I have had a hard time getting seeds up too. Never did get my collards growing. The one thing I really wanted. We are expecting rain. I hope we get a decent amount.

I had a decent collard patch from the spring plantings going. that I was counting on for winter collard greens.But the grasshoppers chewed them all down.One reason out of many that I pull their heads off in the name of Islam. ( not that I'm Islamic) , just more out of frustration ,

If anybody/anything needs beheading , it's them.

If it weren't for the other garden over at Jennifer's , I'd be buying at the store/( or the local farmer's market)

Rick

Thanks for starting the thread, Rick.

Y'all were talking about cilantro a few days ago. Cilantro almost always has reseeded for me in a particular area. It didn't this year. I even bought a new plant even though it was May and knew it would quickly go to seed. However, none of those seeds have popped up.

The trays that I washed up yesterday and left to dry on the island, are now stored away. I watered the hoop house beds. There's some cabbage that needs to be pulled soon. Others aren't ready. I just did the Golden Acre and Early Flat Dutch. The Golden Acre is the one that's ready. I'm more into which cabbage forms the quickest. I don't care which one is biggest. Big is important to a lot of people. Sometimes smaller is better. (That being said from a girl who is somewhere between 5'2 and 5'3).

Also, the smaller ones seem to actually make as much product as the larger ones once chopped. It seems (in my experience) that the smaller ones are denser (more dense???).

The beets and carrots are looking good. As are the kale and collards in the hinged hoop. Rick, you can share those collards with me. Or did you put some in the SG?

Most of the garlic has popped up except those in the hoop house (but those were only planted a week ago).

Basically, everything that is cool season looks really nice.

Even the calendula that recently revived.

Normally I have the garden cleaned up and put to bed for the winter by now, but because we haven't had a true frost, that task hasn't been completed. At this point, it probably won't get done until Februrary or March. Once Thanksgiving week hits (next week), I'm not paying attention to garden tasks. It's about family and other things then.

I brought all the succulents indoors this afternoon. There's really not a place for all of them. Some of them have gotten quite large too. I'll do my best to keep them alive. The smaller ones are on the light shelf.

I didn't have to work tonight, so am just sitting now and feeling weird about it. Lol.

Maybe I'll catch up on some YouTube and drink a glass of wine.

That sounds like a good plan Jennifer. Since I am not working yet I am catching up on so many things. I found a new ytuber. Tia and her $1 house remodel. Is so satisfying to watch someone fix things. She’s adorable and her channel has grown 80,000 in a few months. I wish my channels would grow like that. I started a new channel last Sunday, more about life and praying that it gets some traction andgets monetized. I got some books so I can start my reading to the grandkids channel. I had to get a special public domain book back to the garden. I cut down almost all my okra. I left a few stocks that have pods that are drying, but they were not making. And the ones that were, were getting pimples. Apparently that’s from a stink bug. I also cut down most of my watermelon vines and I have not even thought about cutting down my tomatoes yet. I am getting 10 to 30 tomatoes every day. I bring them into ripen and then I throw them in the freezer. I might actually make a batch of sauce, and can it was giving most of the cherry ones away. But since I’m not at work, I’m just freezing them as well. I was going to be alone for Thanksgiving, but my sister-in-law invited me up to their campground at north of Gordonville. My sister is going to pick me up and drive me up there. I’m grateful because I do not like being alone on the holidays. I have lots of markets coming up soon and next year I will be planting over half the garden in herbs.

I went out to check the gardens this morning to see if the gophers had left me anything. I notices some of these sticking out of the ground in the north garden, so I decided to dig them before the gophers got them. If it was still not trying to rain I would have looked for more.

I use to think that I was pretty good at trapping gophers, but modern gophers are smarter than I am. I have a new trap and I think that I need to file the trigger down a little. How do y'all deal with gophers?

I washed these off, I really don't think that I have enough curing time left to cure them. I will ask Madge to put these at the head of the line for cooking, they are nice looking potatoes, with much less damage than the ones I dug about 7 week ago.

