Courtney,

If you aren't comfortable with the idea of adding kitchen scraps directly to the compost pile, you might want to check out vermicomposting (worm composting in an enclosed bin). Just google and check it out. Lots of city people who live in apartments love it. Worm castings are VERY expensive to buy, but the worms can turn your kitchen scraps and other stuff into great homemade worm castings for your garden.

The beans and buckwheat you are thinking of growing and tilling into the ground are commonly known as 'green manure' as they improve the soil about as well as adding animal manure. You can use hairy vetch.=, winter wheat, oaks and large radishes (the Daikon ones, I think) as cover crops too. I've linked some info on this for you. Growing these crops and tilling them into the soil OR going 'no-till' and planting right through them or into them is a very good land management practice.

And, Courtney, as much as you have done this year, I think maybe you can skip novice and go straight to intermediate gardener! It isn't how long you've been gardening that counts.....it's what you've done with the time that you've spent gardening, and you have definitely served your time!

As far as growing veggies you don't even like to eat.....welcome to my world! It turns out we are not alone--it is very common for vegetable gardeners to grow stuff they don't eat. Why? Because they can. lol Eventually you will try everything just because it is fun, and then you will begin to narrow it all down and grow only what you and your family really enjoy eating. Been there. Done that. I don't do it any longer!

Dawn

Courtney my pond runs 24/7 and I shut it down once a year to realy vacum and clean up. I tore it down this time because I am putting in a skimmer and that way I won't have to get in to clean the pump

I made it 3ft deep so the fish could stay in all year long I leave the pump running in the winter to keep the water flowing and to keep it from freezing solid
I have fish and water lily's in mine it is my quite spot I don't use chemicals in my pond and It is nice and clear it has a rubber liner in it but I agree with Dawn if you have small ones you need to have a fence around it or they shouldn't be out and around it if no one is there with them my granddaughter are always wanting to get in mine so they can't go out back unless I am with them

Dawn No I didn't no I could freeze them will start doing that today We been giving them away and still have a large bucket full and more to pick. Thanks for the link

Sandy Welcome

Well the pond is back together now I have to go through and see what lily's need to be repotted and start putting them back in. And pick some more tomatoes

good luck with your day everyone

Bessie

HI, Hank. I live in Stillwater, and the company that trims trees for the city will deliver a load of chips if you call and get on their waiting list. I get a load every year.

Dawn, I love the autumn clematis, too, but this year it has gone berserk. It is absolutely everywhere! It's much more intrusive than the trumpet vine in my yard. I always cut it way back in the fall. Maybe that makes it grow better.

Bessie,
I think we'll wait until my son gets a little older before I undertake a pond project. He jumps into any puddle he can find. He's also figured out how to get into the garage, hop in the car and push the remote to open the garage door, then come around front to ring the doorbell. Luckily, he loves to drive the dog nuts and he beelines to the doorbell after he "escapes". He got out yesterday while I was in the bathroom. Even if I try to tell him the pond would be off limits, I'd rather be safe than sorry and just hold off for a while. They are beautiful though, you'll have to post pics sometime so we can all admire it :)) (Don't worry, I've derailed his escape attempts by keeping the cars locked even when they are in the garage now)

Courtney

Bessie,

Every time you mention picking tomatoes, I smile and feel so happy for you. You had to go through so much cloudy, rainy, flooding weather and wait for so long and I know the waiting was SO hard....so isn't it fun to have tons of tomatoes now.

Pat,

My sweet autumn clematis has always just gone bonkers every summer too, to the point that I have had to prune it back from the doorway so we could get in and out the screened-in porch's back door.

It is in my absolutely WORST red clay soil---soil that is so dense that you cannot penetrate it with any sort of garden tool when the weather is dry. I assume this horrid red clay held too much moisture this year and the poor plant has drowned. I am going to plant another, but I will plant it in improved soil a bit farther away from the back door.

Enjoy your beautiful sweet autumn clematis blooms this year 'cause I am really going to miss mine!

Courtney,

I know that having an active little boy is SUCH fun! When you tell us his latest antics, it always cracks me up. My 'little boy' is 23 years old now, and is no longer as mischievious as he once was but your tales bring back such memories of his childhood.

The upside to having a grown-up son? As a rookie firefighter, he is learning FANTASTIC recipes from the veteran firefighters and he comes home and makes us an incredible meal about once a week. You can't be a firefighter if you can't cook......!

In the garden yesterday, I pulled out six or eight spring-planted tomato plants and replaced them with some fall tomatoes---Cherokee Green and Livingston's Paragon. I have been slow to take out the spring-planted tomatoes because they are still blooming and forming fruit, thanks to the prolonged cool weather.

Sixty-eight degrees and foggy here this morning. I don't know whose weather we are having this month, but I am loving it! We only have a July this cool about once every ten years, so we have to enjoy it while it lasts!

Dawn

Courtney Your little guy sounds like mine when they were young busy LOL that is why I waited till they were all grown before putting one in no way to keep them out when they were small
Here is a link to see it http://new.photos.yahoo.com/bblacksheep@sbcglobal.net/album/576460762404921334/photo/294928804435546114/1

Dawn Yes it is great to have to many I love giving out some to all the neighbors cause most are older folks and love getting them. And telling me how they used to grow some great gardens

The plants look terrible but are still putting on new tomatoes so I am just leaving them alone for now.
I have 1 cantalope on the vine and no pumpkins or watermellon so may pull those vines up soon

We are having temps in the low 70's at night and only mid 90's during the day can't remember it being like this by now it is so hot we can't even sit outside in the mornings
I have to say I am truly enjoying it

Bessie,
Your pond is BEAUTIFUL!!! I can tell you worked really hard to make it look so georgeous! It definately paid off!!

My little man is such a blessing. We didn't think that more kids would be possible, and then.... He's such a blessing. Part of our move to OK was so that we could afford for me to be a stay at home Mom. It wasn't possible for me to do when the girls were younger, although being home with then was the only thing I wanted to do. I love being home and raising my son. DH will mention from time to time that in a couple more years the little guy will be starting school and then we'll have the double income again, but I'm not so sure I really want that. I'm willing to give up driving a brand new car, and spending $150 at the beauty salon even couple months, so that I can be here when the kids get home from school and tell me about their day, and raid the kitchen for snacks.

You mentioned pulling out your pumpkin and watermelon becuase they weren't fruiting yet. I have been worngering about doing the same thing. Just when I start thinking about yanking them, they'll be full of blooms the next day, so I wait to see what the blooms will do, and nothing. I've tried to self pollinate, even though the bees are all over the blooms. On average, when do you see pumpkin and watermelon starting to fruit here?

Dawn,

My grandpa was a firefighter and did ALL the cooking at home too. Of course he was used to cooking for 20 or more people so he cooked HUGE meals for his 4 kids. My Mom learned from him, and hence passed it on down to me :)) We have leftovers every night of the week, which DH takes to work and feed lunch to a few of the single sailors that are living in the barracks. They love it, home cooked meals are hard to come by when you live in the barracks. I don't think they have a complete kitchen, it's a very small cooktop only. Microwaves are not provided. Poor guys, living off Ramen Noodles and fast food.

Courtney,

In a cool and cloudy year, melons and pumpkins often don't set fruit until mid-July to mid-August. If they haven't formed small fruit by mid-August I take the plants out, because fruit that form after that date probably would not have time to mature before the first fall freeze. Right now I have lots of blooms and small fruit, and a few almost mature pumpkins and half-sized melons.

How wonderful that you are feeding some of the starving sailors! They are lucky to have you there passing on your yummy leftovers!

