New opportunities!!! I am planting bush beans, cucumbers, all the herbs long noodle beans. I need to be going over my list of what to plant next for the fall. They recommend starting Brassica’s indoors right now, which is not really an option for me, but I could make it an option I guess. I don’t have a fan anymore so growing a bunch of a weak seedlings does not sound appealing. I really do want broccoli and cabbage this year. There might be more things I want, but I can’t think of them right now. Y’all have a great week and if you are having a cool down, get out there and enjoy it cause it won’t last long. I’ve never seen temperatures this cool in August. I did a market last night and it was hot, but we had cloud cover and then about 8 o’clock. The wind was just blowing nice temperature dropped down in the 80s couldn’t ask for a better market.

Kim, I don't use a fan, I expect that they do help, but they also take up space that I dont have, and my ceiling fan is broken. Ceiling fans are much harder for me to replace than they use to be.

I would like to grow my daughter some beets, but I have just not been able to do will with beets since moving here. I use to have a well to use, and could water as needed, that seem to make a big difference in starting fall crops.

Jennifer, thanks for starting the new thread.

Kim, do you have a place you can start the brassicas outside that is shady? or Dappled shade? Seems like I've started brassicas in the hoop house. It does get hot in there, but the shade cloth helps.

Larry, do you have a raised bed or extra mineral tubs for beets? Mine did exceptionally well in a raised bed last season.

Feeling a little sad about not starting fall green beans OR brassicas. But, I just harvested the cabbage from spring and was able to get 3 quarts of sauerkraut, which isn't really enough, but I'll make it work...and will only use it to made Reuben sandwiches.

Maybe I can find a place to tuck in some green bean seeds. I'm really needing to do a reset and rethink of everything including the garden. The past 6 seasons we had the Survivalist Garden for certain things, but it has gone back to meadow now. I will throw in wildflower seeds that Nancy sent and some spent flowers from the Native Garden in October before a good rain.

A list was made of everything that I want to grow next year. I walked the garden to figure out where to put it all. Cutting back on the number of tomatoes will free up space. Don't want to cut back on peppers, tho. And, next year, only one of the Vego beds needs to have winter squash. Speaking of....I saw a SVB moth on one of the flowers of all things. Picked squash bugs and 100's of eggs too.The plants are looking tired, but hopefully can hang in there until the squashes are ready to harvest. Having them in these tall raised beds with a trellis sure helps with finding the eggs and bugs.

Lettuce seed will be started soon. And kale. Spinach and collards too possibly. My pansies are finally beginning to pop up.

Pretty sure we got some rain here. The soil in the garden seems wet, although the grass isn't. It rained hard at work this morning. I work on SW 89th street and it really poured for awhile. Not sure we got as much at home but the soil is wet enough that I'm not going to water tonight.

Frozen apples, peaches, and pears from last year are thawing now. I'm going to make fruit sauces for the baby with them...and bananas. He likes those pouch things with yogurts and fruit sauces, so I purchased reusable pouches and want to make homemade sauces and such. Eventually we'll have sweet potatoes and butternut squash to add to the blends. Those pouches are expensive so it can be a way to help my daughter and her family. And mine will be healthier too.

It feels good to use our garden foods, isn't it. The pears and peaches aren't from our property, but from friends. I sure wish I would have put in fruit trees 10 years ago. Other than my apple trees.

Have a good week, Friends.

Jennifer thanks for starting a new thread. We got 1” rain Thursday night. Didn’t even hear it raining. We hauled in our hay - 103 round bales, an all day job for us and we were whipped- finished at 8:30 at night, came in, showered, and collapsed. Long day for old people. Such a nice surprise to get up Friday morning to a cool wet day. I’ve hauled 3 tractor buckets of trimmings from the garden - tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peas, and some zinnias that were crowding the okra. The heat, grasshoppers, worms, and spider mites were winning the battle. I severely pruned the remaining plants and fed them - hoping for more rain tonight.Planted back a few Contender beans, have new squash and zuchinni blooming. The okra and new PEPH peas are still doing fair. A friend brought us a small jar of tomatillo jam and I am hooked! I’ve never raised them ir even tasted them but definitely plan to next year. Any tips or comments?

