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hazelinok

Last week of May

last year

This is prime garden time! At this point, we're planting the last of the summer crops, dealing with pests, harvesting the end of the cool season crops, wondering when to pull onions/potatoes/garlic, troubleshooting what ails our plants...and many other things, including dodging tornadoes and storms.


Today, I'll either be holding a baby or digging potatoes. Maybe both.


What are y'all up to? What's your gardening plans for the weeks? Any interesting life things going on?

Discuss.


Comments (57)

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Jennifer, congratulations! Grandchildren are one of God’s greatest blessings. I’ve been a grandma since I was 39 years old. And gardening is so much more fun with them - strawberries, herbs to pick and smell and taste - all the little tomatoes, sugar snap peas, things to sample in the garden, choosing what to plant, sitting outside and shelling peas or shucking corn. Its a whole new world to introduce them to. Like Larry, I want my family to love flowers and gardening like I do, but I only have a couple that are willing to put in the time and effort to raise it. I learned from my grandparents and parents. Growing up we had no choice but to raise most of our food - I hated the work as a kid but now its s type of therapy.

    I’ve dug my sorry crop of potatoes, and planted back peas and okra. Getting too hot for broccoli, greens, sugar snaps, so going to harvest whats good and give rest to cows. We are picking green beans, cucumbers, and squash/zuchinni. Tomatoes about the size of golf balls. Its been 90° and terribly windy and rain missing us - however that’s better than all these poor people that have lost so much to storms. I have beautiful flowers mixed in with the vegetables all around the garden.

    We had wild turkey hen hatch off 11 babies yesterday - hoping they will stay in the area. Have a good week, hope your garden produces and the mosquitoes and squash bugs are few.

    hazelinok thanked farmgardenerok
  • last year

    We had Emmy and Jerry over today, one grand daughter and husband. Jerry had smoked ribs and brisket, and the women had made other dishes for lunch. Jerry and Nick work on a planter for my grand daughter, she seem to be taking an interest in gardening, but only has a patio to grow on, so Nick and Jerry are working on a planter box that will hold 3 mineral tubs.


    I have had wind damage to my garden, I have most of it repaired, but we are under another alert for tonight.


    I am still trying to get tomatoes and peppers planted. I picked my first 2 tomatoes, and my second cucumber today. The tomatoes looked like they had hail damage from a few weeks ago which may have made them ripen early.


    Rick I am glad you were able to get your sweet potatoes planted. The 85 sweet potato plants in the south garden look good, but I really need to get in there and weed them.

    hazelinok thanked slowpoke_gardener
  • last year

    Wonderful weekend with family. Friday morning kicked off with grandsons 5th grade graduation. Saturday was nephews graduation party. Sunday was my sisters birthday brunch at a sweet French restaurant. Saturday night my granddaughter spent the night. I woke up to wind and hail. My first thought was Sophie hates hail. She was locked in the shed since she just had spay surgery. Then my nephew was calling. I thought he must be drunk. Looked at my phone and had dozens of messages. Woke up alert what’s wrong. Tornados. Answered my nephews call he was panicked take cover it’s coming for you. Uh no it is not. Called my neighbor. She was texting with friends who was watching radar. My phone would not pull up anything. Radar showed tornado moving just south of us. Sadly it did. Why couldn’t it just disappear. It got the town I work in. Took out a gas station where people were hiding. Injured over 80. Took out a trailer park destroying 200 homes. It killed seven people. At least two were my students I fed every day. Many are in the hospital. Well the stories are just gut wrenching. When I wasn’t trying to celebrate my sister I was crying. So many heart breaking stories. Even displaced pets. One girl I work with spent all night looking for people. Unreal. And the garden is just a big soggy mess. I got another 2 1/2” plus in 2 hours Saturday night. I am going to pull everything I need to this morning. Plant some seeds and slips and hope for the best. Rain is forecasted for a week starting on Wednesday. I need a week of dry here.

    hazelinok thanked Kim Reiss
  • last year

    Kim , thoughts and prayers for everyone there. We were just lucky to miss all of that here.

    hazelinok thanked Lynn Dollar
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    I'm gonna post a link to a barbecue forum that also talks gardening some. And a guy in Texas posted about Miricle Grow Moisture Control potting soil. He says it contained gnat larvae. I'm not gonna try to paraphrase all that he said, and frankly, I don't understand what he's doing, so I'll just post a link at the bottom.

