Traci,

We all make mistakes, and not just newbie-type mistakes. You have to have a VERY good sense of humor to attempt to grow anything (except bermuda grass or Johnson grass) in our climate.

Feral dogs are a huge problem in unincorporated parts of our county and I am sure that is true in many places. I used to walk a lot but because of wild dogs and other wild predators, I finally gave it up last year. We have a treadmill now and use it, although my DH who is much more serious about running than I ever was about running or walking, still runs outside every now and then. Our wild dog problems ebb and flow---sometimes the feral dog population is a big problem and other times it is not. I have been attacked by feral dogs before and have had to fight them off using rocks and tree limbs and it isn't fun.

I garden seriously and am attempting to raise as much of our food as possible, but I try to keep my sense of humor and never let the joy of gardening be taken away from me by weather or pests or whatever idiotic garden-related thing is driving me crazy. For me, gardening isn't just something I do, it is a real lifestyle choice and I cannot imagine my life without it. It always helps, though, to be able to laugh at yourself and to be able to roll with the punches when Mother Nature misbehaves.

I don't believe any of us more experienced gardeners would EVER consider anyone's questions a problem or consider that person a pest. So, go ahead and ask away. Ask every day if you want to. I dare you.....try to ask more questions than we can handle and just see how we do!

For tomatoes, you can use several methods to hold the plants upright, including staking, caging, trellising, the Florida weave method, or even just let them sprawl on the ground (that last one tends to lead to decreased production/loss of tomatoes to insects and rot and also increased foliar disease). I prefer cages and mine are made from woven wire fencing which is easier for me to cut and bend than CRW. In a good year when I'm not too rushed, I try to put the cages up around the plants the same dayh I plant them. Otherwise, I never seem to quite get around to doing it and then finding myself trying to cage tomato plants that are too big to easily lift and cage by that poing. I'll find and link some info on tomato supports.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Methods of Supporting Tomatoes

Traci,

At the link below, click on the name of a support method to read about it and see photos.

Jay bought Texas Tomato Cages recently and can tell you what he thinks about them so far.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Support Methods

Dawn - thanks for the info and support. You asked for it -- I will be a regular I promise! My mother was one of 18 children and gardening wasn't a choice - it was a matter of survival. She quit gardening when she moved to Florida but is so pleased that I am putting out a garden. It is in my blood - just trying to work through the nerves!

I actually have some of those tomato cages. DH planted some funky asian shade tree a few years ago and we have a bunch of those cages in our shop. I will go tomorrow and grab a few. Should I trim the leaves/limbs that are touching the ground or just leave them?

Thanks again!
Traci

Traci - if I haven't said it already, I'll say it now - "Welcome!" and let me testify that this forum and the people who post have the patience of St. Jobe!! I speak from experience! I joined a little over a year ago after about 6 months of "lurking". No one has ever ridiculed me for any of the numerous silly (now I know) questions I've asked here! Sometimes you'll even get a variety of answers so you can pick which one works best for you! I've been so busy planting that I haven't been at my computer much but things are beginning to take off on their own so I'm getting back more often.

I would trim those leaves and limbs on those tomatoes that are on the ground or close to it. You don't want to provide a "ladder" for anything to climb up to the plant to damage it or eat your harvest. Just use an inexpensive pair of scissors. They'll make a sharp cut that will seal and heal over.

Last year we used fencing for cages and staked them with rebar rods. The fence was 4' tall and we ended up having to stack another on top. THAT WAS A MESS! This year, we bit the bullet and bought sheets of Concrete Reinforcing Wire or "CRW" as it is known. We cut them into 6' tall by 2' wide panels. One sheet give you 3 3-sided cages with 2 panels left over. A sheet cost $16. We've placed them in a triangle around the tomatoe plant, securing them together at the top with a "zip tie". These sheets also have a 6" opening in the grid which is a LOT easier to reach thru to harvest. At the end of the season, they will fold flat after the removal of one zip-tie and be stored either up again the wall in our over-sized garage or in back of it outside. For us, this is the best choice.

So - keep those questions rolling in! You never know when one of those is going to help another one of us!

