Rick, the garden looks great. We are pulling a few onions. I expect to freeze our onions, they got overgrown with weeds and did not grow well, plus a lot of onions are bolting.

I just got back from checking the pastures and gardens. I was happy for the way everything looked, the rain came at the right time, and if we can get another rain this week, the re-growth should come along well. The hay guy did not bale the Ebon rye west of the pond, which I was happy about because I planted the rye for the wildlife. I did not go out into the rye, but I did see 3 squirrels running from the rye to the trees. The heads are getting ripe on the rye and I expected to see the birds, but I thought the squirrels had plenty other stuff to eat.

I don't mind starting the threads, but it will be later in the day. Work is normally pretty busy on Sunday morning. Thanks for starting it, tho.

I haven't been posting because there isn't much to report. Everything is alive, but still not producing. But it is alive, so I'm happy.

Now here's a gardener:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=649200710568212&set=a.464383342383284

I had a cap like that once , people would call me " Rail Road Man".

Rick

We got some good rain here. I moved home and my oldest fixed my garden fence and put in a gate. I was able to give him garlic chives and cilantro which was nice. He is an excellent cook. He took good care of me. Today wore me out though. If I can move tomorrow I will begin making list of littlethings I can do and things I need help with. I will get pictures to post later of new garden space.

This is my second post here so y'all be merciful. I am so happy to have found this group. I have a relatively small garden which I didn't even plant until the 6th of May. It was just too wet and I couldn't find anyone to till the lot. This morning I have tomato blossoms and green beans are blooming. Okra looks good but it is still short. Squash and cucumber vines are not yet blooming so I will have a late garden compared to everyone else. I'm not complaining though. Playing in the dirt is such good therapy for me! Oh, and I live in southeastern Oklahoma.

Welcome.

We're a friendly bunch on this forum.

Rick

Welcome hu673, yes we are a pretty friendly bunch. I don't think your garden will be late compared to mine, I did not get my cucumbers and squash in the ground till last week.

I am north and east of you, south of Ft. Smith. I live in the country and have a little room to make a few small gardens. I don't make anything large because I think the small gardens will be easier to shut down and return the land to what it was before, when I have to quit gardening. I would like to think that my kids and grand kids would enjoy gardening, but it seems as tho they had rather be doing other things.

Hi HU673. Can we call you by your name? I am Jennifer or HJ or Hazel. Confusing.

Seems like your garden is right on time.

Super tired tonight, so won't be posting much.

Love to you all.

Hey HU! Welcome. Your garden isn't the only late one. We just moved to a new place and I'm starting over with lousy soil, so mine is very stunted and behind. But it's better this year than last, so I'm doing something right.

Speaking of, I do have something to update. First tomatoes of the season are here.

My garden is certainly nothing to brag about, but the star of my garden this year is the Mrs. Maxwell tomato plant. I cant say that there is anything special about this tomato, other than a friend of a friend said that it was the best tomato he had eaten. I had never heard of it, but we got seeds and started plants.

I am trying to prune more this year, because I always have problems with blight. The Maxwell plant has a more open growing habit, and so far it seems to have a pretty good fruit set.

Mrs. Maxwell plant with 10 or 12 small tomatoes.

I am trying to clean up after some hail damage, also trying to trim and prune a little.

Note that I have moved my trellises out to near 10 feet apart to allow for one of my larger tractors to get between them. I will plant a row of something between just to make better use of the space.

One of the other joys I have, is my wife taking an interest in gardening. She has ordered, and started seeds that the seed company had written a glowing review on. My wife thinks she is buying something special, I tell her she is buying sweepings off the floor, it they were anything special they would not have a name like " medium Rare Hybrid", or, "Orange/Purple Hybrid". The seed companies know that gardeners are not the sharpest tool in the box and will pay 50 cents a seed to be the first to have the have the newest and the biggest.

Anyway, here is a picture of Madge's Babies, and I will care for them like they were my first born while she is away on vacation. ( I will do anything to get to stay home while she is away spending money).

Hi Pam. Welcome!

Your tomatoes look great, Larry. So do Madge's.

Yay, Jen!

