Nancy, are these yuur tags?

You used fine tip

Sharpie?

Finally got the photo up. It will probably show up 6 times when it comes out of limbo.

this is how Ron does the trellis. That's a 2x2 screwed to a T post. This one puts the panel about 4' above ground. There's a hook at the top he hangs the panel on. 3 of these posts over 16' beds (one in the middle). He's able to hang the panel on the hooks by himself. He got fancy that year with the little brackets, we usually zip tie the panel to the post.

H/J, I use industrial sharpies. They last longer than regular. First found at lowes.

Nancy, the last few years I've had clear tubs with hinged lids for hardening off. I can position the tub so the inside is shaded part of the day. The lids don't blow away. I put holes about an inch from the bottom so rain water can drain, but I can bottom water the plants.

We have an electrician here today replacing the light/vent/heater in the bathrooms.

Have to go, hey, got .96" of rain monday night.

Congrats on the rain, Amy.

I've used the industrial sharpies too. I can't find where I've put them. I suspect one of the men in this house took them. It would be nice to find fine tip industrial sharpies. Maybe I'll look this week at Lowes. Have Ethan use his employee discount. I need water hoses too. He's flying to Portland for 3 days, so I'll need to put that on hold (if I want his discount).

Had some excitement this morning while trying to clean the house. Two large dogs were trying to push into the chicken yard. The dogs were friendly and obviously belonged to someone. The chickens were terrified, and half wouldn't get into their pen where they would be protected because the dogs were pushing in next to the door of their pen. I did get half in there and the other half into one of the broody pens. Jean Luc Picard was really upset and calling to all the hens. Luckily the dogs have moved on now. I resisted the urge to pet them a lot and give them water and treats. They were really cute, but nuisances. I also don't need them tramping through the gardens.

Jen, I've been thinking about you and your property. I remember when our property was a blank slate. It can be SO overwhelming.

My advice (and I know you know this) is to start small. My first year was only a small, raised bed and three small hills that I made for pumpkins (before I knew about SVB). And a little area where I planted sunflowers. I began to work on the front flowerbed too.

The following year was when I got too ambitious, and mistakes were made and much disappointment.

Maybe you can build a raised bed per/year. This year observe and figure out where it would best be located. If you built it in the late summer/early fall, you could dump compost items into it all fall and winter. You won't have to buy as much soil that way.

If you want flowerbeds around your house, you could start working on those this year too. Maybe even go back to your container gardening. You have all the space to make a cute, raised bed/container cottage garden combo. Take your time. Build a bed or two a year. Put it where it gets shade in the late afternoon/evening. It is much nicer working in the shade.

THEN, someday, if you feel like it, you could do a food garden with traditional rows. Does your tractor have a tilling attachment? Rick maintains ours out here. It is work, but it's not something he has to work on every day. He keeps the weeds down and soil fluffed by using a little mantis in between the rows, but not often--just once in awhile. If it was left unattended for a year, bermuda and weeds would take it over. But, with a little work, it's manageable. If it was left to me only, I would build long raised beds out there, but I don't have a tractor and I don't think I could handle a tiller other than a small mantis.

But that's just if you want to do something like that.

It's hard in Oklahoma--we all know that. I would love to have our survivalist garden look like Shaye Elliott's market garden. (Her garden isn't really for market, she just calls it "market garden" because it's grown in rows unlike her potager garden. ) She doesn't deal with bermuda grass, though. Just a few weeds.

I think it's time for lunch.

The two largest problems I have had to deal with over the years is bermuda grass, and getting enough amendments for my soil. I have lived in this area ( Ft.Smith to about 20 miles south ) and never had really good soil to work with. When I was younger I could spend more money on gardening supplies, and was able to work much longer and harden than I do now. In town I started with raised beds, and spent more money per sq. ft,. and could grow more per sq. ft.

I have gone from doing everything by hand, to doing very little by hand. I can grow much more now than I use to, but I have the space and tools to do it with. I think we all find that " Father time" can be rough on the body, but we can keep doing the things we enjoy, we just may need a different way to do those things.

After 50+ years of gardening, I still have those two major problems that I started out with, bermuda, and amendments, plus a new problem, which is justifying the water bill, but I cant say that I enjoy gardening any less, and I garden several times as much space as I did when I was young.

Jen, I would say that a tiller for the tractor is a big step in gardening. I have a tiller, and enjoy it. My tiller is 50" wide and on a smaller tractor than you have. I think you said you had a rear finish mower, a tiller has to be a rear attachment, which would mean a lot of changing attachments. A quick hitch would help, but no matter what, it is not fun changing attachment in 100 degree heat.

Larry, what IS your normal soil there? You say it isn't good? We dont have much soil! LOL. What we have, for the most part, is loamy, but very shallow soil over a foundation of rock. Seems all of us in OK have soil problems. The only solution we had on much of our property was to build up, since tilling would have run into solid rock 2-10" down in many places. I think we would all agree that how we garden depends on how we can!

The problem you and I have in common is Bermuda. An additional problem I have is dozens and dozens and dozens of tree saplings growing in my beds. As much as I hate Roundup, I am considering painting these dozens of saplings with Roundup. I am just beside myself with them.

I lost so much muscle tone and arthriitis set in so much more ferociously since I first had my hip "go out" in March 20. I HATE it. But hope to get some back, now. I got in about 6 hrs of yard work today, with many breaks.

I'm sure we could get a tiller, butI honestly don't know if it would be a justified expense. Maybe later on. But much as I think it would be amusing to plant all 4 acres, I doubt I'd ever do it. For now, everything behind the building is just going to grow grass. If anything, I'll gather a bunch up into compost piles. On that subject, does anyone know how long herbicide sprays affect the plants? Like, if the previous owners sprayed, would this year's grass have carryover? I've been hesitant in using it just in case, though I do have one pile breaking down. I'll test it just to be sure, but if it's safe then I'll have ample mulch.

I've thought about flowerbeds around the house, but since that's all for the dogs I'm not too motivated. HJ, I don't think we had the fencing done whennyou came by, but we fenced off the driveway so we could come & go without dogs getting in the way, then broke the rest of the area into sections so we can separate when needed. The only space with limited access is that circle drive & along the right side of the house. Once we get the circle cleared I'll start planting it, then maybe down the road I'll put another bed along the house.

Nancy, I grew up in Grove, and I know what a pain those rocks are. Mom had me clearing her garden every spring, & I swear those things grew back over winter. But she had beautiful flower beds thanks to that soil. Here I have almost solid sand. So it's going to be a long fight getting that amended.

Nancy, my soil here is listed as clay on the soil test. It is pretty high in mineral. The soil around Ft. Smith is better soil than what I have here. The soil south of Ft. Smith seems to change about where we enter into the gas and coal field.

Optimum

My P on the last soil test was 179 PPM ..........36 to 50

" K...............................................271 PPM...........131 to 175

' Ca.............................................4307 PPM........Clay soil above 2500

"...MG.............................................375....................It below 31 MG should be added

I wont go over the whole soil test, but I am high in about everything, except organic matter and nitrogen. The shallow soil hurts me more than anything, because it wont hold the water that the plants need, I have to water often to keep the plants happy.

It looks like I could start putting plants in the ground tomorrow, except I have to go to Fayetteville to see heart Dr. Plants need to hardened off first, the weather has kept me behind on the hardening off.

Glad you resisted the urge to be nice to the dogs, HJ. You don't need chicken-loving dogs marauding around.

We had more rain this morning. And brrrr--too chilly for working outside. It has climbed to 63, but a breezy 63. I dug out 8 elderberry suckers that had sprouted up and planted them yesterday--not a good time to do it--they had a lot of leaves. But with the rain and coolness of today, perhaps they'll make it. The thornless blackberry bushes I picked up a few weeks ago have all sprouted leaves and look good, as do all the shrubs/trees that are in temporary beds and containers. I hope I can get those planted this weekend.

Can't do it tomorrow or Friday, as I told GDW he deserved a couple days of fishing. We haven't been out yet this spring. He finally just took the cover off the boat yesterday. And he gave the lawn its first mowing yesterday, too. We LOVE the new zero turn mower that we scored last summer.

You know, Jen, the rocks aren't really a pain since all our beds are built up, not down. AND the soil--what little there is (lol) is pretty good--it's not clay, that's for sure. Biggest problem here is the Bermuda and the hundreds of elm/ash/invasive Chinese privets and Callery pears.

