Big box stores sell bat houses for backyards. They are with the birdhouses. I saw some at Lowes here in Florida not too long ago, and they have them listed online too. Jeep Good luck with going organic. I have gone mostly organic. Miracle grow for containers is pretty much it for chemicals. I use scrounged leaves for organic matter for the lawn and garden beds, and new this year, alfalfa pellets for lawn/shrub fertilizer (switched after three years of milorganite which was a replacement for years of chemical fertilizer). Going orgaqnic for the lawn has been the greatest. The lawn looks better each year. My success in the vegetable garden is hit or miss. Going organic has made little difference for me. Something does great every year, while other things don't. Weather, watering habits, plant location, etc. all have an affect, and I am learning bit by bit. Luckily I know where the grocery store is, so I garden for the experience, not survival. I hope that I can become a master organic gardener in time, but until then, I can be happy knowing that I am dong less damage to the environment while learning. Over the last four years, I have not bought and used 200 lbs of chemical fertilizer for the lawn! Yay! Think of the pallets and pallets of chemical fertilizer in the big box stores. ALL of it is going straight into the ground. Soon. As a matter of fact, every single chemical concoction on the garden center shelves in every big box store in this counrty will end up out of its packaging and into our environment this year. And then the shelves will be restocked to do it again. Everything you don't buy is something that will not have to be restocked. Having faith and taking a chance is hard to do. Nature works. I did a bunch of reading, got excited about the possibilities and did it. I get about the same results (slightly better) while buying almost nothing in the way of chemicals. I am very happy with the results of my going towards organic.

Went out "rummaging" last Saturday. Spent a morning of pleasant talk time with DH while enroute. Got a little exercise getting in and out of the pick-up, walking up and down the street (there was a neighborhood sale on one block). Bought some nice t-shirts in several sizes (DH and I wear XL, DGS wears L, DS and DD wear 2X) for 25 cents each. They were all glad to get them, and I have stained up most of the t-shirts I currently have, painting and gardening. I always watch for things that might make good Christmas presents for my family. They like to get rummage sale stuff because they know I have a set amount that I spend for Christmas and they'd rather have more stuff than just a few. I found a Cuisinart food processor, clean, didn't look like it had even been used, with the book, both blades and also two stems and a julienne and grating blade, for $10. I tested it out before buying and it works perfectly. DD will be so happy to discover that under the tree! I found a large, brand new, still-in-the-box George Foreman grill for $10. (no book, though) Used it to grill hamburgers last night. The weekend before I found a nice Fossil watch, still in it's original box, for $10. One of the DGS' will be the recipient of that. The weekend before that, I found a brand new Eureka Hot Shot steam cleaner that I had been wanting, still in it's original box with all attachments and the book, for $5. Sometimes, I don't find a thing I want. But even then, I get out and meet people and I enjoy my morning. Out of the garden this week, I got cabbage, beets and beet greens (they were yummy), plenty of romaine and a few onions. Last month we had baby lettuce, watermelon radish and asparagus. The beans are beginning to form and I have some green tomatoes on my plants. No squash this year as I still have some in the freezer. Next year, though, I'm going to dehydrate some like Grainlady does. There are tiny cucumbers on the vine and the dill looks like it'll be making umbrels right on time. I'll be using MIL's old recipe for garlic dills this year, that you can make a jar at a time. The sunflowers are heading up. I garden without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Every fall I collect my neighbors' leaves that they bag up and put on the curb for garbage collection. I save the leaves by sticking the bags under my porch, where, as long as they are there, they insulate the foundation along the east side. They keep the wind from blowing things under there and they keep weeds from growing along the edges. Then, as I need them, I use them for mulch all over my garden. I happen to have come into several bales of hay for free and I find that if I put a little "slice" of hay on top of the leaves, it keeps them from blowing away. By the following spring, that mulch becomes healthy soil. I did get some cow manure from a local rancher this spring but I think I will not do that again. Lots of weed seeds, though not nearly as bad as the horse manure I had several years ago. Cows must be more selective in what they eat than horses are. I get heavy cardboard from a local furniture store. The boxes are large and some of them are sized perfectly for fitting down into the spaces between my raised beds. Bermuda grass is a problem here, it gets into everything and chokes things out, sending it's long, sinewey roots clear to China. The only way to control it is to shade it out. I have to admit, I did splurge on seed buying from Baker Creek, as they are offering free shipping till the end of June. but I got things that you just can't pick up anywhere, and even if the package of seed costs $2.50 and $3.00 (isn't that outrageous?), I use my seeds very carefully and so just one plant that produces well will more than pay for the seed and the rest is "just gravy". A package of seed, stored carefully, will be viable for years. We always batch our trips, so when we get done rummaging we go by the grocery store and buy whatever we need, usually on sale. I hear gas prices are going to be going up again, so even if you do happen to have a 'gas guzzler' vehicle, you will get more for your $$ if you learn to do as many of your errands at the same time as you can. DGS got a ticket for not wearing his seatbelt! The officer told him it would be only $20 but what he didn't tell him was that if he waits for the court date and appears then to pay it, he will have to pay court costs too. Luckily we discovered in time and informed DGS of that, so he went to the court house and paid his fine and avoided paying court costs. Let this be a lesson to him, wear that seat belt!