For what it is worth, I quit my job in 1992 to do the whole stay-at-home mom thing and never once looked back. I like being at home taking care of the house, the yard and garden, the laundry and meals, the animals, etc. etc. etc. Once you are used to living on one income, it isn't as bad or as hard as some people think it will be. I don't mind the 'sacrifices' we have had to make, like driving older vehicles or not going on vacation as frequently. I do not think you will EVER regret the time you spend as a stay-at-home mom. The days, weeks, months and years fly by so quickly!

Dawn

Courtney Thanks it has been a lot of work and I am proud to say I did almost all of the digging and planting myself DH helped with the very last part and with all the rocks

I have never once been sorry for desiding to be a stay at home mom It is easy once get used to living on one income and not having every thing new It can also be a lot of fun looking for the best deal's on things instead of just going and buying I loved being home with the boys and taking care of the house and yard I also liked the idea of noing what the boys were doing when the became teens I sometimes think they needed me even more then

Dawn As always thanks I wasn't sure how long to wait before pulling them up so will give them a few more weeks

Bessie,

Every plant in my garden has behaved in a bizarre manner this year, so I have been leaning towards giving everything the benefit of a doubt and being more patient than usual. It is hard, though, when plants are not blooming and fruiting normally.

I agree with you, too, that sometimes kids need their parents even more when they are teens in high school and even during the college years.

Dawn

Staying home with the kids feels "natural" to me. I love working, and I was really good at what I did, but I don't miss it at all. I think all the kids like having me at home, of course the teens won't admit it, but having been one once, I know they like having Mom around.

Guess what I found yesterday!! Little baby watermelons! My youngest daughter was so excited. I think that's the first time she's seen something growing in the garden that she likes. I'm sure those little melons are going to be well looked after now. Still looking for pumpkins, but I just had another flush of blooms, so maybe soon.

Courtney

Courtney,

I'm glad you have melons and bet you'll have baby pumpkins soon too.

Sometimes it is hard to get good pollination. If, by chance, the little melons fail to grow, turn brownish-yellow and fall off the vine, it simply means that pollination failed to occur. There is nothing you can do to save the unpollinated melon if that occurs. However, blooming will continue to occur and you'll soon have other melons.

If you notice that you aren't seeing bees around your melon or pumpkin blooms, use a small artist's brush to transfer pollen from the male blooms to the females. It is best to do this early in the morning as the blooms are viable for only one day.

Once your melons begin to enlarge and grow, do not feed the plants and be very careful not to overwater them. Excess food and water cause whiteheart, which is white to light pink flesh that has no flavor. There is no way to know that you have whiteheart until you cut into a ripe melon. The first couple of years that I grew melons, I tended to overwater....so I learned about this the hard way!

My garden has finally dried out enough that the plants (well, the surviving plants) are starting to perform in a somewhat normal manner, and it is about time!

Dawn

Oh, I so envy y'all being able to stay at home! I turned 60 this year and I still work, less for the money than for the insurance. I probably could not get individual insurance because of some health issues I have. I tried once, and they wrote the policy, but they ridered out practically every organ in my bod, so I went without insurance for awhile. But I was about 10 years younger then. I enjoy my job most of the time, but I look out at my garden and see things I should do but haven't the time, and I long to be able to stay home. DH has degenerative arthritis but he keeps the lawn mowed with his riding mower and he waters. Doesn't pull weeds or plant or pick or dig, though. The weeds have been less of an issue this year because I've been mulching with grass clippings. but I noticed that my tomato vines all seem to be dying from the ground up. If DH mows when I'm not home and piles it up somewhere for me to carry to the raised beds and spread it out there, I notice the pile generates a LOT of heat! And the clippings about mid-pile turn gray and look like they're smokin'! Could I be baking my tomato plants by putting grass clippings around them?? If I put on about a 3" layer, is that too much at a time?

I tried taking cuttings of my tomato plants this year, as discussed in another thread, and it took only a week for 4 of the cuttings to make nice roots. I planted them this morning. Normally I would plant in the evening, but I was so tired yesterday from canning tomatoes all day. DH said it was supposed to rain all day today. It's cloudy at 10 a.m. and no rain yet. The other cuttings turned slimey in the water. I really can't figure out why some rooted so quick and some just degenerated. Maybe some varieties root well and some don't??

I had several plants come up volunteer. We made a new raised bed this year and I moved all the compost I had into it. So the seeds were from something in there. I thought it was cukes. BUT NO! It's cantaloupe! For the longest time it didn't make anything but flowers, but finally I have three melons on the vine! Nice little bonus from the compost heap.

We tried out that black landscaping cloth for the first time this year, between the raised beds, and it's working really well. It's kinda like closing the barn door after the horses have got out, because the Bermuda grass (or is it Johnson grass?? - I can never remember which is which) is already in the strawberry bed again. I cleaned it all out one day last month when the ground was wet and I got tons of long pieces of roots out. (The birds could be seen flying along with a long section of grass trailing along from their beak, LOL!) But now it's all to do over again. Before, we had put down some old carpet between the raised beds. It worked pretty good for most of last year. But this year I saw mold growing and of course it didn't let the water evaporate very well. Oddly enough, the grass had started growing right across the carpet and sending its roots down every few inches! I hate that darn grass. It's in my iris bed too. I'm afraid I'm going to end up having to dig up all my iris, then apply Roundup, and replant the iris after the grass has died. I just don't know what else to do.

I have learned so much on this site! Thank you to everyone who has shared their ideas and experiences! Some things I have been able to try this year, some are definitely in my plans for next year's garden. So everyone keep it up, I so enjoy reading what everyone's doing even though I don't always post.

Oh, I ordered some herb and cover crop seed from a website I found -- I'll add the link here. I got the seeds last week and they had little tips hand-written on the packages about when to plant, etc.

Hi Ilene,

This is just the time of year that tomato plants decline and die. With some of them, the issue is a disease like Early Blight or Septoria Leaf Spot. With others it might be numerous bacterial foliage infections spread by all the rainfall. If you have VERY sandy soil, it could be nematodes. Sometimes it is because of spider mites or more obscure diseases like spotted wilt or curly top. Often, I think, they have simply exhausted themselves and just weaken and die. It is a rare year, indeed, that ALL the plants from spring roll right on into fall without missing a beat.

I have kept about 15 spring-planted tomato plants going but removed most of the others and replaced them with new plants for fall. I STILL have about 30 more fall tomato plants in paper cups and nowhere to put them until I remove something else. Guess that's the project for this week.

I have been slowly planting fall replacement plants since June...replacing diseased or dying plants at first (in June) and now replacing 'declining' plants as soon as I harvest their remaining fruit. Some of the plants I got into the ground in June are almost 4' tall and have blooms and tomatoes. Others which went into the ground in July are only 18" to 30" tall but are growing well. The ones still in paper cups are cranky and want me to get them into the ground soon and I don't blame them.

I have similar results to yours when rooting ANYTHING from cuttings.....not just tomatoes. Some root and some don't. I kind of wonder if the issue is bacteria either on the plant, in the water or in the container. I always try to root twice or three times as many as I want to ensure I get the desired number of plants. (It generally isn't hard to give away the extras if 'too many' root.)

I love volunteer plants from the compst pile. It is always fun to see what you get from the volunteers. Some years I get some really wonderful melons, pumpkin and tomato volunteers.

I have used the black landscaping fabric in parts of my veggie garden with great success. Sometimes weeds sprout in the mulch on top of the fabric but they are easy to yank out since they can't root deeply. In areas where I haven't used it, I do still have LOTS of bermuda grass invasion problems. Every year I add black landscape fabric and mulch to another section of the garden and have less and less weed problems. It is my goal to cover a 4' wide 'path' all around the outside perimeter/fence of the veggie garden this winter with black fabric and mulch. If I can get that done, it will keep the bermuda grass a little further from the veggie garden. I don't know if I will EVER be able to get all the bermuda away from my veg garden and flower beds, but I keep trying!

Thanks for the link to Sand Mountain Herbs!

