The rats will find and get into seed. I had a big bag of winter cover seed in my garage, it was a mixture of Austrian Pea and rye grass. Rats ate through the plastic bag and dumped it all over the floor behind a shelving unit.

That's when I got very concerned, Up to that time, the rats were only in the backyard, under my neighbor's shed, in my shed, and around the garden. I now keep the seed in plastic buckets with lids.

And I had a big 40# bag of cottonseed hulls and they got into that. They probably fed on it and it made a good nest. There's seed mixed in with the hulls as I get cotton plants coming up in July. Any excess I have now I keep in one of those big 27 gallon, black and yellow storage bins that has a lid, from Home Depot.

Now everything I do I have to consider whether the rats will get into it or if it makes rat habitat.

The idiot that owned the house next door, two owners ago, put the shed in the yard. And he had it put right up against the fence. Now, its impossible to get in to work on the fence, like replacing pickets or whatever. But it also creates a safe alley way for the rats between the shed and the fence. That's where most my tunnels are at, coming under the fence into my yard.

And to add, we've lived here 34 years. Never had this problem before. I've no idea what it brought it on now.

Jennifer, last night when I was finishing up making a spot for the cucumbers, and getting them planted, Madge came out and ask if she could have a few lettuce leaves and green onions to take to her sisters and SIL ( like I would tell her no). I told her to just pick out what ever she wanted. She told me she wanted that, that and that. She picked out the red bulbing onions and the Parris Island shown in the picture, I suggested a better choice of taking the lettuce from the mineral tubs ( its better and prettier ), and the onions sets and bunching onions are smaller and more tender, but I will sneak out and remove the lettuce from the tubs because I want the space to plant tomatoes and peppers. And when she runs out of sweet red onions, I will just her that she is stuck with the walking onions because she has already given her red onions away as green onions.

Lynn, I try to store my seeds in some kind of container also. I have a 55 gal. drum that I use to use, but I am not man enough to lift the bags in and out of the drum any more. At the time I am using zip lock bags, but that is not a great choice. I am trying to save up enough milk and orange juice jugs to fill the need. I also use 5 gal buckets, but I am always in short supply on the 5 gal. buckets. I bought a thousand 1" x 1.5" zip lock bag for small seeds, I also use medicine bottles for small seed, but they don't stack very well.

Madge met me last night when I came in to tell me about my rat problem ( a mouse ) she caught in the center bedroom. That is the room I now have my seeds in, as well as my light shelf, and maybe a herd of rats. I had not been back in there since I moved my plant outside. Tomorrow when Madge is gone to visit friends and family I need to clean up the rat room.

Jennifer, I just got back from the wildlife garden, and I think I saw a couple of Passion vines over there. Madge was with me and she was very tired, so I did not check closely, anyway, if they are Passion vines, do you want them? I know of no way I can tell if they will fruit.

Larry I agree with Madge on the Parris Island lettuce - it is my favorite now too. We’ve been trying to get everything planted and hoping to get rain Saturday. My husband made a garden in the middle of the cattle feeding pen- he keeps all the manure and hay scraped up and puts it in the fields so all thats left is mostly red clay. I told him it wouldnt grow and he wanted it planted too early, but he insisted and I planted it He calls it his Victory garden. There is twice as much coming up there than in my raised beds Corn, green beans, several kinds of southern peas, radishes, and flowers. I planted okra and watermelons too but not warm enough for them to come up. I’ve been eating a lot of humble pie - and tickles him that I was wrong. If it all lives and produces I will be canning and freezing a lot or giving a lot to friends and relatives.

Larry, if you have time and want to dig up the passion vines, I'll take one. If you don't, no worries. I'm going to look for at the OKC Flower and Garden Fest the week after SF.

Your Parris Island looks as good as mine. It's been a good year for lettuce, other than the past couple of days.

Lynn, have you looked for cottonseed hull yet this year? I use it in our beds around the house. Those beds are always the last to get cleaned up for the season, which is weird, because they should be first since it's what greets people to our house. We get cotton plants too.

Amy, your rat story is disturbing and hilarious at the same time.

This is the first year with my Greenstalk. I'm planning on topping off the pockets with fresh compost next year. The plan is once a month run some liquid fertilizer through it all. The GS has a reservoir on top. You water there and each pocket has a hole that waters it. I have the spinner base and it has a tube where the extra water drains from it. I put water and fertilizer in a bucket and pour it into the reservoir.

So far, I'm a huge fan of this thing. The problem is our patio has no cover and gets little shade. Once it becomes really hot outside, there will be issue. I do have the spinner base and can turn it so that the sides can take turns with the shade.

It's wonderful how clean the food is that grows in it.

