Well, I was in the other thread as usual. Just posted a nice long rambling thing. Between that thread and this thread, I remembered I do need to plant my GS. I have about 15 or 20 empty pockets.

Jennifer, we have places here that will load your supplies for you, I am sure that you do also. I buy most of my supplies at te Farmers Co-op. I can park within 40" of the front door, go in and tell them what I want, and by the time I get paid for and back to the truck, or car the supplies will already be loaded.

I am so tired that I hurt, but rain should be coming in, and I need to go out and get some things planted. The trip to the hospital was very tiring for Madge and me both this morning. Madge is resting now, but, I feel that I need to go and sling some dirt.

I planted 18 peppers in the wildlife garden today. I hope tp plant more seeds and plants over there tomorrow. the rows that I am making over there are around 7 or 8 feet apart. I think I have 12 or 13 rows, I will just broad cast old seeds in the unused areas. I also need to get the flower beds planted over there. I feel that I am biting off more than I can chew again this year.

After work yesterday, I was able to pot up the Big Beef for Kim, a Sungold for Dawn, and a Isis Candy for Regina. They're getting really big. And up-potted some zinnias. They could be planted only their spot isn't ready right now and they needed to be out of their starter pellets. This will give me a couple of weeks. Many of them will go into the shorter Greenstalks.

The Contender beans are mostly all up. There's a few Jade up too. Other than watering the hoop house , that's all I did last night in the garden.

I would like to bring in some more chamomile to dry. The Ranch variety elderberry is making blossoms already. I should get a batch together with the chamomile and see if my neighbor will freeze dry it for me.

Everybody’s gardens are marching right along as they should. This is a good season. I’m gonna include a picture of this cabbage that is growing in the garden at work. I planted it in zoo poo and it has the biggest leaves I have ever seen on a cabbage. That is a standard scissors not a miniature. I cannot wait till it starts to head up. My duck has currently laid 10 eggs in her little nest. I have about 10 days till get some cut grass and hay and straw, whatever I can find and pile it around the corner of that bed so that when the little guys jump out, they don’t hurt themselves on the hard ground. Momma duck has been feasting on grubs and what not in the garden and has loosened up a lot of soil. She picked a really good bed to lay eggs in because it is in shade until about noon.

My 91 year old friend came by a while ago, and we went around part of the place ( I need to check on things after the rain).

The photographer came by yesterday and brought her 3 small children. We had a wonderful visit, and the 3 kids ran around like monkeys, they looked like they had a great time, and said that they would come back.

Everything that I have checked on looks okay, but it is too wet to plant anything now. All of my plants are large enough to plant, and I have plenty of ground ready. I have enough room in my north garden for 50 or 60 sweet potato plants, but I doubt that I will need that many sweet potatoes. I still have 5 flats of potatoes stored.

Glenda, I noticed that about of the sweet potato ends that I buried in the flower bed have pushed through the soil.

The drainage that I made for all of the gardens, so far has worked very well.

I made a bed in the wildlife garden about 4' x 50' and planted a type of bean that is new to me, it is a large lima bean, it looks like a Christmas lima bean, which appears to be a pole bean, if so I may need to put some poles over there for them to climb on.

This is a picture of the place that I planted the Christmas beans? The next bed down the hwy is the flower bed.

This is a picture of the area I planted, what I call Kentucky Red beans, I am not sure of the name, but it is some beans that I got from George, and you cant kill them, the seem to grow in any condition, they are great in a food plot, but a little hard to shell in the green stage. This area I am making for a rat and rabbit hotel.

This is the largest area that I have planted. There is still an empty area out near the plastic pill bottle that is left of the green pole, I am leaving that spot for an over-flow area for my gardening plants that I cant give away.

I might as well go try to do some mowing now, it is too wet for anything else.

Larry, your pictures are beautiful

Kim, thanks, I like your pictures also, mater of fact, I love all the pictures posted by this group.

I mower about 5 acres yesterday. Then this morning Madge and I took a little road trip, and stopper to eat before we came home, and I am really tired now. We also stopper in Poteau OK. and bought 10 bags of potting soil and some more seeds, witch I need like another hole in my head.