Larry we have used several types of gopher traps, poison, smoke - none of it really satisfactory. The traps that my husband prefers loolk like giant mousetraps and will spring on your fingers or hand if not very careful I hate them. 3-4 years ago our kids got us a set of Gopher Hawk traps at Christmas. They are the simplest traps ever. I set these with ease, you just mash the spring down and it locks, them find the hole and put it in. When it catches you will see the yellow at the top and know it was activated - just pull it out, push the spring down and shake out the varmint, it kills immediately -I have never had one still alive. There are YouTube videos you can look at to check it out. Stillwater Mill sells them snd so does Amazon. Best trap we’ve ever used, especially for an old woman like me.

I picked my orange glow watermelon today. It was mildly sweet really good flavor and my sister-in-law and I enjoyed it immensely. For November whatever day it is I was shocked. It hasn’t grown much in the last week and a half two weeks and we got one to 2 inches yesterday and I did not want it to split. The seeds appear viable. I will do a test later to determine whether to bother saving or not but I will say it was full of seeds 50 or 60. Too wet to do anything else in the gardenfor the next couple days

Glenda, thanks for the info on the trap, I will get one to try. I have mole problems also, and it looks like that trap works for them also.

These are the potatoes that I showed i the 5 gallon bucket, they are from the area that I had dug by hand from the north garden. The picture that I posted from the 2 plants that I dug back about 6 or 7 weeks ago showed 47 potatoes that came from those 2 plants. I did not dig out under the runners because that area was too tight to get the tractor into, and I did not want to dig it by hand. Well this is part of that area, I just noticed tome of these potatoes sticking out of the ground after the rain. I will try to find the picture I posted (I think on Facebook) of the 47 potatoes. I had thought I had planted 3 slips in that area, but could only find 2, but, even if I did really plant 3 plants in that area, 20+ potatoes per plant is pretty good. This is very close to the area I planted 4 slips in last year and harvested 71 pounds from the 4 slips.

I will post this and then try to find the picture that I posted on facebook a few weeks ago.

This is the first bunch of potatoes I dug from these 2, or 3 plants. I still have some runners to dig under, but I am not sure if I will find anything. We have had 3 nights that have damage, and killed most of the vines. The min/max thermometer showed the temp being 33, 32, and 31 degrees on those nights.

Glenda, this is one reason I need the gopher trap, gophers are rough on sweet potatoes. Also, I just went out to check the garlic, and there is a new gopher mound there.

This did not post like I wanted it to, but the two pictures are shown, even if they are on 2 post. I think.

Larry , looks like you're all set for Thanksgiving at least.

Rick

Rick, we gave away more sweet potatoes this year than we kept. We have a good supply stashed under out bed, and I still have some in the back of the RTV. We have company from Texas, so cleaned out the center bedroom, and found three sweet potatoes in there, if they were some that I was making slips from they are over 2 years old, if not they are still over a year old. These potatoes keep better than any other sweet potato I have grown. I may try to make these sprout just for the heck of it, but I really don't want to eat them, especially since I have fresh potatoes running out my ears.,

I wish I had something garden related to talk about, but don't really.

I'm afraid the garden clean up will have to wait until spring, but I really don't like to wait because spring is such a busy time. It's great that we haven't had a real frost, but it has delayed the clean up. And, because it's the holidays now basically, it just won't get done.

I'm worried I won't be able to get it all done this spring. That's my real concern.

Pretty sure everyone just thinks I'm over-the-top with my plans....but I'm aware enough to know that each thing that doesn't get done now will need to be done later. Sometimes "later" doesn't have enough hours in the day/week. I like to get things on my list crossed off so I can enjoy the coming seasons for what they are and not as a time to deal with stuff that wasn't done when it should have been done.

I'm trying to let it go.

There's still plenty of veggies in the garden to enjoy. I'm so glad for that. Fresh food is always best.

The recalled carrots are ones the I often buy. I do peel my carrots so I wonder if that matters at all.

BUT, I have carrots in the garden now so hopefully those will be ready soon.

I feel bad because I forgot to check the chickens' waterer this morning. I have no idea if they had anything to drink today. I left while it was still dark this morning and got in a little before 8.. I feel horrible about it. I just have to get used to not having auto waterers again.

I enjoyed yesterday and felt like myself after I got into the grove. I made apple muffins and lactation cookies (for my daughter) after making "from scratch" chicken and rice. (I hate "cream of" soups). Lately I haven't enjoyed cooking and that has bothered me. Part of it is just my schedule. Maybe I can start feeling normal again with the holidays coming.

Anyway sorry to be so gloomy. I'm just a bit too busy, I think. I know all of you are too.

