I had to cut the last message short. Depending on the squash it can last up to 6 months . For where I live a walking tractor will serve my needs better than a 4 wheel tractor I converted my trailer for the riding mower to pull behind the walking tractor and ride on tonight . by the middle of june mower decks will be back in stock and I will mow with it too. I plan on getting a shredder/chipper in a year or two. I'm on 1/2 acre 1800+ sq ft of garden grape vines, apple,pear and peach trees and blackberries. My current craftsman garden tractor is to big plus it takes up to much room in the garage. Winter squash soup : In a small crock pot peel seed and cube winter squash of your choice Enough to fill pot (I use a 2 1/2 qt pot) add a couple table spoons of butter a sage leaf a small onion chopped fine a clove of garlic chopped fine slow cook till squash is soft remove sage leaf using a hand blender blend up squash adding chicken broth till you get the consistancy of potato soup salt pepper to taste add mini cubes of ham cook enough to warm ham serve with a white shredded cheese Roy

Without doubt, timing is much different in Florida. For one we have a much larger window of opportunity. In the northern tier of the U.S. the growing season is 90 days. The more south the more it modarates. PLbrown, you paraphrased me and left out the but timing is important part. Jane..I need seeds of those forever tomatoes. I've had hot peppers last 2 years. And I have an orchid that stays in bloom. I want veggies that grow like weeds and weeds that grow like veggies.

Speaking of weeds, I have no idea what most of them are called. Is there a website somewhere that shows weeds native to Oklahoma? I have some that grow thick and about 1' tall that have little tiny daisy-like flowers. When you pull them they feel like they have a lot of moisture in them and the roots don't go very far down. I didn't know what Henbit was called until someone posted a picture of it in Signs of Spring. I do have a couple of tomato plants that are coming out of it. But the Black Krim is just standing there, still erect, but sad little limp, darkening leaves dangling and no evidence of new growth. The sad thing is that I sold all my extra Black Krims. I had people requesting "that purple tomato". I guess I will sow a few more seed and maybe have some late ones for me. DH doesn't like them. Of course half the stuff he eats is stuff he says he doesn't like, he just doesn't know he's eating it. I covered some plants with plastic buckets and that didn't work, either. I should know better than to plant tomatoes before April 15 or 20. It seems like I "jump the gun" every year. One of the Tulsa news channels ran a piece on Livesay's Porter peach crop and how they had helicopters hovering over their trees, trying to force warmer air down during the freeze. It was interesting that Mr. Livesay said that at 27 degrees you lose about half your peaches. I always thought the margin was less than that -- that you'd lose all your fruit at anything less than 32. Since it only got to 29, I guess my trees were safe and I didn't know it. I hosed them all down just before I went to bed, and got up early the next morning to hose them down again, only to find that the hose was frozen! Grrrr. At that point the leaves were "crisp". I suppose it's really too early to know about the peaches. There are still flowers on the trees but they look a little lackluster. DH says it's because they've been polinated and are forming fruit but what does he know? He sent me off to Walmart during a snow storm once, saying the snow wasn't going to stick. By the time I got out of the store, it was snowing so hard I could barely see to get home and slid off the road when I turned the corner. We got about a foot of snow that day. One time I told him I thought the shelves in the pantry were starting to "lean", and he said they'd be OK. Luckily I was in the pantry when the shelf started to fall and was able to push back on it and holler for help. Otherwise I'd have lost my jars of pickles and tomatoes, not to mention the mess. So I know I can't really trust his judgment. I haven't seen any peaches forming. A few of the flowers have fallen on the ground but I think that's normal. I look every day to see a hopeful sign. The plum trees, though, had tiny little green plums formed before the freeze, and they still look good. And the apple trees were just beginning to bloom and they went ahead and bloomed on and the bees have been visiting the blossoms regularly. Is it just me, or have we had a colder than usual Spring?

A familiar echo from Dave above.. Transplanted plants often "pout" a little until they settle in lol.. Be sure to water them well immediately after transplanting, and it doesn't hurt to give them a few days of shade to stretch their legs a bit. Container soil must drain readily.. You'd be better off purchasing something like Promix, Sunshine mix, or making a mixture of your own. A simple, cheap and effective mix would consist of something like compost, triple ground hardwood bark and pea gravel/silica at equal parts. You'd want to add a dry fertilizer (GardenTone for example) at the time of mixing if not using a soluble product throughout the season.