    But I used that potting soil this year. I bought it last year. It comes in a blue bag and I normally buy the yellow bag. I tried potting up to 4" pots with it and did not like the texture, it was not fine enough, had too many large chunks for a 4 " pot. But I dragged it out and used it this year.

    I'm wondering if this could be what's effecting my tomato plants as for the first time ever , we've got a gnat problem on our patio. They're tremendously annoying.

    However, I would think if that was my problem, it would've showed up before I put the plants in the ground. And I bury the root ball with the potting soil pretty deep when I plant. I don't know what to think.

    Miricle Grow admitted to the problem to this poster and sent him a $75 check for his trouble.

    Warning! Do NOT buy miracle grow organic moisture control potting soil!!

    hazelinok thanked Lynn Dollar
  • last year

    To add insult to injury, I planted three jalapeno plants and two bell peppers last week. One of the bells is dead. I've got no idea what's happening with my garden. Its crazy, never had this kind of problem.


    Here's my dead bell and the healthy bell right next to it, for now. I even wrapped the stalk with a plastic straw from Braums. ( Also, some volunteer dill, which I've got coming up everywhere )











  • last year

    Everyone has been busy and have had a lot going on! Some good, some bad.


    First, Kim, I'm so sorry about your town and the lives lost. I truly understand that. Sometimes it makes no sense. The May 2013 was probably the hardest for me personally, although the one in 99 was extremely difficult too....but the 2013 was more personal. Sometimes it makes no sense. Sometimes it seems like the tornados have intention and intelligence. I realize that's not how it works, but as you're watching it happen, that's how it looks.

    A friend's daughter was at the 711 that was destroyed. She was actually lying over a young mom and the mom's child. Friend's daughter had bad injuries, but that tornado killed the people lying under her. It feels like it reached in and picked them out. Our church was a relief center. People made their way to our campus because with that sort of destruction, you simply can't drive to your property or find anyone really. It's chaos. I was sitting at table with a grandma who couldn't get to the school to check on her granddaughter. I knew it was one of the schools that had been hit, and when she said her granddaughter's grade, my heart sunk, because we had gotten word about the class of children who had died, and it was the same grade. We made some phone calls for her. A couple of hours later, an official looking car and people picked her up. Later, on the news, I saw her granddaughter listed as one of the children who had died.

    The 2013 one hit just a mile from our house, where I had neighbors' kids and kids from Ethan's school shoved into my pantry. Their parents started calling, asking me to pick up their kids once the warning went out. Tom went to pick them up (he was off work for some reason that day), while I finished at my job. (I worked close to home back then) He had way too many kids shoved into his pickup. Anyway....once the parents were able to get to our house, we went to our relief center to help out. In 99, we couldn't get out of our neighborhood for a couple of days. Our church was a relief center then too, but we couldn't leave the house to help. It's hard to explain how chaotic it all feels.

    And the 2013 right at school dismissal time. Three schools were hit--2 destroyed.


    Anyway, Kim, it's something that you'll always carry with you.


    And...even after all of that, I still stand outside and watch tornados and we still don't have a cellar.

    I'm mental.


    A happy subject now....my little grandson. We got a boy, Amy. He's a sweetie. I just finished ordering my "grandma" jewelry! LOL! A Names for Good bracelet with his name. And a small gold chain bracelet with a charm that says GJ (Grandma Jennifer)


    Lynn...how frustrating. I wonder what is going on with your gardent his year! It's been windy. It's been wet, but not anymore than other years. So odd.


    Thanks, Glenda! You were a young grandma! I thought my grandma was young at 42.

    How cute! Baby turkeys!


    Josh, glad your house and family are okay. Sorry about the garden damage!


    Larry, I love that you see your family so often! That's really special.

    My nephew who is in the Navy, just finished his training/schooling. He is here now and we're getting together this week before he heads out to Hawaii and Guam.

    I wish Ethan was here to see him. Ethan will be coming in a couple of weeks.


    Rick and I (mostly Rick because I was visiting baby boy) dug the red potatoes last night. I got home for the end of it. We did okay. Two 5 gallon buckets worth. The Yukon Golds look much better, but Rick wants to dig them today. So, we will do that later.