Dawn

What's been going on in my garden lately? Hmmm.....

Those tiny mint seeds that sprouted are dead now. I had them in a 7 inch clay flower pot. Kept the dirt moist and they sprouted there. One day I decided to put the pot out in the sun. As long as I kept them moist they held their own but one day I forgot to water them and it was all over. Those tiny little sprouts were nowhere to be found. Guess I'll start again. I WANT MINT!

The sage I'm trying to start from seed is doing absolutely nothing.

I planted some zinnia seed in a half whiskey barrel in full southern sun. They sprouted in 2 days and are coming along slowly. I'll remember to keep them watered.

I went out to water them this morning and got a little surprise. When I turned the water on my hose sprung a leak and drenched me. I store the hose on one of those metal hose hangers and it faces south and gets full sun. A couple feet of the hose was black like it had been burned in a fire and thats where the leak happened. I can't imagine the hose getting hot enough to burn like rubber on a metal hose hanger. The rest of the hose that lay across the hanger wasn't burned so why/how did this one section get burned?

Remember those four cuke plants? I had a couple glasses of wine and decided to cut the one plant that was producing all the cukes. WOW! Within an hour 80% of the plant just collapsed like letting air out of a balloon. Now I can see into the bush if you can still call it a bush, LOL. That sure slowed down cuke production.

The tomato plants stopped growing up but most all the fruit is still green. Guess I'll wait it out.

When I started my raised bed I used old carpet to smother the bermuda grass before getting serious about the bed. I moved the carpet off the bed and have been using it to walk on. Slowly but surely the bermuda worked it's way up through the carpet. I had a tussle the other day getting a piece of that carpet up. I thought I might expand my garden into that area some time and I didn't think it would be exactly 'organic' to grow stuff over a polyester carpet. No telling what chemical a rotting poly carpet would add to the soil. I'm going to rip the rest of the carpet up and try some of that black landscape fabric myself. I have noticed the density of landscape fabric varies with its price. I got some at a discount store and it was like only 25% as heavy as the roll I bought at a nursery.

That's all I can think of for now. Looking forward to some colorful zinnias soon I hope.

Hank

I spent most of my gardening time and energy this weekend pulling grass and weeds from my Swiss chard bed, which I had totally neglected. Does anyone else have selective vision when it comes to the garden? Certain things you just don't look at because you don't have time to deal with it at the moment. Boy, that sure got out of hand quickly - and it was not a pleasant chore. The mosquitoes don't bother me unless I stay in one spot for too long and start sweating. Then they are all over me. I have another bed where I keep trying to get arugula started but I keep forgetting about it and letting it get overgrown with other stuff. Arugula re-seeds like crazy and will keep coming back once it's established, but it's not as tough as I thought since it's not competing with the very tough weeds at the back of my yard. I also planted an Egyptian onion back there and hope I haven't lost it. I just ran out of steam before I got to it. Am sure feeling the heat now.

I was also discouraged to find that the Bermuda has already found cracks between the cardboard boxes covered by wood chips I put down just about a month ago near my deck. Dangit. I guess I'll have to use more layers next time.

Hank,

With a lot of herbs like sage, I have had the best result with winter-sowing them on the ground after a hard freeze has already occurred. Depending on whether or not they need light to germinate, I either surface sow them and leave them uncovered, or cover them lightly with a little sand or compost. They will sprout at whatever time is right for them, and when they are a couple of inches tall--usually in very early to mid-spring, I will transplant them to their permanent location.

To get mint started, I have had better luck with plants than seeds. If you plant one mint plant in a location where you DO NOT WANT IT, it will grow like crazy and spread like wildfire. Then you can dig up sprigs of it and transplant it to where you really want it. Seriously, plant it in a moist spot, like next to your water faucet or air conditioner unit and it will grow like mad and provide you with transplantable sprigs forever and ever until the end of time.

Could the part of the water hose that seemed burnt have been receiving reflected sunlight from a mirror or glass? Or, maybe it was actually dryrot? Or, does anyone park a car near the hose hanger where engine exhaust might have hit it? Or the heat from a grill? I have never seen a hose spontaneously ignite/burn, and I have several of those heavy-duty black hoses from Sears. They are on hose reels and remain exposed to sunlight and heat, but have never 'burnt up'.

Eventually green tomatoes turn red, so hang in there. (Well, unless they are the green-when-ripe type.)

Hi Pat!

I think you and I will be fighting bermuda grass for the rest of our lives, don't you?

I have had the best success against bermuda by first putting down 10 to 20 layers of newspaper, then several layers of cardboard, then the woven (not perforated) black landscape fabric, and then, FINALLY, wood chip mulch. Even then, the wily and evil bermuda does find its way into cracks between the cardboard and/or newspaper, or tries to grow in the mulch on top of the black fabric.

I just love Swiss Chard and I didn't get around to planting any of it this year even though I have the seed. I will have to make room for it somewhere next year.

I have been feeling the heat (and humidity!) as well, and have been trying to pace myself, although I spent about 12 hours out in the yard and garden on Saturday. Our mosquitoes are about all gone. I guess all the wild things have eaten them (and I am grateful for that!).

I do have selective vision with the yard and garden. Some areas get a lot more attention than others. I always find it easy to stay on top of areas I walk by frequently, but some of those areas that are 'out of sight' are often 'out of mind' too. Then, when I finally get around to weeding them, it is a real monster of a chore!

It has been trying to rain here today, but no drops have fallen...just lots of clouds, humidity and thunder. I sort of wish it would rain a little.....of course, we don't need another deluge!

Dawn

Hank, I've never seen a hose get burnt like that before! Could you still salvage it and use it as a soaker hose? Just poke some more holes all the way down the hose and cap the end of it. I plan on adding another bed along the side of the house next year, and I've saved an old hose that has a hole in it just for that reason. DH thinks I'm crazy saving a broken hose :)

The landscape fabric has helped in the back beds. I would guess that I only pull out 5 or 6 sprigs of bermuda a week. I will add that you get what you pay for with that stuff. We used the stuff that had a 20 year life expectancy. It was the most expensive, but very much worth it. We'd used some of the less expensive stuff in the past and didn't have much luck with it. The only weeds that seem to make it through the 20 year stuff I haven't ID'd yet. At first I though they were suckers and I had been pulling them out. They kept coming back. When we were gone for a couple of weeks, they had the opportunity to grow a bit and they are really coarse leaved weeds, with tendrils, and they seems to stay pretty low to the ground, vining out from a central spot. I have dug down about 12 inches trying to get all of the root, but they just keep coming back. Last time I hit them with Round up, and they came back! They grow underneath the fabric until they either tear through it or find an open spot. I WILL eliminate those boogers ~ someday!

Courtney

Courtney,

I save old hoses too! (Why buy a new soaker hose if I can turn a leaky old hose into a soaker.)

I agree with you that with landscape fabric you get what you pay for.....I only buy the good stuff now, having learned the hard way!

I put a few layers of newspaper underneath the black landscape fabric, and that helps keep the weeds from creeping up through it.

I don't really like using Round-Up, but there are times when it is a real lifesaver!

Dawn

I'm thinking about just trying some duct tape on the hose. Can't figure when it might have got burned though. Think it's just old and worn though. The only thing I used it in the front yard for was to water the zinnias I just planted in a half whiskey barrel.

I have something growing I haven't even mentioned before. I have about a 10 by 10 area in the front of my house between the porch and garage. For years the only thing that grew there was high grass and weeds. Sometimes what grows along the west side of the house creeps around through cracks in concrete into that little plot. Monkey grass grows like weeds on the west side and migrated to the front one year. But last year some wandering jew invaded the west side and this year it is three feet high and dense in that spot right outside my front door. First year I haven't had to cut that spot because it's usually just full of weeds but this wandering jew has crowded out everything else and gives me pretty little blue flowered to boot. It's looking like the heat may be starting to get to it. That plot is my eco-garden, whatever grows grows. If it's not pretty I'll just mow it down and see what pops up next. I'm hoping for another year or two of the wandering jew though. The baby toads seem to like that are no matter what's growing because it is usually moist from where the rain runs off.