I'm psyched about how just this past week spring has declared itself. Green country is turning green. I'm excited about the raised flower bed--it will be housing goldenrod, rudbeckia laciniata, asclepias, asters--basically turning it into a perennial bed. And the veggie beds are fun. I won't be hosting many peppers or tomatoes. Weeds and Bermuda are terrible in the 5th bed that runs at a 90 degree angle at the end of the other four beds. But it's not a large area, so one afternoon's work. The walking onions need to go--way too many. The asparagus, blackberry bushes, tansy and comfrey are all in that bed, too.

Well, best get busy. Best to all.

May Apples blooming. I never can remember how to post pictures from one time till the next.

I finally got one to post, I may try another. my biggest problem is, I can see the thumb nails and cant tell what I am posting

Nancy, look at the red stain in the water. This wet weather creek has the artesian well water running into it, I think at this point the creek has water in it about all the time. The stain can show some of the mineral we have in this area.

Nancy, this is the creek south of my south garden. I was trying to show how shallow mu soil is. I dont have a lot of large rocks. I made the low water bridge/dam to the left so I could drive my truck and tractor to the southwest pasture without getting on the hwy.

I've got the 5 gallon buckets out again. Mesonet predicted 63 for a high today and it never got past 57 . They're calling for 39 tonight. NWS says 38 tonight. Channel 9 says 35. KFOR says 36. KOCO says 35.

I see no need in taking the chance.

This little whiteface cafe and her mother I fed all winter when the weather was bad because the owner would not feed them. You can tell that they came through the winter in good shape, and the pasture is growing enough now to support the livestock. These wild cows will come up and eat range cubes out of my hand now..

I have very clay rich soil, which is actually rather fertile. Unfortunately that means the Bermuda grows well. Haven't worked in the garden since Saturday. Doc said, I can go back to normal routines, but switching to reading glasses for every thing up close is a pain. Can't wait for the second eye to be done and get new glasses

Here we go again with the freeze warning. Although the forecast low went from 32 to 34/35 now. That's still a little too close for comfort, so I stacked on a little more straw on the potatoes peeking out.

At this point, there are a couple of things i'm tired of...wind and seedy straw! Had to de-wheat the onion patch this evening because the wheat grass is all over them. They all seem to be standing strong now at least. Won't be long before it turns into the bermuda fight.

Will probably do green & wax beans either this weekend or next along with sweet corn. We are getting really close to needing a home for all those warm weather crops.

Moni, I got 2 new glasses a few weeks ago and still don't like them as much as I should, but I can see better up close, but I have been using dine store reading glasses for a long time. I would order them online and get several powers so I could pick the glasses for the job I was trying to do. They are really great for very close work, but they are no good for anything else.

Hwy20, I had the same luck when I tried wheat straw. I have had a little better luck with hay. I still get a lot of seeds, but the hay is finer, packs a little tighter, and most often free.

Larry thanks to you they came through. I look forward to getting cows. And chickens and all the lovely things.

I got up at 5 am and it was 35 at OKC East and Norman, about an hour later its now 39, pretty odd

Looks like 37 was the low here. Someone about half a mile away has one of those weatherstations so until I get mine set up I use theirs for reference.

Wow...the pandhandle got a really hard freeze. Yikes! Guess the uplanders have to do things a little differently than us green country/river valley folk.

We left about 7:30 this morning and had a heavy frost at that time. I am sure that the temp did not stay down long, but the car had to run a good bit to melt everything. I think that Ft. Smith show a low of 37 or 38, but it had to drop down lower than that here, its often 5 degrees lower here, I have not been outside, but I don't have anything in the ground other than onions, garlic, and spinach. I will start getting plants ready to plant. I really have not felt like doing anything today. I will go to hosp. for 3 days later this month, I am afraid to plant much because Madge will have to care for it, and she already has enough to do.

Kim, thanks, that is a pretty calf, her mother is a little crazy, but a good mother. I want to get the land free of cattle at the end of this lease. I hope to try to improve the land, and maybe just use it to grow a little food for the family, but no more than 5 or 6 head. It really depends on how I feel and how well the land recovers. If I feel like it I have a lot of repair work to be done.