    I'm going to continue to organize the shop. It's ever so much better, but we have some organizing things ordered to get stuff up off the floor. And I still need to go through the garden stuff and put it into a couple of tubs.

    Mostly things look good in the garden.

    The peppers still look rough from the wind, but are starting to make some fruit. I think everything has sprouted. I just need to plant sweet potatoes in one more mineral tub, but need to get some potting mix first. Maybe today.


  • last year

    Jennifer I don’t know if I said congratulations but I’ve been thinking it ever since I read your post. Being a grandma is the most important thing I have ever done and I truly love every second of it. It is my greatest happiness.

    hazelinok thanked Kim Reiss
  • last year

    Jennifer, some of my kids and grand kids live across the highway and wont even speak to me, so I surely don't get to see my family as often as I want to, but the ones that do come act like they are sorta fond of me. It is strange how some families can get a burr under their saddle.


    Kim, I am sorry for your heartache about the storm victims. We have been lucky here, we have had wind and rain, but it could have been much worse.


    I am being slow to get the wind and rain damage repaired in the garden, but no plants have been lost. Kim, this is the tomato you gave me, it was broken over about 60% of the way up, but not snapped. I tied it back to the trellis, and I think it will heal.



    This is the large tomatoes. I am almost through repairing them, some limbs had to be removed.



    Lynn, I did not lose any peppers, but some did blow down, which was my fault. I had planted them close to a stake, but had not gotten around to attach them to the stake. I will tie them, they will look a little odd, but should produce fine.


    I still have at least 50 more plants to plant, so I should be fine on peppers.


    My container plants did not do great because the potting soil was so soft an did not support the plants. I had the tomatoes tied from the top, and the Bush Beefsteak on the right end had a limb break off, which sorts left a hole, but the plant should do fine. The pepper in the 3rd contained blew down, again, which was my fault because I knew that the soil was too soft to hold it, yet I had not tied it, it is tied now, and I will fix it better.



  • last year

    Larry your plants look great. Mine need fertilizer with all this rain we’ve had. And we are expecting rain every day for the next week. I hope that changes a little.

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Kim, things are the same here, it looks rainy here now. My plants in the 6 packs look really bad.

    The kids wanted a lot of peppers, but I expect I have more than they can use, if I can ever get them in the ground. The kids told me Sunday that they wanted egg plant also. I only found egg plant in single packs in Greenwood, for $4.50 a plant, so I bought 1 plant. I later went to Ft. Smith to take the 3 mineral tubs, 5 bags of potting soil, and the planter Nick and Jerry made home, at Atwoods they had 2 six packs for .99 each, so I bough a six pack of sickly plants.

    I need to dig out some nitrogen, I don't like to use a lot of P & K, I all ready have a heavy dose of that.

    My biggest surprise this year has been the dwarf plants, they must be "Texas dwarf plants".

  • last year

    Thank you, Kim.

    Larry, your garden looks good.


    I'm trying to figure out what to do today. This is the first real day of my new summer schedule. I feel like I should get some type of daily schedule going, so things actually get done. But, part of me likes to wake up and "feel" what needs to be done. Maybe I could make a loose schedule.

    We probably won't see the baby today. Maybe not until Friday unless M calls and wants me to come over to help. They are both off work. I just wish we lived closer, so I could pop over and hold him while they take a little nap or a shower or go out for a walk.


    It looks cloudy and rainy here. But, I've been tricked before. Many times. I do hope we get some rain today, otherwise I'll be watering some of the garden this evening. We're not dry dry--but the garden beds are getting dry.


    Yesterday, I did get the gardening stuff sorted through and arranged in the shop. I might continue to work on that. There's a few boxes that need attention.


    We cooked up a few freshly dug potatoes last night. Tom smoked some meat, so our neighbor, Rick, and my Mom came to eat with us. Fresh potatoes are so very good.