How's the gherkin seedlings doing. The six remaining ones here are growing and looking great in their little pots. I just don't know where to put them.

I got the rest of Moni's sweet potatoes planted today.

Didn't do much more than that in the gardening other than watering a few pots of things.

E and I picked M up from the airport. She went to the Taylor Swift concert in Chicago. Drove her home to Edmond after a quick stop to Whole Foods. Then talked E into walking up the hill (not easy with bad feet) at the Blessed Stanley Rother thing. I was so happy to see a lot of native Oklahoma plants. It was really pretty.

Then, came home and blanched and froze 6 and a half pints of green beans. The beans came from Rick's O garden.

After Pilates, came home and started the coop clean. Tom helped me pull all the stuff out (watch it rain now), so that it will make the actual clean go more quickly tomorrow. We also continued to get the pen/coop for the "bad" chickens ready. There's 5 who jump out of their yard. I don't want them scratching up the gardens while we're gone. We got the roost installed tonight. Nothing fancy for sure. He has the auto waterer ready.

Sitting with my feet up now. It's nearly 10.

E had a good point. I'll be sitting for 3 days during the drive to Oregon. I'll be forced to rest my feet. That could be a really good thing. I just can't seem to rest much at home.

Night, Friends!

Coop is cleaned. Trip to TSC done. We were out of pine shavings. Those broody hens sure get mad when you're cleaning their coop and nesting boxes. Even the ones just wanting to lay eggs. I cleaned as fast as I could.

Today probably wasn't the best day to clean the coop with the air quality so poor. Chickens are dusty creatures. I wore a mask.

It's so funny to think that we were all wearing masks all the time a couple of years ago. I dug out one of my cute ones because I don't have any of the disposable ones anymore.

Haven't looked at the garden yet, other than dumping the used pine shavings on one of the beds. There's not enough droppings on them to cause issues. When they're roosting at night, their droppings fall on a board that I scoop each morning. The Sweet PDZ sure helps. It's a "luxury" item, but one that I will continue to purchase for as long as I can. Also, I'm pretty sure it's very good for the garden. Zeolite.

Not much to report. Things are growing and looking good, with a few exceptions.

What is everyone up to today?

I have done very little today. I put out some mulch in the south garden. When Madge got back from the beauty shop we went to Ft. Smith for lunch, and a stop at the Farmers Co-op for a few seeds. With the supply chain like it is I want to have seeds in hand when I need them.

I got a food plot ready to plant yesterday. I am going to try make a place that will attract small came, hoping it will be quail friendly. When I was a kid we had a lot of quail around here, but seldom see then anymore. If I plant Brown top millet, Foxtail millet, corn, and, Hairy Vetch, I think with a little luck the brown top will produce first, followed by the foxtail, by the time the foxtail produces I am hoping that the corn will be big enough that the vetch has grown up high enough to sort of lace the corn stalks together to form a shelter for the smaller game and birds. After this mess has served its purpose it will be cut down and tilled into the soil to boost the organic matter.

After I got the food plot ready yesterday, I worked one of the Irish potato patches, we had just finished harvesting about 1700#. We are afraid many in the other patches have rotted.

When I was at the greenhouse yesterday, there were still over 100 sweet potato plants and over 100 hills of squash left to plant.

We're having perfect tomato weather. I hope it holds, this could be a bumper crop year.

NWS Tweet

NWS Norman@NWSNormanWe're up to June 7, and still no 90s have been achieved at OKC. The next few days will be close, with forecasted temps of 86 to 87, but it is becoming increasingly likely that this will be one of the five latest starts to a year since 1950 without a 90 degree day.

But leave it Oklahoma Mesonet to spoil all the fun

Mesonet says heat comes next week

Oklahoma Mesonet@okmesonet·54mUh oh! Well, you can't avoid summer in Oklahoma during, uhhhh, summer, for long! Next week, heat may be on the rise in Oklahoma. #okwx #okmesonet

Lynn, we deserve it after last year. haha!

If y'all are on the FB group, you probably saw the jalapenogate thing. How's y'all's jalapenos?

