I did a little planting this weekend. I put in some seeds for my annuals but I'm thinking I should have waited. We're supposed to get all of that rain this week and I'm worried their all going to wash away. Oh well, I have more!

I got quite a bit done this weekend put in some perennials plants and seeds and got the garden tilled up and ready to be able to put in the tomatoes and other veggies
got the empty lot seeded with grass hoping the rain that we are to be getting is nice and soft so it doesn't wash the seeds away

I planted some annuals from six-packs: sweet alyssum, dianthus, dusty miller and begonias.

I planted some nasturtiums raised from seed in peat pots. They are Caribbean Cocktail, a mixture of raspberry, red, pink and white variegated blooms.

I planted a few more tomato plants in the ground, for a total of 15 in the ground and 13 or 14 in containers. I'm always worried about a late freeze, so have been trying to restrain myself from planting more than I am able to cover up with buckets if a freeze threatens.

Today I am planting two heirloom corns and four types of bush beans, all raised in peat pots to get a jump on the season. I planted them in peat pots one week ago today.

I won't put out any seeds until after this week's forecasted rains are over, as my garden is on a slope (as is almost our entire property) and I have to be extra careful about the seeds washing out.

I have been digging up and moving volunteers that are popping up here and there, mostly Flanders poppies, larkspur, yarrow, tansy and chamomile.

I was hoping to get more done, but the crash of a small aircraft kept our volunteer fire department out for a few hours Saturday afternoon, which ended my gardening day early.

Okiedawn-
Based on the last sentence of your post, you must live pretty close to me. I read about the crash in the paper this morning.

I just came across this site while searching the web for info about when to put out hummingbird feeders in our area--I found a post you wrote a year or two ago. I'm glad I found this forum. I grew up on the coast of Texas and have lived in OK for about a year and a half.

Waiting for the last freeze tests every ounce of patience I have. Last year (my first spring here) I planted some stuff a bit early. I've resisted the urge so far this year, but since I'm off work for spring break this week, I know something will be going in the ground. I just need to make a list of my garden priorities and decide what will be planted...

Hi Aggiegal,

I came inside for a late lunch and thought I'd eat here at the computer.

I am in Love County, about halfway between Thackerville and Marietta. We moved here from Fort Worth in 1999.

Sometimes I plant a little early and have to cover stuff up, but sometimes it pays off. Sometimes, I plant my tomato plants in early or mid-March and it doesn't freeze, and then I have ripe tomatoes in mid- to late-April. I thought I planted a little late last year, but still had ripe tomatoes 3 to 6 weeks before my local gardening friends and neighbors.

I hope you enjoy your spring break week off! Except for the rain in the forecast, it should be a great week....and we really do need the rain.

The plane crash was the worst one I've seen here. One fatality, but three survivors...and if you saw the wreckage and fire, you'd be amazed anyone survived.

I've been watching the hummingbird map and can see the little darlings are getting closer and closer. I think we'll see them in the next week or two.

Dawm

Here is a link that might be useful: 2007 hummingbird migration map

Dawn,
Whew! I've been installing a flagstone path across my backyard, which is really hard work. 7 stones down, 12 to go.

Thanks for posting the hummingbird migration map. My almost-3 year old will be very excited to see the birds, especially after we looked up pictures on the internet earlier. I have the feeder hanging outside the dining room window so he and my almost-1 year old can watch them when they do show up. About 10 years ago I worked at a guest ranch in southwest Colorado, and we had hummingbird feeders lining the porch of the ranch house. We hosted an older French couple for several weeks, and one day I found the man staring at the feeders. He had never seen a hummingbird and was just amazed. He couldn't get over them. Every time I see a hummingbird I think about his excitment and curiosity.

We live in Ardmore, so you are about 20 or so miles south of me. That crash sounds awful. I wondered if anyone witnessed it. I've never been to that restaurant, but I understand people can watch the runway while they dine.

Do you find that gardening in this area is similar to Ft. Worth? A lady at the local bookstore said that on this side of the Arbuckles we are closer in climate to DFW than to Oklahoma City. Either way, both are kind of a mystery to me, although I am learning. Right now, I am working on installing/improving perennial beds around the house. The existing beds were pretty bare, except for some overgrown, gangly nandinas (which, by the way, are next to impossible to get rid of), and lots of weeds.

What a neat hummingbird site!!! My kids are looking forward to helping me report our first sighting.

Thanks for sharing everyone!
Carla

Hi, all. Yes, I did get out and plant yesterday and today. I planted several of my bare root trees I got from Mail Order Natives (great place; reasonable shipping; plants are a good size, too).