Yes, I am a southpaw! How did you guess? ;) So its nothing really big but I had to share with my GW friends (this is, or was GARDENweb right?!?) I finally have the start of a garden again after almost 5 years without one!! Today I planted several vinca, some blue plumbago, a few dragons blood sedum, a lantana, a queen Victoria lobelia and a Texas mountain Laurel!! I had forgotten how satisfying it is to have a pretty plot to tend to and look at. They are all deer resistant so hopefully they will survive!! Off topic but has anyone seen Christine (CEFreeman)? I haven't seen her post since last week and I wonder if she is OK.

Larry, I'm glad you weren't getting too much rain this morning, and sorry it found you later in the day. I saw that there was a pretty bad tornado in Jonesboro today, and didn't even realize any part of your state was under a Tornado Watch until I saw a video someone posted of the Jonesboro tornado on the ground. I hope everyone in the Jonesboro area made it through that without death or serious injury. That's a nice plant nursery you have going there. It cannot rain forever, and when the rain finally stops and you are able to plant, you'll have a lot of wonderful plants to transplant into the ground. Nancy, Oh, elms are a thing here too. Honestly, with about 10 acres of wild, left-to-grow-as-it-sees-fit woodland, anything that seeds prolifically is found in abundance here. About the only thing we do is try to remove the cedar trees every few years, as they sprout like weeds too. I spent quite a few years cleaning up the woodland every winter, but it was a never-ending task, and keeping up with it was a full-time winter job, so nowadays, I just try to keep all the tree seeds out of the garden and let them do their thing in the woodland. This means at the very least that I spend a significant portion of each spring pulling out sprouting oaks, pecans, hackberries, redbuds, elms and mulberries from the garden beds and pathways, and fenceline too. If I were to miss doing this for one single spring, my garden would become a woodland in the blink of an eye. The very first year after I removed all the invasive cedar trees, greenbrier and poison ivy from the north banks of our creek, we had a lovely little colony of mayapples spring up. I was excited to see them there. We never would have known they were there if I hadn't taken out all the invasive stuff. By then we had lived here several years and never had seen mayapples, so it was pretty exciting. That has been a general thing that happens here----remove invasive plants (whether native or not) and watch to see what shows up in the newly cleaned-up spaces. You can get some plants you've never seen before. Amy, Chris had that trouble with Jiffy organic seed-starting mix this year. I really didn't. Some white mold tried to spring up on the surface one time this year, and I saw it right away as it was just beginning to develop so I just made sure to run the fan in the room pointed at the light shelf to dry out the Jiffy mix more so the mold wouldn't grow. That was all it took for me. I don't really have a good alternative that is readily available in stores, unless you have someone around you that has a nice selection of Pro-Mix. Amy, We made a quick run to Home Depot to plant shop. It was pretty early in the day and the store was packed! I did notice that folks in the garden center were doing their best to maintain correct social distancing....everyone wanted to buy plants, and they had tons and tons of them, and everyone wanted to buy safely. That was enough of "getting out" for me to stop feeling like I had cabin fever so badly. I don't have to get out ever, but tell me that I can't get out, and I want to leave our place and go somewhere just because I know I can't or shouldn't. The kids have been careful to keep themselves and the grandchildren away from us for the most part, wanting to protect us oldsters, so I am sort of having grandkid withdrawal. They did stop by very briefly last week to pick up hoops, row covers and earth staples because they were expecting a freeze, but even as we walked in the garden, we tried to maintain proper social distancing while at least getting to chat with each other for a few minutes. There are many other people going through the same thing right now so I'm not going to whine about it. I know that none of us want to inadvertently spread this virus to anyone else on the chance that we might have it and be asymptomatic, and none of us want to catch it from anyone else either. I wonder how many months it will be before we can start to return to some sort of normalcy. Jen, I'm glad the seedlings are okay. You must have had a good rain. We had about 5 minutes of light rain in the early morning hours so it wasn't enough to hurt anything. Rebecca, It feels like full-fledged spring here and I have little to no concern about a late freeze. Our weather pattern has done a total turn-around the last couple of weeks. Today is my average last freeze date, so technically I still have a 50% chance of one, but I don't think it will happen. I think that is true for at least 80% of OK. I'd be a little worried next week if I was in northwestern OK....and the panhandle likely has more cold remaining too. I think your area likely will be fine. Obviously anyone from OKC northward probably needs to be watching next weekend's low temps very carefully, but it seems like most people could go ahead and plant now and just cover up on that last cold night or two. It is supposed to be 40 degrees here at our house Friday night/Saturday morning, so I'll keep an eye on that forecast, but what has happened lately is that they will forecast a cold night out 5 to 7 days in advance, and by the time that night actually arrives, the forecast low has risen by several degrees and I don't have to cover up plants. I