I just realized that I get to be home tomorrow! I'm going to work on the native garden behind the shop.

Today, I spent some time weeding and pruning and cleaning up the kitchen garden.

I thought of several things I wanted to talk about, but can't remember them now.

I replanted carrot seed. Also sowed radish and turnips. It was a nice evening.

I can’t wait to spend some time in the garden. I’m trying to get ready for all these markets and I have to spend too much time inside. I need to get some more stuff planted and I might do that in the morning if it’s not raining. I think we’ve gotten close to 3 inches of rain this week. That’s a good amount and I accidentally left my rain barrel open so none of the rain stayed in the barrel. I need to go through my seeds seriously and find out what I have and if there’s anything I need. I just harvested a ton of parsley seed I probably have over a half a cup so I need to get a row of that planted. I believe I planted a row of dill the other day so that’s good. But I do have a brand new package a deal. I’m going to plant as well. Carrots, radish all the things are on my list and I hope I can get it done this week.

The kids came over today and brought lunch and their fur babies, We had a great time, they also brought some peppers and tomatoes, I was glad to get them, but did not really need them. The produce that they brought over was from plants that I had given them. I felt proud that they were growing a little food. The kids even took a lot of produce home with then. I can bend and look like they can, and they found a lot of stuff I had over looked.

I also aired up the tires on the small tractor and tore up some ground to plant some fall stuff. I need to amend the soil, then till it and make up my mind on what I need to plant.

Larry, that sounds like a really good day.

I enjoyed my afternoon/evening out yesterday too.

So far this morning, other than normal daily chores, I've done some house things that have been ignored and ordered garlic. It's so expensive. It's sad to start over, but my garlic harvest this year was poor and nothing I want to replant for next year.

There's an opportunity for me to work at a school--teaching a few garden related lessons and maintaining an on-site garden. It's just a few hours a week. But, I'm (probably) not going to pursue it. The set-up I have now is very flexible other than a couple of days that are set. Flexible is what I need. A few years ago, I would have jumped on that opportunity.

It's damp here this morning, so I'm going to wait to go outside to work. This afternoon should dry out just a bit. If not, I'll work in the damp. Still planning on cleaning up the native garden. Pulled the Gaillardia last night. Goal is to only allow 2 or 3 plants to grow there each year. There's hundreds more coming up. That garden is wild, but it needs to be a little less wild. I have a plan.

All of the native plants in that area are out of control and need to be thinned just a little as they're growing into each other now. The obedient plant is coming out because it never blooms for me. My mom has one that blooms. Mine just spreads but never blooms. Honestly, it's doubtful I'll be able to get it all out. I'm having issues with a variety of St. John's Wort in the KG. It's spreading and taking over. I like the one that is behind our house. It has larger flowers. A different variety. It's not that I dislike the one in the KG, it spreads too much, tho. I don't want the KG to be only St. John's Wort.

One of my good friends was in a bad way health-wise, but is doing so much better now. She is into healthy eating and plants. They are on a very, very tight budget. I'm super happy to help her with some things I don't need. And with seeds. It's good to see her "come back" with energy and excitement.

Very clever, Larry! I have clothes that are just for housework/garden. Probably most of my neighbors think I don't have a decent looking piece of clothing. All they see me in are old t-shirts and shorts during the summer, and old sweatshirts and jogger type of pants in the cooler months.

I am home today and happy about that. But, I did have to get dressed in nicer clothes because I woke up with a fraud alert from my bank. I have a hold on my card. Normally when that happens they want to give you a new debit card, so I'm waiting a bit and then going to the bank. Hopefully it won't take too long.

I continued to work on the native garden yesterday, but still have about a quarter left. There were two obedient plants that were blooming, so those two stayed and the rest pulled. The foliage has some rusty looking stuff on it, tho. Cardboard was put down over most of the Gaillardia area. One small spot was left. This is where I'm missing my wood chip pile. We'll have to bring in some chips.

The west side of the native garden remains. Unauthorized wild sunflowers need to be pulled (they take over otherwise and shade everything out), the echinacea needs to be thinned more and the old flowers clipped. Same with the remaining bergamot. They are crowding out the blue false indigo and a few other plants. The aromatic aster is completely covered by other plants. The columbine is crowded, as well as the coreopsis.

I'll leave the Gregg's Blue Mist. Someone said that isn't native to Oklahoma, but to Texas. Too late. It's a favorite in the garden. It's the one thing that ALL the butterflies love in the late summer. Eventually it will need to be thinned too. That's on the agenda for this afternoon. Finishing that area. It already looks better. I hate to thin it too much, but it will fill in quickly again.

Once that task is done, I can focus on the kitchen garden and other things for the remainder of the season.

