Helen,

I've been gardening for decades and know when to call it quits. I just hate doing it. : ) I especially hate when heat and drought pushes me into doing it.

I NEVER buy tomatoes, though, as I raise my own from seed and grow oodles and oodles--currently have 140 plants and almost all are still producing. I already have a freezer full, have canned some, and have dried a couple of thousand cherry, grape and currant tomatoes to use as sun-dried tomatoes in the winter time. Obviously, if I stop watering, the production will stop, but I still should be harvesting from the current plants through most of August since they are loaded with greenies.

I have about 30 fall tomato plants raised from seed, still in their little 6" paper cups, waiting for the weather to break before I plant them. I might plant them in 10-gallon Sunleaves grow bags and put them somewhere that they would get morning sun and late afternoon shade, using drip irrigation to keep them watered. Or, maybe I'll plant them in a raised bed in the garden and shade them with shadecloth until the heat breaks.

The part of the garden that will suffer most will be the peppers--over a dozen kinds, and the watermelons, cantaloupes, muskmelons, winter squash and okra. I have about a dozen types of melons and a dozen types of winter squash and pumpkins, and I hate to stop watering them, but need to reserve the water for the areas around the house as a method of fire protection since we are already seeing wildfires here.

I stopped watering and tending the garden in mid-June of 2006 during the second year of a prolonged and severe drought, and some of the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes produced until freeze got them in November, so you just never know what might or might not happen.

Prior to 2006, I think the last time that the heat/drought were so bad that I gave up on the veggie garden was in 1980.

And, as I was typing the above reply to Gamebird above, a fast-moving rainstorm came through and dropped almost 2/10s of an inch of rain on 1/2 of the yard (the other half is still dry). Even though 2/10s isn't much, it's better than nothing....and lately nothing is what we've been having. It dropped the temperature from 100 to 85 too, and that was marvelous!

I do not give up easily, but there's just a point where it no longer makes economic sense to irrigate. And, when the 1" of irrigation per week that I've been giving the veggies is no longer enough to keep them in good shape, it is smarter for me to use that water around the house, because we have red Oklahoma clay that contracts and expands, and we try to keep the soil around it evenly moist to avoid foundation problems.

I'll also lose most of the herbs and flowers that are interplanted with the veggies cottage style, and the extensive cottage-style border that surrounds the veggie garden, but that's life here in hot, sunny, dry, southcentral OK.

Dawn

I am sorry your drought is so bad. It is very depressing. I don't wonder that you are worn out. Maybe you could scale back a bit next year, so that you could enjoy yourself a little,.

I feel much better now. I too gave up. Been trying to get out there early but with our A/C down, I just can't take it anymore!!!

All my new babies are dying, died or are being eaten alive. It's awful, and if Dawn quits, then you know it's B.A.D.

Mari

Helen,

I don't think I could ever downsize the garden. Gardening is my passion and, when the weather is milder, I am out in the garden all day every day, and loving every minute of it. I do think I'll grow a lot more cool-season crops next year, and fewer warm-season ones, since most of our rain (when it does rain) tends to fall from late winter through late spring.

We had the "worst drought ever" in 2005-2006 and then had severe flooding in 2007. Now we are back to drought again. It seems like southern Oklahoma's weather has just gone crazy.

I'm just spoiled....used to having enough produce to eat all we want, preseve all we choose to, and then give away the surplus to everyone we know. This year, though, there isn't any surplus to give away. I have put up tons of veggies, though, so I can't complain. I just hate seeing the drought cut our season short.

The people who are really suffering "fresh, home-grown veggie withdrawal" are the friends and neighbors with whom I usually share our excess produce. There is no excess this year, and I haven't given them anything. One told me a couple of times the other night that they were going to come over and "raid my garden" the next time I'm away from home. I told him to come on over and help himself to all the grasshoppers, stink bugs, copperheads and armadilloes that he wants. LOL

Mari,

I'm glad you feel better. There is nothing wrong with knowing when the weather conditions are so severe that it becomes pointless to fight them. At this point, we just have to focus on survival. In my heart, I know that I have made the right decision, but I hate it.

Our July rainfall is only about 20% of what is "average" for us here, and new water restrictions and outdoor watering bans are being implemented in small, rural towns in our part of the state just about daily. In at least one small town here, a water main broke a couple of days ago and they have had NO water, except for bottled drinking water being passed out at the local fire station.

With the conditions we are experiencing now, a wicked wildfire season is coming unless we get at least a foot of rain this fall.

At least our veggie gardens, fruit trees, herbs and flowers are for our own pleasure. The ranchers are facing a huge financial hardship because they aren't getting enough hay cut and baled.....you can't cut what isn't there! What will they feed their cows this winter? Many of them just about went bankrupt buying hay and feed during the 05-06 drought. A neighbor of ours had his hay cut and baled the other day and only got 19 big round bales from a field that normally produces 90 bales or more.

It could be worse.....we are nowhere near as badly off as the folks in the panhandle states. So, I guess I'll just be grateful for what we do have, and stop worrying about what is left of the veggie garden.

Dawn

Dawn,

It's bummer about your garden. Lately life has been throwing us a lot of curves. I've had to simplify things around here the past year to keep my sanity. Well, at least what's left of it.

It was cooler here yesterday, stayed under 100, but the humidity made it hard for this old man to breath. Ended up shutting down work out in the sun off at noon and spent the rest of the day working in the garage. Having headache was most of it. Being out in the sun with one of those can be unbearable.

Looks like today will be a repeat.

Got my little Stihl trim saw back finally. I have a couple brush piles that need to be consolidated after I pull some firewood out of them.

Ran the hose for 12 hours two days ago around the house. And of course we got a nice little rain when I turned the water off. :-)

randy

I've been watering faithfully through this heat, but it's gotten to the point that it's not fun right now. My tomatoes are suffering the most with some disease I can't figure out, so those will be pulled up this weekend and destroyed. I actually heard a sermon last night at church about that very thing: if a fruit plant is not producing, it needs to be destroyed. Obviously, it is a picture of what happens to a Christian that isn't working for God, but I'm taking it literally! :)

My herbs are suffering, too. I don't need a dehydrator right now: the leaves are drying right on the stems and branches!

Even my hot peppers, which normally thrive in these conditions, seem to be struggling. I think I'd rather have excessive rain than oppressive heat...

Steve in SWOKC

Dawn,

It's so much easier to encourage someone else to "let it go," than it is to do it. My hat's off to you. Though you haven't got surplus, you've had a good year.

Only this week I dumped a couple of buckets of water on a few things in our main garden. I've greatly resisted watering this year, and being in a zone with much more water than your's, I've been successful. You are absolutely correct about the moisture retention quality of good composted soil. My garden soil has improved greatly in three seasons and the ability to go this long without irrigation is impressive.

Still, with all this 100+ F weather, and so little rain, for some time, I'm convinced that it's worth it for me to soak a few things in order prolong some harvests.

My problem here, is that Jerreth and I are facing an almost "empty nest" and we are going to have to cut back on some things. I'm not just talking about gardens, but also livestock. So, I'm going to be thinking about what to cut back. For the next couple of weeks I'm sure that weeds are going to be getting ahead of me. I can't weed and cultivate, plant, and help with putting up produce, care for all the critters, and stay up on everything! We even have a backlog of butchering to take care of. So... we'll see....

One thing I am doing, towards the coming year, is to lay down cardboard & mulch in places that I hope to more easily plant and maintain in 2009.

George

Randy,

It is "odd" how different your landscape's problems (flooding last year, ice this year) are from mine (heat, drought) even though we only live about 100 miles from each other. I know that I live in an area often referred to as "the sunny side of the Arbuckles", but this year has been ridiculous.

Now that you have your Stihl back, guess you can whittle down those brush piles.....and be sure to watch for snakes!

Steve,

It is hard to give up on individual plants and on the garden as a whole, but there is a point of "diminishing returns" where you aren't getting enough out of the garden to keep pouring water on it, and it sounds like you are at that point, at least with the tomatoes. I agree--I think it is easier to deal with excessive rainfall than excessive heat.

George,

I feel immense guilt every time I look at the garden. I hate to feel like I have abandoned it, but there's not enough water in southern Oklahoma to keep it happy at this point. Our forecast includes almost no chance of rain in the next 10 days and temps. over 100 with heat indexes around 108 for the next few days.

I am going to think positive, pull out the plants as they die in the heat, throw them on the compost pile, and put plastic on empty beds (once they are empty) to solarize them. I never get a chance to do that because the beds are always full until cold weather arrive, so I'll just take advantage of all this heat to do some solarizing.

I have really resisted watering too, and by the time I did a little of it, I think the plants were too far gone. I can't complain--we've had tons of everything except beans.

Yesterday it was 101 here with a heat index of 111--how long can anything thrive in that heat? With only about 16" of rain this year, it is easy to see why the prickly pear cactus are popping up out of the ground. They only appear in really, really dry years and then, in wet years, they rot and die. I love prickly pears, but would rather have our more common wildflowers.

I, too, have some areas where I need to put down more cardboard and mulch in the fall to keep the beds free of winter weeds and ready for spring planting.

It sounds like you'll be busy for a while and I hope you're careful in this heat--your humidity is so much worse than ours, so I am sure your heat indexes are too.

