Whew, have we cooled off! Now 9:30 and only in the low 50's according to our atomic clock/thermometer....only 48 by AOL weather. Supposed to be 41 tonight! Looks like our planned wood splitting session today is not a bit too early. We have been delayed this year due to an excess of "other" projects and am beginning to feel pretty uneasy with the woodshed only having three ricks in it (6'x14"x7' ). Last year we used 7 of the 10 that we stored. So, we have a way to go. We are using some nice big red oaks that have fallen on the farm this year. Guess they must have some type of disease as they look entirely healthy one day and just keeled over to reveal NO roots. Amazing and a trend that I hope does not continue though it provides us with a nice wood supply for the moment. My favorite little Gray Japanese Banty came off her nest with 5 of the very smallest, little, black, puff balls on Tuesday. Had been hoping that she would hatch some of this setting as an earlier try produced no viable babies. Swept out and washed down the walls of a new "room" in the ancient hen house, put some bedding on the floor and installed her with the babies immediately. Last night we put a heat light in there for her....spoiling her a bit, I know, but she is the sweetest little thing and the only hen of that breed that we have. Sure hope some of the little ones are hens! Am busily gathering and collecting seeds from my zinnia bed. Had thought we would enjoy having some for cutting and we have.....will have a bigger patch next year. They were the most productive part of the garden this year due to our extreme temps and drought in July. We still have a considerable amount of brush hogging to do but have been beset by rains that have kept the undergrowth green and moist. After July passing without a drop of rain here it seems bizarre to have to postpone so things can dry out. Sure is great hearing what everyone is doing at this time of year....you all will hopefully keep us "on track". This is just our third Fall on the farm....moved here in '03 after living in SW Florida for 24 years. Love the change of seasons and being back "home" again but we are kind of out of practice in the "getting ready for winter" department!

Hmm, worse than a drummer next door? Someone I know had a bagpipe player next door. Now I happen to like bagpipe music but it's not everyone's cup of tea. And even I would not like to hear it next door in a close-built neighborhood. My own experience is that rust is a problem that is worse in spring and fall. In the midst of summer only susceptible roses seem to suffer from it. I do remember though that on the El Niño year about 10-12 years ago, all the roses had it, pretty much all summer long. It may just be that you are experiencing a local pocket of rust-inducing conditions this year. Someone twenty miles away may not have the same things going on that you are. Rosefolly

