Is that a greenhouse I see at the back in that 1st pic ?

Rick

HI Friends. Just checking in. Amy, thanks for starting the thread.

I made it through my very busy Sunday. And this week should be the last busy work week for awhile.

We did gardening tonight. See my facebook.

Jen and Lynn, I have cuke sprouts coming up way too close to each other. Need to deal with that, but not today.

Aphids are a pain. Just have to say that. Hate those suckers.

Enjoyed the temps today and am hoping for rain tonight.

That is all.

Rick, that first picture is on my neighbor's place, and yes that is a greenhouse. He had planned to grow veggies in the winter, I told him that we would have to sit it up a lot differently, and be very picky about what we grew. He found that it gets very, very hot in the summer. I think he may be ready to try a high tunnel now. The greenhouse is nice, but this part of the country is not greenhouse friendly. We will do very well starting and growing plants in spring and fall.

That is a picnic area that you see next to the greenhouse, a good place to pot-up plants when it is too hot in the greenhouse. To the left is his produce store (can't see it in the picture ). He told me this afternoon that he already had a orders for a 100 bushels of purple hulls, and we are just now getting them in the ground. I have to get more ground ready, but we are still having water problems.

I feel so lucky to have the friends that I have, we find ways to help each other. I can't do the work that he does, but I am able to work the land as good as a young man, and I enjoy it.

Lynn, your plants are so big and healthy. Your tomato plants are at least 4 times the size of my plants.

Well the rain ran into the house. We need the rain because most of our soil is a little dry, but we live at the foot of Diffy mountain and parts of our property seems to bleed water. That sounds great, but it is not really very nice if you are trying to work the land. The land is mostly clay, and it is slick and gummy, then when it drys it is as hard as a rock. I think we would be better off if we would amend spots and plant something like blackberries and just weed eat or mow in between them.

Larry , What purple hull peas are you growing? Pinkeye purple Hull , Knuckle...?

Rick

Rick, we have not had a lot of luck finding Knuckle purple hulls, I am out, I do have a few pounds of PEPH. I think neighbor said that he found some Knuckle, if so I will have to grow some seeds for next year.

I just checked my stock and was surprised at the amount of zipper cream I had, wife like them, an I have at least 10 pounds of them. I picked them to eat or save for seed, wife is afraid to eat them, they were placed in the freezer for a month or two, then just stored dry in a zip lock bags.

I get Knuckle on line :

https://www.rhshumway.com/product/S02088/223

Shumways also got Pinkeye , Zipper Cream , Mississipi Silver , Black Eye.

and they're all in stock in 1/4 pound amounts.

That's where I get all my cowpeas from, if you don't mind ordering online with a credit card.

Rick

I never heard of knuckle peas

Wow looked them up and there’s a whole bunch more I never heard of. I need to get out more.

Larry, I forgot to comment on the beauty of your property.

Not much time for gardening today. Just watered a few things.

I do have a question about Oakleaf hydrangeas. Can they be planted in shade--all shade.?

Mine is not thriving at all. I think I planted it in 2019. Maybe it's getting too much sun? Maybe it's too dry? Maybe there's something about the soil there. I just don't know.

Rick, thanks, I may have my grand daughter order some Knuckles. All peas have gone up at the Farmers co-op. I have been paying $2.50 a pound, a few weeks ago I noticed that they were priced at $3.99 a pound. Fertilizer and feed have gone up also. And I don't want to even talk about diesel or motor oil.

Most of my watermelons, and some of my flowers have come up, plus 100's of morning glories. I normally burn my trellises, and the ground under them with a weed burned, but didn't last fall, I sure regret it now, I will never get rid of all those morning glories, looks like I will be fine tuning my hoe.

I got an electric fence around the wildlife garden today, neighbor did most of the work.

Jennifer, thanks for the comment, its a work in progress, very few people would understand the work and money I put into my wildlife garden, the land does not even belong to me. That land, and the land that my son has belonged to me at one time. It was passed on to my kids, but they dont take care of it like did. The cedar house you see in some of the pictures belongs to my son and his wife, they have lived there for 25 years, and my son almost never works around the house, but his wife is a hard worker. I use to work on their place, but now I am not allowed on their property.

