Well, I went over Almost Eden (yes it was a subliminal substitution), and found nothing I really want to buy. I'm running out of space really...and I have most of what I used to want from them (lol), by seed or acquiring here and there (many at Bustani) I guess I can go through PDN website completely later today....appropriate for New Years Eve, eh? Maybe I just save for this years rough times?

Edit: I did find some maybe's or might want to buy at PDN. I'm NOT broken after all.

Happy New Years everyone!

Ok, I passed the test, made a list of about ten things from PDN, narrowed them down to like 5, then said, I don't REALLY need these and closed the browser!

I bought some clothes 12/3. They finally arrived (USPS) Monday. However, they fit, so I went and bought more on clearance.

I can't bring myself to buy more plants or seeds. Most everything I looked at on Almost Eden wasn't in stock.

[Ron just said "I put your cookie jar some place and i can't remember where". This is what happens when he cleans.]

I made the map of the garden. I will of course change it, but I have a starting place. My map is not a map, it is columns in a spread sheet that represent beds. It is divided horizontally by spring, summer and fall. I then just add the new year under the previous year. The plan is to avoid growing things in the same place. I can manage a 3 year rotation of tomatoes if I keep them down to 2 beds. Apparently I need to avoid growing okra in the same place. Brassica, I need to rotate to avoid Harlequin bugs and cabbage worms. I'm going to grow papalo with the cucumbers this year and see if it repels bugs like last year. I might put it with brassica if it does. Ron's either going to replace the dirt in the onion bed or we're going to solarize it for a season. Too much Bermuda.

Happy New Year everyone.

Good job, Danny! I haven't ordered anything, either. I'm just so reluctant until I see what will grow this spring. Of course I will buy a few things. . . but feel maxed out, both here, and at Lincoln, frankly.

Blasted Bermuda!

Did Ron find the cookie jar yet? Good idea. I guess I could and should make a plant for the raised beds at Lincoln, if not here. That won't take much time at all. I didn't remember you talking about papalo deterring bugs. Is it easy to grow? Are you using it as an edible, too? I really am going to try it this year. Keep saying I'm going to and then don't do it.

I dealt with paper today. First I organized the books in my everything room; then gathered up all the started-but-not-finished notebooks, loose notes, notes in binders. What a MESS. The PLAN is to move a lot of those half-baked notebook journals into OneNote under their respective categories.

Do any of the rest of you journal? I like OneNote just fine, but haven't gotten around to moving notes from notebooks to the OneNote. Every year I start off with the best intentions, and then.............................

Are any of you winter sowing? I'm not even doing that this year.

Let's all hope we have a beautiful 2021. I know Covid's not going away anytime soon, but hope we can all find peace, anyway.

It's funny that y'all are talking about African Violets and your moms. My Mom didn't grow African Violets, but Tom's mom did. Tom's mom was born the same year as my grandma.

His mom had a room on the back of their house--off the kitchen. It was supposed to be a breakfast "nook", but it had a glass shelf running under the windows, which is where she had the African violets. AND, I'm pretty sure she did kombucha many years ago...only she called it Mushroom Tea. Anyway....she had the jars in that room too.

I just looked through my seeds and have a tomato plan (posted at the Tomato Thread) and have made a list of things I need to order.

I have several packages of old seed, especially lettuce and other greens. I had a thought...maybe sprinkle them in the "chick nurseries" If they sprout, they sprout. If they don't, then I don't waste my potting soil and time. And if they sprout, the mommas and chicks can eat them.

So...what is everyone's opinion on SF? I ask this for a few reasons, but right now I'm thinking about seed starting. You know how Dawn brought 100+ plants? Well, she won't be doing that. And I'll start extra tomatoes and peppers and other things IF we are going to meet. If not, I don't want to start a ton of extra things. It was a chore getting all the extras to people last year. They wanted the plants, but working around corona and all, to get them delivered was a pain.

If we do meet, we could all bring our own picnic lunch and wear masks. By now we're all used to masks and standing a bit apart and not hugging. We're making it work, although it's not ideal.

I'm about to open a bottle of wine and watch an episode of The Haunting of Bly Manor. Happy New Year!

Is that what kombucha is? That mushroom tea? I had family friends who were on that kick and swore I just had to try it. As a teenager, I told them it tasted ike feet smell.

I vote for having SF, but ultimately it'll be up to everyone to make their own decision.

I think we can do a safely distanced and masked SF this year. A number of us will be vaccinated by then too.

For my exciting New Years evening, I ate a PBJ and am perusing seed catalogs while in bed with my cat, watching reruns of old baking competitions. I feel terribly boring. I planned on ordering dinner via DoorDash, but everything had a 60-90 minute wait. I didn’t want dinner that badly.

I miss you all. I miss SF. I miss Dawn.

That said, I'm ready to kick 2020 on down the road, hopefully get my vaccine in the next couple of months, and come meet up wherever, however we can.

