Jennifer, I hate to hear that your little man has such a time with it. One of my kids had it pretty rough, but the other two never got much so that I was thankful for that. I believe medication is over used by a lot of people. But I also believe when they need it, they need it. I hope you have a great time in Arkansas and enjoy the cooler weather. Gardening news, after a week of not harvesting I have 8 to 10 inch okra, noodle beans that have gone to seed, and I played around in my sweet potato pot and I felt some decent size sweet potatoes so next week all of the pots will be dumped out. I am looking forward to it and hope to make a video for my YouTube channel. I’m gonna cut out my pink eye purple hull peas since they are doing nothing. I might plant my garlic in there if I can get some more soil. I went to a friend‘s farm in Lubbock and it was so delightful to see. He had three 100 foot high tunnels. He had five room operation growing mushrooms. Various seeds starting rooms micro green rooms. It was amazing. I remember when he first showed up at the Market as a young man maybe 16 or 17. He employs five people now. Mostly family. I am so thankful to be home from my week away.

I have pretty much taken the day off. I was tired from digging sweet potatoes yesterday, so today Madge and I went out to eat, and shopped a little. When we got home I started cleaning the potatoes that I dug yesterday, and carried in a little over 35 pounds. I am going to try to cure some in the house this year. I don't have a place to cure, and keep them properly, but so far I have been able to have potatoes all year long. It looks as tho I will have no problem getting all the potatoes the family needs.

Kim, I am glad that you and Jennifer have been having a good time. Tomorrow we plan on going to a family reunion, so I wont be doing any gardening for a while, although I still need to go out and pick the okra.

Larry, I have a small shed that I cured mine in. I am not sure if it worked properly but I kept them in there for about seven days. I have a Market tomorrow church on Sunday and hopefully Monday I can start dumping out those pots. I need to find a big tarp

Kim, I have cured sweet potatoes in a shed and on the covered porch, but I am trying to cut out some of the moving. Last year I sent a bunch of potatoes home with the kids for them to cure, and some I just dumped because I had too many. I have also tried to cut them up and feed to the cows and deer, but that is too much work. I will try to save the best ones, give some away, and compost the rest. I will try to process some for pie fillings for Madge. Our hands are just getting too weak and sore to do the things we use to do.

I cleaned up most of the Black Eyed Peas bed and watered everything that needed it. I’m going to attempt to find my sugar snap peas seed and get those planted tomorrow afternoon. I definitely need to do some weed eating grass pulling and planting.

HJ, sorry to hear about the baby. Hoping he heals quickly.

Speaking of sweet potatoes, I dug mine up and gave them to the neighbor. I won't eat them, I grew them mostly for the novelty and because I like the vines. But they'll enjoy them, I'm sure. Besides, he came over and fixed our outside faucet (the connector thingy broke and swamped the little area in front of the barn). These suckers were HUGE! Hope they taste as good as they look.

HJ, you brought chamomile and Dawn's pepper, because I got one of each from you. The chamomile is holding on, and Dawn's pepper is loaded right now with bright red fruits. I should have picked them, but I don't feel like making more cowboy candy tonight.

I always loved going to Paula's. Funny thing, when we were just starting to look back in 2020, I found her place listed on Zillow or Realtor and had it flagged before realizing it was hers. How ironic would it have been if we'd bought her place? I mentioned it to her that year and she jokingly told me we would've had to take over as host.

I've got a new tiller. Long story.

About 2 weeks ago, I tilled the garden to plant winter cover. Halfway through, my 32 yo tiller quit working. Its got some kind of problem with the carburetor.

I had to decide if I wanted to keep putting money and time in this old tiller. Probably needs a new carburetor, which I put on one a few years ago. Its been a problem since. I have to prime it to start it.

Soo, I found a new front tine Troy Bilt at Home Depot for $700. They had to ship it, there's none in stock in the OKC metro or elsewhere close. When it got here last week via FedEx, it was damaged in shipment. I sent it back to Home Depot and they ordered me another one.