The wildlife garden belongs to my daughter. I work on the property, hoping to build a nice building site for her girls if they want it. I had some of the land cleared and started planting grass and small grain for the wildlife. When covid hit I started growing people food, thinking that if things got bad I would have food to give away. My neighbor wanted to use the property also, so I give away to any needy people, and he sells to anyone he can, I think he also gives some food away, but with the cost of diesel, fertilizer, water and tractor repair you cant give away a lot or you will be going hungry yourself.

I dont take any money for my input, I am just happy I have help working the land.

I have come in to rest, so I will bore you with what I have been doing.

I tied up a few tomatoes in the south garden, and been over in the wildlife garden trying to clean the watermelons. It looks like I have 82 hills of melons, 40 Crimson Sweet and, 42 Charleston Gray. My grand daughter should be happy, she mad sure that she got her order in for watermelons early.

It looks like the sun is coming out now, so I will cut my day short. I will go do a little tilling, that is a sit-down job, my kind of work.

Well , shame on us. Nobody's talking about their gardening, except Larry.

Larry that's a lot of watermelon , 82 hills . Your neighbor gonna grow them to sell I guess.

I'm still trying to finish out the spring plantings. The SG at Jennifers is pretty much planted out. The east garden at okmulgee isn't finished out yet on account of the spring flooding rains. Happens that way nearly every year . I'm trying to get some okra and cowpeas planted out , and finish putting out some peppers and more tomatoes. Then plant out some winter squash. Well , guess what , more rain over east this weekend to hang me up again

It's going to start getting a little late for things before too long. Then it'll turn off hot and dry all of a sudden like a light switch. Yep , that's the way it usually goes. Long distance gardening is a pain in the butt.

Rick

Rick, I did plant a lot of watermelon, neighbor said he could sell them, and I had plenty of seeds, but the main reason I planted them is because my grand daughter ask me to.

We have pumpkin, peas, peppers, tomatoes, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes butternut, Arabat, yellow squash, zucchini, onions, roselle and a few other things, but we are a long ways behind

The weather has been crazy, we have some places too wet, some too dry.

Madge had to go to town for meds today, I ask her to check of knuckle peas, and to get me at least a pound, she called Greenwood Farmers Co-op and they had 7 8oz bags, Madge bought 2, and neighbor got 5, but there is more on the way. They are old stock because the price was something like $2.29 a bag.

I have had a very good day. I tilled a large amount of the wildlife garden and a large amount of neighbors garden, neighbor will plant peas tomorrow while I go get a root canal.

I got all things cool season out for what it's worth ,but it's getting hot already.

Potatoes and onions are looking pretty fair. spring spinach turned yellow from being too wet. it's lost. The overwintered Swiss Chard is growing up 3 ft tall or more. Got some spring planted chard as well.. Got some carrots , beets and a little purple kolrabi . Got lots of kale and collards .Field corn(yellow dent) and beans are up and coming on. Got some pole beans ( Kenkucky Wonder) planted in one of the corn rows. Onions still look pretty good but need to be weeded out. Got a little cantalope put out in the back corner., waiting on the the ground to get warm and dry enough to put in the okra and some pinkeye peas. and need to put out some winter squash , both in the corn for a 3 sisters and along by itself. I got 100 some tomatoes out and 60 some summer squash, straight neck , crooked neck , a little Zuchanni and planted a few hills of Patty Pan.

Rick

Rick, that is the difference in the O garden and the SG. The okra HERE needs some moisture. It's so very dry. I think they'll pop up once they get some water on them.

I worked on the area behind the shop. Got the last tomato mulched, but need to put a cage on it. I lost daylight before I could finish. The plants back there needed water, so I had to take precious time to water.

I had 2 German Johnsons and a True Black Brandywine left in the hoop house. Got those planted in the second strawberry bed, where all but one of our new strawberry plants died. (The other strawberry bed looks good for first year strawberries.)

It is a weird year for sure. I guess they're all weird years really. What's weird about this year, is the amount of watering I've had to do in the spring. Normally that doesn't happen until June.

It is what it is.

Too dry over west/central , too wet over east. Welcome to oklahoma. It's an A-hole.

Rick

Rick said: It's going to start getting a little late for things before too long. Then it'll turn off hot and dry all of a sudden like a light switch. Yep , that's the way it usually goes. Long distance gardening is a pain in the butt.

Rick it's way to dry here to plant much of anything. I will also plant some okra, but need to water the area first. Meanwhile my sweet potatoes are in rhe ground. I am not happy about the drought here.

