Kim I pulled my sugar snaps out yesterday too. Ended up with 1/2 gallon to freeze then planted cucumbers back in their spot. Planted a few more green beans and some zuchinni and yellow scallop squash. My squash and first green beans are blooming and have tiny cucumbers on a couple of plants. I’ve been enjoying strawberries and a few sun sugar tomatoes.

Jennifer, I didnt care for the Mantis unless the soil was already worked up. It bounced too much for my ground - if you have a well worked, soft ground it might be better. Of course I was used to a big Troybilt that churned through everything.

As wet as my garden is now, there's not any tiller gonna plow through the thick mud. I need to weed badly, but its gotta dry out a little.

Supposedly, more rain and storms today.

Glenda, when Tom was using the Mantis yesterday it really did bounce a lot.

I make him really nervous with tools and machines and whatnot. But, I'll try to figure it out. Normally Rick used it just to weed between his tightly packed rows. He kept the garden pretty tidy that way until the later summer where everything was vining and getting crazy.

Kim, Dawn and Tim did make a good team for sure. I'm feeling lazy this morning. I did get all the animals fed and rounded up some escapee chickens. They've gotten so bad about getting out--and they have a giant yard. I really just feel like sitting, but don't want to waste the day. Maybe I'll get those Easter decorations put away finally. LOL

I'm so, so glad we got those tomatoes mulched--in both gardens. There's a couple lying over in the tilled garden. Once it dries out, we'll get the trellises up.

The house should probably have a little attention too. It's really, really dirty. Not so much cluttered, but actual dust and dirt. I think it has a funky smell, but pretty sure it's our dog. She has always had an odor to her. Not normal dog odor, but worse. Before Kane died, they both spent a lot of time outside as long as it wasn't too hot, too cold or raining. And they slept in the utility room, so her odor didn't bother me so much. But, now she doesn't want to be outside unless we are with her and she stays in our living room most of the time.

Is anyone actually going to be able to work outside today? Our property is just too wet now.

I am getting close to using Glyphodate. The crawdads are climbing my trellises to try to find a dry spot. It looks like I may have to shovel out a weed free zone, and mix up some potting soil and compost to build a hill to plant my melons and cantaloupe on. I get cranky sitting in this recliner, and I don't like crawling around in the mud either.

This land has been hard to work as long as I can remember. I can remember the folks saying that it was too thick to fish and too thin to plow, that is sort of how it is now.

Although the temperature is perfect for working outside, I don’t like to when it is so wet. I believe it wasdawn who warned me about spreading fungal diseases. I pulled one pot of my peas yesterday and gave the pot to the grapevine completely. And this morning I cut out my spinach out of the green stock. The seed had flopped over in the wind and rain last night so I cut it off. I’ll save it. See if we can get viable seat off of that. I planted some calendula and parsley. The girls planted some yesterday, but I have no idea where or how. I thought I had the camera on video, but I did not. I have several empty places I can plant some more sweet potatoes. I’ve been trying to think of what I actually eat and what is easy to preserve. And I came up with winter squash and sweet potatoes. I think I have enough beans already planted. This week is kitchen workand it looks like it will rain enough that I do not have to go out and water so that is great. I do have a lot of onions I need to preserve. I don’t think that they will make great storage onions. Since they are so small.

HJ, this is it. Worked like a charm.

About the roly pollies....why are they so crazy this year? And not just in Oklahoma. Several YouTubers that I watch from time to time, are having issues too. And they're not in Oklahoma.

My mind always goes to: what is happening in nature that pill bugs are so ridiculous. Heavy metals in the soil?

And...earwigs. We've always had them....but several people have noted that they are so many MORE over the past 3 years or so.

Thanks, Rebecca. Ordered and supposed to arrive tomorrow.

It feels wrong to kill them, tho.

I bought bait for slugs and snails, I thought it might work on pill bugs also. I have a ton of them, but I am not sure they are my largest problem, and I have not used anything yet, I like to wait and hope mother nature fixes the problem. I think a lot of the infestation is because of all the moisture. It seems that moisture and decay brings out a different kind of critters, I also think that I need to expect a lot of fungus problems, but so far I have been holding back on that also, besides, with all the rain there is not a lot I can do.

I think my next step will be to try to prune and tie up plants, then maybe fungicide. I hope to dig the rest of mi garlic after that, maybe I can plant some okra and peas, they should have been growing already, but all of this rain has really put me behind.

Most of my peppers, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes look pretty good. the onions and garlic are bad. I have a few squash and cucumbers up, but I would have expected everything to be farther along now, but it could be worse.

