Well, this morning I woke up in a warm house. The AC must have frosted up, because apparently giving it a rest cleared it out (15 minutes or so). Continued warm/hot and dry. Though nighttime temps are due to drop to 49 on Tuesday.

(repeating myself) I'm so sick of sweat and watering things. My indoor plants are suffering from lack of attention, because I'm just sick of watering everything.

Jasper has had some ice skating sessions. He will take a bowl, turn it upside down, and slide with his foot in it...making quite a scuffing sound as he slides along. I think I should just buy him roller skates.

My fall blooming bulbs (fall crocus, colchicum, and the like) were delayed unloading from the cargo ship that they sailed across the Atlantic on (email from vendor) probably because no one wanted to work unloading the cargo. They should arrive Tuesday, about 20 days late. Hopefully they haven't progressed too far along the path to blooming before I get them in the ground. Though I would/will have to soak the ground to make any holes, it's SO dry and hard.

In a month or so, I will hope the spring flowering fall bulbs will also arrive. Wonder if they came with these or if they'll be late too?

It is still hot and dry here also, we did get a little rain a few nights ago, not much, but I wont send it back.

The deer got into my sweet potatoes 2 or 3 nights ago. I am just going to let them have the tops, then dig the potatoes. I will not be able to dig the potatoes, I will try to get the ground wet enough to get a plow to dig into the ground, a plow them out of the ground. I dont expect much of a harvest because I put them in new ground this year, and it has been so dry.

Friday and Saturday I pick ( 3 ) 5 gal. buckets of peas, I still dont have all of them shelled. I have shelled the ones we are going to freeze, but still working on the ones I am saving for seed. I think that I have about all the seed I will need for next spring, but I am sure I will buy some kind of seed before planting time.

I plant some Egyptian Walking onions in a container, the are growing like mad. I am hoping to do more with the containers next year, they seem like an easy way for an old person to grow a small amount of food.

Oh my gosh, this is horrible!!! I haven't even been out to see OUR weedy beds and raised beds (mostly peppers). I don't know what's going on at Lincoln. I know John is super busy, but I need for him to talk with me. COMMUNCATION! I don't think he understands this hip surgery stuff. Guess I'll just have to get on him about it all.

Garry would be out working in the yard, but he's concerned that I'll need something. We need to talk, also. I need to tell him that we can line things out and then he can go out and work.

I AM feeling a bit better day by day, but have a ways to go, dang it all.

I HAVE been having fun looking through gardening magazines. Beginning week 3, Sept. 19. Hallelujah!

Nancy, get Garry use to using the phone. I have very bad hearing, but most of the time I can hear the phone ring, and Madge's name will show up, I know that she needs me. If I am on the tractor or mower I often dont hear the phone, or feel it vibrating, but if I think she is not feeling well I wont mow or run the tractor, it works well for both of us. We have reached the point in life that we need each other a lot more.

We got up this morning to take Madge to the clinic for test, went out to leave and had a flat tire. We then got in the truck to got to the clinic. The truck is messing up and wont run properly. I had planned to put it in the shop last week, but was having trouble getting an appointment. When we came back into the house Madge looked on the calendar to check the appoint time at the clinic, and planned to call to cancel. Her 7:30 appointment turned out to be 11:30. I got the tire repaired and an appointment for the truck, and now waiting till time to take Madge to Ft. Smith for her test.

I switched my day off. School is out today, so I'll work both jobs tomorrow and stay home from both jobs today.

I have laundry started, all critters fed, and my workout done. Now....what to do? I don't feel like cleaning really. Options: jelly making or pesto making. Maybe both.

I need to slice, bread, and freeze a bit more okra. It may be a day in the kitchen.

And probably a little watering.

I feel ready to pull out the melon vines and sweet potatoes and get that all cleaned up, but it's not time yet. For the sweet potatoes. And the melons have another 'round of fruit.

That garden is looking really bad, though. Weedy and dry. All the plants are nibbled on. Something of note: The Oklahoma Red sweet potatoes don't wilt in the heat, but the Ginseng Orange ones do. It may mean nothing, but it is interesting.

Glad you're feeling a little better, Nancy. Yes, communication is SO important. (Dealing with a lot of that right now with one of my jobs) I hope you're able to get it all worked out, but you have to heal first and foremost. Enjoy your garden magazines!

Larry, maybe you'll get a good rain soon and that will help with the digging.

Danny, watering is quite a job, I agree. We have a super long hose that reaches most of the property, but dragging it around all the obstacles and dealing with the kinks is a pain. It's nice when Rick helps me. He usually does the SG, but it can easily be done with one person unlike the greenhouse, Charlotte's Garden, and kitchen garden. I mean, those things can be done with one person, but it's easier with two.

And, do you find that rain is just better--more nourishing (or something)? Obviously not flooding rains....but just a good rain.

I have a plan for next year in the kitchen garden. I'm going to lay down 3 shorter hoses in the pathways and have a feeder type of hose, that way I won't have to drag them over beds and plants.

