Larry, those are still the best sweet potatoes I've ever seen! And, I'm glad they weren't nibbled on last night.

Jen, I haven't used ChatGPT yet, but have heard others adapting lessons that way too! ChatGPT is on my list of things to try out for a variety of things. But, right now, it just seems like one more thing to do. LOL

I'm so weird.

The curriculum I use does cost, so it seems like you've got it figured out with a lower cost. If you do crafts, games, etc., there's always things to find free online.

I wonder what the total cost is, tho, even with insurance paying for it. I'm just curious because there's a good chance we'll build a smaller building. We used to have a 1500 membership (way back in the 80's) and it was probably 1200 when I came at age 19. It's slowly declined (although it's back up a bit) to 300+. It's definitely still very active in the community and isn't dying. It's just smaller.

About the elderberries, it's the seeds and leaves and twigs you want to avoid. I'll put a link to a pretty decent article about elders.

Elderberry Info

It's interesting and the link she provides regarding the group of people who got sick from elderberries is also worth reading. These folks were pressing the entire plant and some were drinking large amounts of the tea.

My part-time job was cancelled today because they finished the project yesterday. SO, I took advantage and cleaned up the front flowerbeds and the west side of the house. I need to do that side before the sun moves over otherwise it's too hot.

My porch and front flower beds look charming right now.

The west side bed was one of the first things I made when we moved out here. We moved here in April 2014 and it was a blank slate. I didn't really have time to start a big garden, so bought a 4'x4' compost type of raised bed for $50 (and it's still in good shape today!) I was dumb and planted broccoli seed in it in June....I just didn't know. And then the Jack 'o lantern type of pumpkins I thought I could freely grow. Yeah....

ANYway, I dug up a narrow bed and planted basil. It was precious to me because it was one of the few things that I had that year. (I've told this before, I know), but that year, we had the first frost on Halloween night. I had been to a party and was wearing a black, hooded cloak. When we got in, I immediately starting clipping the basil in the dark. I could see neighbors down the road watching me. I can only imagine what they were thinking about me--clipping herbs in the dark, wearing a black cloak on Halloween night. Truth is, what they were thinking probably is mostly right.

Then in 2017, Dawn brought a comfrey plant to me. I neglected it. Sat it in that west side bed still in it's pot. It sat there all summer, fall, and winter. The next spring, it had sent down roots from the holes of the pot. I had to cut the pot away. It's spread and I'm fond of it for many reasons.

This year it has been neglected again. As I was cleaning up the bed--Bermuda grass had crept in), I noticed how nice the soil is there. It's the comfrey! It makes a great compost. So, I gathered up some of the half-dead leaves and will put them on the back garden that is struggling.

That's a lot of rambling, but I really do feel accomplished.

I was sad about not being able to work at that house today. It had such an interesting energy and wanted to see it again. BUT, I got two big projects completed!

Sorry to digress, but every time I hear " elderberries " , I can't help but think of Monty Python and the search for the Holy Grail.

" Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! "

Lol, Lynn!

I've not noticed that elderberries have a scent really. Their blossoms are delightful. Even better than chamomile.

I had to look that movie up on the web, that shows you how out of touch I am.

Not much going on around here. I do need to go look for the stuff to string a hot wire to protect the south garden sweet potatoes, because I expect that the deer will not give up, things are getting pretty dry, which put a lot of pressure on any kind of critter food.

I’m gonna try to catch up with y’all tomorrow. I haven’t even been able to read anything. I’m very busy at my daughters.

Jennifer, I though that I might mention the sweet potatoes that I planted 7-16. I checked the two short rows that I planted on 7-16, by sticking my finger down into the soil. The plants already have toots swelling on them. If I feed those two short rows, and keep them watered, I may be able to make them produce a little faster than I normally get them to size up. The first year I tried to grow sweet potatoes was at my old house, where I had a good well and very good soil. I fed and watered my first crop like crazy, and did not get anything but very long skinny roots and a lot of vines. I never tried to grow sweet potatoes in rich soil again. When we mover here, I planted 9 plants in a new flower bed and got a bumper crop

Sweet potatoes are funny things, Larry. I've mentioned that my Mom just threw store bought sweet potatoes into her flower bed to see what would happen. She had quite a crop.