I got out this weekend and reclaimed most of the big garden bed. When grass is eye level, you know it's out of control, right? Also pulled out gobs of basil that was going to seed. Most was licorice basil, which i'm not a fan of but the stuff seems to be a weed in my garden. My former roommate bought a bunch of "rare orchid" seeds off Wish or Temu a few years ago. I told her these looked like basil but she insisted. Darn things spit seeds all over and now I have to contend with them. But now I have huge empty spots and need to plant something. Threw out some dill, fennel, basil, beet and radish seed; maybe a few will sprout? I also harvested a bunch of peppers so I made my first jar of cowboy candy. As fast as I eat the stuff, it should be gone by Friday. I really should have started more peppers. Dawn's pepper is doing the best, so I've left one fruit for seed. Hoping they're viable; I'm not good at harvesting viable pepper seed yet.

I am going to attempt to post from my computer . Larry I believe growing beets in controlled fertile soil is the key. Every beet success I've had was fluffy amended soil. Mineral tubs are ideal for me. I put compostable items in the bottom and fluffy soil on top. They also really like boron. It is suggested to use ½ ounce of Borax per 100 square feet. More is not better. I went to my nieces to get seeds because I wanted to plant beans and beets. She had beans but no beets. I came home and dug deeper and found my beet seeds.

Jennifer I do have a great shady spot where my bunnies were. I will have to see if i have any domes. The grasshoppers would love if I planted them a buffet. I tucked in bean seed in the greenstalk after listening to Becky brag about nice it was. I love resets. I like to look at things with fresh eyes and sometimes ask an outsider's opinion. Different perspectives help me a lot. I have notes jotted down about what I want to plant for fall but I nowhere near ready to make next year's list : )

I do have onions and carrots on my list for January. I used to love to make sauce and juice for Ryder. I still make applesauce and jam for my grands but they don't eat out of my garden like I do. I agree about fruit trees. In fact I have been thinking planting a few I have always looked at this as temporary. But 6 years I sure could have been eating fruit off my own trees.

I have two mineral tubs growing something that looks a whole lot like citrus trees since I put lots of scraps in the tub and I use lots of lemons and limes it could be. I'll let them get a bit bigger and take pictures.

So this morning I planted parsley, dill, cilantro, dragonbeans, painted pony beans, squash. We had a huge rain last night. Water is standing in my driveway so that's a good sign.

About tomatillos, they are easy to grow, and they need two plants to be successful. I gave never grown them, but my farmer friend does. She has so many its crazy

Glenda, I've grown tomatillos several times and have a hard time with them. They grow well and produce fruit, but it seems like I can't get the fruit right. Hard to explain. Part of it may be that they are often ignored because tomatoes take up so much time...and the tomatillos get neglected. We love tomatillo salsa and I do want to figure them out at some point.

Kim, I bought several waste baskets at Dollar Tree. They're great for covering things up. And, I believe the grasshoppers can't get through the wires. Maybe the super small ones could, tho.

Apparently we had a good rain last night but I slept through it. I sleep so hard on summer nights from being flat worn out. I'm sad that I missed, but happy that we got it. Bonus is I won't need to water tonight.

We are going to Rick's Noman house to get his roomies motorized scooter thing out of the house. It's never been used and the roomie will be leaving the vetern's foster home soon as he's much better. I hope he can find a place to live. He wants his car too. It's parked next to Rick's trucks, but Rick was driving it at the end. It was Rick's wife's car that he gave to Allen but I don't know the title situation. I have permission to get the bird baths too. I just hope there was a will filed in O county, which the family is checking on this Friday.

If we can get all of that done and dinner made, I will plant some Armenian cucumbers tonight and look for a place to tuck in green bean seed. Need to figure out beets and carrots too.

Which Becky, Kim? Is it Acre Homestead in Washington. I like her channel although some of her videos are a bit long. I often recognize things she talks about like Fred Meyer and the Columbia River bridge. They must live near Vancouver which is right across the bridge from Portland.

Hope everyone got a good rain this past weekend.