In the meantime, it the long time it took FedEX to get the new one to me, I found a tiller on Facebook Marketplace. I'd not gone their originally cuz I figured everything there was well used junk. And I was almost right about that.

I found a Craftsman front tine that had never been used. Lady said her parents bought it and put it in storage, and then sold their land and never needed it. It was as advertised and I bought it for $350.

I fired it up yesterday and finished tilling my garden. Its a beast compared to my old one. Its wider and has more power. I looked up the model and serial number and it was built in 2012. Pretty amazing to get a brand new tiller that old. I'm tickled to death.

Fedex finally delivered the HD Troy Bilt and I took it back to Home Depot.

Lynn, that is a nice looking tiller. If that one last you 32 years, you may be ready to retire from gardening anyway. I had a front tine before I bought the one I have now, I felt that I could do a better job with the front tine, but my body had broken down enough, plus I a much bigger garden so the next time that I decided on a rear tine. The front tine is okay, but I have more maintenance, and need more room to operate it.

I have been taking it easy, other than sorting and cleaning some sweet potatoes. I already have my 100+ pounds cleaned and sorted, now if I can just get them cured properly. I am sure that I still have 100+ pounds left in the ground, I will start digging a few every week, and if I don't have them dug by frost, I will just cut the vines, and keep digging up till Thanksgiving.

I also need to get ground ready for winter onions and garlic. and I still have not planted any fall stuff.

We have had company, and a family reunion, and I am about worn out.

My garden not big enough for rear tine. I'd would've liked to go that direction, my shoulders are sore today from tilling yesterday. That front tine will give ya an upper body workout.

Lynn, they sure will give you a work out, but you can till deeper with them. I get a work out with my rear tine tiller, it does fine when I am going in a straight line, I can operate it with one hand, but it is not a lot of fun to turn around when you get to the end of the row.

I ran a water line and an electric line to each of my gardens when I was younger, expecting that I might have to go to an electric till by now, but I don't even want to fool with an electric tiller now. I may just get a coloring book, or take up knitting.

Lynn, I could have given you Rick's tiller! It's just sitting in our shop. But, your new one looks nice. Glad you found a good deal.

Jen, that's funny that you looked at Paula's property!

The baby is a lot better according to daughter. He made real strides over the past couple of days and should be back at MDO starting tomorrow.

Do you not like sweet potatoes? I don't like them alone, but enjoy them in recipes a lot. And often use them in place of winter squash. I also do not like sweet potato fries that many people enjoy.

Larry and Kim, hope your day was productive.

Hoping the few things that I want to save aren't dead when I get home. We'll be leaving super early because we have to get the rental car back earlier than we thought. Bummer.

My neighbor says the animals are doing well. I'm sure the cats are mad. But, my neighbor and her daughters are good about walking Josi. I'm so glad Josi is doing better. I was really scared a couple of weeks ago as she was throwing up everything she ate or drank. Was worried it was some type of obstruction--that she had eaten something that cat knocked onto the floor. Those surgeries can be $10000. But, we wouldn't be able to afford that. And she'll be 12 in February, but is still active and I'm not ready to lose her.

Anyway. It's been a nice trip. Lots of nature and forest time for me. We've eaten at some nice places too. And just relaxed a lot in the evenings.

Make sure to get the gasoline out of Rick's tiller. If left in too long, it will gum it up and create a repair. My tillers did not have a way to drain, I just had to run them until they ran out of gas. That's in the manual for this new one, they say to winterize just leave it running till its empty.

I'm really happy with my find. I hope I no longer have to work on a tiller before I can put it to work.

I second Lynn's remark about prepping your tiller for winter storage, I don't, and pay the price. I like to keep my tiller ready to use at any time, but if for some reason I don't use my tiller for a long time, or let it sit out in the weather for weeks, or months it can cause me a lot of work to get it started. My tiller is about 23 years old, and has been used pretty hard, I doubt that I can squeeze 32 years out of it. I am already on the 3rd engine, 2nd set of tires, and the 2nd set of times, but I expect that it will last as long as I do.