Hank

Thought I'd revivify this thread to see how everyone's doing in the heat now. I can barely stand to be outside after 11:30 a.m., and then wait until around 7:00 p.m. to get outside again.

The butterflies and hummers are luvvvvvvin it! I have so many, it's like a remake of Hitchcock's "The Birds".

Plants that particularly love the heat are my lantanas, firebush, Cosmic Orange cosmos (the others wilt in the heat), zinnias, Sennas, Cypress Vine, Mexican Flame Vine, Hibiscus (all of them), Milkweeds, Passion Vines, and Morning Glories.

Of course, I have to water almost every day (the pots at least). I watched Paul James the other day and he was talking about how one should only have to water every 4 days, maximum. I'm thinking to myself, "Paul, don't you live in Oklahoma?" Some of the very well established plants can go without water for some time, but those that really like water and those that are new to even fairly new (3 years old), still like to have their dose of regular water. Especially the hydrangeas, the Spicebushes, the False Nettles, the 4 o'clock, the campanulas, the violets, stuff like that.

Of course, the drying winds do not help either. I found 3 baby Monarch caterpillars today, so I'm off and running with those, after raising about 60 Gulf Frits, dozens of Black Swallowtails, Pipevine Swallowtails, and Question Marks. The Red Admirals are still chowing down, too. I've started leaving a few cats on the plants because I don't have enough food for everyone - greedy lil things!

So, how's your garden doing? My maters are still producing faster than we can eat them right now, so I told my neighbor to grab some whenever he wanted.

Susan

The heat hasn't been bothering me too much. I'm still only running the A/C in the evenings (much to the teenagers dismay) :))) I get cold when the temps drop below 80, so this weather has been wonderful!!

I pulled a muscle in my back last week trying to pick up a toddler that didn't want to be picked up. That was the first time in my life I felt "old". I still managed to do some gardening, mowing and weed pulling, even though I was hunched over as if I had a severe case of osteoperosis!

I discovered that muscle relaxers don't work for me. The doctor has given me three different kinds and all three were like caffine pills and had me hyped up all night long! The worst part was that even though I couldn't sleep, I couldn't get anything else done either! It was too dark to garden, I couldn't clean or do laundry, about all I could do at 3 am, was lay on the couch and do crossword puzzles. I decided to do the "mind over matter" technique, and once I decided that my back didn't hurt anymore, it didn't hurt anymore.

Everything in the garden is doing well. I only have one watermelon growing right now. The little man decided to "hug" the other one that had just started. Let's just say it was "loved to death". Today I noticed a few pumpkins starting, and the maters are off to a good start also. I think I'm going to pull up the rest of the cucs this weekend and start some spinach and carrots. Those are things we eat, so maybe I'll actually have something make it to OUR table. LOL!

Does anyone have a good link to a weed directory? I have a couple of them that I liked so I let them mature, but I'd really like to know what they are. I ID'd Dayflower and Plains Coreopsis, and I think I found Chinese Lantern. It has the seed pod just like Chinese Lantern, it's low growing and has purple flowers. If it's indeed Chinese Lantern, I think I'll collect the seeds and plant them where I want them. There's a couple others that are kinda pretty, but before I let the seeds mature, I'd like to know what they are so that I can be aware of what their habits are, and prevent a future invasion.

Courtney

I'm harvesting blackeyed peas every few days. I only have about 10 feet of row, but so far I have about a quart and a half of shelled peas in the freezer. They seem to like the heat and are still blooming.

I got my Okra and squash seedlings in before the worst of the heat. I shaded them for a few days and now they are really taking off.

The white "moonflower vine" like a white morning glory is blooming. The Zinnias are still pretty, even though they are starting to get some mildew on them.

We have so many butterflies. The black swallowtail caterpillars are so thick on my parsley now that I'm afraid they will get it all eaten before they mature. Last month I cut some to chop and freeze, but found the eggs and baby caterpillars so I left them alone.

I canned some tomato juice this morning but I am about ready to pull up the vines. My favorite tomato this year was Marianna's Peace. It kept putting on tons of the best tomatoes I had ever eaten. I only had one vine of that variety but will make room for more. The Jet Star were disappointing but it was my first year for them and the weather wasn't typical. I will try them again.

I am trying to decide whether to try to preserve any more of my cayennes. I planted them because they were pretty, and they were so productive. I dried a jar full and the plants are still loaded. I don't know if it's worth the bother to try and pickle any.

Susan, I used to live in the 500 block of 48th in OKC, not far from Shartel. I had a nice little veggie garden out back. I planted apple trees out front but they were gone the last time I drove by. Are you old enough to remember Mother's Rock Shop?

Gayle

I don't remember that store, but I haven't lived in OKC all my life. I moved here in 1995 from Texas via Massachusetts via Norman, Oklahoma. Is that the Crown Heights area? Beautiful homes over there - too expensive for me on my own. I live just west of Classen in Putnam Heights.

Gayles, the butterflies are thick this year, and the BSTs are running everyone in the ground, there are so many. I am raising Pipevine Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails, Red Admirals, and Gulf Fritillaries right now, and I just found 8 MONARCH BABIES - YIPPEE on my milkweed. My yard is nothing but nectar and host plants, so it's kind of weedy. I am a certified Monarch Waystation and my garden is called "McKenna's Monarch Habitat" (for my granddaughter). We raised over 100 last year.

Darn - I wish I could grow that stupid moonflower. The last two years I planted the seed, nothing has come up! That's true with my Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower), too! My other morning glories are all up, but no flowers yet, except on Grandpa Ott's and a white blooming MG with dark green ivy-like foliage. I have a ton of Japanese MGs planted.

For the sphinx moths, I have datura and 4 o'clocks at least. I have tomato plants for the hornworms, but so far, all I've gotten are tomatos! It is Husky Cherry Red and boy is that a producing machine! Right now, I am getting about 10 cherry tomatos daily off of 2 plants. That's a lot for me and my daughter and granddaughter to consume.

Courtney, so sorry about your shoulder, girl! I don't like a lot of those muscle relaxers because they have caffeine in them - that's why you're staying awake. Ask your doc for something w/o caffeine.

Chinese lanterns are in the solonaceae family and you may find some sphinx moth caterpillars on them, so get ready!

Susan

Hi Y'all!

I don't do a lot outside on these hot, hot days....just a little watering, picking tomatoes and peppers, mowing and weedeating as needed, and pulling a few weeds. It is just too hot to spend a lot of time outside.

The heat-loving plants are looking really good right now, and I am always amazed at how much heat some of them can tolerate. The following are still blooming in our yard and garden: zinnias, cosmos, celosia, gomphrena, cleome, gladiolas, pentas, hibiscus of all kinds....the heat loving Texas Red Star and the swamp mallows too, morning glories, moon flowers, four o'clocks by the dozens in red, fuschia, pink, white and yellow, morning glories, sunflowers, scarlet runner beans, white runner beans, purple-flowered hyacinth beans, wax begonias (in partial shade), salvias, black-eyed susan vine, cypress vine, daturas, brugmansias, crossvine, cannas, trumpet creepers, verbena bonariensis, and some of the roses. Some of the foliage plants are looking pretty good in spite of the heat, including various ornamental sweet potatoes, caladiums and colocasias. The shade-loving coleus plants are about burnt up by the heat, though.

The desert willow and vitex are still in bloom.

In the meadow behind the garage/barn, we still have lots of western ironweed, greenthread daisies, cassia and lesser wildflowers in bloom. Goldenrod and the blue-flowered autumn sage are just beginning to bloom. The wild milkweeds have set their seed, and it is blowing around everywhere.
We have tons of dragonflies, butterflies and moths, and are seeing quite a lot of the night-flying sphinx moths.

The purple martins left on their journey south a couple of days ago, but we still have the hummers.

We are seeing a lot of bunnies and deer....they slip into the yard shortly before sunset and also shortly before sunrise. One of our heighbors says our yard is the best 'deer-watching' site in the neighborhood this year. The other night a friend saw 4 does and one spotted fawn nibbling at the edge of our garden, and she loved it....they don't have deer in their yard just a couple of miles up the road.

Susan, Almost all of my containers get watered twice a day in this heat....if I let them go 4 days in between watering, the leaves shrivel and die. I don't know what Paul James is thinking......

Courtney, I've linked you a weed website listing. The Noble Foundation website is actually my favorite, but you have to know the name to find the plant....and most people don't necessarily know the name and need to find the weed via a photo. It is not the website I linked below. If you want to go to it, it is: http://www.noble.org/WebApps/PlantImageGallery/Index.aspx.
I hope your back is feeling better.

Gayle, The deer are eating my okra plants and sunflowers as well. This is a battle I lose most years and probably always will until I double the height of the garden fence from 4' to 8', which is on my winter 'to do' list.

My Marianna's Peace is still producing but I have taken out about 80% of the spring-planted tomatoes and replaced them with new plants for fall. Some of the new plants are almost 4' tall now and are blooming, although I doubt those blooms will set fruit in this heat. However, once the weather cools off, we may have a really good fall garden. I still have tons of peppers, and a few melons and squash plants are still producing.

Susan,

Have you tried to winter sow moonflowers? Mine often self-seed and come back from year to year with no assistance from me, so wintersowing might work. The problem with moonflowers are those incredibly hard seed coats. When I am raising them from seed, I nick the knives with a kitchen knife and soak them in warm water before sowing them in paper cups....around the time of the last freeze. Moonflowers are just so cool.....when the flowers start to unfurl at the same time every evening, it is an amazing show. I just like to sit and watch them open up....and then, here come the moths!

I have had hornworms on and off all summer....not in the huge numbers that we are seeing swallowtails, and maybe not as many as some other summers, but we have had a lot of them.

I have tons of butterflies in the area of the water garden. They love the pickerel weed flowers. The waterlilies are still blooming----20 or 30 flowers a day in the small water garden pond.

Y'all---it is SO HOT. I am not complaining, though, because at least we have sunshine. Our humidity down here in southern Oklahoma has been in the 20s and 30s this week because it is so dry, so at least our heat index numbers aren't too bad....only in the 100 to 105 range. I know it is a lot worse for some of you. Stay cool and stay hydrated!

Dawn

Not much going on in my garden. Tomatos are ripening up slowly. I have 4 plants of Golden Jubilee and they are orange. I need to wait longer till I pick them though, they are orange on the outside but inside their is still some green. Some tomatos have pencil sized holes and are either all black seeded and rotten inside or have a fair amount of that damage inside. Don't know what's causing that. Cherry tomatoes are in the best shape but don't produce near as much as a regular size tomato plant with average size fruits. Feel like cherry tomatos are sort of a waste of time. Think I got my last cucumber today unless something unusual happens.

The heat doesn't seem to be bothering me much. I mowed my backyard the other day with a regular push mower during the hottest part of the day.

I stumbled onto a web site where you could look up the states rates for electricity. We have it pretty cheap here in Oklahoma comparativly. a couple states pay a dollar a decatherm less than us but many states pay over twice as much as us. I still just leave my AC at 80 degrees anyway. With ceiling fans it feels pretty good.

I don't have anything planned next but just don't want to miss garlic and onion planting time. I may try brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and brocolli for fall.

Hank

Dawn, yes, I've grown datura many times from seed. This year, I just have D. inoxia. Last year, I had the Blackberry Currant, or something like that, but I was letting it set seed and we got our first freeze - no seed. I'll have to order some more next year. I love the dark green/purple stems and foliage on the plants, and of course, the flowers.

Sorry I confused everybody - Paul said watering the flower beds, not pots, every 4 days. No, I have to water mine daily at a minimum. I'm talking about some of my flower beds, though. They need water more often than every 4 days, especially if I have new perennials planted just this last spring. And, some plants are just water guzzlers.

I got out early this morning to watch my 4 hummers - they are just too funny, the way they knock each other around. I love watching them. So many butterflies, Gulf Frits, Pipevine Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, Cloudless Sulphurs, Red Admirals, Silver Spotted Skippers, and other skippers.

Anyone know what those big dragonflies are that stay high up in the air just circling? I have blue dragonflies, orange dragonflies, but these are just a dark brown and very aerodynamic looking. What do dragonflies feast on?

Susan

Susan,

Oh, when you said moonflower earlier, I thought you were talking about the moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba). Were you talking about datura? This year I have datura inoxia and datura metel that self-sowed in truly horrible dry, sandy soil. My black currant swirl datura from last year did not self seed either, so guess I'll try again in 2008.

I don't know what the large dragonflies are that stay high in the air circling but we have lots of them here. There are over 5,0000 species of dragonflies/damselflies and I don't have a dragonfly ID book. Our larger, brown dragonflies circle in the same approximate area over our property that the purple martins do (or did, before they headed south last week), and I think they eat a lot of the same types of bugs: mosquitoes, midges, hoverflies, flies, butterflies, moths, gnats, and even smaller dragonflies.

I have noticed that since the purple martins departed, we have dragonflies in every-increasing numbers. I guess that the dragonflies will take up the slack and eat the bugs that the purple martins had been eating.

I am watering the veggie and flower beds a little.....just enough to keep them going....while I hope for some rain later in the month. I am watering the shrub beds around the house because one of them has new plants added to it this year and they dry out quickly when small.

In the meantime, the formerly mushy, mucky wet clay soil behind the garage/barn is now so dry that it has developed cracks about 1" wide. From swamp to cracking soil....in about a month. It is amazing how quickly it can change. I hope to spread a layer of compost/leaf litter/mulch in that area over the wintertime so I can start improving that clay enough that maybe we can get it to where it won't crack so much in the summer.

The ponds are losing a lot of water to evaporation and algae and duckweed are covering every square inch of water not covered by water plants. The ponds have been stagnant without a recent infusion of rainwater and look scummy, but the frogs, turtles and other critters don't seem to mind.

It was 100.2 degrees on my front porch around 3 p.m. today, with 30% humidity--our first 100 degree day at our house this year.

I am hoping for rain, but the long-range forecast doesn't look promising.

Dawn

But doesn't it feel great with only 30% humidity? I love it. I never did mind heat, just the darn awful humidity.

Hank

Hi Hank!

I agree that the lower humidity makes the higher temps feel pretty good.

Early this a.m., it was 73 degrees with 100% humidity. It was sticky. Late this afternoon, it was 100 degrees with 38% humidity. It felt fine. Funny how the drop in humidity makes it bearable.

Grass fires are increasing in number, but that is typical for us in August, no matter how much or how little rain falls in previous months.

Dawn

I have at least two hummers that I can keep track of. They are really funny, defending their territory and dive bombing each other. This morning I watched one sit still for a long time on one of the arches I have out in the garden for tomatoes. I was starting to think something was wrong with him, since I never see them sit still for that long. I finally decided he was guarding the feeder that hangs on the deck opposite where he was sitting. Whenever the intruder showed up, he was immediately on him. One thing I have seen this year that I haven't seen before is my hummingbird spending lots of time on the cucumber blossoms. I had no idea they were attracted to cucumbers. He also spends lots of time on the red zinnias, which are doing great this year.

Our hummers seem to have 'favorite' plants and they always go to their favorite type of plant first, then their 2nd favorite type next, then their 3rd favorite type after that, etc.

