Jennifer, thanks for starting the thread.

I wish I had started cool season stuff. I have so much trouble getting early land ready for planting in this valley. We have a spot ready to plant more potatoes, but it is too wet, if we can plant by Tue. or Wed. we may be able to make it work, we have another 5 or 6 hundred pounds seed potatoes to go, but no place to put them. I have enough tractor to mud them in, but nobody wants to plant that way.

I placed a bunch of tomato seeds in potting soil yesterday. We already have egg plant, roselle, and a lot of other stuff coming up in the greenhouse, much of it is too early. I had rather direct seed pumpkin and squash, but neighbor is antsy, and we have a ton of seed. Neighbor already has 50 hills of Seminole, and wants more. I told neighbor that I had enough seeds for another 50 hills, then we will have to start gutting some of the pumpkins I have stored.

I really cant see planting as much stuff as we are starting, but I can sit on a tractor, or, at a picnic table down by the greenhouse and get quite a bit of work done. Neighbor will carry the potting soil over to me and I play in it like a kid in a sandbox.

Larry , I was just lucky that my ground over east wasn't as wet as yours. It was gummy but I was able to air it out with the tiller to dry enough for planting potatoes. My other worry on potatoes is that some of the seed potatoes I got had the black heart which I didn't know till I cut them up. Probably due to storage conditions or freezes.

Don't want to mud in potatoes if you don't have to , they'll probably rot. If you have to , I'd plant them whole , not cut.

Rick

Rick, I am a little afraid of rot also.

The potatoes are some that neighbor bought, I am just not able to do potatoes anymore, that is one reason neighbor and I teamed up, he can work like a slave, and I have the land and tractors. Neighbor has a small John Deere, 1025 I think the number of it. Neighbor's tractor has a belly mower on it, so it has very little ground clearance, it is a good mower, but not much for farming.

I can rework our potato spot to help it dry out, but I will wait to see what neighbor wants to do. Neighbor is not too happy about the way I would do the rework. I would take my John Deere with a 7' 9 shank cultivator and break up the soil, after it drys a while I would run a disc over it, and then let him till it with his tractor. If I had my small tractor running I could till it myself. If we do not get these potatoes in the ground by Wed. we are going to be in a tight spot, because he is leaving on vacation Thur.

Hi everyone.

I see the Spring Fling talk as started at the "other place". If you want to come to the SF, but aren't part of the other group, just holler so we can get the info to you.

After work, I took an hour nap. I could NOT sleep last night. Finally fell asleep sometime after 3 and had to be awake by 6. I'm having a glass of wine and hopefully that will knock me out soon...that along with a hot bath.

ANYWAY, Rick came out and cleaned up/prepared the SG this afternoon. I was able to plant most of the broccoli plants into the hoop house and some romaine lettuce that Rick brought over. I'll be prepared with frost blankets for the lettuce. They're in the hoop house, but I'll cover them anyways.

I also pulled out the fall broccoli. It was in the hinged hoop in the kitchen garden. It did SO well there. That is where it will go again this fall. I was able to pick another basket of side shoots. It's been productive for sure. I got the original harvest and TWO harvests of side shoots. It's cleaned out now, tho, and ready for cabbage.

And, I up-potted the calendula and swiss chard.

All the seeds that were started last week (except the peppers) have sprouted. Things are moving along.

Looks like we aren't gonna get as cold as they originally thought. We went ahead and put the broccoli, cabage & cauliflower in the ground. Let the experiment commence.

We pre-sprouted peas this year and they are starting to show now. Ground temps are good, so we look to be early this year. Last year was way late.

Not much else happening now, just watching paint dry. Will plant carrots next, i think and that should do for spring. About time to think about the warm season stuff that is under the lights.

It is too wet for me to do anything in the garden, but neighbor came over and lightly till a couple of areas, and plans on hitting it again tomorrow. I did not grow much cover crop, so I have little amendments to add to the soil. My wet heavy soil needs amendments every year.

Neighbor and I went to Ft. Smith to but some supplies, we did buy some supplies, but not as many as we hoped. I was shocked as the price of tomato seeds, the ones I priced were from $200 to $250 per half ounce. I did buy a couple of ounces of tomato seeds in Greenwood, but they were not what I really wanted, I will just save some seeds from some of the old seeds we are trying to start.

We are expecting rain by next weekend, and our potato ground will not be dry before then, so potato planting will have to wait till neighbor gets back from vacation, but we do have 18 rows already in the ground.