doubt I'll cover up tomato plants if the forecast is for 40 degrees, but I might cover them up if it is for 38 degrees. So far, our last freezing night here for 2020 was around March 7th, although we have had some nights in the mid-30s since then. Just not lately. Even on the night Chris had a forecast low of 32, they only dropped down to 34. He did have his garden covered up just in case. That was about a week ago. Having said all the above, I never fully relax until after May 3rd because we went through a period more-or-less from about 2007 to 2013 where we had a late freeze or frost on May 3 or 4 every year (which explains why I acquired a ton of frost blanket row cover during that time). Because of that, I never can relax until after we get past May 4th. We haven't had one of those exceptionally late cold nights in quite a few years now, so I don't worry about it as much as I did when it had become a feature of every year. Rebecca, See there, if Dan Threlkeld thinks it is okay to plant tomatoes, it must be okay! Jennifer, This virus may not like heat, but thrives in it, unlike some other types of viruses that die down in the heat. Many countries that are in the midst of their summer and hot weather have had huge outbreaks of it, so the heat is not having much direct effect on it. As for as drinking hot beverages, that is a fake news thing. Once you have the virus in your body, drinking a hot beverage might make your throat feel better, but it will not kill the virus. If we could kill the virus merely by drinking very hot tea, coffee or whatever, then we wouldn't have 600,000+ cases worldwide and we'd all be drinking hot beverages because the CDC was telling us too, which they are not. I wish it were that easy to get rid of it! Keep in mind that if the virus is present in one's throat, it probably also is present in one's nasal passages and sinus cavities so even if hot beverages worked, they might reduce the viral load but wouldn't eliminate all of it from your body. Some people say that taking zinc logenzes at the first sign you have a viral infection, may kill the virus in your throat or reduce its impact but I have not seen any research that validates this either. It is just that with some other viruses, notably rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, zinc works so people probably are assuming it will work with this one. Unfortunately, there are differences between rhinoviruses and coronaviruses, so ultimately we will have to wait for research on zinc's effectiveness with coronavirus. I do think there is research showing that people who are deficient in zinc in their diet/body are more vulnerable to viruses in general, but if you take a multivitamin, you probably already get adequate zinc. I have noticed that you cannot find zinc in any of the stores so people may be buying it to take in the hope it will ward off coronavirus. Our Centrum multivitamins have 100% of the MDR of zinc in them, so I guess we've got that one aspect covered. This COVID-19 just hasn't been around long enough for us to have much research available on what does or doesn't work to prevent it or to lighten the viral load. With a novel coronavirus that has become a pandemic, we all are searching for answers to help us ward it off, but research so far seems to only support avoiding infecting persons, washing your hands thoroughly and keeping your hands away from your face. Perhaps in due time, there will be more research that provides more answers. You have to be careful what you choose to do. With the 1918 pandemic, there was a wonderful miracle drug available---aspirin. The usage of aspirin was fairly new and there was a lack of understanding about how much was too much, so many people took it in huge dosages (often recommended by medical personnel of that era). Nowadays, for various reasons, many researchers have come to believe over the decades that the overuse of aspirin in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic contributed a great deal to the high death rates. I have read quite a great deal of what has been written about this phenomenon and feel like what they say about it makes sense. It is a terrible shame if, indeed, the over-use of aspirin caused many deaths that otherwise might not have occurred with the Spanish Flu. That's one reason I think we need to approach all possible 'cures' to the coronavirus with a great deal of caution---we don't want to take anything or do anything that would make us worse instead of helping us fight it off. With the internet, there's tons of misinformation out there that likely is not helpful and even could be dangerous. I had fun plant shopping, but only bought a handful of edibles---some peppers and some herbs. I wish I had taken more time to look at flowers and buy some, but the store was very crowded and I was uneasy being around too many people, so I didn't. Our bluebonnets in the front meadow look astonishing. They've never been this early before in such a large quantity. At first, earlier in the week, it was just a handful of early bluebonnet blooms but now there's dozens. I'm so happy to see them. No one else around us who normally has bluebonnets have any of them blooming yet, not even the folks down in Thackerville who usually have bluebonnets in bloom at least a week before we do. I didn't even see any bluebonnets blooming yet alongside the highway in Texas this morning. Another early visitor is a male luna moth hanging out underneath the porch light on the front porch tonight. He apparently hasn't found his female yet, so I think I'll leave the porch light on all night long tonight in the hopes that they will find one another. They are, after all, on limited time. It seems a bit early for the lunas too, but they surely are responding to the early warmup here that has had it feeling more like April or May than March. Dawn