As you can tell by my name, turf is one of my favorite topics. Bermuda has its place, but for me there are better options for lawns in OK. When talking about cool season lawns remember that drought tolerance is not the same thing as drought resistance. Tall fescue is quite drought resistant for a cool season turf. That means it does well at staying green during drought because of its deep roots. On the other hand fescue has quite poor drought tolerance. That means that once it goes dormant during drought (turns yellow or brown), it doesn't recover we'll after water returns. That is why it thins out and doesnt seem to perform for some people. Fescue can really only take a week or 2 without water once dormant before you start losing plants. Kentucky Bluegrass on the other hand is somewhat the opposite. It is not drought resistant, meaning it goes into drought induced dormancy rather quickly, but it is very drought tolerant. It can go for months in a dormant state and once water returns it will green back up and be thick as ever. That is why anyone who has a fescue lawn should include 10% bluegrass by seed weight (it turns out to be about 50-50 by seed count since bluegrass seed is tiny). This mix gives you the best of both worlds and delivers a lawn better able to handle adversity. For those who think a fescue/Kentucky bluegrass lawn isn't possible in central OK. Here is the proof. This is my 3/4 acre lawn after the last 2 horrible summers.

Rosefolly, Ashmead's Kernel is one of my absolute favorites! If I were to grow only one apple tree, it would probably be it. Well, maybe Esopus Spitzenburg too... Of those you mention, Empire apples can often be found in grocery stores here, indeed probably because it's from NY state. I have never heard of Cinnamon Spice either. It's difficult to resist apples with such names. This year one of the highlights was when we saw for the first time Black Gilliflower, nicknamed 'Sheep Nose' (a very old variety from Connecticut, 1700s). We were twisting our heads and looking at all angles to see if any looked like it, and lo' and behold quite a few had the shape of a sheep's head from profile view. It gave me a chuckle. I picked a couple but haven't yet tried them, they still need to ripen a bit. Chris, I've looked up your two apples and they do indeed look similar, but both must be very delicious. Ha, just this morning I made applesauce! The best advice I got about making it, and incidentally it's from the good people at this orchard, is to mix several different varieties, tart and sweet. And I also love how the kitchen then smells, ... autumn is here. gdinieontario, I'm glad about you found Akane and many thanks for mentioning this orchard. It looks like a nice place to visit when in Ontario. Summers, I also like looking at online recipes. They have the advantage of readers' comments, truly tried & tested. And valuable especially when more than one person make similar suggestions for altering the recipe. Perma, I'll mention this book to the orchard owner because, as a family-owned farm with more than 300 varieties, they are not entirely organic but do try to reduce chemicals and use integrated pest management. Thank you.