And, I wish I was closer to my daughter. I spent 2 and half hours on the road today going to and from her house. Her mother-in-law is 10 minutes away. (jealous) And I miss my son. I dislike that he'll be alone on Thanksgiving.

And I miss my sister and brother-in-law being married....and the dynamic change in our family from their divorce. I can even say I miss my dad right now. He died at age 53. It's just one of those grieving times, I think.

Larry , I'd say you're a champion of growing sweet potatoes.

The only time I've grown good , big SP was when my mom was still living.

This year I put out those transplants of your's both at Jennifer's and over east. The ones over east disappeared from heat , grasshoppers. and overgrown grass that I couldn't control due to time , distance.

So I got some of your Covington from Jennifers' space.

Happy Thanksgiving to all !

Rick

The increasingly shorter daylight day by day is making for a lot of the gloom for me.

I'm hearing about arctic air coming from the north by around Thanksgiving.

I have lot's to do to prepare for the cold winter , winterizing the house (weather stripping).

.wintering the vehicles antifreeze , tune up , battery. Putting up row covers over the hoops in Jennifer's garden space. All the over east garden clean off.... I'm way behind and feel shameful about it.

I'm ashamed when I don't get things done in time. Shame , SHAME shame. (Gomer says).

I like to have everything done and then listen to the wind howl out of the north , and watch the snow fly. That's after I got things done. And then relax while watching the weather through the windows.. Without any shame -----------probably not.

There's always gotta be something wrong...

Winter's fast approaching you'll all.

Rick

Thanks, Rick, but I don't think I champion at an anything, but I do get lucky from time to time.

I never try to grow large sweet potatoes, I really don't know how. I like to grow potatoes that are a nice serving size. I have heard to use your best potatoes, and place them in a deep container to make good slips to grow a good harvest. I don't use large potatoes to make slips, I use the smaller ones so I can fit more potatoes in a flat. I don't have a greenhouse, so I start slips in the bedroom where I have my light shelf set up. My light shelf is a homemade rig that really does not have enough room between the shelves. At this point I see no need to build another light shelf, I will just keep working with what I have. I will say that I think I do just as good as my neighbors who have a much nicer set up. I also think that I spend more time per plant than my neighbors do, and I think that is where the difference is. If you don't have plenty of time to spend in the garden, this may be the wrong area to expect an exceptional garden.

Jennifer, I am sorry about your sad family situation, I also have some things in my family that I wish were different, but I have no control over them.

Thanks, Larry. My family situation isn't really that bad. I'm just in a time of grief, I think. It's from all the changes that happen to everyone at various points in their life. Although, I'll probably always grieve my son not being near me. He was a "rainbow" baby really. (A baby born after the loss of another baby, although Lane was 20 months old when he died and not a newborn.)

Anyway, I'm very close to both of my kids.

Also, I'm not really ready to be the matriarch of the family and I feel that is being given to me prematurely.

And....all the things I mentioned before and more.

But....those trees this fall. Wow. That's a bright spot in anyone's day. They're simply stunning this year. I'm not sure why. Maybe because of no real frost yet. Maybe because of all the rain? (It seems like I heard that lots of rain cause tree colors to be more vibrant).

The golds are are golder (is that a word?) and the reds are redder. What a treat to drive down Indian Hills (and other places) right now.

I'll enjoy those now before the turnpike takes them down.

Lynn, speaking of the turnpike, I saw some guys doing something in the field north of Indian Hills between I35 and Telephone Rd. Don't know if it's turnpike related, but the map shows it curving to the north side of IH once it crosses I35. They were measuring for something there this morning.

I am hoping to get home before dark today and will check out the garden.

Thinking about pulling a couple of heads of cabbage, but am wondering if it's just best to leave them until after Thanksgiving when I'll possibly have time to make kraut. They store fine in the refrigerator for awhile. There's at least two that are ready.

Today, we have 10 hours and 9 minutes of daylight. Next week we should be fully into Persephone.

What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving?

Jennifer, I am sad for your situation as well. It is hard to deal with family at a long distance. I get jealous when I listen to my grandkids talk about their other grandparents and especially especially the financial differences. It’s hard for me sometimes. But I am glad that they have somebody to spoil them. Get to spend more time with some of mine than others and I am so thankful for that. I am going to harvest the Roselle on Friday or Saturday and make jam and jelly and syrup.

