Y’all I had the strangest dream. Somebody came out and was spraying the power poles for weeds. I had a long terrible conversation with this crew and finally woke up. This actually happened a couple years ago and drifted over and killed my niece’s garden. Why my memory conjured that mess up I don’t know. Our garden is looking really good and needs water almost every day in some of the pots. Black Eyed Peas are making noodle beans are making all the onions are completely gone out of the garden. Cuca melons are making. I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with those.

https://youtu.be/8qzsEzRPgO4?si=Lpmc2Vn9P4Gua5-C

That’s a scary dream, Kim!

Heading home now. Bye, Portland.

Bye, Oregon.

Jennifer, I see the picture now. I am looking forward to your return, and the pictures of your garden.

Glenda, your flowers are beautiful. I planted very few flowers this year.

The kids came over yesterday and brought lunch. The kids could see the work that I had been able to get done now that the rain has stopped. The garden has not been on top of the to do list, and it shows. I have been spending a lot of time doing repair work on my rides. I don't walk well, so I need my small tractor, and my RTV to serve as powered wheel chair. All three, Madge, Emmy, and Jerry, started in on me about buying a new tractor, Emmy and Madge has been doing that for years. Some of my loving family don't understand that there is a certain satisfaction about not having to ask for help, I will keep this junk running as long as I can.

I lost another classmate yesterday, we all turn 82 this year, and many are gone now. I know that I don't have a lot of time left, even if I had a dozen new tractors. I tell them that I enjoy life now more than ever. I tell them that If I drop dead working on one of those old junky tractors, I cant think of a better way to go.

Right now I think I will take my sweet thing out for breakfast, and take her car by the shop to have it checked, the check engine light is on, and I don't fool with Mama's ride, that is a job for the Pro's.

Breakfast harvest.
Tomatoes and eggplant will go to sale tomorrow night

Well we made it back to OKC a couple of hours ago.

First things I've noticed is all we are talking about is the Thunder around here (People were chanting on the airplane even before we left Vegas)

AND

the unpleasant weather.

People are losing their minds. I guess there's a Champion Parade and they're telling people to stay hydrated and be careful with sun protection. I won't be there.

(If you can avoid the Vegas airport for connecting flights, I highly suggest you do that...nothing to do with the Thunder, just that it's a yucky airport.)

It was twilight when I got home, but I could see that the Vego beds and pots and Greenstalk were all dry as a bone. Not sure what the young lady watered while we were gone, but I watered them in the darkish. But couldn't see the kitchen garden and other gardens. I will check them in the morning. All the animals look healthy and well. They are being very needy right now.

Thankfully I am home tomorrow. Except my friend (who is probably my best friend even tho we rarely talk--we are both introverts and we have that type of friendship where we don't need to talk for months, but pick up where we left off and can talk for hours. Here, I seem like an extrovert, I'm sure. But, I'm really quite happy being alone most of the time.) messaged that she will be in OKC tomorrow and we're meeting at Panera in the morning. I'm looking forward to it. But, also need to do laundry and look at the garden.

I'm guessing that I might have some green beans to pick! Can't wait to check it all out.

Even tho is was dark when I watered the Vego beds, I could see a squash bug.

I'm sitting here with torn feelings. I am happy to be home and see my garden and pets.

I miss being with my kids and baby boy on the Oregon coast. It was so nice. And the baby did so well. And my boy is really a man now, which is great, but I miss him a lot. I will never get over that.

And the weather is so harsh here. It's not there. But, I'm used to it and will deal. But, Rick isn't here now either for me to grump about the weather with...and do the dirty job of digging potatoes with.

Anyway...I'm grateful for a wonderful time with my family.

I'll report tomorrow with how the SG and KG look.

So glad y’all are home safe and sound. I love a changing garden. When I do a Friday night, Market a Saturday, Market, and Sunday church I feel like I haven’t been in my garden for a week with how much it has changed. I look forward to hearing how yours has changed while you were gone.