Most everybody knows I garden for butterflies, moths, and other wildlife, so I planted my magnolia virginiana (sweetbay magnolia; host for spicebush swallowtail); persea borbonia (redbay; host for spicebush and eastern tiger swallowtails); pawpaw; rhus aromatica (fragrant sumac; host for several sphinx moths); cratagus aestivalus (Eastern Mayhaw; host for Red Spotted Purple butterfly); viburnum nudum (hummingbird clearwing sphinx and Henry's Elfin); spigelia; tiarella rubrum; false solomon's seal groundcover; and lonicera sempervirens 'Henry' (red/orange flowers). I still have plenty left to go.

My seedlings are coming up already of my direct sown cirsium mariana (Milk Thistle) and the angelica purpurescens.

Got a bit of yard cleanup done as well. Still working on that never-ending chore. I'd much rather plant and wander around the garden that cut all that stuff back and stuff it in trash bags. Some of it I put in the mulch pile.

Thanks for the hummingbird site

I worked in the garden today and got a lot of clean up done maybe a couple more days like today and it will be finished Put out a few more annuals with the help of my 8 year old granddaughter and got the tomatoes in the ground
now to wait and see what else comes up before buying anymore

Everyone's been so busy! Of course, getting to go outside and do stuff is our reward for ending the cold, icy winter, right?

Aggiegal, Installing a flagstone path? That is really a lot of work. I have it on my list of things to do when I get around to it, but I never seem to get around to it! :)

Glad you and Carla found the hummingbird map useful. There's a similar one for Purple Martins that I always watch in late winter/early spring so I'll know when the birds are arriving.

The crash was awful and someone outside must have witnessed it because the owner of the restaurant said someone came running inside asking for them to call 9-1-1. It occurred at the extreme far northern end of the runway, so I don't think people in the building saw it occur. In fact, the trees on the adjoining property more than likely blocked their view of everything except the column of black smoke.

I do find gardening in this area EXTREMELY SIMILAR to gardening in Fort Worth. There are a few differences, though:

1) Southern Oklahoma is hotter than Fort Worth in mid-summer, especially in August.

2) Southern Oklahoma is colder than Fort Worth in early winter, especially in late December and early to mid-January.

3) In Fort Worth we had black gumbo clay soil and here in southern Oklahoma we have red clay soil with occasional sandy patches or strips.

4) Southern Oklahoma has more weird weather like drecho winds, thundersnow and thundersleet--things I never experienced in Fort Worth. Fort Worth has more violent hailstorms--periodically receiving baseball sized hail, whereas southern Oklahoma has more frequent tornadoes, but the largest hail I've seen here was only ping pong ball sized or maybe a little smaller.

In general, if a plant will grow in Fort Worth, it will grow here. The seasons are very similar. The weather and precipitation are very similar. The native plants are very, very similar. And, thanks to our cooler nights here in the winter and spring, some plants will do well here that don't do well in Fort Worth, like lilacs. So, everything I learned over the years/decades from Fort Worth's gardening gurus (Neil Sperry, Howard Garrett, Dottie Woodson, and H. S. Stevens) pretty much applies here. And informtion from all my books about gardening in Texas is pretty much applicable here also.

Susan, Your butterfly gardening is creating such a beautiful habitat! I know you will have a never-ending assortment of butterflies this year. I need to redo my butterfly bed and expand it a little. It is the first bed I planted when we moved here, and it has been somewhat neglected as I have worked on other stuff over the years.

Sheepie58, I am glad you have some help, 'cause everything is more fun with grandkids (that's what I hear, but I have no grandkids yet).

Hoping to spend most of today in the garden and yard, although I will have to break down and spend a little time cleaning house and doing laundry. Note that I said 'a little' time. I have my priorities straight!

On the purple martin scout and sub-adult arrival map linked below, if you want to see dates for bird arrivals in Oklahoma, just click on the state and a listing will pop up.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: purple martin scout report

Dawn, thanks for the links. I have not been here in a week and feel I have missed a bunch. My grandkids were here for part of spring break and we went fishing, so no planting, then I got the stomach flu, no planting. This evening I went out and started cleaning around my "new" fence. That will be a new flower bed, think everything was either crushed or dug up when the fencers put in the new poles. On top of that they dug through my gas pipe. It has been just great. So now I am getting a late start on the flower beds. But I am glad to have hot water again.

Susan, you would not believe the number of seeds that germinated from the dactura. I will have a million of them. The cats will be happy. We have not had rain yet but maybe this week-end. I have so much to do outside but would really like the rain.