After I got a tiller that would fit on my smallest tractor it has taken a lot of pressure off of my rear time tiler. All of my equipment is about worn out, but so am I.

I need to go out and start digging potatoes again, I dread it, I have all of the potatoes that I need, and anything else that I dig will have to be given away, or thrown away. It id net too hard to give things away, but sometimes it is hard to find help at harvest time.

I took 6 pounds of okra to a daughter at the family reunion, and I already have a large pile that I picked last night.

When grand daughter was here they said that the loved hot peppers, I said go get them, I have 4 different kinds of hot peppers in the garden, they said, that they would come back and get them (meaning that if I had them picked that they would take them). If I have to pick these peppers and other produce, I will take it to some of the older folks around here that are not able to get out and do thing like that anymore,

Please over look me, I am tired and cranky, if I am going to have to force myself to go out and harvest something that I don't need, I had rather give it to the needy, other than the lazy.

I am still grumpy. I cant get this lazy cat do anything but lie there and watch me work.

I have more sweet potatoes in the house than Madge and I can use, and these still sitting in the north garden.

I still have these in the north garden to dig, and about 3 times that many still in the south garden to dig, and I still have all of those lying on the 4' x 12' conveyor belt that I use as a sled that I dug the first day.

When will I ever listen to Madge when she says, " don't plant so much"?

Larry, what about a local food bank or senior center That would be happy to have those sweet potatoes

Do you remember a guy named Johnny that used to be in our group. He runs vision Farms and donates everything they grow. He used to go around and plow until for people that didn’t have plows.

Thanks, Kim, I had forgotten about the food banks, also we have a senior center that we some times go to. I also called my daughter, and she said that they would be over Sunday to help dig. Daughter and grand daughter also have people they know to give produce to. I don't mind giving the stuff away, but some times the harvest can be a little rough. My ground is do hard that the digging can be a pain.

I have not seen anymore about Regina's potato harvest, has anyone else heard? I don't think that I have ever had a Covington plant not produce. I think that this has been my worst year as far as pounds per plant, but I still have a lot more than I can use. The purple sweet potatoes have been my most unpredictable potatoes, that is the reason I quit growing them.

I haven't seen anything else about Regina's harvest. She doesn't really post here any longer.

Larry, your harvest is amazing.

My hoop house harvest wasn't great. I don't have the knack for sweet potatoes, I think. I got maybe a dozen good ones (some are probably too big) and some little ones. I didn't really plan on digging them this afternoon, but did. I still have the mineral tubs to go. SO....could get close to the 24 good sized ones. But probably more like 16 to 18.

I did realize that I only used about 5 ft of the hoop house bed. And the width of the bed is less than 3 ft. Pretty sure I only put maybe 6 slips...possibly 8 in that space. There's little thread like roots on mine. Is that normal?

Honestly, my brain was so off in May. I didn't make the best gardening choices. It was traumatic finding Rick on the floor of his bathroom...and then his death was hard. Especially since I was told he wanted the oxygen and ventilator removed, but when I asked him, he didn't indicate that to me. I tried to "be sure" with him before they removed it and the doctor was rude and called me out...saying that his mind wasn't "aware". BUT, it was. He was choosing songs with a nod just an hour before. Anyway, it's a whole thing that is still bothering me. But, it's nothing I could have done anything about. Supposedly he indicated to family that he wanted all of the stuff removed.

I had a dream about it last night.

Anyway...

All that to say, my choices in the garden weren't the best. I spent way too much time on dumb things like finding homes for 279 tomatoes and even up-potting them for people. And just sticking plants in the dumbest situations.

But, I did get some good harvests. Not great on anything, but good enough. Next year will be better.