HJ, our house is like that, too. Always has a musty wet-dog smell, even when we haven't had rain for a long time.

Got a little done, but the veggie garden out back is squishy and the circle bed in the driveway is a pond. I was digging out weeds and found one spot that has about 3" of water.

Need to start some more cucumbers. That may be something to fill up that circle bed. Last year the partridge pea went gangbusters and almost the whole thing was full of pretty yellow flowers with a few pink zinnia scattered through.

I forget who I was listening to, some youtuber, but they were talking about how different plants are "weeds" in one person's garden and another person can't get them to grow. For them it was asparagus. For me, it's partridge pea, or sunflowers, or basil. I'm pretty sure I dug out about a hundred of each, and there's still gobs left.

I'd never had earwigs until we moved to OKC. And then we had the little nasty things all over. Even inside, which is where I draw the line. Here we have mayflies and june bugs, though I still see earwigs from time to time. I think it was Dawn that said sluggo plus was rated for earwigs and pillbugs. I tried them in OKC and I think the things were immune. That or they multiplied faster than the bait worked, because I still had gobs after treating for them.

My first tomato, a Black Krim, tying to split so I picked it. I don't expect the taste to be much, but I expected more damage if I had left it on the vine. My garden is in bad need of TLC, disease and mud everywhere.

My inground beds are on the top or middle part of a slope. So the water runs off really pretty quickly. The only bed I have trouble with water is my onion bed unfortunately. I think I’m going to put Black Eyed Peas in there when the onions come out.. I might put a spaghetti squash on one end.

Well, Larry, I was gonna say that is a good looking tomato even if it is splitting

Kim, I grew my onions in an area that does not drain as well as the spots I have uses in the past, plus, I think that we have had above normal rainfall. I have already lost mose of my bulbing onions.

This is my largest bell pepper. I have already harvested a few peppers, but that was because the plants were not strong enough to hold them up, but now, with all of the wind, rain, and mud, I am having to support all of pepper plants.

The pimentos are on this end of the row, I am supporting them also. The upper right corner of this picture is the end of an onion row. I plan on removing the onions and, and cutting slips from the sweet potatoes shown in the right of the picture and making another row sweet potatoes. I am planning on bringing my sweet potato plant count up to 200 plus soon. I hope to end up with sweet potato plants in all three gardens. I hope to impress upon my kids that sweet potatoes are a good survival crop.

I know that this is an ugly way to support plants, but with the wind and rain we are having it is hard to keep plants off the ground.

That pepper is gorgeous. I haven’t grown peppers like that since I left Quitaque. The one inground bed I made this year is doing okay. Beans did not come up that great and I finally gave up. I will fill in with flowers. I have one more roselle to move out of the onion bed. I don’t need it in my main garden. They get too big here

We have trees down all over the place around me. Fortunately, I only had one cedar branch split. It split up high though. Just barely was able to get to it. Both neighbors had several huge branches and a couple of complete trunk snaps. I'm not sure what wind speeds came out of that storm, but it would have to have been close to 100 mph just judging by the damage everywhere.

My corn was laid out flat toward the southeast, but they are still in the ground. Broccoli not doing well at all this year. Several heads are just loose and not very tight. A few just didn't grow well at all and wilted. Maybe has something to do with all of the water. It's like living in the delta around here. Was it Rick that used to say "a-hole weather" all the time? I would just nod every time I read that, because it's the absolute truth around here. Not even trees can put up with it.

I came home from Southwood with a pair of Jap Maples, because I just can't help myself and want a re-do around the back deck. I'm on the hook for building a couple of shallow boxes for them to kind of berm them up with quality soil. One of the boxes will have to accommodate a pretty good drop in 2 directions, so that'll complicate things a bit. I'll prob do a stair step style with dimensional boards.

I'm still unsure about this years garden. Some things have been slow growing (cukes/melon) and we still haven't turned up the heat really. Potatoes seem to be doing well...some hog-molly onions out there. The heat lovers just haven't quite turned on yet and are probably wondering where the heat is. I'm sure it's coming. When things dry out, maybe there will be more to report.

Yep. That was Rick. He said it to me at least once a day. lol

I'm going to try to copy and paste something here. It's a tribute from Rick's "boss" and co-worker, Prof Engel.