No plants in my world...at all...I moved in with my daughter and her husband in July when I found out I had ovarian cancer. Treatments and surgery have gone VERY well, but no gardening right now, so I'd come, bring my lunch, and just talk....and look longingly at all of the extra plants (!)

I'll get back there someday.

Right now it is SO COLD and raining...rain I like, snow (tomorrow) I like....just don't want any of the freezing stuff.

Here's to a wonderful 2021 with new hope, old friends, and the best of everything to you all!!

Sharon

African violets

my sister is in a club here in Denton. I call it a cult. She has over 50 varieties and won’t share or sell a leaf. A dear friend of mine tried to buy some years ago and she would not part with one leaf.

very strange since most gardeners love to share. And she does share her outside plants freely.

they do shows or used to and she has many ribbons. Very interesting

SF I am all in. I will follow all the guidelines. To me it’s not any riskier at all than going to work Walmart or eating out. Especially eating out because we have no idea who is preparing our food. My nephew works at mcd and he was working and went into family quarantine and had it. Might have had it while working. He had no symptom s until a day into it.

i am cautious but not paranoid. I bought the ivermectin but can’t figure out the dosage. My sister won’t tell me because it’s for horses and she is in medical field. She does not want to enable me taking horse medicine lol.

i will be building a greenhouse so I can start lots of extra plants. If there is something specific let me know.

I miss all my friends, cycling and gardening get togethers... family etc.

I think, I would come... but won't promise at this time.

But no matter what, would love to see all of us.

Moni

It looks we'll have a least a small SF then. :)

I feel like we are all much better about knowing how to "be around" people now--stand apart, don't touch, wear a mask, etc. Last year it was all so new.

Jen, I'm not sure if your relatives' mushroom tea was kombucha. Honestly, I'm not even sure my mother/father-in-law's mushroom tea was kombucha. BUT...they kept it in jars to ferment and I was a little bothered by it back then. The jars of their tea seems very similar to my jars of kombucha. It doesn't really smell or taste like feet LOL It tastes like a fermented drink...sorta like beer only not exactly. And when you add fruit, etc. for the second ferment, it's not bad at all. I don't like beer.

Kim, tell us about your greenhouse plans? HU is about to start working on one too.

SF needs to happen in Dawn’s memory.

I’m just now able to remove my bakers hat and put my garden hat back on. Starting to make decision. Maybe finish cleaning up last years garden. Collecting milk jugs.

I have a wait-and-see approach. We just really can't outguess the coronavirus. So. . . I'm a gonna wait and see. I successfully mailed a few plants last year. I just did what our great plant nurseries do when they mail stuff. I'm pleased that it worked well. While I wouldn't want to ship out a few dozen, could ship some special ones, if it came to that.

Running into this "do we or don't we" situation with a couple other tings, also--one is our big money-making stew dinner in March for church. I've thought about it and just can't in any way figure out how it'd be doable. And I'm supposed to be in charge of it. So will contact the higher ups next week and tell them I have to bow out. I'll be interested, however, in hearing what they think. With the Covid rates ever worse here. . . . just gotta wait and see, Hopefully by the end of February we'll have a clearer idea of possibilities. I'm not planting ANY tomatoes or peppers until March 1-15 this year. SO tired of hauling them in and out of the house with the threats of late frosts!

I hope you all are getting 21 off to a great start today. I am doing what I think is a timely thing, reading through all these notebooks and trying to corral some of the thoughts from them. Since I have so many similar "virtual" notebooks on OneNote, guess I'll just stick with it.

Have a good today and good weekend, everyone!

Well, I'm tired of the feasts (and so is my waistline), though saying that I just finished making a chocolate cream pie, and am working on the black eyed peas. I'll be starting on mashed potatoes in a bit, then some chicken fried chicken. Yes, you can see the waistline's problem?

I actually want to go out..but nothing is open and I feel irresponsible dining in (and alone too). Fast food doesn't have dine-in here, so I would have to take it to go, and it's cold by time I get home. So.....I cook...and eat too much.

I think so, Rebecca.

I'm doing garden planning too.

So....y'all, roselle? How many plants does one need? How much space does each plant need. It likes hot weather, right? It's related to okra? I ordered Thai roselle last year.

I have an "empty" 8'x4' raised bed. Could I put 6 plants in that bed...or more? Are 6 plants enough to make jelly? We also have a spot behind the shop where we're planning on growing melons. Would they grow well with melons? From what I've read, it's best to grow them in not overly fertile soil.

I just joined hobby greenhouse on FB. Already got some interesting ideas. I hope Ron gets it put up soon, I would love to sit out there this winter. And start seeds without the mess in the house. Ron discovered the OSU planting guide. He is still trying to get me to plant in little squares like square foot gardening. I tried to explain that if you mix things up the bugs have a harder time finding them. I don't think he's convinced. I should find an article. I grew a papalo plant next to a cucumber last year. Cucumbers get diseased and die on me. And this year they also got whitefly and maybe Harlequin bugs. The one that survived and produced was next to the papalo (papalo is a hot weather cilantro substitute). The cuke chose to twine in the papalo which was about 4' tall. Yes, papalo is edible, it is used like cilantro, only it is stronger. I also have seeds for culantro, another cilantro substitute. It is from Asia I think. So I plan to interplant the papalo with the cucumbers to test my theory that they repel bugs or at the very least disguise them with their strong scent. I think Tulsi would be a good choice for interplanting, too.

Yes, Ron found the cookie jar. He cleaned out the pantry yesterday. Kept bringing me stuff and asking what it was, LOL. I figured if I didn't remember it was too old to keep.

I think I'll get seeds for the other mountain mint, hairy mountain mint. Is it as aggressive as regular mint?

oh, gosh, H/J, I haven't planned tomatoes. But, I have a core group, and if I'm careful, I may avoid extras this year, LOL.

Being that spring fling will be outdoors, and if we bring our own lunches, I think we might be ok. It would be fun to bring my daughter. I suppose it will depend on whether restrictions are imposed against groups.

I may have to look at One note. I use Evernote and they keep changing it. Leave my flipping format alone!

H/J, I throw the old lettuce out in the bed to be living mulch for tomatoes.

Since Prairie Moon says 'It is clump-forming and can spread by rhizomes readily so is not the best native plant for small areas but roots can be easily cut back once a year to prevent spreading.' I would guess....

Jennifer

I was going to make it out of cattle panels but after watching Sow the Land I am going to try pipes. It will be less expensive and easier to haul.

i will build the frame out of 2x6 and use those c shaped clamps. The door is harder but Jason has a video I will watch again. I got a Lowe’s gift card so it should be enough. I need another heater though because I use both of mine In my tiny house. It stays snuggly warm. Except the floor.

it’s much better than that camper for sure.

i am going to get all my seeds together this next week and get a master list going.

i contracted natural grocers and they are saving cardboard for me. plus now that I don’t work there I can get their scraps for my compost.

Well, I goofed, no black eyed peas for lunch. I think the same thing must have happened a year ago today. I had to deal with a pandemic and cranky politics all year long. Why didn't I plant some black eyed peas. We had some zipper cream peas, I hope they can keep covid at bay. I don't think anything will help with the politicians.

I had to look up papalo, may have to plant some.

I grew roselle this year, and it did pretty well. Something that I did that may have helped. I started the seeds early and they stayed on the light shelf and on the deck a long time, because I often have a frost around the first of may. I am too lazy to turn my light shelves off and on, so they stay on 24 hours. My top shelf has (6) 4' led lights, and is very bright. I may have, unknowingly tricked the plants into producing early. I think it was Dawn that they were day length sensitive. The first batch of seeds started producing very early, maybe because they came from very bright lights, on 24 hours a day. to a garden with light for shorter periods. Those plants produced up till frost, the second batch were killed by the frost just as they started producing. I am going to try that again this year and see if the same thing happens. I will start more plants this year because the neighbor said that if I would grow the plants, she would make the jam. I am thinking that I will start about 24 plants this year and plant them about 5 or 6 feet apart in the wildlife garden. I don't expect them to do as well over there because the soil has not been amended like my home garden soil has been.

Im excited y’all. Mom got me a dibbler for Christmas. It was backordered and just arrived yesterday. Now to sort seeds and maybe make an order or three.

I had room for six roselles at Lincoln last year, HJ. They get big--I don't think as big as okra (ha!), but they do take up room. With the six I had, they took up a sizeable amount of space in the big round bed. Here's a nice couple articles: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/roselle/growing-roselle-plants.htm

and this from SESE, to give you an idea of the production: https://www.southernexposure.com/growing-guides/roselle-culture.pdf

As I've been traveling down memory lane in my many notebook notes AND my partial OneNote files, what a valuable resource a journal is, I've realized. Perhaps that realization will keep me more on task this year.

And among my wanderings today, I was doing a search on something I thought Dawn might have commented on and came up with this thread. I not only miss Dawn, but others who have come and gone--in this case, ChickenCoupe (Bon). And Amy made an appearance, too. Does anyone know who Coby is? I shed tears. . . https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3877794/how-late-can-flower-and-herb-seeds-be-direct-seeded-into-the-garden

Kim--What can we do to warm that floor up!!! Bet you don't go barefoot! My feet tend to get cold when the rest of me is fine. I have some Sherpa-lined slipper socks that help some.

Chicken fried chicken--easily one of our top 10 favorite meals, Danny. Served with mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, corn. No apologies for the lack of green veggies in this meal! But we can't have it that often, either, therefore.