Larry, I wouldn't be too upset with your family. Your granddaughter just has different priorities right now. There might have been a time in your life that the garden wasn't a priority. (Same with me.) It's not a reflection on you... or with her being lazy. My daughter wouldn't come out and harvest anything, but she's far from lazy. She works hard. I wish she enjoyed gardening more...and she might some day, but, right now she's doing other things. And I'm happy to share the healthy organic produce with her. Even if I have to pick it.

BUT...you have a LOT of stuff to pick and dig and I'm glad your daughter is coming to help. Honestly, I'm a little jealous of your ability to grow sweet potatoes.

That's about it for me tonight.

You are right, Jennifer, I really was not trying to say that the kids are lazy, they do have different priorities, and I did too at that age. I spent too much time hunting and fishing. But, I will have to say that I have spent more time on lawn care, and gardening than I did hunting and fishing, and I think that I have enjoyed it more. The one thing I could never understand, is how anyone could justify the time spent sitting on the couch drink a beer and watching a ball game. I can say that I tried playing golf for three winters, that worked fine till the weather got good enough to work on the lawn, then I could hardly stay on the golf course.

I find that my interests have changed a lot through the years.

Jennifer I just sent you a big hug.

Thanks, Kim. I appreciate it.

I'm not walking around depressed about it now, but occasionally it hits me.

Larry, hobbies and interests change with time. And that's good. Sometimes life phases dictate that some. I'm not a baseball fan, but when Ethan played as a little guy, I was there. Same with high school band. When Mason did competitive cheer, I was there.

I'm not much of a sitter-arounder either, but was as a kid more so. I was an avid reader. I miss reading but can't settle down to read very often. I'm really going to try this winter season. We're not doing any major house things (although we really need to paint our kitchen cabinets). I'm going to try to catch up on the books.

It was cool and crisp this morning and I sure enjoyed wearing a sweater to work today.

Tonight is more watering. Probably won't dump the mineral tubs yet. Might wait until I see a frost on the forecast and dump them as soon as it shows up on the 9-day.

I left my seedlings with mom, so will pick those up after work and possibly plant them in the green stalk and maybe the hoop house too since the 5'x3' area that had sweet potatoes is clear now.

I'll come back with a picture of my small sweet potato harvest. Maybe it's not too bad considering it was in a 5'x3' area. I'll do the entire 8' bed next year.

Jennifer, I understand. Those sweet potatoes look great. I wanted to get my Doug this week, but I decided to wait because I have more pressing things to get done. I’m gonna be away from home two days this week so I will not get anything done at home. Right now I need to process pears. My refrigerator is completely packed. And I need to get all the fruits out of the freezer and not let anybody give me any anymore until it is done. Once they are all in jars, I will feel so much better. I have gallons of figs and grapes and plum purée and plums and it’s just a lot. I need my freezers back. Right now I’m working on my calendar to see where my empty days are for markets I do believe next week. I will have a full week at home except Thursday night. I think as soon as I get the fruit into jars and herb blends lined out then I will harvest my sweet potatoes. Right now they are safe where they’re at so no sense pushing it.

Jennifer, it looks like you will meet your goal with sweet potatoes. I expect that I still have around 100 plants to dig, and I already have 100 pounds more than I want. My production was not good, but I have plenty to give away. If I am able to garden nest summer I think I will grow some butter nut, and cut back on the sweet potatoes. Butter nut would be fun to grow if it were not for the vine bores and squash bugs, other than that they are a very productive plant.

Larry, I'm growing two small varieties of butternut squash. What I've found, is that the first fruit had to be cut a little early so it wouldn't store well. I pureed it and froze it. The SVB were destroying the vines and moving to the stem area. BUT, the newer ones are NOT affected. The vines that rooted along the soil are making new fruit. I was able to bring some of it in. It was ready to cure. And should store well. And there's more fruit on the vine. I'm not seeing any type of frost on our 9 day so hopefully I'll get more. Maybe it will make up for my not-so-great sweet potato harvest.