Kim, if I need help, I might message and pick your brain. I did manage to make a slideshow today and figured out how to put music with it. I've made a few other things too....newsletter, an invitation, thank you note. poster....

I'm incredibly tired and feel like I'm not making any sense, so will shut it now.

Loved your Ron vs Rat story, Amy! Since we don't have any here, except possibly the older and wiser one, our equivalent is squirrels. They have caused so much destruction to our neighbors and us! Neighbors spotted them coming in and out of the shop attic--$%^. GDW had sealed an opening with screening, but it must have come off now. He has traps set, but nothing yet, and really haven't seen the squirrels lately, either. We'll see. I am not a friend to squirrels.

I was delighted to see a patch of passion vine spring up here, out in the rocky shallow sunlight area--it grows untidily and rather rampantly--right now it's about 15-20' sq. and it can spread however it wants, suits me fine; It's the white variety, Alba.

I've been so busy with other things (painting and flower beds), I guess I'll be shooting for a fall veggie garden. Time just totally got away from me.

Do any of you know when blister beetles make their appearance? Last year I had quite the herd of them on the clematis vine. Ate it to the nubs--which was okay with me since it was an invasive type. Besides, I'd read that their larvae feed on grasshopper eggs, so I didn't bother them. Who knows what beastly pest will invade this year--fingers crossed that grasshopper population won't be as bad.

Will any of you have any extra basil for SF? I'm behind the 8-ball on that, too, although still plan to plunk some seeds in outdoors.

Oh--I meant to comment on your upcoming presentation, Kim! Yay--you go, girl! Is Canva easy to use? Am impressed with your skill!

Jenn, I found cottonseed hulls at Marcum in early March. I got around ASAP this year as I've had trouble getting them the last couple years.

Glenda, it will be interesting to follow along and see how your husband's new garden works out this year. It's new this year, right?

Nancy, I've seen quite a few grasshoppers of various sizes and colors. I've done a little reading on them. From what I read, they lay eggs in the fall. In May, they hatch. IF we have a flooding rain at that point, it will drown them. We've had wet Mays and all, but it's been awhile (at least at my property) since we've had the crazy rain in May. Flooding rains aren't good either, but it might knock the grasshopper population down for a few years. Stop the cycle or something.

Nancy, I should have basil to share. I have Thai, Genovese, Genovese compact, lemon and Tulsi.

You might post over on the FB group too. There's probably some people who have other varieties.

Canva doesn't seem to be too hard. It's just taking the time to learn it when I would rather do other things. Things like this have changed, and I haven't been required to do much in this area lately, but now need to. A lot of it is social media related. It helps if you're an influencer or trying to be an influencer or trying to promote your business with FB, Instagram, TikTok, etc. It does have some nice tools to size pictures to fit those social media platform requirements.

I'm old school. I was in the first group of high schoolers who had those little apple computers in the library. Think Pretty in Pink. The scene in the library with Andie and Blaine.

Anyway, obviously I've grown since then, but not much in the past 8 years or so. I've been too busy doing other things.

Lynn, I should have done like you and purchased the hulls last month. We could never get them last year and that's partially why the front flowerbeds are a mess.

I first started using hulls about 10 years ago. I saw a segment on Oklahoma Gardening with Ray Campbell, who quit hosting the show many years ago, and he used cottonseed hulls to mulch his tomatoes. Its worked well for me since.

I wish I could find that episode on YT, but that's too hard a search.

My motivation after 2020 has been to influence my family to learn about producing more of their food. The progress has been slow, but there seems to be more of an interest, maybe its just to shut me up.

My daughter is more picky about her eating than I am, and I tell her that if she is hungry enough many thing taste good that you would not think about eating otherwise, and I think it is wise to learn to make the food that you can get be more palatable.

This is my project for this morning.

I picked more poke, this time of the year it is everywhere. I have taken some to my aunt and uncle, Madge took some to her brother this morning, and I am going to cook this 1/2 bucket of poke for lunch ( I wont be able to eat it all today ). Many of the walking onion scraps will be cooked with the poke. The stumps were added to the two flats that I am regrowing. It has been less than a week, and the previous harvested stumps are already showing signs of regrowth.

The two sweet potatoes on the left tray are from last Oct. harvest. Sweet potatoes are another crop that you get a lot of bang for the buck. I understand that the leaves are also tasty, but I have not cooked any yet.

Jennifer, when I went back to the wildlife garden to pick the poke, I looked more closely at the passion plants, I found 4, and will get a pot ready and try to dig one up. I expect that they do fruit. When I was a child I use to pick them off the fence and eat them as I walked from the school bus to the house. We have been trying to kill then for the past 70 years, it does not look like we have done a very good job.