This year, they suddenly seemed to 'discover' the nasturtiums, which I have every year and which they never seemed to care for before. They spent lots of time at the nasturtiums in June, although their favorites are always the coral honeysuckle and American crossvine.

This year they have also shown a lot more interest in the pentas than usual, and in the vitex, which they only visit sporadically most years. The desert willow, on the other hand, has less visits this year than most.

I don't know why some flowers are more attractive to them some years than others.

Usually we are seeing a lot of hummers at this point as they migrate through. We are seeing some, but in smaller numbers. Maybe they are not migrating yet? I do see a few every morning and this week they are crazy about the morning glories.

I've just started noticing lots of activity in the last week or so. The trumpet vine and honeysuckle is probably what they like best, but I have been surprised to see them spend so much time on the cucumbers.

I really like nasturtium, Dawn, but some years are better than others. This year I tried something different - planting them with my tall red zinnias. That has been a great success, because the zinnias are providing a little shade now that it's kind of hot for the nasturtium, and the nasturtium help hold up the zinnias, which tend to get tall and fall over. I'm very pleased with the way that bed looks and even still have a few blooms on the nasturtium. Of course all that rain at the beginning of the season and the delay in the heat helped, too.

Dawn, What's Texas red star? If it is heat tolerant, I will plan on getting one for next year.

Susan, our neighborhood was north of Crown Heights. Smaller houses, although they seem well kept nearly 30 years later. I think the neighborhood got trendier after we left LOL. Our little rent house, around the corner from the one we bought in 1972, was only about 600 square feet. Is Putnam Heights the neighborhood behind Horace Mann School?

Mother's Rock Shop was a record store in the Paseo district back in the 1970s.

I had to start my moonflower vine three times before they took off. The nights were getting too cool for them and they grew so slowly the bugs ate them before they got going. Next year I will wait for warm nights. I soaked them overnight before I planted them, and germination wasn't a problem.

Here's a link I found to some heat-tolerant flowers.

Gayle,

Texas Red Star hibiscus is a native hibiscus that I have grown for about 12 or 14 years now. I have two of them.....one in the cottage border on the east side of the veggie garden, and another one that is near the arbor entrance to the garden.

Mine get about 5 to 6 feet tall, and have a spread of 3 or 4 feet. They die back to the ground during the winter and return from the roots in mid- to late-spring. They have large red flowers and laugh at the heat and dry weather.

I also have the common swamp mallow (white flower with a red eye) and the red-flowered halberd-leafed hibiscus. I also grow Red Shield hibiscus for its' foliage.

Sometimes I get Red Star volunteers from seed that falls onto the ground beneath the plant and sprouts, and every now and then I get a pink sport, although I haven't had one the last couple of years. Sometimes I don't get any seed at all, though, because some kind of little brown bug likes to eat the seeds before they mature.

Texas Red Star hibiscus might not be perennial for you, since it is a zone 7 plant. However, if you grow one, you can probably save seed and sow them every year....it is fast to grow and bloom from seed. Also, if well-mulched, the plant might resprout from the ground in zone 6B.

I've linked some info on it for you.

Dawn

People often mistake Texas Star Hibiscus for an illegal plant, until they see it bloom! LOL! I grew one for several years that got about 12' tall every summer. It was taking up so much room in my front bed that I gave it away. I regreted that because the Cloudless Sulphur butterflies (those humongous yellow ones) were mad at me and refused to enter the yard. I finally replanted one this year, and they're back again. Hummers love it, too.

Dawn, do you ever get seedlings from the Red Shield (I know it's an annual for me, but just wondered)?

No one ever responded whether they get self-seeding from tomato plants on occasion. I was so surprised that the Yellow Pear self-seeded this year! Especially after the winter we had.

My Husky Cherry Red is producing so many cherry tomatos from the 2 plants I have, that we can't keep up with them. I thought they would slow down in this heat, but, oh no! They're still going strong.

The butterflies are going crazy, I mean, C-R-A-Z-Y! I saw my first Funereal Duskywing today - such a pretty little thing! Right now, I have containers of Pipevine Swallowtails, Monarchs, and Giant Swallowtails. I'm leaving the Gulf Fritillaries to do their own thing because there are so many of them right now.

My Verbesina encelioides (Golden Crownbeard) is about to break into bloom, and so are the asters and mums - isn't it a little early? Things are off schedule and taking me by surprise.

Wow! I didn't know the purple martins flew south this early. I didn't see my hummers this morning and I hope they havent' left yet either. I usually see them every single morning at about 6:30 and off and on during the day. But, this morning, nothin'! They seem to like almost everything in the garden. One does sit on the tangled branches of the honeysuckle, right by the feeder, and warns the others off when they try to buzz in for a toddy. They are just too funny and cute!

Well, gotta go water.......

Susan

Susan,

Oops! I forgot to mention that the foliage of Texas Red Star can sometimes be mistaken for that of an illegal drug that some people like to smoke. I haven't had any problem like that here.....but every now and then a friend or neighbor will say "Do you know what that plant looks like?"

I never have had Red Shield self-sow. If it ever does happen, I will let you know. I do have a lot of plants that self-sow pretty regularly, including the following: morning glories, scarlet runner beans, black-eyed-susan vine, cypress vine, verbena bonariensis, four o'clocks, datura, celosia, cockscombs, zinnias, gomphrena 'Strawberry Fields', swamp mallow, Texas Red Star and halberd-leafed hibiscus (sometimes), veronica, poppies, larkspur, chamomile, catnip, basil, tansy, yarrow, castor bean, devil's claw, some gourds and pumpkins, and sunflowers.

I do get volunteer tomato plants ALL the time, especially in areas where I had any cherry tomato. If the seedlings come up in a place where I had Sungold, Ildi, Dr. Carolyn, Yellow or Red Pear, or Sweet Million, I will usually let one or two stay there and I usually get really good production from those plants. I don't usually leave volunteers in beds where I had beefsteaks or slicers as they seem less likely to come true from seed. If a volunteer plant comes up in one of the compost piles, I will leave it. This year I had a tomato come up in a new compost pile and it produced fruit like I usually get on Millionaire. It is still producing and is growing dryland with no irrigation in this heat.

Cherry tomatoes will produce endless amounts of fruit and the heat never seems to bother them. That is one reason I like to plant a variety of cherry tomatoes.....so I will always have plenty to eat and plenty to give away, even when the heat slows down the larger tomatoes. Most years, a healthy cherry tomato plant will produce fruit for me from mid- to late-May through the first killing fall freeze. If I am smart enough to pull up the plant by the roots and hang it in the tornado shelter before the killing freeze occurs, the green fruits on it will continue to ripen for WEEKS, thereby extending the harvest a little bit longer.

Everything that generally blooms in late summer to mid-autumn here is early this year.....the Golden Crownbeard, autumn sage, asters, goldenrod, etc. and it sounds like you are seeing the same thing there.

The purple martins are always our first bird to depart, as near as I can tell. After they raise their two broods of young, they abandon the birdhouses and live in the woods. I am guessing they do that to get out of the sun. Then, they return to swoop and fly and eat every morning and every evening (sometimes all day long on cool days) for several weeks. They usually leave us sometime during the last week of July. This year they stayed at least a week longer than usual. I think your hummers should still be there in OKC though. Our hummer numbers increase greatly in mid-August and stay heavy through mid-September. Sometimes a slowpoke or two is still around in late October, but most of the hummers are long gone by then.

I watered early this a.m., and have a soaker hose running in the backyard butterfly bed right now 'cause I haven't been watering it and it is VERY DRY. It is so hot today. I hope that tropical storm Erin roars into Texas and sends moisture all the way up here to Oklahoma, but doubt we will be THAT lucky.

Seeing more snakes these last few evenings. I guess they lie low all day and start moving around near sunset.