    A big chunk of my morning yesterday was spent trying to save baby birds. Our neighbor made a really nice bird house for me last year and installed it on the chicken pen. Not the best place for a couple of reasons. Momma and Daddy Wren made a nest a couple of months ago. It's been fun to watch them. However, Sturgeon noticed them too. He climed the chicken pen a couple of times to look at them. He can't get into their house as the opening is very small. One of my first thoughts was....when the babies learn to fly, that's going to be an issue. Because of the cat. Well, as I was working in the shop, Tom was talking to our neighbor on the shop porch. He came in carrying the cat and told me that he had a bird in his mouth, but Tom had shaken it loose. The little bird went into a shelf thing on the shop porch...and I saw another bird go into the shop. Meanwhile the momma bird kept swooping close to us and the cat. Looking back, I'm guessing she was trying to distract the cat from the baby who was hiding. I finally found the baby and put it in a box. Momma was yelling the entire time. Finally, I decided to put the cat in the storage side of the coop. And brought out the little bird. After a few weak attempts at flying, he got it and made it to the tree with his momma. THEN, I heard chirping in the shop. It was another baby, so we shoo'd him out. Also, had a few weak attempts but eventually got his wings under him. So...a happy ending.



  • last year

    Thanks, Kim, and, Jennifer. The garden is doing fair, but I just show the nices pictures. I am not able to work in the garden like I want to, but I enjoy it anyway. I did get a few more plants planted today, which is foolish, because I doubt that I will be able to care for them properly..

  • last year


    First green beans.

  • last year

    Larry, I've been so caught up with these plants dying , that I over looked thanking you for the comments on how nice my garden looked. Its really good coming from someone who can appreciate it.

    hazelinok thanked Lynn Dollar
  • last year

    I did not even plant any green beans. I like the Roma ll bush bean and use to grow them because my Granny was so fond of them, and it brought back good memories. It is so hard for me to get down and pick them anymore, but I did till up a spot for 2 rows of cow peas yesterday, they seem to produce mostly on a stem that sticks up above the plant, just the right height for the deer to come along and pick for me.


    I also plant more of the old root bound plants that I had left over. I think that I will wind up with 6 roselle, 7 egg plant, 120+ sweet potatoes 60+ peppers 30+ tomatoes, 4 zucchini, 8 yellow squash. I have 2 rows of okra that needs to be thinned. I hope to plant some butternut squash today. I also need to get rid of some onions to make room for something that I don't already have. That is what I would like to do, but I doubt that this old body hold up that long, I can only work for short periods at a time, and come in and rest.

    hazelinok thanked slowpoke_gardener
  • last year

    Lynn, I guess we were typing at the same time, but your garden always looks good, I don't see how you can get it going so early, I am still trying to plant.

    hazelinok thanked slowpoke_gardener
  • last year

    Well....they're here!


    I spent the morning outside. Right before heading in, I decided to get the green beans and then asparagus. The basil is in the bed next to the asparagus, so I reached over to pinch flowers off some of the basil plants....and then noticed something weird on a couple of plants. Baby grasshoppers! Dozens of them! I clapped my hand around the plants and maybe killed half of them. Little teeny tiny ones. I hate killing baby anything, but it's necessary in this case. We obviously didn't get enough rain to drown their eggs. Maybe some of you who have had excessive rain will at least have fewer grasshoppers.


    Then, checked over the Seminole plants and found eggs--4 clusters of them and 2 adults. They all were killed too.


    So...squash bugs and grasshoppers. Not fun stuff.


    Other than that, I worked in the pollinator garden. It needs some things pulled out and a few fresh wood chips. Also, needed to pull grass trying to sneak in.

    And realized that I did the dumbest thing a couple of days ago. It's so dumb, I can't even talk about it.


    The cloudy and cool day is nice.

  • last year

    It is a very nice day. I spent a lot of time out in the north and south garden trying to find spot to plant things.


    While out tying up tomatoes and cleaning around the onion sets I stopped and watched a young Wheel bug stalk a young grasshopper. The wheel bug caught the grass hopper, and had a bear hug on it, and looked like it was trying to suck the juice out of it. After lunch I went back out to the south garden to check if the grasshopper enjoyed it's lunch. I found the wheel bug about a foot over from where he had the grasshopper, the wheel bug was stalking was stalking another grasshopper. I did stay long enough to see if the grasshopper was caught.



    I went around to the north garden and saw another wheel bug stalking something else, I expect it was a spider, but the last wheel bug was camera shy, and i did not get a good shot of it. You would think that a grown man would have better things to than watch bugs.

  • last year

    A couple of the tomato plants have fruit, but not enough ripe yet even for a salad. But everything's struggling, either because of too much rain, too dry (cursed sand we have here doesn't hold moisture at all), or too little nutrients (again, sand is lousy for growing in).