I am going to hold off on plant my plants till after this weekend because of the low temps that are forecasted in some areas.. I have plenty of plants, but there is no need of planting 2 times, when you can wait 2 or 3 days, and feel more secure.

After getting back from Edmond and grocery shopping, I was able to walk around the property and look at stuff. The green beans are really popping up. The Jade isn't doing so great, tho. The Contender seed has almost all sprouted. I'll try Jade again because I've heard good things about it. Things have been chewed on. Looks like a couple of the Jade beans had the leaves chewed off. And a couple of cukes as well. So, I sprinkled that Slug Plus Captain Jack stuff around the cucumbers. Not the beans yet.

The butterfly peas look good so far. It's always hard putting plants out into the harsh world.

My wrist went out again while in Edmond. So very frustrating. Not easy changing diapers and lifting toddlers when your wrist is jacked up.

Last night the Isis Candy cherry tomato plants were planted. They both look good. And the noodle bean seed that Kim gave me. Honestly, I'm just getting the areas weeded and soil added now. The intense weeding will be done later when I have more time. These plants need to go in.

We're showing a low of around 40 on Sunday morning, but I won't cover anything. If it was showing 35, I would. I'll be watching the weather in case anything changes. Looks like the Spring Fling will be dry and that is a good thing. I want to walk around Regina's property.

It's only a week away!

That wind was insane last night! I walked around in the dark with the dog but we only did a short walk. We got a lot of rain too, but our rain gauge isn't out so no idea how much.

It was nice to sleep in until 7 this morning so that it was light when I went out to feed the chickens and shop cats. The tomatoes and butterfly peas were not snapped, which I was fully prepared to find this morning. Grateful for that.

The butterfly peas look a little fussy tho. I gave them a pep talk this morning. lol

I have a day off and no idea how to use it. So many things to do. My sister closed on her house a couple of days ago, so I might go see it later this morning. It's in north OKC. The movers are at her rental in Norman now, so I'm not sure if I'll go or not. Need to figure that out soon so I can make my plans.

How did everyone else do in the storms last night? Garden okay?

We got a lot of wind and rain last night, but Madge and I had carried in almost all of our plants. We left the sweet potato slip flat out, but I already have more than enough sweet potato plants ready to go into the ground. I expect to start planting tomorrow, our forecast has been upgraded to a little warmer than before. If the weather will clear up, I may start digging some holes for plants today. providing there is not too much mud.

At work. Must have been some terrible winds.

I am getting ready to go outside and plant flowers, so I know if I have any of those to share Saturday. Nice sunny day, not not, nice damp ground.

Shouldn’t my onions be starting to bulb up?

My potato foliage is going crazy. I need to rig something up to hold them back. Theyre overtaking the tomato plants and cucumbers growing in the other parts of the bed. I got a little carried away with trying to be efficient in my use of space. It’s a few more weeks before I can start digging them.

Everything is loving all the rain.

I still need to start a couple okra seed. I dont have a good track record with it. I plant it and ignore it, might get 6-10 pods a week from 4 plants. Not sure what I’m doing wrong.

I have flowers on a couple of the earliest planted tomatoes. Exciting. The ones I planted in mid-March under cloches.

HJ, my Contender beans are coming up too. Contender is fine with colder soils, while Jade likes ir warmer. I love Jade, but I’ll put them in later after the potatoes come out.

I’ve used 2 bottles of slug bait this month due to pill bugs.

I love iris.

Kim, I may have some sweet potato slips you can have. Theyre descendants of Larry’s Covington. I started early because I’ve never done them before, and it worked a little too well. That bed will have onions occupying that space for at least another 6 weeks.

At work that would be awesome. The Covington are one of my favorites. I don’t have any place decent at home to start sweet potato slips, and I’ve been busy with work and forgot to start some for myself.

Rebecca, the flowers are very pretty. I picked up 4 lily bulbs this morning to plant in one of the beds in our yard. I have a few of the lilies in the bed above our fur babies grave. The lilies look something like the plants that you have in the back of the bed in the bottom picture, these are called, Stargazer.