Lynn, this might be the video you're looking for. I think I saw the same one and that's when I decided I wanted to try it for mulching too..

The segment you might be looking for starts at about 17:40

I have a million things to do at work, but here I am searching for videos. lol

Thank you ! I'm sure that was it. I also like how the hulls are organic. I till them back in at the end of the year and I'm sure it helps my soil. Only downside, is they're a bit costly.

As far as soil born diseases, Dawn talked about this, and whether mulching would help. She thought only if a large area was mulched. And it would have to be a very large area, in my book. I've not seen that mulching can stop the blight.

I will be cotton country tomorrow. I wonder if they sell the burr’s

I think that mulching helps mostly with the health of the soil and plant by helping regulate soil moisture. My soil will dry out too quickly. I seem to have better luck by raising the soil surface for drainage, amending the soil for better structure, and mulching to keep the soil from drying and help control weeds, and for me it is a never ending battle. I think organic matter is my best friend.

Slow, you've got a lot of organic matter handy. In this housing addition, its hard to come by. About my only source would be going up and down the street in the fall and offering to rake up people's leaves. And of course, they would think I was nuts, and they may be partially correct in thinking that.

At one time, I tried to watch the lawn services and catch them bagging leaves but that was hit and miss. And I got a lot of stuff in those bags I did not want, beer cans , old sweatshirts, etc.

And then I had to store the leaves all winter.

What few leaves I get now, I mulch with my mower and put down mid-row, then cover mid-row with cardboard. Then I put grass clippings on top of that. If it stays wet, it will compost in the garden, but that's a big IF.

After I do that, all that is left exposed is the top of the raised row between plants and if I wanted to spend the money, I could cover all of it with cottonseed hulls. Would be interesting to do that one of these years, just to see if it stops the blight.

Larry, my kids aren't that interested in gardening just yet. I suspect over time they'll be more interested. Maybe not on the scale that I'm doing it now. But maybe. Ethan lives in a tiny apartment. I can see Stella wanting a garden when they get married and settled into a place with a yard. She had a garden at her parents' home. It was small and not well cared for, but it was there. Really, in Oregon things grow pretty nicely.

Mason mentioned something about wanting to grow some food "someday". We have a small herb box for her, but just haven't put it together and delivered to her it. I suspect that will happen over the next month as we clean and organize the shop.

Ethan was a very picky eater as a small child. Mason was not. It seems like he was born with extra taste buds. Even bubblemint toothpaste made for children was too spicy for him. He's still particular but eats a wide variety of foods. We are all sorta food snobs in different but similar ways. Except for Tom. LOL!

He likes good food, but will eat less than good food and isn't as concerned about it's origins as much.

I've often thought that I would be a predicament if the only food available is highly processed types of food and I was unable to garden. My system can't handle those well anymore. Even some of the restaurants that we love. I remember watching a video a couple of years ago done by a doomsday pepper type. (she didn't start that way but is now and I no longer watch her videos because they're so negative.) ANYWAY, she mentioned that all the organicy eaters need to add in a bit of junk so their systems won't get shocked by all the grocery store foods that they've stored away in their prepper pantries. I don't have that type of pantry, tho. I do have a pantry of foods we've preserved from the garden. At times, I'll stock up on some things from the grocery store, but they're mostly ingredients not ready-to-eat stuff.

I do get what she is saying. It makes sense really. But I probably won't do it.

Thanks for bringing a passion vine. I need to figure out where to plant it so it doesn't take over. I thought about in the back of the property where the wild violets and beauty berries are. Maybe I can fix up a trellis on the old shed back there. If it does fruit, I'll need to look up recipes.

Lynn, so many of the mulches have dirt and soil on them anyways, so it seems like diseases that come from the soil, would be on the mulch too. Like leaves.

The only issue I've heard about cotton seed hull, is the amount of chemicals that are sprayed on cotton crops. It's why I started using it only on the ornamental beds, but didn't have problems with in on the food crops when I used it. It's just so expensive, that I'm just using cheap pine shavings now around the tomatoes.

Icdollar, I have tried to grow organic matter for mulch and compost. One year Elbon rye through the winter. I let it almost set seed and cut for mulch. I planted directly in to the stubble after cutting so ready made mulch. I have grown sorghum which produces a lot of bio matter. Also amaranth. Tansy grows about 4' tall and you can cut half off and mulch cucumbers. It is supposed to help repel cucumber beetles. Ron has a grinder that grinds up smallish sticks from tree branches and the stupid private hedge. You can plant lettuce under tomatoes for a living mulch. I have also let cowpeas crawl for a living mulch. Buckwheat in summer. I've recently learned you can eat buckwheat leaves in salad. I haven't tried it yet. We don't use grass clippings because someone is to stubborn to use the grass catcher.