Don't want to plant in the mud either. Then the ground crusts over when it does dry and the seed has a hard time getting up and then rots.

I'd rather plant when its dry and then let a nice 1/2 in rain wet it down . But not a heavy hard pounding 3-6 in to pack the ground down.

Rick

This has been a "do nothing" day. About the time we got to town the Dr. office called and canceled my appointment, so Madge and I went for breakfast. I am so tired from yesterday, all I have done is water the south garden enough for it to make it through the day.

It looks like I may be having a few okra sprouting, and some of the onions are bolting.

I have 3 Arabat plants and have already killed 2 squash bugs on them and there not even planted yet.

I bet I am not the only tired person on this forum, had a productive afternoon, The wildlife garden is full ( until I can get more ground ready). The wildlife garden has two very large flower beds, 114 sweet potatoes, about 750' of peas, 60 hills of zucchini, 82 hills of watermelon, about 60 or 70 tomato plants, about 300' of Irish potatoes, and a bunch of other stuff that neighbor planted while I was in the hosp. I have worked so hard on the wildlife garden, and let my home. gardens suffer, but the market stuff is in, so I can focus in may home gardens now.

Rick planted super-hot peppers into buckets tonight.

I continued to pull grass out of the garden behind the shop. It's almost half done. The tomatoes are all caged and trellised back there now. In the future, there won't be tomatoes there. It had to be used for overflow.

There's milkweed and other pollinator plants planted there as well. It's a large area. Cardboard is down and woodchip mulch (in the half that is completed), which is why perennials would be better, right?

Interesting thing is a squash plant that has popped up amongst the onions. It has to be a winter squash with the way it is growing. So far I don't see squash pests on it. We are sure hoping it's a Seminole. Maybe I threw some rotten Seminoles into the compost and a seed germinated?! That would so amazing! But if it's butternut, that would be okay too.

I'm so tired. One more crazy day, then maybe I can get my life together.

Jennifer, have you tried the Arabat squash/pumpkin? I tried them last year and was impresses. I saved seed, but I don't if they have crossed with one of the other pumpkins. They sure are space hogs, I think they spread more than the Seminole, and they have a lot of meat and keep well.

I've figured out that my veggie garden is also a wildflower garden. I've felt bad picking out flowers that were in the way, but a week later more flowers pop up. Sometimes where I want them, sometimes where I don't. I try and transplant where I can, but it's been fun identifying things.

Salvia is everywhere, bee balm even more so. I don't remember any acorns in the garden, but i've got oak trying to grow all over (usually it is maple). I'm almost convinced that I don't need to plant anything else, just manage.

Picked some root veggies today and a few bolting onions. Time has flown and I still need to squeeze in some things. Still have cold season stuff out that are doing well, not sure how. Are the green peas going to be okay? They just now started making pods. Cool down coming, they say. Bring it on!

I dont normally grow green peas, but I tried them this spring, planted much too late. I doubt that they are over a foot tall and not looking well. I am thinking that I might feed the garden a little and see what happens.

I have a few onions bolting also. My onions did not look so great when I planted them and I expected to lose a lot of them, so I planted them pretty thick expecting the loses, which seems to effect the size also.

Hi all, long time!

I have been checking up here periodically, but my garden is pathetic right now so not much to report. I got everything in the ground just in time for a foot of water to fall on us, so nothing has grown an inch in a month. I have barely managed to get radishes to grow this year, and the peas I planted in March are finally over a foot tall. Greens are all bolting less than an inch high. All of my local gardeners are in the same boat, so who knows what is going on?

Jen—hydrangeas need some sun, just not too much. I tried growing them in full shade to keep them cool, but they just don’t flourish. My mom’s is beautiful and faces north, and at my house they prefer southeast next to the house. 🤷🏻‍♀️

—Marleigh

Hi Marleigh'

This was my garden over east there after all the flooding rains:

I got 9 inches of rain that week , 6 inches all in one night.

That's 6 inches of mud there clear to the back corner.( That's after all the standing water drained off).

I was just lucky that the beans there made it up first.

The corn over to the left is looking a little yellowish.

My spring spinach all turned yellow , it's lost.

I finally got it all aired out with a tiller after it dried but the ground was packed down so tight I had a hard time tilling it.