Pam, "My" recipe is just my adaptation of Al's 5-1-1 mix from the Container Forum. I've tried to tailor it to the kind of conditions I have here, as well as to my wish to largely avoid peat as much as possible. I even vary what I put in it and in what proportions depending on whether I'm expecting a year that is wet, dry or average. For example, if we were expecting an El Nino spring with heavy rainfall, I'd mix it so it drains better but if I was expecting a drier year, I'd add coir to help it hold moisture. When it is very hot and dry here, even 20-gallon and larger containers often need to be watered twice or three times daily in hot weather so my container plants suffer in a dry year if the mix drains too quickly. As far as the ProMix, that's a lot of peat. If I was going to grow regular plants in it, I'd add pine bark fines for sure. If I was growing acid-lovers like blueberries or azaleas, I'd still add pine fines, but less of them. I can only dream of growing anything here that likes acidity because my soil and water both test at about 8.2 to 8.3. I can modity the soil and lower its pH pretty easily but not the water, so I don't grow anything that prefers highly acidic conditions. Peat is so peculiar. When it is wet, it can hold moisture forever, and that's what I don't like about it. And, when peat gets really, really dry it is hard to rewet it. In climates where the weather can swing from dropping several inches of rain in a few hours to virtually no rain at all for weeks or even months, I feel like mixes that have a heavy peat component underperform compared to mixes that have only a moderate amount of peat, or no peat at all. I do agree that pine bark fines improve any mix heavy in peat, and would drastically improved most any mix you can buy. The heavier peat component in starter mixes is necessary for great drainage, but I don't like that heavier percentage of peat for growing plants beyond the starter stage. Pine bark mulch seems controversial in terms of being used in a veggie garden and I suppose it might not be helpful in every situation and every climate. However, I have used it in years when I couldn't find much hay to use as mulch, and I loved it. It looked wonderful, didn't wash away in heavy downpours and didn't cause me any problems. I read a magazine article once that I think was written by a Texas gardener who was coping with high clay content...as in almost pure clay. Defying the conventional wisdom, he routinely rototilled huge amounts of pine fines and pine mulch (the smaller pieces, not the gigantic ones) into his clay and had huge improvement in a pretty fast time frame. He didn't even state whether he added additional nitrogen to compensate for whatever nitrogen is depeleting as the bark decomposes, but he had enormous soil improvement and was very pleased. His article made me smile because I had started adding some pine mulch to my soil about 3 years before and hadn't noticed any problems and also had huge improvement. For me, the amazing thing is how fast the mulch rototilled into soil breaks down. If I rototill it into soil in January or February, it is largely gone by the following winter. Only a few pieces that were larger than average to begin with will remain a year later. I started adding the pine mulch because so much of my compost was disappearing every year (as the old saying goes, "heat eats compost") and it seemed like I just couldn't add enough to the red clay to fix it. And, I should add, that my red clay is flower pot clay---I believe I could wet it down and work with it and make flower pots---so it takes massive amounts of improvement to make it workable. I wouldn't necessarily add pine bark to fairly normal soil. Having never had fairly normal soil, though, I use lots of pine. This year I added vast amounts of pine fines and humus to one 8' x 4' raised bed that had amended clay that just was not well-amended enough for potatoes. I then immediately planted the potatoes. That was probably in late January or very early February. Those potato plants are growing incredibly well and are about to flower. By contrast, the four long rows of potato plants planted at the west end of the main garden are 1/3 their size and a lot way from flowering. Those were planted in an 8" deep trench and I covered the seed potatoes with a couple of inches of soil, and then continued to add soil as they grew until the trenches were filled in. It really isn't even fair to compare the performance of potatoes in a raised bed to those in grade-level beds, but it is such a striking difference that I cannot believe it. I do think heavy, heavy rain that filled those trenches with water for several days likely had a negative impact on the potatoes and slowed them down. Clearly I need to add a gazillion tons of pine bark fines and compost to the west end of the veggie garden before next season. It is a sandier-clayier loam than the rest of the veggie garden, but no matter how much compost I add to it, it still seems like it isn't as improved as the heavier clay. I usually grow either sweet potatoes or potatoes there, but then find the soil rock-hard at digging time. It probably is the least-improved soil in which I grow veggies because it started out in better shape than the clay, so I kind of ignored it and didn't amend it nearly as much. Now that the rest of the soil is so much better than the west end, I need to work on the west end a lot to bring it up to speed. Susan, I'm sorry you couldn't get the soccer goal. That would have been so perfect. I find so many interesting things at garage sales that can be used in the garden. I got a wooden ladder for $3 once, painted it a medium purple, and now grow purple hyacinth beans on it. It is just the coolest-looking thing when you see only hints of the purple ladder peeking out through all that bean foliage and flowers. Mommyrosalyn, You're welcome and be sure to let us know what you end up with and how they do for you. That's how we all learn from one another. I did forget to list one favorite (not hard to do when you have 100 or 200 favorites) that doesn't get a lot of attention but which does produce very well in our climate, and it is one called Fantastic. There's also an improved version of it called Super Fantastic. I actually prefer Fantastic, which I have to raise from seed myself because I usually don't see it in stores, but I see Super Fantastic in stores pretty often. When you are tomato shopping in chain stores or nursery chain stores watch for tomato plants from Chef Jeff. That particular line carries oodles of heirlooms. However, if you can shop at The Tomatoman's Daughter or at any of the festivals where Duck Creek Farms sells heirloom tomato plants (see link to Duck Creek Farms website below---their schedule of farmer's market and festivals is available there), then any variety they sell likely would please you. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Duck Creek Farms

I know how all of you feel who did not receive rainfall yet in July and who are suffering from severe rain deficits this year. Last July we did not receive any rain at all, and it was much hotter then than it is now. It was horrible. I hope rainfall relief arrives soon. Carol, That's the driest I've ever seen it in your part of the state and Scott's and Dorothy's as well. Y'all are having my typical drought conditions, but in an area used to a whole lot more rainfall than my plants ever dream of having, even in a good year. I would imagine that makes drought much worse for your permanent plantings since they are used to abundant moisture most years. Heather, I've noticed your area, and the Norman area as well, are incredibly dry this summer. Scary dry. You doing ok there? I cannot imagine being pregnant in this heat, and I hope you're staying inside and staying cool and comfortable. I thought I'd throw in this comment since mosquitoes often follow rain. Yesterday the local news media reported we had a confirmed case of West Nile Virus in Carter County. The woman was treated and recovered. She was lucky. They've already had some WNV-related deaths in the D-FW Metroplex this year, where the WNV is at what they are calling almost epidemic levels. Since I am closer to DFW than OKC, I've been following the WNV progression very closely as it has moved our way. The Carter County case was the eighth WNV case in Oklahoma so far this year. I worked outside this morning early, but as soon as a mosquito started buzzing around, I came back inside. Remember Jay's words of wisdom every time rain has missed his area these last 4 years of drought in Kansas. He always says that today he's one day closer to rainfall than he was yesterday. I repeat those words to myself when we're in the midst of a dry spell here. Even in the worst of drought years, rain does fall. It just doesn't fall when we want it to. Hang in there. I've linked the 'last 30 days' rainfall map. Look at the pattern of the rainfall--mostly around some of the edges of the state, especially in SE OK which still is desperately dry despite the rainfall. There's a nice little wet spot SW of OKC where there's been good rain, but otherwise the interior areas of the state really haven't had the rainfall. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: