I am so going to feel it tomorrow. Gotta get back in gardening shape. I hauled all the various jugs and flats of things I’ve started outside, and secured them in the various places they belong, and brought in more materials for more seeds. Reseeded the lettuce that didn‘t survive the Big Freeze. Planted 6 broccoli starts. Planted my birthday gift to myself- some new lily and gladiolus bulbs.

Still need to start the rest of my seeds (all flowers and a few herbs at this point.) Bought some hollyhock roots to try, maybe I can get them to grow this way. Onions and potatoes to plant. Cleanup.

Realized I forgot to write down what tomatoes I ended up starting. Need to fix that.

Thinking breakfast for dinner, which means biscuits.

It's a blah day. . . Not cold, not hot, but not pleasant, either. Maybe I'll give it a couple hours and then go plant onions and asparagus. I have to whittle the tomato list down a bit. Onions are in, but I'm waiting a couple days for the asparagus. Do you all add fertilizer when planting the asparagus crowns? What kind? I'll have to order some, I guess. I have high hopes for the onions this year! The grow cart is beginning to fill up.

I have sweet potatoes in potting soil so can make my own slips.

Far too many peppers, but there are so many interesting ones, I want to sample some. I am especially interested in tasting:

Hungarian Paprika Spice; Hungarian Round Pimento; Jimmy Nardello's Italian Pepper; Thunder Mountain Longhorn, Ros de Mallorca, Sugar Rush Peach, and the ornamentals Count Dracula and 5-color Chinese. Then a few hot ones (Thai, and a couple REALLY hot ones.)

Because I'll be planting so many peppers, I'm going to really cut back on the tomatoes. But this year, I'm finally organized enough that as soon as I plant a crop of anything, the seeds go into a plastic zip-lock and into the freezer so they can last a long time. . . that means a lot of unused tomato seeds go into the freezer.

I finally have my rolled oats and honey, Melissa, so can get going on a big batch of granola.

Haha, Danny. I've been working on this most of the day. I'm having a hard time staying on task--with ANYTHING today.

Dinner's started--Cajun penne pasta with chicken.

I love salads at restaurants. Not crazy about them at home. But I found these spectacular dressings, and now all of a sudden, I like tossed salads at home. That makes GDW happy, as he loves salad. These are so delicious, I'm going to share them with you all. I knew I had to try them when she said she really didn't like salads that much. I've tried the lemon one and now the blue cheese one. But fully intend to give them all a try. https://wholefully.com/healthy-salad-dressing-recipes/

Have a super good week, everyone. Hope you're okay, Amy. Thinking of you.

Same here Nancy, haven't wanted to do anything. I require sunlight for peak performance and it's been foggy, overcast, dark, and misty/rainy. I sincerely want warm sunlight interlaced between no more than one consecutive day of rain (don't want much, do I?).

I think I would be pleased, if all rains occurred at night, and every day was a sunny one (if not too hot at least). However, I don't want to live in a sunny desert ;)

Are you a real gardener if you somehow get marigold seeds in your lunch?

I'm always astonished when seeds pop up so quickly on my grow cart. Most of the greens were. up after 2 days, and for sure, 3. I even had an ornamental pepper (I'd saved seeds from last year) pop up after 3 days. And the rest of that variety all showed up after 7. I planted lots of stuff Friday the 26. Today those which are already here are a couple kales, collards, oak choi, 3 different basils. That is on the third day! Wow. The newest flats to joint the cart were 1 1/3 flats of peppers, and then flowers. I will really be quite fine if these don't germinate for a couple weeks.

I'm finally beginning to get out and cut plants down to get ready for the new growing year.

Our experts advise us to not begin tearing down last year's plants until temps remain in a fairly constant 50+ degrees, when most of the insects/pollinaators can survive. And so.

I need to apply some milky spore to combat the blasted Japanese beetles. Spreading alfalfa pellets, applying other sources of nitrogen for onions and other nitrogen loving plants.

I'm hampered big time by my r4ecent onset of right hip/leg pain. . . so I keep telling myself I will make an appt. HATE going to docs. But also hate the pain that's causing quality of life issues.