Trying to plant okra and cowpeas in what empty space I got left but the ground is still a little gummy to plant seed in. Hopefully this weekend I can get it in but now they're predicting more rain again. Still got some more tomatoes and peppers to set out too.

Over west/central we're crying for rain. Over east I'm crying for it to hold off till I can finish planting and then not much rain all at once.

Rick

Marleigh, Rick, I am sorry for the bad luck y'all are having. I have got to count my blessing, I have had more rain than I needed, and am way behind in planting, but it seems as though I have had better weather than y'all, we are watering now, but expecting rain in a few days.

I have been out watering the south garden by hand, we have been watering the wildlife garden and market garden with sprinklers. I am going to load up my water barrel to water some plants that the sprinklers wont reach, I dont walk well enough to be dragging a water hose around, plus, it is hard on the plants that you have to drag the hose over.

I tried planting clover as a living mulch between a row of beets and tomatoes. I dont know what the outcome will be, but so far I am impress enough that I am going go plant a row of Zipper peas and plant clover along the peas. My neighbor says that the clover will suck up all of the water. I have some clover in the pasture and it only does well in the wetter areas. I have always in the past dug the clover out of the garden, so I may be making a big Boo Boo.

Rick I am jealous of y’all’s garden spaces. I know someday I will have acres to plant. I just want it now. Mine is looking great right now. I need to get insect netting. Any recommendations. ??

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08911CNV4/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B08911CNV4&pd_rd_w=qosHN&pf_rd_p=33c4e3fc-b90b-44ce-8b60-9caf530f918e&pd_rd_wg=chhQT&pf_rd_r=9D0FWHSMDCY3F5FTPXND&pd_rd_r=07fe4a47-c1fb-4212-ac5b-46be2f9df721&s=lawn-garden&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyNFNXQldWUEoyV0RQJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDg0Nzc2M0JVMkJHSTBNREhINSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzYxNDE0SEoyVU1PUURJRVQ4JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsX3RoZW1hdGljJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

Im pretty happy with my garden .............at the moment

Your tomatoes are way ahead of mine.

Rick

Same here, Rick. My tomatoes are probably half that size at most. Those things are beasts, considering we aren't even to June yet. Nice job, Lynn!

Lynn, I would be happy with that garden also. My garden is way behind yours, but it is starting to shape up. I have not even started on the north garden yet.

I think we are supposed to get some rain tomorrow so I went out and planted about a 25 foot row of peas. I want to plant another row of sweet potatoes and a row of pepper and tomato mix, that should use up all the space in the south garden.

Ok, inspired by all of Larry's pics, so here's my plot.

At the far end is snap peas, which did lousy, and cucumber just starting to grow. On the left I also put in some luffa. Hoping it'llfill in the arched trellis. The lettuce did pretty well, but it's starting to get bitter. May let it grow just as a mulch or to make more seed. Onions are doing great. Not sure what the white flowers are, but I think it's someform of radish. By that point I was just tossing out seeds, mixed a bunch of radish & leafy greens together & scattered it. Also some carrots mixed in I think. The blue buckets have tomatoes, potatoes, herbs & a tree my sister in law grew at the old place & we brought it along on a whim. Need to figure out what it is so I can pick a spot for it.

Part of the future herb bed but for now it's got zinnia, some herbs, & more tomatoes.

The other herb bed, the tire is filled with zinnia, then surrounded with coneflower (I think). More tomatoes, some yarrow & dill, & other flowers.

Jen, thanks for sharing. You really have a lot of plants. I don't see how you have the time for all the gardening and setting up a new home also. Please keep sharing.

Jen it’s really looking good over there

I got rain overnight. Figures. Tried to set up my rain barrels, two are leaking, one aced the test, but isn't hooked to the down spout yet. But it rained last night. Not enough to make a difference however.

We got nothing, Moni!

It is chilly, though. Maybe too chilly to water today. Might have to do it, though. Things are going to dry up and blow away otherwise.

Thanks Rick. That seems like the best deal for insect netting.

Jennifer, send some of that "chilly " to me. Although it is 85 degrees here, about 9 or 10 degrees lower than it has been, it's still not close to chilly.

I have been working in the south garden. I did nor realize how much I have neglected the south garden, I have been so obsessed with the wildlife garden and neighbor's market garden, I let everything else go to pot. I thought that I had been watering plenty, but some of the ground was very dry and packed. I have everything filled in in the south garden except the row of Covington sweet potatoes I plan on planting, I really dont want to lose my seed stock on them.