The 'empty nest' thing is hard to handle. I finally got used to the house being quieter after DS went off to college, but it was hard. Cooking for fewer people is harder too! At first, the "quiet" drove me crazy, but I got used to it.

Dawn

Dawn-
Have you thought about watering some of your favorites? Then you'd be making the best of a bad situation, not letting the weather take over entirely, and still get to do more of what you like...

Hi Tom,

Actually, I have, and thanks for suggesting it. I looked at the garden this morning and asked myself if there was a part of it I could maybe "save" instead of letting it all go? And, I decided the answer was "maybe".

Today I spent a couple of hours pulling out bean and cucumber plants that had stopped producing and then watered the pumpkins and peppers and two rows of tomatoes [mostly Cherokee Puple, Cherokee Green (ONG--SO yummy!), Marianna's Peace, Supersonic, Ramapo F-1, and Old Virginia (HUGE tomatoes!] and the okra. The part of the garden I watered probably constitutes only about 1/3 of the garden, but I may keep watering it for a while yet.

Some of the tomato plants are so dry they are not worth reviving, so I am going to pull out more of them tonight after the temperatures drop again. (By the time I came inside at about 10:40 this morning, it was already 93 degrees with a heat index of 102.)

I harvested about 200 peppers this morning--mostly Mucho Nacho Jalapeno, Jaloro Yellow Jalapeno, Grande' Jalapeno, NuMex Big Jim and some sweet red, yellow and purple bells. I picked a bucketful of tomatoes before the heat drove me in--mostly Momotaro, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Supersonic, Ramapo, Husky Gold Cherry and Rosalita. I need to pick a lot more tonight.

AND, the water bill arrived in the morning mail and it was exactly 50 cents less than last month's bill, so I am glad I've cut back on watering---didn't need for it to be even larger than it already has been.

Another small rural community in our area just implemented odd-even water rationing today, so the drought's effects are definitely being felt all over the area.

The hardest thing about the current drought, which started in my part of the county in mid-July of last year, is that it has taken a huge toll on the garden and our WORST temperatures usually don't arrive until August, so things are only going to get worse.

I am going to try to save what I can, but with temperatures expected to exceed 100 for the next week, even if I water, the water can only do so much. Parts of my pastures are cracking, and have cracks up to 2" wide, but all they get is rainfall.

Dawn

Dawn, I'm about like you - giving up on watering. I am watering my front yard only, because it is small and doesn't take much. The backyard is HUGE and I just cannot spend the money on watering it. This means I will probably have to order some plants in the fall to replace the ones that die - like my spicebushes, red bay, etc.

But, it is LESS EXPENSIVE to replace the plants that bite the dust than it is to water and expect them to survive IMHO! I've lost 2 of my aristolochia tomentosas (pipevines), my buttonbush, and my cherry (prunus serotina) from not watering them sufficiently (front yard), but I need to get out and water the other plants that ARE surviving the heat.

The elderberry will survive I know because it made it thru that 2005-06 drought looking very bedraggled, but coming back in spring just fine.

Gardening in Oklahoma is very tricky and very unpredictable. It's just a given that some years we will have drought and have to replace those plants that cannot survive it.

I'm so sorry about your veggies, Dawn. I know that you are the best at cultivating them but Mother Nature just has to have her way some years!

Susan

Susan,

It is so hot here today (currently the temp. is 106, heat index is 116) that I brought the outdoor dogs inside for the afternoon. Even the baby guineas have a fan blowing air on them in their brooder cage.

I noticed today that the back yard is cracking about two feet from the back steps and I HAVE been watering this area whenever I water the foundation. Apparently I haven't been watering it enough.

I haven't been down to the swamp to check on my buttonbushes, and they may be in trouble, because the swamp hasn't been swampy for quite some time now.

I hate losing plants. The liatris mostly died out in the 2005-06 drought, made somewhat of a recovery last year after the rain stopped in July and were, finally, looking good here in early June. They are about dried up and gone again now. My fruit trees have started dropping leaves. The list could go on and on.

I am glad that I have chosen mostly xeriscape plants because I don't expect to lose any of the trees or shrubs in the "yard" area around the house. On the other hand, though, when the natives are dropping leaves and going dormant, it makes me wonder how much ANY plant can take.

I'll survive without the veggies, and did water a part of them today, but the garden looks awful.

I can hardly bear to look at the yard and garden right now because it looks so sad. So, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.....Kristine and I went to Sherman yesterday to do some back-to-college shopping, picking up some things for her dorm room and bathroom. It was a really nice break, until we had to walk from the stores to the car! LOL

Our hottest weather here is usually the first two weeks in August, so I keep telling myself we only have to get through another 2 weeks and it should start improving.

Dawn

Dawn, you certainly have my sympathy on the loss of plants. I'm losing everything at a very fast rate. I finally got out and watered some of them this morning in my front yard. The backyard is just going to have to survive or not.

My contorted mulberry is dropping leaves like crazy, but it has survived drought before, so I'm not worried about it. I know I'll have to replace some plants back there, but at least, as I said earlier, it is cheaper to replace them than to pay the water bill to keep them barely alive.

Yeah, I'm waiting patiently (not) for mid-August, too. Hopefully the temps will drop in a couple of weeks and things will start looking up! My maters look awful. I did get 2 Arkansas Travelers off the plant today, but they are small (typical of too much heat). The Early Girl is just surviving and not producing right now, but perhaps in the fall????

Even my datura is showing the affects of the heat - small leaves and not much growth right now.

My milkweeds seem to be doing okay, as well as the lantana, but they are heat lovers. My moon vine is looking very poor, so I hope it eventually makes it long enough to bloom in late summer-early fall.

Here's wishing you the best....we just never know what Oklahoma weather is going to do.

Susan

Susan,

As bad as the plants in my garden look, and they do look bad, I know it could be worse. At least my plants are still mostly alive, although I'm sure some won't make it.

My plum trees are dropping leaves like crazy, but other than that, I think I watered in time to save my 'Jane' magnolia and the mimosa and fruit trees near it. I don't think the pumpkins will survive--we've hit 102 to 106 too many times lately and they are just toast.

Most of my daturas are shutting down, with the leaves getting smaller and smaller and with fewer blooms too, but I think they'll hang in there and rebound in the fall.

My moonflower vines look pitiful and may not make it. They are just so dry and wilty looking, and I did water them.

Even the zinnias are wilting and dying. (sigh)

I just came in from a 99-acre grassfire (13 fire departments!) and EVERYTHING in that hayfield burned....hay, flowers, trees, fenceposts, etc. I feel bad for the landowners, but the firefighters stopped the fire before it got to the house and barn. As bad as our place looks, at least it is only a crispy brown and not a crunchy black.

Things have to get better, weatherwise. I can scarcely imagine them getting much worse. We need for a good hurricane to hit the Texas coast (gently, of course) and send waves of rain right up I-35 to us.

Dawn

Dawn, have you considered moving to a more garden-hospitable climate? Here in Adair co my rain gauge has registered 40" of rain this year. Our main problem so far this year has been cool temps throwing everything late. I picked the last of the corn today--a full 3 weeks later than in most years.

Perhaps becuase I was raised in Washington state near Seattle, I have, for the 40 years we've lived here, planned my garden to bear more heavily in the spring. Love sugar snap peas, beets, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, bush beans. By this time of the year I only have okra, tomatoes, peppers, cucs, black beans, two hills of watermelons, two hills each of zucchini and butternut and five plants of sweet potato left to water, which I water with a soaker hose well covered with mulch. There are a couple rows each of mung beans and crowder peas, but I'm not going to water them as I want to dry shell them.

I didn't get enough beets and green beans this year tho, so plan to plant some in the fall along with lettuce, spinach, radishes and turnips. And I may plant some chinese cabbage this year. Haven't for years, but love it stirfried. Here's praying you get good fall rains. Dorothy

Dorothy,

I wish we could, but DH already has an 80-mile commute to Dallas, and if we moved at all (and we aren't going to), we'd move closer to Dallas and not farther away. DH loves his job, has worked for the same employer since he graduated from college, has worked his way up the chain of command, and isn't going to leave it until he retires, and that's still quite a few years away.

I am going to switch to more cool-season plantings now that I have a fence (7' tall) that actually keeps the deer out. In previous years, with a shorter fence, I couldn't plant any cool season crops other than potatoes, onions and radishes because the deer would eat them all.

And, while the new fence is working for us, it has caused the deer to go to our neighbor's garden about a mile away and eat ALL his okra.....every leaf, every okra pod, every bloom, etc. He teasingly asked me "Why didn't you tell me the deer were going to come here and eat my okra since they couldn't eat yours?" He's lived and gardened here all his life and never lost his okra to deer until this year.

It is just too, too dry here.....when we have a drought, we have a doozy. Less than 16" of rain this year, and high temps over 90,and mostly over 95 every day in June, and over 95 and close to 100 every day in July, and over 100 every day so far in August (106 to 108 here the last two days depending on which thermometer you trust).

