PREPARING FOR FALL: You should be doing what is needed to get your soil ready for fall. In my garden, that might include adding compost (purchased or from one of the older working piles), composted manure or Plant-Tone plant food to any areas from which I've removed a spring crop and am planting a fall crop. You also should remove all sprouting weeds and grasses because they'll compete with your crops. If you don't have mulch, you should be saving it and stockpiling it so you can add it to beds after you've transplanted plants or after your seeds have sprouted. You indicated that Mel's Mix didn't work for you, so now is a great time to add to it to correct what you think is wrong with it. If you aren't sure what to add to correct whatever problems you had, let us know and maybe someone will have some suggestions. I am not sure if you found Mel's Mix to drain too quickly? too slowly? Was it lacking in nutrition? We have to know what was wrong with it in order to help you figure out how to fix it. TOMATO SEEDS: It is too late to start tomato seeds now since your fall tomatoes need to go into the ground in July. I'm planting my first fall tomatoes in the ground this week from seeds started 5 to 6 weeks ago. It will take me about 3 weeks to get all the fall tomatoes in the ground since I am putting them in, one by one, to replace other plants that are finished. For example, the small section of Texas Honey June Corn is done now and I am going to put 9 to 12 plants in the area once occupied by it. For the rest of what you're planting, I'm going to give you the dates I would most likely plant them here. If you are in OKC, you probably should plant about a week earlier than me. If you are further north than OKC and have an earlier first fall freeze, then plant up to 2 weeks earlier than I do. LEMON CUCUMBERS: These grow great here, and I'd plant them here in southern OK between August 1 -August 15. Be sure to pick them while they are a bright yellow. If they start turning an orangey-yellow, you've left them on the vines too long. KENTUCKY WONDER POLE BEAN: I'd probably plant pole beans for fall anytime after July 15th, and probably in your case as closely to that date as possible. SEQUOIA BUSH BEANS: Aug. 1 - Sept. 1 here SNOW PEAS: Sept. 1 Oct. 1 GARLIC: Sept. thru Oct. SWEET POTATOES: As soon as possible since they take roughly 85 - 110 days to mature and you need to have them harvested before freezing weather arrives. COW PEAS: Now. Anytime from now through August 1st. BLACK-SEEDED SIMPSON LETTUCE: Aug. 15 - Sept. 15 BUTTERCRUNCH LETTUCE: Aug. 15 - Sept.15 BUTTERNUT SQUASH: Anytime in July TOMATOES: July 1-15 is best for tomatoes with longer days to maturity, and by the end of July for tomatoes with shorter days to maturity. The earlier you get them in the ground in July, the larger and more ready they'll be to flower/set fruit when cooler fall temperatures arrive. Summer-planted tomatoes need more water to get established and grow than spring-planted tomatoes, so keep a close eye on them and keep them moist but not soggy. CARROTS: August 15 - Sept. 15 CHIVES: These are more of a cool-season crop and I usually only plant them in late winter or early spring. To start them in summer, I'd start them indoors in a flat or in paper cups in a sterile soil-less potting mix in a cool room (approx. 60-70 degrees) that doesn't especially have a lot of bright light. That way, they'll think it is early spring and will sprout. Pre-soaking the seed will help it germinate more quickly. Once they sprout you can move them into light, and gradually expose them to outdoor light and harden them off before transplanting them into the ground. I probably would start the seed in early Sept. and hope I could get them into the ground in late Sept. or early Oct. Or, if you know someone who has chives and will give you a clump, you can divide them and plant them anytime. Just cut back the tops by about 60-80% when you divide them. They'll regrow just fine. Mulch can be anything that covers the soil surface to keep it cool. Well-mulched soil can be 20-30 degrees cooler than bare, unmulched soil in our summer heat. I use whatever I can get my hands on because I have a big garden and it takes a whole lot of mulch to cover all the ground. I add mulch just about weekly. You can use bagged mulch and it is one of my favorite kinds of mulch. It looks nice and it decomposes into the most gorgeous dark brown compost that enriches the soil. Just be sure you use it on the surface of the soil and don't work it into the soil. If you work it into the soil, it can tie up oxygen so you want to avoid that in general unless you're adding extra nitrogen to the soil to compensate for what wood chips will tie up. You also can use straw, hay, grass clippings, compost, shredded paper if you shred your old bills, junk mail, etc. I like to put down a layer of newspaper or cardboard around the larger plants and pile mulch on top of that. The paper or cardboard will keep weed seeds that sprout from working their way up (if they sprout beneath the cardboard) or from working their way down (if the sprout in the mulch). As the paper and cardboard decompose, they turn into compost which further enriches your soil. Do you see a pattern here? Every bit of organic (with organic in this case meaning "once alive") matter than you use as mulch will decompose and enrich your soil and you don't even have to use a trowel or mini-tiller to work the compost into the soil because over time, the rain and earthworms will carry it down into the soil. In the fall, you can ask your neighbors to save their raked/bagged leaves for you. Then, stack up all the bags and save them for next year and use them as mulch. If you want for the whole leaves to be decomposing into leaf mold, shred or chop them, put them into black leaf bags, wet them down good, tie the bags shut, and poke several air holes in them. Pile them up in an out-of-the-way place and let them sit there all fall and winter. In the spring you'll have lovely partially decomposed leaves to use as mulch. Conversely, if your soil needs improvement, you can till them directly into the soil in the fall (chop or shred them first or they won't break down), but then you'll need to be stockpiling something else to use as mulch. When we mow (and we mow anywhere from 1 to 4 acres most of the time so we get lots of clippings), we catch the clippings in a grasscatcher and dump them wherever we need more mulch at the moment. We mow the acre around the house weekly, and the other 1 to 3 acres closest to the house anywhere from 1 to 3 times per month. For us, clippings are our primary mulch during grass-growing season, but I use more hay, straw and wood chips in spring, and chopped or shredded leaves in fall and winter. If you will heavily mulch your beds this fall after your crops are done, and by heavily I mean several inches, that mulch will keep weeds from sprouting in your beds all winter and early in spring, and the mulch will start decomposing and 'feeding' the soil, so it is a win-win situation. Dawn