Can't wait to see how mine did in the hoop house. I'm excited to dig them in a few weeks. There's also two mineral tubs of them in the kitchen garden. They always look pretty, vining over the tubs. Those blue tubs are a little jarring. But, they are so useful and when the plants spill over the edge, you can't see the bright blue.

I'm home today. Housecleaning is on the agenda and I wish that it wasn't. But, the house is dirty. Summer dirty. It hasn't been dusted in over a month. We're celebrating my Mom's BD out here tomorrow. It's a big one, so I want to decorate a bit too....with a sunflower theme. Wish I would have reserved a room and had a larger party with her friends and extended family. This year has been so busy tho. Anyway, a small party is fine.

The sprinkler is on the Kitchen Garden right now. I've only found one zucchini that has sprouted. I can't remember where all I planted them. lol

The Persian cukes are up as are the Armenian. I'm seeing the beets popping up too. AND, super excited to see carrots after only a week! They're such divas and seem to take forever to sprout.

Pretty sure I told y'all how I did the carrots this year. They're in the hinged hoop bed. I stretched a 50% shade cloth in between the edge of the bed and the hinged top. The top holds it down. This seems to be working well!

I'm regretting not planting cabbage and haven't started lettuce yet, although found the tray that I like to use for starting lettuce and cleaned it up.

Did I mention that I found a SVB worm in one of my mini winter squash plants? The C Moschata isn't really safe from those things at my house. They are making new foliage and seem to be reasonably healthy other than a couple of places. I only found one grub. There was a moth on a flower a couple of weeks ago.

This is the first year that I've had such an infestation of cucumber beetles. They're making the fruit ugly, but I just peel them and they taste fine. I'm hoping the Persian cukes aren't affected and I can ferment some of those this fall.

I have been out working on saving some pepper plants this morning, I doubt that it is worthwhile. I have never had disease this bad on peppers before, and even when it was not this bad I didn't get them to produce well. I am running out of time on the peppers, I may waste the whole summer and get little production.

Larry, 2022 was a terrible pepper year for us. One of my FB memories is me processing peppers that a friend gave me. I think we were too hot and dry that year. Even when it rarely rained around the metro, our area was missed. Norman in general was missed that year.

What sort of disease is on your peppers?

Jennifer, I am not sure what disease (s) my peppers have. I have had a terrible year. It was so wet for so long, and I am still trying to get caught up on weeding.

This is a sample of some of the worst plants.

This is a row of cayenne peppers that I have made great headway on. You can still see fungal disease, but they are doing much better after I put down mulch and fed the plants.

Here is what use to be the worst of the cayenne, they are looking pretty good now. Last year I experimented using sweet potato vines and cow peas for a living mulch, and it worked pretty well. Just out of the picture, up to the right of the red T post you can see cow peas sticking up over the sweet potato vines. The peas are volunteers from last year. Matter of fact, the only peas that I have had any luck with this year have been volunteers. If I am able to garden next year, I hope to do more with a living mulch.

And, we did get a little rain today, not enough to run off, but it was enough to make me smile.

I know that it is lazy gardening, but many of my plants do better with a lining mulch.

The only mulch on these Hungarian wax is a few weeds and the sweet potato runners.

Placed an order with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange this morning, for Austrian Pea and rye. Im close to having all the tomato plants pulled. I can only take out 5 at a time cuz that's all that will fit in my trash cart.

Then it will be till and plant winter cover.

I've got a whole bunch of zinnias in the garden that I really hate to pull to till. IDK what I'm gonna do with those. And a few pepper plants also.

Those flowers are beautiful. I would find a way to leave them, Lynn!

I tried to post last night and lost it. My fault not Houzz this time. But, I was way too tired to type if all up again.