So far the greenhouse is working out pretty well, but we really have not had the weather to properly test if. We do have some stuff planted much too early, it is stuff that I direct seed in the garden. I told neighbor that we will have to harvest some of our crop in the greenhouse, but I was just yanking his chain, it I had a greenhouse like his, I would want to be playing with it also.

My cabbages sprouted so I need to get chickens contained so I can plant those out. Those birds have been munching on too much lately.

Hwy, I'm SO glad we're not going to get as cold as they originally forecast.

Larry, what type of tomato seed did you buy (that wasn't what you really wanted)?

Chickens are terrors on the garden, Kim. Once everything is grown up a bit, it's not as bad. I've clipped wings and still have one that gets out almost immediately after being let out in the morning. She goes to the old, secure coop w/attached pen after she eats breakfast.

The area behind the shop where I worked SO hard last year, putting down cardboard and wood chips is a mess. The half with the cardboard/chips (for the perennial natives) is scratched up, cardboard blowing all over the property, woodchips scattered everywhere. Last night I had a half hour to rake some of it back and also weed (mostly henbit) the side without woodchips. It's far from done, but it's a start.

With that bed, I want native perennials with woodchip mulch and the other half, annuals that reseed. So far the only thing that I see coming up are red poppies. I realize those aren't natives, but the seed was a gift from Stella.

Chickens! I love them, but they're so naughty.

I potted up tomatoes and peppers this weekend. My idea to plant all the old seeds may have been a bit extreme lol. I currently have 30 some varieties going and noticed several more were just starting to sprout. Including 'Dawn’s tomato' seeds. Hopefully I get a few to share for spring fling.

The circle bed is ready to plant so I tossed a bunch of pea seeds in the center, some beet and turnip seeds along one edge. If anything grows, it will be compost to help improve the soil. Then if I get enough flower seeds sprouted I can fill it with those. I have 2 of those 'wildflower mix ' boxes, maybe dump them out and get a few to sprout.

The stuff we need to be potting up is not sprouted yet, the stuff we wont need for 6 or 8 weeks is growing like weeds. We are going to enjoy this greenhouse, but we have a big learning curve ahead of us.

Our Red Wine Velvet sweet potatoes are starting to make slips, the Covington sweet potatoes look like they never want to make slips.

We have one flat that looks like it may have tomatoes and squash coming up in it, I have no idea what happened there.

That's a pretty good size green house there.

How big is it?

Rick

Rick, I think the greenhouse is 16' wide and 24' long, it is pretty nice, neighbor bought it used, we need to install a shade cloth and run more power to it, but for now it is great.

I built a cattle panel greenhouse over at Jennifers a couple of years ago.

It's 8 ' wide by 16 ' long. Wish I had made it a little longer.

You've probably seen the pics of it around.

It's been great for seed starting plants and winter greens and such. But it does get hot in there ,even on a sunny winter day. Needs daily attention for venting , ...

We're still learning how to use it.

Right now we have shelving on the north side for seed flats and a raised bed for winter/spring greens or whatever on the south side.

I've always wanted to build one of those. I've enjoyed it.

Rick

Rick, if I were going to invest in a greenhouse I would rather have one like you made. A greenhouse like neighbor has cost too much money for me. Neighbor's greenhouse has the controls to set up to vent and heat automatically, but, at this point I cant see how it would be worthwhile.

As long as you're around to tend to it.

Rick

Awesome greenhouse pics! I wonder about those an awful lot.

They take tending to almost daily for venting and closing back up unless you got automatic shutters , thermostats and such but that all gets expensive . It get's hot in there even on a winter day if the suns out and it's closed up. And then gets cold at night as soon as the sun goes down unless you heat it

Bugs like it in there too , things like aphids.

Rick

Yikes! Scrolled down and saw my giant face. LOL Not the most attractive picture. Scared me for a minute.

Larry, that is a really nice greenhouse.

We are still learning to use our little one.

It is useful tho. Especially with hardening off things. Plants are just a bit more protected--especially with the shade cloth--in the hoop house. It's become the go-between from the indoors light-shelf to the outdoors. And, things do grow really well in the two raised beds. Last year, I had a couple of dwarf tomatoes in the raised beds. And, of course, all the cooler season things in the spring and fall/winter.

It's been a blessing for sure. I'm glad Rick built it.

Wild plums in bloom excite me.