A Tribute to Rick Maynard
Rick and I met in 1984. Rick was working on his Ph.D. in Engineering Physics and I had started working on a research project with Rick’s Advisor. Rick already had an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and was curious about the new type of isotope lab that I was building. Rick became more interested in my type of work and decided to accept a technician position to help run my laboratory, which he did for forty years! Rick was like a mother hen with the instruments and had the electrical engineering background to keep things running smoothly while I spent more time raising the funds for the research projects that kept us afloat. Over the years Rick helped literally hundreds of students and professors acquire the stable isotope data that they needed for their various research projects. For the first twenty years, our instruments were not automated and Rick and I spent many long nights together running the samples that he had prepped earlier in the day. Lots of late night veggie burgers and Greek gyros to keep us going. Things got better in 2006 (at least sleep wise) when I was able to purchase our first automated stable isotope system. It was always funny to me that Rick was an expert at running such complex instrumentation and the software that it required but was always more comfortable in his personal life driving that old 1974 Datsun truck, as he did not trust the “computers” in modern vehicles. He also never really cared for cell phones and other types of electronics that most people take for granted these days.
Rick and I had a very special scientific relationship that you rarely ever see. People in our scientific community here at OU and the other labs that we collaborated with in the USA and abroad have been shocked and saddened to hear of Rick’s passing.
I spent the last few months trying to figure out the easiest way to let Rick know that I planned to retire in a couple of years, as I am already 74. Rick said he never wanted to retire, and lo and behold, he never did! I am still in shock over Rick’s passing and send my sincerest condolences to the family.

Anyway....thought some of you might enjoy reading it. He loved the garden but he had other things he was passionate about as well.

Thank you Jennifer. It was hard to read but I was able to. Lovely letter.

Thanks for sharing, Jennifer. I wish I had known Rick.

Larry, he was a unique person for sure. He watched those canners with the same intensity.

The professor didn't know me at all. And was unaware that I was listed as a contact person. Rick kept his areas of life and interests separate. He was very private. He told me a lot about his work life, tho....and his family. BUT, asked me to stop to talking to his nephew, so I (mostly) did. (His nephew is a very nice man....seems to be very caring and kind) We got into a bit of an issue when he felt that I shared something that he confided to me....with a neighbor who is also a geology professor at OU who knows Rick and his co-worker/boss. Long story.

It was one of our last lengthy conversations maybe 6 weeks ago. I ended up apologizing even tho I didn't share with her what he thought I did.

Actually he would be freaking out that I'm discussing this HERE now. But...I'm trying to be sensitive because there's SO much more I could say that would explain why I'm heart broken and....just the sadness of his life in so many ways. Things I know that caused him lots of pain. Walking through his house, just makes it more apparent.

BUT, he had a lot of joy out here most of the time. He got to build that hoop house. He always wanted to build one and he built it to last. And he got to try/do other things garden related that he couldn't do before. And he had community here. With me, Tom and a couple of our neighbors. So, I do feel good about that.

I skipped Pilates tonight. I was able to plant the last of the basil seedlings. And sow a few Honeynut and Butterbaby squash seeds. And a few other piddly things.

Jennifer, I had a special friend and neighbor that died a few years ago that was very unique, we had the best visits. Mike, was the fellows name, he was the one that gave me the start of Covington sweet potatoes. The man could talk on almost any subject, and was very smart, but sometimes come up with the strangest ideas, and I really miss him. Mike died in his early 90's

I have just about all of my garlic harvested now, it was not a great harvest, but I have much more than I can use.

I want to work on the no-till idea again. I don't see any way I can go completely, but I want to try it again. I am also thinking about trying hairy vetch as a cover crop again, but it is such a thug to work with.

Larry, I'm wondering how my garlic will turn out. The ones that just come up on their own look fine. But the others are a little anemic looking....even the ones in the hoop house. In fact, one variety is scrawny and lying over really. I'll probably pull them a couple of days before we leave for Oregon.

Josh, your deck and Japanese maple idea sounds really pretty.

I haven't applied the Captain Jack's yet. I've not see any more damage to young plants.. I'll keep a careful eye on things.

The cantaloupe hasn't popped up yet. It's an older seed--maybe 5 years. Maybe if it doesn't come up, I'll look for a couple of plants. I don't need a lot.

So, you cover crop people. Austrian pea seed. How long is that good? Rick left a large bag at our house. I need to give it away if anyone wants it. Thought about offering it on Marketplace. Along with his Bodacious corn seed. I hate for it all to waste. From what I understand, corn seed isn't viable for long. There's also a box of seed at his house I should grab next time we're over. See what's in it and offer it up to people.

I'm pretty sure I won't do cover crops.

I'll keep the Contender beans because that is one thing that I do grow.