Stay cool!

Dawn

Thanks for the info, Dawn. I went out and cleaned the feeder this morning and refilled it with fresh food (which I've been doing about every 3-4 days). This afternoon I glanced out the window and there they were. I guess they just slept in this morning! LOL!

Things that self-sow for you pretty much do the same for me: cleome, nigella, borage, agastache foeniculum, zinnias, cosmos, salvias, verbena bonariensis, senna bicapsularis (Christmas Cassia), Black-Eyed Susan, coneflowers (regular ole purple ones). Many that I wish would NOT self-sow are perilla - geez I hate that stuff. I've been working really hard to try to pull it out this year so I don't get any reseeding. Of course, there is some that will probably lie dormant and come up for years with my luck! Hee Hee! Also, Northern Sea Oats - it is everywhere! I even had tropical milkweed self-sow this year a tiny bit!

It just seems weird to me that tomatos reseed. I never knew that. I've been watering this little plant and maybe it will produce some tomatos in the fall. As I recall, this Yellow Pear didn't do much last year until the weather cooled off. Meanwhile, we are happily gulping down the cherries! LOL!

The Miss Huff lantana has really taken off in this heat. It's about 2' tall, but about 4' wide, and will get much larger eventually. I accidentally knocked off a shoot the other day and just stuck it in a jar of water with caterpillar frass in it, thinking I'd grab it when I went inside. Well, I forgot - nothing new there. It had wilted badly. I saw it today (one of those, "and I coulda had a V-8 moments!), and it had perked up and is happily thriving in that water. Of course, caterpillars are vegans, so I don't know if that helped the shock of the hot weather and being torn away from it's mother plant or not, but I may try it again just to see!

A lot of people use their caterpillar droppings as fertilizer in their potted plants. It's really good for them. I've used a bit here and there; certainly doesn't burn the plants like fresh manure would.

I just haven't had ANY hornworms this summer yet. My one Walnut Sphinx eclosed and was gorgeous as an adult, and I have one still eating the pecan leaves.

My sunflowers that used to be beautiful now look bedraggled and brown. However, the House Finches love to partake of the seeds in the early a.m. Don't see them as much the rest of the day, but they are jubilant in the morning when attacking the seedheads. Most of the birds seem to be taking shelter in the shady backyard, coming down from the trees just long enough for a sip of water from the birdbath, or if I have the sprinkler on, they like to take a bath, especially the Robins, Cardinals, and Blue Jays.

I don't see much bird variety here, but I have lately been observing a large hawk or something circling the sky as if waiting to find a target. He's out there every morning, so I'm wondering what he has found in the area to feast on. Hmmmm.

Well, best be off to feed the 'pillars and fix dinner. Gotta watch the finale of 'So You Think You Can Dance'!!

Susan

Susan,

It just seems so strange to me that you are not seeing any hornworms this year. Maybe too many people in your neighborhood have used Bt this year????

We have mostly had tomato hornworms, but have also had a few tobacco hornworms. I noticed today that another tomato plant had been totally stripped of its foliage in that hornworm way......but couldn't find the rascal so perhaps he or she has pupated.

Every fall, usually in September, I will see hornworms crawling across the road to get from one pasture to the other. Usually I see them when I am out walking the dogs. I guess the ones in the road are feeding on purple nightshade or something else in the fields? There's no tobacco or tomato plants in the fields where I see them crossing....unless they are going to crawl across 1/2 mile of pasture to get to our tomatoes.

Most of my sunflowers have had it too. Some still have bloooms but the foliage is brown and looks awful. I am hoping the cooler weather and possible rain we're expecting during the next few days might help perk up all the plants a little.

Gotta go walk the dogs, so talk to you later.

Dawn

I decided to water my tomatos tonight. The leaves on the plants have been drying up near the bottoms of all the plants. I mean dry like you can crumble them between your fingers if you can reach them. I also went in with a pair of scissors and started cutting out the dead stuff. Now I can see through the plants again. We'll see what happens next.

I'm not getting many good tomatos. The plants, stems, leaves and fruits have tiny black specks on them. I don't think they are bugs though. They don't squish when rubbed between my fingers. As the fruits ripen many of them get soft spots that looks like rot of some type, others get this pencil size hole in them that looks like the scaring on the tomatos that split a little. Some have a small surface spot and others bore into the meat of the tomato. Looks like a worm hole but without finding a worm. What's with that?

Hank

Hank,

I have had alot of those too, with the wholes but no worms, I figured it was from a worm, and the worm moved on. I had some split open on the scaring too though. I found 2 tomato horn worms on one of my Fall Brandywine Suddath's Strain, they had eaten almost every leaf. I had the black specs on some of mine too, the Serenade spray seemed to control it pretty well. I think Dawn said the baking soda and water spray worked for that too. I think you can find the serenade in alot of Walmart's, I had to order mine online from planet natural. What bothered me the most was alot of tomatoes didn't get very big, which were suppose to be 8 oz. to 1 pound, like the Boxcar Willie, Old German, Black Krim, Mr. Stripey the plants didn't get very big to begin with, then the tomatoes were very small. I think I was watering them too shallow and frequent. Good luck with the black speck. Sheri

Hi Hank,

Without seeing the black specks, it is hard to know what the might be. The soft specks might be stink bug damage, if you are seeing stink bugs. The stink bugs 'sting' the plant and the site around it discolors. Black specks and softness together might indicate a bacterial speck or bacterial spot problem. I have linked the TAMU tomato problem solver website for you. If you find a photo that matches the damage you are seeing, it will tell you what you have. If it is anything that is bacterial or viral, Serenade might help and wouldn't hurt. If it is stinkbugs, I don't have a solution for you there except that maybe the stinkbugs will move on or reach the natural end of their life cycle.

Sherri, The size of the tomatoes is obviously affected by how much water they receive, but also by the fertility of the soil and the timing of the bloom/fruit formation. For me, fruit that forms in May and early June is the fruit that gets the biggest. Fruit that forms later obviously forms under more heat stress and cannot attain the larger size. Sometimes, fruit that forms from August or early September blooms will also give you large fruit if the autumn is long and mild.

For what it is worth, people who live in climates with milder summer weather always get larger fruit than we do from the same plants....that's the breaks!

Dawn

Thanks Dawn, I check that site shortly.

A more likely culprit than the black specks is a caterpillar I first found in my front yard where I planted some zinnia seeds. I noticed some leaf damage then saw a brown green inch and a half caterpillar. Squished it but later in the evening while checking my tomato plants I found one climbing on one of the stalks. Squished that one too. All green goo inside. Problem is for all the tomatos with holes in them I haven't found any more caterpillars.

I'll keep looking today.

Oh, oh! I have an odd group of bees around my plants so far. A couple regular honey bees, a brown wasp, a hornet and a big ol bumble bee. I spotted the bumble bee yesterday afternoon then saw something out of the corner of my eye. I thought wow that's a big bee when I caught a better view it was a hummingbird that just momentarily stopped by a cucumber flower then zipped away in an instant. Doesn't make sense but it was rather exciting and somehow fulfilling.

Hank

YEAh!!! wE HAD RAIN! It only rained for a few minutes, but hopefully the grass will soak it up and love it!! We put down some Nitrogen last weekend, and my plan was to mow the lawn after the kids get home from school today. The bus is due to frop them off in 30 minutes, and it just finished raining. Bummer ~ Maybe tomorrow.

My daughter and I were able to "capture" a BST cat right before it pupated. It was awesome! We woke up the next morning and it had pupated on the lid of the zip-loc container. Susan, if you read this, how long before I can expect it to emerge?

Nothing much has been going on. I had planted some Roma Tomato seeds, hoping for some fall tomatoes. THe little man decided that I really didn't need that dirt in the pots, and dumped them into a flowerbed, so now I have 10 inch tall tomato plants sprouting in the flowerbed. I considered moving them to the garden, but they are right next to the balsam, which has been attracting TONS of bees, so I decided to justt wait and see what happens.