During our early years here, we had some really nice years with 40" or more inches of rain, but for the last 5 years it has been significantly worse every year (except for last year which was excessively wet until mid-July and excessively dry after that). I am so frustrated with the drought more than the heat...if only it would rain. "Old-timers" tell me it used to rain 40" to 50" inches every year, and that our road has even flooded a time or two, but our rainfall now falls into the 20" to 35" range most years.

The heat is so bad and it is so dry, and Love County is burning. We were at a large hayfield fire Saturday for about 4 hours--from about 1 or 2 o'clock until 5 or 6 o'clock and it was just dreadfully hot. After that, I thought, what could happen next, you know? Well, we just spent 9.5 hours today at a huge fire at a pallet factory on the outskirts of Marietta, and came home to a non-working air conditioner. I need a vacation. LOL

Instead, we're driving down to Dallas tomorrow (if we can escape from this county before it catches fire again) and we're going to pick up cases and cases of Gatorade and water and boxed snacks (crackers, cookies, trail mix, cereal bars, granola bars, etc.) for all 14 fire depts. here in Love County. It looks like we're in for a rough fire season.

I have about given up on the idea of having a fall garden at all because it is so dry, and if the fire season is going to be bad, that pretty much makes up my mind for me. I can't give a garden the attention it needs if I am out at fires every day.

If it cools off and rain falls by October I might plant Spinach and some other greens that generally overwinter here. I picked a ton of peppers and tomatoes yesterday before the fire interfered in my plans for the day. I need to can some hot peppers this week.

Even in a "good rain year" our July and August tend to be very hot and fairly dry, but in a "bad rain year" they are just miserable and I understand why a lot of Love County gardeners just give up when the heat arrives. I hate doing it, but the water bill just gets ridiculous.

My corn was late too, but we got a good crop and have eaten all we can and still have about a hundred ears in the freezer for winter. It was the BEST onion year and we have way too many, so I've been giving away some of the excess. Beans were almost a total bust, melons and pumpkins are still going strong. Everything needs water, but I'm only watering up close to the house. Water rationing is going on all around us, and I fear we may be faced with it here soon. (All it takes is for one pump or one of our water district's four wells to break down and we're pretty much thrown into an instant water shortage.)

Dawn

Remember the garden I mentioned several weeks ago? All of their corn dried up! They had put so much effort into that garden (reclaiming major lawn for it) and now so many of their crops have dried up. What a shame. I hope they don't give up.

I had planted some radishes and now am seeing about three to four caterpillars on each plant. What's going on? They're being eaten so not having much chance to grow. Can I intervene? Should I?

I used a light coloured umbrella over some of the lettuce and that seems to be helping plus watering twice a day. Still, it's tough on them.

Mari,

What is going on is that the caterpillars are hungry and you have thoughtfully provided them with a plant they seem to like. I've never seen caterpillars on radishes, but I guess anything can happen. There is an organic caterpillar killer called Bt (Bacillus thuriengensis) that is a bacteria that specifically targets caterpillars. If you spray the plants with it, the caterpillars will ingest it. They'll stop feeding almost immediately and will die within a day or so. It is easy to find and is sold under names like Caterpillar Killer, Thuricide, etc. The drawback is that it kills all caterpillars that make contact with it so some people don't use it because they'd rather have the butterflies and moths that the caterpillars turn into.

You can hand-pick the caterpillars and then either drop them on the ground and squish them with your shoe or drop them into a bowl of soapy water and let them drown.

In a very hot summer like we're having this year, garden pests tend to be much worse---they are very hungry and there's not as much out there for them to eat since everything is drying up and wilting.

I've linked a photo of one of the caterpillar killer products to give you an idea of what to look for if you choose to go this route. Pretty much every major company that makes pesticides markets its own version of Bt caterpillar killer. Be sure you buy the Bt product that specifically targets caterpillers. It is Bt 'Kurstaki'. There are other Bt products out there and each of them is a different bacteria that targets a different pest. For example, Bt "San Diego" targets Colorado Potato Beetles and Bt "Israelensis" targets mosquito larvae.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1119767}}

It is getting hot here in Helena too. We've had 109 temps the last few days and like Dawn said, that's in the shade. poor little veggies are hot when i pick them, like they're baked on the vine. I have been watering more than usual but our town just upped the water prices and I am going to have to change my habits. Hubby and I have been discussing putting in a solar water well. That way the town doesn't hold me hostage on the way I choose to live, like watering the heck out of my garden when i feel like it!!

Hey, River, I'd like to know more about the solar water well you plan. When we moved into our house, there was a metal-lined cellar just behind the house. It was full of water and I-don't-know-what-all, the metal straight-up-and-down stairs were rotted away and we had 5th grade grandsons in our household. So we filled it up. So many times I have wished we had left it there, cleaned it up a little and used the water in it to water things with. But then, I was raising kids and no garden and it was a safety issue.

Dawn, I totally understand how you feel. We had a drought here three summers ago. It was awful. No point in watering, as no matter how far out you watered, the surrounding dry ground would just reach out and slurp it all away! My raised beds were full of dust, all the Bermuda grass was yellow and the trees were dropping leaves. We had had a dry spring and we had a dry fall, too. The trees did not turn colors that year and the webworms hung on so many trees like some kind of freaky Christmas decoration. I lost nearly everything that year. The trees made it, but only because I had one of those watering things that sends water down to the roots.

Things have dried up here, too, to the point where I am having to water every morning. I had to move my containers of green peppers under the shade of the peach trees because even the early afternoon sun was too much. I just lost another plant because the drainage hole got clogged and the water collected in the container and soured. This is so annoying. Next year I'll line the containers with some landscape fabric.

Lots of things are stressed, though. This is the first year that I have planted okra, and I was surprised to see how quickly the leaves wilt. I thought okra was something that thrived in hot, dry conditions. We are getting a few okra every day that I slice and stick in a freezer bag. The other day I had collected enough for a meal, so we had catfish and fried okra. It was really good.

I am in and out all day these days. I stay out till my back is covered in sweat and then I come in and sit here at my computer under the ceiling fan that blows air-conditioned air on me. Even at that, I'm not keeping up with the weeds and grasses that are coming up everywhere. If the weeds were edible no one would ever starve.

It's amazing how fast the tide can turn and we can go from slogging in the mud to cracked ground.

But, with all the bad breaks, I've still had some successes. I didn't have tomatoes to give away, or even very many to can, because of the disease/pest that hit my tomato plants. I have pulled all the plants out of the one raised bed and spread plastic over all of it. Man, it's hot out there under that plastic. I hope I don't look out there and see the dirt on fire! There was a row of plants in the second bed. where I also have asparagus and beans, and I just cut them down to the ground, kind of as an experiment, to see if they would come back up from the root. I haven't really had time to examine closely, but it looks like nothing is. I did plant 2 or 3 Arkansas Travelers and 2 or 3 Mortgage Lifters in the third bed amidst the sweet potato vines. I swear, those vines have taken over, but they are providing some nice shade to the tomato plants in this oppressive heat. I'm hopeful I'll be able to dig up sweet potatoes at some point before the tomato plants start bearing, but I don't know when that'll be. I have other tomato plants to plant, they are rootbound and starting to look bad, but I just don't have a place to plant them. I need to repot them, I guess, and maybe I can plant them in the bed I'm solarizing later on.

All summer, my pepper plants have done very poorly. They put on a pepper and something comes along and bites a hole in it while it's still little and before it can get to any size it rots. I've gotten small banana peppers and sometimes with the bells I've been able to cut out the bad parts and get SOMETHING. I had a pepper that had actually started turning red that I was watching closely and then the pepper just disappeared! I don't know what happened to it. Right now, as I speak, though, there are several plants that have several bell peppers clustered on them and I'm really tickled about it. Today I actually picked one that turned a nice, dark, almost chocolate red. The seed was from a grocery store pepper that was cherry red and very thick-walled. I'm about to decide that there is just no point in starting a pepper plant in the house during the early spring because it doesn't really start to bear until late July anyway. I could just direct sow.

The yard-longs are still producing and I'm getting an occasional small cucumber. I planted seed I bought from SwallowTail that was called "Home Made Pickles". Several of the pickles are fat and round with a little point on the end -- don't look like any pickle I ever saw. But then others are more pickle shaped and would make nice sweet pickles, if I were getting enough to fill a jar, that is. Of all the seed I planted, I had only 4 or 5 plants that came up.

Lots of things have been disappointments to me this year. Lots of flowers that I planted either didn't make the transplant or they drowned. Lots of seed I planted didn't come up. I guess I won't be finding out what an Armenian cucumber tastes like this year. But, ONE purple Datura made it, and my white ones got far enough along to make seed. Several other things that I was really looking forward to have provided flowers for our enjoyment and seeds for next year. I canned 40 quarts of peaches. I pack a lot of peaches into each jar and so I figure one quart of my home-canned peaches is probably equal to two or maybe even three of those almost-quart cans from the store. Now I'm working on apples. Every day I pick off a big bowl full and pare and slice them for the freezer. I have six gallon zip-lock bags down in the freezer now and I'm beginning to worry about where I will find room for the next ones.