Larry, yes, it was way too wet out here in April and May. Plants were sitting in water for days. Pretty sure it's why many of my tomatoes didn't do well. The peppers seemed to outgrow it, but they are in raised beds.

Even herbs that were planted at lower levels of the herb spiral didn't survive sitting in water.

I want to pull my tomatoes, too, Lynn. Or most of them. Some of the later planted ones are okay. I'm leaving them all for the hornworms tho. As soon as the hornworms are done (and hopefully I'll get to see them as moths) I'll pull the tomatoes. Easy to pull because the hornworms ate most of the foliage.

Sprinklers aren't ideal for the garden, but it's what keeps mine alive. And, honestly, everything looks pretty good for this time of year.

The cowpeas are looking good. Rick and I canned a lot in 2020. Would y'all toss those? We've eaten so many jars, but they are getting a bit old.

I'll probably just dry the ones in the garden now.

Also have a few lima beans that are looking fine too. It's not been a bad year for me overall. Really, just the tomatoes. And losing those few herbs.

Oh, and the onions and garlic weren't great. In fact, I'm going to need to start over with the garlic. Need to get that purchased. Onions weren't as bad as the garlic, but we'll be purchasing onions from the store by January.

Anyway, I have the majority of the food prepared for today and the house cleaned, so just need to decorate and maybe run the vacuum again.

Lynn, like what Jennifer mentioned, it would be nice to find a way to keep the flowers a little longer.

My tomatoes are toast, but I doubt that I will take them out right now. I cant put my plants in the trash. We are only allowed one can a week, that wont allow much room for tomato plants. I normally burn my plants, or grind them up with the lawn mower. It is too dry to burn anything.

I have taken a picture of the pepper plants that I want to save in the south garden.

This is a row of sweet peppers. I have had very low production from them. Some are starting to bud, so I have a little hope for more production.

This is a mixture of hot and sweet peppers. I have tossed on a little mulch, and will add a little blue water to them and hope for production.

You may note that my sweet potatoes don't have a good color to them. I just can't keep enough water on them. I may toss on a very small amount of nitrogen to encourage a little more top growth to shade the ground in spots where it is bare. I also would not turn down some rain.

Lynn my zinnias look bad too, I’ve pulled 1/2 and cut tops off most I already have almost a bushel basket of heads for seed next year. I just can not water enough to keep things alive in this heat. Our electric bill is astronomical. We were blessed with 1 1/2” of rain last week and I noticed little zinnias coming up everywhere. They should live till a hard frost.

Jennifer I expect the peas are getting mealy by now, but the chickens wont care. A jar a day would be a nice treat.

Blue water!! LMAO! You know what that means to an aircraft mechanic's wife? Thats the potty water from an airplane. I have been called to bring clean clothes to a husband who got dumped on.

Amy, that blue water may be better than what I poured around my plants. The blue water I used this time was 1 oz of Bloom Booster, and 1 oz of regular Miracle Gro, and 1 oz of Fertilome root stimulator per 2 gallon of water, applied 2 to 4 gallon per row of plants, it seemed to help, but the airplane blue water may have been cheaper, and maybe worked better.

I want to try to crush up about a table spoon of 10-20-10 with a table spoon of 46-0-0 with 1 oz of root stimulator, mixed in 2 gallon of water to try on a few plants just to see what happens. When I stopped collecting hay scrapes to compost, my garden started down hill. My soil needs a lot of amending.

It has taken my habanero plant forever to start producing, but it seems to be doing well.

I tried to take a picture from below, but could not see what was on the screen of my camera. The plant breaks off into 4 branches near the ground, and all 4 branches are loaded,and still has a lot of buds in the top of the plant.

Amy, Tom was an aircraft mechanic for several years too!

Glenda, there are 21 jars of cowpeas left from 2020. I'll do your suggestion and give the chickens a treat.

If memory serves, we canned 80+ jars of them that year. Plus had some dried ones that we've used.

There's thunder to our north east. I wish we were getting that rain, but we're not. There is a nice breeze, tho. Sprinkler is going in the garden.

Nothing really new to add that is garden related.