Ok Nancy, I need your cajun penne recipe. Probably only make it for myself (Cliff & Mel both have stomach issues so even mild stuff is 'too spicy ' for them) but I'm always looking for something different.

Have you ever ordered it from Chili's restaurant, Jen? Mine is better. But you can make it as spicy or non-spicy as you want. With all that cream and parmesan cheese and garlic . . . .LOL . Here's my version, for two:

8 oz penne pasta, boiled for 11 minutes

2 boneless chicken breasts (I use 3 chicken thighs instead)

1 T cajun seasoning (though I tend to more like 2 T)

2-3 T butter

2-3 cloves garlic

1 cup or so c heavy cream

1/2 t lemon zest (I kind of overloaded, to about 1 tsp, but still was very tasty)

1/4-1/2 cups Parmesan

salt and pepper to taste

diced roma tomatoes if you have them. . . I didn't.

I roast the chicken for an hour at 400, seasoned with Cajun seasoning and EVO.

Then I sautee the garlic in left over oil from roasted chicken, in a separate skillet, and the butter. I add a bit of flour.

And I then add a bunch of cajun seasoning, and then the heavy cream and zested lemon and parmesan cheese. . . then add the chopped up chicken (or shrimp).

I'm lurking around mostly to see what everyone is up to but thought I'd post quickly. Between work, being a virtual-teacher, splitting my time between home and my grandmother's house for about 3 months, and then coming down with bronchitis, I've been completely discombobulated all year and it reflects in the status of my seeds. Still, I'm finally getting things started.

The box that started it all - the wooden, tractor-fender crate that was my first raised garden at this house - will be replaced this coming weekend. It's bittersweet because it's one of the ways my husband wooed me into coming over more often as I didn't have a yard to garden in where I was living, and my daughter helped us stain it and she was SOOOO little. She was in first grade and come this summer, I'll have an 8th grader! HJ - I know you just survived all this, so if you feel like being an emotional support mom, I'm gonna need one! <sobs>

I hope to get my leafy greens planting next weekend as well. Looking at the week after this, the temps are following the pattern I normally look for to start planning a planting out date for tomatoes, so I'll continue watching closely, and might go in a little early.

A couple of observations from my seed starting. I saved seeds from my Egg Yolk tomatoes last year. They'd proven tricky for both myself and Bruce to start in the past. The saved seeds popped up just fine - and this was my first time saving tomato seeds so that's saying something. I guess there were some bad batches floating around. I'm also trying the new "improvement" on mosquetero poblano peppers, called Trident. The real test of course will be production and how they tolerate Oklahoma weather, but so far the Trident seeds have all popped up and my Mosquetero aren't yet. They're both new seeds but from different suppliers. Trident came from Seeds N Such. Mosquetero came from Raimier Seeds.

Need to take a queue from Rebecca and start getting into garden shape. I didn't even make it to the garden this weekend and still overworked my back. Good thing I'm working from home still where I can easily disguise that I'm sitting on a heating pad!

Until I come lurking around again - everyone take care!

Here's one for you Nancy, from a copy cat book "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes ". It's from a Houston restaurant.

I'm surviving. Limiting trips to every other day. Have to take the truck today, and it hurts my legs. Hopefully we will get the keeper stuff out today so I can have a mover come get the rest of it out.

Ron bought dirt to put in the front bed, so hopefully I can throw lettuce seeds in it soon. I've been scanning photos to do a slide show for the memorial. I have to figure out how to get the life insurance and close all the accounts. I hate phone calls.

It's Monday, have a good week.

Hugs to Ron and you. That dressing looks AWESOME!!! I'll add it to other new favorites. Megan, I had the same experience with my wonderful Midnight Fire ornamental pepper seeds I got from Remy at Sample Seeds. They did fine. But she just called them Midnight. I was so glad I saved them from last year, because I couldn't find them anywhere this year. THEN I realized they were the same exact thing as Midnight Fire, so ordered a bunch more. Meanwhile, I planted from the seeds I'd saved, and the first ones jumped up just after 3 days, and all of them were up at the end of six days. That is FAST, for peppers.