Yes acre homestead. She is long winded. I mostly like her garden videos but every once in a while I get caught up in a meal planning video. I like the ones that her and her mom do. Her mom is a sweetheart.

Kim, I do have 10 mineral tubs. I have not done well try to grow things in containers, but It is worth a shot. How many beet plants should be in a mineral tub.

I have been kicking around the idea of tearing my trellises down, and turning the gardens back into a lawn. My health keeps declining, and I had rather not leave a mess for someone else to have to clean up, there will be enough of a mess with all the junk that I have.

I really don't feel like doing a lot of gardening, but I need a way to stay busy at something.

Larry, I would think 30 beats per mineral tub.
I like mineral tubs because I can get a chair and sit next to it and weed if I need to pull grass out of the mineral tubs I learned a little bit too late, but you could say in the nick of time to drill your holes in your mineral tubs on the side walls instead of the bottom the grass does not get in as easily. Also, I set mine now on layers and layers of cardboard to keep the grass from growing up in them. They don’t have to have perfect soil, but the top 6 inches it’s worth it to put in a nice fluffy mix and I use pro mix of course. Although I found out my City makes compost from yard waste. It is amazing stuff and I’m gonna see about getting some of that. I have several tubs that I want to pull the plant out. Fill the bottom with 12 inches of soil and pop that back in. That includes blueberry, fig peach Vitex, asparagus comfrey. If I bought pro mix that would cost me $100 OK back to the beats what I like to do is when they start growing and get up about golf ball size I harvest every other one. That leaves room and aerate the soil for the others to fill in.

Those sound great you’ve already got them set up and just need to top them up with some great soil seeds and water. Did you get it done while Madge was away?

Kim, Madge was sick today, and her sister was feeling bad also. so the day out was put off. Madge ask me to go get a few things at the grocery store, and I went on down to the co-op and bought an new pack of beet seeds. I hope to plant the beet seeds tomorrow, it was too hot to plant by the time I got back home. I did tell Madge of my plans to plant beets. Madge is very understanding, she knows that I need something to do as long as I am able. I think that we do a pretty good job of looking after one another, but we cant stop the clock. I also understand our kids wanting us to quit and take it easy, and we are, nature make everyone quit sooner or later.

Larry, sorry Madge and her sister were feeling bad.

Also, gardening in mineral tubs just for the 2 of you is a great idea.

We had to let the Survivalist Garden go back. It's hard, but sometimes time or health prevents care of things like that. AND...if you can still grow stuff in a small way, that's just wonderful. Keeps you busy and gives you food to eat.

I'm about to head out to my new job today. It's only the 3rd time I've worked for them. Luckily this location is in the OKC area.

Kim, Becky's family seem pretty interesting. At one time, I did a little digging around about them. I was interested for a couple of reasons including my son living in that area.

I'm still bringing in produce. Not in huge amounts. Sure missing the okra this year. Normally, we start off eating asparagus 2 or 3 times a week April through mid-June, then move to green beans, then move to okra. No okra this year really. Ended up buying zucchini from the store for a veg this week. I should grow it again even tho the pests are horrible.

The Roma tomatoes are producing well now. They were a couple of plants that Rick brought over. I'm throwing them into the freezer to make a big batch of soup in the fall. They're pretty fruit too. We tried Roma in the SG once and they did okay. These are in the Vego bed and beginning to produce beautifully.

Take care, Friends.

The grasshoppers have been really bad here. I was looking at peppers yesterday and cussing grasshoppers when I discovered an invasion of hornworms! From 1/2” to 4” they almost stripped the leaves and even eating on the peppers. There were 5-11 on each pepper - that doesn’t count the ones on the tomatoes. I’m talking about 9 separate peppers, not all in same area. So aggravating

Sorry about the hornworms, Glenda. I have a weird fascination with them and don't kill them, but drive them far away. I like their moth. They sure can do some damage if you turn your back for a day or so.

I've had some this year too.

BUT....I was just thinking that we don't have the grasshoppers like normal. There's a few large adult ones, but I haven't seen the babies. I'm wondering if we flooded out here at the "right" time back in April/May and it drowned them.

We have a lot of the leaf-foots and cucumber beetles this year.