We stopped at Walmart on our way home today, I was surprised at how many people were there, and the store was restocking like crazy. I could not find what I wanted, but had to restock a little myself.

I built a raised bed yesterday. 20’x31”. I hate splinters. My hands end of full of them somehow. It isn’t beautiful but it will be when it’s full of plants.

Kim, that is a nice sized bed. The narrow ones are easier to reach across. I hope to get out tomorrow and get a few plants in the ground.

Think I just got my first hard labor day of the spring in today. Or at least it feels like it. Left work early and went right to shoveling rock into the tractor cart. I ended up dumping a couple yards into the drainage creek. Can't believe I didn't have any takers on it considering it was free, but it was time to move it out.

I found a plant that reseeds so good, it took about 45 min to pick out of one of the flower beds. Calendula. I felt like I was was wasting tons of perfectly good plants, but new stuff is going in. Then mowed the grass...err...weeds that pass for my lawn right now.

All that work and didn't even get to mess with the food garden today outside of dumping a little bit of compost and replacing a couple dead strawberry crowns. But the spring crops are kind of on cruise control for now. I do love how everything is growing right now before the bugs and fungal disease start to wreak havoc.

Hwy20, I wish I was there to get the gravel, I have to beg my neighbors for rock and gravel. I do have small pea to sand size gravel that I dig out of my creek. I have another spot I could get up to rock size gravel, but I cant get the tractor down to it.

I have to restart hardening off again. This has been a tough year as far ad starting plants, it seem as though I just don't have the time to care for them properly, and I don't even work.

I think I will plant some green beans today. I may even plant some flower seed i n the wildlife garden, I have a lot of zinnia and sunflower seeds that need to go somewhere, way too many to plant in the lawn.

Bought pine shavngs from Tractor Supply to use for mulch. Loved the price. I bought three 5 cu ft bags for the same price as a 40# bag of cottonseed hulls, about $15 .

Pros and cons .... they're light and the wind blows them around. The hulls stay in place. I soaked them good after putting them down, but they're still subject to wind ( see pic ) . They cover a lot of area, more area than the hulls. IMO, the larger the area around the plant that I can mulch, the more protection I get from soil borne diseases.

I'm wondering how fast they decompose. The hulls tilled in easily and were gone quickly.

I'm also wondering how they absorb water. The hulls would would absorb quickly, which allowed water to get through them and into the soil. I'm thinking that water will run off of these shavings and could cause me some problems when I start using drip irrigation.

Slow, this was nice landscape mulching rock too. That's why I was surprised that nobody came and picked it up. The stone places usually carry this stuff around in huge bulk bags. Maybe the handling and picking up was too much trouble, I don't know.

Lynn, thats funny. I saw the ad for those shavings the other day in a TSC mailer. I thought to myself, hmmm...what could I use that for?

Lynn, I used shavings for several years. I picked them up at the saw mill for free. I got the rip cut, like you see in a lot of packing material. The were the best mulch material I have used, they were neat and pretty, and would not blow, even in very high wind. The rip cut shaving are sorta fluffy, and look something like a brillo pad, or a pad of steel wool, long strings. There are not many saw mills around here anymore, and I doubt that the shaving would be free either, but they are lite and easy to haul.

My shavings were used for a long time. At that time in my life I think I was trying to do as much no-till gardening as I could, and when I did till them in they would try to tie up some of the nitrogen, but you can adjust for that.

Hwy20, I had the same problem many years ago when I was removing the white rock from around a house I bought. Getting rocks and fabric out was quite a job, that was when I told myself "Never Again". I have some fabric that I bought to use in the garden, I have had the stuff for 2 or 3 years, and still don't have the guts to use it. I have been using in my mineral tubs trying to make self watering containers, I don't think I will be brave enough to put any in the garden.

Hahahaha. Slow, don't do it! You can imagine the words that came out when I tried to rake those rocks and instead snagged 2 layers of landscape fabric EVERY time I put the rake down. As if the heavy rock wasn't enough of a fight.

Lynn, l've often used them. Normally I'll just wet them down when they're first added to the garden. I haven't had any issues with them at all, like I mentioned when I first recommended them.

They do break down, but not that quickly. Rick scraped them off of one the long raised beds in our kitchen garden and dumped them on the burn pile. I looked at them and thought they were still good enough to use for mulch this year too, so carted them back to the first of our planted tomatoes. They are broken down a bit, but can still be used as mulch.