Paula

I don't run, never did, but used to walk a lot where I lived a few years ago. Dogs were a problem. I bought a dog dazer. I am sold on it. Really worked for me.

http://www.gooddeals.com/products/7/Dazer-Ultrasonic-Dog-Deterrent.aspx

Only problem, you do have to let the dog get rather close to you. But, it does work. I have also taken it along on some bike rides, and used it then successfully too.

Moni

Hi, Traci, and welcome to the forum! I live in OKC. It sounds like you already have a good start here with the cage issue.

I have gardened for several years, but never any serious veggie planting. I grow a few herbs, and lots of butterfly larval host plants. I raise many of them and moths and release them to jurisdictions unknown. So that has been my main focus for many years. This year is the first year I got serious about Tomatos, and there are loads of people who grow tomatos here and have lots of good information for us "semi-newbies". I grow mine in containers cuz I don't have enuff space to grow them well in the garden, which is already pretty stuffed full of native plants and lots of nectar plants.

So, we'll all learn together, and that will include lots of mistakes, lots of crying together over "spilt tomatos", tempered with lots of "A-Ha" moments when I finally figure something out and it actually works!

Susan

Paula - thanks for the warm welcome and the tip on the tomatoes. Looks like I'll be out early morning trimming, along with garlic barrier spraying.

Moni - That dazer is so reasonable compared to the other deterrents I looked at before. Luckily I did get a treadmill but there is nothing like running outdoors! I think I'll pick one of those up.

Susan - Again - thanks for the welcome. LOVE the idea of butterfly larval host plants. I might look into that. My daughter, who is now 25, has had a fascination with butterflies since she was 3 and as she grew her fascination with their benefits also grew. Where could I find more information on that. I just recently started planting flowers and am a newbie there as well.

I look forward to learning, laughing and crying with all of you!!

Here's to a prosperous week!

Traci

Traci,
Welcome to the forum. I'm a newbie to the forum too, and like you have recently moved to the country. Years ago I had a veggie garden and am starting all over again and enjoying it so much. I laughed about your comment about getting wrapped up in projects and a wee bit obsessive ... that's me too!! Anyway, I thought I'd share my don't-do-what-I-did experience with staking/caging tomatoes. I waited too late with one of my larger tomato plants. I had staked and tied it early on with some bamboo poles but it began putting on a lot of nice-sized tomatoes and one side of it got very heavy. By the time I got around to trying to put a cage around it yesterday, I realized I had a problem. I got my husband to come out and try to help, but we ended up breaking off the biggest stem that had a lot of tomatoes on it :(. I was not a happy camper! But I had a nice long talk with myself and said 'OK, this is a learning experience .... next time you'll know better.' Live and learn, lol!

Suzie

Traci,

You've already had lots of great answers, so I'll add just one little thing...when you are using scissors or pruners to trim off foliage, even if the foliage looks healthy, ALWAYS clean/sanitize them before you move from one plant to the next. Is it a pain to do that? Yes it is. However, you can have a diseased plant that's not showing symptoms yet and could accidentally transfer the disease from one plant to all the others without knowing it. So, the extra time spent cleaning your tools before moving from one plant to another is well worth it. I keep a squirt bottle filled with a water/10% bleach solution and paper towels with me and squirt the cleaner onto a portion of the paper towel and then clean the scissors. Good garden sanitation is very important with tomatoes as bacterial and fungal diseases can spread like wildfire.

Dawn

Suzie - Thanks and welcome to you too! I did the exact same thing with my first tomato plant last year. Could have cried. I should have remembered that this year and caged them - but they are so small now it will be no problem. I'm sure I will see you around here - if you get any great, give me a shout!

Dawn - thanks for the info. I know for a fact I wouldn't have thought about cleaning the scissors! Its those common sense things that are gems! Don't worry about when you get the seeds out - enjoy your granddaughter; I'm sure she will keep you busy!!

Traci

Traci

Traci,
Welcome to the forum. Always glad to seen another new member join in. As gardeners we are always learning. Some of us have just been learning for a longer period of time and others are at a higher level of learning.