Okay. It's time to get up and get to work.

Hope everyone has a great day, enjoys the cooler weather that's coming soon, and hopefully a little rain too. Hopefully.

We havent had rain in SO long and its scary dry but this morning a rainbow appeared - have you ever seen a rainbow BEFORE the rain? i think the Lord is saying ”hold on, the rain will come”

farmgardener, I like the picture, but it sure looks dry there, even worse than here. I got a call this morning while taking my wife to a Dr. appointment, it was the young may that works for me some time, want to mow my lawn. He said that he thought it might rain tomorrow. I think the young man was having a dream, I dont think he is old enough to know what rain looks like. It is not really that bad here, but we do need rain.

I need to go over and check my wildlife garden, I should have some Zipper Cream peas ready to pick, they wont last long in this heat. I also need to harvest some butternut and remove the trellis, the vines are about dead anyway.

Nice weather here, we only got a sprinkle of rain, I hope for more.

I checked the wildlife garden and I do have peas ready to pick, but the neighbor said that he would like to have a bushel by Fri., so I will let him have all the peas this week. I think he is also picking about 15 pounds of okra a day, but he says he can sell all he picks. We are still putting up a little, but we are about maxed out. Madge says that she has already processed all the roselle that she wants and I still have about a dozen plants that I have not harvested anything from. Madge tells me every year to not plant so much. After this Covid thing, I find it harder to give stuff away, It seems as though I dont see anyone.

I check my seed starting ( junk ) room. I have 51 squash/pumpkins in there and plenty of seeds. Being as it is so cool, I think I will go out and plant some greens and Austrian winter peas in some of the areas I have ready to plant. Most everything I plant now will be for a green manure/cover crop.

I am really enjoying the birds in the wildlife garden. I dont know what they are eating, bugs I hope, but the birds are thick and busy. There are a lot of weed seeds over there, but less in the garden than the area I have fore the wildlife

One of the mothers at the school garden brought us a bunch of okra and squash from the garden, which was super nice of her. I just wish I had an appetite. I need for someone to take pictures of it--I'll have to put a bug in John's ear.

Larry, I read GDW the paragraph about you using your phone. He allowed as how that's a good idea and said he'd start doing that, too, carrying the phone in his shirt and putting it on vibrate.

He has a doc appt tomorrow with our family doctor. I really think I'm not going to make it--he's just going to have to go by himself. I know he'll worry about leaving me alone--but I'll worry about him going by himself--he'll have to remind her to speak up when she's talking.

Hallelujah friends! Remember the cat behavior problem with Tiny? DUH, Nancy and Garry. How he's able to scratch on the screen outside the livingoom window is because we have a small wrought iron bench out there, right underneath the screen. Garry had the brilliant idea of moving the bench down a ways so it's not under that window. Ha! (We were laughing; wondering how Tiny is going to outsmart us. We figure he'll just jump from the ground/porch and hang on the screens. Better not, the little brat. Also, we have a flower window box outside the kitchen window. Garry's just going to take that down so he won't have that to jump up to. Stay tuned. . . .

Ah, the coolness is much appreciated, 46 suppossedly this morning, though it returns to 60s next week, but not for long (a week or two according to the forecast). Rainfall was much appreciated though insufficient. I hope we get more within a week, though not watering yesterday or probably today is also much appreciated.

I received my bulbs Monday, and got into the ground yesterday, though I didn't water them in (perhaps I'll do that today). They're off to a late start, the colchicum is in flower (though the flower isn't fully expanded or colored), the crocus has growing nubs about 1/4 an inch long.

The weather is nice. I did not get the things done yesterday that I wanted to, but had a good day. Madge and I made apple butter ( mostly Madge ). I re-tilled an area in the south garden and planted 4 rows of beets. So far I have not been able to get a good crop of beets on this side of the property, I did pretty well when I lived in my old house on the east side of the property.

My neighbor and I picked well over a bushel of peas out of the wildlife garden yesterday. Nancy, most of whose peas came off what was an old road. The road bed is so rocky that I can hardly get enough soil to cover the seeds, but with a little amending, and some water from the neighbors hose, we are getting a pretty good crop, and my plans are to have a better crop next year.

The pea patch looks like a mess, the deer started getting in there, so we ran electric wires back and forth across the patch. So far the hot wire is working fine, just makes it harder for us to pick the peas. We unhook the charger in the day, but, still it is harder for me to step over, or crawl under the wires while picking the peas.

I had a pretty good day. Madge and her sister went to south Arkansas for a friends funeral. I stayed home and watered the sweet potato bed very well, then planted 2 rows of onions and garlic, they were just odds and ends of some I had left from spring harvest.

I also dug my sweet potatoes, they were a big mess, I had to sit out and water for a long time this morning. My helper called around noon, wanting to work, so I had him to come down and help me start my tractor, and I plowed the sweet potatoes out of the ground, breaking or cutting most of them, there was not a good harvest anyway. The new ground and very little water did not make for good growing conditions. I expect to have all we will need for eating and enough to make slips for next year.