When I lived in town I used a grass catcher (sure a lot of work ) to save organic matter. A major problem I had was that I had too much grass, and it take a lot of room to compost that much grass, if my memory serves me right I got about 7 trash bags of clippings a week off of the front lawn (did not catch the back lawn), I also was always short on "browns", and needed to turn the pile too often to keep the smell down.

I think the best mulch I have ever used was shavings. A fellow about 8 miles south of me had a shingle mill, and cut shims for the coal mine. He let me have all the shavings I wanted, they were rip cut shavings and curly and did not pack, and had no weed seeds. But times marches on, he got old and sold his mill, and I got old and unable to haul the shavings. The next best mulch was shredded leave. My uncle has a huge lawn and had a shredder that he pulled behind his mower. In a years time my uncle might get a hundred yards of shredded leaves. I have a 6.5' x 12' trailer and would go over to my uncles, and would load my trailer with his tractor. The biggest problem using the leaves was that The P & K of my garden soil went up to 2 to 4 time optimum. If I had not been tilling the mulch into my soil the P & K may not have gone that high, also adding a lot of compost may have helped push my readings up.

I have been out planting peppers, and had to come back in for a coat. There is just something wrong when you have to wear a coat when you are planting peppers or sweet potatoes, but I have done it more than once.

I have some peppers that I am not sure what they are. I have seeds for a jalapeno that is small, and on small plants, I grow those often, and they are very productive. I also have some, new to me seeds that say Red Pimento, and the picture looks a lot like the small jalapeno after it turn red, are they the same pepper? I plan on planting some side by side to compare. I even have some habanero peppers this year. I have grown the habanero in the past, but not for me, neighbor said that he had a hard time growing them, so I planted some in my garden.

I have some China Giant bell peppers also, I hope to have extra of all plants I have, except I have a chocolate pear, and grand daughter has spoken for that one. I expect that she will find that the potting soil taste better that the chocolate pear tomato.

I use grass clippings also, but I won't have any till Memorial Day , or close to it.

I harvested some dead grass clippings this winter because I ran out of fallen leaves to harvest to place around my winter onions. I got a nice light brown mulch and a ton of grass seeds, which are coming up now.

I hear what you're saying about wearing a coat today, Larry.

I went out to plant the heirloom tomatoes into the kitchen garden. I wore a knit hat and coat. Kinda bulky and cumbersome for gardening, but I was cold. Then, I would get hot and take off the coat. Then would get cold again. Figured out that I got hot when the sun peeked out and cold when it hid behind the clouds.

Speaking of hot and cold. Yesterday, when the cold front came in, you could feel the warm wind at the same time as the cold wind at the same moment. It was so weird.

So....they're all planted now. 18 heirlooms and 23 total tomatoes in the kitchen garden.

Really, I only wanted 2 of each heirloom, but until I get these acclimated better to my property, I'll keep extras if I get them. I only have 2 each of Abe Lincoln and German Johnson. And 4 each of Arkansas Traveler and Dr. Wyche. There's 5 True Black Brandywine. And one mystery tomato, which is probably a True Black Brandywine. It's a potato leaf.

I only have room left for the one that Larry is bringing to me.

Where are my little hand shovels?! My trowels? Super annoying. The garden isn't even wild right now. They've gotta be in the shop. (The shop is a mess. We've started working on it. Big Trash Pick Up will come soon.) I had to use one of the hand 3 prong things to plant today. Ridiculous. I guess I'll buy another trowel tonight. We must get to having a place for everything, so items are easy to find and easy to put away.

Messy storage places are fine when it's one person's mess. The problem comes with shared spaces. Our shop has my stuff, Tom's stuff, Ethan's stuff, and even Rick's stuff. If it's one person's stuff, they generally will have a system within their chaos and mess. BUT when multiple people share a space, things get moved around. The shop is big enough for everyone's items, we've just got to keep it organized.

The first Indian Blanket flowers are opening amongst the red poppies in the wildflower garden. And the columnar apple trees are full of little fruit!

I'll come back with pictures!

Jennifer, 23 is a good number on tomatoes, but I have at least 6 with your name on them, Yellow Pear, Golden Jubilee, Sunny Boy, Dwarf Sweet Sue, Isis Candy, Fred's Tie Dye, and Sun Sugar. I think I have your name on them, at least I have all of those. The Sun Sugar, Golden Jubilee and Yellow Pear are the only ones of those I have grown before. I have plenty to share, but nothing fancy. I think my tomato count is up to 22, but I am not through planting yet.