The first advice I give to anyone is always seek advice from other gardeners in your area also. I'm in extreme SW KS on the OK border. Where the climate is a lot different than most of you experience. Here in an average year my sprawlers will out produce my caged plants. Caged plants will do some better when provided with wind breaks and all plants do better when provided with afternoon shade. Any opinion you read of mine just remember the conditions those opinions were made under. We are semi arid. Have high heat and dry high winds. Supposed to hit 103-107 today. The reason myself and other gardeners in this region feel sprawlers do better is they aren't as exposed to the elements as a caged plant. I mulch heavily. And don't have the issues of rot ect that many living where it rains more have.

Dawn mentioned I purchased some Texas cages. So far very happy with them. Nice cages that are well built and look nice. Will have a better opinion of them after I use them for the whole growing season. Many say you don't have to tie them to a stake ect. They will stand on their own. I feel with the big heavy plants in our winds I will have too. Time will tell. I also have around 50 of the CRW cages. It is time after 12 years or so to replace a few of them. So trying these out before I decide whether to build more CRW cages or go with the Texas cages. The Texas cages fold up and store flat.

Hope you have a great gardening season to start off many great years of gardening. Jay

Welcome Traci - I am also a newbie to the forum. I've been gardening (on a very small scale) for about 15 years now and am still learning! Having a tomato disaster this year which I hope I learn *something from....

Anyway, welcome to the forum. Everyone here is so nice and helpful and just FULL of great information and advice!

~Laura (in Tulsa)

Traci, when you have a spare moment, LOL, the Butterfly Gardening forum here at Garden Web is a good group to seek out in regard to host and nectar plants and the kinds of butterflies you will most often see in Oklahoma. They have a FAQ you can click on to answer most questions, but all are the nicest folks around and will answer any questions you have.

One of the easier butterflies to begin with is the Black Swallowtail, also the Oklahoma State butterfly. The host plants that support and feed their larvae include Fennel, Curly Parsley, Dill, and Rue. I plant Fennel and Rue for them. They are big black butterflies with yellow and blue markings. The caterpillars are yellow, black, and white stripes encircling the body. And, of course, there is the Monarch, which only feeds on plants in the Milkweed, or Asclepias, family. Their future is in question, and I am a certified Monarch Waystation for them.

Susan

Thanks again everyone - looking forward to learning and laughing with all of you! My last attempt at gardening I was SURE watering more had to be better - after all, it is so hot here so after killing quite a few plants, I learned. I was so proud of myself for not giving into my watering urge the last two days until last night. I went out at 9pm and watered and admired how nice my little plants looked. At 6am the rainstorm from h&*L came through. Go figure! lol.

Susan, you very well may see my daughter wandering around your town yelling your name if I tell her about your butterflies. Can't wait to check out the forum.

Laura - you know about that rain we had now don't you? Hope to see you around!

Jay - can't believe your temps. I had to look up what "sprawlers" are but now I know! The cages we have are a bit different than the Texas site, but similar. Will be interesting to hear how they do. And thanks...I really feel welcome here!

This year, I decided that I need to learn how to garden. So, DH built two small raised beds and I went to work. I too can get a bit obsessive (okay maybe a little more than a bit), but I am quickly learning to just relax and go with the flow of Mother Nature. ;) But, it helps to hear that I'm not the only one!

My first mistake was starting with seeds. I actually did not realize you could buy starter plants at the nursery until too late.

So when I went to the local nursery to buy my soil mix the guys says "How much are you planting?" I said, "Well, I planted two packets of pepper plants, do you think that will be enough?" He laughed and said, "You have enough for a commercial operation!" And I was horrified.

And so after trying to find homes for my pepper seedlings, the extra 80+ pepper seedlings tragically went into the compost bin.

But, I still love gardening and have learned so much from the wonderful people on this forum!

Hannah,

I don't see why you think starting with seeds is a mistake. I prefer starting with seeds to buying starter plants most of the time because I want to grow the specific varieties I want, and not just whatever the stores happen to have.

Planting a whole packet of seeds is just an innocent beginner's error type of thing that everyone does at least once. And, you never know, sometimes you get poor germination from the 8 or 10 or 12 seeds you planted from one packet, and then you wished you'd started that whole packet after all.