Not sure what to do with his things, like his canners. It's doubtful that I'll use them. They are All American. Two different sizes. And all of his tools, that were his Mom's at one time. The family doesn't seem interested in them. Also a canning book, that was his mom's, that I'll keep. And even the propane camp stove where we canned. I'll probably just use my lightweight Presto for future canning in small batches on my cooktop.

Maybe I'll just clean them up and put them back in their original boxes and store them in a giant tub if no one in the family is interested. Maybe Ethan will want to can someday. (Rick gave E a lot of his record albums. E sent a pic a couple of days ago of a poster that came in one of the Pink Floyd albums. He decided to hang it up in memory of Rick)

He left a lot of stuff at our house. He's a hoarder so some of it will need to be tossed. Much of it is in a shed at our property line. A lot is good still. He has some nice hoops, that I'll keep just in case. Rebar, t-posts, shade cloth, frost cloth, clips....stuff like that. What to do with his Craftsman tiller???

Honestly if E's and R's stuff wasn't in our shop, Tom and I would look like minimalists. LOL

Not really. We have a lot of stuff too.

Anyway, back to the Austrian pea seed....any suggestions?

As much as I love asparagus, I'm excited for some different garden veggies. I'm eating asparagus several times a week, but it won't be long until it's over for the season. I'm also eating the different lettuces and kale. And a few of the fall onions that made a small bulb. Oh...and a few strawberries. But not many. I can't get back in the grove with strawberries.

I'm at work, so should actually do some work, I guess.

Thank you for sharing that tribute, Jennifer. What an amazing person he was! Makes one realize that we often don't really know even our friends. Not REALLY know them. It was a great lesson for me, for sure.

It rarely gets soggy at our place, since it's on a rocky incline. . . but it's a bit soggy! We're going to the marina for a light dinner today, so will get to see how high the lake is (it's a mile down the road). Larry--regarding other boaters being willing to help--you are absolutely correct--they're a great bunch of folks. We put in at a ramp that's not always busy, so can't count on it--but if there are other boaters there, know they'd help.

Can't figure out why the weeds grow like crazy with all this rain, and other stuff just grows along. But there are a lot of weeds that need to be taken care of!

We went to town and had lunch with the women in my senior class, then to the nursing home to visit with my aunt. I hope to rest a while and go mow the lawn, it its dry enough, if not, I will work in the garden, on a lawn mower, or a tractor. There is never a time when there in nothing to do. It seems as tho the older you get, the farther behind you get.

I need to make 4 hills to plant cantaloupe and melons. I plan to just dump out some potting soil and plant in that, its just too wet to do anything in the pasture garden.

Harold, an new friend, just stopped to get more walking, and bunching onions, some Covington, and purple sweet potatoes. Harold saw the garlic lying out in the garden drying, and wanted some of those also, he is on his way to Pine Bluff AR. to see his son, and wanted stuff for his son to plant in his garden.

I didn’t get much gardening done today. I was stuck inside making jam for the market. Yesterday I did 18 apple butter and today I did 16 raspberry jam. I think I’ll go out and plant a few sweet potato slips.

I almost have a spot cleaned out for another row of sweet potatoes. I still need to dig some of the onions out. I have been breaking the onion scapes, and tossing then and the seed pods in a hole, and plan on burying them in the garden, I may have more onions than I know what to do with. I am a firm believer in organic mater, but I am not sure how good diseased onions are for your garden soil. When I dug the garlic, they were buried, diseased, and overgrown, and I have never seen anymore critters in the soil, earthworms and everything else was in that soil. I would like to try to do that again, on purpose.

I still have not had a chance to get out to the pasture garden. I am so slow that it takes me all day long to fall down. I have not been able to mow the lawn either, but I did drive the RTV across it, and it is wet, wet, wet, and my garden is muddy, muddy, muddy.

Nice, Kim!

You're welcome, Nancy. It's so cool that you're selling your art!

Larry, do y'all eat sweet potatoes often? I need to remember to use them more often at our house.

So...no one has an opinion on the Austrian pea? Should I just throw them in the trash?

Jennifer, I don’t know anything about Austrian P except that gardeners love it. Maybe offer it on Facebook garden web or even marketplace for free. If I had land, I would figure out what to do with it and use it, but I don’t yet and I don’t need anything else to save.

Jennifer, no Madge and I do not eat sweet potatoes as often as we should, nor do my kids. I think it is a learned thing, I grew up eating beans, potatoes and corn bread, and that is what I crave.

I plant Austrian Pea as a winter cover, but I've got enough for two more seasons, if it lasts that long.

This year, I planted my tomato seed one week later than usual. But here's a pic from this day last year, this was my first tomato. And I don't have a tomato any where near this now .... probably two weeks away .... at least

Lynn, I feel the same about my tomatoes. They are behind this year.