I have been trying to clean out the onions, I have almost let the weeds get ahead of me.

We got .75" at our house. Dumb dog woke me up at 4:30 and I really didn't get back to sleep. Babysitting the 4 year old today.

Ron got the sweet potatoes planted.

Daughter's dog died Monday. She had a necropsy done. He had a bacterial infection called leptospirosis that he got from drinking rain run off. It effected his lung tissue and caused it to swell with blood. So he suffocated on blood because he couldn' transfer oxygen. The vet said she couldn’t find any healthy lung tissue. This happens very quickly and there probably wouldn’t have been anything they could have done if she had taken him in. When I googled it, it said it comes from water contaminated with the urine of an infected animal. Any place where wildlife can access can be a risk. Just FYI.

Good to see you Marleigh. You and Rick took a beating in that storm.

Have a lovely weekend.

This a forecast I would like to see.

Feels like I missed a lot of posts, so going back.

Josh (right?) and Nancy, have both mentioned tiny trees coming up in abundance this year. I am experiencing the same thing! It's not unusual for the tree to the west of the garden to drop it's berries (or whatever they are) and for them to sprout all over the place, but this year it's so much more. I wonder what that is...

What's Mother Nature doing....

I love green peas so much but rarely get much of a harvest. I'll do the sugar or snow peas and I'll get enough to add to salads each day until the aphids over take the plants. The aphids usually kill mine before the heat does.

Hi Marleigh! Good to see your post. Sorry about your garden. That is frustrating. Rick is in Okmulgee today and I'm glad you're not getting rain. Wish we were getting rain here. It would be the perfect day for it. It's chilly and windy and not a great outdoors day.

This hydrangea is an Oakleaf and is supposed to be native and do better with more sun than others. My other hydrangea, an Endless Summer, is like your Moms and faces north. Gets a little sun. Does well as long as I keep it well watered.

Lynn, your garden looks good. Tomatoes are so big already!

Kim, I can't wait till you get your property to grow all the things!

Jen, thanks for the picture update. Looking good!

Larry, it's currently 61 and "feels like" 55 according to my weather app. 60 and sunny is one of my favorites, but this is 60 and cloudy and windy. I still prefer it to too hot.

70 and overcast is another favorite.

Congrats on the rain, Amy.

SO, so sorry about the dog. How tragic and awful. Poor thing. I wonder how common that is. Dogs will drink/eat anything it seems.

I came face-to-face with the skunk this morning. It was walking along the west side of the shop and I came out of the shop and there it was. It wasn't even scared of me. I ran back into the door of the shop and beat on the side of the building, waited a few minutes and went back out. It was gone. It seems to think it's a cat. Makes me nervous though.

We had a bag of sand sitting at the NW corner of the shop. It had sat there for a couple of years and one day there was no bag, just a pile of sand. Thought maybe the bag had broken down and the wind ripped it away. Then, it looked like something tried to dig under the shop at that corner. Tom filled it in, but this morning the digging was obvious again. I wonder if the skunk is trying to dig under the shop.

The loopers have found my broccoli in the hoop house. It's almost finished, though. Just need the looper and aphids to chill out for a few more days.

Trying to decide what I should do today. Water, even though it's cold, and plant a few things.? Maybe take a nap (I also woke up early, Amy) and then go out.

Glad to have the shopping already done today.

My garden on this day in 2016. I look to be right on schedule, cept I've changed things in 6 years. I'm now trimming the lower branches. And I've got fewer plants per row, I think that's 6 plants per row and now I do 5. I was growing onion and had space for okra back then

Lynn, it looks like you always have a beautiful garden. I am trying to trim the lower limbs on some of my plants to see if I can have less problems with blight. I was trying a greater spacing till covid, I have now gone back to growing as many plants as I can, hoping that I wont need them.

Jennifer, thanks for the "chili", I have been out watering, thinking a long sleeved shirt would feel good, but it is still 65 degrees.

I hoed around my 82 hills of melons this afternoon. I wish morning glories were good to eat, I have a ton of them.

Kim, that is something I have always wanted to do. We had a good acorn crop last year and have baby oak coming up everywhere, and I cant name any of them.

I only wish I had planted more. So fun to patiently wait wondering if I killed them or not. I will do many more this fall.