Our baby boy stomped around in the garden yesterday. Pretty sure he stomped on my beets, but I don't care. He likes to pull up tags. Also, don't care. He just loves looking at everything. The butterflies and bees and flowers. He's changed so much in the past 2 months. He had fun out here. He's cutting molars so was a drooly mess.

The Roma tomatoes that are in the Vego bed have some blossom end rot. I'm wondering if that bed is deficient. I know that everyone loses their mind when someone even suggests that soil is deficient in calcium. And, I agree that most soil has plenty. BUT, potting mixes are a different story. Even if they start with plenty, nutrients are washed out often. That's one reason potting mixes have to be refreshed.

I saw a video a few years ago. A guy was talking about that. He said he never adds calcium to his tomatoes that are in the actual soil (for all the reasons everyone quotes), but will add it to pots that contain potting mixes because they'll leach nutrients. Anyway, all that to say....I wonder if that is what is going on. At the end of the season, I'll add some compost and stuff to refresh those beds.

I'm going to head out to water stuff and clean the small coop. The sick hen seems so much better, so she'll go back into that coop tonight. She's been in a crate in the shop (with plenty of ventilation and a fan).

Goodness, I have been out of touch. I have read and enjoyed every post. I am so far behind Ill just give little update. Jennifer, I know nothing about asparagus yet. I will have to do some research on it before too long. My sweets are looking great except for a couple pots that did not get watered for over a week. Our well went down and we ended up getting connected to city water. I am really excited because i have hauled 20-30 gallons of decent water here or 6 years. Forbrushing teeth cooking drinking canning etc. Its exciting thinking I dont have to haul and store all that water. I am planting beans today. I cut down a black eyed pea pot that was barely prducing. I am going to top up with compost and fill with purple podded bush beans.

Good to hear from you, Kim. And so glad you're getting easier water!

At this rate, it's going to be November before the asparagus beds get attention. lol

Honestly, tho, if it's September when I chop it all down, they've had plenty of sun to pull energy down to their crowns. They're busting at the seams anyways. I remember Dawn trying to kill some of her asparagus. She commented that she didn't know if Bermuda or asparagus was more of a pain. (Can't remember how she worded it.)

I came in from work and fed everyone and started the sprinkler. The KG is mostly in shade right now. We're having leftovers from Saturday. Thank goodness! So, I'm not cooking. It's too hot to cook. I already ate.

I'll go out in a bit but it's a million degrees out there. I'm going to search for the zucchini. I'm sure I planted about 15 seeds. I've found 2.

I think, I'll start lettuce, kale and arugula seed on Wednesday.

I'm completely out of sorts this year. With work related things, my babysitting schedule switching around all the time, Rick's death. We all have seasons like this, but it makes one feel foggy in the brain.

Wish I was still on the Oregon coast....

Our trip to Arkansas will hopefully be relaxing. We're going to treat ourselves to a visit to Moss Mountain Farm.

How's everyone else doing?

I feel that it is too hot to do much. I water plants to try to keep them alive, and not much else. I am not sure I can even keep thing alive.

All I'm doing is mowing the lawn, and I'm putting that off as long as I can. This is always the time of year when I've had all the lawn work that I want. Ready for that first " cold front " that hits around Labor Day.

Weather Underground says rain and 70's next week ............ IDK , we will see

10 Day Forecast

Lynn, your 10 day forecast looks better than ours. My min/max recorded 103 yesterday, todays forecast is 102. I may just sell my lawn mower, the only thing it is being used for now is a cat bed. I should go out and check the garden now, the temp dropped to 72 last night, and is rising fast.

I went out to check the south garden, and as I expected, the deer are feeding on it now. I feel sure that I have another fence charger somewhere, I need to dig around and find it. The deer will not quit eating my garden without me sending them a message.

My peppers look like they may put on a fall crop, but it wont be a lot.

The sweet potatoes should be doing better. I dug under another plant and got 2.46 pounds of potatoes. The 2 plants I dug under a week or so ago gave me just over 6 pounds of potatoes, so far the production has been very low, and if we sont start getting a little rain the production wont improve. I am down to my last 2 potatoes from last year, I weighed them and the total weight was just over 3 pounds, which is larger than the potatoes I have got this year.