One thing about buying starter plants that you need to be aware of is that often the chain stores offer generic, common varieties that generally do well enough across the US as a whole, but which may not be the best varieties for our climate here in Oklahoma.

Smaller, regional nurseries usually have varieties selected for their record of good performance here in our state. Also, be careful when buying starter plants because sometimes they are infected with diseases. I see starter tomato plants all the time that have early blight while still in the store, and I'd never buy a sick plant and take it home. A lot of the 'leftover' plants that stores in my area are clearing out right now at bargain basement prices have spider mites, and I wouldn't bring one of those home either.

Furthermore, be sure you understand the timing of your plants. Normally, we start snap peas here in southern OK in late Feb. or early March. I was already harvesting snap peas from 6' tall vines in late April or early May when I saw tiny 2" tall Sugar Snap Pea plants for sale in 6-packs in local stores. Anyone who bought those plants was starting about two months too late....planting peas when they should have been harvesting them instead, and since peas only produce in cool weather, they were throwing their money away. So, you can't always count on stores to have the right plants available at the proper planting time. Before you buy any vegetable, be sure you know if you're buying it at the right planting time. I get really irritated with stores selling tomato plants in January or pea plants in May because neither is likely to do well when they're sold 'out of season' like that.

Stick with us here and we'll talk you to death about gardening....and we have lots of laughs here too, as well as "tea and sympathy" when things go wrong, as they inevitably do. Gardening is an inexact science...I consider my entire garden a gigantic science experiment every year because you never know what variables Mother Nature will throw into the mix.

Dawn

Dawn,
I do agree with you. After reading your post, I guess my mistake was actually the timing. The plants seem very healthy just stunted, but at least I got the seeds to sprout. I'm happy about that!

How devastating to bring a diseased plant home and have healthy plants ruined or to buy plants at the wrong time! I'll be sure to watch for that. Thanks for the warning!

I love your perspective on gardening being like a huge science experiment! I am going to try to look at my garden that way too!

I don't think I could ever get tired talking about gardening or hearing you guys talk about gardening! ; )

We can follow Dawn's lead in the Spring because she is the one on the forum that lives in the southern most point. That gives us a week or two, to do the same things in other parts of the state. LOL But don't get in the habit because in the Fall, we have to reverse that and start our Fall garden seed earlier than Dawn.

I am still trying to learn the right times to start fall things, but it seems to me that it starts the day after you are satisfied that all the summer things are in. LOL I do know that it comes much too fast. It takes real discipline to start planting fall seeds when you haven't started eating most of the summer crops, but that is almost what you have to do.

Then Mother Nature plays tricks like this year and Dawn had colder Spring weather than we did and I live a few miles from Missouri. Oklahoma gardening is an adventure.

Dawn, Hannah and Carol,

Now, y'all, just needed to say that sometimes a whole packet of seeds is needed! Loved the cukes I planted last year and had saved part of the packet. Planted 8 or 10 seeds this spring, got one plant to germinate. Planted another 12 seeds, nothing. Now I'm out of last year's seeds, but had a 2010 packet ready to go. Was so impatient by this time, I just planted the whole thing!! Guess what germinated 110%? Oh, well, nothing like plucking tiny transplants out of the ground and putting them in peat pots. A slight reversal of the process, but whatever works!

Dawn, you have now talked me out of going out and yanking 5-foot tall tomato plants and replacing with store bought replacement plants! As if I need help growing insect infestations.

And Carol, I find myself thinking I'm behind the power curve when I hear what Dawn is doing. I think that's the only reason I had such early tomatoes this year!! And I hear what you are saying about fall planting. I was reading the OSU fall planting schedule last week and thought, "Holy crapola, I just finished planting my spring garden and I have thirty days to figure out my fall garden?"
What's up with that!!?

You all make me laugh. And yes, I just finished beating my tomatoes for the second time today!

Marcy

I had a bad cuke year last year and made pickles out of squash. This year I was determine to have cukes...and I do, but if I don't go move some of them they won't have room to grow. I overdid it a little also, but mine are still young and just about ready to start vining.

I planted cowhorn okra this year and had planned to plant at least one other kind but don't have room right now. Tomorrow I need to pull out the spring things (peas, lettuce, and chinese cabbage) so I can plant the rest of the summer things.