I am not trying to save my tomato plants. Pulled two tonight and will continue to pull them out. Enjoyed some time in the garden deadheading zinnias and pulling flowers off of basil.

Feels good to sit down.

I saw the survivalist garden Jennifer. I remember the year that I was sick and the kids came and tore out all my gardens and we got rid of so much stuff that year. I grieved for a long time over my gardens. I wondered if I would ever have another garden even. But the next year 2024 I started small and kept going and now it is a small footprint but a huge bunch of stuff. Some friends came over today and the husband pulled weeds that are 10 foot tall literally around my house and the wife and I harvested and it was really nice to have someone in the garden that doesn’t judge me for my massive quantities of grass. Two hours in the heat is too much. Tomorrow I am going to get out at 6 o’clock and do some weed eating And rearranging. They are coming back at some point too help me with a few projects. I’m not used to people being so helpful without paying them, but they do not want payment for anything. So I’m just giving them things. Tomorrow I’m gonna fix them a big bag of okra and long noodle beans. And I’m sure they will enjoy that. My tomato plant are getting decimated by hornworms and I cannot find them they disappear during the day and I keep forgetting to go out after dark. Time to go move the water hose.

Kim, I have found that if you spray the plants the hornworms often will wiggle and be easier to see. Of course you never find all of them. I have the black/purple light but have never gone out at night to look. I’m going to let most of the garden go, cant afford to keep watering in this heat. My parents always dug sweet potatoes just before the first frost. Larry, anyone else - is that how you do it too?

I dig sweets potatoes before the first frost. I like to cut the vines back, trim most of the leaves off for greens powder and then dig the potatoes out. They need to cure in warm humid place so I may dig before it turns cold so I can cure in my shed.

Glenda, normally I look at the 9 day forecast in October to check for frosts and try to dig them at least a week before the first frost. I cure them in the hoop house on cardboard. We are planning a trip to Arkansas the first weekend of October, so hoping we have a later frost and I can dig them when we get back.

My goal in growing sweet potatoes is at least 120 growing days. Most of my planting is in May, if I have slips ready, and most of my digging is early Oct.. The weather always makes my dates vary.

Here is a picture of the last sweet potatoes that I planted, a short row on each side of the T-post of 20+ plants planted 7-16. I don't expect much of these plants because the shade that you see is covering the potatoes more each day, but I wanted an experiment to see just how much I can push these plants. ( The plants in the upper left are older, and starting to form potatoes)

It is 100 degrees now, and I cant water enough to keep the plants looking nice, plus, the deer hit the north and south garden last night, and If I don't string a hot wire the deer will kill most of my production. Water, critters, and insects are always a problem for me.

Those sweet potato vines look great, Larry.

Mine look pretty good too....but not near as many.

Kim, 2023 was such a scary year for you...and for your friends and family. It's hard to believe you were so sick because you're doing so much now. You've really come a long way. I am glad you're listening to your body and resting as needed. And staying out of the sun when necessary.

It's good to have good friends. I'm glad you have some helper friends to assist you in the garden.

I found a big hornworm last night. Moved him to a tomato plant that I'm going to pull soon. This year, I don't care. I have plenty of tomatoes to eat and don't need any for canning purposes. If they were gobbling up tomatoes for canning or fall tomatoes, I would care. I've wanted to plant datura for years, but never have. It would be so cool to have a gothic/baneful type of garden and include datura. I just don't have a spot to do that or time.

I worked at a house on Wednesday that was an old cottagy type of house built in the 1930's. (She had an apothecary) But, in a side yard, she had wrought iron fencing and furniture. It would have made a beautiful gothic style garden. Maybe she had one there at one time.

Where was I? Oh, the hornworms. Yes, I should plant datura for them.

I am home today. Wanted to sleep until 730, but Finbar started picking on Diana, causing her to hiss and growl and Josi got into the mix with barking. So....up at 615 instead. Finbar does this on purpose as soon as Tom leaves for work. He wants me to get up.

But, I was able to get the sprinkler going early. Watered the back garden and hoop house. The Armenian cucumbers are beginning to sprout in the back. The soil is messed up in that garden, so I made a trench along the trellis and poured in potting soil. Trying to keep it well watered.