Not any gardening done today other than watering the Vego beds in the dark. The metro area got some rain, but missed us. Typical.

I do appreciate the slightly cooler temperature, tho.

We are expecting a cool down next week. I hope they are not tricking us

I am ready for a cool down. Ft . Smith hit 104 yesterday, I show a high of 103 for a short period of time, but 100 for several hours. This temp is just too high for my liking. We have forgotten what rain looks like.

Hey Friends. About to head out to do some watering. I'm pretty spent, tho. Worked outside, on my feet, for 8 hours at my new part-time job.

Luckily I was mostly in the shade. Just finished cooking dinner and might eat first before heading out. There was no time for lunch today.

This morning, I looked again for zucchini seedlings and only see the two. SO weird. It's new seed. I'm sure I planted at least 15 in spots around the garden.

I want to start lettuce seed tonight, but honestly, I might be too tired after watering and taking Josi on her walk. I might sit on the couch for an hour or so instead of seed starting.

Just a little update about Rick. His stepson was found. He had a close relationship with him at one time and the guy is fond of Rick. He's been going through his house like crazy and found all sorts of stuff. His father in law is a probate attorney in Norman, so this could really work out for Rick's nephew. We've had a couple of really nice conversations on the phone. I'm SO glad he is doing this. He lives in Florida with his wife and two sons. He was contacted because one of Rick's life insurance policies had the beneficiary as his deceased wife. The guy has had a conversation with Rick (I didn't know this) in April. And, he has tried to call Rick several times since then. He was shocked about his passing.

Anyway, I'm rambling. It makes me feel good to know that Rick had a close relationship with his stepson. He is military.

Well, Jennifer, that is good news. Sometimes it’s hard to have a steady relationship with people when they live far away sometimes it’s hard to have a good relationship with people when they live 20 minutes away. I don’t talk a lot about my older son because I’m very rarely see him, but he actually lives About 30-45 minutes away. He’s married his wife came with four kids and they are very busy. He did come over the other day and took some stuff off my hands that I was wanting to get rid of, but I don’t get to see him as much as I would like. He’s a good kid and an extremely hard worker. My youngest son, who is actually in Lubbock lives the furthest away. I have all of my legalities set up with him. I know that he will honor my request to a T. Even down to the gardens and plants. That reminds me I need to get some kind of life insurance policy. When I left the school, they dropped the ball and didn’t send me the papers to continue the one I had. I am really looking forward to this cool down so that I can get out in the garden without getting sick. The problem with me is that I don’t know. I’m sick until I already am heat sick. I got my solar dehydrator set up and loaded four of the spaces with herbs mostly basil I can already tell. I am going to love this situation. I won’t have to turn the dehydrator on in the house if I don’t want to of course right now, I am dehydrating a ton of citrus for my herb blends

Hope everyone is doing well. Not much to say about the garden. Watered tonight. That's about it. Oh! I did start lettuce seed, kale seed and chard seed. First round.

All I did today was water a little. There in no way I can water all I need to water, it is just too hot and dry here. I just use a hand stream sprayer so I can only spray the water where I want it, it takes forever to get anything watered. I feel that I use less water that way, but I am supposed to only water every other day. My garden is so dry I will get very little production. It is almost time to shut the water off the sweet potatoes, but for most of them the water has been shut off for a long time. But, I will have to take what ever nature throws at me.

I’ve been watering with open hose. I water half the garden each day trying to keep the sweet potatoes going.

I cant walk or stand well enough to water with an open hose, I have a lite stool at each garden, with a hose already strung out with the nozzle attached. I walk, or ride the mower to the garden, after turning the water on at the deck. I then can sit on the stool and spray the garden. I normally move the stool 3 times to water each garden. It is a slow way to water, it takes me atleast an hour to water, most often two hours, Watering is not hard work, but being out 2 hours is about all I can handle. I have got to spend some extra time on the south garden today, it is hurting more than the north garden.