Also, I'll use "dirty" ones from the chickens. The ratio of poo to pine shavings is so that it doesn't matter if I used them directly on the garden. They've never burned my plants.

I haven't had any issues with watering with them either.

Lynn this morning the temperature has been going down since I got up. It will be chilly all day today....

Larry I have to start over with hardening off too. I missed a couple of outside days, when it was sooo windy.

Moni

Moni, no bike ride for me today .

Moni, if I don't quit forgetting to bring my plants in out of the sun I wont have any plants left.

Our temp now is 66, and it rained much of the night. I will go out and see if I can plant some green beans. The area I want to plant them is the driest area in my garden, so I might be able to walk and plant.

Even if I am not able to plant, I have tools to work on. It seems to be a full time job keeping things repaired.

I just went out and checked the plants, we must have had some hail also. Plus the flats were full of water. My hearing is so bad that it is hard for me to tell if it is raining, we must have received more rain than I had thought. The flats are standing on end now draining, and it still looks like we could get more rain.

It looks as tho I may end up with about 100 sweet potato slips. I had expected more, but that is still more than I need, and I still have enough time to get more slips. I am hoping to produce a good supply of food that is easy to keep. I would like to try canning also, but Madge thinks that will be too hard for us, we both have medical conditions.

We were meant to be smoking ribs and brisket today. Every time Ron goes out it rains on him. Windy too. He has the meat in the turkey roaster instead. I turned the AC on again last night. Couldn't breathe. So do I turn the heat on now?

They took 4 yo grandson to ER last night with 104 fever. His fever went down and all tests were negative. The joys of parenting. 8 yo came here. Ron had bought a new toy, much like an old fashioned game boy. Preloaded with games from that era. The boy played with it a couple of hours.

Have things to do today.

Lynn first time on the bike since cataract surgery on Monday.

Larry still bone dry, not a drop. So sad.

Moni

Moni, do you ride the west river trail ?

I was there Monday and Thursday.

Moni, I would have to sent you some, or all we got last night.

I was up to about 2:30, then took medication and went to bed, I do't remember much about that, but Madge said we got hard rain and hail. When I check the plants, gardens and creeks, I could tell she was not kidding. I have erosion work to do in all 3 gardens and the pasture. Even with the plant damage from the hail, I will still have plenty plants, if they live, some are much too large.

I use to hold off till about the first of may before putting anything in the ground, I think I was smarter then

Not sure if you saw my comment about the pine shavings, Lynn. Sometimes my posts don't show up. Anyway....it's up there (I think).

We didn't get rain here either. We need it so badly. I'm glad it didn't rain today, though, as we had a community event--egg hunt and cookout. I'm the decision maker and planner of the event, so receive the complaints and questions. If I had to make the decision to cancel OR try to move it indoors (not easy as there's usually about a 1000 people) the complaints and gripes would have been greater. I really don't get to control the weather, people. haha. As it is, people were complaining about the cold and wonder why I didn't do this or that. They don't realize that I really do think through many scenarios. Anyway, it went well despite the cold. Most people and volunteers seemed to have fun. Glad it's over, though.

Maybe we'll get some rain later in the week. Fingers crossed!

But, not next Saturday, of course.

Amy, Tom had the AC on yesterday evening when I came home. We need the heat today for sure. I'm sorry Ron couldn't smoke the ribs and brisket.

I'm glad your grandson is okay and the fever came down.

Larry, that is a lot of sweet potatoes!

Hardening off has been so difficult this year. If the stinkin' wind would give it a rest, it would help.

I didn't really get a chance to look at the garden today. After the event, we grocery shopped for the week and for Easter dinner. My mom is hosting. Thank goodness. Our part of the food is mostly made now. And the animals are fed and I'm sitting down. yay. Feels good.

One of the hens has an eye injury, so I've separated her and cleaned it. I think she'll be okay. The eggs are rolling in. I made 3 dozen deviled eggs tonight for Easter dinner.

Rick came over Thursday evening and planted all the beans--shelling beans, green beans, and black beans. He overwintered some superhot peppers and brought them back over to our house. I watered and fish emulsioned them.