I also bought some roots called, Liatris, I don't ever remember growing them before, I may stick them in the wildlife garden. I also bought some Morning Glory seeds to plant in the wildlife garden. I hate morning glories, I have to spray they ever year to try to get rid of them, but the wild ones that I have are the plain blue color, the ones that I bought are called "Carnival of Venice", they may just turn out to be just like the ones that I cant get rid of.

I want to put more work in the wildlife garden this year. It helps me feel better to have something to do. I plan on making a sign, saying "Kritter Kingdom" to place along the highway.

Larry, all my lilies are asiatic lilies. I love Oriental lilies like Stargazer, but they hate my clay soil and just rot instead of grow. Orientals are considered the divas of the lily world. Asiatics might be what you need depending on your soil.

Thanks Rebecca. I have not grown any flowers is about 35 or 40 years. I use to grow lilies that were called Easter lily, Tiger lily, and one that was called a day lily. The day lilies would grow like crazy, but I did not care much for them. I though the Tiger lily, and the Easter lily were much prettier, but not as productive.. I had much better soil in Ft. Smith than I have here. I planted some type of lily on our fur baby's grave last year, but that bed is a mess, I have not cleaned it up yet this year, so I am not sure if the lilies came back, but we have very wet clay here, by what you say there is a good chance that my lilies have rotted.

Hi Everyone.

Rebecca, your flowers are very pretty. Good to know about the Jade beans. I'll order some more and try again.

The tomatoes that were put in on Thursday have some foliage damage from the storm, but they should make it. The Sungolds were planted tonight. Just two, but weeding, adding soil, and preparing the beds takes a bit of time. The bed is ready for the Dr. Wyche, but I ran out of time to get them planted. There was so much chamomile in that spot. I harvested the flowers and then pulled the plants. It really hurt to do that. I love chamomile and calendula so much. Tomorrow, the Wyche should be planted. Then, I'll only need to prepare the bed for the True Black Brandywine which will also hold the sweet peppers. The remaining tomatoes are too big for their pots. It feels like I didn't start them too early this year. But maybe I need to hold off until the second week of March rather than the first.

Once the last tomatoes are planted...and the peppers, I'll be able to tidy up and get things pretty. Plant the herbs and flowers and clean up the garden. I have the most fun with that.

Here we go into another week....

I still did not get any plants into the soil. We worked on the flower beds instead. Madge wants to work in the flower beds, but, she is just not able, she will come out and try, but it just hurts her so much. Getting old is not for sissies.

I took Madge over to the wildlife garden, and down to the beaver dam, but that is just not her cup of tea, and the flowers are just not high on my list, but we try to do things together even tho they are not high on each others list. Madge points, and I dig, I am sorts like a trained dog after a gopher.

I'm at work and would really like to be home....although I like my job.

(Just a reminder for anyone who still works (outside the home) and this might apply---Wednesday is Administrative Professionals Day. I'm the worst at remembering and usually realize it only a few days before. Which is better than just forgetting altogether. Was able to arrange for a flower delivery and gift cards. So, if you're like me and didn't realize--here's your reminder.)

I am hoping to get home, cook dinner quickly and get out into the garden at least for an hour or so.

The tasks for tonight will be planting the Dr. Wyche and cleaning out the sweet pepper/TBBrandywine bed. It doesn't need added soil. There's one remaining bed that will be for okra. It needs a bit of weeding and soil added. The other bed that needs attention also doesn't need soil added, but it's only half weeded--the noodle beans are planted there. But the other half needs to be cleaned up for the hot peppers. Probably won't get to those two beds today.

The freezer needs to be cleaned out in case I want to freeze any produce this year. We were gifted a lamb and only had to pay $75 for the processing, so there's lots of lamb meat in the freezer too.

Slowly making progress.

I have so many herbs to harvest at home and at work I am a little overwhelmed. I dehydrate the herbs at work so that the Chef can use them at his will. Instead of if I send fresh herbs, then he has to use them pretty quick. I have mint, Sage basil, rosemary, oregano, and dill and a load of parsley. At home, I have the same plus nettle , rue, garlic chives. Jennifer, I need to clean out my freezer and can everything that is in there. That was a project I was going to do over the winter but winter never really happened. I started the job January 5 and I’ve been running ever since. Looking forward to the spring fling

Winter seemed short this year. And there was really only one week of super cold weather. Yep--you've been super busy, Kim.