You see these little stubs in the pics ? Those were volunteer crepe myrtle that Mrs Dollar and I transplanted a couple weeks ago. Evidently, a cutworm went to work on them. I don't know what else it could've been. I put fencing around one of them, thinking it might be a rabbit, and it still got cut down.

I can see how a worm could cut down a tomato plant, but dang, crepe myrtles are woody and one of these was more than 1/4" in diameter. Adding to the mystery, these are a good 20 feet apart. If its cutworm, there must be more than one .

I would not expect a cut worm to cut that high. I have heard of climbing cut worms, but cant remember seeing any. I also would expect a crepe myrtle to still be dormant. My crepe myrtle like to sleep late.

Yes, it was dormant. I transplant these small volunteer plants in February. Out of four stalks, I only found one remnant. So whatever cut these down, either ate them or hauled them away. The one I found was after I'd put a wire screen around it, because I thought it might be a rabbit. I have a rabbit living under my shed that's been around all winter.

The crepe myrtle that puts off these volunteers is in the front of the house. I'd moved them to the back. I still have a couple more volunteers. And they've been there all winter and nothing has bothered them.

I'm stunned and PO'd about it at the same time. That was a good bit of work and I looked forward to getting these plants started. Actually, I took out a shrub in order to plant one of them, a nearly dead Golden Euonymus that had been there 25 years. That was a job.

Couple years ago, I had a cutworm take down a 12" jalapeno pepper plant near one of these crepe myrtles. I don't know what's living out there.

Lynn, I know its not funny, but I got a little chuckle out of your critter problems. I don't chuckle as loud when I have critter problems, but the sad thing is, I make my problems worse by feeding the nasty things. I use to try to rid myself of critter problems, but I still had them, I think it would be a full time job, and I would still have critters. I do plan on putting in a decoy garden again this year, but that seems to be only minor relief. I put in 11 food plots on the place this winter ( 2 have already been tilled into gardens ), but it did seem to keep some critters closer to the back of the property.

I do have some smaller critters that want to sleep on the seats of my equipment, I get PO'd about that, but I have not done anything about it. I expect that it is a coon or a cat, the tracks seems to verify that.

I expect your crepe myrtle will come back. At one time I had close to 35 crepe myrtle to care for, I found it very hard to get rid of them. When I got to the point I could do very little by hand, and had to rely on my tractors, I had to dig up some of my crepe myrtle, but I used a tractor for getting rid of the bushes. I have about 10 or 12 crepe myrtle to mow around now.

We are getting rain again today, it would sure be nice to be able to put the unneeded rain into the bank, and only draw it out when it is needed, over-draft protections would be nice also.

Lynn, sorry I don't have any advice or suggestion on your crepe myrtles. I'm sorry, tho. Very frustrating.

We've had some good rain. Over an inch.

It is time to get those cabbages planted once I find a place for all of them. It's doubtful that will get done this weekend. Tom's sister is coming into town. Sort of a last minute notice thing. Stella is coming in at some point too. My house is so dirty. I'll be spending time on that instead of gardening. It's really too wet to garden anyways.

Nothing new to report really. Just keeping things on the light shelf watered and tended to. The peppers are sprouting now.

I marked out an area where I want the two Vego beds to go. It's between our back patio and the chicken pen. To the west, are 2 crepe myrtles. They are still small because they got knocked down in February 2021. I planted them in 2020 and they weren't big to begin with. I am hoping once they grow up bigger, they'll provide a bit of shade to the Vego beds in the evenings. The chicken pen has flower beds around it, so I think it will eventually be a pretty spot.

I feel like I can do that task at least. I'm torn about making a flower bed along the back of our house. We've talked about adding on to our bedroom--mostly for a closet. I don't want to make a flowerbed there if we do that. But, are we even going to be living there in a couple of years? Will we ever be able to afford to add on? I just don't know.

I think I'll leave it alone and work on the Vego bed area and the area to the east that has a chaste tree. I've wanted to make a circular bed around it since 2019. (I remember Dawn was beginning her plan of making their backyard pretty at that time too. And had even purchased a few plants in the fall to put out the following year. She planted them in her kitchen garden to hold them over. I wonder if they're still there....) I could start the chaste tree area too. That would also add a pretty feature to the back yard. Then to the east of that, is a bed that has a goji berry, but plenty of room for other things.

I spend so much time in the kitchen, that it would be nice to look out at pretty things. The chaste tree is already pretty and in the summer, the beds around the chicken pen are pretty too. The shop porch is another area that could be worked on a bit. Cleaned up. It faces the back of our house, so the kitchen window looks out at it too.