Maybe you would have the same situation.

The squash bugs are a pain tho. And because my squash plants are in raised beds just outside my backdoor, I have been able to keep an eye on them and pick the eggs and kill the bugs It would be much harder if they were sprawling on the ground.

Jennifer, I would like to grow a Waltham butternut squash because of its size, and I even like A Ukrainian squash. I liked the Ukrainian squash better, but I am having a hard time finding seeds for it. Arbatskaya, I think is what it is called????

The most productive squash that I have grown was a squash from Brazil, it looked a lot like Long of Naples, but had a Portuguese name. A lady from around Oklahoma City several years ago sent me 4 or 5 seeds, and I got one of the seeds to germinate, that one plant produced about 400 pounds of produce. That was really a fun plant to grow, but, what in the world can you do with 400 pounds of squash, they averaged was around 20 pounds each. I had never grown anything like that, and would like to try again, but it is so easy to grow more food than you know what to do with.

Larry, Seminole has been my favorite, but I haven't grown a lot of different varieties of winter squash. I've tried a few that didn't produce because of the pests.

I didn't get anything done other than watering tonight. And walking Josi. It got dark on me.

I have a dentist appt in the morning and will visit a friend. Hopefully I'll have more time tomorrow to plant out the lettuce. Mom took good care of it, but let the very small seedlings in the peat pellets dry out. The peat pellets have to be watered every day. It's okay tho. I'll try again for spinach.

Honestly tho, I'm really ready to put the garden to rest for the year. More so than any other year.

I'm still seeing lots of butterflies including monarchs. I glanced down while in the chicken yard and saw what I thought was a giant monarch and then quickly realized it was mating monarchs. What in the world?! In the chicken yard?! Dumb. The chickens were distracted by my presence and wondering if I had brought them treats otherwise those two would have been eaten. Don't they know everyone is trying to save them?!....and there they are on the ground of the chicken yard being stupid.

Jennifer, I really like growing the Seminole pumpkin, but it has too little weight for the volume of space it requires. I can store more food per cu. ft. with another type of squash. I had rather have a good, long storing food that is more dense. I can get more pounds per cu.ft with butternut. I also like to store beans and rice, you get pretty good bang for the buck with them also, but I don't like growing them.

I think that I have had better luck with Seminole pumpkins than anything as far as long storing, but I can get Covinging sweet potatoes to store for about a year, the do very well storing through the winter. I don't get many foods to keep like that without freezing or canning. I am at the stage in life that I don't want to invest any more labor in anything than I have to.

I loved the year (2019) that we had so many Seminoles that I didn't know what to do with them. I put some into the shop still green and they turned orange and tasted good. I had them on all the cabinet tops in the house and finally, after about a year and a half, they started going bad. Sure enjoyed having them. They seemed to be perfect for our needs.

But, that's the good thing about gardening. There's a lot of ways to do for different situations and different goals.

The more northern gardeners who harvested their potatoes and onions, etc just last month seem to have more luck with storing things. Probably for a lot of reasons.

Still not seeing any cold temperatures on the 9-day. Maybe my fall potatoes will actually have time to produce something. If we have one of those situations where it frosts one night but then it's perfectly beautiful for another week or two--I can cover the potatoes maybe.

I am pleased with my small butternut harvest. It's really the only thing other than peppers that did very well. I guess the asparagus did too.

Tomatoes--not great

Cucumbers--okay

Karjari melons--not great

Onions and garlic--not great

Green beans--fairly well

Cantaloupe--bad

Sweet potatoes--okay

Carrots and beets from last fall that were harvested in the late winter--good

Carrots this fall--disappeared mostly

Okra--bad

Strawberries--not great

lettuces and other salad greens--okay

Potatoes--okay

I'm about to head out and put the lettuces in the Greenstalk and hoop house.