Also looking forward to SF.

All my tomatoes are in the ground now. Ended up with 12 instead of the 8 I wanted. Oops. Not too bad, tho. I have 3 to bring to SF and 3 that my neighbor took. So....I'm done with the tomatoes. Now, it's time to plant the peppers. Still need to put in the Armenian, Kajari, okra, and cantaloupe seed. Then....on to the herbs.

I need to get some Arm cucumber seeds. I planted all I had and they never sprouted. My soil at work is not as good as I thought it was.

That's too bad, Kim. You'll be able to amend it probably. I only have a few Armenian seeds. They are a little old so I hope they sprout.

I think I will ask in the fling thread if anybody has any Armenian seeds

I am not having any luck getting the seeds to sprout in the wildlife garden, I think that the cold wet soil, the age of the seed, plus, we had a soil placing rain after the seeds were planted are all working together with slow, or no germination.

It looks rainy today, and we have colder weather headed our way, but I still need to start getting our plant into the ground.

I’ve had a lot of trouble getting seeds up this year. I think it’s the cool damp weather. The last two weeks I think have been my best otherwise I think a lot of my seed rotted.

Kim, I may not be getting many seeds to sprout, but I am making a bunch of crows happy, they are scratching up a lot of corn and pea seeds. I just broadcast the seeds, and ran the disc over them, so some seeds are on top of the ground, and some may be 3 or 4 inches deep.

We got some wind and rain last night. We are dry in this area, but my gardens are not dry, I stay wet longer then a lot of the areas around me.

I hope all of you have a nice Spring Fling, and post plenty of pictures. I wish I could be there, I have lots of stuff to get rid of. I took a 6 pack of sweet potatoes plants to the bank, and to the clinic to gardening ladies there, and I gave a flat of sweet plants to my neighbors. I was also given a bundle of Vardaman slips, which I have in a tray rooting while I get ground ready for them. I may put some of the Vardaman in containers. The Vardaman do not spread like the Covington.

The rainy weather pretty well has me shut down as far as gardening goes. I doubt that I would have any ground ready if this spring had been as wet as normal.

Larry we sure missed you. And your beautiful plants. It was a great fling as usual. Came home with way more plants than I need.

Kim, I sure missed being there. Madge and I just don't travel well, but we enjoyed the pictures that were posted.

I still have 18 trays of plants left. The kids are coming over today to get plants, what they don't take I will plant around here somewhere when things dry out a little.

Very few of the seeds in my wildlife garden have germinated, they were old seeds anyway, and I have more old seeds to plant, plus an ounce of cowhorn okra seeds that I want to use for trellises for the morning glory and cypress vines. I did have some Kentucky Red beans and some large lima mean germinate, but I don't know if it is enough to make the area look like a brush pile. I may have to plant some of the cowhorn okra seeds in that area to get the brush pile look. That is a lot of trouble to go to just to make something for the critters to play in.

We have been getting a lot of rain, and some areas have been getting very large hail, but we expect a few days of sunshine to help dry the soil.

I wish I could have been at your Spring Fling - it sounds so fun and I’d love meeting the people on here. Where were pictures posted? I’d love to see them too. Larry, I do not plant for the wildlife but it comes here anyway, Caught another coon in livetrap this morning and i have either moles or voles this year - they’ve never been a problem before. Coon dug up cucumbers and a few tomato plants

Hi Everyone. Great time at SF as always. Brought home a few plants....mostly flowers and herbs. Glenda, it would be great if you could come to SF next year.

We got back last night and had to shop for groceries and both of us worked today. No time to get anything planted really. I did spend about an hour outside weeding the bed for the sweet peppers before community group tonight. Kim, your noodle beans are sprouting.

So hoping that things will settle down a bit this week so garden time can happen.

We need a bit of rain.

My garden got shredded at work from the hail. I have to cut over 2/3 of each tomato plant off. Wednesday I will trim more stuff and I pulled all the lettuce. It does not have time to come back from this. Lost lots of fruit in the orchard. Didn’t touch my stuff at home.