I'm going to be saving lots and lots of seeds this year. I had a tough time finding Egg Yolk seeds this year, too. Finally found them, so will be sure to save those, Megan.

Do you get good germination with saved seeds ? I tried to carryover Big Beef seed and in the second year, I would get low germination rates and slow germination. I'm tryin to figure if that was just something I was doing or just bad seed.

I've been planting fresh from Johnny's every year. I planted a whole pack of 40 twelve days ago and got 100% germination. I plant the whole pack because i'm gonna buy fresh every year. Maybe I don't need to be doing that ?

I potted them up today. And got my onions in the ground. The garden is up and running now. Time for another arctic front.

George is the seed saving expert. But know he's very busy right now. Still, if you go to https://seedsavingnetwork.proboards.com/ he's probably got tips. This is my first real year of going all out. The Midnight pepper seeds were so amazing, decided to start it with everything.

Even so, no, you don't have to buy new every year--and if you keep them stored in plastic bags in the freezer, they'll last a long long time. https://www.myfruitionseeds.com/blog/secrets-to-storing-seeds

This is super interesting. The global seed vault exists in case there is a global tragedy event. I watched a documentary on it last year. https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/ And it's way up north in cold cold weather! lol

I'm a little nervous about the seeds I just received from Hirt's Seeds. They have so many bad reviews, I best REALLY take care of getting these seeds sown with extra special care. And if they perform well, I'll be sure to let them know.

I pared the tomato-growing list down to 10--and that includes the 6 dwarf ones, Isis Candy, Egg Yolk, Arkansas Marvel, and Jersey Giant Paste.

I hadn't ever grown Big Beef, and I got to wondering if it was a hybrid. It is. "Sometimes the hybrid either creates sterile offspring or doesn't produce seeds at all. ... Except for these examples, seeds produced by hybrids will produce viable plants. They just won't be exactly like their parents." Aha. So there ya go, Lynn.

Well, I was thinking carryover seeds would be unused purchased seeds, like from Johnnys.

One year, quite a while back, I tried to use seeds from the fruit of a hybrid tomato, I think it was Big Bush , or something like that. And learned the hard way that hybrid seeds won't work. They don't produce fruit.

But I just planted 40 seeds and got 40 plants, I only need 20. But the way my gardening goes, if I only planted 20 seeds, I would get 5 plants :)

Johnny's Big Beef is a hybrid.

But I'm not carrying over seeds from the fruit. I'm carrying over purchased seeds from Johnnys, and the second year, is really hit and miss.

OH, Lynn, I see. Well that's interesting. BUT, still, if you put them in ziplocks and store in the freezer, they'd probably do better--unless you already are doing that.

Well, there ya go, I've not kept them like that, I kept them in a small brown bag in a cabinet. I'll try that next year. I also think I could improve by using a heat mat, maybe they'll germinate faster.

With any seeds, storage is really important. I have always stored mine in some kind of air-tight container. Doing this, I have had good luck carrying over seeds for multiple years.

But as good as that is, still, there is the Global Seed Vault, Megan. The documentary is so awesome! https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_OEsf-1qgY

I think I get faster germination with a heat mat with most things.

I planted 1 bundle of onions today. I told Madge that this may be the last year I try to garden. I had 2 more bundles of onions to plant, but just came back into the house and washes the mud off, may try it again tomorrow. I have to fight the mud almost every year. I must try containers again this year and try to stay out of the mud.

Yes, Nancy, Hirt's is one of those 'never order from again'. I wish you luck though, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I was glad to see the sun today and I tried to battle the utility companies with mixed success. I might have updated the draft pay info for one of them, another told me to use the website, but it wouldn't create a userid for me. The third wanted me to send them email with my acct info in it (I said no), and they wouldn't take over the phone. Oh well, maybe I'll try visiting them directly Thursday and see if I can't hit them physically with my POA papers.