    Went up to dad's to go put flowers out at the cemeteries. When mom was alive we did everyone; including the ancestors who have been dead long before dad was born. She did genealogy so everyone had to be remembered, which meant driving around three counties to 6 different cemeteries. But dad just does the ones he knew personally, so we only have 2 stops. So I got home to knee high grass in my garden to mow and weedeat. Maybe this weekend I'll be able to get out and pull weeds. It desperately needs it.

    hazelinok thanked jlhart76
  • last year

    I finished digging the potatoes last weekend. I got a full 5 gallon Lowes bucket, combined Red Norland and Yukon Gold. Ive roasted them up for dinner the past several days, and yes HJ, they’re so good. Most of the onions are out too, just a few whose necks haven’t broken yet are left. They are also super good roasted with the potatoes. The onions still aren’t as big as I want them, though.


    I’ve got my first two sweet potato slips in. I basically just let them go to do their thing, right? Tell me how to do this. We aren’t huge sweet potato people, but I want to try.


    I have 5 Baby Bubba okra in. A couple of cantaloupe and watermelon seeds in. Shoved tomato plants into almost every empty spot. Cucumbers bloomimg. Bush beans setting. Pole beans coming up. Lilies and glads and all sorts of stuff bloomimg.


    I had a couple friends in NW Arkansas affected by the tornadoes there. Tree and fence damage for one, and the other was safe in Fayetteville, but had severe damage to her mom’s house in Rogers. My nephew’s car got a double dose of ping pong ball sized hail earlier this week in the Fort Worth area. And a former coworker had quite a bit of damage outside Claremore. She still can’t find her chicken coop, but thankfully hadn’t gotten chickens yet. They have a fancy new skylight in their bathroom now. I was watching the storm coverage on tv. Scary.


    I’m dealing with such exciting stuff as plumbers and eye appointments.


    HJ, so exciting about the baby! How blessed to have an easy birth.


    Kim, I hope the damage is less than you fear it is. Can you get a weather radio? I think you need another layer in your notification system.


    Larry, your kids maybe need to learn preserving too.

    hazelinok thanked Rebecca (7a)
  • last year

    Jen, I tried to do some weeding today. I had some Johnson grass to dig out. I wanted to till the area, and tilling Johnson grass just scatters it.


    I have a couple of Dr. appointments tomorrow, then I will start on the sweet potatoes, I expect to have a few day weeding there. There are 85 sweet potatoes in that area, and they are overgrown with Johnson grass.


    I have 4 more areas tilled and ready to plant. I plan on planting cowpeas in 2 areas, and I hope to plant some butternut squash soon, maybe some collards also, I am about to get to the point where I will not be able to keep everything watered.

  • last year

    Rebecca, I am working on the kids, Kim gave me a pressure canner, and I have looked up parts on line, so far it looks like I can make it work. The kids were wanting a lot of peppers. I counted the plants today, and I have 40 tomatoes and 73 peppers, 6 roselle, 120 sweet potato plants, 7 egg plants, about 100 okra, but they need to be thinned to about 40 plants. I also have 3 kinds of cucumbers, and I have more area tilled for peas. I also have about a dozen squash and zucchini plants that are just coming up. If my health will hold up I will have plenty for the kids to do, but I expect they will fade away when the weather gets hot.

    hazelinok thanked slowpoke_gardener
  • last year

    Hi y’all. So busy and tired. I’ve been reading comments trying to keep up.

    hazelinok thanked Kim Reiss
  • last year

    Larry, I watch bugs all the time. I could spend hours in the pollinator garden watching them all.


    Kim, I hope you're tired busy in a good way, and not mentally tired. I feel better since school is out and having over a week off from work entirely. I'm back today.


    Jen, I don't have any ripe tomatoes yet. Several plants are loaded up, tho.


    Rebecca, you got a great haul of potatoes!


    I work a little later than normal on Thursdays, but want to check my rain gauge as soon as I get home. People were saying we got a good rain this morning, but my office doesn't have a window, so I didn't see it. If we didn't get a decent rain, I'll spend my evening watering. I can only wait around so long for it to rain.

    The coop door is having trouble staying closed again and that happens when we get dry.