So here's the drill - The same week you could be ripping out the spring things, planting the summer seeds in the garden, and planting the fall seeds in flats. LOL You can start pepper and tomato seeds in February and still be harvesting salad greens until mid December with a little effort. That hardly leaves time to study the seed catalogs. In addition, we want a greenhouse to length our gardening season.

I had about 6 broccoli plants that sat around in cups for ever. I didn't have a place for them and didn't really want them, but I have trouble throwing things away. Finally I stuck them in the garden, knowing they didn't have time to make. Yesterday I went out to pull them and could see little heads forming. What gives. It's June. They get about a couple of more days to prove they will still grow heads, or those babies are coming out of there.

Carol - me too!! Although my brocs have been in the ground since mid April...with nothing...until I started thinking of yanking them just a few days ago....I've got about 2 doz heads growing! I know...it's June...but I don't think the brocs know that. What gives with this weirdness?

Today in OKC out by the airport it was cool by recent temps. The high when I got home (due to the cloud cover) was only 82 at 5 o'clock! Just came in and it's almost 8 pm....and it's freakin' 88 degress with a heat index of 95. No wonder I'm having a hard time staying out to tend to the garden. Only in Oklahoma.....

No joke! I just came in a half hour ago and it is 9 PM and 81 degrees. Most of my broccoli has been eaten or is already in the freezer, but these plants were much smaller, so I just didn't bother with them. Same with the cabbage since only a few appeared to be making heads. I cut one head to use for slaw, but since we had all of this gorgeous chinese cabbage, we have been using it for everything. We loved it, the chickens love it, but the slugs also loved it. LOL I plan to plant some more for the fall, but I think I will resort to sluggo plus for the next crop. For this spring crop, I tore off the outside leaves that had a few holes in them and fed those leaves to the chickens and we ate the nice head. It kept us all fed and happy.

You know, of course, that we could get only button heads on this late broccoli. Mine is only going to get a couple of days more to prove itself then it goes away.

I have my beady little eyes focused RIGHT on Dawn. From now on, whatever she does, I'm going to do (a week or two later).

Carol,

You always make me laugh. I almost feel guilty when I start in the spring because y'all can't start yet, but I guess it evens out because y'all will be doing your fall planting while I'm still out in the yard stomping grasshoppers to death.

Because I succession plant, it seems like I never stop planting...I go straight from succession plantings of bush beans and southern peas right into seed-starting for fall. Some years, I don't do as much for fall because the spring garden is performing so well. I have an odd feeling this will NOT be one of those years. The heat is killing us down here...and it isn't even the heat, it is the humidity. It isn't fair you know. We are not getting the rain y'all are having, but our dew points and humidity are as high as yours or higher. There's just something wrong with that.

My bush bean plants haven't set new beans in a week or two and probably won't until it cools down. Maybe the coming cool spell (due to arrive here at our house on Monday I think) will help. I hope so because Tanya's Pink Pod is just beginning to bloom and I'm hoping to get beans to try instead of blossom drop.

Marcy, Just remember that I am so far south that I'm surrounded on three sides by Texas, so I'm way ahead of y'all in the spring. Maybe that will help you to remember that you shouldn't be starting things or planting them when I am because you'll likely have colder weather a while longer than I will. On the other hand, we're way down low in the Red River Valley and often have our last freeze/frost after Carol and some of the others. The last two years we've had a frosty morning the first week in May even though our 'average' last frost date in March 27th. I think our weather is 'broken' and someone needs to fix it!

Seeds amaze me. I think they have brains and they plot against us. The first time I planted Laura Bush petunias from seed, the seeds were teeny-tiny like poppyseeds. So, I dumped a whole packet of pink ones and a whole packet of purple ones into a flat and all 400 of those little suckers sprouted. Once they were large enough to prick out of the starter flat and move up to small paper cups, it took me days and days to get all of them done. Then it took me days to plant them all. I've discovered that if a seed actually sprouts and grows, I am incapable of tossing the plant on the compost pile and feel compelled to plant every one that sprouts. It is an illness....compulsive planting mania.