Pssst, friends. . . . . I believe I came up with another "It's a Southern thing" thing. Black-eyed peas for New Year's. I had never ever heard of it, not even in passing, when I lived in Wyoming and MN.

When we went to Eileen's to celebrate Chinese New Year there were a whole host of foods the Chinese fix to celebrate--it was so amazing and awesome! Eileen. . . . if you ever read here, we will have to have a repeat, probably not this year, huh. Amy and Ron and Garry and I got to be part of that celebration.

And here's another fun link--on special NY foods: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2020/12/31/black-eyed-peas-grapes-and-other-foods-eat-new-years-eve-2021/4098987001/

Back to the present project. I'm so serious about getting this under control that I ordered 3 sets of bookends and a typing stand! lol We had white (spicy) chicken chili and cheese quesadillas last night. We're going to have exactly the same thing this evening!

Nancy, I almost forgot the Jan. 2021 picture from our calendar. This little boy has given us a lot of joy.

One year I grew 3 roselle. One in a 5 gal bucket. One in an unimproved flower bed and one in a raised bed. The bucket got about 3' tall. The flower bed about 4' tall and 3' around. The raised bed was 5-5.5' tall and a good 4' in diameter. I don't know how many you need for jelly, but Larry, 24 seems like a lot! Of course the deer might eat them. Personally, I would only plant 2, in the flowerbeds, unless I wanted more for ornamental purposes. They don't normally bloom until fall.

I went through seeds today. I can't see that I need anything. If Fedco had had the Boston pickling cucumbers I was going to try I would have ordered. But my 5 things got pared to 3 because some were out of stock/not yet in stock. I didn't need 2 more lettuces, or the other thing (I forget), so not paying $6 to ship 3 things. Baker Creek has the cukes, but I already bought from them and hate to order just one thing. Turns out I have seeds for hairy mountain mint. So don't need that. I'm going to winter sow all the natives I didn't do last year. I have a lot of flower seeds.

I'm going to throw all the old lettuce seeds out in the bed to mulch tomatoes with. I have quite a fewer seeds that are 4 or 5 years old. Getting rid of them would make my seed storage easier. There is guilt involved in that however.

Well, today hit me like a ton of bricks with all my feels!!! This last month I've been missing my dad so much and today I finally just exploded my feelings to my poor husband lol. He just hugged me and let me cry it out. I made homemade pizza for dinner which I haven't done for awhile. Tried a new recipe using bread flour and I like it so it's a keeper. I still have my Christmas tree up and won't take it down till this next week. I'm still just enjoying the lights.

Gardening is becoming more prevalent on my mind. I never completely cleaned up my raised beds and buckets. When the pandemic hit, my husband suggested just planting in buckets so I said I'd try. I only planted tomatoes in them though. They had a slow start but once they got started they did really well. There are some things I'd change so I need to consider that pretty soon. I am going to get a tarp so I can empty all the dirt, remix it together and add some more dirt and compost to it. Thinking about adding some perlite to help retain moisture. Also, need to figure out a different trellis because the French weave did not really work well for me.

I planted zinnia in my garden last year and I really like it. I've planted them before but never right in the middle of everything. I'm sure I'll have volunteer basil plants because I didn't get my plants pulled in time and I'm sure there are seeds all in one bed and that's ok. I harvested a ton of basil this last year then dried it and stored in a canning jar. I plan on doing more this year. I really liked having the homegrown basil for recipes. Thinking I will do more parsley this year too. For whatever reason rosemary has never grown well for me but I might give that another shot.

Nancy, I commented on that link you posted but I don't remember who Cory is. But this brought me to looking at other old posts as well. I miss seeing soonergrandmom aka Carol and Lisa Hendricks. Carol did the seed swap the first year that I participated about 13 years ago and I met up with her in Grove. She's a real sweetheart. I know she moved to Yukon a few years ago though. I see Lisa post occasionally on instagram but that's it.

Sweet potatoes.......I need sweet potato slips this year!!! Wasn't it George who always had them? The ones I got from the local coop here didn't pan out at all!! I was so disappointed. I left them in for so long and NOTHING! Nada!! Not even a little bitty baby sweet potato. So, I'd rather buy from someone I can trust.

Here's hoping you all had a marvelous start to the new year and that this new year brings us much joy and love....and HUGS!!! lol

Nancy I have nice slippers. When it get below 40 they don’t do much. Part of the floor is carpet Which Helps. I think when I get moved onto my own land somewhere I will skirt it.

my roselle did pitiful. It was part shade and the soil is horrible

I got one little harvest and I forgot about it when I was so sick.

So, how many roselle plants to make a few jars of jelly? It sounds like that have to be spaced pretty far apart. I wonder if I plant them along the back side of the shop and put the melons in front of them....

I just remember summer before last, Dawn was really into making roselle jelly. That would have been 2019. It seems like she didn't plant as many veggies that year because she was preparing to do her backyard landscape.