The earliest daffodils are almost open in the yard. I see other bulbs emerging in some cases, I'm not quite sure what is what. I've apparently became like the squirrel that doesn't remember where he planted his acorns :)

I’m back with a spinach starting question. I switched to growing bloomsdale long-standing last year. It’s been harder to start than other spinaches I’ve grown. Besides soaking, any tricks to get them to germinate?

I started five varieties, including Bloomsdale. Yep, that's all I did, soaked in very warm water for 24 hrs. All were up by the 6th day. I did have a clear dome over them.

I planted a bundle of Candy onions, and 2 packs of sugar snap peas (Sugar Sprint and Super Sugar Snap). Now I need my chiropractor, lol.

I grow Bloomsdale for mom and a baby leaf variety for me (right now Carmel). The Bloomsdale is always slower to come up. I ended up wintersowing the Bloomsdale this year, to see if that helps. It’s definitely persnickety.

I feel like I have too many flowers planted, but then I remember how my front garden swallows flowers, and my cutting garden in back, and the pots I’m planning out front, and I feel like I need more. I probably do.

I am SO tired of grocery store veggies, and no fresh herbs. I did find some parsley that somehow survived the Big Freeze, so I made sure the roots were planted well, and watered. More parsley, cilantro, and dill are next. Maybe thyme. Rosie (my rosemary bush) survived too. Amazing. Catnip and oatgrass for Audrey too.

Rebecca, I am glad to hear that you have trouble with Bloomsdale also. I have had trouble with it and had given up on growing it, but I may give it another try now.

I also planted onions. My guess is, that, I now have 200+ plants planted this year, one pound of sets planted a couple of weeks ago, about 140 garlic that was planted last fall. The tops are burned by the freeze, but still in good shape. The walking onions and other onions planted last fall are burned, but will come out and be okay for green onions, I expect them to bolt, but now that look like bunching onions.

The deer are getting in the house gardens and eating the shard and beets, they dont seem to want the collards. The mustard was burned worse than I expected. The turnips look like they are starting to grow again, and the forage radishes ( Daikon ) are putting back out also, the Daikon in the house garden has already been tilled in. There are deer tracks all over the wildlife garden, so I an sure they are eating the stuff over there also, but I wont try to fence them off till there is plenty of other food ready for them.

I finally got the large brush pile burned in the wildlife garden. I will start working on that area and grow some kind of people food there this year.

I've had problems getting spinach to come up in the spring in recent years. I do 4 or 5 variaties. Bloomsdale , Giant Nobel, Space, Tyee .It seems to come up with warmer temps than the recommended temps of 40*. Used to not be any big deal to get a stand of spinach and lettuce in the spring, but anymore it is.

HU

Glad to know it’s not just me with the spinach. In the fall I did get some up but the bunnies got it. It still wasn’t what I’d call a good stand.

I keep seeds for years. I can’t help myself. When I get my own land I will plant 90% of what I have right now. This is part of my collection I finally got most of it organized

Bloomsdale always performed better for me than all the others. I prefer the taste. You can prime it. I often soak seeds and can't get them planted. I let them dry. I don't do all the other stuff they mention. I've not had trouble with it. Even old seeds (stored in a little chest of drawers by the way.) Below is copied.

Scientists call this process "priming," and it’s easy to do at home. About a week before planting, soak spinach seeds in room temperature water for 24 hours. Place the wet seeds on a paper towel, and allow to dry at room temperature for a day or two. Shift the seeds to an airtight container, and keep in a cool place for up to a week. The primed seeds will retain enough moisture to complete the first two stages of germination. After planting, primed spinach seeds germinate in only 5 days, compared to 10 or more for seeds straight out of the packet. - See more at: https://www.growveg.com/guides/getting-a-good-stand-of-garden-spinach/#sthash.6rFvargK.dpuf

we are babysitting today.

I've never been backed into a "priming" corner. The 24-hr soak method worked like a charm with everything this year.

Larry, I think what you'll likely see is they go to seed this year vs bulbing up.

Danny, I expect that I will have a lot of onions going to seed this year, many of the plants I bought were too large, I am afraid that they will bolt, if so I may try to save seeds, I have not been happy with the plants I fave bought the past 3 years.