Nancy, Is it possible that the dog lives somewhat nearby, but his family might be out of town for Thanksgiving and the dog escaped from his yard and came looking for company and attention? Regardless, I bet he is enjoying all the petting and loving attention from the grandkids. I bet y'all are having lots of fun. During the last week, we had the grandkids on Friday-Saturday-Sunday and then Tuesday-Wednesday-part of Thursday, so we had lots of fun together and now Tim and I have the weekend and next week to recover before they visit next weekend. Grandkids are a ton of fun, but somewhat tiring as well. Don't get me wrong---I love every second with them, but then I do need time to rest and recover afterwards. I wish I still had the same energy level as a 4 year old and a 9 year old, but I don't. Last week was a Grinch weekend planned just for the kids. First, I already had bought a Grinch storybook planned on the 2018 movie The Grinch, and it came with a board game. I had it stashed away so I could take it out and surprise them at the appropriate time. We went to a theater in Gainesville TX to see the movie, The Grinch, on Saturday afternoon. As a bonus, a costumed Grinch character was present in the theater lobby so the kids got to do a "meet and greet" with The Grinch and have their photo taken. They were so thrilled. He also walked through the theater a couple of times which thrilled all the kids....big ones and little ones alike. Later on, at home, we read the storybook and played The Grinch board game about a billion times. The next morning we went to IHOP for breakfast and we all ate something off their The Grinch menu, including hot cocoa with minty green whipped topping and little red hearts. This was a thrill for the kids, though the food was just typical IHOP food....but somehow I guess the pancakes are tastier when they are dyed green and have whipped cream and little red heart sprinkles on them. Over the next few days, we played that board game a lot. I'm all grinched out, and if I never eat at an IHOP again, I'm cool with that. (Grin....the things you'll do for your grandchildren! lol) I'm glad you and GDW are able to have the three with you right now. Hopefully the cats will come out of hiding. Jennifer, It sounds like y'all had fun and got a lot of shopping done. Had I not been so tired after most of a week spent with the grandkids, I might have gone to ON because I did think their sale prices sounded great. It was nice to sit at home and not go out and fight the crowds though. There's no real garden news from here either. I am keeping the amaryllis bulbs watered and they are growing, so hopefully we'll have some flowers by Christmas. With amaryllis you never know---sometimes that grow and bloom quickly, and sometimes much more slowly. So, I just hope for the best. One year they all bloomed after New Year's, but another year they bloomed around Thanksgiving. Some years they bloom in succession for weeks and weeks (I have six of them) and those are my favorite years. I start them about the same time every year, but there seems to be no consistency in how long it takes them to come into bloom in any given year. We got half the Christmas lights up on the house today, but a fire and very windy conditions prevented us from getting more work done. Everything here is so dry now since all the vegetation has frozen multiple times, and the cured fine vegetation catches fire quickly....and then the fire moves rapidly in the sort of wind we had today and will have again tomorrow. Would y'all believe our high temperature hit 79 degrees today? It actually felt pretty nice, but the strong wind made it feel cooler than you'd think 79 degrees would feel. Also, the relative humidity plunged down to 15%....hence the fire this afternoon. Tomorrow is supposed to be quite a bit windier, so we will stick close to home and try to get things done while understanding, rationally, that fires are likely and our Christmas decorating plans might get pushed out into the future. A little while ago the head of our local Fire Association sent us all a reminder that one year ago today we were fighting a fast-moving, wind-driven 200-acre wildfire that was a major threat to one home in its pathway and was a more minor threat to a couple more homes. While we stopped the fire from forward advancement just a few yards from the home and barn that day, burning trees and logs kept rekindling in the strong winds over a period of several days and we kept having to go back out and extinguish hot spots. I was getting over the flu/bronchitis that week and being out in the smoke every day really was setting back my recovery. I was coughing my head off out there. It was a rough week. Tomorrow's weather will be virtually identical to what we had on that day last year, so we're all crossing our fingers and hoping for the best---we do not need a repeat of that day. I think I cooked food for the firefighters every day for several days in a row that week so I could feed them out there at the constant return trips to hit new hot spots that were flaring up. How odd is it that we get a total repeat of the weather 1 year and 1 day later if tomorrow's forecast is correct and verifies? Usually I take down the Thanksgiving decorations immediately after T-Day and put up the Christmas tree but I haven't done it yet, and I might not do it for another few days. I am tired, and I keep looking at all the pretty autumn decorations and thinking that I could be happy to keep looking at them for a while yet. Our big red oak out front has peaked and is declining, which makes me sad. I'd say that 85% of our trees are pretty much bare now, and I think a ton more leaves will come down tomorrow. There are still some big red oaks in the woods that are a brilliant red, so at least we still have that bit of autumn color. The bunny population is returning. I don't know if they are cycling up because the coyote population might be cycling down, or if it is just that coyote population has retreated to the nearby river bottom lands because deer hunters are out running around everywhere with guns, but for whatever reason, we've seen more rabbits in the last 2 or 3 days than we've had in months. Someone near us has had a guy with a Bobcat type tree cutter clearing cedar trees and fence lines for a couple of days now....and the noise from that thing is a tiny bit annoying. Mostly it upsets the dogs, who seem to think the constant banging and crashing of it hitting and taking down trees is a threat to them in some way. Thus, the dogs are not spending much time at all outdoors. I'm not complaining, though, because cleaning up the land, which is adjacent to ours, keeps all of us a bit safer if a fire breaks out. I hope they take out all the cedar trees as those things burn like torches. I cannot believe we are nearing the end of November. This month has flown by. Dawn

To be fair, it was WaPo and they don't get out of their fancy restaurants very often. There ARE, however, a number of excellent videos on youtube. Some on how to lay a hedge (with a billhook! Properly!). And a fair few of different hedgelaying competitions. Those are in my queue to watch, as I find the concept of a hedgelaying competition entertaining. I do wish there was more interest in these techniques on this side of the pond. I'd like to try using hedges to encompass my 10 acre plot. I've got lots of rose and bramble, with a fair bit of ash and birch. But I should probably plant some hazels to make it easy on myself and get everything I want where I want it. Now if only there was a handy-dandy video or seminar on doing THAT. Without flying to Britain, and taking into account native species here.