I don't even grow petunias from seed any more because they self-sow all over creation. I just dig 'em up and move them wherever. I wish I'd known how easy they were from seed...I would have direct sown them instead of spending oodles of time growing them indoors and babying them. Live and learn.

Carol, I was a compulsive pickler last year and made oodles of pickles of all kinds. I made two years worth, so I didn't even plant picking cukes this spring. I might plant some for fall so I can make some fermented pickles of some kind.

Paula, It has to be the weather that has made your broccoli nuts. (Hey, you're having heat just like ours. Isn't it awful?) I think the broccoli watched all those severe Tstorms, hail and tornadoes flying overhead near you and got scared. That's why it is acting odd...it was just plain terrified by the weather. So, now that the weather has settled down a little, it's making heads. Let's just blame everything on the weather, because this year the weather has been odd and the gardens have behaved oddly too.

Joellen, ONLY in winter/spring should you be watching what I plant and when. For mid-summer and fall planting, focus your beady little eyes on someone like Carol or Marcy or Ilene or George or Paula or Seedmama. I'm earlier than y'all in spring and later than y'all in fall and it is hard to know "what's up" half the time because the weather isn't necessarily real consistent any way.

Planning and planting for fall is SO hard. In the 11 years we've been here, we've had our first fall freeze as early as September 29th and as late as about December 14th. How in the world do you plan for that? Most years, though, it is in latest October through mid-November here in southcentral OK. Some years, the fall garden gets shut down by early freezing weather and I decide it really wasn't worth planting it, but then in other years, I am still harvesting everything including tomatoes in December. So, I guess that's why I do it....in case it is a late freeze year instead of an early freeze year.

Dawn

You know you love a forum when you have a fever of 102, have chills when it's 90 degrees and at 11:30 you reach for your iPhone to read posts! LOL. ANYWAY...don't feel like typing but when I saw Carol's post about Chinese cabbage I came alive!!! I love Chinese cabbage but I haven't dared to dream of growing it...or broccoli...or lettuce. Until now! I know it's too late now but when is the best time to start those seeds?

Dawn, DH said I got an envelope today. It's like a gift... I don't want to open until I feel well enough to appreciate it! Thx again for the seed hookup. Hopefully someday I will be able to return the favor.

I will now slink back into my fever induced delirium. I have to get better soon-weeds do not wait for a summer bug to go away!

I am declaring Halloween as my official freeze date and I am going to base everything on that. I think my guess will probably be as close as the TV news. LOL

Last year my biggest problem was winter squash, and I could have safely left it another week or so, but I went into a pre-freeze panic and pulled everything. It shouldn't be quite as big a problem as it was last year, since I let a lot of volunteer winter squash plants stay where they came up and they are taking over the garden. They came up before I even planted the summer squash. Of course, I don't know what kind they are. LOL

I plan to put in some spaghetti squash next week just in case I didn't get any in the mix. With my luck all the volunteers will be butternut since that's the one DH doesn't like. One of the few veggies he doesn't like.

I took a pic of DH in the garden today. He was standing next to a tomato cage (probably 5 feet tall) and the plant was almost to the top. Behind him was the corn and some of it was a couple of feet over his head, and he is 6'2". I haven't grown a lot of corn and this is my first time to grow dent corn. When they say it is tall, they aren't kidding. I have one Black Cherry tomato that's on steriods, I think, and is way over my head already.

I am going to rip out the peas tomorrow and use the cattle panel for some other things. Actually, a squash has already claimed part of it, but I am going to move a few cukes to part of it, and also plant some Malabar Spinach. I will try NOT to plant another tomato, but you know how I am. I plan to rip out the last of the lettuce and the chinese cabbage and plant black-eyed peas in that raised bed. I have a few in there already.

I think I still have 10-12 pepper plants without a home, so something is going to get crowded because I MUST plant those. I don't come close to Dawn, Jay, or Seedmama on tomatoes, but if they do well this year, I may become known as the pepper queen. I planted way too many bell peppers.

I have started to clean up the messy end of my garden, but since it has cabbage heads growing in size everyday, broccoli that has now decided to head, and potatoes that are turning yellow and laying down on the job, clean-up is not a one day project.