Anyway...just thinking about things.

I had the idea to plant one bed mostly in flowers. I was going to tear it out but thought I might as will plant it and flowers seemed like a good idea. I had okra and cucumbers last year that did great in that bed. I need something lovely.

I planted another 120 Seminole pumpkin seed yesterday in the greenhouse. I had rather plant squash and pumpkin directly into the soil, but neighbor has gone wild with his greenhouse, and has been working with me to get land ready. We, or, he planted 6 rows of beets and 2 rows of turnips Wed. in a new spot that we made in my pasture, close enough to my house to get a water hose to it. I don't remember ever planting turnips in the spring before, but neighbor thinks he can sale some. I just set back and let neighbor call the shots because he has to do all the work.

I have injured my artificial shoulder and cant get in to see the surgeon till 3-31, so I have my right arm strapped down in a brace, which is really a pain, it also makes it much harder to climb onto a tractor, plus, most of the controls are on the right side.

Oh dear Larry. I am sorry to hear that. I hate anything that slowed us down doing what we love. I am sitting in sun thinking about it all. So much I need to do and a huge list of want to do. I can’t move these giant pots since it’s been raining. That is the first step. I have picked up all the broken things from the hail. That was quite a job. Mother Nature made the decisions for me to keep or toss many things. I filled our dumpster half full. Once I get the pots moved I can get chicken run built. Then I can plant cover with a tunnel and insect netting. It won’t be beautiful but hopefully I will get to harvest something this year.

Kim, I am sorry you are having pot problems. If you have a shovel and some kind of rope or strap I think you can move those tubs. I have been working with an old body so long I have pick up a few tricks on moving heavy things. One of the handiest tools I have is ratchet straps. You can get some cheap ratchet straps at Harbor Freight for less than $10.00 for 4. They use to be about $6.00, but everything is higher now.

I have used a shovel and ratchet to move heavy things in the past. I just use a small ratchet strap and shovel. The cheap, orange ratchet straps are 14 or 15 feet long and 1 inch wide, and rated at 4 or 5 hundred pounds. Take the hook end of the strap and place it down low on the shovel, (about where your foot would be ) with the strap around the tub, the loose end of the strap will be wrapped around the shovel handle where it is comfortable to hold. Push the shovel point about 2 or 3 inches into the ground and winch the shovel away from the tub, getting a new bite into the ground with each stroke of the shovel handle. You should be able to move the 6 " or more with each stroke.

I think I have found the problem with my tiller. I was expecting the exhaust valve to be stuck or out of adjustment, and that looks to be the problem at this point.

I have been very careful with my shoulder, only using my right arm when I have to, so far keeping my arm strapped down really seems to help, but it takes forever to do anything.

Larry , how old is your tiller? . I wore out the wheels on my old front tinged tiller. i put new wheels on and found out a bolt that holds the idler pulley snug against the belt had fallen off. also replaced a leaky fuel line hose. runs good now.

I'm going to try to put out my brassicas over the weekend , that is if the storms will let me.

Rick

Larry great idea. I have lots of ratchet straps I have acquired over the years of moving. I think my neighbor has dolly too. Not sure if that would just sink in all this mud.

Rick, my tiller is around 20 years old, the first engine, a Briggs lasted about 15 years, The engine on it now is about 5 years old ( it is a Harbor Freight engine ). I have another Harbor Freight engine in the back of Madge's car. I think I will install the new engine and repair the one on the tiller for a back-up engine. I am getting too old and beat up to work on tillers. I think it will be easier to lift one engine off and bolt another engine on. I hope to be able to just sit this engine aside and repair in when I can replace all parts needed, it appears that the China parts don't last as long.

I had an old front tine tiller that I liked really well, it was made in the U.S.A. back around the 1950's. The front tine tillers are hard on wheels, but back before we started buying everything from China it seemed easier to keep our equipment repaired.

I want to be able to grow food it the economy goes bad, and I need back-up parts and supplies.

I guess one of the sad facts I have to deal with, is that I am worn out worse than all this junk I try to work with. I also have to be thankful that I was not made in China, and I am still chugging along, but replacement part for me are hard to find.

Kim, Madge and I are getting old and beat up, and really hate to ask for help. I have used my ratchet straps in the house, it sound terrible to say this, but I have attached a ratchet strap to the base plate or the floor to move something heavy, then repair the spot where I had to anchor the strap.