Hi, Aggiegal! I found this website the same way you did and I am glad I did. Enjoy the conversations and enjoy talking to other people that have the same gardening problems I do. I kind of grew up in you area with my grandparents and gardening was my grandmothers life. So I learned to can and pick and "weed". : ( Now I just do flowers, some peppers and of course tomatoes. Dont all Southern women do tomatoes?

Dawn, I finally got all my laundry "caught up". I changed the closets out and got all my summer clothes out. Priority: dont wear sweaters to the office, you will have heat stroke. I also cleaned out my garage and cleaned up my gardening tools. DH now knows it is sandwich weather.

Happy gardening everyone, u all have a jump start on me so now I have to play catch up. Stephanie

Steffie, I was wondering where you'd been. I thought maybe you were out working in the yard 24/7. I do hope that you enjoy putting in the new bed...kind of think of it as a chance to 'remodel'! (Unless, of course, you were 100% happy with the way it was before the fence came down!)

One good thing about daturas is that once you have them, you will have them forever as they reseed prolifically. And, around here, they are the one plant that the deer seldom nibble. (I always wondered when the deer do eat the leaves if they have the same hallocinogenic effect on the deer as they do on people?)

We aren't getting rain here in Marietta, even though it is in the forecast almost every day. Our 2007 rainfall is at about 50% of the average rainfall for the year through March, so I am getting a little concerned. I'd like for some rain to fall....but hopefully not until Sunday or Monday. I have a lot I want to get done on Saturday.

"Don't all Southern women do tomatoes?" I love that!!!! I gardened with my grandparents and my dad my entire childhood (my mom was NOT a gardener) and, no matter what else we had, we ALWAYS had tomatoes. To this day, I always have tons of tomatoes, and half the fun of raising them is to have lots to give away and to share.

You're ahead of me on the closet. I do have half my summer clothes out, but haven't put up the winter ones yet. I've been saving that task for a rainy day...

This week I got the beans and corn into the ground, and planted 47 more tomato plants.

Today I need to mow a couple of acres of rye grass, get some more tomatoes in the ground, and pot up tiny pepper and herb plants from their seed-starter pots to larger pots to grow on a little longer before they go into the garden. And I need to do some container plantings, but probably won't get to that till next week. I am also at war with the rabbits and deer, who like to get under, over or through the garden fence and eat everything in sight.

Have fun playing catch-up, Stephanie, and don't overdo it!

Dawn

Oh, y'all are just wearing me out, reading your posts! I did get some more cleanup done this morning in the front bed.

I don't think my datura seeds matured properly last year. They got frost bit before they were fully ripe and were kind of soggy wet. But, I went out and pulled one off the other day (it was dry by then, just took it a couple of months, LOL!); opened it up (shoulda seen that!), and scattered a few of the seeds around. They probably are not viable, but I had to give it the old college try anyway.

Checked today and the darned kierengishoma is up! I thought I killed it last year in the summer drought. It's another water guzzler, but I just can't bring myself to dig these plants up, darn it! I'm a sad case, huh?

Well, I'm tired now, after reading your posts, so think I'll cop a nap!

Susan

Susan--the kierengishoma...is that the yellow bells or Korean yellow wax bells? And, if so, how in the world is it surviving in our climate? I would have thought the drought would have wiped it out!

I bet those datura seeds will sprout. They are one of the toughest, most prolific reseeders I've ever seen.

Hope it was a great nap. I need a nap, but it is too close to bedtime. The worst time of the day....too late to take a nap and too early to go to bed.

Dawn

Hi, I have spent the week-end gardening!!!!!!!! I have coleus in the ground, petunias, cosmos, daisy, impetiens and sunflowers. Transplanted and moved daylillies, coneflowers, and daktura. Two new climbing rosebushes, wysteria, dahlias, and glads. Planted my urns in the front and waiting on the tree roses I ordered to complete the look. "I had a good day!"

I love, love, love spring in Oklahoma. The fence is up and I have a great deal of repair and cleaning to do now but thats okay. I got the front started. The liliacs are blooming and the scent is heavenly. Saw my first bfly! The only problem, I am exhausted! So, just wanted you guys to know I was still here just to tired to post much tonight.

Visit more later. Steffie

Steffie,

WOW!!! You got a great deal accomplished, didn't you?

I mostly worked in the vegetable garden. I know y'all get tired of hearing me say the same old thing....but I planted more tomato plants today. I have almost 100 plants in the ground and 13 more in containers. All of the tomato plants in the ground are staked, caged, the cages are staked, each plant is labeled, and they all are surrounded by about 3" of mulch. I haven't put the soaker hoses in the beds yet. I spend a ton of time planting and mulching, but then that part of my garden is VERY low maintenance the rest of the season.

The Better Bush tomato plants in containers have several tomatoes each. The Early Girl tomatoes (one in container and one in ground) are blooming.