Nancy and Larry, do you have pictures of your roselles in the garden?

Nancy, I don't remember Coby. Oddly, I don't even remember that thread. Bon comes and goes--I guess she gets busy at times. Jen was in that thread too.

Amy, I think that is why I don't overbuy seed...the guilt if it goes to waste.

I have most things ordered now. I just need a particular Daikon radish. But I can get it off the seed rack, which is what I did last year. I really enjoyed this radish. I let them get too big, but even so, they were sweet.

I need to order copra onions, but Ellisons in Norman has most of the other Dixondale varieties that I want. Or they did last year. And they are cheaper too! (Thanks, HU.)

I still want to find a true red vinca for my Mom.

Today I ordered: Black Turtle beans, Craigs Grande jalapeno, Jetsetter, Sungold, Becks Big Buck, White Egg turnip, Ashe County pimento, Prize Choi, West Indian Gherkin, and Amish Paste.

I now wish I had ordered Heidi.

Everything else I have or HU has.

Melissa, I didn't see your post when I posted last. Hugs to you! Glad you got to cry it out!

Carol and Lisa are still around at the FB groups.

Jennifer, I have found some pictures, most are just pictures

of the garden. I am not smart enough to work this computer

properly. I will try to post this picture, as you can see, it started

producing young, long before fall. I think that I unknowingly

tricked the plants into thinking that they were in Africa in the fall.

Jennifer, here is another picture of the roselle showing how

small they were when they started blooming. I think they normally

are much larger when they start blooming. I heed to get help setting

the date on my pictures. This also is long before fall.

Jennifer, this is a picture of the roselle later in the year. The closest row, just this side if the aluminum stool, is the oldest, and the only ones we got a harvest from. The balls are really hard to pick. I would sit on the stool and cut them off with some very heavy toe nail clippers, or just cut the limbs off and take them into the house where it was cool, where I could cut them off in comfort. That is one reason the plants are smaller on the right side of the garden, they have had several limbs removed for harvest.

The row just the other side of the stool was starting to bloom when the cold weather hit.

Unless your hands are much stronger than mine, you will need some kind of tool to harvest the roselle.

Melissa, it's so hard, missing ones we loved so much and were close to. I still miss my own Dad, though it doesn't hurt any longer. I miss my brother David so much, still. I can't believe it has been 3 1/2 years since he died. He was such a close friend, and he would have loved hearing about our gardening adventures. I didn't even finish that Coby thread. Made me sad, so I quit. . . yes, I see Jen and you were there, too. HJ, we both may have been lurkers then but neither of us were actively posting then.

Amy--if you DO decide to try OneNote, I figured out to put my pages in this order datewise so they line up chronologically--you probably already know this. Instead of Jan. 1, 2017, the page is named 010117. I just went back and fixed all my diary headers yesterday. Took forever.

I remember you all warning about how hard the calyces were to remove from the roselle plants. Would small garden shears do the trick? Jennifer, I couldn't find any photos of the roselle plants at Lincoln. They were spaced further apart, seems, than Larry's, and so each individual plant really spread out. Looks like red vinca is easy enough to find online--I've not grown vinca from seed--have any of you? https://seedsnsuch.com/products/mediterranean-xp-series-true-red?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2oPZn8b97QIVB7zACh0oWwfoEAQYAiABEgKHJfD_BwE

Larry, all my life, I thought I only wanted either a Yorkie or a German Shepherd. That was up til my kids got Brisco, their Australian shepherd. I've KINDA had a couple GSs (that is German Shepherd mixes--Titan is a GS mixed with husky and wolf), but never got the Yorkie. He is so cute! At a law firm where I worked, one of the partners used to bring his Yorkie to work with him on Saturdays. This guy was about 6'5", and rode his motorcycle in on Saturdays; his Yorkie rode tucked into the guy's jacket. At work, the Yorkie roamed the halls nearest his guy's office. He was the cutest thing.

I haven't sorted/organized seeds yet. I best get that done shortly. In fact, I better get busy with all kinds of related chores. Jennifer--do you have a specific gardening journal?

Onward!

Posting in Houzz is so difficult for me lately. Lost 2 posts so far. Using the big tablet since I forgot to charge the small one last night. I need to work directly in houzz to post pictures.

Rosella early Oct 2015 in the raised bed. The cattle panel is 4' tall. I thought it was taller than this. I can tell you it hangs over the side of the bed and reached through the panel to the other side.

That's the other side. It's blooming here.

5 gal bucket, also Oct.

Flower bed, late Oct.

I'm sure there was more than this. I don't remember having trouble removing the "fruit". Maybe you harvested younger fruit than I did Larry. I remember my hands were purple, so I don't think I used tools of any kind. I waited till just before frost. It was cold out. If the calyx were dried up looking I saved the pod for seeds (they grew).

I'm going to post this so I don't lose it.