Those sweet potatoes look amazing. I wish I lived closer to y’all. So I could get some too. Sweet potatoes actually are one of my favorite foods. I’ll probably buy a lot right now to store before the price goes back up. So I’ve got these tomatoes growing, and all the sudden, I harvested two tomatoes, large and yellow. The only thing that could be planted there is pink Brandywine, sweet Sue and possibly giant crimson, but I had no seeds for giant yellow tomatoes. What do you think happened?

Kim, those large pale tomatoes look about the same as my Dwarf Sweet sue. I did not care for the DSS, they were just too mild, I like a strong acid taste. Brandywine is one of my favorites, but I don.t have one with as strong of a taste as I like, I think that is why I like fried green tomatoes so well, they have a wang that suits my taste buds.

Glenda, I bought a Gopher Hawk trap, maybe I should have saved my money and bought a coat. its cool and windy here.

Hey Y'all. I made another post earlier today and it's not showing up for you.

I must have used a word that messed it up. It wasn't the eggplant dip word this time. lol

Anyway, basically I was saying that my life isn't that bad. I'm just in a season of mild grief.

There's lots of great things in my life.

I talked about how beautiful the trees are this year....and wondered if it has to do with having no frost yet and all the rain we've had. The trees are simply vibrant right now. What a treat to see while driving Indian Hills and other places too.

I mentioned to Lynn that I saw guys working this morning on the north side of Indian Hills between I35 and Telephone Road. Probably turnpike related but maybe not. They're measuring something.

I have to scroll up to see my post that y'all can't see. It helps me remember what all I said.

I talked about hoping to get home before dark and possibly pulling a couple of cabbages.

And mentioned that we have 10 hours and 9 minutes of daylight. Probably next week we'll be in Persephone Days.

And I asked what y'all are doing for Thanksgiving.

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

I see it Jennifer. I will be in Oklahoma at my brothers camper. Thankful I won’t be home alone. My oldest son is working my daughter and my youngest son will not be at home this year so it was home alone or go to the camper. My sister is actually going to pick me up and take me so that’ll be nice. Larry, I thought the sweet Sue was the little yellow cherry tomatoes that I’ve been getting. That is what I’ve labeled all my seeded packages that I have saved seeds from those little tomatoes very prolific. These tomatoes are the very first two that have appeared this color. Not not sure what I planted there, but I do see some tags buried in the back so when I cut these plants down, I will look and see what they are. I am going to make spaghetti sauce with all of my tomatoes, cherry, big, whole yellow red all of it. That is the only way I eat tomatoes anymore.

Kim, I had my tomatoes marked as, small yellow was marked sunny boy, or something like that, the Sweet Sue was sort of a husky fruit, medium yellow, the Fred's Tie Dye was sort of a deep red with pail greenish red stripes, but I could have mine miss-marked. There should be pictures on the web of the tomatoes. I am not sure that I will grow them again.

I hope to grow Early treat next year, which was new for me this year. I will also start a few others, but I hope to not buy any more seeds, because I already have too many seeds. I hope to grow a few things that will spark an interest in the kids.

Ohhhhhhh Fred tie dye. That’s what I have

Oh, y’all, I should be kicked out of this group. I cannot even keep track of my own plants anymore. So I planted two tomato plants on the corner and one on the inside of the corner of my fence. The one on the inside is extremely prolific producing small yellow fruits. I assumed that was dwarf sweet Sue never had a tag for it to put in the ground or if I did it buried. The two plants on the outside corner I thought one of them was pink Brandywine. But when it started producing these giant fruits that were red and, streaked and the inside was a deep rich purple red I just assumed the seeds were wrong never questioned that I had planted a different plant there. And then Waapa out of nowhere appears a giant yellow tomato. Very confusing. So what I have is Fred tie-dye which I do remember getting at the spring fling from Larry a dwarf sweet Sue got it from Larry and the little yellow sun something from Larry. So apparently that whole corner is Larry and then I have the way I have large red cherry and my porter. And another large potato leaf type tomato with absolutely no fruit ever. I think it got too much shade and of course now it doesn’t stand a chance. We got down to 40 last night and next week we will hit our first frost. So tomato drama is figured out and I will try to do better next year.