I noticed that I might get a little okra this year. The okra is just now making buds, so some of it may produce before the weather turns too cool. This has been my worst gardening year. The spring was so wet for so long, and the weeds got so bad, that it took me so long to get things planted. But, I am getting to where I don't feel like doing much outside anyway.

A picture of how my sweet potatoes in the north garden have recovered from the deer damage from about 9 or 10 days ago.

This is the picture of the damage the deer did. I have been able to care for these potatoes better because I can sit in the shade of the oak tree on the south side of the garden and spray water on the plants, plus the shade helps protect some of the plants.

I am hoping for 50+ pounds of potatoes from these plants, that will still be less per plant than I got last year.

Larry, it is so very hard when we are restricted from doing what we love. I have areas of my garden that look amazing and then I have areas that are so swallowed up with grass. You can hardly see my plants. But as gardeners we just keep goinguntil we hit a brick wall, I guess.

Kim, I have very little grass and weeds, except the part of the garden I am watering. The part of the garden that I cant keep watered, plants and weeds are both dead. Part of my garden that I am trying to keep alive may not produce, I have shown the best that I have, but overall this has been my worst gardening year. I would have been better off if I had just invested my time and money at a farmers market. I have wasted a lot of time and money on what I will just have to call therapy.

Larry, I try not to ever consider time spent outside a waste of time or money. I know that is probably weird, but I used to be a real hermit and stay in the house all the time never went outside except to get to the car. When I discovered how much I love gardening, I realize the health benefits, which is why my business is named healing gardens. Even when I was very sick, I knew that being out in the sun would make it a lot better than if I had just stayed in the house. My son used to tell me just go sit in your garden, even though it’s all mostly dead For 10 minutes a day. And I did and I’m glad I did……………… it is supposed to rain next week forecasted five days. I’m planning at least one. So I am planting seeds today and tomorrow and the rest of the week. I have projects indoors. Lots of jam, jelly and herb making sessions. I have yet to finish cleaning out the freezer of all the fruit I have so I will definitely be working on that this week. I have so many pots filled with sweet potatoes that I have very little planting room except for inground where the peas were and died. I’m trying to figure out if I could fashion a low tunnel to put some brassicas in. I would really like some cabbage and broccoli this year.
I also want spinach, but it’s still a little too warm for that. And peas I need sugar snap peas, and carrots. I can’t put carrots in ground because the ground I’m using is hard as a brick bat. As soon as I can afford another greenstalk or two or three that is what I will be buying.

Kim, I agree. Even with all the frustrations there's still benefits of being in our gardens. There's always things to learn and observe about nature even in the tough, frustrating times.

I like the plans for all your fall crops. Can you put your carrots in a mineral tub?

Just recently, Greenstalk had a good deal going. It was so good that I almost purchased some. But, I needed to NOT do that. Tom bought a car so there's a new payment coming. It's not a new car, tho. And the payment is very manageable. It should be delivered next week.

We're keeping the old truck and I'm so glad he decided to do that. We used it a lot this morning even. On our own property. We called for a Big Trash Pickup. We backed the truck down to the edge of the property where there is a old shed that Rick used to store his stuff. It was ridiculous. Even tho the shed is not technically on our property we were given permission to use it. AND I needed to get Rick's hoard out of Tom's shop. Rick kept everything. It made me insane. lol Even things that I told him "If you want this you can have it, but it has to go to your house". Well, most of those things were crammed into that shed. Found them this morning. Torn frost cloth, bits & pieces of all sorts of shade cloth/insect netting. Just so. much. stuff. Buckets of doodads. Worn rope. It is cleaned out now and I kept the good stuff. It looks how I meant for it to look when I offered it to him to use. I bought him large plastic tubs to put the good frost cloth, shade cloth, insect netting in. Nope. We're saving every scrap.

BUT, it's good now. All frost clothes and shade cloths have been inspected and many are still good. I'm going to try to spray them off this afternoon, let them dry and put them in those tubs. I saved his PVC hoops/rebar. And the clips.