I need to make a list of what did well like yours. I ordered a new GreenStalk. I could not resist they had that sale 65% off. I have a chocolate brown one and now I have pink and that is a good color combination for me. I will say I think my okra and long noodle beans have done the best out of every crop I do look forward to coming to the end of parts of the garden. I have started harvesting some Calyxes from the hibiscus. I decided instead of harvesting all at once I’m just gonna harvest a little every day and throw them in the dehydrator and then in a jar. It seems more manageable. I haven’t really been feeling well. The last few days I’m hoping whatever it is passes quickly. It’s mostly fatigue, which might be left over from my vacation.

Klm, Madge and I must have gone on vacation with you, because we both have caught that disease also. I am not sure if it is fatal, but is sure takes a long time to recover.

A new friend stopped by today, and gave me some okra seeds, he called the seeds "Big Fingers". I have never heard of that okra, but I plan on planting some next year just for the heck of it. I also loaded Harold up with sweet potatoes and peppers. I expect that he will take the produce around and give it to others. I had given Harold a bunch of different kinds of plants last spring, and he shared them with others. He seems to want to share things. Harold barbered for 70 years, so I think he knows everybody. Harold gets around very well for a guy in his 90's.

Other than sorting a few sweet potatoes, I have not done anything today. I am thinking about asking my sweet wife if she would like to go to town for an ice cream cone. You can tell that I don't lead an exciting life.

Sounds like a good day to me, Larry.

Congrats on your new Greenstalk, Kim. I resisted buying anything from them even tho the deals were awesome. I want two short ones for our shop porch.

I did plant the lettuce seedlings into the Greenstalk and hoop house bed.

AND found more sweet potatoes that I missed. Good sized.

I'm also tired from our vacation. It was nice, tho. And I wouldn't have done it differently.

It might take me a bit to recover, tho. Climbing that mountain--especially the large rocks/boulders was no joke. Especially with my feet being like they are. I fell once. But only skinned my arm. It was a lot steeper than the pictures show.

Glad we did it.

I need to get back on my exercise plan. I've missed two weeks of Pilates and haven't done my other things either in a couple of weeks. I can't do the stair walking anymore really because of the new ankle issue (which is why I fell on the mountain).

I picked a lot of hot peppers tonight. Got them bagged by variety and will send them with Tom in the morning so he can offer them at work. Luckily he hasn't been furloughed yet. And his check is supposed to go in on time.

Tomorrow is a long day at work. I'm sure I'll need to water afterwards and that will be all the gardening I'll do.

There's going to be issues next year. I have a giant Tulsi in the KG that will drop seed everywhere. All basil does that, but Tulsi is crazy about it.

I have not watered in quite a while, I have been letting every thing dry, hoping the potatoes will be dryer, but the peppers are getting pretty dry also. The kids are to come over and dig potatoes and pick peppers Sunday. Maybe I should water the peppers before then, but I will wait and see about the sweet potatoes. I expect to have to plow some of them out of the ground anyway. It is unreal how hard my soil can get.

I have a case of " do nothing fever", I am tired and just want to chill awhile.

Jennifer, I meant to tell you that if I can find some of the Ukranian squash seed that I would send you some if you want them. The only thing bad I can say about them is that they are a space hog, just like all other winter squash I have grown.

I am having a hard time logging onto garden web. I may have to have grand daughter fix the problem.

We dug our sweet potatoes yesterday. I didn’t weigh them but had a nice basket of potatoes- a nice amount for the culvert piece they were planted in. A couple had holes like borers. Several really large potatoes, although I prefer the smaller baking size. One potato will make a full dish - does it lose quality when gets so large? This is first year I’ve raised sweet potatoes in many years, I don’t remember except I know the bigger ones get woody after awhile. I put them in a dark corner of the greenhouse to cure. A neighbor boy helped me dig and I gave him some to take home. I told him they would be better if they let them cure but expect all will be eaten before weekend. Like Larry, I like sharing from the garden however I NEVER intend to plant even 1/2 the potatoes he does. As long as I can produce enough for our needs and a few to share I’m good.