I'd wager the potato leaf was a brandywine. Dawn used to say she could only get one or 2 of them in a season. Whatever it is it's probably a late season variety.

Thanks to Facebook I didn't see Jennifer's garden Monday pics until Thursday. Maybe FB thinks she's subversive, too and hides her posts.

You're right, Jennifer, persephone days start in late November for me and end January 19. I remember it's the day after my son's birthday. But I don't remember the beginning date. You can't be much different than me, I'm not that much north of you.

What are the Persephone days?

Persephone days are when daylight falls below 10 hrs., varies per location, most plant growth really drops, some plants worse than others.

Thanks, Larry. I’ll have to look it up on Google and see what my dates are.

That's me, Amy. Always causing trouble. Maybe my very boring posts (here and on FB) are so boring that it causes suspicion. lol "no one is truly that boring....there must be some code in her posts"

I've never made a single political post or even shared anything like that.

I do have thoughts about such things (and many other things) but chose to not share them. Partly because it's hard to find someone who can truly be open-minded to all perspectives even if they don't agree with them. People who try to see why and how people think what they think and believe what they believe. There's only a couple of people I discuss things like that with. I suspect a lot of you would fit in my small circle of friends like that, but I don't like to discuss on public forums. And we just don't see each other often enough to have those types of discussions.

And not just political. I have many thoughts about many things that aren't standard....that would make people see me as crazy or dangerous. lol

Maybe FB and Houzz can read my mind.

We had some frost this morning on some plants. I saw it on the daikon radishes but not on the peppers next to them. It was on the grass and my car. It was dark when I got home so I didn't get to check anything other than the Vego beds...and that was this morning.

I feel good about getting a huge project done at work. It looks pretty good too. Now, if all the elements work out. It's been a learning curve for me.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time today looking for a certain version of Magnificat.

Anyway....

Happily I have several days off work. I'm off tomorrow. Will work on Sunday and Monday and then off until the following Monday. A lot to get done in that time, but so happy to have the days. I'm going to visit my friend tomorrow. She's unable to drive so is stuck at home most of the time.

I think that the garden will get a harder frost tonight. I should have tried to get the peppers by flashlight, but just didn't feel like it.

Persephone was a goddess and queen of the underworld. She was the beautiful daughter of Demeter and Zeus. She accepted a pomegranate seed from Hades and somehow because of that she had to stay in the underworld with him. However, Demeter was very distraught. She's the goddess of agriculture and whatnot. She stopped caring about those things and the earth became barren and dead. Somehow they worked out an arrangement that Persephone would live in the underworld with Hades for a portion of the year...that's when Demeter would be sad and the earth barren.--nothing would grow. Then, when Persephone would return, life would also return to the earth. Things would grow again.

That's a weak explanation of it. It's been awhile since I've read the story. But, you can see how this time of year became called Persephone Days.

Y'all talk a lot about things I know nothing about, and I am probably not smart enough to learn, my plants and I know nothing about Demeter, Zeus, or the Persephone, but I feel that if I can assist in keeping the growing conditions within what God designed for the plants, they produce like crazy. There are a lot of conditions that I don't have the money or equipment to control, and last night may have been the final straw for my summer plants. We have now had 4 cold night since mid Oct.. We have had 33, 32, 31, and 30 degrees night, but 30 degrees with a pretty hard frost, I expect that I should just say good bye to my summer plants.

I have not out to the gardens yet, but I expect that I should go out and have a funeral for all of my summer plants. I hope to go out and find a purple sweet potato plant, cut it off, and put it in a pot to have slips for next year. The sweet potatoes have been damaged on all 4 of the cold nights we have had over the past 40 or so days, but I expect that last night did them in.

I checked the summer plants. The peppers and sweet potatoes do look bad.

I think that the potato plants in close to taller plants may not be damaged as badly, but It does not matter, it is just getting too cold for sweet potatoes.

The carrots, onions, and greens are still happy, but it is their time of the year, but I an not sure that we have enough warm days left for the carrots to produce, only time will tell.

I might add that I have henbit blooming, and bees and bugs are after it.

The potato leaf plant is the Fred’s tie-dye. It looks like my tomato plants suffered a little frost damage, but nothing major. We’ve only been down to 38° but since they are laying on the ground, they are subject to get hit with low temperatures.

