Ditto that for motherwort. Motherwort's seeds are smaller, have flat sides, and are roughly triangular shaped. And no as well for the Borago (Borage) that you said was suggested. Borage's seeds are larger and look like hand-grenades not to mention the rest of the plant is wrong too. Did you ever see the plant in bloom? Bloom color? If it wasn't an amaranth, I had been wondering if it was maybe an Agastache (hyssop) but I believe your seeds are too large for that too. FataMorgana

Paula: Seems no one is picking up on this. For what it's worth, I get most of what I need from the internet. That way you often can find multiple sources. Also, if you post photos here on the forum a lot of people can help you out on most ID's, also very good help available on the ID forum. I get most of my brainstorms on what to sow here on the forum too. Someone will post a photo and I know I gotta have it. I also browse seed catalogues (paper and online sites), then google it to see if it's a good choice for my yard. (e.g. wet or dry soil?, alkaline or acidic soil?, etc). Books are nice to have, but have to be stored, become outdated, don't have newer choices, and are expensive. I do have some garden books, but, honestly, I find the internet more useful than any book I've ever found. I'm so thankful that Al Gore invented it! Karen

I don't know that there are any vegetable garden books specifically related to Oklahoma other than Louise Riotte's books. However, as written, they were intended for a national audience. I think it is just because we know she was from southern OK (Ardmore) that we treasure her books so much. I like all her books, and listed some of them in the previous thread about gardening books I'm going to link below. Many of my favorite gardening books that I rely upon are mentioned in the link below, but I have a couple of new favorites that I don't think I'd read at the time last year's book thread was written, so I'll mention them here. "The Texas Tomato Lover's Handbook" by Dr. William D. Adams, published in 2011. Dr. Adams enjoyed a long and distinctive career with the Ag Extension Service in Texas where he tested tomato plants year in and year out with the help of Master Gardeners in his county. He also maintains his own kitchen garden, and sells his excess produce at market. If there is anything you need to know about how to grow tomatoes in our climate and soils, he covers it in this book . I love, love, love this book so much that if I had to get rid of all my gardening books and could keep only one, this is the one I would keep. It would be really hard, though, for me to get rid of the next two. "Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs" (a Creative Homeowner book), by Jim Wilson (of Victory Garden fame) and Walter Chandoha, published in 2010. This book was written/photographed by two men with over 100 years of gardening experience between them. Best of all, Jim Wilson gardened in the south, so the book is well-balanced for all regions of the country, which is not necessarily the case with all books geared toward a national audience. This book is outstanding. If I was a new gardener who was just getting into growing veggies, fruits and herbs, this book would tell me everything I needed to know in order to know where to begin, what to do and how to succeed. I've mentioned this next book many times before. Even though I've had it for almost 3 decades and practically have it memorized, I'd panic if my copy was misplaced and I couldn't find it. Dr. Sam Cotner's "The Vegetable Book: A Texans Guide to Gardening" was published in the mid-1980s, and I am on my second copy, having totally worn out the first copy about a decade ago. Dr. Cotner was the head of horticulture at A&M before his retirement, and that was the position he held when he wrote this book. I learned how to grow veggies from watching my dad do it, but he was very quiet and didn't talk about what he was doing or why he was doing it--he just did it. So, I learned the how from observing my dad, but from Dr. Cotner's book I learned all the why's and wherefore's. It was this book that taught me about the effect of soil temps and air temps on plants, which may seem elementary, but most of us don't know those things when we're just starting out. Once you understand the effect of air and soil temps on your plants and their productivity, everything else just falls into place. My favorite guide to growing herbs is "Southern Herb Growing" written by Madalene Hill & Gwen Barclay with Jean Hardy. No one was/is more qualified to write about southern herb growing than Madalene Hill and Gwen Barclay, except perhaps for Jim Long. All his books are great too. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Texas Gardener" magazine, which I've been reading for a couple of decades now. Although it covers all aspescts of gardening in Texas, I find its info just as appropriate for OK. It does cover all sorts of gardening, everything from lawns to trees and shrubs to water gardening, flowers, fruits and veggies. It seems to me that it has at least as much emphasis on fruits, herbs and veggies as on ornamentals, and I love it. So, that's my two cents contributed to this discussion. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Previous Thread on Gardening Books

Just to clarify, I only placed them in my larger outdoor pots while I was outside. Somehow, they found their own way into my smaller- & medium-sized pots all on their own. Which happened while my plants were outdoors. I didn't even know that they were there until I went to soak my pots. And even then, there were only a few of them. All of which were a fraction of the size of the outdoor earthworms. No bigger than the ones in iamhopscotch's photos. They have been there for at least two years now and not once have they ever negatively affected the health of any of my plants. So I pretty much leave them alone. I don't use them to aerate my already fast-draining soil. And even if they "break down" the soil, "Earthworms leave behind excrement or castings containing from 5 to 11 times the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium they have ingested." All of which the plants can use.I repot my plants long before the soil gets depleted, and the old soil gets tossed out into the remote corners of my yard, along which whatever's inhabiting it. Even if my new, fresh potting soil were to somehow gain newer earthworms, I wouldn't go out of my way to try and rid them from my pots. People want to try and grow their plants in sterile environments, dousing their plants with fungicides and insecticides, and nature doesn't work like that. I'm not advocating putting earthworms in your indoor pots. I was simply stating that I found them in my indoor plants and never once have I encountered any problems from them being there. Sure, I placed them in my large, outdoor pots. But that was because those pots stay outdoors year-round. The smaller earthworms found their own way into my smaller pots, while those pots were outdoors. People claim that they can't survive living in containers, but the small ones in mine seem to do just fine. Even if they were to die, their remains end up breaking down into enriched nutrients that the plants can use.