Kim, I could see how much the winter squash has grown even though it was dark while I watered them.

I'll for sure be able to tell more tomorrow.

I did see a lot of lightning bugs in the kitchen garden, tho. From a distance.

I have not done much the past 2 days in the garden. Madge is planning on going to a church homecoming this weekend, and I have been trying to make sure the car will be ready for the trip. I think Madge's kids will be taking her to south Arkansas for the homecoming, but I expect they will be using our car.

The hay is being baled on the place, and I have been trying to areas around the yard and pasture. I hope to be checking on the gardens tomorrow, they really need worked on.

Glenda, I like small, raw okra too!

Kim, that harvest bowl looks so pretty.

Lynn, how's your tomatoes coming along?

Larry, stay out of trouble while Madge is at her church homecoming!

I cruised the gardens this morning. Things are good and not so good. Typical. The biggest issue is weeds/grass in the garden beds. It's truly out of control.

I was able to bring in a few ripe tomatoes, a pint or so of blackberries (they're sweeter now maybe because it's not been so wet?), and the first red lunchbox pepper.

Probably not today, but the potatoes, onions, and garlic need to be pulled/dug ASAP. Maybe tomorrow after work. I'll hydrate all day.

Then....a decision will need to be made regarding the SG.

We'll be eating fresh green beans for dinner sometime this week. I need to check the freezers/pantry to see what I can fix for dinner. Pilates is tonight and I don't want to skip because I missed last week. Maybe we'll just go get a sandwich for dinner, although after looking at the bank account, we probably shouldn't. LOL Traveling isn't cheap.

ANYWAY....fresh green beans! Super excited about that.

Many of the tomato plants are very diseased. Some are okay. And those crazy Super Fantastics are looking wonderful. Y'all, they really were just nearly thrown away because of how they looked. BUT....I knew they would get healthy if given a chance. Other healthy tomatoes are what I think are 2 Romas that were Rick's. They are in the Vego, so I'm pretty sure they are Roma, being determinant. Doubtful I would have put indeterminant in those beds.

And, also, there's 2 tomatoes in the back garden that I think are Early Girl (Also Rick's). Not sure why I didn't label things. Those tomatoes look good too. And the okra as well. Nothing to harvest from those just yet.

I will be spending many hours this week weeding.

The holy basil is flowering, so that will probably be a first task. All but 2 of the 1000's will be pulled.

It's a lovely mess out there.

Jen, looks like you had a nice trip.

I saw the warning on News 9 X account, telling people how to dress, and stay hydrated, and wear sunscreen for the Thunder parade .......... and I thought, my goodness, do they think people are so stupid they have to be told how to handle an Oklahoma summer ?

Where would we be without those folks looking out for us morons.

I'm bringing in about a 2 gallon bucket of tomato daily. They're really nice this year, most are baseball sized, some softball. Thats' why I like this variety. But all these early tomatos are large. The size will start to diminish.

I'm still seeing blooms, in spite of the above average temps. Don't know if fruit set has stopped yet.

Couple more days and I'll have that 8 foot table covered. Bout time to start making salsa. Mrs Dollar's quilting bunch will be happy this year, after not having any extra tomato last year.

Pepper plants are also doing well.

That’s amazing Lynn

I have got to get out to the south garden and start cleaning it up. The peppers in the north garden are pretty well cleaned, and tied up. The peppers in the south garden still need a lot of work. The tomatoes I am not sure I can even find dome of them. We are getting plenty to eat, but the weeds have the plants covered. I have a lot of disease in the south garden.

I have the large mower ready to use as my get around buggy, I also have the small tractor that I can get around on, but I need to change the oil in it, the small self propelled, and the tiller. I feel that I am too unstable on my feet to be without something to ride. When I am sure that I have plenty of backup rides, I will tear into the RTV and get it repaired, and the oil changer in it. I am just not able to do much at a time, but I keep hacking away at the projects, trying to stay hydrated and out of the heat. My doctors have ask me to not drink of 2 liters of water a day, but I cant get by on that small of an amount, but I do try to be careful with my heart and kidneys.