Kim, when my plants are low to the ground, it protects them from the frost a little because the stored heat in the ground, but the longer the cold spell, the less protection the ground will offer. I live in a low area and the cool air will settle into the low areas, but I still get a little protection from radiant heat. You may have noticed when you would go out in the morning in early fall, and notice frost on the car, or roof tops, but not on the ground. I have pepper plants that are bald on top because of light frosts that I had weeks ago, but the lower part survived, but I am not sure that they will survive from last night.

A lot of your plant protection can depend on your microclimare. I have a late friend that lived no more than a mile from me, but he had at least a month longer growing season than I did in most years. I live in the valley, while he lived near the crest of the mountain to the east, and I live in the shadow of the mountain to the west. My friend would get more sunshine than I did, it was almost like he lived in a different growing zone.

I agree, Larry, the tomatoes and foliage on the ground are perfect. The foliage across the top is black.

Larry, the Persephone story is Greek mythology, not something that I necessarily believe as truth. It's only a story I was sharing about where the title "Persephone Days" came from.

This stuff is from way before New Testament times and the written Bible...and you have to remember that these folks weren't God's "chosen people", the Hebrews. They were left on their own to try to explain the seasons and reasons for life and the world and things in it.

(That is my more conservative answer. LOL!)

Anyway....we got patchy frost again. There's damage, but not a lot. Surprisingly the peppers are still good. Rick came out tonight and picked some, as well as some of his turnips/greens in the SG and kale and collards in the KG.

Thanks for sharing the pics, Larry.

Kim, you mentioned that you're going to do lots of herbs next year (me too). What herbs are on your list?

Jennifer, I want to do all the things that I use in my herb blend mixes. Even though I buy organic, I would rather grow them myself. Marjoram, all the thyme, all the basil, chives, garlic chives, oregano, sage, rosemary, lemon grass, parsley, lavender, cilantro, cumin, mint. So far that’s my list.

Kim, I have marjoram seed. It's a first for me. We use it occasionally in cooking (store bought) but I really don't know much about it. It came in my Witch's Garden bundle from Botanical Interests.

Have you grown lemon grass before? Tom looked at several stores for some a couple of weeks ago when he made some type of marinade for an Asian chicken recipe. Finally had to go to an Asian market to get it. (A day later, Dawn Butler was offering friends to come cut hers. lol) She lives fairly close to where I work, and it would have worked out if the offer came a day earlier.

ANYWAY, I'm going to get some seed for it too.

I'm afraid I'll have several varieties of basil coming up all over the property next year. Especially the Tulsi. I'm only going to keep a couple of holy basils next year. It's just everywhere even right now. It's been warm enough that it's reseeding.

Pesto is one of the things I didn't get around to making (except once) this year. It's on my list for next year. I would like to put some in the freezer like we've done in the past.

The other is chopped green chilis made with all those Anaheim peppers Rick brought over. I decided to do that too late in the summer. It was nearly time for me to go back to work full time. I bought very small canning jars for it, but didn't get around to making them. We'll often buy those little cans of chopped green chilis for recipes so it would be good to have some on hand since it's something we use often.

Tom went with a neighbor to pick up some meat in Edmond, so I'm going to start making my Thanksgiving shopping list now. We picked up our turkey from Natural Grocers last night. They air chill their turkeys. Anyway...I get one every year and should probably get two to use later. They're not cheap, tho. Sometimes someone won't pick up their turkey and you'll get an opportunity to buy an extra one then.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

I have a lot of 4 oz plastic medicine bottles, are they good for storing anything except seeds and screws? My daughter and grand daughter are trying dehydrating and grinding different peppers, and I think maybe onions and garlic, would these bottles be ok for storing things like that. I get about a dozen of these a month, and I soon have too many bottles of screws and seeds.

Kim, I have grown (or attempted) everything on your list. I never could keep marjoram alive, and I don't think cumin set seed. Otherwise they shouldn't be a problem. Lemongrass is easy, Jennifer. Garlic chives, oregano and mint will take over the world. Plant them by themselves. Rosemary wants dry feet. Thyme doesn't like me, but it grew in a pot with something else just fine. Who knows why? I'm guilty of over watering, so maybe the other plant used excess water.

Larry, for short term, plastic bottles are OK for dehydrated foods, but glass is better. Do you get desiccant packs in any of your pills? Some people put them in dehydrated storage.