About 85% of the tomato plants are heirlooms and I am slowly getting all my gardening neighbors addicted to heirloom tomato plants. One stopped by yesterday and I sent him home with two heirloom cherry tomato plants. Another brought me 30 square bales of 'old hay' today to use as mulch. (And it really isn't even that old!) I promised him tomato plants when he is ready to plant. I need to get busy planting flowers. I always spend too much time in the veggie garden early on, and then have to play catch-up in the rest of the landscape.

I am exhausted, too, but think I am too tired to sleep. That's not a good thing.

Dawn

Planted this weekend? I already have lots of things up! My peas are 5 inches high, I have spinch and lettuce that will be ready to pick in a few days. I also have radish, potatoes, turnips, carrots and onions all up and growing. I did plant some tomatoes this weekend, but I am prepared to cover them if we get a frost. I love early springs, just hope it lasts :-)

Mark

Mark,

The only cool season crops I plant are onions and leeks, and mine have been in the ground for weeks. Anything else I plant in late winter is just devoured by the deer.

I'm loving early spring too. I now have 115 tomato plants in the ground, and won't plant any more for a few days, just in case a late frost threatens. I never feel really 'safe' from a late freeze until after Easter.

Today I noticed the mesquite trees in Gainesville, TX, are leafing out...just across the Red River from us. My pecan trees are leafing out, and the oak leaves are slightly larger than a mouse's ear, so I feel pretty safe weatherwise. well, except that the worst tornato months are about here.

Anytime I have a really, really great start on the gardening season (like I do this year), we get hit with a huge hailstorm in May when everything is looking beautiful. It never fails. Never. Oh, the challenges of gardening in this climate!

Dawn

WOW! It's not too early to start planting????!!!! DH is going to love hearing this! LOL! Everyone I have talked to has advised waiting until after April 15th, so I have seriously been holding myself back... I have all the beds prepped, and I wander aimlessly around the yard looking for something to do. My laudryroom looks likea a greenhouse with 400-500 seeds starting to sping up. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!!

Susan - I have Hyacynths blooming and the other evening we had a little moth, which at first, DH thought was a bumble bee but after taking a closer look, it was in fact a moth, enjoying a little snack. My first glimpse of a Spynx Moth was last summer at my parents house in Nebraska. It was actually the first for all of us. You'd have had a good laugh listening to a house full of know-it-all's arguing wether or not it was a hummingbird!! Thank goodness for the internet!

Bizzydiggin,

Well...it all depends on how much of a gambler you are. EVERYTHING hinges on the weather, and you know that Oklahoma weather is wildly erratic.

I really am NOT much of a gambler, so I try to observe the natural world around me and spot trends that help me make a wise decision.

So, you just have to watch the weather in your county, compare this year's weather to statistics for your area (and to your knowledge of what happens every year and when it happens) and decide for yourself if it is 'worth it' to you to plant early.

Here are some of the factors that influenced me to plant early this year These are the weather indicators I watch every year.

AIR TEMPERATURES:

This year, both the daily high temps and daily low temps have consistently run about 15-20 degrees higher than usual.

SOIL TEMPERATURES:

Even if the air is warm, many warm-season plants will not take off and grow unless the soil is warm also. You can obtain soil temps in many ways. I use a soil thermometer to check my soil temperatures myself. You can get this data off the OK Mesonet pages for your area.

I know exactly what temperature different vegetables prefer, and don't plant until the soil temperatures reach that level CONSISTENTLY, no matter what the air temps are.

BIRDS, INSECTS, ANIMALS:

The behavior of the wildlife around us provides us with a lot of clues. For example, I was seeing lots of bees out in early February, somewhat earlier than usual. That type of activity is also a good clue.

How early or late the overwintering ducks fly north.

Same thing with the dozens of American Goldfinches who overwinter on our property every year. If they depart early, as they did this year, that pushes me even closer to concluding it is an 'early spring'. Same thing with the migration of goldfinches that overwintered south of us.

The arrival of Purple Martin scout birds and then the subsequent arrival of sub-adult birds help in the decision making. They were about 2 or 3 weeks early for us this year.

The appearance of many insects, but especially craneflies and green lacewings. They are among the last of our seasonal insects to arrive. I began seeing them a couple of weeks ago. Grasshoppers are also a little early this year, but every now and then they do come out 'too early' so I don't use them as an indicator quite as much.

Frogs are another good indicator. If they are up early in the season, singing and croaking and carrying on at night, that's a big clue. They were moderately early this year, but not extremely so.