However, my neighbor's look great. The plants are tall with full-sized fruit. Some of them were my extra heirlooms and some were Rick's (those ones are a bit smaller). She and her family decided to camp at Thunderbird last night, so she asked me to close her coops and I was able to see her garden.

My kitchen garden tomatoes actually look pretty good....they're just behind last year.

I'll grab that box of seed from R's house, go through it and then offer up what I can't use. The family doesn't want any of it.

Kim, probably the FB Garden Network would be the best place-you're right.

I'm going to wait until after Oregon to sort through the other items. We need to schedule a Big Trash Pick-Up anyways, after our trip.

I'm really craving fresh green beans and mine have a ways to go. (my luck they'll be in full production while we are in Oregon)

I keep waiting for another neighbor to offer up picking from her garden. She normally picks what she wants for canning and freezing then offers friends to come pick. She plants early and harvests early. And is already harvesting beans.

Larry, my grandparents almost always kept a pot of brown beans on the stove and a pan of cornbread. Grandma would fry potatoes sometimes. She had a little beauty shop in a little building next to the house, so she would come in for lunch and eat the beans and cornbread with cottage cheese. And tea made with Sweet N' Low. And table onions.

We apparently got more rain last night. I was sleeping hard when my cat woke me up at 6:07.

Not sure what the garden plans are for this evening. Depends on how wet it is. I could always weed things if it's not too wet. Last night I was able to put the succulents into their outdoor area. Cleaned their indoor pots that they're transferred to for the winter months and stored them away.

Kim, I still need to find a place for the stinging nettle and mullein. The nettle has gotten me a couple of times. Ouch!

Mullein isn't a native plant. I wonder how it would do in a large pot. And, the stinging nettle could probably go at the back of the property where it can be mowed after harvesting what we need. I believe it is an aggressive spreader, but I really want it for tea.

I only have left those 2 plants, a pot of chives, a pot of mint and a Dawn pepper that is finally big enough to plant.

I have tomato plants that are four foot tall, if not taller. And they're loaded down with tomatoes. But no where near the size or in the blushing stage of the one in the pic.

I planted a week later, cuz I got tired of dealing with tall leggy plants midway through March. And really pushing to get them in the ground just because they were difficult to deal with. I also don't like trench planting.

My plants were not near as tall this year in late March, but I probably missed a week or two of the early part of the window.

I also think that freeze we had on April 7th, set them back. Had a low here of 28*. I'm probably lucky to not lose them all. I had to replace almost two rows of plants, as they were bit back severely. Good thing I had replacements. The 5 gallon buckets weren't meant for that.

I need to set T-Posts to support the tomato cages, but getting 1/4" of rain every other night is keeping it too wet for that job. Also need to prune some lower limbs. And they've reached the stage now where keeping them inside the cages is needed daily. On top of that, weeds are beyond control. Hopefully it will dry out soon. Can't believe I said that.

Can any of y'all tell me the proper name of this type of onion? I call it bunching onion or multiplying onion. When I bought these sets at the co-op, the lady did not know what they were, but they looked different than any sets that I have bought in the past. I don't normally fool with sets because they just don't seem to do great for me. But these things really produce. I can plant these in the fall, and have green onions through the winter, then the ones I don't eat will produce up to a dozen of baby onions like this one by this time of the year. I then harvest the onions and plant something else, then repeat the cycle. I must have 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket of these curing now.

This is a picture of the ones I harvested yesterday. I also have others farther along in the curing process. There is some garlic in the picture also, it started raining and I just quickly ran to the garden and brought these into the dry.

Lynn, you tomatoes are doing better than mine. I am getting close to harvesting my second Black krim, but I don't have a lot of fruit set.

I only have five tomato plants this year in the ground. I’m getting cherry tomatoes, which will make my sister-in-law very happy tomorrow. I will be at Market in Marietta Oklahoma. They’re having a big frontier days and I am looking forward to it. I have not planted all of my stinging metal either and I watched a video the other day on the vast benefits of stinging nettle actually, I watch two videos. One was culinary and one was medicinal. The one lady was dehydrating that leaves in grinding them to a powder and she would put just you know a tablespoon or whatever in a pot of super stew the other lady was putting them in capsules. Personally, I would rather use tea than make all these capsules and then have to take like 10 of them a day. The one lady did say that getting stung by the stinging that was actually good for you. So when Moni rubbed herself all over the plant to show Something then she was actually benefiting herself. I never did like the feel of fiberglass on my skin and that’s what it feels like to me. I went out and watered and hoped to get out in the garden this evening to plant my sweet potato slips and some more southern peas That is still at the top of the list.