Thank you, Larry. That's all very useful information. You've helped me a lot. Also, your place is so pretty. Your garden is beautiful.

Nancy, I really thought I was posting 4 years ago. Maybe I just didn't see that thread or had something else going on. I'm pretty sure I started posting in 2015. I was lurking in 2014. (It's so funny that anytime you searched something about gardening in Oklahoma, Dawn/Carol/George/Bon/Amy and others would come up.) I think my first SF was 2016. Jen was the first person I talked to. I was a little nervous and kept asking her, "so, we can just take these plants?" haha. We only got to stay for about an hour because Mason's college graduation party was that day. We were late to it. It was a combined party for both her and her ex.

I don't have a specific garden journal. I use my planner, which was purchased last week. I'm good about writing down what I want and then what is purchased and when the seed is started....but then I fail to continue with it. Each year I get a little better with a planner. This year, I really want to keep it going all year--not just for gardening, but for other things in my life. More things are accomplished and organized.

I found some of my notebooks when I first moved out here and was "into" the wild plants around me. I researched a few and took notes about them....what they can be used for, etc. Yarrow was one of the first ones.

I love gardening on the scale that we did last year. Really love it. Love the canning and preserving SO much. But, I need to balance myself with my love of herbs and the wild plants. A planner can help. Also, HU and I can divvy up things differently this year. Get more done. He showed me how to sow the "survivalist garden" way and to hoe the rows and all. I know how to do that, so don't need to relearn it and that will free up time.

I also want to make some changes to the kitchen garden. My goal is for the SG to be mostly for food preservation. The KG for fixing meals fresh--grabbing salad ingredients, etc. Of course there will be some overlap like with the onions.

I do love growing for the sake of growing, but I want to be certain that the food we grow is something that we will eat and use. It goes back to that waste thing that makes me nuts. Growing for the sake of growing for ME, would be flowers and herbs.

Also, both of us will be learning how to use a greenhouse. He's about to start building one out here. I would like to have one side a raised bed (if anyone has watched One Yard Revolution--like his sort of) and the other side, shelves. It's HU's baby though, so he'll make the call on all of that.

So back to the roselle, I think I'll put them along the back of the shop--see how they do. I was going to put them into a raised bed that gets a lot of sun. Maybe I'll do both.

We are actually going out. I need to return a gift for my Mom. And we may pick up some lunch.

It's still pretty snowy here. It really is quite lovely. Messy, but lovely. I'll come back with a picture.

The chicken yard.

The survivalists garden

I won't use one note, Nancy, I'm not journaling, just saving links I want to be able to search. The new version of Evernote insists on clipping the whole page when all I want is the link. (There is a monthly limit to how much you can save, so this pushes you toward their premium version.) I will just have to copy the URL and paste it into the note rather than having that happen automatically.

I got the white egg turnip, too H/J. I like "salad turnips" like that. Tokyo Market and Tokyo Cross are good. I'm growing Emerald velvet okra this year. I think it was the first variety I grew and I loved it. Maybe not as productive as some, but I like the taste. Someone Ron worked with gave him some last summer and it was so good.

Yes, George sells sweet potato slips. I can't go searching for a link, because of my stupid tablet, but maybe he'll see this. He's also on Facebook. He has a website, homesteadingedu.com. I bought from him last year and they did great.

I'll go now, before I lose this. Have a good weekend.

Yes, Jennifer--I remember now--of course you were there in 2016. I'm one of the newer ones, for sure. I haven't gotten done what I intended to get done, so I better get after it! The snow pictures are beautiful--it missed us this go-round.

It's wonderful that you seem to have found your gardening niche, Jennifer! And your place is perfect for it, too. At our age, there's no reason to be spending a lot of time on food preservation, since we don't eat as much as we used to. Because of our property's limitations, I'm fine with the niche I seem to have been drawn to--that is, planting for the pollinators (and butterflies, specifically). We were a little sad that the vegetables we grew this past year--here and at Lincoln--weren't that popular. So much of the population here lives on fast food. It's disheartening. Back to gardening journaling.

I wish I was smart enough to use something like Onenote, I would like to post pictures and notes. I use to use Photo Bucket for pictures, but I did not know how to search them. I did read a little on Onenote, and think with a little help I might be able to work it. If there is something out there that is super easy, please tell me about it.

I miss my mom, but I have really good memories of her staying with us in her later years. It seemed as tho our rolls had been reversed, I became her parent, but I think she was a better child than I was, she never back talked me, I don't remember back talking her, but I expect that I did back talk her a few times.

Madge and I went out for breakfast, it was wonderful. We went to the Egg in Ft. Smith. We got to see one of out favorite servers, and I got to shoot the bull with her. I told her that this was the first time this year that I got to go out and eat, I am not sure that she felt sorry for me. But it was really nice, I love spending time with my wife. I even drank a couple cups of coffee this morning, I had to put in enough cream and sugar to make a malt, but I got it down.