Rick mentioned a couple of weeks ago that all of his jalapenos are hot bananas. THEN, I saw my neighbor post that all 24 of her jalapenos are banana peppers. I felt bad because I bought those for her. BUT, they really were labeled "jalapeno". She's bummed because she had planned on stocking up on cowboy candy this year.

Supposedly it's a countrywide problem. There's worst things, of course, but it is a pain for gardeners who wanted jalapenos. Sedan Floral is even concerned that some of the seed packets are wrong. I used last years seed and mine are jalapenos.

Larry, I love all of your projects. I have projects too. It is fun to have projects...and to keep trying things. Makes life interesting. Ruts are boring.

I'm waiting for dinner to finish up and then I'm going to scrub the turtle tank. Not my favorite task at all.

Lynn, you are doing a little better there than we are here, It is 90 degrees now, but I have not had many days above 90, and it has really been a nice year.

I just got back from Ft. Smith, and Madge and here sister are off to California to visit some of their folks. Madge will be gone a week or more, she will have to retain me when she gets home.

Everything is drying out here, we are running sprinklers, but if we don't get some help from Mother Nature, we wont be able to keep things going.

Yep , I got stuck with a bunch of Hot Banana peppers that I don't care that much for instead of Jalapeno. I don't mind a few but I wanted some Jalapeno too. At least I still got my Caynennes ,Habs and SuperHots.

Somebody sure screwed up royal somewhere up the line.

Rick

I have seen the jalapeño/ banana pepper mix up in every group I’m in. People are so upset especially the ones in places where they have a short growing season.

It was a hot one out in the garden today. Pulled the rest of the beets and took a few potato plants. Red Lasoda sure are pretty and the purple ones are loaded per plant. Looks to be a really good potato haul this year.

Ma nature isn't coming through for us on the rain, so i'm not sure how things will go later. Seems like storms all around us but never above us the last few days. Maybe this weekend?

Those pop up storms are just enough to keep me from starting my fence repair project and putting the edgestone around a flower bed. And also keeps me from doing a long cook on the smoker, which a storm could ruin. Don't know when or where they're gonna happen.

Hope i can get the lawn mowed this morning.

Glad I started my peppers from seed. I had no idea all that was going on. How can that happen ? I can see a mixup at one grower, like Sedan Floral, but widespread ?

I think we can see mix up on a large scale. I think the confusion we see in our country is pretty much world wide. I don't know what is going on, but I don't like it, and I don't think we have seen the end of it, as for me I am going to try to save more of my own seeds.

I am going to water today. Hearing about y'all having pop up showers sounds good to me, because we often get your left-over weather, and I would even like to see some pop up showers.

Lynn, I suppose a lot of the organizations like Sedan use the same seed vendors?

Larry, it's not a bad idea to save seed. I need to put that in my things to do.

I'm still at work. Hoping to wrap it up in an hour or so.

Anyone here deal with Pharoah ants inside your home?

• Jennifer, if I am out and see a type of seed that I want I buy them, thinking that they may not be there the next time I come through. I did not do as well this year because when I had to remove my plants from a spare bed room and take them to neighbor greenhouse, some of them got mixed with his plants. To make a long story short, we have plants planted everywhere, and I have no idea which ones are mine, which is okay except I am not sure what the exact plant is, He does not mark his plants like I do, I am hoping I can find the seed container before next year. I am not happy with a plant that is just marked "hot pepper" or "sweet pepper". I was really low on Ash County Pimento, I hope I can find a plant among the 2 or 3 hundred that we have planted that I know is an Ash County.

Larry, Ashe County will probably be easy to spot.

It would make me crazy if the plants were marked like that--"sweet pepper" or "hot pepper". I don't blame you for feeling unhappy with that.

Aphids are so bad again. They are such a pest here at our property. Now, they're focusing on the tomatoes. The plants are beautiful but will stop being so. There's ladybugs and lacewings in abundance, but they sure need to hurry up.

Also, found a lot of adult squash bugs on the volunteer squash plants in the back garden. I smashed them.

Did some mulching and showing Rick all the things that I want to save seed from. In case they ripen while we are gone.