Kim! I'm so sorry! What a disappointment!

Maybe you have time for a fall crop of tomatoes?

Tonight all the sweet peppers and Anaheims were planted. I pulled all the wild lettuce out of the kitchen garden. That stuff is thick this year. Did some watering and looking around.

Part of my issue with time is all the time I waste looking at bees and butterflies. Had a monarch on the comfrey and bumble bees and other things. Also, figuring out wild things that grow. I spend entirely too much time on those things....but, it's what I really love doing.

My neighbor/friend has my 5 trays of nettle in her freeze dyer right now. I had to get home from work, pick all the nettle and load it up on the trays. I hope it's not too much of a pain for her and she will do other things for me.

There's cucumbers coming up in a bed that has the very sad butterfly peas. I didn't plant cucumbers there. It is very odd.

Hoping for a little rain tomorrow.

I hope to get some rain at home too. What do you use nettle for? They say it’s one of the most nutritious greens.

I hope to plant some seeds today. I plan on planting most of them in trays of potting soil and keeping then on the porch so I can keep an eye on them, plus, it is too wet to get in the garden anyway.

I have to take Madge to the doctor, and out to eat. We sure try to enjoy or time together, we know that we have used most of out time up, so try to make the best of what we have left.

I carried my seeds and gardening junk over to the wildlife garden a few days ago, and hid it in the thicket. We expect that we may be having company from time to time, and I need to get the center bed room cleaned up anyway.

I have not planted anything in the garden yet. Most years it is too wet to have soil ready early, this year I have soil ready, and just too lazy to get things into the ground.

I sure enjoy hearing about everyone's garden and seeing the pictures, even tho I don't have anything to show yet but some volunteer squash and pumpkin, which I plan on transplanting later.

I hope y'all do get rain, but I don't need any. I need for thing to dry a little so I can get in the garden.

Larry, volunteer plants are so fun. Most of the time. I am guessing that a cucumber rotted in that area and that is why I have seedlings now. I wish I could remember what variety was planted there. My other purposely planted cucumbers don't look great.

My butterfly peas look awful.

Have fun with Madge today.

Kim, I have no idea what I'll do with the stinging nettle. It is a plant you gave me last year. It's time to preserve it so I did it first in my friend's freeze dryer. More than likely, I'll make tea with it. It's good for inflammation. It's also good for other things like men's health, blood sugar, and hayfever allergies. I might make a tea blend with turmeric, ginger, and black pepper. I have so many things that I want to make tea for. It's hard to get it all in. I have what I named "Crone's Blend" that I'm trying to drink everyday. It has dong quai, wild yam, black cohosh, and vitex.

Do you still have nettle growing?

Yes I do
I have a bed that I want to put nettle and comfrey. The pots are overflowing and there is not really enough soil in there

Jennifer, Madge and I had a great time, but we are worn out. When we got to the hospital, we caught a ride on the " buggy" that hauls people to the door closest to where they want to go, but we came out, the buggy was nowhere to be seen. By rgw by the time we got to the car, we were beat. We went to eat, and then stopped at a nursery on the way our of town. I told Madge that we must be crazy, because bought more plant, and we don't have room to plant the plants that I have sitting on the porch, but its an addiction, what can I say.

This is the only thing in the wildlife garden that is coming up. I think this is a row of okra. I just walked through the garden sling old seeds, and I think that I planted 2 kinda of okra seeds, and I have at least 3 more kinda of okra seeds left to plant. After things come up I run a disc down through the bare spots and plant more seeds that I have saved.

This is where I had planned to make a brush pile by planting beans, okra, morning glory, and cypress vines, but, my neighbor came down and cut up the log that was lying there. I plan on still making the brush pile for the critters to live in. If it does not stop raining, I may build a fishing dock instead. When you live in a valley you end up with everyone's excess water.

I saw on Facebook that we needed 20- 25 inches of rain in the next 3 months, if we get that much rain, I may have to swim all summer long.

Here is a picture of some of the mountains along the Arkansas, Oklahoma border. Some of the water thar runs off of my place goes south, then west into Oklahoma on its way to the Arkansas river. This picture was taken north of Poteau, Oklahoma, looking east into Arkansas. I am just an ole country boy, I have lived in this area for over 82 years. I have seen a lot of country, this area is fine for me.