Kim, I wish you had some of them for your low tunnels. It's possible that I'll be offering up some of the shade cloths and frost cloths at SF next year. I have plenty of my own. And the rebar/PVC hoops too. At least some of them.

This situation, and my new job has been determined to not leave a mess for my kids. The current house we're working on is packed. It actually has a basement and a detached garage. (cool, old cottage built in 1930. It's quite enchanting) They're all full of stuff. This woman saved every empty box any product came in. It's hard to explain. It's overwhelming. It's costing her daughters a lot of time and money to clean her stuff out. We have to sort through everything, because a box of mostly trash might have a $1000 vase in it also. (happened yesterday) Junk, costume jewelry has real gold pieces mixed in with it. Boxes and boxes of it to go through. Nuts, screws, nails by the 1000's. We already filled up a large dumpster. And we're not done.

Anyway, our shop is bad enough, but I can't let it get to that point for the sake of my children.

I have a baby shower to attend to today. Then, have been invited to pick okra from my neighbor. I'm so glad because mine flopped. Grateful to have fresh okra on the menu this week.

We are supposed to have a rainy week, but will probably need to water a few pots tonight. I didn't have time yesterday. I was on my feet again for 7 hours, walking up and down the basement stairs... and up and down the ladder to put stuff into the dumpster. Went grocery shopping last night. It's getting dark noticeably earlier now, so ran out of time to do any gardening. I look forward to checking everything out this evening. I did see the native honeysuckle is finally blooming! :D

Kim, how do you keep a greenstalk from blowing over? It the greenstalk something that Madge would like, and how much does a nice one cost? I see prices over a wide range, but I have no idea what is needed.

I would like to plant something, but it is so dry here. My ground is hard also. The electric fence that I strung up I had to use tee pots that were already in the ground, or drive in a 1/2" rebar with my post driver. I would drop a short piece of 1/2" PVC over the rebar, then tie the hot wire to the pvc. I had Laken order me 60 plastic coated metal staking rods, but the ground is too hard to drive then in. I am not even sure I can get the middle buster to take ground if I have to try plow up my sweet potatoes, but I think that I will try the middle buster to bust up some ground in the pasture garden for planting some turnips a little later.

Larry, my Greenstalk is next to my house, so it gets some shelter. I've seen lots of comments about them over the years and most people say they have no issues with them blowing over even in really bad winds. They're pretty heavy once filled with soil.

Greenstalk will have sales from time-to-time where they'll have the original for under $100. I bought the spinner base. I water it everyday. Just put the hose at the top and fill the basin....it trickles down to water each pocket. When you fertilize, use liquid fertilizer and mix it in a bucket or watering can and pour it into the top basin.

I've done all the greens, strawberries, green beans, herbs and flowers in mine.

You could also do the shorter ones. I can't remember if they have 3 or 4 levels. Those are the ones I want to purchase next for flowers for our shop porch. Our half-whiskey barrels are rotted about nearly 10 years. A short Greenstalk is about the same price as a half-whiskey barrel.

Are you also expecting rain this week, Larry?

Jennifer, we have chances of rain up around 50% for a couple of days next week, but so far our 50% chances have brought me nothing.

I think that I would like to buy a short greenstalk for Madge, what brand would you suggest? I like the idea of watering from the top. Madge likes plants, but we both are getting too beat up to fool with plants. We have plants on the porch that Madge waters. I keep the hose hooked up and hanging over the railing, so it is not a lot of trouble to water her plants.

They're predicting 4" for OKC area all next week. Its suppose to rain every day, some days more than others .

NWS

And daytime highs in the 70's ................ gonna be glorious

10 Day Forecast from Weather Underground

Looking forward to that too, Lynn!

Larry, the planting towers that both Kim and I use are Greenstalk brand. (There is another brand that I've seen, but don't know anything about it and can't remember the name of it).

If you wait, they'll probably be a sale on them soon. They just "discontinued" their two summer colors and I suspect they'll bring back other colors or some new pretty colors. Right now it looks like they only have green and stone, which I like. I have the stone, but they have prettier colors too at times.