This morning, I went into the coop to open the chicken's summer door. They all flew out and I turned around to grab the droppings bucket to clean the boards. Stormy was lying dead on a dropping board. This is so sad to me. She was the very first chick to hatch in our coop. The most precious looking gray chick. She was a grumpy butt, tho. And a fierce momma hen. She is the one who would bite you if you dared to look at her babies. Yesterday she grumbled at me the entire time I was cleaning their coop. In my mind, I thought, "all of this dust isn't good for her to breathe". I was wearing a mask. I wonder if she got too much dust and it caused a breathing issue last night. Even with my mask, my throat was sore and I had a cough.

I'll remember to lock them all out next time I deep clean. She would have been 5 at the end of the month. She hatched during a late June storm.

I have so many little things that must be done in the next couple of days. I can't think straight right now.

IDK what Pharoah ants are, all those little ants are just pissants to me :)

But my procedure for getting rid of them in the kitchen, is to find where they're getting into the house. I take everything off the counter and in two or three places I put a dollop of jelly or something high sugar. And then leave it , preferably over night. Usually, there will be convoy of ants carrying food back and forth to the nest. It makes a very easy trail to follow.

Once I know where they're getting in, I use an ant spray on the area. That's not to kill them, it acts as a repellent. Then I fill in any gaps or openings with silicone or duct tape. Most common place will be around pipes under the sink. Most usually they will be near the foundation. Last year, they were getting in under a window sill. But I've found them all around.

They've an amazing ability to find an opening in my defenses. If I see a single ant, I will try to kill it because its just a scout gathering intel to take back to nest.

And there will be a nest somewhere around the outside of the house. Could just be a mound of dirt. Outside, I use an ant killer called Taurus S/C. Its actually a termiticide but works fine on ants. The ants carry it back to the nest where it spreads like a virus and wipes out the colony. I spray the ground all around the foundation of the house and three feet up the wall. I try to do this twice a year but I get lax about it.

Taurus is expensive, as this stuff goes, but it works. I was told about it by an exterminator. I contacted the State agency that regulates exterminators and asked if this was the product they used, and I was told it was the most widely used. The active ingredient is Fipronil. There's two versions sold, there's a 1% Fipronil that's on Amazon and places like Ace hardware under various brand names, Combat being one of them. Its not nearly as effective as Taurus which is 9% Fipronil .

For years, I had an active colony of termites along my back fence and around my shed. I had some old pickets on the ground in an area where grass won't grow. I would turn them over and find termites feeding on them. I soaked the pickets with Taurus 2 or 3 years ago and I've no sign of that colony since. I think they came up to feed on those pickets.

And that's about all I know about ants.

Lynn, thank you for typing all that out. I think you've mentioned that product before. When we get back from Oregon, we're going to have to get serious about getting rid of them. They're so annoying.

We've had what I call the "regular" ants get in at our last house from time to time. It seemed mostly seasonal, and they were fairly easy to get rid of. But theses suckers are a pain...and so persistent.

They are very, very tiny. You almost don't notice them until they are all congregated around a crumb that someone didn't wipe up. You can't even see their features to identify--they are that small. I got a magnifying glass out and they look like Pharoah ants in appearance and also in behavior.

Pharaoh Ant

I am not a slob in the kitchen, but we do use our kitchen fully. All three of us. We mostly eat at home. Constantly washing dishes and wiping counters. They aren't interested in my compost bowl, which is mostly E's coffee grounds, veggie scraps, and toilet paper rolls. They are interested in the butter. Butter is too expensive to allow ants to get into it. We like to keep it on the counter. Rambling.

We got nice rain this morning. Super happy about that as it will save a lot of time watering the gardens.

I'm pleased with our gardens so far. I sure wish the aphids would leave us alone, tho. Other that squash pests, they are the biggest pest issue here. I would rather deal with hornworms than aphids. Hornworms are easy to remove and deal with as long as you're paying attention. Aphids are not. They destroy plants at our house, especially the green peas....and even southern peas and noodle beans. Ugh! I sure hope the ladybug and lacewing eggs hatch quickly and take care of them.

I'm always taking my phone out to the garden with me to identify things.

This is a woolly aphid.