A couple nights ago, I cut spring potatoes to plant for fall potatoes. Might do that tomorrow morning.

Also picked squash bugs and eggs. I've said this before, but I really love these smaller varieties of winter squash planted in the Vego beds. I really like these beds. A lot. They're so expensive, but I've seen cheaper versions on Amazon. It's so much easier to check them for bugs and eggs. If I want, I can pull up a chair and do it. Nice.

This is future thinking...but I'm considering using Roma for dicing tomatoes when I need to can tomatoes again. Probably 2027. They are also doing exceptionally well in the Vego bed. The plants are beginning to die back, but they are a determinate so that's okay.

Other things that need to be done soon....carrot and beet planting. Lettuce seed starting.

The carrots are going to go into the hinged hoop bed because I didn't think it through with filling the Vego beds with winter squash. And Roma tomatoes. There's a small spot for beets too in the kitchen garden. I just didn't think things through as well as I thought I did this year. It's a weird year.

The Scotch Bonnet peppers are producing so well this year and I'm considering making pepper sauce today.

Question. Has anyone used those motorized scooters? What are the scenarios for them? There's a couple of older fellas in our neighborhood who want to remain active, so the roll around the neighborhood on them. How do other people use them? Rick's roomie decided he doesn't want the scooter after we dug it out of Rick's house. It's new. It still had the film on it. He wants us to have it. It's heavy, so we can't just lift it into our vehicles easily. I really don't know what to do with it. But he really wants us to keep it.

I have a scooter. It isn't comfortable for my body, so I don't use it much. I got a "heavy duty" one so it would go across grass. But you can't leave it out in the rain, so to garden with it you need a place to store it. I took it to a nature center and drove it on dry paths ok. Mine comes apart so you aren't lifting all the weight at once. You can get "shelfs" that attach to trailer hitches. You can just drive it up on it. You could walk the dog with it if your feet are hurting.

Larry, it is hard to keep enough water on the garden right now. That reminds me I need to go turn my water off. I started getting my drip line ready to set up. I need to sketch it out again because I don’t have enough connectors to do what I had originally planned to do, of course so back to the drawing board. I’m really looking forward to getting that done. Y’all have no idea how overwhelmed with gratitude I am right now. The family that has adopted me came and took out all the weeds all the way around my house all the whole dog pen and they Hauled all the weeds to the burn pile. The dad worked yesterday for two hours and the dad and one boy worked two hours today. What they did would have taken me probably 100 hours. I don’t have the strength like I used to to be pulling 10 foot stalks. Jennifer, we were just talking about how far I have really come since surgery year. Not that I had given up, but trying to be realistic when I could not even lift a gallon of water at all. In a case of water took me four trips to bring it in little by little. I’m not 100% but I am so much better than I was. And to have this garden, and these new friends is such a blessing to me. They were thrilled with all the gifts I gave them. The one son likes to do projects with wood so he is going to come back and get my wood collection. I like the idea of having different gardens and I guess that’s what I am trying to create here. I have a plan to get another awning frame that I have covered in plastic and I will be putting my herbs and a new green stock in there with herbs. If I can just figure out where to put my grill and my peach tree.

I have kept plans for a scooter in my future also. At this time I am making more use of the zero turn mower. The larder zero turn, I have placed 3 bags of compost, or 3 bags of potting soil on the front of it, and taken it to the area of the garden where the amendments will be used, and kicking the bags off at about the spot they will be needed. Plans are to place a rack on the front,which will be used for a stool, or a wire basket. The wire basket will be used for produce, and to pick up trash along the highway, we are such a nasty race of people.

Jennifer, I tried something a little different this year with my sweet potato slips. I had bought a bottle of Ferti-lome Yield Booster. I cant see well enough to read the small print on a bottle, but any gardener will buy something that has yield booster written on it. Anyway, I put about 2 onces in 2 gallon of water in a 5 gallon bucket, and placed the runners that I cut off of the sweet potato plants into the water in the 5 gallon bucket. The runners/slips were cut off on the evening of the 13th, or the morning of the 14th. The first two short rows were planted on the morning of the 14th. (the first row is to the left out of the picture) The slips planted on the 16 ( 2 rows to the right) were of the same group of slips pulled 2 days before, but sit in that water for 2 days out in the garden. After planting the slips, I poured he water over the soil to water them in, those plants look better that the fresher slips. Next year I plan on trying this again, but also adding in a little rooting hormone, and maybe a little Miracle Gro. I really think that letting the slips lie in the water a couple of days may have helped, at any rate I cant see that it hurt.