WATER LILY FOLIAGE: Some years, my water lily plants sulk and don't put on new leaves until April. This year, they began putting on new leaves in late January. At this point, the water lily leaves cover as much area as they usually do in early May. Yet another clue.

EMERGENCE OF PERENNIALS (both those cultivated plants and wildflowers and cool-season grasses) These are pretty reliable, and like everything else, early here this year.

EMERGENCE OF BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS: Different species come out earlier than others, and they doom themselves if they emerge before there are reliable food sources, so they are a reliable indicator. Many have been early in 2007.

BLOOMING OF TREES: This can be tricky. Many cultivated fruit trees will bloom once they have achieved their required chilling hours. That makes them less reliable than native trees. I consider the blooming of the wild plums and redbuds to be a better indicator. They have been early this year, but not as early as the cultivated fruit trees. The same thing holds true of our native dewberries.

LEAFING OUT OF TREES: Not as reliable as many other indicators, so I watch for the 'last' of the trees, not the 'first'. Around here the last trees to emerge include the native pecans and the mesquites. They are now leafing out, so I don't expect another freeze.

SPROUTING OF ANNUALS/PERENNIALS THAT RESEED THEMSELVES. When I see the sprouts of new plants, like poppies, larkspur, verbena bonariensis, sunflowers, zinnias, catnip, chamomile, yarrow, veronica, etc., I know it is warm enough to plant

ARRIVAL OF HUMMINGBIRDS: Often this happens in early to mid-April here, even though some people in Oklahoma see them much earlier than that. Well, they are back now, so that's just one more indicator.

I hope all this info helps.

Going by the date of the last average freeze is the way most people plant, but I prefer to read the nature signs around me and make my planting decisions accordingly.

You have to remember that the 'average' last freeze date is exactly that--an average. In half of the years, the last freeze date will be earlier and in half of the years, it will be later. So it is really a gamble, whether you plant by average last frost date or by weather signs you observe.

Sometimes I plant warm season vegetable crops and warm season annual flowers in early March. Sometimes I don't plant until mid-April, or even late-April. It just depends on what the climate is like.

And, because we so often have a late freeze around Easter, no matter when Easter falls, I never really 'relax' until Easter has come and gone.

Happy Gardening!

Dawn

Dawn,

Do you think I can plant my melons now? I have some watermelons, pumpkins and some cantalopes.

And if I planted my potatoes about a week and half ago was that to late?

I really need a good planting guide... Do you have any good reccomendations?

Carla

Hey, everyone. Dawn can probably answer your question, Carla, cause I don't do veggies. Not because I don't wanna, but because I don't have enough full sun in my yard, and what I do have is turned over to butterfly host and nectar plants.

I do grow some herbs, like lemon balm, Rue, lavendar (butterflies are all over the lavendar in summer), garlic chives (man, the hairstreaks just LOVE the flowers on this).

I just got my Hops rhizomes in the mail and am anxious to get them and the rest of my native plants, trees, shrubs in the ground. But, the darned ground is so saturated, it would be like trying to plant in Betty Crocker's cake mix.
Hops is a host plant for Question Marks, Commas, and possibly Mourning Cloaks.

My baby angelicas are up and looking good, as well as my several different kinds of milkweed: Asclepias incarnata, A. incarnata 'Ice Ballet', A. syriaca, A. exaltata, A. viridis, A. verticillata, A. purpurescens, A. asperula. I need to plant my physocarpa (Hairy Balls) and my curassavica (tropical) milkweeds yet.

Dawn, you're right about planting when you see the sunflowers, etc. My cosmos is up (reseeder), sunflowers (helianthus), and the Aristolochias are leafing out, too. I hope, I hope, I hope I get some pipevines this year. I have 3 A. tomentosas to plant, and already have A. macrophyllas, clematitis (not a vine), and serpentaria (groundcover) in the ground. My lycnis coronaria reseeded last year and I should have blooms this year. Love this plant! Really makes a statement even though the flowers are small - you can't miss them, they are such a bright, bright, magenta!

The weeds abound here. Dawn, without seeing a picture (my darned Sandisk is not working right), I have this weed that comes up in a rosette, with lance-like foliage, green front and back, fuzzy stems, one central vein on the leaf, and then after awhile it starts growing upwards with foliage still surrounding the stem. Any ideas? I thought it might be plantain, but it doesn't have all the ribs like plantain. I thought it might be cudweed, but the leaves are not fuzzy on the back. The leaves are not incised like on dandelions. I've looked and looked at weed photos on the net and haven't been able to come up with anything. I may have to wait until it flowers to see what I have.

I have wild chervil everywhere and am leaving it for the BSTs to see if they want it (same family; apiaceae).