    A couple of days ago, I dumped jars of picked okra from 2020. No one was eating it, so it needed to go. 2020 was a great year to practice canning food and seeing what we'll actually eat--both my family and Rick. If no one is eating the canned food, then we don't need to bother canning that specific food any longer. It's waste of time and energy. Pickled okra is out.

    I need to come up with summer recipes that use relishes, jellies, and pickles. I have a lot of that stuff canned and we like it, but forget to eat it.

    I canned a little before 2020, but not like now. This year, the only thing I want to can is potatoes potentially. IF Rick's doesn't do well in Morris, then I might not need to can any because he'll share the ones from the Survivalist Garden. I don't have a good place to store potatoes, so they're in the shop in cardboard trays covered with a shade cloth. It's the best I can do right now.

    I would like to pickle garlic (it truly will clear out a sinus infection if taken at fist sign) and pickled red onions. Those are things I could even take to my daughter's house and do while watching the baby.

    I pulled a couple of bulbs of garlic. It's a bit too early. I waited too long last year and many of the bulbs had separated cloves that don't store well. I'm a little nervous that will happen again. But, they could probably use another couple of weeks. Last year, I wanted to pull them when we got back from Oregon and that was a week too late. I sorta knew it at the time too.

    I am hoping things feel more settled next week. This has been an odd week.


    Do any of you grow butterfly peas? If so, do they take awhile to take off?



  • last year

    Jennifer not a good tired. I am working the school feeding victims of the disaster. It’s rough

    hazelinok thanked Kim Reiss
  • last year

    Did somebody say asparagus ?




    hazelinok thanked Lynn Dollar
  • last year

    Lynn, I like your sign.


    I had planned on getting some stuff done today after getting home from my Dr. appointments, but I was just too tired. I am feeling better now, but it is raining hard, this has been pretty much a wasted day for me.


    I would love to know how to preserve onions and garlic. Madge makes a dish with onion, cucumbers, and vinegar, it is what you might call refrigerator pickles. I would like to do something like that, only can it. Yesterday Madge made a batch using stuff out of the garden, and I ate it like a pig, the onion was so good, but I think that we have so much rain that I will never get the onions and garlic to cure. While I am talking about garlic, Amy, the garlic plant I found in the garden last year, and dont remember planting it. Anyway I planted the cloves under a trellis, and harvested a dozen or more heads yesterday, it looks and smells great, I am not sure that it may be the best garlic I have ever grown, but smells a little strong.


  • last year

    Kim, I'm sorry. I remember that kind of tired. I could say how I got through it, but no one wants to hear what someone else did when they're in the trenches.


    The rain missed us again. We need some rain!

    I'm trying to not worry about what's to come this summer. With us being dry for the spring, what's summer gonna do?!

    I like to think rain will come back in June. Some Junes are rainy after all. If it doesn't, we'll just let the garden go. I'm not going to spend hours watering every day.


    I worked on the back garden--watered and fertilized a little. Trimmed around the beauty berries and wild violets and elderberries. The beauty berry I thought I had killed, is coming back from the root. SO glad I left it.


    I grabbed the asparagus and green beans. That about wrapped up my evening in the garden.

    Wow. It was nice out. Cool and crisp.


  • last year

    oldbusy1, it is nice to see you again. I hope you and family are doing well, and I expect that you are still working non-stop.

  • last year

    I finally got started weeding the sweet potato bed in the south garden, I think the guys that grow them under black plastic are a lot smarter than I am.


    I planted (3) 20' rows of zipper cream cowpeas yesterday, and plan on planting 2 or 3 rows purple hulls today. I still don't any butternut, or, pumpkin planted. I am afraid that if the weather turns off hot and dry I will have more stuff planted than I can water.

    hazelinok thanked slowpoke_gardener
  • last year

    Mike Morgan speaks, June gonna be a cool month. Look like great tomato weather, and my plants need it.


    https://x.com/MikeMorganKFOR/status/1796972501441872054 

    hazelinok thanked Lynn Dollar
  • last year

    That would be so good, Lynn! Maybe we'll get some rain this month to make up for May. I've waited as long as I can. I'm going to water everything but the SG tonight.


    Larry, I still have the mineral tub from you. Finally got some potting mix for it and will put 3 more sweet potato slips into it tonight.

    And plant some mint. I actually had to buy it.