Hi Jim: Alfalfa pellets is OK to use IN CONJUNCTION with gritty lime. When used alone, alfalfa pellets is acidic, and WORSENS black spots. We get so much acidic rain this year, that I see zinc deficiency in the holes which I brought the pH too low with cracked corn (pH 4). Re-quote from earlier link: "Zinc deficiency: Soils that are acidic often have deficient zinc. Michigan State University mentions that zinc deficiencies also are more common in soils that are naturally rich in phosphorus ... Young leaves may be yellowed or reduced in normal size (called "little leaf"), narrower than normal leaves with wavy edges or abnormally expanding and puckered. Another cue is what is called "rosetting"--space between new leaves is very small, and tiny leaves and shoots bunch up into a clustered tuft." Yves seedling's previous hole was acidic ... I put too much pine bark (pH 4). It was a BS-fest with smaller leaves. When I moved it to its new location, the leaves are bigger, shinier, and healthy ....Thanks to my alkaline clay fixed with alfalfa hay (less acidic than alfalfa pellets). CONCLUSION: Alfalfa hay is cheaper, $8 per bale, and great to mix in soil months in advance, to aerate soil and improve drainage. Alfalfa pellets is more expensive, $17 per 40 lb. bag, more acidic, but convenient to use on top, if neutralized by lime. Kordes Barcelona (smaller red bloom) has a fantastic fragrance, and blooms lots with alfalfa pellets. That one is susceptible to mildew, which I fixed easily with gritty lime. It's the only one that doesn't break out in BS with alfalfa pellets. See bouquet below: My roses this year are NOT as healthy as previous years with horse manure & alfalfa. I will shop more with cash, just to collect pennies (the ones after 1982 are made of zinc, and the ones before 1982 are made of copper ... both are anti-fungal agents).

morpheouspa. Gloves down here for a moment. What claims are you referring to that I have made about mechanical aeration? Granted, I do claim that there are purposes for which the employment of mechanical aeration can be useful and it irritates me to no end that people peremptorily discount mechanical aeration as being without any use. (in the past couple of months, I've seen were you have suggested? that plug aeration might be an aid in pursuing some outcome.) Are you saying that I have advocated mechanical aeration as a necessary continued lawn care practice? (Do you advocate the application of a surfactant as a necessary continuing lawn care practice?) Is it necessary to spam this site with links to hundreds of university turf programs that recommend home owner lawn aeration not only as a continuing lawn care practice, but for the prevention of disease, thatch LDS etc.? For what purpose? They are just conclusory statements, No more valid than anything you or anyone else can produce. What you linked to, rather than belittle you, look at the facts: First some of what they call aeration is plowing (bad for me) but anyway I counted 13 studies and of those, the majority showed some improvement to crop yield, none showed a decline. They do,make a conclusory statement that aeration will cause increased weeds. OK fine. Based on what? No ancillary evidence even? Did they atleast credit dchall for the quote or maybe daniel? So even though your site actually supports that aeration results in slightly greater % crop production than non aeration, I say irrelevant and useless for any support for either of us. This argument has been going on forever, but if you take the time to understand and observe, there are logical conclusions you can come to and when applied either work or don't. If X then Y, put it to the test, and if it repeats, then continue, whether it is surfacants, aeration, corn meal or Bayer. So recommend on your experience and give your rational when challenged. Caveat emptor. My goal for my lawn, and for those I give advice to, is to obtain a turf that in the shortest time possible will only require mowing, watering and fertilization. I endeavor to employ the least expensive, least labor intensive, but most effective methods for a healthy turf AND soil and those are the ones I promote. My questions were for the reader and therefor need no response from you . I will no longer joust this windmill with you or anyone else, but I will call out anyone who "make [an unsupportable} claim... or [spew} any other blatant lie"

It just occurred to me that inflamation may not be the main problem....but I'll go ahead. My experience might help someone. Speaking from the experience of two knee replacements, a broken shoulder, and advancing arthritis in my hand/ (joints are a familial weakness),if you are agreeable and able to take anti inflamatories take them before going out. If the doc recommended icing, do it. Icing is a no-drug go-to treatment for inflammation and very effective. I have a recipe for making your own ice packs that cost pennies. If anyone wants it I'm glad to share it. Triple affirmation for NH Babs recommendation for varying the activity, stopping before you get exhausted or really hurt; and taking frequent breaks to cool down, rehydrate and get some calories into yourself. I hope some of these ideas bring some relief or at least let you garden a little longer with less pain.