I also got the Ichang Lemon which is supposed to be hardy in our zone 7. I think I may have to do something to protect it over winter, though, if we have one like last year. What do you suggest? This is supposed to be THE best lemon for lemon pie. I did give over a spot in the sun for it, but only because it is also a host plant for the Giant Swallowtails. So, it's doing double duty.

I need to plant my Hibiscus coccinus that I am replacing because I gave it away last year. The sulphur butterflies just downright snubbed me all summer because those big red flowers were gone. Sulphurs LOVE red.

Does anyone here grow Hops? I got several varieties that I selected based on their ability to survive heat and humidity. One is a golden hops - a new cultivar - that will need to have sun to show off it's foliage.

Dawn, I cannot believe you said you're not a gambler! Hee Hee! You, who planted tomatos before it was even a seed in anyone elses mind!

Have you witnessed the Monarch migration yet? Another girl on the Butterfly Forum said she saw one in Kingfisher the other day, and they are supposedly crossing the Red River now. That's a very good sign spring is here, too.

My honeysuckle is blooming, so it's timed for the arrival of the hummingbird clearwing moths. I took my babies outside (in cocoons) and put them in a huge plastic jar (about a gallon size), with crumpled paper towel pieces and some sticks for them to climb on to dry their wings when they emerge. I have 5 I raised from baby cats to cocoon! I'm so excited to see them emerge. I also have 2 eumorpha achemon cocoons that should emerge soon. I over wintered the moths in my refrigerator (YES - my kids think I'm nuts), taking them out once a month for a cold water bath.

Yes, Dawn, the kierengeshoma is yellow wax bells. I know it is too hot here for it, but I got it anyway, and can't bring myself to "put it down". I also have the petasites japonica variegata, too, that doesn't like heat, but it performs so well in spring and is so beautiful. The Rodgersia is another one. I didn't water these late summer last year, and they still came back! Go figure.

My Solomon's Seal is blooming! So is bleeding heart (fern leaf, exima), Clematis 'Nelly Moser' is covered with bloom pods, as is 'Dr. Ruppel'. This will be first year blooms on him. I can't wait to see if the Jacks come up again (jack-in-the-pulpits)! I have numerous, numerous hardy begonias coming up in the bed. I need to divide and give some away. Hosta 'Titanic' is leafed out already, as is 'Remember Me'. Close behind is Sum & Substance, Blue Angel, Night Before Xmas, aureo-marginata is already leafed out. My jasminum x stephanense is leafing out all up and down last year's wood. It didn't bloom last year (2nd year), but I cut it back to the ground in spring. So, I'm wondering if it blooms on old wood. So, I left the old wood, which is leafing out, and hopefully will bloom. The blooms are pink trumpets in clusters and supposed to be very fragrant. Hummingbird food!

My verbena bonariensis is really up everywhere, Dawn. I didn't realize it was hardy here. I was relying on self-sowing, but mine came back from the roots.

Susan

All of my cool-weather crops are thriving in OKC, but I'mholding off 'til soil temps are warmer to plant the warm weather crops... they might not be bothered by frost from this point on, but are more susceptible to stunting, rootrot, etc. Still, have a few Kentucky wonders a foot high- couldn't help help myself, had to plant 'em early just to see what would happen. Too wet to dig right now, anyhow, maybe next weekend- we'll see. Watch Oklahoma Mesonet for soil temps: http://okmesonet.ocs.ou.edu/

Bizydiggin! I'm sorry I totally did not see your post until now. Yes, those are hummingbird clearwing moths (hemaris diffinus). I have 5 waiting outside to emerge that I kept in the fridge (in diapause) over winter. They are so cute! And, they are great pollinators for your flowers like daturas, brugs, petunias, anything that hummingbirds like because they have a very long probiscus. Oh, I'm so excited for you! They do fly during the day and at night. Most moths fly at night, except for the sphingidae family, which flies usually early morning and dusk as well.

I just cannot believe how everything is growing and looking so good this year in the garden. I think this is the best spring we've had in Oklahoma in years and years and years. We really need all this soaking rain and maybe the summer drought won't be so bad either. I just can't get out and plant the rest of my new things yet.

Susan

Hi Y'all!

Carla: I haven't planted any melons just yet, because we have a couple of nights in the 40s forecast for next week

MELONS, ETC.: Our soil temps are only in the mid- to upper-60s, and I like to wait for soil temps to reach 70 degrees before I plant melons and other heat-lovers like pumpkins, squash, peppers, black-eyed peas, and okra. And I usually don't plant sweet potatoes until the soil is even warmer.

You can plant melons when the soil temperature is consistently 60 degrees during the day, though, and I bet your soil temperature is already at that level.