    I haven't been out to the gardens today. We did our shopping this morning and recycling. And went to Marcums to get the potting mix.


    Are your cotton hulls sprouting cotton, Lynn? Mine are.


    I've spent the afternoon in the kitchen cleaning up garden foods, the refrigerator, and other kitchen things. Made some lactation cookies for my daughter. They're actually pretty tasty.

    We have way too much asparagus still. Rick said he is over asparagus for the year.

    I really like it. It's one of my favorite veggies and I don't tire of it. BUT, I can only eat so much. It popped into my brain to ....why not make cream of asparagus soup? Why indeed.

    So, I've been doing that. I had enough to double the recipe. We'll eat on it all week. It's really good. But, I still have probably two meals left of it and more to harvest tonight.


    Yesterday, before going to see my daughter and her little family, I blanched and froze green beans. About 3 quarts. I left some out for dinner tonight.


    I also got the kombucha started up again. I have a goal of keeping up with it better. If I would just spend a little time each week, it would continue without pause.


    I wish I had a place to keep the jar rather than my office or the kitchen counter. That house close to my daughter with the dream utility room has the perfect place for kombucha jars.


    That's about it for me.


    What everyone doing this weekend? Harvesting anything from the garden?



  • last year

    Yes, I've had a lot of cotton sprouts. But the saving grace with them, they pull up easy.

    hazelinok thanked Lynn Dollar
  • last year

    Jennifer, I have trying to clean the sweet potato bed in the south garden, in so doing, I uprooted many runners that were already rooting, which would make good slip, I could easily make another good size bed of sweet potatoes, but Madge and I have about all the plants we can care for. I would not be upset if the kids and grand kids would help with a little weeding, but I can remember when I was that age, weeding was not on my "fun list" either, and they are always saying papaw/dad, you plant too much.


    Kim, I was out checking the pasture garden, which was only started last fall, I had planted turnips and walking onions out there, I have mowed everything down except the onions, they have dock and other weed grown up around them, but the ones left out there look very healthy. There are very few eatable plants that can get buy on as little care as the Egyptian walking onion.


    Jennifer, I have 5 more tubs that need something in them, maybe I should try sweet potatoes in them. I tried growing sweet potatoes in a tub a year or two ago, and I did not get much, but it was in a too shady area.

    hazelinok thanked slowpoke_gardener
  • last year

    Another question for Amy, and Rick, or anyone else. As you all know I am trying to come up with ways to be more self sufficient. It is really too late in fife to do much for me, but I want to pass some of these ideas on to kids an grand kids.


    I try to save seeds and plant food that will store well with little labor. Onions are one of the items I am working on. The Egyptian walking onion is working out rather well, but I don't want it to be the only arrow in my quiver.


    I have been playing with a bunching onion I found at the Ft. Smith Co-op, I don't know the name of it ( they didn't either, just that it was grown locally), but it sparked an interest in me, and I wanted to try some. I planted 45 - 50 of them in mu south garden. I dug 4 of them this morning, and I still think that I have an interest in them.


    I also tried onion sets again this year. Although the sets were okay for green onion, I did not like the idea that I had to go to town to buy them, and was depending on someone else to supply my food.


    Shown are the 4 bunching onions, and 3 of the better onion sets that I pulled this morning. My thinking is to dig some of the bunching onions and let then dry, sorta like sets, and leaving some in the ground to serve as green onions this summer, then planting some of the walking onions bulbils, and some of the bunching onion bulbs this fall to serve as green onions next winter.


    You can see that the sets did not make large bulbs, and they dont look like they will store well. I have tried saving seeds, without a lot of luck.


    That is a long lead in to a question of " Do any of you have any input at to how I can do a better job to reach my goal having good year a round onions without going to the store to buy them"?

  • last year

    Even I've had to buy onions at some point in the year.


    In the spring I put out both plant bundles and sets and use the sets for green table onions till they bulb out to much for that and then pull them late in the spring/summer for small bulb onions. The plant bundles is where I get my biggest " hamburger onions". Then I try to store all of those into the winter.


    In the fall I plant out sets when they're available from the feed store and then overwinter ,either in a low tunnel or just out in the open. They don't make much of a bulb until later in the following summer, like late June or July way after I pull the spring onions. I've found that the fall onions have a different taste than the spring onions , they taste sweeter I guess from overwintering , like collards do for antifreeze..