I Have never liked those 3 prong scratchers, I don't think I own one, and maybe not a trowel. My go to tool for planting is post hole diggers. My go to small hand tool for gardening is the Japanese Weeder, it is much like the Ken Ho weeder, but made of better steel, or at least my are. My Japanese Weeder will stay sharp much longer than the other small tools I have owned. When you spend most of your gardening time on your hands and knees a sharp tool makes a lot of difference.

Jennifer, the one person's stuff does not work in my case, I don't know where most of my stuff is, I just blame Madge. I will say someone misplaced my xxxxx, and Madge will say, "and I know who that someone is".

About 45-48 years ago we mulched our gardens with cottonseed hulls and coffee bean hulls. We got the cotton hulls from a mill in Guthrie at the old co-op and the coffee from Cains in Edmond. Together they made an amazing mulch and looked and smelled good. I always would have cotton and devil’s claw plants from the cotton hulls - my kids used them for craft projects After the Guthrie mill shut down we drove to Washington or Minco and got a trailer load at a time. They load it for you and the price was quite reasonable. About 4 years ago we went to Minco and got a trailer load and used on garden and flowerbeds. I was shocked and dismayed at how many plants died - then I went back and read where Dawn had warned of all the chemicals involved with cotton now. I have not used it since, but thats my personal experience.

I too wore my jacket yesterday to work in garden and as Jennifer said I put it on, took it off, and put it back on. Larry, I planted my peppers and cucumber plants and covered each one with the little Dollartree cloches. I have red pontiac potatoes blooming but for some odd reason I’ve had several Yukon golds that have just rotted off at the stem. I ’ve not had that problem before. Maybe something to do with using sprouting potatoes from the pantry instead of purchasing seed potatoes, or using straw instead of dirt to hill as they grow????

I have 25 tomatoes out now and the majority are looking good. I burned a few using dirt from chicken yard that I mistakenly assumed had composted long enough - then switched to dirt from the woods. It was full of leaf mold and earthworms. Husband brought a full bucket in the tractor. Rain has been predicted several times for us but never materialized or went around. We are getting dry. I can not believe April is almost gone

For all of Dawns gardening genius, she had far too great a fear of glyphosate. And they do spray cotton plants with glyphosate. The plants are genetically modified to be glyphosate resistant, so it kills everything but the cotton plant. Increases their production.

But think this out .................... they don't spray for weeds near harvest. The need to kill weeds is earlier in the growing season, not at the end. And glyphosate breaks down quickly. It has a short half life.

But lets assume that it is persistent and lives on. The cotton plant has glyphosate on the leaves and the cotton boll. When the boll is processed, the cotton fibers are removed, leaving a cotton seed that has two parts, an external hull and an internal seed.

Soooo, can glyphosate penetrate the cotton boll and the fibers and reach the cotton seed ?

OK, lets say a small amount makes it that far and its on the cottonseed hull. And the glyphosate is still active over the amount of time it takes to process the cotton. The clock is ticking for the chemical to break down.

So lets assume the glyphosate has survived all of those small probabilities and is still on the hulls I put around my tomato plant.

In some way, that glyphosate has to jump from the hulls to the leaves of the plant, cause that's how the plant takes in glyphosate. That's highly unlikely.

And then it has to be in a large enough quantity to kill the plant. I've sprayed some weeds with glyphosate who've lived through it, using the mixing quantities recommended. I've got some ivy plants in the back yard that I have to use almost put pure glyphosate on to kill.

I have squirrels bury pecans in my flower beds and get young trees sprouting up from them and spraying them with glyphosate just bites them back. I got hit them with full strength.

Even if the glyphosate was able to survive the entire process of reaching my tomato plant and still be an active chemical, the quantity would not be near enough to kill my plant.

Its not a concern for me.

As far as glyphosate causing cancer, well, if a person bathed in any chemical every day, then that might be a concern. I had a friend who refinished hardwood floors and the chemicals he breathed every day caused him health problems. I wonder about the guy who sprays my yard for weeds, he uses chemicals every day. I'm not sure thats how I would want to make a living and if I did, I would be wearing a haz met suit.

The one court case decided by a jury in San Francisco, that Monsanto lost, was brought by a city park worker who sprayed glyphosate on a daily basis. And I suspect Monsanto will win on appeal because there will not be a jury involved, a judge will make the decision and the scientific findings will have more weight. Juries in San Fran could make about any decision , especially if they can stick it to a large company like Monsanto.

Me using glyphosate a few times a year is not gonna give me cancer. Or even if I consumed tiny amounts on some of the produce I eat. The trade off is farmers can produce more product which helps keep our food prices low.

