I posted a pic of the Compton's with the bark ripped down on the post that mentions the tear, Dax. I have 3 Compton's oaks. Here is my Beech Johnd And last but not least the pics I took today of the late drop "L.O." Plus the green trunk I saw the other day, but can't seem to see well in the picture I posted. I keep looking at the buds stubborn but there. I look like an idiot insisting it's going to leaf out, but I see signs it will and when you see the first of the 2 pics here, you will see what I mean. I was ready to rip it out and get another tree, but it isn't dead. The pics with the envelope in the background were taken about an hour ago. Here is the trunk pic from a couple days ago, you can barely see the green right below the slight scrape It isn't as noticeble now on the tree. the green is best seen at the bottom of the scrape. When you see those buds on todays pics don't you think it is going to leaf out? I saw my dead one with no buds. I have plenty of weight on me without getting a Walnut tree,

Nate, the soil there is more clayish than I'd care for but not bad at all. It's definitely a good clay. I took more photos yesterday as framing is now in progress. Mike, I won't move them all. We, as a family, are going to sell my current home and some stuff I'll leave but, definitely not my favorite plants. I also have a lot of stuff in pots - so I'm hooked up to start. I'll also dig my conifers whenever I have too. I believe that transplanting is ok to do in mid-summer although nobody else here would probably 'risk' it. I'll just water them. That's the secret to being a good gardener. Grancru, my friend, thanks! Feel free to donate plants... Thanks a lot men! I feel the envy too. It's gotta be my shining personality and good looks that have gotten me thus far. I should have a wonderful place to live for the rest of my life. The three car garage: South side where you can see a window framed and a larger open framed spot for a slider glass door. I'm getting this real nice attached greenhouse, and I'll be able to see into it from the window but to enter, I'll need to go out through the slider glass doors into the elements and then enter the greenhouse (about 2 steps). We did it this way so that instead of walking right from the slider into, more space will be usable inside the greenhouse. If the slider door went directly in, then I'd lose wall space. I don't know. Frankly, my mom thought it all up. The window though is nice to release heat into the basement or vice versa as well as to see into it from the basement. Bonsai specimens will be the majority of plants my greenhouse will be taking up space for. These are the newest in framing as never is a post needed from the basement floor holding up the above floor. Kind of an interesting photo for you construction junkies. It's become a reality. Got my big-hog John Deere lawn tractor and a real nice rhototiller that drags behind, and pretty soon, I'll be out there cleaning it up and seeding and everything else. I feel real lucky. Thanks again to all you guys that send me scionwood and plants and seeds!

Carol, I'm glad, too, that y'all were home when it happened. I wonder what it is about y'all's little neck of the woods that keeps attracting the lightning? I put in my muskmelons a couple of weeks ago when I pulled the snap peas. They have not grown very much in the endless heat, drought and hot, dry wind that plagued us for so much of May, so I am hoping they will perk up now with the abundant rainfall, slightly cooler temperatures and (hooray, hooray!) lack of strong winds. I'm growing Carole, Super 45 and Hale's Best Jumbo. I planted the watermelons to grow as a sort of ground cover under and between okra plants since that worked out so well last year. If I remember them all correctly, I planted Blacktail Mountain, Yellow Doll, Yellow Baby, New Orchid and Tiger Baby. They're all small refrigerator-sized melons since I was afraid we wouldn't have enough rainfall to grow the big melons and I didn't want to irrigate endlessly all summer. Actually, I try to avoid watering watermelons at all after the fruit is sizing up for fear I'll water too much and ruin their flavor. I may have planted Sugar Baby. I no longer remember for sure if I actually planted it or just intended to plant it. For winter squash, I planted carefully-selected varieties that should withstand the onslaught of SVBs: Old-Timey Cornfield Pumpkin. Long Island Cheese, Seminole, Tahitian Melon and Waltham Butternut. I might plant some winter melons if the SVBs take out the excessive number of zucchini plants I planted. We're getting far too much zucchini (who in American doesn't get too much zucchini, at least until the SVBs arrive?) but I wanted to shred and freeze a lot for zucchini bread, cake, and cookies before the SVBs took it out. Now, with it all producing so well all month, I am tired of it. Where are the SVBs when you need them? (Note to SVBs: if you arrive, feel free to attack the zucchinis but please leave my yellow summer squash alone. Thank you.) Larry, I take watermelon (and all other)DTMs with a grain of salt. For me, and I think it likely is because of our heat and our intense sunlight, many melons produce a couple of weeks earlier than the DTMs, which are just estimates anyway. I'd think any watermelon planted now should have lots of time to produce well. Our first frost, at the very earliest, should be at least 120 days way. My soil is not watermelon soil either, but I've always had really good luck with melons in well-amended clay. Even last year with all that incredible heat, the melons did really well. Hi Ezzirah, I think it is likely too hot for brussels spouts to make their sprouts now, unless this week's brief cool spell helps them out a bit. When I grow them, I usually grow them in the fall because the cooler fall temps as they mature are more conducive to flowering than the hotter temperatures they encounter as spring warms up and summer arrive. In a perfect world, Brussels Sprouts mature and produce the most tasty, highest-quality sprouts when the air temperatures are in the 55-65 degree range, or even a bit cooler. When's the last time your daytime highs were in that range? If your weather has been like mine, it was a long time ago. If you plant them for fall, start them from seed indoors and set them out about 10 weeks before your average fall frost. To give your fall transplants the best chance of producing, you would want for your brussels sprouts plants to be about 6 weeks old (and 7 or 8 weeks likely would be okay too), and have at least 6-8 true leaves and be healthy. Starting with plants that old in summer should put your plants at the right age and size to be forming flowers (the sprouts we eat are flower buds) in fall's cooler temperatures. You have to keep summer-transplanted brussels sprouts moist for the first couple of weeks, and may even need to shade them to get them through the hot summer weather and to allow them to quickly become well established. After the pampering that first week or two, they usually can hold their own against the elements. However, you'll need to keep them moist at all times because they are not terribly deep rooted so can dry out quickly. For me, cabbage does just fine even in the hot weather. Some years I don't even harvest it until June or July, but in other years it is harvest-sized by May. I think it is likely your cabbage still will produce just fine for you, but not so sure about the brussels sprouts. This has been a hard spring for cool-season crops since the cool season was not very cool for very long. I still have potatoes and carrots in the ground but likely not for too much longer. I think some of my potatoes have begun to die back this week, and based on their planting date and DTMs, I think it is time for them because they are a pretty early variety. I've planted southern peas in the raised bed in the Peter Rabbit Garden where the onions were growing until I harvested them a wee bit early to get them out of the ground before the hail fell. Then, even though it hailed within a couple of miles of our house, no hail fell here. With the onions though, I think it was better to be safe than sorry, so I'm glad I went ahead and harvested them. Dawn

You betcha! We have packages of stewing pork in the freezer from the feral hog we were given (dead, headless and footless, and cleaned out, thanks be!). I am not a good butcher, so after I cut off all the recognizable parts, we had a lot of good meat left which makes a great hunter's stew. I save chicken carcasses (chickens I do know how to cut up) and make stock, then use any meat I can salvage for Brunswick stew or a good soup. We have our own veggies, and believe me, after you grow them you don't waste them. Any left-over veggies go into the stock pot or a soup. I won't mention the bag of beef bones waiting to turn into stock . . . .