POTATOES: Even though your potatoes went in a little late for our area, you should still have a pretty good crop. Around here most people plant potatoes in mid- to late-February. You should be able to plant in your area through early to mid-March with no problem. And, I have planted potatoes in late March some years (waited because the ground was excessively wet) and have gotten good production.

PLANTING GUIDE: The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service has tons of good information in factsheets available online. I have linked their Garden Planning Guide below. Once you are in that data base, you will find many other factsheets that are very helpful. When you look at the planting dates listed in the guide, keep in the mind that the first date listed is for far southern Oklahoma, and the last date listed is for far northern Oklahoma. Your best planting dates would fall somewhere in between those two, most years.

As a serious vegetable gardener, there is one book that I use as my 'bible' and have for over ten years. It is now out-of-print and sells for an outrageous price online because the demand outpaces the supply. I am on my second copy, having totally worn out the first one. This book is called THE VEGETABLE BOOK: A TEXAN'S GUIDE TO GARDENING and it was written by Dr. Sam Cotner

Dr. Cotner was a vegetable specialist with the Texas Agriculture Extension Service at Texas A&M University for many years and also oversaw the Extension Service's home gardening program in Texas. This book has taught me so much, and I refer to it constantly. I have heard that they will not reprint the book because it too costly to produce, about 400 pages, and they don't believe they could sell enough to justify a reprinting. By the way, I think the publishing people are wrong on this one.

If you ever run across an affordable copy of this book, it will be the best investment you ever made.

Susan, I love your detailed report on what is going on in your landscape!!!!

Without seeing your weed I have no idea what it is. When it blooms, tell me what the flowers look like and I might be able to figure it out at that point. I have wild chervil everywhere too. Who am I kidding? I have wild everything everywhere. The Indian Paintbrush and Bluebonnets are blooming now along with so many other spring wildflowers.

I have only grown lemons in large pots so I can carry them inside in the winter. If yours truly is hardy to zone 7, it should survive underneath a VERY HEAVY thick mulch in the winter time, although you might have a little dieback on the ends of the smallest limbs.

OK, Susan, I guess I am somewhat of a gambler and I proved it by planting all the tomatoes too early, BUT I still prefer to think of it as a well-educated guess based on watching the weather and nature signs. LOL

We have had Monarchs passing through our area for eight or ten days now, but not in huge numbers. I don't know if the few we are seeing are 'early birds' or if the migration is going to be small this year. That, of course, would be a very bad sign, wouldn't it.

We have had a few clearwing moths around the honeysuckle which is in bloom here, and also around the porch light at night.

I am glad you are having success with your cats. When DH and I visited Tomato Worm and her DH in OKC a couple of years ago, she was raising cats all over the place and was just loving it. You know, people talk about 'saving the environment' all the time, but you are actually doing it! I just love that. The fact is that people like you who go out of their way to raise and release butterflies are helping to restore species that are threatened in some areas, and practically extinct in others. That is such a wonderful thing.

I am glad your much-beloved water guzzlers survived last year's drought. I don't know how you managed that. Did you water them every day? Perhaps they are becoming a little more adapted every year, and may even surprise you with their staying power.

Your jasmine stephanese does bloom on old wood, so you should have those lovely pink blooms soon. Maybe the plant last year was too young to bloom???

Verbena bonariensis. My all-time favorite butterfly flower. It usually comes back from the roots for me, and I have some that are five or six years old and I have never dug and divided them, although I guess I will do that if they ever get too crowded and cease to bloom well. Mine reseed VERY prolifically. In an unmulched area they will come up as thick as grass. I mean, look at how tiny those seeds are and at how many of them there are. Mine is naturalizing a little in some of my open pasture land. Not naturalizing enough to be considered invasive or out of control, though. I just love these. They are the toughest plants and the butterflies adore them.

Speaking of butterflies, I have been having Eastern Black Swallowtails, Tiger Swallowtails, and Spicebush Swallowtails in greater numbers than I usually see in Spring. Maybe they are just early like everything else this year.

Yippee!!! It is finally raining here. I needed a rainy day or two or three so I would be 'forced' to stay indoors and give the house a good cleaning, instead of the hit-and-miss effort I give it when the spring weather is lovely and I'm outside as much as possible. And I will clean house, just as soon as I pot up some herbs and peppers from their seed starting peat pellets into six flats and small paper cups. These seeds were planted March 9th and I should have potted them up already, but I've been too busy outside

We've had over an inch of rain this week, and I understand we have several more days of it yet to come. I am so glad.
Luckily, we have escaped the violent thunderstorms and tornadoes here. I hope the rest of y'all have been spared violent weather too.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma Garden Planting Guide

One ended up in my greenhouse a few days ago. Took a while to catch and get it back outside.

randy

Randy,

I have that problem with hummingbirds getting into our big red barn. They see all that red and just lose their minds. Once they are inside, they panic and fly around madly looking for a way out. I have to lure them to an open door (the same door they presumably used to enter the barn) by hanging a hummingbird feeder there. Usually if they come close enough to the door to use the feeder, they will then leave the barn. I did have one stay inside the barn for about 36 hours though, so I left the feeder there so it could eat.