I fell in the south garden a few days ago and broke 3 of the 5 hibiscus bushes that I planted this year, but they should come back.

Larry be careful out there. You do not want to give Madge a scare. It’s hard to adjust as we have issues. After my surgery I couldn’t even carry two gallons of water at the same time. Now I can do more but I try to pace myself. I picked for 45 minutes this am and was drenched. I really need to get up at 5 and get outside

Kim, I do try to look after my self. I am embarrassed at how little I can do, but I can still do more than some people my age.

I went out to the south garden to finish weeding the row of peppers I was work on when I fell. I was surprised at how dry the row was. I have lost a few pepper plants because the lack of water. I will go out in a while and water the plants. The bare ground was very dry, but we have been over 90 degrees every day for a while, its 97 now, that is the highest I can remember for this year. But with the high temps, and the strong breezes, everything drys out fast.

Larry, I have to water my pots every day. I water for about a minute each pot and then I go back and do it again and I do it three or four times until the entire pot is saturated. It takes a lot of work, but I usually am picking Cuca melons while I do that. I have found that the soil gets so hydrophobic that it just runs out the sides of the pot. I have some drip line set up but my hose and broke so I cannot hook it up and the last three times I went to Walmart. They did not have hose mender kits

Kim, on my 5/8 garden hose I just use 1/2 cpvc pipe to repair it. You can buy the cpvc (old style hot water pipe) at the hardware store if lumber yard. The plastic pipe will slide inside of the 5/8 water hose, and rather than buying clamps I use electric fence wire to wrap around the water hose and twist it just like you would twist and wire. If I am going to use it under high pressure I also use glue on the joint. One my irrigation lines I just wrap the wire two times and twist the wire, then bend it over and cover it with electrical tape so I don't scratch my hands when using the lines.

I seldom throw a hose away. I save the ends and reuse them many times. The center pieces I use for the lead or feed lines for my irrigation tubes. I use a 1/16 hole for the dispensing hole at the plant. some of my tubes the holes are on about 6 inch centers.

This is a long post to just tell you that you can repair a 5/8 dia. garden hose very cheaply.

Another thing you can do if you are using 1/2" sch. 40 pvc for an irrigation tube, is to use a small tool to expand the 1/2" pvc, then insert the 1/2 cpvc pipe into it and then glue them back together. I use a small socket in a drill motor to expand the 1/2" sch 40. I try to keep fitting in stock to do the repairs, but it is hard to keep everything in stock. I always have 1/2" cpvc and electric fence wire so I can make repairs for next to nothing, and not have to go to town for supplies.

Sorry for the long boring post, but you have always heard that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and this is just one way you can repair water hose or an irrigation tube.

Its raining, wind blowing and the sun is shinning, I must have been hitting the sauce.

Harvested a few carrots. Got them trimmed up and stored in refrigerator. A solid gallon bag.

Jennifer, that is great. I pulled the rest of my carrots about a month ago, they were rotting along with the onions.

I am looking for a coat, the temp dropped from 98 to 86 in just a few minutes.

Lynn, those tomatoes are beautiful! Good job!

Reminds me of mine the past couple of years. Not this year, tho. My FB memory today from a year ago, is my talking about the buckets of tomatoes we gave away last year because I didn't want to can them. They were pretty like that.

What did you pick today, Kim?

Not boring at all, Larry. Tom bought a couple of soaker hoses for me. Rick actually bought some too. One of his last messages to me was "the soaker hoses came in". I looked for them at his house and didn't see them. I don't want to dig around too much in his house without the family there. We need to go pick up his mail this evening. I'm hoping the electricity is still on. Hopefully it just comes out of his bank account. I don't know what the family is going to do about any of that. We do need to get his roommate's power scooter out. It's practically brand new. Anyway...talk about boring posts. LOL

None of y’all are boring to me. I love reading all the posts. Cucamelons Jennifer lots and lots

Jennifer, my water makes it hard for me to use soaker hoses, just too much mineral in the water I guess, they clog. I have been using the type I have now for a long time, but because the rural water association passing a rule that all outside watering had to be by a hand held devise I have not been able to use my system the past few years. We have another lake on line now, and the rule may have changed. I have made more tubes, thinking that I may be able to use them again. The biggest killer of my system is tractor, and the uv rays from the sun. I have to keep the hoses covered with mulch. The only protection from the tractor is to keep a nut out of the drivers seat.