I would like to learn a little about herbs, I think I could grow them, but Madge seldom uses fresh herbs, I do think that now she is trying harder to use what I grow.

I am doing my part to stimulate the economy. I got out my

Sandhill Preservation Center catalog

it is more time consuming but I love this company.

found a heat tolerant pole bean and several other new to me beans I want to try

I found OKGW by Googling Oklahoma growing and George and Dawn always popped up. I just read that Coby thread, Nancy. I got a shock when the "featured answer" was a monstrous picture of me, LOL. I remember making that picture, from snapchat, I think. It made me laugh that Dawn imagined me as Shrek and I imagined her as a Disney princess talking to birds.

You will have to find older people who cook for the veggies, Nancy. Young people don't cook. They don't know how and they don't have pots and pans and crock pots. I'm always shocked by that. All kids know how to cook. I didn't teach them, Ron did. He always liked to cook. And the scout leader in him decided they should learn too. Because it was a chance to impress DAD, they were all for it.

It's snowing here, not sticking, but snowing.

I got a call last night that someone in Rio de janeiro tried to use my credit card. They canceled the card. I wish I was in Rio. It's warm there now isn't it? And a festival? Carnaval.

That's how I found OKGW, too, Amy. All the questions I googled--OKGW was always one of the top results and always had the best answers. Dawn. George must have quit posting as much by the time I was looking for answers.

Rio. A festival? Crook must have needed some partying $$$.

Nope, Amy, not even the old people around here. Cept for a few buddies at Lincoln. And John--John's kinda like me--he'll eat anything! Plus he likes to cook! lol Suzanne and Garry, not so much. But speaking of cooking and younger ones not having pots and pans--might be more of a regional thing than age-related thing. My DIL loves to cook, and is very good at it. None of the kids in OK cook--But 3 of the girls have very time-consuming jobs, so I expect that's part of it. One of my 40-some yr old friends in Wagoner not only cooks, but gets pretty fancy with it. But, certainly, fast food has taken its toll on fixing nutritional foods at home.

I'm torn. A bit of cabin fever. I mentioned Chile's in Muskogee (since it's the only restaurant we feel safe at) and GDW said YES. But then I was having 2nd thoughts. . . then I see you, Larry, and Madge went out. So if we go down, maybe we'll go down together. :)

Wondering if your granddaughter or daughter could help get you going on OneNote. You could also watch some YouTube videos on how to use it.

What kind of herbs might you be interested in? I LOVE having chives. You could have a kitchen garden, like Jennifer (and me, to a lesser degree--my herbs are all fairly close to the deck). I use a lot of parsley, dill, and chives. And I use rosemary, thyme, oregano, and basil. I love the lemon grass and lemon balm. All are easy to grow--especially if one buys little bedding plants. Oddly, parsley has been one of the harder ones to grow from seed. With the chives, if one gets a bedding plant, one will have chives forever. It doesn't spread rampantly (like lemon balm), but is always growing in a little larger clump each year. I don't really use the bronze fennel, but the black swallowtail butterflies use it as a host plant and the caterpillars eat it down to the spines. Do you all live close to a Walmart, Lowe's or Home Depot? Those all carry the herb bedding plants. Okay, back to work. We're going to go to Chile's at 2:30, hoping to avoid any crowds.

Chili's! Why do I insist on Chile's! lol

Frustrated with the Seeds N Such website. Trying to submit my order and it keeps giving me an error message. Either site is too busy or something is wrong with it. Pinetree shipping is up to 8.95. Ouch. Seeds N Such better get their act together. I only need a few things, but they have them all in one place.

Amy, your story about cooking reminded me of the first time I tried to cook. I was young, maybe not even school age. The neighbor boy and I decided to fry some potatoes. We were out in the edge of the woods above the house. The only pan we could find was a tin can, I dont remember where it came from, maybe a trash pile. Every body had a trash pile not too far from their house. The only place near we could get any water was a pond down below. To us water and grease would be the same thing. All country kids were taught to stay away from the matches, and never play in the fire. What was the thing I always did when I got a chance? It was to sneak some matches and build a fire. Anyway, we got a couple of potatoes, peeled then and cut them up like mom did ( I was born with a pocket knife in my hand). Well we built a fire around that can, and after we thought it had cooked long enough, we were ready to eat, but the can was too hot to pick up, so I take a stick and push it over, dumping it into the dirt and ashes. Of course the potatoes were still raw, coated with mud and ashes, but we were tough, we are them anyway, then decided to cook the peelings because we were still hungry.

Madge does not allow me in the kitchen, and to this day I am not allowed to carry matches.

When Ron got out of the Marines he worked for his uncle at a gas station/car repair place. He took a baby moon hubcap, scrubbed it up and made spaghetti in it on a hot plate. His uncle refused to eat from a hub cap. I think that is the urban version of your story Larry.