We had one nice day of cooler weather, the hoped for rain didn’t materialize. The few tomatoes I have left have golf ball size tomatoes. When frost comes I can pick the bigger ones to ripen and make chow chow with the others. So far there are lot of high 80’s and 90’s predicted. The late zinnias I planted are starting to bloom. The early zinnias were about 3’ tall but same seeds produced 12-15” plants - compact size. A beautiful spot of color and the traveling monarchs and the swallowtails are enjoying them. I have an abundance of a yellow colored fuzzy caterpillar now on everything in the garden. Not sure what it is, but it eats everything.

Glenda, those potatoes look good, do you know what type they are? When I grew Beauregard sweet potatoes I seemed to have a larger amount of very large potatoes, they were good, but with our old hands they seemed to be harder to cut up, and longer to bake. The Covington seem to have a larger number of the size potatoes that I like. Also harvesting a little sooner seems to give smaller number of baking size potatoes.

I have not grown a very large variety of sweet potatoes, but it seemed that the Red Wine Velvet had the sweetest taste, but did not keep as well. The Red Wine Velvet also seemed to produce a good weight per plant, but, I still prefer the Covington potato.

Glenda, that potato you are pictured with could be wrapped in a baby blanket and called a new grand child, it's about the size of a new born. congratulations on your nice harvest.

Larry that was just a grocery store potato. Nobody around here had slips so I just started my own. Maybe next year I can find some slips. I’ll remember next year to dig them earlier because I much prefer just baking size potatoes. My grandson loves sweet potato pie but he is on a mission trip in Australia for next 6 months. By then it will be time to start some new ones. My mama used to slice slabs and panfry them with a little butter then sprinkle just a bit of sugar on top - we had them for breakfast.

Glenda, Madge often pan fries sweet potatoes, makes pies, and bake them. I am trying to get Madge to make some sweet potato bread, and sweet potato cake, but that has not happened. I think that sweet potatoes and winter squash are good crops to grow for winter storage. Around here most sweet potatoes in the stores are Beauregard. Beauregard is a great potato, but they seem to get a little larger than I like.

It is hard to find slips around here also. Beauregard in 6 packs can be found about anywhere, but slips have to be ordered. It has been 15 or 20 years since I have seen slips for sale around here.

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Glenda! Nice sweet potatoes!

This is a picture of what I have left of my sweet potatoes in the south garden. The strip in the center I have dug about 150 pounds of potatoes from. I should have at least that many more there.

This is a picture of the sweet potatoes that I have left in the north garden. I have harvested over 100 pounds from this garden. I have saved about 100 pounds for my self. I am hoping that the kids will dig the rest of the potatoes, and harvest the peppers. I just don't feel like fooling with this stuff anymore.

A friend just stopped by and gave me some Star of David okra seed, and some Lee okra seed. I was really pleased that the friend dropped by with the seeds, but I am not sure that I will be able to garden any next year, and I an sure the kids will not take a strong interest in it. I hope the kids find something to enjoy as much as I have enjoyed gardening.

I did a gardening consultation job yesterday and I had to pinch myself that I actually get paid to talk to people about gardening. This is going to be an ongoing project and am really excited about it. Larry, I have tried to encourage all of my children to garden Since I have discovered my passion for it. My youngest son does quite a bit of gardening but the other two are too busy

Oh, by the way, y’all’s gardens sweet potato vines, sweet potatoes look amazing

Sorry, I've been absent.

Larry, I would love any winter squash seed that you want to share. It's a favorite. It would be a dream to grow all the winter squash and pumpkins.

My phone has given me fits today. I finally realized that I needed to clean out a lot of stuff. I'm back up and running.

Yesterday was a long work day. I only had time to water last night and feed everyone. Today, I was in Edmond with the baby. Got home about 5 and did the grocery shopping for the week.