I'll put a link to their website

Greenstalk planter

I also recommend getting one of their bases. There's one on wheels and a spinner one too. I have the spinner. Those also go on sale from time-to-time.

It's a good company from what I can tell. Family business. They are located in Tennessee.

Larry, Monty Python was always a favorite. It's one of those English humor movies, either you think it's hilarious or stupid, there isn't any in between.

HJ, adding calcium to in ground plants is almost always worthless. But container plants are a whole different thing. You might be on to something, it wouldn't hurt to try and see if it helps clear it up. Biggest problem though is BER symptoms show up long after the watering issue has resolved itself, so you may not know if adding calcium actually helped or not.

I like the setup my dad did on his garden. He has a spigot in the corner of each bed, then leaves a hose connected. All he has to do to water is turn the hose on for that spot. Now, why didn't he do that when I was growing up so I didn't have to haul 100 foot hoses around the property???

HJ, your new job sounds like one I helped a friend to several years back. The mom died and her daughter hired my friend to help clean it out. We'd open a cabinet and find empty mayonaise jars (most of the time cleaned out), then open the next and find pristine cast iron toys from the 20s. And she'd hide money inside everything, which is how the daughter wound up paying us. Daughter was almost as bad of a hoarder, so after we got done cleaning it out, tossing the garbage and boxing up the good stuff, I'm sure it set in her house until she died.

Haven't done much outside this week. It's been a rough week and I've had no motivation do anything other than water. We're also trying to finish up a kitchen remodel, so I'm trying to manage without a stove.

Yes, Monty Python is in a world all its own.

Late 60's , high school years, me and my buddies would gather at Obies house ..... on Saturday nights to watch Monty Python's Flying Circus and Mazeppa.

We were in Seminole. The OKC TV stations came in strong but we would go turn the outside antenna toward Tulsa to pick up the late Saturday night show, like Mazeppa Pompazoidi's Uncanny Film Festival and then Monty Python.

Those were good days , it was a lot of fun.

I know I’m gonna miss some things because I’m shelling peas and reading at the same time. Jennifer, I am going to sow my carrots and my beets in pots, but I’m not sure which one most of the pots are full of sweet potato plants and I don’t really want to go buy any more soil. I got some borax from my daughter and you just use a tiny bit to amend the soil for BEETS. My GREENSTALK is in the middle of my yard no wind protection whatsoever and the only thing I do special is I go out and make sure it is well watered if we are going to have a windy storm. I have seen many tipped over and can only imagine they were either not level or not watered well. Also, they didn’t break but of course it was a dirty mess setting that back up I can imagine. I like this particular brand because it is made in America and they have a fantastic warranty and customer service and all the things so I feel like it’s a good investment. I’m in a group on Facebook Greenstalk gardeners and there’s lots of information and assistance if you have a problem. The other thing is that you have to buy high-quality potting mix. You cannot skimp on this because it will determine the success of your plants. I used the red jumbo bag from Walmart of the pro mix and it has done really well for me. Jennifer, I’m sorry that you had to go through all that mess and just got all cleaned up, but lots of people that grew up with little than nothing ended up being for lack of a better term hoarders. I trust and have faith that if I need something, I’ll get it when I need it and I just can’t hang onto the stuff anymore it’s too much to manage. I wouldn’t mind having some hoops. I’m still trying to figure out when I can get up there because I seem to have markets every weekend and I need to get the tire rod fixed on the front end before I make a trip. I will try to catch up later and here is a picture of what I have been doing

BTW, Mazeppa, in real life his name was Gailard Sartain, went on to being a Hee Haw regular for a lot of years. He also had an acting career . Leon Russell would appear on the show occasionally, and Gary Busey was a regular in skits, he was a character known as TeddyJackEddy. Tulsa was turning out the talent in those years.

IMBD

Morning! I'll start a new thread for this week.

Thanks, Lynn, I was a fan of Gailard, and did not even know about him. We were also born in the same year.