Yes, Amy, I get disccant packs in some of my meds. I get other sizes of bottles also, but the 4 oz is the one I find hard to toss because I have so many uses for them. I have even used then in self wicking containers.

I winter sewed a bunch of herb seed last year margarine time all the things and they came up and then died within a week or two but last year I was being cheap and I bought some soil that everybody raved about and it’s a local company, but it was like trying to grow it in mulch. By time I really figured out what was going on. It was too late. I bought organic herbs and will use up the rest of my herbs for markets and Christmas and then January. I won’t have anything. I have six markets coming up and I will be taking over 200 jars of herb mixes.I probably would never pay eight dollars for a spice jar of organic herbs mixed but I have no problems selling them at the market. And I love the way the house smells.

Kim, Tom is practically addicted to spices, and rubs, and all the things to flavor food, especially meat. He easily pays that much per/jar for his spices. Our pantry (it's called a chef's pantry. Unfortunately, not a walk-in like our old house.) is divided. Half of his side is spices. I'm not exaggerating.

There are apparently lots of people like Tom. The only difference in mine and other peoples organic home raised herbs, etc. is that that I do not use any peppers of any type. I am so allergic to them that having that powder in the house would be miserable. I thought about dehydrating stuff outside and handling it outside, but I just don’t want to get into it right now so herbs it is and garlic and onions. It seems pretty good.

I just paid my october water bill…just under $400. Now i get why Dawn would abandon her garden in drought years. I am going to have to read back through her posts on pushing production early and acclimating her tomatoes to lower water conditions. My fall tomatoes have been awesome.

HJ, I did lemongrass back in 2023. It was great, very flavorful, but did not survive winter outside. One of the Asian market growers I buy from at the market said that was normal. They overwinter theirs in a heated greenhouse, so you would have to have somewhere to bring it in. I bought a plant at Ace Hardware that year.

Kim, I made an amazing rosemary finishing salt by pulsing kosher salt and fresh rosemary leaves in the food processor, for my family Christmas baskets. I have seen where you can do this with almost any herb. Debating dehydrating some garlic to mix in with it.

I’ve received catalogs from Pinetree and Totally Tomatoes so far. Seems early, but I’m wondering if there will be a lot of people turning back to gardening next year, in expectation of food prices rising. I’m already hearing a lot of talk about people getting backyard chickens because of bird flu, which I’m sure they won’t research properly. I already ordered the 2 new garden beds I was going to replace next year, because they’re made overseas and I’m sure will be tariffed off the charts.

I’m also planning on being very intentional about what varieties I plant next year. Things that are proven to do well in my little microclimate, highly disease resistant, and get things growing as early as I can. Also putting more heat and drought tolerant perennial plants out in my front flower beds, saving the other annuals for planters.

I’m going to up my herbs too. I’ve had a heck of a time getting new chives started. I divided my remaining clump last spring and none of them did any growing at all. I think I gave them too much shade. And I’ll winter sow them early this year.

Botanical Interests and Seeds n Such are both having Black Friday sales this week. About the only ones I’m interested in.

Rebecca, I make one using dehydrated, lemons, dill, rosemary, and salt and my kids have been using it for years and they use it as table salt and especially on fish and chicken

I was going to expand my garden next year but was warned by the landowner that I could not use the well water for it. So I had to rethink that idea.

Well, it's the start of another beautiful week, and I don't know how to start a new thread. I have heard it said that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but I have started a thread before, so it should not be a new trick. Maybe the old saying should be "Old dogs forget a lot of their tricks".

I dug up some purple sweet potato roots yesterday and placed them in a pot and brought into the house. The top of the plant was frozen back, but maybe I can keep the plant going till next spring so I can have some plants for my grand daughter. I have told her that it is best that we forget about the purple potatoes because the Covington are more reliable, and, productive, but I would like to grow a few purple for her anyway.

It only dropped down to 42 degrees last night, so this should be a nice day. Madge will have at least 3 of her kids here, and as least 2 grand kids and 1 great grand child, but we will many more Thur., our family is so large that we have to have a lot of Holiday get-to-gathers to get to see most of them.

We will celebrate Christmas on Dec, 14 th with my daughter, because my grand daughters are going to the east coast for Christmas.

I hope to get out to the garden and do a little clean up before everyone gets here, also, maybe I can burn a brush pile.

Any, I hope y'all have a good, and a good week.