I need to be out working now, but I just don't feel like it.

Lynn, do you like bacon? I am to leave bacon alone, I don't do a good job at it.

I love bacon, it makes everything better, like bacon wrapped pork tenderloin medallions

Lynn, it does look delicious, but the time has come to where Madge and I have a tough time eating something like that, we just don't chew and swallow very well. We do pretty well on oatmeal, mashed potatoes, and some cakes. So, eat up, your day may be coming.

I did get out and work on the pasture garden, which was really a waste of time. I am not able to care for all the areas that I worked up. All the rain put me so far behind that I will never get caught up.

The Johnson grass was over 3' tall in some places, but I found 5 or 6 peppers, and a tomato plant along the right side that I think I can save. I have already lost one fruit tree, and the watermelon and cantaloupe dont look great, and I doubt that they produce. I may bust the ground up again, and maybe plant some peas. I have not been able to plant peas or okra yet, and it may be too late for okra. This area has only been planted in 1 time before, and has not been amended, to I don't expect much from it

For all the forecast and hype that we were headed to mid 90* temps, we've not gotten there. Our highest temp in June has been 92* . And there's no 95* temps in the current forecast.

Too many times, the forecast predict these higher than normal temps, that don't matierialize. The govt weather predictors are the worst offenders.

June History

Lynn, my phone app shows 88 to 90 as highs for the next 9 days. It could be wrong. Often is.

It just hit me this morning. I'm tired. Not from vacay. But, the day of travel and coming back hitting the ground running.

It's very difficult keeping my eyes open here at work. I'm finding things do away from my chair so I don't doze off.

At least I'm not at the front desk today.

Larry, your garden looks about like the SG only the SG is not mowed yet. Pretty sure the corn isn't going to do anything. The tomatoes are hanging in there and there's 2 volunteer cantaloupes.

After I dig the potatoes tonight (that's going to push me over the edge of tired), it will be empty except for those things. Other than some volunteer peas.

Hoping for a potato harvest and that they're not all rotted. We'll know soon enough.

There's a couple of really nice flattish, divided cardboard boxes at work. They should be great for storing potatoes or onions.

Bad sweet potatoes from last year are still in my utility room. I can dump those and use that box too.

If there's time, I'll pull the garlic and onions too. This is certainly not my best crop of either of those.

I am looking forward to getting out there even if it will be a little toasty. Tom is smoking pork chops so I don't need to cook dinner except maybe some carrots and potatoes.

I am sitting on 95 now, was up to 98 yesterday. I have been able to work outside a little today, but only because of some clouds and a breeze.

I have been stirring the pasture garden, that is the one in the picture above. I am wanting it to dry a little, then till it. I have been pulling weeds around the sweet potatoes in the north garden, its too dry. I have not been to the south garden today, but I expect it to be too dry. I plan to water the north, and south garden today.

Potatoes are dug. That was hard, hard work. Digging potatoes is always hard work, but with the grass and weeds grown up plus the potato foliage completely dead....I could not really see where the plants were. Anyway...3 rows about 45' each. Done. Tom came out and helped towards the end....and his friend was over and he helped too. I'm so grateful because I wouldn't have been able to get finished last night.

We got a 5 gallon bucket of Red Pontiac and maybe a half bucket of Yukon Gold. There's probably more out there that I missed, but it was such a chore that I'm fine with what we got. There's not as many larger ones this year either. Honestly, I'm just so grateful to get what we did. With the overabundance of rain all at once last month, I just didn't know if they would be rotted.