And it is raining again.

I think we got a small amount of rain while I was at work yesterday. When I picked up the freeze dried nettle from my neighbor, she said it was only sprinkles. However, I had a really cool moth in a critter keeper at the end of our shop and her habitat was drenched and she was dead. (I feel SO horrible about this. She was under the porch roof on the ledge. She was beautiful. I actually named her Nimue. I buried her at the back of the property with my cat, Charlotte. ) ANYWAY, the rain must have came down hard with wind at some point. Maybe it only lasted a few minutes and my neighbor was in the shower or something. I don't know....

It's not a garden morning. Very chilly, windy, and damp. I didn't offer to work for anyone today so am home. I have so few days at home that I'm lost on what to do. There's only about a 100 things on my list.

I started with the regular daily chores and then started laundry. And decided to make cowpeas for dinner so those are soaking.

We have a situation with a cat. I knew that someone peed somewhere in our bedroom and the original spot was treated. (BTW, Purrfect Potion is an excellent product for removing odor but it's expensive.) I kept thinking that they were returning to the area, but the carpet smelled fine after treatment. BUT, I could smell something somewhere. I brought home a black light and found it. It was on the wall too. Yuck. So, got that treated even tho the product removed a bit of paint from the baseboard. I've got a plan to put a cat tower there to make it a sleeping/relaxing area JUST in case they want to return to that area for another reason. And, I brought home carpet squares from work that were leftover from a nursery remodel. Those will go under the tower. Just in case, I'll do another treatment, let it dry. And then set up the relaxing/sleeping area.

I have a strong sense of smell and can't take cat pee smell in my bedroom.

All that to say, I need to assemble a cat tree today.

Tonight, we might grab some potting mix and set up the small Greenstalks. I'm ready to get those planted. In the hoop house, we have coleus, snapdragons, zinnias, herbs for them. And Spring Fling flowers from Rebecca. If Marcums have vinca, I'll grab a tray of those too. I just want the Greenstalks to be bright and cheerful. The shop porch can look a little dark. We purchased new furniture for it and chose light cushions and "throw" pillows.

Botanical Interests had no minimum no shipping fee yesterday. I bought more Jade beans, butterfly peas (mine look awful), and two varieties of nasturtium: Black Velvet and Peach Melba. I'm very ready to get the pretty stuff done.

What's everyone else working on today?

I went out and dumped the water out of my trays on the porch. As soon as the bank opens, I need to go change some P.O.D. My sister is in the nursing home, her children have drug problems, and I don't want to leave money within their reach. I trust Madge, or my daughter judgement over anyone with a drug problem.

I hope to get some plants in the ground today, but it is very wet, and we may have more rain on the way.

When I call the bank later, I will ask if anyone down there needs anymore plants. I gave one lady down at the bank 6 sweet potato plants, she lives in town and does not have a lot of room, but I have some really nice plants that need a home.

I started some plants too early ( for me ). I gave those plants to Jerry, along with some mineral tubs, potting soil, and fertilizer to make some pots for his dad. Jerry's dad is a few years younger then I am, and also does not get around well. I thought that the plants might be a way to keep him active. Jerry showed me a picture of his dad's plants Sunday when they were over, it looks like some of his tomatoes are near baseball size. My daughter laughed and said that she thinks that his dad must take a picture of his tomatoes every other day.

I am in the greenhouse today. It is so cold outside and I forgot my jacket. After I put together a basket to deliver to the house, I walked around the garden with the boss and he found the first yellow squash that came to fruition. I will put a picture. Absolutely amazing that plant did so well considering I planted the seeds on February 18. Since it was cozy inside the corn it did not get froze out. I remember Dawn saying take a chance. That definitely was taking a chance planting that early but it’s paying off. I have three plants that are producing as long as they get fertilized they should be fine. The storm was so windy last night that a lot of my stuff is laid over and beat up worse than it was on Monday But I can’t do anything about it except pull out anything that might not survive and replant. The wind came from a direction that it did not destroy the tomatoes. Which is good because there wasn’t much left to destroy after I trimmed them hard on Monday from the last storm. We had 2 1/4 inches Saturday and almost 3 inches last night. We are not done for the week, but I hope some of this water drains off before the next round. There are parts of the raised bed garden. I cannot even get in because it is so deep of water

When I first started here, Jennifer, I had to order from botanical interest until we got another account set up, but they have had free shipping no limits as long as I’ve ordered from them in January. I don’t feel like they give as many seeds as they used to, so I’m trying to get away from ordering from them

Hi.