Larry, your experiment seems to have worked. The sweet potato plants look great!

I can see your vision, Kim. It looks lovely. That's how I am with the garden too--I like different garden spots for different things. And it can be nice to mix up where you plant things too, from season to season. Think about Jess, it's how she gardens too. She has her tea garden, her cottage garden, her raised bed garden, the high tunnels and more.

I love to watch Seasonal Homestead. They truly grow the majority of their food and are such a sweet family. BUT, her garden is functional, not so pretty or cottagy.

Amy, yeah, it would be good to have a scooter if my feet ever messes up on me like it did that one year. That was rough. I am paying attention now to my feet and buying stupidly expensive shoes like Hoka. Maybe we can scoot around the neighborhood with the baby too. We'll just save it. At some point it will come in handy.

It's already warm out there but I'm about to head out and plant carrots and potatoes.

We picked up chicken feed from TSC yesterday. They still have a seed rack out, so I picked up a pack of zucchini and tucked in several seeds here and there in the kitchen garden. After buying some from the store last week, I realized I miss it. I haven't grown it in years but Rick would bring some from the O garden.

Trying to catch up on market days is hard for me. When I get home from Market and water and take a shower unload the car it is almost bedtime. I had a great market today so I came home energized from that. Talking to a lot of gardeners at the market I realize I have so much content I could be making for YouTube. One couple had big giant beautiful plants and no peppers. Come to find out they’re just dumping a ton of miracle grow on the plant. So I told them to cut that out. And then another couple said that they always have problems when to start their seeds. It seems like they’re always out of sync. And I’m going to make a reclamation video for my garden because I am going to reclaim some spaces that I’ve gone to weeds and grass. So I’ll be very busy. I got out at 6 o’clock this morning to go to Market and realize that is what time a day I need to be in the garden. When the sun comes up, just get out there and get busy. And then come in the house and take a nap. Does that sound like a good schedule? Jennifer, I just planted some squash and they already are up and I’m gonna cover them with a little insect netting to make sure that the grasshoppers don’t jump in there and eat the tender seedlings. I also have to come up with some kind of fence because the neighbors puppies are coming in tearing stuff up getting in my gardens that Sophie doesn’t even get in so I need a taller fence. Which I hate to do, but it’s gonna be necessary to keep those little darlings out of my garden.

I did not do much today, It was not my day to water, but I did a little weeding.

It is just too hot to do much. I bought another thermometer, thinking my min/max may be off a little, the new thermometer must be off also. I have little faith that all thermometer will check the same anyway, but a person does not need a thermometer to know that it is getting too hot up in the day. Looking at the forecast lt looks like we still have more hot weather ahead of us.

Larry, you are so right! It is too hot to do much. I followed the shade this evening.

Kim, I'm so glad you had a good market day! And was able to help people too!

I feel productive. Normally I feel like I don't get near enough done...but today, I feel productive.

I did get those potatoes planted. And some beets AND some carrots. I came up with a clever idea to plant the carrots and then stretched a shade cloth over them (it's a few inches from the soil) The cloth is in between the edge of the bed and the lid (hinged hoop). I think this will work just fine until we have some spouts.

Did some watering and relocating hornworms.

Happy to see the Armenian cukes popping up.

Spend time in the kitchen too. Strained the first elderberry honey. Made pepper sauce with the Scotch Bonnets and a few jalapenos. Made refrigerator pickled Sugar Rush Peach peppers. Got the now dried elderberries into containers for the winter.

The unfortunate situation is my asparagus. The weeds/grass are so bad that I'm considering just cutting down the asparagus ferns too. This asparagus is well established. Ten years old now. Do you think this will harm it?