I have been wandering around west Texas. Picked up some deep purple Iris. And some giant garlic. Also harvested dozens of carrot seed heads. I have carrots forever. One person in another group suggested I broadcast along the Highway for the deer to eat later. I didn’t mention that would be a serious waste of my precious seed not to mention dangerous if it did sprout. Spent great time with son grandson and dil. I got to see sonogram of new grandbaby due in February: )

I'm wondering where Amy is!!! Hoping she's okay. We're good, but the internet (new one at that) is #$%^& messed up, all day today. On and off, on and off. GRRR!!! AGGHHHH Third world country!

I will interested in comments from you that grow Oklahoma Red sweet potatoes. I grew them for the first time this year, and they seemed harder to work with than the Covington that I normally grow. Many of the roots were longer and harder to dig. A lot of my problem was the soil. The soil was only amended lightly, and the hot dry summer made it very hard. The ground was so hard that hand digging was impossible, so the potatoes had to be plowed out with a tractor, which damaged a lot of the potatoes.

I grew 60 Oklahoma Red plants. The plants grew very well, but produced less per plant than the 20 Covington plants I had planted next to them. This is not really a good test because the Covington were planted next to an established garden, on the down hill side, and may have received some of the water used on the garden.

I still have 2 Red Wine Velvet plants to dig, they are in the established garden and have had much better growing conditions. I will comment more after I have had a chance to eat some of the potatoes, please let me know how your sweet potatoes do this year.

I'm ok. We had family drama and 2 days of babysitting. Then I got a stomach bug. Feeling better today. Just didn't do much "interneting" this week.

Danny, get the dog a skate board!

I probably grew Oklahoma Red last year, Larry, but I can't find a record of what I planted. 2 oranges and a red. This years plants came from one of the oranges.

Congratulations on new grandbaby Kim! Baby sitting mine this week was fun. He's a year on the 29th. He's a happy baby.

Houzz won't cooperate and let me scroll back so I can comment on what I wanted to.

We've been watering. Ron has spent time in the garden, though mostly it is composting.

We got maybe a trace of rain. That's it.

y'all have a good weekend.

Oh, I will look for Dawns roselle post.

Here's one of the roselle threads. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3704603/roselle-thai-red

Good to hear from you, Amy. Glad you're feeling better.

Thanks for sharing the roselle thread. I remember her talking about it a lot a couple of years ago. She was growing fewer veggies because she was focusing on the landscape project....but she mentioned roselle a lot. Looks like the recipe in the link that she shared doesn't use pectin. I think I'm still going to use it the first time...and then get braver and try it without.

I didn't do much in the garden tonight. I watered the flowers and that's about it.

Do y'all remember a few years ago when we used to name our weekly threads? Usually after songs? Blind Melon came on my Spotify today with No Rain. That would make a good September thread song. Love that song btw.

Larry, as soon as Rick and I dig up our sweet potatoes, ,we'll let you know what we've got.

Jennifer, I am looking forward to seeing your info.

I weighed some of my potatoes this morning. I weighed 112 pounds worth, so I expect I got about 180 pounds of potatoes. The potatoes in the new ground did not do so well, but I planted 2 plants in my amended garden, where they got watered somewhat properly. The 2 plants, which I had labeled "Red Wine Velvet ", produced 33,8 pounds of potatoes. As you might guess, I fired up the John Deere and hauled (5) 6' buckets of compost to the new ground, and will work it into the soil today.

I am afraid that I got my slips or potatoes mixes up, because the Oklahoma Reds look more of what I would expect from the Red Wine Velvet. The potatoes are more of a red to purple velvet on the outside, and almost that dark on the inside.

No matter what I have, I will save seed potatoes from the Covington, The ones I have listed as Red Wine Velvet, and a few of the Oklahoma Red. I will try the O. R's again in amended soil, hoping that they are not so long. I like a egg or football shaped potato because they are easier to plow out of the ground in one piece.

Look at what the grasshoppers did not eat!!! It’s a Texas star hibiscus and I grew out from seed I bought over 6 years ago. It has all kinds of special instructions but I just planted and it grew. And the grasshoppers only go after the flowers after they open. I am going to find out how to save seed. I would love to have a hedge of this.

Yes, Jasper needs a skateboard!

Kim, that is beautiful!

Look at what the grasshoppers did not eat!!! It’s a Texas star hibiscus and I grew out from seed I bought over 6 years ago. It has all kinds of special instructions but I just planted and it grew. And the grasshoppers only go after the flowers after they open. I am going to find out how to save seed. I would love to have a hedge of this. Thank you Jennifer

That was weird. It took my old past and combined with new

Post

You know you can edit and delete posts, right ? :)

No
I did not. At least on my phone I haven’t been able to figure it out