Got the 2 small Greenstalks planted over the past two evenings. And a few coleus planted in the front flower bed. It's still a mess out there. As soon as I get everything planted, I'll get it tidied up.

Also finally finished the 1000 page book that I've been reading since February. Reading will probably be put aside until November. That will leave me more time to stay outside until dark. Lately I'm giving myself an hour after fixing dinner to work outside so I can get in and read for another hour....and drink tea. It's all things I love, but it's a rush, rush, rush. Always.

Sometimes I wonder how long I can keep up with this pace. I'm always running around and in a hurry and that is not fun.

Looks like the rain is missing us again. Maybe we'll eventually get some in a few days. Probably will need to water soon.

Kim, I like Botanical Interests still. Normally I don't need a lot of seeds of each variety so it works for me. But, free shipping isn't normal for me with them, so I was happy to get that deal.

Not sure what the weekend will bring. Tomorrow there will be no time to garden. Maybe Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon. I would like to get the flowers planted. Some of them are ridiculously big.

We went out to eat again today, and also stopped and bought more seeds and plants. We also stopped by my aunt and uncle's house for a visit. It seems as though most of our family is old, and just one step away from the nursing home, but I can also remember a time when it seemed as though everyone in the family was having babies.

I up potted 42 volunteer cayenne peppers from the garden. I will let the cayenne peppers grow in the trays a while, and then plant them in the wildlife garden, that will bring my pepper count up to 65 over there. and may climb to 100. There seems to be a lot of okra and pumpkins coming up also. It is just a wild guess as to just what is coming up, because I just dumped a lot of old seed in a box, and then just tossed them out as I walked.

If my count is correct, I now have 82 giant sunflowers up over in the wildlife garden, and maybe 50-100 more waiting to come up.

I also have approx 12 - 24 volunteer butternut to transplant in the pasture garden.

I doubt that I am alone, but I feel that I get farther behind every day.

Day before yesterday as I was up potting plants I got something in my eye. Madge took me to urgent care to get my eye cleaned out, but it is still very uncomfortable. I lost 1.5 days of gardening because of my eye.

Everybody is outrunning me. The last few days I didn’t feel so good and just tried to take it easy. It’s hard for me to do. Today I am off. I have been enjoying the sunshine and I set up a station outside to wash herbs, and I got an enormous amount of sage and oregano and rosemary cleaned, and in the dehydrator. Well, the rosemary, I don’t put in the dehydrator. I just put it on trays and let it air dry. I got some produce this morning and I need to get it cleaned and ready to eat so that during the week I don’t have to come home and prep food every day. They had carrots, cabbage, beets, chayote, sweet potatoes, onions, and more carrots. A lot of it I will prep for a lentil soup and the beets I want to chop up and roast with carrots in the toaster oven. I think the reason I was out of it is because I had a vertigo spell yesterday and sometimes I feel like there’s a few days leading up to it that I’m just yucky feeling. Of course I still went to work and I’m cleaning up. Lots of hail damage right now. This week I did six 60 gallon bags of trash leaves and plants. It should come back nicely. I do wish I had a nice compost area that would be so awesome. I for some reason got my home garden confused with work and thought that I had had 3 inches of rain here at home. I did not have any rain since last Saturday. I got up this morning and most of my plants were looking very unhappy. They used up a lot more water thanI bargained for. I finally got everything watered and everybody is happy now.

Madge and I are in resting now. we are not able to work much at a time.

This is our largest project for today. Madge did most of the work, all I did was move the stump and till and amend the soil, replace the stump, and bring in more compost and potting soil, Madge did the planting. Every spot around our house is getting too shady to grow most things.

That's nice, Larry!

I'll start a new thread now.