So, I'm really grateful for what I have. Maybe there will be plums next year. Oh, and I looked up my records from when I planted, and they're Santa Rosa. My peach trees were identified as Red Haven. The oldest one, the one that keeps breaking, definitely is a Red Haven and those were the peaches I canned. The younger one makes peaches that don't look a thing like Red Haven. They're smaller and more oblong, and they're lighter in color. The meat of the peach is more of an eggnog color. I'm beginning to think this one has reverted to the root stock like someone mentioned theirs had done in a previous thread. They are very sweet, kind of flower-fragrant and quite delicious, but very delicate and the ants actually will climb the tree to get into them.

Dawn, I hope your drought breaks soon. I hope you can keep what you prize most highly going until the weather conditions improve. Don't worry about the weeds. I'll keep you in my prayers. --Ilene

I kind of feel bad to kill them using a spray, so I'll try to pick them off and put them in another part of the yard.

Knowing that they're hungry and want food makes me feel so guilty :-(

Ilene,

I think that most large-leaved plants wilt in our heat (not only okra, but squash, pumpkin, etc. as well) but they should perk up overnight even in you don't water them.

And, even though my garden is not thriving, the Johnson grass and bermuda grass are! I don't think this drought is as bad yet as it was in 2005-06, and we haven't had nearly as many days with temps. over 100, but it still is a pretty rough summer.

DH is home today and noticed some plants around the house were wilting, so he is watering them. I didn't tell him that they have wilted every day for the last month! If watering makes him happy, let him water. He also fixed the A/C, which was a relief.

I water every morning too, but only the flowers (mostly daturas, brugmansias, dahlias, coleus and a few herbs) in large flower pots. The last two evenings, I've come home after spending hours at a fire to find open blooms on a double-flowered yellow datura in a container....and that's a treat!

Every morning I make two large wildlife puddles for the wildlife to drink from, and everything (turtles, frogs, raccoons, deer, doves, rabbits, etc.) comes to drink from them. This morning, well after sunrise, Fluffy (the Maine Coon Cat) was lying in the yard and he saw Mama Deer and her twin fawns coming to drink at the puddle. He crouched down like a lion, and crept towards them as if he was going to jump on them. We had a game of chicken for a while, and as the deer moved closer to Fluffy, he began to back away.....still crouching and creeping, only in reverse. Then, he got bold and moved towards them, and they turned and ran off into the neighbor's pasture. Satisfied he had defended his turf AND his big water puddle, Fluffy retreated to the shady porch where he could keep his eye on his little world. Apparently Fluffy doesn't care who's thirsty--they aren't going to drink water from his puddle while he's watching.

It IS amazing how fast we can go from horrendous mud to dry, cracking ground. (sigh) Our first few summers here seem so mild in comparison to the more recent years.

I've been hoping all day that Tropical Storm Eduoard would send moisture our way, but tonight the local weather forecaster said it is very unlikely. "Only" 106 here today, and the heat index was not as high as yesterday, so it felt a bit nicer today.

We went to Lewisville to Costco and to Sam's and picked up 35 cases of bottle water and Gatorade for the firefighters, and tons and tons of packaged snacks as well. Oh, it is dry down there too! I noticed that lots and lots of trees look really bad and some are dropping foliage, and some have already dropped most of their foliage. I think that some of the communities we drove through have water rationing in place and that might explain why large, well-established trees in people's yards are looking so dreadfully bad. It looks worse there than here although we have had almost identical conditions.

In the last week, I have seen a significant worsening in the pastures around us....as in much less visable green and much more brown.

We had a peach revert to its root stock after a really hard freeze the first winter it was in the ground and its peaches are tiny....about the size of a large walnut. One of my neighbors calls them Indian Peaches and says they taste wonderful, but they have very large pits in a very small peach, so there isn't much flesh there at all. I just leave those peaches on the trees for the birds....they don't ripen until late August.

Mari,

I ignore most caterpillars because they don't do enough damage (usually) to kill a plant. However, when growing cabbage, kale, broccoli and related cool-season veggies, I will spray with Bt if I have to in order to kill the cabbage loopers and other related caterpillars.

Today I saw a huge tomato hornworm on a tomato plant and was thrilled to see it....I haven't had many of them at all this summer and have been missing the hummingbird moths.

At yesterday's pallet factory fire (and this really is garden-related), a two-story caretaker's house caught fire. It was very close to the barn that was burning, so it was in danger for several hours and our guys kept a constant stream of water on its roof, but eventually the attic started smoking. Still, the firefighters got the fire out although the roof and attic and part of the second story suffered fire damage, and I am sure that both floors and all the belongings suffered smoke and water damage. After the firefighters carried out all the furniture and belongings that they could, in order to get them out into the sun to air out and dry out, I saw the lady who apparently lived in that house out picking tomatoes from a few small plants next to the front porch. The tomatoes themselves were still green, and I would have expected the plants to be scorched and dry and dead within a couple of days, just from the radiant heat of the fire. I assume she was picking those tomatoes in the hope that maybe some of them can be saved and might eventually ripen inside on a kitchen counter.

And, you know, considering that a storage barn full of wood and wood products had burned for hours and hours right next to those tomato plants (as close as maybe 20 feet away), I was surprised they still looked pretty good.

I did think to myself that I would have done the same thing.....the house might be smokey and unlivable, but I'd be out there saving the tomatoes too!

Dawn

Yeah, I'd be trying to save tomatoes too! With damage that extensive you just cling to anything that will make things feel 'normal'.

That was cute about Fluffy. LOL Bengal tiger wannabe. Pearl doesn't do much of that anymore, she's getting old. She does now and then toss a garden snake around between those big front paws of hers, but it's more out of curiosity than anything else. I think she killed the one she found under the porch because there was something kind of stinking around in that area. No, I'm NOT crawling under the porch to find it, it'll just have to wear itself off. Normally she gets bored with it, walks off and the snake continues on its way. Maybe this one had a heart attack while she was playing with it or something. LOL

These peaches are smaller than the Red Havens but they're bigger than a jumbo egg and about that shape. Come to think of it, I did notice, as I was eating one over the sink yesterday, that there wasn't a whole lot of peach left after the pit came out. I've tried to do a little research on it and it looks like the rootstock is usually Lovell, but I haven't been able to find a description or picture of peaches that might grow on that. They ripened right after the Redhavens, and are all done now. There were not that many on the tree. I'm NOT leaving them on the tree for the birds, they got ENOUGH of my Redhavens, and they've taken a share of these, too, without permission! LOL Now they're doing the same to my apples.

Mesonet says we have a 20% chance of rain tomorrow and a 30% chance on Thursday, with temps going back down under the 100 mark, even getting to lower 70's, upper 60's at night. This usually means we don't get any rain. Last time though, it started out 20% and then they increased the percentage as we got closer to the day, and we did get a nice little rain out of it. This time of year, with the temperatures in the hundreds, it doesn't take long for every drop to be absorbed.

DGS goes to school to get his schedule, he only needs to go half-days this year as he has almost enough credits to graduate. I feel like I've spent most of my life getting this kiddo through school. It has been tough, what with his ADD and all. I continue to be shocked at how many teachers don't believe there is such a thing as ADD. After I watch him graduate, I think I'm going to go out and buy a jug of wine and drink the whole thing. LOL He has worked nights at WMT all summer and has hated the hours. This Friday, they will change him to part time and days. I have to give him credit for sticking it through, though. He got "coached" for not working fast enough, and then again for horseplay, but once he got over the initial mad he was able to do well enough to avoid further coachings.

DH goes in for pre-op on his second knee on the 12th. We think surgery will be scheduled on the 18th. He's done well with the first knee and is pretty much back to what was his normal life before surgery. I'm hoping, after he recovers from the second knee, he'll start doing things he used to enjoy again -- like fishing. He quit fishing because he said it was just too hard to walk to his favorite fishing spots. We take a little walk out in the park early every morning. Sonny just loves it, he goes with us and there's usually no one but us out there so I let him run. He's good about catching up with us when we call and sometimes when we don't. If I see someone come into the park, or another dog, I put his leash on and he walks at my side. But you can tell he'd rather be running.

Sometime this fall, DD will go in and have bypass surgery. I worry how she will do, but she weighs so much that it's affecting her health. She has high blood pressure, sleep apnea, a hernia, bad knees, swollen feet, and just recently found out she has developed diabetes. She'll come and stay with us while she recovers and so will the other GS, so though I may have less time to do stuff in the garden and yard, that other GS is a good hard worker and maybe he'll do my tilling and shovel out my compost bin.

Ilene,

I've never seen Lovell peaches as far as I know, but I've seen lots of peaches people refer to as "wild peaches" and I think that a lot of them probably were Lovell peaches either grown from peach pits of hybrids and they reverted back, or grown on rootstock that sprouted after the grafted part of the tree froze out. Either way, the wild peaches for the most part haven't had much flesh on the fruit and were mostly pit.

It sounds like you have some nice, cool nights to enjoy. Ours have been staying fairly high--upper 70s to lower 80s, but a couple of nights ago we went down to 72 and it felt so cool early in the morning! After today, our high temps are supposed to drop below the 100s. We've only had maybe 13 or 14 days over 100, but plenty more around 98 to 99 and I'd love a real break in the high temperatures. And, just because the forecasters say it, that doesn't make it so. Lately, no matter what they forecast for Marietta's high, we've been going 2 to 4 degrees higher.