Also, it's dry already so had to water things at dark, but didn't get to everything because I couldn't see after 9 or so.

But....dinner tasted so good. My stomach was growling the entire time I was digging potatoes. Normally I don't like pork chops, but buy a certain one that is "certified humane" raised and yada yada yada....and the chops are really good. Even Tom (who eats anything and everything) notices a difference. They are expensive tho, and if we were a large family, we wouldn't be able to afford them. I also roasted carrots (some of the ones I pulled two nights ago) and the golden beets (that I pulled last month). Don't really like eating at 930 pm, but sometimes summer is like that.

It's the season of fresh eating, with many choices now. I was able to pick the beans last night too, so we'll have fresh beans tonight with our salmon and potatoes.

I'm hungry right now and ate a egg and Ezekiel bread this morning. Maybe my life has been a little more active the past several days, so I'm burning through the calories. We did a LOT of hiking in Oregon. The sand dune at Cape Kiwanda doesn't look very steep, but wow. There's a ridge nearly to the top. Ethan and Mack beat me to the top and sat on it while the waited for me. I was about 10 feet from them and wasn't sure I would make it. But, pushed through. Also, the sand was really hot up there. Anyways, then from that ridge there was maybe a dozen more feet to get to the top. Killer. The views were SO worth it. And it was so funny that so many plants grew up there.

Surprisingly I wasn't sore the next day. Maybe the stair climbing that I've been doing after work prepared me a little. I keep thinking I'll lose some weight, but nope. I'm stuck at 123 (I'm short) for the past few months. I was 8 lbs lighter last year at this time. I don't really know what else I can do about losing weight other than starve, but I refuse to do that. I'm more concerned about getting the nutrients now.

I have such bad feet issues, but my feet did not hurt at the coast--the sand and forest floor must be really good for feet.

Once back in Portland on concrete, they started hurting again a little.

Tonight, in the garden, I'll water and pick more beans and pull the onions and garlic. See what we get. Maybe take some time to remove squash bug eggs from the Butterbaby and Honeynut.

I'm a little dismayed about the condidtion of my kitchen garden, so didn't really even look at it last night other than to water a few pots of herbs. It's so weedy. I feel like I won't be able to ever get it back in shape. Same with the back garden where the green beans and okra are growing.

But...it's time to stop avoiding it and deal.

Even with the weeds and mess and failures, the garden is such an abundant place--full of life and goodness. I felt that last night right alongside the dismay and overwhelm.

The office is getting active, so better close this out now.

Don't have to have a large family to not afford all natural raised pork. I go to Creekstone Farms and buy Duroc pork when we feel like splurging. I can buy four racks of St Louis cut spare ribs for $100 + $15 shipping. That's about $29 per rack.

I can go to Sams and buy commodity pork for $10 to $15 a rack.

As much meat as I smoke, and that's just for Mrs Dollar and I, we can't splurge on Duroc, even if it has a better flavor. I'd love to smoke heritage pork like Duroc or Berkshire, every day, but its just not in the cards.

We don't always buy prime beef either, we go choice most of the time.

I do smoke prime brisket, cause if I'm gonna spend all day tending to the smoker, then I want to start with the best cut of meat I can buy.

I've got some educated birds this year. I missed picking tomatoes yesterday and the mockingbirds found them. And they're getting to them earlier than I ever recall. I'm usually not concerned until the tomato gets red, but this year, they're getting to them just as they turn orange.

And they got a couple of really nice Cherokee Purple.

There's several more I left in the garden. The birds have given me my marching orders, I gotta pick every day, be thorough, and get them just before they start to blush. Or the birds will get more than I get.

Jennifer, it sounds like you had a good time.

I am still trying to clean my gardens also. I almost have the north garden cleaned up. I will start on the south garden today. I don't remember ever having a weed problem like I have had this year. My garden is dry and cracking also. I bought supplies at TSC, and will be rigging garden hoses up to all 3 gardens. I move some old hay out to where I could get to it a few days ago, and will be putting some mulch down some mulch after I remove some of the weeds.

Filled the dehydrator with basil. Cinnamon for tea, lemon for tea and the rest for herb blends. Fixed a bowl of fresh black eyed peas for dinner. I bought them at the market Tuesday and they were delicious.

Peas sound so good, Kim!

Larry, I did have a really good time. I miss it.

Lynn, I understand that not everyone can buy "certified humane". Our two chops cost what double or triple the amount of regular chops cost. We've not always been able to afford luxuries like that....and we might not be able to again someday. We probably don't cook or buy the amount of meat that you do. Normally, it's 2 pieces of salmon, 2 chicken breasts or sometimes a pack of thighs, 2 pork chops or if Tom wants steak, he'll buy that instead and I'll eat vegetarian that night. Sometimes we'll make something with ground beef, ground pork, ground lamb and other pieces of lamb. That is our normal weekly dinner meals. We have some buffalo that a friend gave to us. Our lamb comes from the same friend. He normally doesn't charge us, but we pay for the processing and they've found a guy who does it cheap. We've grown pigs at his place as well. Our last batch of ground beef came from Regina (part of the SF group). I think it was $7 a lb. Her husband is a full-time homesteader.

BUT, I don't spend money on eggs or many veggies. Even fruit. Usually apples. Oranges in their season. And berries when my stores are gone. And others for special occasions. I have canned brown beans, black beans, diced tomatoes-stuff like that from the garden that I don't need to purchase.

It helps with being able to afford meat that we like and that I feel good about. I only eat meat maybe 3 to 5 times a week...well, maybe more if including the tuna that I'll eat 2 or 3 times a week at lunch. It's skipjack from Wild Planet. IF I could not afford the meat that I feel comfortable with, I would go back to vegetarian. It's just a personal thing. Tom doesn't care so much. He does buy lunch meat, and a spicy sausage from Walmart for his breakfast. And other things.

I'm not judgy about it....but buying that type of meat helps keep me non-vegetarian.

People have to do what they feel good about....and what they can afford.

We will need to tighten up our budget soon for a couple of reasons.

We got rain. Which is good because I didn't need to water. I got the onions pulled that I wanted to pull. The long day variety can go a bit longer. Most of the garlic was pulled too, but it started pouring so I had to get into the shop. I sorted through the potatoes in the shop....the amount is a bit disappointing. Some were rotted and most were small. We'll eat them, tho. We'll probably get 4 months of meals with them.

The cucumbers are not producing yet, but I was able to glance at them and they look decent. However, my neighbor's are producing so she let me harvest some of hers as she's made all the pickles she wants to make this year. I'm not making pickles this year (maybe some fermented ones later), but wanted some to eat fresh. I traded a dozen eggs for them.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to work outside more, but the rain is worth it.

And I was able to do some things indoors that I've put off since coming home.

I might watch some TV now or YouTube.

I feel like I had a fair day. My neighbor came down for a visit, and told me hoe much he and his family are enjoying the plants that I had given them. I gave his all of my left over plants, and he made a garden for his wife and their family, and a garden for his mother. My neighbor also harvested some tomatoes and peppers while here, and said that he would be back tomorrow to help clean the south garden, but I think I will try to get him to take my truck, trailer, and large mower to his housr and mow his lawn. He tells me his lawn has not been mowed in 3 weeks because his mower is broken. If I were able to hook up the trailer and load the mower, I would go do it for him, but he is 30+ years younger than I am, and I think he can do the job easier than I can.

It sorts feeds a fellow's ego when the younger folks come and ask an old man for advice, or help.

I have always appreciated my gardening mentors. We really need mentors and we need to train the next generation of gardeners. Used to we could rely on books as well but with AI we cannot. There is so much false information out there in these computer generated books that unless you know the author, you can’t really trust it

I had to come in and rest a while. Matt was down here working in the garden before I got up. I went out and worked a while with him, but I cant match the work he does, probably never could. The work that he has done will help me greatly. It is really nice to have some one that will just jump in and help you when you are behind. I tole Matt to pick anything that he wants in the garden, because the garden needs watering very badly, and when I do that the tomatoes will be splitting everywhere.