I do remember my grandparents starting onions from seed and I've grown alliums (ornamentals mostly) from seeds. It takes quite a long time actually to get them to size.
I find it amazing that onion sets sell for as low a price as they do?

It WAS a beautiful day. Our cats are so happy! I went out this afternoon and was clearing one of the plant/flower beds, cutting out all the old dead stuff.

(You know, the pollinator experts tell us to "leave the leaves" and to not take out the expired plants until spring when the weather is consistently at 50 or above, and many of the insects are sheltering under the leaves and plants.) I only have four more beds to go--and they're pretty big ones. But it doesn't take long to clear them out. We did Lincoln's several days ago.

I wish we had a young helper nearby!

The Hirt's Seeds arrived. Danny, I had to laugh. The Thai pepper seeds they sent were from Botanical Interests. The Midnight Fire peppers were in small ziplocks, and there were two of them with about 10 seeds each, (I only ordered one.) and the name of the seeds was handwritten by pen. The other 3 things were also in small ziplocks, too, but the labels were regular typed ones. I'm nervous about these seeds, because they are all ones I really want to grow. I soaked them overnight and got them planted today, along with all the tomatoes except the dwarfs I just ordered from Victory a week and a half ago. I received the previous Victory orders very promptly but now have gotten in the time delay with this latest order from them--and from Pinetree. Bummed, but that's the way it goes.

We got our second shots this morning. So far so good. Since I was out clearing the bed with Tiny and Jerry's help, and was enjoying it all so much, didn't even remember I had the shot. I was tearing old morning glories off the car/boat port railing and putting them in a pile at the end of the port. One trip over, I saw the pile moving about 3 feet, like a tumbleweed. It was Tiny underneath. Hilarious. The next trip to the pile found four piles scattered all around. Some helper!

Seedlings are growing like crazy. And I'm tired. Early night of sleep, I think. Best.

Bloomsdale spinach, OH MY GOD! Nope, never do that much work with seeds. If they refuse to come up... well, I plant something else.

So far, all came up, even the spinach. I had a pack from last year, Seeds of Change (no idea where I bought those....) Spinach Butterflay

My ex's aunt used to grow New Zealand spinach... and it was very prolific. I wish, I had some from her...

I went hiking with a friend. She is really the only person I spent time with... she is the one I went to Australia with last March. Don't tell her, that I am sharing her picture here. ;)

Moni, thanks for the picture. It brought back good memories for me. I use to get out in the woods and try to walk to the edge of the world, I never found it, but I did see some very pretty country.

Danny, a picture on my memories showed up on face book today of some plants I had 8 years ago. In the picture were many things I had started from seed that were ready to plant, onions being some of them. I can not buy bulk seeds now like I did then. Very few places now have seeds where you just go in and dip out what you wanted.

Well I had better get to bed, another Dr. appointment in the morning.

Anyone use this wet paper towel/zip lock bag method of germinating pepper seeds ?

I haven't. but know many do. Should work just fine. What kinds are you going to grow?

I find it easier to just plant the things. I would only bother with paper towel germination for a germination test or for dealing with cost efficiencies where germination might be low and wanted to conserve effort or media. But that's just me, I don't usually want to plant things 2 or 3 times.

if you've never heard it before, I'm a bit lazy...least effort that yields good results.

My "Dawn tomatoes" have all sprouted except 2 varieties. They're still small but I've started dividing them. Not many peppers sprouted so I may have to pick some up at spring fling. My sister has been cleaning up the beds so I did a walkaround to see what survived the snowpocalypse. Irises, feverfew, chives & mint got a little freezer burnt but they're springing back. The rose campion, coneflowers, and snapdragons are starting to sprout. And in her garden area, the mexican hat & bachelor buttons have started to pop up.

I'm growing jalapeno, bell, and banana .... can't think of the varieties, right off. Got the seed from Southern Exposure.