Can you believe DGS is a senior? Congratulations on getting him this far. I have a nephew with ADD and it was such a struggle to get him through school, but he made it too. Our nephew seems to do better in the workplace than he did in school....he is able to focus on job tasks better and, it seems that as time goes on, he really is able to stay on task on his own without a lot of coaching. He's 22 now and finally out living on his own and managing pretty well.

I know you and DH will be glad to get the second surgery over with, and I hope it all goes as well as the first one did. It has been 4 months since my neighbor had his second knee done and now he is walking so well that you cannot even tell he had two surgeries this year. He seems more spry and lively than he has been in years!

With DD's surgery looming next, it sounds like life won't quite "get back to normal" for a while. I hope her surgery goes well and improves her health. I have a sister who has many of the same health problems as your daughter, but she lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago--over 100 lbs.--and that made a huge difference even though she's probably regained 30 or 40 lbs. since then.

Family is always most important and I hope y'all are able to get this year of surgeries behind you and have better and less stressful times in 2009. I bet your other DGS will help you with the garden chores since he knows gardening is important to you.

Fluffy, by the way, THINKS he is a tiger and he'll take on just about any creature he encounters, but I did think he was pushing it by confronting 3 deer. Some of my other cats will chase rabbits, but only Spots can catch them and I scold her each time she brings me a cottontail (usually smallish juveniles, but not the little babies).

I am so tired of the heat, and having spent almost the whole weekend out at fires, I am tired of heat, sunshine, smoke, etc. I am just beat....I couldn't fall asleep the night of either fire.....too much adrenalin or too tired, one or the other. I was out almost all day yesterday, buying fire rehab materials (drinks and food) for the 14 fire depts. here in Love County and then re-supplying the storage building where we keep all that stuff stored so each dept. can come and get what it needs. That metal storage building was an OVEN when we were filling it up, but it is all done and I hope the stuff we put there lasts a while.

I am dreading a long fire season, and have been doing some proactive firescaping for several years now. Believe it or not, I worry more about the garden catching fire than the house. (This does not surprise my DH at all....he worries about the house and garage/barn, and I worry about the garden and animals.

First of all, the house has Jim Hardy hardiplake siding and I know from experience that it is very, very hard to get that siding to catch fire. (When we were building the house, I tried to burn a small pile of siding scraps because I wanted to see how fire-resistant it is, and I can tell you it is VERY fire resistant.) Even our two poultry coops have Hardiplant siding because it is important to us that our birds be protected too.

Secondly, all my raised beds are made of wood and I'd hate to lose that if a wildfire swept across our place.

Third, I have cedar garden entrance arbors and gates and the cedar would burn like mad.

Finally, I keep thinking of all the tons and tons of mulch and how much I'd hate to lose that. I'd also hate to lose my two very large working compost piles, but they MIGHT be moist enough that they wouldn't catch fire easily.

Also, I do keep the grass as green as possible around the house and barn/garage, and green grass will slow down but not necessarily stop wildfire.

I guess it is just as well that I am not spending a lot of time in what is left of the veggie garden, because the fire stuff has required a lot of time lately. I'd rather be gardening though! And, yesterday, DH said he'd rather have a $400 water bill (we've never had one quite that high even in the worst droughts) than have to pay to fix a cracked foundation or burnt-down building, so today I am watering the yard on all 4 sides of the house.

School starts soon--next week here--and the cool weather usually arrives here 2-4 weeks after that. I'm ready for that cooler weather. As for rain, I've pretty much given up hoping for it. It just doesn't rain here much (if any) in August or September, even in a good year, and sometimes not until November in a bad year. We need rain, but we aren't getting any.

My veggie garden looks pretty good considering the heat and drought, and I am still getting lots of peppers, tomatoes, okra and melons. Without water, though, production will drop pretty sharply in the next couple of weeks.

Dawn

Dawn, I only grow ornamentals, but they're getting pretty crispy up here too. I had a friend from Colorado come by yesterday and she wanted to see my gardens. Inside I groaned, August is not the month to show off gardens :) I explained they were pretty crispy. What was worse though, and something I can do something about, was the shaggy lawn and grass and weeds in the flower beds!! Frankly though, this time of year I set water hoses and head back inside!

At least my lawn is still green. The neighbor scalped their yard last night and this morning I noticed the whole yard was straw colored! I'll have to peer over the fence later. The edge that backs to my yard ought to still be green...I'm sure I water it for them!

Lisa

Lisa,

Yes, I think it is safe to say that even ornamentals aren't looking too ornamental nowadays! Even the real heat lovers like zinnias and hummingbird sage are browning and looking sad.

My four o'clocks are really wilted, but since they are well-established and have huge tubers, they can die back to the ground and still come back once rain returns, if it ever does.

Parts of my lawn area around the house got pretty brown, but we've watered it enough to bring back some green, although we were actually watering to keep the clay soil around the foundation from cracking.....the grass just happened to benefit from the water too.

In the pastures around us that have been cut and hayed in the last 2 weeks, all that remains is brown stubble that is dry as a bone and as ugly as can be. We've been out 10 times in the last 8 days--7 fires and 3 serious auto accidents....and one accident today started a grass fire. We need a burn ban here in Love County and we need it now.

I have those really large green elephant ears around the porch and they are curling up and turning a crispy yellowish-brown. Even the desert willow and chaste tree are wilting and yellowing and I have watered them twice in the last week.

If anyone asked to see my yard or garden now, I think I'd say just "No" and leave it at that. We haven't been mowing either....at least what little grass is left has some green, and I bet if we cut it, all we'd have would be brown stubble. Of course, the Johnson grass down in the bar ditches is lovely, but who cares about it?

The lily pond looks better than anything else....at least the lily pads and flowers are pretty much their usual color. The cattails are browning and the pickerel reed flowers look great, but the leaves are brown and curling, and the plant is in 18" of water! I guess, if it wasn't for the lily pond, we wouldn't have much green anywhere.

The cannas on the south side of the house look pretty good, but they are getting water, and the Burford Hollies look wonderful....but they are several years old and it takes a lot to bother them.

I'm hoping for cooler weather for everyone who needs it and hoping even more for real rainfall. I'd dearly love a real old-fashioned thunderstorm with torrential rainfall and thunder and lightning and wind.

Dawn

I still have cherry tomaotes growing. I water one day and the next day they are wilted. I haven't lost but a couple of small flowers that were just babies, but it sure looks bad out there and I can't keep up with it. My family is coming tomorrow for a few days so glad it will cool off, because in taking day trips I will have to squeeze in watering. I can understand your having more problems Dawn since you are in a drought stricken area. I do think a storm is coming in, but it doesn't always rain where I live and maybe not where you are. It should help cool the air, maybe. All of our fescue is almost dead, but the Bermuda is doing fine, except for a small area that I can't get to to water because I am so busy watering everything else.

At least my fruit trees quit crying sap. Knock on wood.

Sorry to say this, but I feel a bit better knowing that other's gardens are suffering like mine. We had just shy of 40" of rain through June, another 7" in early July, then nothing for the last four weeks. We also have huge cracks in the backyard and patches of crispy grass (the least of my worries) as if those 47 inches never happened.

I haven't decided yet to stop watering the vegetables, although with the heat, the tomatoes have all but stopped putting on fruit and I'll be removing several this weekend. The chiles are in better shape, and the squash and beans are still hanging in there, too. I just can't keep enough water on the strawberries, and hope at least a few of them will pull through. We had a lousy berry year; I think the combination of a cool, wet spring followed by the recent hot & dry has them confused. The raspberries bore fairly well in June, are now loaded with fruits again, so I did spend some water on them this morning. The blackberries are toast, believe it or not. But, I have no fear of them dying. :)

We may lose a few ornamentals, but I need the space for expanding the vegetable area, anyway. Always a bright spot, huh? The rising food costs and general economic outlook has us seriously thinking about growing more edibles. We usually only do onions, garlic, and salad greens over the winter, and the rest is in cover crop. This fall, most of the existing garden area will be planted in edibles, like a lot more root crops. Anyone know any good recipes for turnips & beets? I started some tomato and broccoli plants on the front porch for later planting, and had to move the broccoli inside and have lost a couple of the tomatoes even after moving them to a shadier area. Crispy.

But, we have a small chance of rain over the next few days, and the temps are forecast to be in the 90s and even (gasp) 88 on Thursday. I've lived in Oklahoma my entire life, but it does seem the last few years have been unusually extreme.

I do get some enjoyment from the garden; there's a potted kalanchoe outside my office window that the hummingbirds visit. And, it doesn't need a lot of water.

Good luck everyone.
Carol

Dawn, according to the weathermen up here you might have a chance of rain. Yay! I'm appreciating the slightly cooler temps. This time of year I start wishing I lived in Alaska....but I checked the forecast yesterday and their HIGH was 61 degrees, with the 10 day highs supposed to be in the 50/60's. EEEW. Maybe not. But I bet their gardens aren't crispy!!!

Carol, the Garden Party forum has been talking about beets lately (not necessarily in a complimentary manner :) ). Today someone posted a link about beets being the new spinach. If you follow their link, there will be some recipes posted this week.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Beets: the new spinach

Hi ladies (and gents),
I've got about a total of 9 tomato plants. My largest are over 7 ft but not much fruit. I had trouble for them not being eaten but now they aren't setting fruit. Is it for sure the heat? I hear you talking about pulling them? If I don't have a plan for winter will it hurt to leave them in to see? I'm just a new gardener wondering if I'm hurting my garden to keep them around? (ie. pests?)

Also, I just now have cantaloupe going, I see two good size ones now. I planted end of May though. I can't believe how my garden just got going in June and now the heat I'm not getting much. This is my 2nd year in OK and we move July 09 next year. I built these gardens and enjoy it but I wish it were more positive for me. :-( bummer.

Anyway, just wondering if I'm hurting anything by leaving my tomatoes in and getting what I can from them.

Thanks,
Robbie
OKC area

Dawn, Glad you are happy with your hardiplank siding. That is what we are having put on our bunkhouse. They got one side completed today and another one ready for tomorrow and I like the way it looks. Did you prime yours before you painted it? We had a hard time deciding what to use, but this one looks like our house although it is a much better product than our house has on it.

I think we are supposed to get rain in the afternoon but maybe they can get part of a day in before it hits. I would like to think it would be finished when I get back this weekend. I am tired of looking at styroform insulation.

You were smart to build a new house because in these old ones, it is just one project after another. I always looked forward to the "next project" but I guess I am getting too old for that now, because I just want them finished. I would like to think I could finally do some permanent landscaping.......or as permanent as you can in Oklahoma weather. It wasn't terrible here today and I think tomorrow is supposed to be cooler. My DH was outside almost all day helping the work crew with a few things, and he was wet everytime I saw him. I am glad he wasn't out there in last week's temps.

I picked quite a few tomatoes today. I have been very pleased with the "Sungold" that I ordered on your recommendation. They taste great and have been very productive. I love the way "Black Cherry" taste (which I also bought on your recommendation), but it hasn't been as prolific as Sungold. I usually like a more acid tomato taste rather than a sweet one, but Sungold is almost like eating fruit. My DH and I both grab a handful when we are watering, and then almost everytime we walk through the kitchen. I love tomatoes.

I can hardly believe but my second batch of eggplant is almost ready to pick. This is a first for me although I have planted it several times before. Keeping it covered helped and I also think the different varity was a plus.

Hi Everyone,

It started out cool, cloudy and misty and that lasted all of an hour or so, and no measurable rainfall. Although it warmed up pretty quickly, it was at least 10 degrees cooler than any day we've had in the last two weeks.

I have no idea how hot it was or what our heat index was because I spent the entire afternoon at a wildfire and (finally!) just sat down after being home for about 3 hours. Everything at home needed attention.....the dogs, the cats, the birds, and the plants. Everything got attention, except the plants. If anything still looks wilted tomorrow morning, I'll give it a quick drink of water.

We are NOT expecting triple-digit temperatures at least through the 14th, according to our local forecasters, so that will be nice. There's also a small chance of rain in each of the next 10 days, although the chances are so small that they might as well be "slim" to "none". Still, we can hope for rain!

Today's wildfire was very close to the Red River so it was a pretty wild, overgrown area with a mixture of prairie grass and trees and every time you took a step, about 10 to 20 BIG grasshoppers few up. It was awful. If I had gigantic grasshoppers like that at my house, I'd be outside with a flyswatter killing them all.

I hope the cold front brings relief to everyone 'cause we all need it.

Dawn

Robbie,

Don't give up on your plants. The triple digit weather is supposed to over now and your plants are far enough along that they should kick in and produce. There is plenty of time before the cold weather arrives. In fact, your plants will love this cooler weather.

Annie

Thanks Annie,
I'm just so frustrated. I spent 2 hrs tonight out there pruning the bad stuff off my plants. I'm hoping that will help them but I just read somewhere that they may not deal with the heat as good after pruning. Oooops! Darn I can't win. I've spent hours on this darn computer and books trying to learn then go out and do something only to discover that it wasn't such a good idea after all! Oh well, live and learn.

With all this talk about Fall I need to get into action so thought I could make my tomatoes last that much longer. How can I pull a sucker (from planter_mumm) of a tomato and stick it in the dirt to grow back for the Fall? And how exactly do I harden off seedlings if I go that route? I'm confused. I want to do whatever is simplist or which I have time for since it's late already and August is here!

I just wrote a little journal tonight about my garden this year and wow, I did try alot! I tried 14 different veggies and that doesn't include varieties of tomatoes! Wow.

My beans didn't take but it was May, any suggestions there?

How do I get clean lettuce to use? It seems I'd be picking leaf by leaf and it'd still look bad after washing!

But my eggplants came out from seeds then just wilted and my lettuce, which is growing so tall out of control just looks so dirty to actually cut and eat. Was I suppose to do something with the eggplants as seedlings to help them? Was it just bad timing?

Robbie

Robbie, I am not an authority on eggplant, but I am having success this year for the first time. I did three things that I think helped.

(1) Planted Pingtung Long instead of the big purple one.
(2) Planted them in a large pot.
(3) Kept them covered with a sheer fabric until they were 14 or 15 inches tall and strong enough to survive the flea beetle damage. They still had some holes in them, but not nearly as many.

I only planted 3 plants and picked the first ones last week. I have several more almost ready and they are continuing to bloom even in this heat.

I don't know of any lettuce that will survive in Oklahoma heat. My experience is that it is a very early spring crop or a fall crop. This year I planted mine in pots and planted very close. It was "cut and come again" type, and planted close so was very little ground splash. It was great in the spring. I think it was about early June when it started to taste bitter and go to seed. Some people say they move it to the shade and water it daily and keep it a little longer, but I am usually tired of it by then.

Because supermarkets have everything all year, Americans seem to think that we can't have a salad without both lettuce and tomatoes. When I lived in Greece, I loved the summer salads and they were usually tomato, cucumber, greek olives, feta cheese, and sometimes onion, and then drizzled with good olive oil and served with a loaf of bread to break off and dunk in the olive oil. A great beginning to wonderful meals.

Ok,
Robbie.

I removed the inside stems & leaves of my tomatoes, opening them up in the center to allow air circulation and prevent mold and fungus (they were starting to get it). Make sure you only remove the ones BELOW where your flowers or fruit branch out from a main stem.

Put hay (straw) under your veggies to keep the ground cool and prevent soil from splashing up on your plants. The soil introduces microorganism that attack and destroy your plants.

When it is really hot, I give my plants a good spraying with Miracle Grow, using the spray bottle that comes with it. It gives them a boost of energy and puts more into their leaves and stems. It can help plants that are wilting in the heat. Works very fast.

I have well water (no chlorine, etc.), so I run an overhead sprinkler to water my gardens. But if you have city water, irrigate them by running water on the ground at the base of your plants. Soaker hoses work great if you can afford them. If not, just lay a flower pot on the ground and insert the end of the garden hose in the pot. This will prevent your hose from digging holes in your garden beds and washing away topsoil.DO NOT get the water on the leaves. The chlorine will burn them.

I feed my veggies once a month all summer long, especially tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, corn, melons and okra. I use steer manure, rabbit manure (from my bunny), and compost soil that I get at WalMart. Tomatoes do well with a dose of Fish Emulsion once every now and then.

Lettuce will not be good in this heat we've been having. It send up a long, lanky stem and then begins to make seeds. If you are not planning on saving the seeds then remove the entire plant and dispose of them.

Start a new crop of lettuce in late August or early September for a fall crop. I plant my lettuces and spinach in the shade of taller plants or in light shade made from a tree or some structure.

Hard to say what did in your eggplant and beans. Birds, mice, deer, and other wildlife will eat the seeds. Sometimes seed is no good. If it was already hot (80+ degrees) when you planted your garden, then you were just fighting a battle with nature.

Plant cool weather crops in the spring and warm weather crops in early summer, but before it gets terribly hot.

It may have been inadequate watering. Water slowly and deep each time you water so plants will send their roots down deep which later protects them when temps get high and it is dry.

If your soil is infertile, that could also be a problem too.

Hope this helps.
Send me an e-mail if you have any more questions. I'll do my best to answer.

~ Annie

Robbie,

As long as you are able to water, or if enough rainfall is occurring, I wouldn't give up on the garden. The worst heat of the summer hopefully has ended, and it it has, the plants can rebound pretty quickly. (I "gave up" and stopped watering my garden because we are in a moderate drought in our county and it is so dry that watering doesn't help much. If I lived in the 75% of the state that is not in a drought, I'd be watering now and expecting great results from the fall garden.)

Most tomato plants (excluding cherry, grape, currant and some plum/paste types) shut down and stop producing once the daytime high temperatures exceed roughly 90-92 degrees and the nighttime temps exceed roughly 75 degrees. Once the temperatures fall back into the proper range, your plants should set fruit. In general, the smaller cherry, grape, currant and plum tomatoes are not affected by the temperatures, so they produce all summer long.

Many years, I get a better tomato crop in the fall than in the spring.....the fall tomatoes get to ripen under better conditions and there are not usually as many pests.

This has been a tough gardening year.....too cold too late into spring, then high winds and extreme heat in combination in May, and varying rainfall problems in different parts of the state. Some people (and their gardens) got hugely excessive rainfall and that stunted their plants' and slowed down production. Others, like me, have an ongoing drought and the lack of moisture stunted the plants and slowed down production. Most years in OK, the garden season is a lot better than what we've had this year.

