In general, sweet potatoes grown in poor sandy soil will give you lower yields of smooth and pretty but high-quality sweet potatoes, and sweet potatoes grown in heavier but still well-drained soils will give you higher yields of rougher-looking and somewhat lower quality sweet potatoes. If you grow sweet potatoes in really poorly drained, dense, heavy soil, then you get sweet potatoes that often are cracked, somewhat misshapen and sometimes have some pretty rough skin that just doesn't look good. And, if you grow them in containers with a soil-less mix that is too rich, you get copious amounts of leaves, and smaller sweet potatoes that are thinner and sort of stringy. I've grown sweet potatoes every which way since moving here and have gotten a crop every year I've grown them except for one exceptionally wet year when the slips just kept rotting off at the ground level, and that was long ago when the clay beds were not as well amended as they are not. It seems like no two years are the same here, so every single year, the garden is an entirely new adventure.

Dawn

I have good sandy soil on the other side of the place, but being down in the valley floor I still have to battle wet soil. I also have an artesian well over there to supply all the water I would want, but I am too old to try to fix up the old house over there, plus it is in an area where the wildlife is very thick. I would love to move the sandy soil and well over here. I do fairly well with my garden over here, even with the shallow clay soil, but the free water is what I miss the most.

I want to try harder growing sweet potatoes, winter squash, turnips and different greens. Madge and I are just too beat up to freeze or can much.

Jennifer, I would like to ask a question about your butternut. I noticed that in a video you posted ( I think it was you) that your vines were dying. My vines are dying also and I am not sure what to to do about the squash, do you leave them on the vines till they cure, or do you harvest them and place them in a protected area to cure? I have only grown butternut one time before, and I dont remember what I did, but I think that my squash did not keep a long time..

I had a real scare this morning. My neighbor that lives in a Government assisted place came out to his old trailer that is parked up on the mountain behind me. I felt that this morning that I should go up and check on him, he is almost 89 years old. I drove up the very rough, rocky road to where his trailer is ( the road get too rough to travel any farther).

The sun was just coming over the mountain and was in my eyes. There was a lot of weeds and brush in the road, and I did not see him lying in the road, and I almost ran over him. He had fallen yesterday and broken his hip and could not get up. I heard him yell, and I could see through the side window of my truck, my front tire was just inches from him. I have a f250 super duty ford that is at about 6000 pounds, and he is a little old man at around 100 pounds. I called 911 and got him to the hosp. I dont know what will happen next.

HI folks.

I have a quick ? about Assassin bugs. Do they damage tomato plants of just eat the bugs that are on them??

Hope you are all well and safe.

Thanks.

I think assassin bugs are carnivores, so they won't harm your plants.