The weeds/grass are so entwined with the ferns that it's hard to pull them. And reaching into the bed, I always get a fern in my eye. I cut my hand trying to pull them and luckily had yarrow a couple of feet over to stop the bleeding. IF we could get a good rain, maybe it would soften the soil in ways that only rain does and I could get those giant Johnson grasses pulled out.

Other than that. It's been a great day.

Jennifer I commented but I must have forgot to hit post. You have been busy in the kitchen. I wanted to do the every bit counts challenge on yt but have kind of forgotten about it. I love her thinking of no waste. That is how I run my kitchen. No waste. It irks me when you tubers waste so much food. I should have a great harvest today when I get home from Church. Okra and noodle beans.

I just read our water meter, and Madge had to call 911. I will cut back on my watering. It looks like our next water bill may be in the $150.00 range. I am not sure what the rates are but we have used too much water.

I tried to dig a couple of plants, but the ground was so hard that I could not get the spading fork in. I can buy sweet potatoes cheaper than what I will be spending on water.

I still have another 2 months of growing season left, but I am not sure I can keep the plants alive. I do believe that I will have plenty of sweet potatoes for my needs, but not near as many as I had expected. We could get rain later on, and all of that change, but the way things look now, rain may be a thing of the past, if that is the cast, my sweet potatoes are the least of my problems.

Two plants worth of potatoes, at least what was just under the plant, the ground was too hard to dig any where else. If thing don't change, I will have to plow these potatoes out of the ground at a later date.

I hear you Larry! I’ve had stop watering too. We have our own well but the electric bill is staggering My beautiful zinnias look like dried flowers - I’m going to cut them all back and hope they come back for fall. We are supposed to get rain tonight but closer we get the lower the chance. The heat has pretty much baked most of the cucumber and tomato plants anyway. I have new green beans about 2” tall - went out this morning and something, birds maybe have pulled up 1/2 of the plants. New PEPH peas starting to bloom and new squash and okra in mineral tubs I think will survive. At this point trying to decide whether a fall garden is worth it. Then go to store and they want $2 for a small head of lettuce or $5 for romaine- yeah, when it cools off I’ll scatter some seed. I wonder if we will have a late frost or a mild winter - wouldn’t that be great?

Jennifer, shoes are part of your health. My husband wears the H shoes, they help him walk without pain most of the time. When my mom passed she had a brand new pair of NB shoes. She always needed diabetic shoes but Medicare paid for them so she didnt mind. Finally she listened to her doctor and bought good shoes to wear outside in the garden. Well, I was only one who could wear them- my right foot turns out and drops down and I require a larger right shoe than left - so I took them and made them my chore shoes because mine were shot. Wore them 3 years, and on the farm chore shoes are worn everywhere in all weather. They made a huge difference in my feet and legs hurting. So remember you get what you pay for and your health and comfort are very important in the long run. I’m ready for fall and cooler weather. We’ve already had a couple of fires close - that abundant rain we had is drying up and its going to be a tinderbox out there soon. Stay safe in this heat and pray for rain - without storms.

Glenda, our last electric bill wasn't too bad, but I dread this next one. We normally keep the AC at 75, but Tom turns it down a degree or two in the afternoons sometimes. Our well is electric too. And I've been watering every day. We've paid off all our debt (other than house) so we have some wiggle room right now but we're getting ready to finance a vehicle for Tom. His is 21 years old and things are wearing out. Regardless, high electric bills hurt.

Yes. I learned my lesson about 6 years ago about quality shoes. I'm on my 5th pair of Hokas now. I save the older ones for garden work. I purchased Keen back in the spring. They are good for just regular days. And the water/hiking Keens did well for Oregon. Apparently my feet like the beach and forest floor. No pain. Hoka I need for walking for exercise or if I'm going to be on my feet all day. Have you tried Oofos? They've been a game changer for me. They are my "house shoes". I wear the flip flop variety. I also have a pair for outdoors, but can't really garden in them because they get slippery if wet. I have Vionic and a couple of other brands for boots. I've heard the Brooks is good, but I've tried other brands so I'm afraid to NOT buy the Hoka because they work.

Anyway....I'll start a new thread for the week.