I'm SO over cucumber beetles. And SVB. I had to pull a few of my squashes early because the little grubs were boring into the stem where it attaches to the fruit. They were mostly ready, but their stems hadn't turned completely brown, which is best for storage. These couldn't be stored anyways because of the SVB damage. Luckily is was small damage so I was able to cube it up and freeze.

And what is up with the roly polies this year?! They are climbing trellises and vines to chew on cucumbers and Kajari melons. I've never seen them do this. Normally they're happy with the decaying matter in the garden...and will occasionally chew on fruit that is sitting on the ground. These guys are climbing several feet to get to the fruit of plants. It's like they have a deficiency and are craving some nutrient or something. It's weird.

Jennifer, I have tons of roly polies, but I never have noticed them climbing plants, but I always have tons of damp material on the ground. I always have tons of insects, most of which I don't try to do anything with, other than fire ants, and I seem to have them everywhere. I am wondering if the fire ants help run the gophers off? I seem to have fewer gophers and rats this year, I am trying to give a little credit to the cats and ants for that, but It may be as simple and most of then drowned in all the spring rain.

I crawled all over the north garden, pulling every weed and piece of grass I could find yesterday, I got wet and muddy, but it rained again and it got too nasty todo anything else. I will go out is a while to see if it is dry enough amend the soil, and plant a little fall stuff. While crawling through the sweet potatoes I notice that I have some nice potatoes forming, some plants look like they have nothing under then, and some seem to have voids,near the potatoes, like something may be coming up from below the eating them. I am hoping the voids are being caused by the potato growing and pushing the soil up. My vines are not a robust as they use to be and I think part of the problem is that I no longer have the compost that I use to have. My soil is so shallow and tight that it really needs amendments.

Jennifer as soon as I get the front end aligned I am going to come up there and bring you some hydrafiber. I don’t have any problems with roly pollies with it. Maybe because it’s pine and it doesn’t decay like wood chips. I am saving my wood chips for the driveway. Too many roly-poly and scorpions for me. I look forward to having a native garden. I think that would be so fun. And there are so many things in Texas. I never realized that are beautiful native plants

Well, I went out and worked outside. Watered all my baby seedlings, and areas that I have seeded with rainwater. Then I brought the hose out to water some areas pots that were dry. This water is much better than the well water that we had but it is still City water and I’m going to fill up my rain barrel at least 3/4 full and just let it sit and then I will water from the rain barrel. My beans are coming up. Great long noodle beans Black Eyed Peas. This week for some reason I’m doing a lot of running and not able to get much gardening done. I did go pick pears yesterday and got about a bushel and a half. I’ll make pear sauce as soon as they Finish ripening a little.

Kim, the rain sure made my plants look better also. I was just hot able to get enough water on my plants when it was so hot and dry. The weeds sure liked the rain also. I have not felt like doing much, but do hope to get out and plant some fall stuff, I should have already had it done but have not been motivated.

I have been wondering if I should dig up a test area for my sweet potatoes because I really need desperately need area to plant. The only space I have available is not great for root crops. I kinda halfway dug around in one of my pots and never did feel a potato so I gave upbut the inground ones got planted first I believe. I might go out with a digging fork later and see if I can find anything. Chart for my area says planting cool weather crops around September 15 so something’s gonna have to come out.

I have dug under a few of my sweet potatoes for test harvest. All of the ones I dug under had potatoes sticking up out of the soil, but I have only averaged about 2.5 to 3 pounds per plant. All of mine were in-ground potatoes, I just have not got the hang of container growing yet. I did do some tilling in the north, and south garden this morning. One thing that I am not short on is space, I an just short on go power.

Kim, I went out and dug under a couple more of my plants. I still cant brag on my production, I got 6 pounds total under the two plants, but only 4.46 pounds of usable potatoes, but I can use the smaller ones for slip making for next year. This is turning out to be my worst gardening year. Not having access of composting material is not helping my garden. The fact that I am becoming unable to work like I use to is not helping either. I have tried another way of planting slips, that may be messing me up also.

I got these two out. I won’t be able to dig the whole bed until next week, but I will definitely be doing it next week. This is the size I like I don’t want them to get any bigger.

According to my video, I planted these on May 20

Kim, I am sure that I planted the ones I dug before May 20, maybe closed to April 20, but they have suffered from little water, and no fertilizer. From looking at the soil on you potatoes, you have good soil. I expect that the potatoes in the north garden may be in better shape, but I need to wait a while to harvest them. Early spring was too wet, then later it got very dry here.