Dawn

Dawn,
Great Oklahoma Garden Planting Guide link, and thanks for the heads-up on the THE VEGETABLE BOOK: A TEXAN'S GUIDE TO GARDENING. I agree about the soil temps- most warm-weather seeds will sprout at current soil temps, and I'd soon start planting if this looked like another dry year, to get ahead of the heat, but will wait 'til 70F since this is a wet year, if I can stand it that long... keep sneakin' in 1's and 2's of this and that "just to see".

The rain has made ny mind up for me, too wet to dig even my sandy loam this weekend, anyway. I rarely see water standing in my yard, but it is right now. All of my starter tomatoes, peppers and the like are gettin' a bit leggy... sure makes me obsess about maybe just 1 little greenhouse...
Alan

Dawn and Alan, you may be able to find the book at Abe Books. I purchased my moth book on How To Raise Moths and Caterpillars, which is an out of print book there, and they are very reasonable. I'll attach a link.

I googled the name of the book and they are out there for sale if you're interested.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Abe Books

Dawn,
Not sure how I missed your great post on the 29th about nature signalling an early spring, but I did. I'd add a couple of more indicators... the Robins left their groups in the deep woods and individuals started hanging out around here in February, and are now busy building nests, and some of the Cherokees have been talking about an early planting of their sacred White Eagle corn for a couple of weeks now.

Th beautiful purple Henbit carpeting my lawn sure makes a nice addition to last fall's Pecan leaves in my compost pile. I look forward to Henbit and all those other early emerging plants every spring to boost the compost process, and can't understand why so many people dump so much poison on their lawns trying to kill 'em.

Susan,
The Abe Books link is a keeper- thanks.
Alan

Hi Everyone!

Susan, Thanks for the link. I recently got my second copy of Dr. Cotner's book from a different online bookseller for $24.95 and I was thrilled, because it is hard to find it for less than $49.95 most of the time. I have bought books through Abe and others in the past. I think I paid about $10.00 for my first copy of Dr. Cotner's book, but that was a long time ago.

Hi Alan, I bet you missed my post on the 29th because it took me all day to write it, and you were probably on that thread while I was writing/before I posted.

Thanks for the additional signs. I forgot about the robins. And, I am sure I forgot many other signs, but just wanted to share some of the ways you can tell if spring is really here, or just teasing us.

I am only slightly concerned about next week's low temps. We are supposed to go down to about 42 degrees one night, and I know I can have frost in my location at 39 degrees, so I will watch the weather very closely. If we are going to be that cold in southern Oklahoma, those of you who are farther north may get dangerously close to freezing temps, though.

At this point the tomatoes, beans and corn are pretty tall--up to two feet--so I am in trouble if it freezes here. If it doesn't freeze, then I have a 'head start' on a great garden.

We have had over 3" of rain the last 3 or 4 days and I am EXTREMELY HAPPY about that.

I love the henbit and it is one of the great early spring indicators.

I don't have a greenhouse and obsess about having one, but something else is always a bigger priority in our budget. One of these days I'll have one though.

I don't poison anything, and compost everything. My current working pile has gotten too big to turn. It is about 10' x 12' and 6' tall. So, I've started another one in a new location.

Today I am potting up peppers and herbs I started late, moving them from starter peat pots to plastic 6-packs and individual paper cups. It is one of those jobs I save for rainy days.

Dawn

Hi everyone, just a little cool today but could not plant anyway. My beds and lawn is very muddy. Good to see though after the last couple of years with dry parched earth. I literally had a hosta bed that had a few buds sticking up Friday morning----this evening I have hosta up with leaves------nature, I love it.

Have to spend the evening researching "weeds". I have some stuff coming up I can not identify and want to double check before I start pulling stuff up I may really want.

Susan, do you need dactura seeds. I have millions of them and trust me they are viable.

Okiedawn, hope it did not get to chilly for your maters. I figured it was okay but the wind was chilly today.

Tomorrow is another day of working in the garden. I got about 50 lilium bulbs in Friday and I want to plant them. Some of my beds will be dry enough tomorrow to plant. They drain very well so by tomorrow afternoon it will just be damp.

Happy gardening! Stephanie