My daughter gave me a drip line kit that covers 150 ft.² which is about what my garden is inside the fence. I’d have drip line set on outside the fence so hopefully I can get this set up and then get a hose adapter that can handle Several drip lines at once. Then I could possibly turn on the water and let it do its thing.

Kim, that's a really nice gift! Did you have rain today?

It sorta missed us mostly.

After caring for my grandboy in Edmond, we did our grocery shopping and went out for pizza.

Stupid aphids! They're on the Butterbaby squash. They've just arrived, tho. I used a lint roller and shook them off and drenched the soil with neem.

It's funny because those squash didn't have squash bugs or any eggs.

However, the Vego bed next to that one, DID. It has Honeybutter squash. I made

cr app y trellises and sorta wound the vines up it. Also pulled a large bunch of the tulsi before it drops seed. It's out of control.

My gardens are out of control. They may never be back in shape at this point.

Jennifer it’s okay. There’s always next year

You're right, Kim. I do have bermuda grass sneaking into a few areas that will need to be dealt with quickly, tho.

Right now, it's a super messy version of my "dream". I can see that it's pretty even with stuff out of control. The veggies and fruit all mixed together with the herbs and flowers make for a really pretty garden. Other than the weeds. I might do a "keeping it real" type of video for Garden Monday.

The native garden needs its edges cleaned up--bermuda also sneaking in.

Charlotte's Garden at the back needs cleaned up.

My flower beds around the house need cleaned up.

For SURE, we will just tarp the SG as soon as the tomatoes are done. I'll tarp the places that are empty next week. I'm going to make it quite a bit smaller. We decided (Tom, Rick and I) to make it about 45' x 45' (I think) and I'm going to change it to about 30' x 30'.

Just leaving it tarped for awhile will give me a chance to process my thoughts and emotions....so I can make a good decision on what to do with it.

I'm torn because I really feel like we need to downsize the garden(s), but I don't really want to do that. However, I simply don't have time to care for so much.

IF I could build those long, tall raised beds for production things with soaker hoses, I could manage that in the SG....but those types of beds are not cheap to build.

Anyway....we're having a "work (clean-up) day" at work this morning. I got here super early to set up my classrooms and correct a schedule that I sent out....and a few other things. I really need to be at my house working on tasks this morning, but oh well. We'll get some things done this afternoon at home. Like cleaning out our freezers. There's frozen food that's old that will be tossed to the chickens.

At some point I need to sort through Rick's items. A lot of it can be trashed--he saved everything. Torn and ripped frost clothes--giant wads of them---stuff like that.

That will be another day.

Happy weekend, Friends.

I had a pretty nice morning, I spent about 3 hrs weeding and watering. everything looks a lot better than it did a week ago, but I have never had a garden that didn't need something done to it. I did notice that I had some sweet potatoes already starting to form, that seem a little early to me, but I am not complaining. One thing that I will complain about is that I have already found a gopher run under a row of sweet potatoes.

I filled up the 8 foot table with tomato today. I'm picking twice a day now to beat the birds.

Its a good year, but not great. Its far behind 2023, which was the best year I've ever had.

Here's the temps for June 2023 .... it was cool temps, as Junes go. Five days with highs at 90 and above, nothing hotter than 93* . And night time lows got over 70 five times.

Weather Underground

Those look great, Lynn.

Kim, I sure wish you lived oser to me. I would love to share these

elderberries with you.

This picture isnt great because the sun was in my eyes. This is just a small part of one bush.

I picked about a pint after the berries were all pulled from their stems. There will be many more. Last year I got gallons.

Lynn,the tomatoes look very nice. I have to pick my tomatoes early also, for 2 reasons, one, to beat the critters to them, and, two, I don't like tomatoes nearly as ripe as Madge does. I had picked some Black Krim, and sliced it yesterday, it was wonderful, but Madge would call it too green. I expect that the Cherokee Purple,and Black Cherry may be the same. We will just have to be a Two Tomato family from now own.