These are in ground in a bed that I had amended and dumped lots of old potting soil, rabbit, manure, etc. they are about 6 inches above grade. Last year, I grew onions and carrots in there and I honestly don’t remember what I grew in there in the fall. But it is good soil and I need to get them out so I can get my beets and carrots in.

Those look good, Kim. I'm sure that I have some that need to be dug as well. But, I really don't want to do that until next month.

I only watered the front porch pots this evening. And watered the hoop house, backyard pots and KG pots yesterday...and the carrot bed. I just ran out of time today.

It's been a long two work days. One at the new job (yesterday) where I literally didn't sit down from 930 am to after 4 pm when I sat down in my car to drive home. It took an hour. I enjoy the work, tho.

And my "real" job today had some issues, so I got away late and had to stop by Natural Grocers for farro. I'm making a roasted cauliflower farro salad for my daughter and me. Lunch tomorrow. Tomorrow is my day to hang out with the grandboy this week.

I missed being in the garden today.

Yesterday, other than watering those things mentioned above, I killed squash bugs in the Vego bed. Those plants are making new foliage and rooting along the vine. I'm torn between leaving them OR just pulling it all and stuffing in a plastic bag to discard. Likely we'll have our first frost in 4 to 6 weeks. Maybe 8. Would the new fruit developing have time to get to harvestable size? Or should I pull them green and use them as summer squash now. What do you all think? Saturday, I'll bake the squashes that I pulled and puree and freeze.

It's the SVB that is causing the issues. I can squish the squash bugs and destroy their eggs, but SVB is a whole 'nother thing.

It's become a bit of a joke that I get hurt everyday I work at my new job. Yesterday, I was trying to get a giant wax candle out of an upper cabinet. I was being especially careful because I'm short and had to climb on top of the counter to reach it. Welp, the candle was stuck so I pushed really hard and it bounced back and got me under the eye. Great. A black eye.

I'm glad Tom just fixed his own dinner--a frozen pizza. So, I could finish up the animal chores and sit down. I had some of those Siete chips made with cassava root and a slice of cheese for dinner. Not exactly satisfying, but it will work.

It's very noticeably getting darker earlier now.

I slept so hard last night that I didn't even hear Tom get up and shower, dress and fix his breakfast. Slept right through it. Woke up at 630 confused. One of those...where am I? Who am I? What am I supposed to do? type of wake ups.

Well, I"m just rambling about boring things, so I'll say good night.

Jennifer rambling post are the best posts. I have had several wake ups like that lately. Mostly what day is it and if the alarm doesn’t go off or was it supposed to go off?…………….. I went to two greenhouses and looked at all their plants and even though they’re not that expensive, I just can’t pay $2.50 for one broccoli plant. I’m hoping the feed store in Denton has six packs for the same price.

Kim, thhe high price is one reason I seldom buy plants. I seldom find plants under $.50 each, but most often they are $1.00 each, and If you buy a single plant, they run $1.99 up, even in a small container. It has gotten to where there is too much walking involved to even go look st the plants.

We got some peaches a few day ago, and one had a splitting seed in it, I cut off a milk jug a d put potting soil in it to see if I could get it to sprout. That was a waste of time but, if it sprouts, that may give me something to do this winter.

Kim, my soil is so hard that it is tough for me to dig or till. I wanted to bust up a small spot in the north garden where I pulled out some egg plants, so aired up the reactor tire and drug the middle buster through that spot. I will amend and till later. While I had the tractor out, I though I might as well see it I could plow out some sweet potatoes. I drug the plow down about 10 or 12 feet of row. I did not remove the vines, I just let them hang up on the plow. I then removes 20 pounds or potatoes (still dirty) most were low quality potatoes, but usable.The right we can cook, and the left can be used for slips.

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I think that I need to change some of the things that I have done this year about my sweet potatoes.

Larry, those look good. I don’t save that many potatoes for slips maybe two or three but then I don’t plant nearly what you do. I still had two or three dozen that I sold and gave away. We got our cool down. Unfortunately I don’t get to work outside today cause I’m getting ready for the market but tomorrow will be great.

Kim, I actually don't save that many for slips, I just sort out the better ones to cure. The smaller sweet potatoes I eat raw, or just toss. I do use smaller slips for slips because I dont have a lot of room in the house to start seeds and plants, and the smaller potatoes fit better in a seed starting flat. I have been starting too many plants, which I must stop. This year I started around 800 plants, I just cant care for that many plants, I can't even give them away. I started over 400 sweet potato plants. I was hoping to bring a lot of plants to Spring Fling, but I was not able to go.

If I were a little younger, and had a greenhouse, I could really make a mess, but if you listen to Madge, I do a pretty good job of making a mess now. All jokes aside, I just don't feel like messing with a garden anymore.