I didn't spend a lot of time in the garden today since we had to run to Joplin for a new TV. A couple of days ago, our picture instantly shrunk down to about the size and shape of an open book, with a line across the middle of it. Not one warning, just instantly happened. I hadn't planned to replace this one yet, but the new one is a flat panel and sure takes up a lot less space. I'm not a fan of TV anyway, but DH is.

I planted some yard long beans this year, and I hope I planted enough. The only thing I could find said that they would spread out some so I kept them about 6 inches apart but with an 7 and a half foot trellis to climb. One kind is already starting to climb, but the other hasn't put on a runner yet. They both look pretty wimpy right now.

I grow the broccoli for the stalks and not the heads. DH hates broccoli and I only eat the stalks. Last night I pulled three plants and stir fried the stalks. Oh my gosh...I don't think I can ever go back to store-bought broccoli!

Chickens will be sad to see the broccoli plants go because I feed them the cabbage worms and they go bonkers for them!

Sounds like it's normal to have problems with broccoli this year due to the weird weather. I thought maybe it was just my soil or the watering. Only two of the plants got heads. Of course, I throw the heads away so maybe I should not worry about it. ;)

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and gets to enjoy some time in the garden! : D

Traci,

I hope you're feeling better soon. I think the virus you have is making the rounds because I know several people who've been ill recently with similar symptoms. Don't worry about those weeds because they'll still be there whenver you're well enough to tackle them again. Please do not rush back outside too soon. It is too hot for a barely-well person to get back out into the garden. I hope the seeds grow well for you.

Carol, It sounds like everything is growing well in your garden. I have faith you'll find a home for all those 'leftover' pepper plants. I've never known you to waste a good pepper plant.

OK, so Halloween it is. Your 'guess' is probably as good as or better than the local forecasters. It will be fun to watch and see.

Dent corn can get really tall. The tallest corn I've ever grown was a packet of mixed colors of ornamental broom corn. I was growing it so I could have the seedheads for fall decorations. That corn hit 12' tall and I had purple hyacinth beans climbing it. It was on the eastern edge of the garden, which is the side nearest the road, so it was quite a spectacle by early August or so. I like growing 'odd' things that few folks have seen, and broom corn fit that bill. So did Red Stalker corn.

I've been busy planting pole beans, okra and southern peas (mostly purplehull types) in the spaces vacated by the cool-season crops. Maddie is here, so we have to come inside for frequent snack breaks, and to love on the kitties and see what is on Nick Jr. I don't get a lot done in any given day, but the little bits add up.

It is almost time to harvest peppers. I have had a really good fruitset on all the jalapenos and sweet bells. They're still blooming but I don't know that many new peppers are setting in this heat. I'm looking forward to next week's cool spell, if it actually makes it to us.

This morning when I woke up at 4 a.m., the temperature was 80 and the heat index 84, so we aren't cooling off very much at night at all. I think the low dropped briefly to 77 by sunrise but it didn't stay there long. With the heat and no rain, I'm surprised everything is growing as well as it it. The mornings are about the only time I can get anything done outside, and then maybe an hour or so in the evenings.

Hannah, I've never seen so many people on this forum have so many odd issues with broccoli. It has been the strangest broccoli year. Some of us ended up with a lot, but it behaved oddly all along and I know I didn't expect much of a harvest, though eventually I had a decent one. It wasn't as good as last year's. but it was adequate.

Our chickens are so used to me feeding them juicy bugs from the garden that they stampede towards me when they see me heading their way.

I was looking at the weekend weather and don't see much for southern OK that excites me, but it looks like folks in NW OK may get some rain and they always need rain there so that's good.

Dawn

It's the middle of the day and the temperature is 82 in Grove. Sounds good doesn't it? Be ye not deceived, because the humidity is 84 and the heat index is 91. It's like walking through a sauna. The humidity has been higher this year than any that I have seen in my 9 or so years here. Either that or old age is turning me into a wimp. LOL

It really IS the humidity. We even have it here despite a relative lack of rainfall. We're consistently having dewpoints in the 71-75 range and that's pretty high for us to have in June, although our dew point will be that high in April or May during tornado weather.