When we get back from Oregon, we'll have a lot of work to do. Potatoes, onions, and garlic will all be ready. Honestly, some of the onions are ready now. Same with garlic. I just don't have time to deal with it all right now. Also, Rick's green beans will need to be tended to. Tom and I prefer frozen green beans, but Rick might want to can a few too. We're getting some here, although there's fewer plants and they are bit later. I picked a quart ziplock bag of them last night. The plan is so push those off on one of my relatives as we won't have time to cook/eat them. There's still a refrigerator crisper drawer full of asparagus. It's limp but still tastes good. I'm going to try to push that off on family as well. We've been eating it a couple of times a week. Honestly, I've just let it go over the past few days. Had I harvested it better this past week, it could have easily gone a couple more weeks. But....there's only so many hours in the day.

As soon as all of those green tomatoes ripen up, those will need to be dealt with as well. We use quite a few diced tomatoes in our cooking, so we'll probably just can them again. Pretty sure Rick needs to restock his as well.

Peppers look good. So happy that I have 5 actual jalapeno plants! Our peppers did very little last year. What a strange year.

We have family coming for an early supper today to say goodbye to E. I've had so many other things on my mind, that forgot it's my BD until FB friends wished me HBD. And Tom gave me some little gold hoop earrings early this morning. Duh. It's my BD. lol.

We walked our neighbor around the house and property yesterday to show her how to care for the animals--I feel like we're nearly ready. It's such a big thing to leave so much stuff behind that needs cared for...including the garden. It doesn't help that I've made all of our animals spoiled brats. I own it. One needs this food bowl, another needs to drink out of a fountain waterer. And...I care too much about them all, including the chickens.

This house isn't going to clean itself. (wouldn't that be a dream!) Company is coming.

Hope everyone is getting some rain.

Lynn, thanks for the info on ants a d ant killers. I have problems all thr time, some times worse than others. In our house we often get what we call sugar ants, out side I battle fire ant. The sugar ants don't bother my a lot, but they bother my wife and she make it rough on my till they are gone. I use bait for the ants outside, and Madge buys spray to use inside.

Jennifer, I am sorry you lost Stormy, it is always tough to lose a pet.

The rain ran me back into the house this morning, but I am not complaining because we need the water.

I would like to have gotten my grain food plot in before the rain, but it just did not work out that way.

It looks like the rain has stopped for now, I hope we have more on the way.

What a wonderful day, the rain stopped and it stayed cloudy and cool most of the day. I worked in the garden most of the day. I cant work for long at a time, but I was able to work often most of the day, after the rain ended. I made a trellis in the north garden, trimmed and tied up some of Madge's tomatoes. I also tried to make cuttings from 5 tomatoes and 4 sweet potatoes. I expect to have better luck with the sweet potatoes than the tomatoes, I may try the tomatoes again and place the suckers in potting soil and leave them in the shade till they root. This may be a long shot at getting fall tomatoes, but the suckers just looked too good to throw away.

I plan on mulching the area tomorrow, then taking my daughter and grand daughter out to eat.

I had some time this afternoon to look at the gardens. We got nearly a half inch of rain and everything looked good. It felt humid to me, but the plants seemed to enjoy it. We must have had a strong wind come through, tho. One of the pimentos was nearly broken. Maybe it's fixed now? We'll see. Also, in the SG, some of the corn is laying over. It should pop up again. And, I had to take some time to tie up tomatoes that were laying over as well. They are loaded with good sized green fruit.

Our family came and went. I feel very sad. It's not just that E is leaving. My two nephews aren't here either because they're doing the military thing. I sure miss those three little boys.

Anyway...

I cleaned out the refrigerator. Sent the beans that I picked last night and this afternoon home with my daughter. As well as asparagus and a few other things.

Sent some fruit and veggies home with my BIL too.

We have two hawks stalking our chickens. Why? Why now when we are leaving? They're beautiful hawks, tho.

Does anyone close to me need/want some gherkins seedlings? These are ones that can take the heat. They are growing like weeds in their little pots. I have nowhere to put them.

This looks to be a good weather week for tomatoes, with night time lows still in the 60's. But the heat may be coming week after.

Slater Weather Tweet

Lynn, thanks for the info,I am 200+ miles east of you but I expect the trend here will be much the same. I need to get some fruit set on my plants before the weather gets too hot.