I think that I will just take Madge out to eat, or let Madge take me out to eat, she does most of the driving now.

Sometimes it’s hard to switch gears.

Kim, I think that Mother Nature will often switch gears for us, more often than not.

Madge and I went to the Mexican place in Greenwood for lunch. The time with Madge is always nice.

I went out to both, north, and south garden to check. It is drying out again, and I may water some today. My okra is very late this year. I found one usable size pod, but several starting to form, but at 66 degrees it won't form very fast. I may have enough for a meal this coming week. We had a low of 61 degrees this morning.

The cold front came down last night and it was so nice. The air felt exactly (to me) how it felt our first Halloween at this property. I opened the window while we were sleeping. It was chilly and so lovely.

It is a beautiful day. I've been stuck indoors doing kitchen things, tho. All those mini butternuts had to pulled because of the SVB. Pretty sure they wouldn't store well, so they're either chunked or pureed and in the freezer now. Big job, but glad it's done.

I did spend a few minutes outdoors this late morning. My neighbor invited me to pick from her garden. She has aphids pretty bad, but I was able to get some okra for a couple of meals and a few cukes. I forgot to look at the green beans.

Tom's mower broke so he's waiting on a plug (?) that he just ordered today. But he's happy it's not the clutch which he thought it was at first. Not sure what any of that means, but pretty sure one is a lot more expensive than the other. And maybe more work???

Luckily our neighbor and friend let him use his mower. We really needed to mow. And we're hosting the neighborhood meeting on Tuesday and want it to look nice.

I'm going out in a few minutes to help with the weedeating and trimming and all. I like to work around certain areas because otherwise there's damage done to things that I want undamaged. lol

We've had a few butterflies this week that I've not see on our property before. One is a Question Mark butterfly. They're common from what I understand, but I've never seen one here until this week. And there's a few others too. Some caterpillar is chowing down on the milkweed and it's not monarchs or queens. I've not seen many monarchs this year.

Larry, you can always just keep a small garden near your house. BUT, I do understand that sometimes it's super difficult to not do things the way you used to...and want to, but can't because of restrictions (health, time, space).

I'm trying to embrace the changes....and set myself up for them. Making mental notes of how I can squeeze everything in that I want to grow and be very diligent with succession planting.

Part of me thinks that I'll only grow herbs, flowers and very few fruit/veg, BUT I know I'll be unhappy with that choice when harvest time comes. So, need to figure out how to grow what we'll eat/use in an organized, thoughtful way. This year was pretty good that way, but part of it was forced because of Rick's death. But, I can make improvements, like fewer tomato plants.

Speaking of Rick, we went by his house to get the titles to his vehicles for his nephew. The stepson had found them in the house and left them for Martin. And a ring of keys. The electricity has now been shut off. I suspect the checking acct that it automatically came out of, has been emptied now. I can't do anything about any of it, so have to let it go. The way this is being handled is crazy, but again, nothing I can do about it. In the box where the title were left was some grade school pics of Rick. Cute. He was a blondie.

Anyway...I'm going out now to look things over in the gardens and help with the trimming and all.

Jennifer, I think that I have don't about all I can do for now. I am so thankful that I started planing early. I built handicap ramps, widened door ways, and put in a handicap shower years ago. I will start downsizing the garden now, and at some point I expect to start pulling Tee post and using the equipment on the tractor to re-contour the gardens back into lawn. We hope that all the financial stuff has been taken care of, but we don't have a crystal ball, so we have no idea what will happen next.

I cleaned the sweet potatoes that I dug a few days (only brushed the dirt off) and brought them into the house, I had 17.9 pounds of potatoes, so I see no problem of getting my 100+ pounds of potatoes to store. I have dug less than 1/2 of a row. I still have 5 or 6 more rows to dig. I wish I had marked where I had gotten to at the point to where I still had 120 days of growing time left. I should have 150 plants left that will have had 100- 115 days of growing time at harvest. The last plants I planted will not reach 90 days.

While digging around my seed starting room, I ran across these 2 potatoes that I dug almost a year ago, they were on the back of my seed starting shelf. I don't like the large potatoes, they are too hard to work with. These I had sit back to use for slips. The large potatoes are too hard to clean, and they don't fit well in my flats to make slips, that is one reason I tries to modify my growing method to get more smaller potatoes, but I may have over done it. The smaller potatoes in the background are some of the scrap from sorting potatoes earlier today.

Here is a picture of my okra this morning. I like to get my pictures posted on Saturday so there will not be so much scrolling that has to be done. I understand that is a lot more trouble on a phone. This was taken 9-6-2025. I can use this to check back on my garden at a later date. I don't know how to set up a file.

My garden is really a mess, I need to start cleaning it up.