Y'all I've been so incredibly tired lately. I think our bodies KNOW we're supposed to start descending and resting....but we continue to push ourselves even in this season that we're supposed to settle a bit.

I fell asleep hard while the baby was sleeping and my daughter was out at a meeting. She came home and I woke up....and was in that fog that you get in when you've been sleeping hard.

I just can't seem to get enough sleep.

I really pushed myself on vacation physically. BUT, it was so much fun although my body is feeling it. LOL

My plan for tomorrow is to spend the entire day outside cleaning up garden beds. It's going to be hot, tho, so I need to start early.

Glenda, we were going to go to Walnut Woods tomorrow, but we'll wait since it's going to be so warm. We're about to run out of time, but maybe it will be cooler in a couple of weeks.

I know the feeling Jennifer. I’ve been struggling to get enough sleep. This morning I woke at 230. Could not go back to sleep and now it’s time to rise and shine for the market. There was a good video although long. Little mountain ranch. She tasted 19 different squash and pumpkin. It was really interesting.

Kim, I meant to say earlier congratulations on your new consulting job.

It is annoying when you wake up and can't go back to sleep. Normally, for me, it's on a day like today. I could sleep in, but wake up (or get awakened by a pet) around 6 am and can't go back to sleep.

We got out early and got some stuff done.

The vine (or whatever it is) that is on the west side of the chicken pen got pruned way back. It's the one that Dawn gave me years ago. She thought it was a native honeysuckle, but it's not. It's a little aggressive but it does shade the pen nicely.

I normally need to trim it 3 times a year but it only got it twice this year.

Got the Vitex trimmed. Weeded the beds around the chicken pen and in the backyard.

All the strawberry babies are now planted in one of the beds around chicken pen--the east side. Who knows if they'll make it. I've had the worst luck with strawberries since 2022. The ones in the Greenstalk do okay, but they don't make a lot of fruit but maybe I'm not fertilizing enough. I want to do a bed with June bearers. And maybe keep the area around the chicken pen for everbearers.

Trying to rethink my kitchen garden....IF I do fewer tomatoes, I could give one of the beds to strawberries. And hope it works. So weird. In the past I've had lots of berries.

Tom started (and is almost finished) with the hoop house door repair. We'll finish it this evening. He got the auto chicken waterers cleaned up and put away.

I might want to dump the mineral tubs with the sweet potatoes this evening too.

And, I want to grab some compost in a couple of hours to put in the bed where the garlic will be planted.

Trying to get a lot done today because who knows if we'll have another day this year. Next weekend we're keeping the baby.

What's everyone up to today?

Jennifer M I Gardner said to fertilize a lot until the plant is full and bushy and then cut off the fertilizer. I did a market today and pretty good. I took myself out to lunch to pay myself for such a good job I did.

Laura at Garden ANSWER says to fertilize every two weeks with berry tone

I have got to learn how to fertilize. I have used compost for the past near 20 years, with me making compost from hay ring scrap, I did not need much anything else, but I have been going through a learning curve now that I don't make my own compost.

I went out and dug another 75 pounds of sweet potatoes. This has not been a great year for me, but I will still have much more sweet potatoes than I need. I had started a lot of extra plants this year, planning on being able to come to spring fling,but everyone was busy, and we did not have a driver.

My new friend brought me over a start of garlic, that he got from one of his friends in south Arkansas, he said that this stand of garlic has been on the old home place for 70 years, and they just let it go and keep spreading. They harvested what they needed. My late friend had a stand of garlic that he just let go also. I have never tried that, but I think that I will try it with this garlic.

This week has been an ordeal. Just glad it's the weekend, tho Sat afternoon means it's halfway done already. Nothing much outside, it's just been one of those weeks. Got groceries and errands done, then came home and worked on church stuff. Maybe tomorrow I'll get into the garden and do some cleanup. I have garlic in the fridge ready to plant, just haven't dedicated time to do anything.