If we're eating store bought food and/or restaurant foods, chemicals have been used. I get that. It still makes some people a little nervous using Round Up in/around the garden. I have a bottle of it that is mostly used for the poison ivy at the back of the property. And (I think) I found a sticker plant. If I can't easily pull the plant out, I'll use it on that.

The cotton seed hull is too expensive for me to use on all of the gardens, so I use it on the ornamental beds around the house. I feel better about it rather than wood mulch. I'm unsure if wood mulch encourages termites or not. I like the cotton hulls for those beds.

But....maybe there's other chemicals used on the cotton? Not just glyphosate? I don't know.

Regarding Dawn, she had cancer when she was young. I'm sure she was concerned about anything that could potentially cause cancer. Unfortunately, cancer caused her death. Dawn wasn't perfect but she was so, so wonderful and such a blessing to so many with her gardening knowledge but in other ways as well. I also get the fangirl/boy tendencies when someone like Dawn is so popular. Many think 'that person' can say no wrong, do no wrong.

On a larger scale it is like Jessica with Roots and Refuge. Her fans will overprotect her at any slight they feel like someone is giving to her. Or if someone disagrees with her. I've seen it. If someone doesn't think that what Jessica does/says is 100% good/correct/accurate, and says so, the fangirls come out to basically bully the person who may have disagreed. It's weird to me. If Jessica said she uses her garden beds as a toilet every morning, I guarantee there would be fangirls doing the same. Again, she is wonderful and has been such an inspiration to so many. And seems to be a truly kind, genuine, and good person....and if anyone should make it as a influencer, she's the one who should. But, those fangirls.

Anyway. Dawn can be wrong. Jessica can be wrong.

Both, are wonderfully inspiring and good people. I'm lucky to have known Dawn.

And feel like I know Jessica. I started watching her before she got famous. She moved into their house in Arkansas 2 weeks after we moved into our house.

Anyway....

Glenda, I'm sorry about your Yukon Gold. It's interesting how it's just affecting that variety.

Ours still look good. What are the Dollartree cloches? Maybe I want some of those!

Larry, I like to sit/kneel while I plant and weed. And I forgot to buy another trowel.

Bring the tomatoes. I left a place for them! Can't wait to try them.

Welp, I'm about to head out and start my very busy weekend. There won't be time to garden this weekend.

Sure wish we would get some rain. It's dumb to have to pull out the waterhoses in April.

Cottonseed hulls rank highly with OSU Extension in every category except crusting. And once they get wet and dry out, they can create a crust that I don't think rainfall will penetrate.

Mulching Garden Soils

As far as farmers spraying other chemicals on cotton, I've no idea. They may and probably do spray some insecticides. But I have no doubt the EPA is highly regulating whatever they do. The EPA has got their finger into just about everything, these days, to continue to justify their existence.

Glyphosate is relatively new, because it has to be combined with GMO, which is another boogeyman who lives under the bed. There's an irrational fear of GMO. The cotton has to be modified to be glyphosate resistant.

I know my Dad would've loved GMO and glyphosate in the 1930's on my Grandads farm. Him and his four brothers and three sisters spent the summer hoeing weeds on Grandad's 260 acres of cotton. That's if they grew cotton that year and not peanuts.

To the environmental groups, " increasing production " are dirty words. They advocate for less production and less economic growth. They want to revisit the past. While for consumers, increased production is good news because it always works to either lower or stabilize prices.

As far as gardening, Dawn had the skins on the wall and experience to give her credibility. It did not take long to recognize that. There's a whole lot of social media " influencers " these days in everything, from fishing, to quilting, to auto mechanics, that somehow have developed a following and have no real credibility. its sort've a phenomenon.

The barbecue world is filled with them and yes, they do have fan boys/girls. And its best not to be critical or the fans will come after ya. I've found that out the hard way. I'm amazed how some can gain expert status but have nothing to support that. Some of these people can have over 500,000 followers and none of them have ever tasted the barbecue these people cook.

And the Youtube world is all about clicks and getting a check for their part of the ad revenue. Its about the cha-ching.

I live and worked among cotton farmers. The cotton is round up ready. Crops are sprayed as needed during growing season. It is done by plane and pivots. At the end of the growing season the fields are sprayed with paraquat. It is a complete defoliant. Then they are sprayed again with glyphosate to aid in the drying process. If the wind is not blowing they are spraying. I lost my whole market garden one year. I am not sure what the residual is on any of these. They also use 24D now. Terrible stuff in my opinion.

I have a different opinion of about 24D, and glyphosate, I think they are wonderful tools, much like a gun is a wonderful tool, as well as a hammer, or a shovel. They are tools designed to do a task, but anything can cause harm if misused. I have all the above tools mentioned, but I have to use them very carefully to protect myself and others. And as far as Cha-ching, good or bad, the whole world runs on it.