I had also grabbed one of the "berries" off of the Duranta and potted it, just to see what would happen. He dumped that pot also, and I think I may have a seedling starting. It's a little too soon to be sure, there's only one pair of leaves, but it doesn't resemble any of the tomato plants, or anything else that I started from seed this year! If it is the Duranta, that will be potted and moved inside for the winter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I love that candy smell :)

The Hummingsbirds are getting braver here. I had one couple up about a foot away from me the other day. It was right in front of my face and just hovered there for a minute checking me out. I think it was trying to let me know that I need to get more food for them. I haven't put out a feeder yet, but I think that was what he was asking for.

Hope everyone gets a little shower of sprinkles today. No more downpours are needed!

Courtney

Only the very lightest of sprinkles so far today, and they didn't last long at all. It is thundering outside, though, so I am hoping that means rain is imminent.

I did water the volunteer pumpkins that sprouted outside the guinea/hen house and pen and have been climbing the fence that encloses the pen. Because the pen is built like a hoophouse with a 10' tall 'roof' made of poulty fencing/bird netting, we have 2 pumpkins growing up there 10' above the ground, so it will be interesting to see how they do up there.

I need to run outside and pick some tomatoes while it is nice and cool, and not yet raining.

I also need to mow, but think I will probably have to do that tomorrow since I think we are about to get rain.

I did get my 2007-2008 HPS catalog and, of course, there are the seeds of many old favorites in it, and a lot of new ones that are making me drool, including Petunia 'Baby Duck Yellow', Nasturtium 'Caribbean Crush'(seems to be a sister to 'Caribbean Cocktail' and has more yellow in its swirled colors) Zinnia 'Aztec Sunset' (2007 Fleuroselect Gold Medal Winer), and California Poppy 'Raspberry Fool', among others.

So, while it rains and rains this weekend (I hope), I probably will go through the catalog and make a huge 'wish list' and then go back and edit and re-edit it over and over again until it is a reasonable length and also an affordable one.

Because HPS is always the first catalog to arrive for NEXT season, I wear it out. By ordering early from it, I am then ready to start some biennials in late autumn, to winter sow some seeds, and even to start some things inside under lights in December. Then, when the other catalogs come in December, I can look for other new treasures and don't feel like I need to 'hurry up' and order, 'cause I already have some seeds started.

The butterflies are thick here today. I guess they are enjoying the cooler air and the cloudy weather. We've enjoyed the August sunshine, but appreciate a break from it too. We've been seeing more bluebirds lately, so they must have had a good year as far as successfully hatching and rearing their young. Our bluebird population is really eratic.

Grasshoppers and crickets are everywhere, and we are seeing more and more sphinx moths out nectaring in the late evening and early morning hours. The flowers that are blooming are doing great, but only because they're being watered a lot to help them through the heat.

Hank, The caterpillar was probably a tomato fruitworm. I've been seeing some of them, although mostly I have hornworms.

Courtney, Hummers can be quite agressive. We have one that likes to sit on the telephone wire and watch the two hummingbird feeders so he can chase away anyone who tries to go to either one of them. (One is in front of the house, the other is in back.) He's a greedy and territorial little guy!

I hope you get more rain to water in that nitrogen.

Dawn

Heehee, Dawn, one of my hummers sits right on one of the branches of the honeysuckle that curves down about 2' from the feeder. Sits there most of the day and anytime another hummer tries to take a sip at the feeder, it dive bombs the intruder and then takes up residence again on the same branch! They are too funny!

Courtney, your BST should eclose (or emerge) as a butterfly in approx. 10-14 days. Make sure it has enough room so that when it emerges, it will have room to hang to dry and pump fluid into it's wings. Is the container it's in deep enough that it can do that? If not, you can prop the lid on it's side (make sure it's secure so it won't fall), so there is at least 4" below where the chrysalis hangs. When it emerges, the wings will look all crumpled and wet, but they'll straighten out soon enough. It may hang for a couple of hours while it waits to thoroughly dry, and for its probiscus to merge into one tube (it comes out as two parts and the two parts merge and seal to make one tube for nectaring).

I'm having tons of milkweed beetles (the red/black ones that eat the seed pods)...GRRRRR. I bet I squished about 10 of them this morning. A few were mating, so I tried to check the foliage and did find one batch of their eggs - squish again!

A friend is bringing me Spicebush Swallowtail cats tomorrow! Yippee! I have two lil Spicebushes in the backyard to feed them.

Monarch cats are not doing well in the heat. I found 9 and am down to 3. So, I'm not going to bring them in for awhile. Seems the temp changes are detrimental to survival of the cats.

I have tons of Husky Cherry Reds! We can't eat them fast enough. The flavor is very good, too.

The lavendar is perking up now that it's hot. I have some gorgeous Morning GLories blooming. One is Rose Silk, and the other is Chocolate, and one is a purplish blue with white edges. Some of these are Japanese MGs and I can't begin to pronounce or remember the names.

I hope we get some rain today, but so far, we have had about 3 sprinkles in OKC.

Susan

Susan I just noticed your post about the hawk. Is it sort of a light grey? Likes to face the wind and seem to hang motionless in the air like a kite? If so it is a Mississippi Kite. I love them, although I hear they can get aggressive if they have babies.

What is HPS?

I did get my 2007-2008 HPS catalog

Hank,

HPS is Horticultural Products and Services, a division of a large seed conglomerate that is based in Randolph, Wisconsin, and includes these seed companies as well: Totally Tomatoes, R. H. Shumway Seed, and J. W. Jung Seed.

HPS sells high-quality seed in larger quantities and is, I suppose, aimed more at commercial growers OR at people like me who have a lot of space and raise large quantities of plants. I like to order seeds for good, reliable garden workhorses like zinnia, cosmos, cleome, poppies, nasturtiums, hollyhocks, celosias, larkspur, etc. from them because I grow a lot of those plants. Most of the seeds offered come in quantities numbering in the hundreds, although there are a few packets with only 50 seeds.

They always ship promptly and their seeds are in high-quality packaging that helps keep them fresh. I always have extremely high germination rates with their seeds.

As a bonus, when the catalog arrives in mid- to late-summer, I get my first glimpse of the following year's AAS winners and Fleuroselect Gold Medal Winners. (In the recently-received catalog I see 2 of the 2008 AAS winners----Osteospermum Asti White and Eggplant Hansel Hybrid, and one of the 2008 Fleuroselect Gold Medal winners---Monarda 'Bergamo'.)

They also sell all types of seed starting supplies, including seed flats and inserts, Jiffy Pots (minimum quantity is 100), Jiffy Pellets, and nursery-type plastic pots. They also sell Pixie Stakes for many of the seed varieties they offer. (Pixie Stakes are the little plastic info cards that come in plant containers and give basic ID and plant info.)

The HPS catalog always arrives in mid- to late-summer, just about the time I am sick of the heat and the bugs, am longing for cooler weather, and am ready to start paging through seed catalogs, making plans for 'next year'.

Dawn

Barton - it's too high up in the air for me to identify any specifics about it, but I am assuming it is BIG! I just don't expect to see hawks right in the city here. That's why I was wondering what the heck it is doing!

Now is the time I wish I had some binoculars, but that's on another list of things in the future.

Boy, Dawn, I can relate to being ready for fall now. But, I always am in August, so that's not too surprising. I really would like to get some sasafrass seeds. Anyone have a tree near by? They are just so temperamental about transplanting them, that I think I will try direct sowing them.

I don't plant enough veggies (wish I could) so generally I don't get seed catalogs until December. I do get a few catalogs for bulbs this time of year, and some nurseries that sell a reduced number of plants for fall planting.

Susan