If your plants set tomatoes in the fall, you have a good chance of getting a fall crop. And, when the first freeze approaches, if you cover the tomato plants with blankets or something similar, you can often get the plants past that freeze, and often we'll then have 4 to 6 more weeks of good (non-freezing) weather so you can harvest a lot more tomatoes.

If a hard freeze is expected and you don't think you can protect your tomato plants enough to save them, you can either pick all the green ones, and a lot of then will then ripen slowly on a counter or table inside, or you can pull up the plants, roots and all, and hang them inside a garage or tornado shelter, and a lot of those fruit will ripen over the next couple of weeks. Some years, by using these techniques, we are still eating fresh, ripe tomatoes at Christmas and even into January if the plants were really covered in tomatoes when I pulled them up and hung them upside down in the tornado shelter.

Annie has given you lots of good gardening advice.

One thing to remember about gardening in Oklahoma is that we do not have one long growing season. Instead we have two shorter ones separated from one another by a big mid-summer heat wave.

The "spring" gardening season can start as early as mid-to-late January in southern OK with the planting of onions, followed by potatos and other cold season crops in February. Then, it is a race to get the warm-season crops into the ground as early as possible in March and April so they can produce before the heat shuts them down in June or July. It can be very difficult to keep many things producing during the worst of the mid-July to mid-August heat (depending on your temperatures and rainfall), but then you get a second chance with the "fall garden".

Planting for the fall garden can begin in mid-June for warm season crops and it doesn't end until September or even October for the hardiest cold-season crops.

Some years you can prune back tomato plants in July or August and they're able to make a great fall crop, but sometimes the summer heat wave and pests weaken them too much, and they don't do as well in the fall.

Carol,

I love hardiplank because it is so fire-resistant, which is just what we need here. I hope y'all will be pleased as well. The painters did prime it before they painted it, and that paint job has lasted almost 10 years, which seems pretty good to me.

I'm glad you've enjoyed Sungold and Black Cherry. My Black Cherries ( I have two) have been the most prolific ever this year. Most years, their production is light to moderate, but for us it has been heavy this year. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that they must like heat and drought more than they like cooler, wetter weather.

For us here in southern OK, eggplant usually keeps going and producing a crop until a very hard freeze. It seems like the hotter and drier it is, the better it does. I don't know why. The other year in which I stopped watering the garden completely (2006) eggplant kept on producing despite receiving virtually no rainfall or irrigation for almost 4 months.

I hope the "cold front" that's already arrived in some parts of Oklahoma gives our gardens a chance to recover and kick back into high gear!

Dawn

That makes sense Soonergrandmom about the Eggplants. I heard someone say something about covering them and a certain variety does better. I'll try buying the Pingtung Long. Thank you.

I know the lettuce needed more shade and cooler temps. Mine definitely are tall and have lots of seeds up top. I'll go chop them down like Annie suggested. They are not doing anything but supplying the bugs with something to eat. I just thought if I got rid of them the bugs would find something else to eat!!! (probably shouldn't think that way and should combat them) How do I save the lettuce seeds and reuse them? Can I use those seeds for fall?

Annie, why did you say only cut the tomato leaves BELOW the fruit? I did mostly that, but I occasionally also cut just above the fruit so that the stem wouldn't have to work for the stuff above the fruit that had gone bad. A couple of my plants I need to just take out I noticed, they are just in bad shape.

But I do need to do more fertilizing regularly. I have only done it once or twice, so I guess it's been like every 6-8 wks. They could use more. I am watering regularly now but wasn't early on and was getting lots of splitting. I ripen them all inside due to the pests.

I have asparagus too and don't know what to do with it? It's about 2 ft tall now. They were 2 yr old roots, and I don't completely understand how that works. I don't think I got any. I think they're suppose to grow out of the ground but all I see are twiney leafy stalks, kinda like thin ferny things.

One of my cantaloupe has a little eaten on the under side, I assume worms or something. Can I still eat it? (Can I at least use the seeds in them?) Should I take it inside? When do I know the cantaloupes are ready? They are green still with some stripes on them.

I will plant more small tomatoes next year like Dawn mentions so that if the heat comes I will still have tomatoes. A wise decision to cover all the possible weather conditions. My yellow pears and cherrys are doing great!

But how do I replant my tomato stems to make fall plants? Are the suckers only from the ground? Or can I use blooms too and bury them under soil? How much soil?
Should I use my seeds to replant for fall?

I am going to go out and buy seeds/plants for my fall garden. I want to try pumpkins for sure. I'd like to try Corn and Eggplants and Spinach? and Tomatos and Squash and Turnips and Beans and Broccoli and Cauliflower and Irish Potatoes (for the kids) and Onions and Peas (for the boys too). Oh, and I never seem to keep alive Cilantro but I'd love to try that too, maybe in a pot this time!

Wow, I've just listed alot. Man, where do I start. That will keep me busy! I might want to trim back if I want to see my husband any in there! hehehehe

Well, better get off this computer.

Thanks everyone. It's nice to feel the support, even though it's online. It's comforting to have your vote of confidence!

Robbie

OMG - Soonergrandmom - I dearly LOVE greek salads like you mentioned; I love tabouli so much I could eat it by the gallons. There is a good greek restaurant here in Oklahoma City called Zorba's....now that the best Greek restaurant in the state - The Greek House - has closed down after gosh, it must be 40 years they ran that restaurant in Norman, Oklahoma. They decided to retire and to return to Greece.

When I lived in NE there were lots of good Greek and Lebanese restaurants up there, too. Breads (pitas) were wonderful and hummus was to die for.

My mouth is watering now!

Garden is dry as a bone. I am still watering the front yard, but a lot of it is starting to look bad - I'm hoping we get some rain today and that we have seen the last of the 100+. My lantana is looking really, really good now, as is my verbesina encelioides (Golden Crownbeard) which the Monarchs love on their migration south - soon to be coming up! My fennel is about gone because I had so many little Black Swallowtails this year. I raised em all, too, because just too many predators out there. I caught one of those big ole red wasps with a baby in its jaws and just couldn't stand it. So, the fennel (I have 6 plants, all about 4-5' tall) is going quickly. They will eat Rue, which I have plenty of as well, if I have to transfer them to something else to finish up the season.

No, Dawn, not many hummingbird moths this year. I raised 2 tobacco hornworms (manduca sextas) on my datura, but nothing since. Nothing on my Virginia Creeper or my honeysuckle either - just checked them this morning. I'm hoping they come between now and fall.

So many lost plants in the backyard - just have to start over again back there. Last year was so wonderful and all my new treats got off to a great start. This year, they all died. Oh, well, that's the way it goes here.

Susan

Lisa - thanks for the beets link. The Garden-Partiers didn't have much nice to say about them, but I did find some recipes that look interesting, if not delicious.

We got .25 inches of rain today, which dropped the temperature from 90 to the low 80's, with fairly good chances of rain through the weekend. I hope this is a start of better weather for all of us.
Carol

Robbie,

If you need to refresh your memory on fall planting dates, I reposted them in a thread on the top of the forum page that starts out "One More Time...", I think. Assuming that our average first freeze occurs at the usual time, it probably is too late to start pumpkins from scratch. They take a long time to mature and should have been planted around July 1st for a fall crop. Eggplants should have been in the ground by mid-June for a fall crop, unless you find some REALLY large, REALLY healthy transplants that already have blossoms or small eggplant fruits on them.

This IS the week to plant sweet corn, though. If you want to plant something and the planting date is not listed in the "One More Time" thread of planting dates, let me know what it is you want to plant, and I'll find a planting date for you.

Remember, too, that if you are willing to take a gamble and risk being disappointed, you can plant a little later than the listed dates, but the later you plant, the less likely you are to get a crop harvested before the first freeze arrives.

I linked a map below with the average date of the first fall freeze. Keep in mind that it is the "average" date, and about half the time the first fall freeze is earlier, and half the time it is later. Since we moved here to southern OK in 1999, our earliest fall freeze was Sept. 30th, and our latest was Dec. 16th, so you never know what Oklahoma weather will do.

Also, the first freeze is not always a hard freeze. Sometimes you can cover up plants, get them through that first early freeze and then have a few more weeks of production before the next freeze arrives.

Susan,

I do miss the hummingbird moths. Saw one very large tomato hornworm on a plant a couple of days ago, so maybe we'll have a moth or two eventually. Nothing on my Virginia Creeper or honeysuckle either, except for a few grasshoppers.

We've had a Black Swallowtail or two this week, mostly on the Pickerel Reed in the lily pond....of course, it is so dry that not much else is blooming.

It is a dreadful year here too, with lots of plant death. It is so, so dry.

Carol,

When the rain arrived a couple of hours ago, it was mostly thunder and lightning, so guess what we got here in Love County? Rain. Oh no, not rain. A grassfire started by a lightning strike! We can't seem to get rain to fall, and we can't seem to prevent the fires from starting. Almost nothing has fallen at our house yet, but the thunder and lightning continue, so maybe some raindrops will eventually fall.