Amy, I like the idea of the baby moon hub cap.

Nancy, you would not want a Yorkie, it would want to kill every cat you have. Our Yorkie thinks he should be the only 4 legged critter on earth, he weighs 7 pounds, and thinks he weighs 700 pounds. We have to watch him all the time. He would force another animal to kill him. We never let him outside without his leash on. My daughter has a Yorkie that weighs 4+ pounds, and a huge yellow cat. I don't think I could count the times that Yorkie has jumped on that cat, and lost big time. They are cute lovable dogs, but ours is a money pit, if we had all the money that we spent on vet bills, we could take a really nice vacation.

I would really like to be doing something garden related. It now has gotten up to 42*, but it seems cold out, and is very wet.

I had to go to Walmart to get a few things for Madge. We have reached the stage in life where we get one item per trip. We use to make a list, but it took longer to find our list than it took to go to town and walk up and down the aisles in Walmart looking at each item and saying " I don't need that", plus we need the exercise.

I think I have a good plan for the kitchen garden now...complete with succession.

First, how has everyone done with fall tomatoes? And, when do you normally put those in the ground? July?

Of course my plan involves a rebuild of a couple of beds.

Rebecca, I had a hard time with the Totally Tomatoes website yesterday. I was SO frustrated, but finally got it figured out. Their check-out system looks just like Vermont Bean. So, Vermont Bean was easy because I had just figured out Totally Tomatoes.

Melissa, I meant to say that I still have my tree up too. I've enjoyed it so much this year. Technically it's okay to leave it up. (Is technically the word? Appropriate maybe? Epiphany is January 6. Doesn't that finish the 12 days of Christmas?

But, I probably would have started taking it down yesterday, but dragging the tubs from the shop to the house in the snow didn't seem like the best idea.

I had a thought....maybe I'll do a small Epiphany tree every year with stars and maybe the items listed in Twelve Days of Christmas. If I can find them.

I have lots of thoughts, though.

Cooking is hard when you're away from home most of the day and then your child has homework/activities in the evening and all other household chores as well. I understand why families choose fast food.

Even I (or me?), who has no young children at home, finds it to be too much some nights. Normally, I'll cook on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesday is my "healthy" pizza night. Sometimes we'll just eat leftovers on Fridays. In the summer, we might grill on Friday. Same with Saturday. We normally eat out for lunch on Sunday. And just have leftovers or snacky stuff Sunday night.

And I don't think it's just younger people who eat fast food for dinner. Many acquaintances around my age, eat out a lot, including fast food.

Garden food isn't always quick and easy. Harvesting the food, cleaning it, preparing it--much more time consuming that even opening a can or bag of frozen.

My daughter cooks. She's pretty good, too. Ethan's friend in Portland is only 19 and she cooks. Her dad is a chef, though. I sort of laughed when he messaged me back in October while he was visiting there. He messaged that they had been to a pumpkin patch and got some pumpkins with her friends. She came back and made pumpkin pie with them.

Some of the younger ones who are into the homesteading type of life cook often. And I think more and more people are doing that...or are trying. But there's still a lot that don't.

We like food. We like to grow it. We like to cook. We like to eat out at interesting places as well.

All of my kids are great cooks. The boys enjoy it more than my daughter especially my oldest so. He is a very creative cook.

i found GW googling

how to garden in hot dry wind. A post with Dawn popped up. After that every time I needed garden help I googled Dawn and then my question. It worked until I figured out gw

HJ, yes, epiphany goes through January 6. Our tree and all inside decorations are packed up, but I haven't gotten around to setting the house back. But knowing Mel, my husband's close friend/practically a sister, she'll be organizing the mantle and bookshelves this week. And since I'm not Suzy homemaker & she seems to enjoy doing that sort of thing, I mostly ignore her when she starts on one of her cleaning jags.

cooking...

I love to cook. I even cook when out bicycle camping. While Mel was still touring with me, we had quite interesting meals, as we each carried a cooker, and thus had more options.

But my plate is a frisbee... and our serving spoon was a child sandbox shovel. :)

We got a lot of funny looks from other campers (bike campers usually camp together)

Moni

Loved that, Moni!

Moni, I remember following one of your journey's quite a few years ago. I don't remember where you went but I remember it was overseas and you had to ship your bike. I enjoyed following you on your journey, was really interesting and I felt like I was living through you at the time. Have you went on anymore journeys lately or do you have any plans in the making?

HJ, taking down the tree tomorrow. I'm honestly really sad this time to take it down. I even joked about making it a seasonal tree and decorating it as each season passes....Valentine's, Easter, Spring, Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc etc. How fun would that be?!

Melissa my last journey was in Europe, the Euro Velo 6. If you go to this link, you can look at ALL my journals. ;)

Moni

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/giantcycle99