That’s true Larry. Unfortunately many people don’t use them properly.

I also keep glyphosate on hand. Used judiciously, it can solve many problems. Roundup is not the same as glyphosate. . . it has glyphosate as one of its ingredients. But one can buy glyphosate instead. A link to Roundup. . . https://www.atraxialaw.com/news/unlisted-ingredients-roundup/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20glyphosate%20is%20not,a%20surfactant%20was%20harmful%20to

Speaking of tools--my new favorite for war on Bermuda, the little hand tiller. Loosens up the soil nicely so I can get the roots out more easily. I'm so excited my beds are getting cleaned up, with the help of my new garden helpers! This will be a good year!

Speaking of my grandad. I found some of my dad's keepsakes recently and this pic of my grandad Ollie Banks Dollar, he went by OB. First thing that hit me about it, was that I'm not that far removed from a time when they used horse and wagon to farm. It wasn't that long ago. This pic probably taken in the 1940's.

Nancy, I like your tool. I have been eye-balling that style of tool for a long time, but I feel that I am so near the end of my garden life that I really dont want to invest in more tools. Another tool that I like the looks of is a broadfork, but, again I might as well make do with the tools I have.

That is a nice looking tool Nancy

Lynn, here’s some of my people on a cotton wagon.

Nice tool, Nancy!

wow ! I had it in my mind that horse/wagon was a thing for the 1800's . I knew the German army in WW II used mostly horse and carts to transport troops. As did the Russians until we shipped them 500,000 Dodge trucks. But I always thought farming was mechanized here in the States by the 1930's.

Dad never said anything about that.

My family wasn't wealthy. Maybe that's why? I don't know. I know I've heard stories about how they used carts for things, but also did have a truck.

Those are nice pictures. I have very few pictures of my folks, but I remember that all of my folks were poor, and so was most of the people we knew. My grand parents had teams and farmed with mules or horses. We even started out with horses when we moved on this place.

Wow! I never meant to start a firestorm about chemicals, just meant to give my experience with cotton gin trash. I have loved all the posts and agree with each and every one if you. Up front, for the record - my husband and I use chemicals to be able to control weeds, in fact we have hired a team to spray and fertilize our pastures this year, for first time in over 25 years. I have always drove around the property and hand dug or cut the thistles and dock and burrs, but last year we had hemlock show up and we’ve never had that before. I am 73 and husband is 77, we both have issues that limit our mobility and agility - thats why I have had mostly raised beds for last 15 years. We have a farm and we have used chemicals to control the weeds around fencerows and outbuildings because we are unable to physically do that. Used properly and with safety precautions they have a place. When we work cattle I wear long sleeves and gloves and glasses but I still always end up with pour-on wormer splashed on me. It just is what it is.

Lynn, I love the pictures and stories of the horse drawn equipment. Until I was 5 years old I lived in SE Oklahoma with my grandparents and a bachelor uncle. They had a truck if we had to go long distances but for gardens and fields and anything less than 20 miles we used the mules or horses. I’ve spent many hours in a wagon behind a team if mules. Those are precious memories.

Anyway, I make no judgement of anyone elses way of doing things. We each do what works for us and by sharing ideas hopefully we help each other.

My Grandad had a pickup truck. And I got a pic of my Dad on a tractor, this had to be mid to late 40's , after WW II. But look in the background and there's an outhouse. And being in Seminole County at that time, there's numerous oil derricks from before the day of the mobile drilling rig.

The farmhouse was not much either. Notice the hand pump water well.

I see people on Youtube who want to live off the land, raise their own food, grow their own animals. That was almost as rugged as how my Grandad lived, along with other farmers of that era. It was a hard life.

My Dad and his brothers left the farm when young, late 40's. His three older brothers took off for Bakersfield, Cali. Dad took a correspondence course in accounting and moved to town to work as a bookkeeper for an insurance agency that he eventually ended up owning.

They did not want any more of the farm. Grandad lost his free labor and had to sell and move into town, that was early 50's.

BTW, sort've a statement for our times, on the old family farm site today, there's a marijuana grow. They've got it all fenced in with this tall white fence. Heavy security. So the farming has just changed. I can't say its for the better.

My father's father farmed in minnesota. The farm did not have indoor plumbing until I was in grade School. There was a pump in the kitchen from their well. I was afraid of the chickens on the way to the outhouse. They had some ponies when Dad was in grade school, but he never mentioned using horses on the farm. He was born in 1927. I really cannot imagine raising 5 kids without running water!