Jennifer, I don't understand how you can keep the birds from eating all of your berries. When I lived in town I had a wonderful berry patch, out here in the country, I can almost never get to a berry before a bird does. I do hope that the birds can get after what looks like skinny grasshoppers, I have swarms of them.

My sweet potatoes are doing so well I am thinking about planting another row of them.

I may even plant a row or two of okra and peas, its getting a little late, but I may be able to swing it.

Madge just called and said that they would be home soon, I had to clean up an little for fear that she would leave again, but she and I both had a good time.

The variety I've grown for at least the last 10 years is Big Beef tomato. I don't venture far from that.

But this year I planted some Big Beef Plus. They're billed as being disease resistant. I planted three of that variety and the blight is taking them, no diff than my Big Beef. And so far, they're producing fewer numbers.

I had two plants inexplicably die early on. I went to Marcums and bought two replacement plants. One was Beefmaster, which has produced a couple of tomatoes. And the other was Beefsteak, which is now 6 feet tall, has few blooms, and has not set one fruit.

All the more reason, for me to raise my plants from seed. And as to Big Beef, I want that seed to come from Johnny's Select.

I have a couple of Cherokee Purple that are producing well. After years of trying different heirloom tomatoes, like Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine, etc, I had come to the conclusion they weren't worth it. I could get a few tomatoes from them, if any at all, and they weren't any better flavorwise than the hybrids I was growing.

Mrs Dollar and I did side-by-side flavor testing of the heirlooms and found no diff. Chefs prefer heirlooms, but my pallet is not that developed to make it worth just growing heirlooms. Chefs can have all the heirlooms they want, I know what I'm gonna grow.

I am concerned, about the Cherokee Purple. The seed I've been growing comes from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Im really happy with the plants it produces. But last fall I placed a large order with Johnny's and included some Cherokee Purple. Kinda hard to change from SESE, when I know their seed really produces great tomatoes.

But IDK, what I will do. I'm a believer that seed varies.

I would love to help you Jennifer. Sounds like a great evening party along with cleaning garlic.

I love the taste of Brandywine tomatoes, but they seem harder for me to grow. I have a wet soil problem here, and for a few years we have had a water restriction problem. Tomatoes are not a very forgiving plant when it comes to dealing with those problems.

Madge and I have gotten old and preserving food has become harder, that is one reason I lean toward sweet potatoes, plus they are a very forgiving plant. The down side of growing sweet potatoes is the fact that the ones I like to grow take a lot of space, but I have more space than I can take care of.

I like growing cowpeas, and Irish potatoes, but wet heavy soil does not work well with Irish potatoes, and, an old crippled body does not do well picking and shelling peas. Growing sweet potatoes I don't have to fool with caging, staking, or tying, if I become unable to care for them, I can mow them down, and wait for winter to decay everything.

Jennifer I planted a plant from the fling I thought was elderberry. It’s a vitex ? I think. It is getting evicted from my pot and replaced with elderberry. I can plant the vitex in ground. Lynn I agree with you about seeds being different. I grow porter and save seeds every year. Different years will produce different results. Some plants are more vigorous some plants are 3x more productive. Larry I like your thinker. Sweet potatoes and winter squash are hands off crops that can feed you all winter and spring. My spaghetti squash is doing amazing. I’m just waiting on the stems to dry up. Then I can harvest. I have about seven.

Hmmmm....I do remember someone offering vitex. And someone offering elderberry, but can't remember who.

I sure hope my winter squash makes it. I sure do struggle with squash pests. (Aphids like my property too.) I grow the C Moschata and it still is taken down by SVB often. I've got my two varieties of winters squashes in the Vego beds right outside my backdoor. Trying to keep a close eye on them.

Hey....has anyone used damaged potatoes from a spring crop to replant for a fall crop? I'll make a new thread.