Lynn - the paper towel method is how I was taught in elementary or middle school to start seeds. For years that's how I tried to start all my seeds and never understood why I had a hard time getting them going. I lost a lot of seedlings in the process of moving them from paper towels to a pot.

Moni - I've only ever seen Seeds of Change seeds at Tractor Supply. So I don't know why you have those specifically but I can wager a guess at where you got them. I may swing by there and grab some spinach seeds as it doesn't look like I'm going to get enough bloomsdale to be happy.

I'm in here because my lunchbreak is being spent teaching algebra and the kiddo took a break to go to her bathroom and cry. I tried explaining that I didn't have the DNA she needed to inherit to be able to do algebra in her head so she'd have to work it out step by step on paper. My self-deprecation was lost on her and I needed my own moment to clear my head. Anyhow. She's emerging from her hideout now so guess we'll get back to it.

Sympathies, Megan, to both of you!

Regarding the Midnight Fire seeds from Hirt's. They germinated nearly immediately--2 days. Now we'll just wait to see if they really are Midnight Fires. lol And I have so many peppers going already, I put 2 packets on the "maybe next year" list in the freezer, and planted just the Thai hot pepper and Numex Big Jim.

I'm hardening off cool weather things and will likely get them in the ground in a couple more days. I need the ROOM on the cart.

I'm hoping I can figure out how to get plants to SF even if we don't make it. I have at least half a dozen little elderberry happily sprouting leaves! And will have gobs of other stuff. Maybe I'll list what I've got on the SF plants list.

Nancy. Get your butt on that phone.

I have tried the paper towel method, but liked the coffee filter method better, and the just plant in a flat and placing on a hear mat under the lights even better. I also like handling them as few times as I can.

I read that the paper towel method was to figure out if seeds were viable. 10 seeds, 5 sprout, only 50% germination rate. So you plant twice as many. Larry's right, if you want to use them, use a coffee filter.

I believe I've seen Seeds of Change at Natural Grocers and Botanical Interests at Southern Agriculture.

I follow a Guy on Facebook who sells tomato...plants? Seeds? Anyway. There was a video where he's shoving transplants into a cup rather haphazardly by our standards, and he says he doesn't baby them, doesn't want weak plants. I don't know why that's relevant.

We babysat and it about did me in. He'll fool you with his dimpled grin and then shriek in your ear and make your insides vibrate. I've always been able to calm a baby. But not this one. When he wants his mommy nothing calms him except a bottle (and he'll snuffle while he takes it). I've had a couple of days rest, so back to Bartlesville.

It's Saturday, have a good weekend.

Nancy, I think you were the one who ask for pictures of our baby on the calendar. We sure miss the little boy, but were blessed to have him 14 years.

What a touching thoughtful present, Larry! Now be sure to post every month's picture. Tell Madge hi.

I intended to check in today, but got caught up in gardening. Feel like someone gave me a beating tonight. . . so does Garry, and we know we didn't give each other a beating. We need to sell this place and downsize. I'd be happy in a trailer with a normal-sized lot, to tell you the truth. Now my only worry is am I going to have a single or double-wide? And for sure would have to have a tornado shelter.

I'll sleep well tonight and catch you all tomorrow. BTW, I had to share your grand baby day with GDW, Amy, because I could just picture him taking the bottle but "snuffling" all the way through. Great description!

Nancy, when I read your post (do remember it's 3 am), I read that you would require a 'tomato shelter'. :)

Nancy, I can understand wanting to down size, Madge and I have talked about downsizing, but we already live in a double-wide trailer, which we dont care much about. We have between 1500 and 1600 sq. ft., which is more than we need, especially now that no one visits. At one time, before all the great grand kids and Covid we could have used more room. The cost of heating, cooling, and repair goes up an the home gets larger. It also seems as the medical cost and the things you have to hire done as we get older.

Madge and I are not ready to move into town, we do enjoy having our space. I can see a time coming when we have to hire our lawn mowed and hare all the up-keep on our home. We still enjoy flowers and gardening, but each year we think that " this may be the last Year". We have so much junk, we would just have to go off and leave it, its not worth moving and we would not have a place to put it anyway.