    But , for me there's a few periods in between during the year where I just have to buy a few onions to to fill the gaps. , usually late winter/early spring after my winter stored onions have sprouted/ rotted.


    Rick



  • last year

    Thanks, Rick, from what you say, I may be rushing my sets, they don't look good, but have not fallen over. I was just getting ready to till them in, but now I think I will leave a few just to see what happens. I am not a very patient gardener.


    The hamburger onions are the ones I really fall short on, I just can not cure them well enough to make the last long enough for my satisfaction.


    I have tilled up soil for a row of zinnias, and for 2 or 3 rows of peas/beans, and I still have room to crowd another row of something, then I will have to move to the pasture garden.


    I split up the 4 bunching onions that I dug this morning, I got enough for 24 sets, I will try to save them and see what happens this fall when I replant them.

  • last year

    Rick, I got to thinking about your remark about the sets being sweeter. Madge made a mixture of water vinegar cucumbers onions and peppers a couple of days ago, I ate the onion out of that mixture like it was candy. I ask Madge if that was one of our onions, she said yes, and when I ask her where she got it, she said off the back porch. I have onions and garlic piled in several areas on the back porch, but, now I am thinking that she may have picked up one of the sets and sliced it to go in the mixture. This is something I am going to have to do more research on, because onions aren't supposed to taste that good.

  • last year

    My fall onions taste different than my spring onions but it takes them a lot longer to make much of a bulb. I found that out by accident. I plant the fall onion sets in around Oct and let them overwinter. I've used them for green onions through the winter but they grow slower and won't bulb hardly until the following year around July for a full size bulb. They need to be planted in a place where you don't need the space back for nearly 9 months.

    I figure the sweetness is from overwintering like greens do for their own antifreeze by building up sugars.


    Rick




  • last year

    I have left some onion sets, they look terrible, and are grown up, but I can clean them, and maybe feed them, and see if they grow or rot.

  • last year

    Worth a try. Experiment and see what happens.

    Rick


  • last year

    I just lost a post!

    The long keeping onions are mostly long day onions. They aren't SUPPOSED to grow well here. Dawn managed it. They had to stay in the ground longer, I want to say late July? She probably had to shade them in July.

    I grew something from seed called Dakota Tears Yellow. I looked it up to be sure, they were supposed to be yellow,but they bloomed red. They were seeds in a package deal and I planted them in spring thinking I would use them for green onions. They actually made a bulb, before they flowered. Another thing you can plant from seed is shallots. I winter sowed some one year but the chickens destroyed all my onions that year. I think growing a variety of onions is your best bet at self sufficientcy.

    hazelinok thanked AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
  • last year

    Thanks, Amy, that is good information. I seem to do pretty well with onions, excluding the bulbing kind. I can grow them, but I cant get the to keep.


    I dont have a lot of choice here, it is Bonnie, or else. And here in the small towns there is not much verity, and I expect they are all short day.

    hazelinok thanked slowpoke_gardener
  • last year

    I pulled all my onions and garlic. I should have done it 2weeks ago.

    hazelinok thanked Kim Reiss
  • last year

    I had three times as many onions as I thought I did and most of them are golf ball size or bigger. Which surprised me. I think I planted my garlic too deep. It never made cloves just an onion like bulb. All of the greens or flopped over and a mushy wet mess. The grasshoppers had eaten the tops about halfway down before they turn to mush. I am hunkered down inside again waiting on rain and thunderstorms to hit. I have had 8 inches of rain in eight days and it is a ridiculous muddy mess over here.

  • last year

    I just posted at the June thread and it's not showing up again. The thread list shows the last time anyone posted was 5 hours ago. That's how I know it won't show for anyone but me. So odd. I am at work and sometimes that happens on this laptop. Other times it's fine. I sure don't understand it.


    Amy, I"ve grown long day varieties 3 times now and they do pretty well for me. Patterson, Highlander and a red one. Can't recall the name. This year I'm only doing Patterson of the 3.


    Let's see if this will post....

  • last year

    I see your post Jennifer..


    If I am able to garden next year I may try a long day onion. One problem I face with about anything is fungal diseases. It stays so wet in this valley for so long if makes gardening difficult.

  • last year

    I did not know there was a June thread

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