It is cooler.....when the clouds arrived, the temperatures dropped a bit, and that felt nice. It did rain a little on us at Thackerville AFTER the fire depts. pretty much had the grass fire already out.

I sure wish some REAL rain would fall....not the drizzly little stuff that evaporates before it reaches the ground.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma Average First Freeze Date Map

We had a drizzle that wasn't worth much to be honest. How disappointing!

Carol, I followed the link a little further. I'll post a direct link to the recipes incase anybody is interested....

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Beet Recipes

Lisa - I followed your original link to the nytimes page as well, and bookmarked it for future reference. The folks there are a bit more encouraging, although from the sounds of it roasting is the only way to go. We'll see, provided I get any beets...

Dawn - So sorry your rain fizzled out and the fires didn't. You're to be commended for all you do, but keep your chin up!

Carol

Susan, If that is the restaurant that I remember it was VERY good. It was very close to the OU campus and when we lived in Norman we would go there. We moved from Norman to Ohio, then to Ardmore. One day we were talking with friends about how much we liked Greek and learned that they also loved it. After that when either family would go to Norman, we would pick up take out, call when we left Norman, and meet at their house in Ardmore for Greek food. Almost did it enough times to become a tradition. LOL

Lisa, I like beet greens. I had never heard of eating the greens until I lived in Alaska. A friend had one of the great gardens in the Matanuska Valley (where they grow the huge cabbage) and we were looking around. She reached down and started thinning the beets as we talked. She said she was cooking them for our dinner. The beets were only about an inche across, so I thought, oh well. She trimmed off the beet and cubed it, washed everything and started putting everything in the pot. It was great, and I was surprised.

I am not a very good root vegatable grower. My favorite way to have beets is pickled, but I take the easy way out. I buy two cans of sliced beets. Pour off the juice. Mix one cup vinegar with one cup sugar in a quart jar, add the drained beets and put it in the refrigerater until the next day. Easy and good. You can add more beets to the same liquid and get a second time also.

Dawn, I am sorry that you didn't get rain. We had 1.81 inches on Thursday morning. They had gotten one side of my building sided, and had done the prep work on side 2. They got rained out on Thurday. We left in the PM for the OKC airport, then drove to Ardmore that night. It rained on us from about Purcell thru the Arbuckles. By the way, thanks for arranging that cool day for us. I had really been dreading that trip. We visited my 97 year old mother and took some pics of our 5 generations of girls. When we got home they had finished one more side of the building. I don't know if they will work again on Saturday or not, but if they don't, it will not be finished for awhile because they have their regular job to go back to next week. We just kind of hire them in-between jobs because we like their work.

Do people in your county pay for the volunteer fire departments. We pay $60 a year for coverage up here.

Robbie, I don't save lettuce seed. I buy a lettuce mixture, and it has many kinds of lettuce seed in one pack. It is cheap and I order a big pack every couple of years. I sometimes plant mache late in the year because it is very cold hardy and will last all winter with just a minimum amount of protection. It isn't like lettuce tho, because you only cut it once. It makes a little rosette and you cut the entire thing off just above the ground. It is not a common vegetable in the US, but I find that it taste wonderful in the winter when I am ready for something green.

There are certainly lots better gardeners on here to learn from that I am. All I can do is tell you what I do, not what is best. Some of these other folks are pros.

Carol,

We did get more rain overnight, sometime after midnight, I think, and it might have been much later than that.....and the fire pagers only went off once on Friday....at 2 a.m. (sigh). So, all in all, about 1/2" of rain, and we would have liked more, but are grateful for that half-inch all the same. There were numerous accidents on I-35 when our little smidgen of rain fell--cars were slipping and sliding all over the place. Apparently, everyone here has forgotten how to drive on wet pavement.

The half-inch perked up the lawn and flowers a little, but the result will be short-lived unless more rain falls pretty quickly. It is harder to perk up the veggies after two weeks of highs over 100 degrees, but a few days of rain might do it.

Our tempertures were MUCH better. I think we only went up to 93 today, but we were shopping in Denton where it was close to 100.

I bet a lot of folks got more rain than we did, and I'm happy for those who did. As much as we needed the rain, we needed the cooler temps. as much, or even more. At 1 a.m. it is 82 degrees here, and that's not bad for August.

Dawn

Dawn,
I was surprised to see you were giving up on your garden. I hate to hear it's been so dry for you. I am contemplating giving up my garden too. :) But not YET, LOL. I still keep hoping for some rain, so it will start making this fall. We only received 1/3 inch of rain in the whole month of July, and only 1/8 inch so far this month. Every time I water the garden, I say, "This will be the last time if we don't get some rain"! My garden is about fried! I'm still getting a few tomatoes, but not enough to put up any. The squash has almost petered out and my cantaloupes have bit the dust! Even the peppers are suffering badly. I planted three "second year" pineapple plants thinking I'd get pineapples this summer. They haven't done anything! I guess I should have left them in their pots and maybe we'd be eating pineapples by now. There is nothing better than a home grown pineapple! :) Oh well, maybe next year!
Dawna

Dawn, I have been gone. Got back Thursday evening. I had heard how hot it was in Oklahoma (while I was in Montana).

But I am shocked and saddened to read your first message. Haven't gone further yet to read the replies.

I really should be painting the exercise room, but am taking a break, and peeked in here.

I hope, you will not quit. You are such a valuable source for all kinds of gardening questions.

I also hope, it got cooler for you since you posted.

Moni

Carol,

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Ardmore.....we did arrange that one cool day just for you....LOL! Be glad you are not here today....it is currently 102 with a heat index of 108 and I have the hose running in the lily pond because it is down about 6" since the beginning of the week. We just came back from Ardmore few minutes ago, and there was little six-point buck in the driveway, making his way toward the garden. I guess he was going to eat anything growing out through the fence.

The half-inch of rain we got wasn't much, but our fire dept. hasn't been paged out to a fire today, so it must have helped a little. People here do not pay directly for fire protection, but the county gives each dept. some money every year--it isn't even enough to pay our annual gasoline bill, but every little bit helps. We do lots and lots of fundraisers and it is never-ending, you know. Our citizens are VERY good about supporting Love County's 14 volunteer fire departments, though, and we always appreciate that.

Dawna,

It broke my heart to stop watering, but I swore I wasn't going to run up an outrageous $350-per-month water bill like I did during the 2005-006 drought....remembering that all that water didn't even keep the garden alive then, so what's the point in doing it this year? Only a little over 16" of rain here this year, and I think less than 3" combined for June, July and August so far. Combine the drought with the long string of days over 100 degrees (it's been as high as 106 to 108 here with heat indexes up to 116 degrees), and the garden (and the gardener) just can't take it.

We've had lots of the usual hayfield fires started during either cutting, raking or baling, but its so dry that they have been burning lots and lots of acres per fire, instead of only a few. Lots of fires along the highways too, of unknown origin, but probably started by cigarettes thrown out of windows. I've spent as much as 10 hours at fires in one day, but usually only 2, 3 or 4 hours or so on most days. I'm just too tired. Between the drought, the heat, and the fires, the garden's just sitting there withering up and dying. It's OK, though, surely next year will be better. : ) Right?

Moni,

I bet Montana was wonderful!

Well, I'm not giving up on gardening permanently, just giving up on keeping the veggie garden alive this year.

Love County is in what the U. S. Drought Monitor terms a "moderate drought" and I believe our rainfall has been "below average", and sometimes severely below average, for 11 of the last 12 months. Our rainfall is roughly 10" below what it should be at this time of year. Even when rain does fall, we normally have severe drought conditions in July and August anyway, so without the "usual" rain, we are really hurting.

The garden has been very productive thus far....tons of big, huge, softball-sized onions, a lot of potatoes, zillions of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, a moderate amount of beans (less than most years) and I'm still geting okra, melons and pumpkins, although the plants look pretty bad at this point. Both our freezers are full and I have lots of onions and potatoes in the cellar. I'm still getting ripe tomatoes because the plants had tons of tons of green ones when I quit watering.

At this point, I don't have much time to garden. Fires are happening with a frightening regularity....mostly grassfires and a few of the larger wildfires, a couple of car fires, and one major structure fire (over 10 hours long) at a wooden pallet factory earlier this week. I've been gone to fires so long, or in town on fire business, or running to Sam's and Costco to get food and drinks for the 14 fire department's firefighters, that I wouldn't have time to work in the garden even if I were inclined to try to water and keep it alive. I've also been on-line designing and ordering custom safety vests, hats, and t-shirts for our fire dept., so lately its been all about the fire department. That's OK. The work the VFDs do is very important and I don't mind diverting "gardening time" to "fire department time" every now and then. I just hope it all settles down by next spring (we need rain and a lot of it between now and then) so I can start over with fresh plants in a new season. : )

What about y'all, Moni? Did you sell the house yet? Did you move? Somewhere in the madness of trying to survive the heat and drought, I lost track of what's going on with y'all. Let me know!

Dawn

house is not sold yet... hoping for the perfect buyer soon.

moved in early July.

Ran away from home... sort of, and still need to finish my journal from my latest bike trip.

Got the first coat of paint on the last room this afternoon, and hope to finish this up tomorrow.

I want space in my garage to put both cars back in.

Here is a link that might be useful: latest biking trip