And no Larry, I have no idea what kind of onion that is. I feel like Amy would know.

Kim, I have heard of nesting onions, and these look about like a hen sitting on a bunch of eggs.

I found 2 more Black Krim that I wanted to pull, I was afraid that they may start splitting also.

I took the tiller out to the pasture garden, but it is just too wet to do anything. I will just dump some potting soil out to plant melons and cantaloupe on. I hate to waste potting soil like that. I can buy a couple of melons cheaper than what the potting soil cost. Madge did buy a black diamond melon a few days ago, but it was no good. It the melons I grow are no better than the one Madge bought, I will feel like it would have been a better deal if we had just ate the potting soil.

Oh, I hate it when I buy a bad melon. There used to be a melon guy in kitty Quay and he grew melons for the United grocery stores out there all they were so good. Almost as good as pulling one out of your own backyard and so cheap. When he brought his trailer to town full of cantaloupes and melons, everybody would stop what they’re doing a run out there and get melons. I used to buy them for the school and the kids loved watermelon day.

Jennifer No!! Dont throw the peas away. They are expensive to buy if you can find them. If nothing else put them in a container with a few silica packets and plant them next Fall. I dont remember reading how many you have. I planted some a couple of times then mowed and tilled them under when they were only sbout 15” high. They made wonderful compost.

We got between 2 1/2-3” of rain about 2:30 this morning. Apparently got wind too, I hsve several tomatoes snd cucumbers that are twisted or broken. We have squash and zuchinni sbout 3” long and tiny cucumbers about 1” long. Green beans should be ready to pick by middle of next week. I shelled the last of our sugsr snaps and fixed peas & potatoes for the kids. I’ve enjoyed a few Sun Sugar tomatoes but most of the others are just blooming, a few Compari about golf ball size.

I have a bad habit of typing something up and then not posting it. Usually because I haven't finished a thought, plan to come back to it, and then forget. So, maybe I'll finish this one and actually post the danged thing.

HJ, you know I'm always advocating for keeping seeds, or tossing them in the garden and seeing what comes up. So I'd say keep the peas, or offer them up to someone else.

I'd say have a sale, get rid of whatever you can, then either buy something for your garden or donate it to a charity in Rick's honor. Whatever doesn't sell you can put on a buy nothing group. The frugal in me can't stand the idea of throwing stuff away if someone else can use it. We took a load of trash to the city dump and there were several nice pieces of furniture that were piled up. It stinks that they won't allow people to take things. I understand why, but I don't agree.

I harvested my first tomato a week ago. It was a cherry tomato from one of my micro plants, and it tasted bleh, but I did get a tomato before Memorial day. I did notice there were several other plants with fruit, so we're coming along. And just now getting snap peas, though they're about done before I get to enjoy them.

Garden plans for this weekend are to finish planting the last few flowers into that circle bed, then tuck in some tomatoes. Then I have about a cup of seeds, mostly pre-2015, that I'll toss out. Maybe something will pop up. Also need to weed and get a layer of mulch on the garden out back. Trying to prep everything so it'll survive me being gone for camp in a few weeks. Cliff means well but gardening isn't his thing and I doubt he'll remember to go out and water it. So if I do a thick layer of mulch and water everything extremely well, it usually survives with minimal damage.

I was out weeding the other day and noticed the mullein is trying to take over my garden. It's everywhere. And basil. And dill. I may pot some up and try selling at the swap meet. Our town just started one this year. It's still pretty small but every week seems to be bigger.

Larry, I don't know the type of onion. Amy?

Pretty tomatoes!

Kim, the nettle leaves a temporary rash on my skin. I definitely feel it for several minutes. But, I did read an article from a guy that purposely let's himself be "stung" too, for health reasons. But, yes, nettle has lots of benefits and I, too, prefer to make tea. I have an electric tea kettle and have found an easy way to make a quick up of tea from garden herbs.

Lynn, hopefully you'll be able to get out to the garden to work on your trellises/cages soon. The in-ground garden here is also too wet for trellising installation.

Glenda, sounds like your garden is coming right along. Sorry for the damage, tho.

I'll try to find a home for the peas. It is doubtful that I'll ever do cover crops, although they are beneficial. There's a large bag and a few other packets of them in the shop. From what I read, the seed is viable for 3 to 5 years.

IF we keep this garden going, it will eventually be raised beds (which you can still put cover crops in) and I'll let the beds rest over the winter and dump chicken dropping on them for a couple of months. More than likely I will not overwinter crops out there. It's a lot of work for a small outcome.