We're showing a low of 39 in a couple of days. After that, we'll need to plant the tomatoes.

We also need to go buy the meat for the Spring Fling and get that thawing.

Speaking of not seeing posts, I feel like I'm missing some here too--I feel lost on some of the stuff y'all are talking about.

Tomorrow is work and then Easter dinner and then it's Monday again.

Happy Easter, Friends!

Cliff got most of the rocks out of the circle drive bed. I'll have to do the rest by hand but the fact that he got about 85% is awesome. He dug out a little more dirt than I prefer, so I'll have to refill it. Then the plan is to toss out as much seed as I can get & hope for the best.

And look what I found!

I've always loved indian paintbrush, now tk find a way to get it to spread.

Yes, Lynn I ride it sometimes.

Jen, Leave it alone. It doesn't survive transplanting. Just hope, it hangs around and spreads.

It was a good day here.. LOL, I got on the bike. :)

Moni

Jen, our first Indian Paintbrush showed up on our property about 3 years ago. I was thrilled! It was just one plant. I made Tom mow around it. lol It has spread (and I'm still making him mow around all the plants. It hasn't shown up yet this year, though. Most everything is behind. Anyway, I'm excited for you.

Yes, I saw the shavings post, thanks for the info. My only problem with them is how light they are, they're blowing all over the yard. I will put the bag on the mower and collect them. I'm thinking the mower will mulch them into smaller pieces and at the same time, collect some grass clippings. Then they all go back on the garden. Probably stay in place better.

They're very aromatic. Garden smells iike a lumber yard :) Or a house under construction.

I bought the shavings in the white bag. Tractor Supply also has shavings in a yellow bag. It appears they don't cover as large an area. What's the diff ? Their site does not really provide much detail.

I got the trellis built for cucumbers. I've watched some YT vids on trellis gardening. I'm thinking this may be a good course for me, since I don't have a lot of room. Dawn influenced me on using trellis, she said it took a lot of pruning and she did prune her tomatoes. But she had a lot more room to garden. I could grow my current number of plants in half the space. I guess old dogs can learn new tricks.

Lynn, at one time I save grass clippings to compost, and also use a mulch. For me it worked better to mow the lawn and let the clippings lay in the hot sun a day or 2, then windrow them with the rider. I would then rake them in piles or use the self propelled with bagger to collect the clipping. I would dump the bag on a 4' x 12' conveyor belt I pulled behind the rider, then drag them to the garden and rake them off. I have a worn out body, you may know of an easier way to collect clipping. My lawn is large enough that carrying clippings can be a lot of work.

Well, I've got a small lawn, relatively. And my mulching mower works fine. I've been a slacker these past couple of years, but I used to collect leaves in the fall. Then I would mulch the leaves with my mower and put them down mid row in the garden. Then I put cardboard down on top of the leaves. And when the grass started growing, I would put the clippings on top of the cardboard. I then had both greens and browns composting in the garden and it also allowed me to get into the garden no matter how muddy.

But past two years, its just been cardboard and grass clippings. I've gotten lazy and not wanted to mess with the leaves all winter.

And I for the first time in many years, I did not put in a winter cover crop. So I've had no organic matierial tilled in this year. I did get a soil test, and my nitrogen is quite a bit lower than past years, but still above acceptable levels. I'm afraid I will have to start adding fertilizer, soon.

Lynn, it sounds like you have every thing taken care of. Do you have a soil test kit? In Arkansas we can get out soil tested free, so I dont have any type of testing tools. Even though I can get a soil test free, I have not had a test in over 5 years.

I use to use a very large amount of shredded leaves and my P and K got pretty high. I dont worry much about Nitrogen, it varies a lot anyway, I just watch the plant, and take a wild guess as to what amount of nitrogen it needs, if it gets too much you will get more plant than fruit.

I have been trying to put a little fertilizer back because of supply chain problems. I am trying to get my kids and grand kids interested in growing food, I guess they dont get as hungry as I do, because they are not showing the same interest as I do, maybe I need to get some pizza and hamburger seeds, but I bet I would be the one that had to keep the weeds hoed out.

I built a raised bed yesterday. 20’x31”. I hate splinters. My hands end of full of them somehow. It isn’t beautiful but it will be when it’s full of plants. Where is week 3