Love the comments about ”hard times”. When we moved up here we had a one bedroom house with a beautiful wood floor in the living room, lineoleum in the kitchen and bedroom. A hand pump just outside the front porch and an outhouse. I was the oldest of 4 kids with a little sister that surprised us later. We thought we had a mansion and Daddy worked a full time job plus a couple of extra jobs, always had an old car or truck he fixed up to resell, plus did some farming on the side. As he had time and money he piped water into the kitchen and when I was in 7th grade we built on 2 more bedrooms and a bathroom. We had concrete floors but had lots of homemade throw rugs for when it was cold. We raised 90% of our food - beef, pork, chickens, and we had a big orchard with extra fruit to sell after we canned or dried all we could. We always raised a big garden, both Spring and Fall and fed not only ourselves but several relatives and neighbors. Back then people helped each other and shared whatever they could. I sometimes resented working for hours in the garden and then my mom sending a huge basket of stuff home with a family that didnt want to garden. She would say ”not right for those kids to be hungry because their folks are lazy”

Over the years more than one came back to thank her. This really is garden related - we raised huge gardens with work and determination. I think that same spirit keeps us going today

I was worried the low temps would hurt my garden but so far it looks good. Jennifer I will try to send a picture of the Dollar Tree cloche. Houzz and iphone neither cooperate with me most of the time

I have been concerned about my plants also. The low for Ft. Smith is expected to be 39 tonight, that would often put us down to 33. All of my plants are outside, I can bring in backup plants, but the garden plants will be hard to protect.

I have started getting sweet potato ground ready, I should be able to start planting this week.

Daughter and her male friend came over today and brought lunch, and they took a supply of plants to give to friends and family.

Glenda, your dad sounds like my dad. I remember mom telling about her fussing at dad for always selling a car that would run, and dragging one home that would not run. Mom tells that she kept a record of his trading for 6 month, and he cleared $600.00. Mom said that she kept quite from then on, because an extra $100.00 a month was a lot of money back then. Dad died when I was young, but I can remember him saying a lot of times that he would trade anything that he had, except the ole lady and the kids.

One of my doctors just called and said that his wife would be coming by to pick up some plants. I feel so lucky to have a friend that is my doctor also.

This is the DollarTree cloche

They work great for me to put over small

plants for protection from weather or rabbits -they have adjudtable vent on top and at end of season I just wash, dry, stack and save for next year. Amazon sells a similar product but only 1/2 the size. I consider them a good investment

Well I squeaked by again. The temp in this valley will often get colder then the forecasted temperature for Ft. Smith. The forecast for Ft. Smith was 39 last light, the records for last night show that Ft. Smith hit a low at 6 am of 40 degrees. My min/max shows that I had a low of 33.

I left some of my plants outside last night in what I though might be a warmer spot. I don't know what the temp in the garden, or the area where my plants were, but all look well this morning.

I do not feel safe in this valley to plant summer plants till after May 1, but it looks safe till Oct. now. I carried in enough plants last night to have back-up plants, and enough plants to give away on May 4.

I hope to start planting sweet potatoes very soon, and I still have some peppers and tomatoes that I want to plant. I had 4 plants that produced very well last year. I took very good care of the 4 plants, and per Sq. Ft. of space they out produced my other sweet potatoes by 5 to 1.

Whew...that air temp overnight dipped right down. They nailed it here with a low of 38F. I'm sure all the newly planted warm season stuff appreciate that.

We've been running ragged lately. The two weekends before, we we're out west in Waynoka & Okeene. Pair that with baseball going full-on right now. This weekend, we were outside working to catch up. The wind still sucks! So ready for that to calm down.

We've got a full garden now with only about 4 eggplants to add when they get a bit bigger. We put down a couple of double rows of sweet corn this year, so I'm hoping that doesn't bring in the worms. Last time we did corn, the worms exploded. BT & Spinosad are great, I'm sure, but the timing has to be pretty spot on.

On the cool season stuff, I've got onions that are a little behind due to me burning the original planting and re-planting a lot in early March. I'm trying to push them with nitrogen, but have to be careful not to burn again. The cabbage is getting big and the broccoli look pretty good so far.

Funny that there has been a lot of talk about mulch. Last season, I removed a lot of rocks out of the front beds and replaced it with pine bark. Last week, we saw a bunch of weird looking stuff that looked like spray foam except it was white on the outside. Turns out it is called "slime mold" and I guess it was in the mulch when we put it down? Strange looking stuff, but apparently harmless.

We've been mulching the garden walkways with pine bark and then mulching the planted rows with goat bedding. I'm about wore out from that and still have over half to go. It makes it much cleaner, i'll say that. If I don't spray glyphosate around the border, I'll be pulling bermuda until the 1st freeze. I gotta draw the line somewhere, because I'm only one guy.