I need to garden in a way that I can handle it alone....if that makes sense. Tom doesn't love gardening, but is helpful. I just don't want to expect him to till all the time and whatnot.

We are about to head out to Rick's memorial service. They're moving it into the chapel because the cemetery is too wet. They won't be able to bury him today, tho. Just too much rain.

Luckily his nephew will be able to go. They've had a lot of issues regarding health and cars. I'm excited to see where Rick grew up and where he gardened on Saturdays--his mom's garden.

Rick's brother and niece and her children are going too. And I think Professor Engel. I've never met him.

Rick's fear of all his areas of life merging are now happening. I wish he would have allowed it while he was still alive. I like his nephew and brother. And, from what I've been told, Prof. Engel is a very interesting.

Unfortunately, Allen isn't going. He said he was yesterday, but changed his mind this morning. Allen is the man who lived in Rick's house for many years--helped take care of his wife when she was sick. His own wife had the same health issue.

I wish he was going. The curious (nosy?) part of me would like to pick his brain a little...to fill in some gaps of understanding.

BUT, we'll need to take his mail to him again at some point and maybe I'll have that opportunity.

Probably won't garden today. We'll need to do some grocery shopping this evening.

I worked in the garden this morning, cleaning the onion row, working on the sweet pepper row. I had to stop at 8:20, and' Madge and went to the beauty shop. Madges goes every week, but I only go every 4 - 6 weeks. We got home about 10:00. I wanted to go to the garden again, but daughter and grand daughter are coming over t take us to lunch, but did not say what time. I am sitting here chomping at the bits, I have things to do, but I don't want to go out and get dirty. I get antsy waiting, as slow as I am, I need to work every day just to keep my head above water.

I did get a good crop of bunching onions, or, whatever those onions that I showed earlier. This is the first year that I will try to replace the bulbing onions with the others. I will get very few bulbing onions. I think that I will try to move my onion area to a new location, and rework this area.

And another post bites the dust. 2nd try:

I think a multiplier onion is what you have, but it doesn't look like what I grew from SESE. My bulbs were bigger, and there were 5 or 6 that grew around the center one.

https://www.southernexposure.com/perennial-onion-growing-guide/

Jennifer Austrian winter peas are a forage crop, the peas aren't edible! BUT thr tips are and can give you something to put in your salads. They taste like peas, really.

Kim, you made me think of my childhood when my dad would suddenly pull the car over next to a pickup truck with those big round green watermelons. The best tasting, prettiest melons. Gotta go.

I went to the parade at the frontier days in Marietta tonight. I saw Tim on the fire truck, but he did not see me so I messaged him. Maybe I’ll see him tomorrow. I left the house at 7 o’clock this morning and I won’t be home until midnight tomorrow, Saturday night. My brother and sister-in-law went with me to the parade and I had to stand right up front so I could see all of the fire trucks, but I should’ve brought earplugs because it was so loud. They had a nice Indian dance going through the parade. I need to do more hometown events like that. Tomorrow I go set up at 8 o’clock and I’ll be at my booth as long as I can last. They close down at 10 o’clock tomorrow night that might be too long for me. Sunday is busy as well and then hopefully if I wake up Monday, I can do some gardening.

Amy, I wrote a long post last night and lost it. Pretty sure I hit "submit" but it's gone. It's different from when I can see the posts but no one else can. It's gone completely.

BUT, I just saw that Jen posted yesterday and that one didn't show for me last night. I don't know.

But, it's probably good that my post last night didn't show. I was beyond tired and probably shared waaay too much.

I typically won't throw stuff away that still has use. I normally rehome it or donate it. At the very least sit it out for big trash so that it's easy for others to see and pick up. We always have a "give away" pile in our house.

Clutter bothers me in my home. It doesn't bother me in my friends' homes. I generally enjoy seeing their collections of things. However when it's in my home, it makes me feel unsettled and nervous, which is uncomfortable.

If I had extra time, I would probably enjoy throwing seeds into a garden and see what comes up. But, then dealing with it once it's "up" is another thing. And, my personal "wiring" doesn't let me just leave it....I've gotta try to give it it's best life and baby it around.

It probably makes no sense to anyone....but it's just how I am.

The time thing is a biggie for me. A lot of people who are my FB friends assume that I'm home all day because of the things I do. They're shocked when I tell them I work outside the home sometimes 6 days a week. I really do go until I'm way too tired. But, that's my own issue. No one is making me. It's not smart or good for anyone.

