I live in a housing addition in the city, can't tell it by the visitors to my backyard

Last Monday a possum and last night a raccoon

Everything here is just growing so beautifully. . . I'm wondering if the hammer will fall witih yet another grasshopper plague. Of course I'm crossing fingers they won't show up to decimate everything like they did 2 and 3 years ago, and to a lesser extent last year, and so my expectations are not high. I have a couple of growing projects going on for two acquaintances now. . . plants that I'll be delivering. I didn't even intend to be growing all that much this year, but now have these projects! Yikes, will I ever retire?! I see the dagnabbed deer have found a couple plants they love, so will have to transplant those into my fenced-in "Veggie Garden" area.

I'm so grateful I've found a couple garden helpers who come one-two times a week, and that has made such a wonderful difference! GDW and I were out wandering in the "back 40" of our 2 acres, where it's forest, mostly, and found that our pawpaw trees are finally taking off, the pear trees and apples trees are thriving; I found milkweeds growing randomly in the area, as well as many other pollinator native plants. It's VERY rocky with shallow soil, but the oaks, black cherry trees, elms, and hacberry trees grow nicely. I really do love our place.

Thanks, Glenda. I looked at the cloches and they look like something I should add to my garden supplies. AFTER we finish with the shop.

Last night, we went to my workplace to grab a few left-over concrete blocks (I have a strong urge to call them cinder blocks even though they aren't. I mistakenly used that term here once many years ago and some guy chewed me out for saying "cinder" instead of concrete. And my rebel side wants to always say 'cinder' now.)

Anyway, there was a community garden there and the beds were made of concrete blocks. I'm now using them to build shelving in the shop with our old closet doors that we saved from the remodel this year. They're working nicely for our holiday tubs. Before, we had the tubs stacked on each other and you had to unstack them to get to the bottom one. And it always seems to be the bottom once I want. So much nicer this way. I won't have to wait for Tom to help me.

I have the day off and am trying to decide what to work on. I have a few tasks indoors and need to run to get a few things for Administrative Professionals Day. It's tomorrow.

Maybe I'll work on the flowerbeds in the front of my house.

I love that you have a forest on your property, Nancy. I know that comes with deer, tho. Some of the houses I've been looking at in the Edmond area have a foresty area too. It would be fun to do mushrooms and understory things. A creek or stream on the property would be even cooler.

Nancy, is the school garden still going?

Josh, the first time I had slime mold in the garden, it was in the strawberry bed. I couldn't figure out what threw up in my garden. It's called dog vomit mold too. I've had it a few times here and there.

Time to make a decision about how my time will be spent today...and then get busy on it.

Impressive insect netting, Kim!

Larry, my neighbor/friend grows potatoes in fabric grow bags. I'm not sure the brand or size (but they're not giant). She surprisingly gets a lot of potatoes. She has maybe somewhere between 12 and 20 of the bags. She gets enough potatoes to can.

I don't know where I'm going to put our potatoes if they do as well as last year. Especially if Rick's garden in Morris does well too. Canning is probably not going to be an option, but perhaps if it's the only things I can, maybe I can squeeze in a day/night of canning potatoes. But, I'm going to need to eat through more of the jars currently in our pantry to make room for them if so. We use the food in our pantry, but don't make as many chilis, soups, and casseroles with canned tomatoes and beans since it's just the two of us at home now.

Last year I spread them out on Ethan's bedroom floor, but that will no longer work in our house. New carpet plus they're coming to visit and will need a room to sleep in.

It would be nice to have them ready to harvest towards the end of summer like the northern people do. And like the sweet potatoes. They could be stored in the shop and utility room that way. But, that's not how it works here.

The Cherokee Purple is a plant that Rick purchased.

Amy, my heirloom tomatoes don't look great. They got a little stunted in their potting mix. Normally this will work itself out once they're planted in the ground and get some nourishing rain and nutrients from the soil.

Hopefully I'll eventually get some tomatoes too!

What herbs did you buy? Herbs are my favorite.

Glenda, I need a cat mint too! I haven't seen any hummingbirds yet!

Nancy, I need to look into a fringe tree. I have elders and beautyberries now. And an Oakleaf Hydrangea.

What is something that stays somewhat short and doesn't spread too much? I want something like that at the west side of the native (plus red poppies) garden.

Sorry about the school garden, but am glad you could distribute the plants and all.

I watered some things last night. Felt bad because some plants were really thirsty. I'm simply not used to needing to water in April. The horseradish, rhubarb, and cabbages were especially dry.

Y'all, I don't know if I've already said this, but last year I put a couple of dead gaillardia plants (with dried flowers attached)in one corner of the property--sorta near where the Indian Paintbrushes are (and lots of other wildflower---yarrow, purple, and yellow). I've been watching it closely and there are probably a 1000 gaillardia coming up in that corner. Tom is going to kill me. He's doing really well about not mowing everything and letting me enjoy the wildflowers. I'm the biggest pain about this and luckily he's playing along. I have things marked---I insist on walking him around the property before he mows each time, to remind him of the wild violets and still very small beautyberries. I realize at some point he'll need to mow the area with the gaillardia/yarrow/Indian Paintbrushes and the purple and yellows that I can't think of their name right now. But, if I can hold him off until June....

We were looking at that corner a couple of nights ago, our neighbor (with the growbags of potatoes) was walking her dog and she asked if we were putting in another garden. I showed her the wildflowers. She said that their mower has been broken this year until this week so her husband was unable to mow. She's never had so many bees in her garden before. She was amazed. Unfortunately her husband doesn't play along as good as mine. He already mowed.

Okay, now I'm just rambling. Have to work late tonight. Hoping for rain.

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!

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.