Anyway...all of that to say that I will rehome the peas....like I rehomed about 260 tomato plants that Rick had in the hoop house. And that was work getting them to everyone. (Jen, thanks again for getting those tomatoes to Jody for me).

And, I still have some of the Super Fantastics in the hoop house that look so bad, but keep thinking I'll come up with a plan for them.

Maybe I'm on "the spectrum". lol

BUT, it was really nice to see where Rick grew up. And to see his garden there--his Mom's garden. He had cabbage, greens, onions, and potatoes up. It was very overgrown and weedy, which is understandable. His family wanted me to point out which things are food...and when they can dig the potatoes. He also had some beautiful horseradish on one side of the garden. I had forgotten that he took several horseradish plants from me last year.

Tom and I purchased a chicken meal for the family and set it up for them at the old house.

The memorial was nice. I met a woman who graduated with Rick. She said in HS, he was nice-looking, extremely intelligent, and athletic...and a lot of girls were interested in him, but he was quiet and hard to talk to. Once they lifted the rule on long hair on boys, he grew his out and normally wore it in a ponytail, but wore it down for church and sorta tucked it behind his ears. He always wore a braid since I've known him.

There will probably be zero time for gardening today. I have to get ready for a baby shower and we have a thing tonight. And gotta try to squeeze in some grocery shopping in between.

We had a good day yesterday, we did not get a lot done, but we did go out and eat with daughter, grand daughter, and boy friend. Grand daughter got onion, garlic, and sweet potatoes to take back to Houston with her.

I got the rest of my peppers planted. I still have some tomatoes to plant, but they look very bad, and I just might us the space that the tomatoes would go in to plant peas and okra. I have volunteer peas up near knee high, but I have not planted any yet.

Today I want to put in another row of sweet potatoes, change the oil in the big zero turn, and maybe the tiller also. There will be a ton of other work that I can do also, but I doubt that I will feel like it. I try to never take more than one pain pill a day, to do that I have to cut back on my work, but my health wont let me do the things I would want to do anyway. Anyway I plan on going, off and on all day, not sure what I will get done, but I plan on enjoying it anyway.

Jennifer, you would enjoy my house, there is clutter everywhere. Madge said that she donated 20 pair of shoes, but I can't see that there are any missing. I also have extra shoes, I have had Madge buy me shoes whether I needed them or not, if they were on sale. Me feet are messed up and I can't wear just any shoe, but of the brand I can wear, I have 2 or 3 pair still in the box in my closet.

Jennifer, I enjoy long post, it a way I can sorta keep up with the rest of the gardening group, you guys would be surprised at how much of y'all are part of my life.

Well I hope the grass and garden have dried a little, I want to get out and get nasty.

We just had a storm blow through and got 0.56 inch of rain in no time at all, very heavy.

But the garden got dry enough for me to get a work done yesterday. Got the T-posts set and the cages locked in place, as the plants are big enough now to get blown over.

Pruned some lower limbs and did a lot of weeding, but its still got a lot of weeds. There's some parts I need to get the roto tiller in, but IDK when that will be. This is gonna be another stormy week, it appears now.

Lynn, your garden is so pretty, I don't think I have ever had a garden that neat. Your plants look healthy also. I expect that I have disease on all of my tomatoes, but I should wind up with more tomatoes than I can use. I try to give a lot of produce away also.

I did not get all the work that I had planned to do yesterday, but I did some things that I had not planned to do also. I though that I would have today to finish up my projects, but I woke up to rain, looks like I will grocery shopping instead. Madge is not feeling well, and I want her to stay home and rest.

I did get around and taking a better count of my plants yesterday. It looks like I still have 92 peppers, and something north of 45 tomatoes. The sweet potatoes have grown together, and it is hard to count for sure how many I have, I may have lost one or two, but it looks like I have 165 in the ground, have holes made for 40 more, and tilled up an area large enough to plant at least 12 more. I plowed furrows that I want to amend and plant about 60 feet of okra. I don't recall ever being this late getting a garden planted, and I also don't recall having to deal with a spring this wet. Old age seems to be slowing me down also, and I don't ever recall being this old

Larry, one reason for my garden looking as it does .............. its small. And I've been thinking about reducing the size even more.

Had more storms move through and now up to 1.13 inch. Will take some time for this to dry out.

Lynn, I have been planning on reducing my garden, but instead I have enlarged it this year. I have been trying to get my kids to catch the gardening bug, it seem to be working a little. I don't care if the grow food or not, but I would like for them to learn a little about it. I am sort of " I can do anything type of guy", not that is worth anything, I just like learning , and doing.

I'll start a new thread for the week.