Looking great reagent! I couldn't help but notice your comment 'My morning is not complete without sitting out by the garden with the sprinkler on sipping my coffee. :)' Funny I do the exact same thing, minus the sprinkler! lol Look into a drip system for next year; there are MANY benefits: even/consistent watering, minimizes risk of bacterial diseases due to a sprinkler splashing bacteria/spores onto plants, minimizes fungal issues due to over head watering/wet leaves.. The best approach for a new gardener to build up an unknown soil is by way of compost, and PLENTY of it! Compost helps to introduce/grow the bacterial colony of the soil - which in turn breaks down organic matter, and helps the plants to fight off other less desirable bacteria/microorganisms.. Manure is also your friend, but be wary of your source, as it can be high in salts, contain pesticides etc.. You could also start researching Mycorrhizal fungi - a really fun rabbit hole that goes down pretty deep.. The possibilities are endless with organic gardening - welcome aboard! Here is a link that might be useful: drip systems This post was edited by michael723 on Tue, Jun 24, 14 at 10:41

You can just seed the sunflower seeds directly in the ground and cover them with floating row cover. This has worked well for me to keep bugs, birds, rabbits, and deer from eating many of my sunflowers. The row cover can be left on until the plants get nearly a foot tall. At that point deer will still eat the leaves, but they seem to be safe from smaller critters. Something will occasionally get under the row cover and do some damage, but most of my plants make it. ThinMan

I'm trialing the VidaVerde and Ripley's Believe It or Not seeds for the first time this coming spring. I have hopes that the VidaVerde seeds will live up to their billing. If they do, then I plan on attempting a cross between those and the Craven variety. Out of all the varieties that I've grown or have seen other people grow, the Craven seeds seem to have the best chance of breaking the current world record for height. Actually, I was told from someone who knows Norm Craven that his sunflowers are the Heijms world record sunflower crossed with large grey stripe variety, and a large black shell variety from Ontario.

Susan, If I knew then, what I knew now, I might have looked for property a tiny bit closer to town. I'm not sure if being a mile or two outside of town would be better than be further away though. I thought our biggest pests would be armadilloes, rabbits and deer, and in a way they are, but oh my, the caterpillars are driving me insane. It isn't just "me" either. I looked for Bt in the big box stores (Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's) in the larger towns to our north (Ardmore) and to our south (Gainesville, TX) and they were sold out, and have been for days. TSC was sold out when we were in there last week and this week. I finally found Bt at a small independent feed and seed store in Gainesville this morning, so I have it here sitting on the table, and I can/will use it if the levels of damage do not diminish. I also noticed big empty gaps in the synthetic pesticide section at the big box stores and I had to look to see what was sold out. It was all the various forms of Sevin. Tractor Supply's shelf was bare too, but there was a newly-opened case of powdered Sevin sitting on the floor by the bare shelf, so clearly they were in the midst of restocking the stores. This morning a white-lined sphinx flew into my greenhouse when I opened the door. I told it to go elsewhere to lay its eggs, but I suspect it will do whatever it pleases. Milkweed plants (the native green milkweed that we call Antelope Horns here) in the pasture that I couldn't even find 2 weeks ago are suddenly huge and beginning to bloom, so that's good news. Crane Flies have been horrible for about 6 weeks, but their numbers are dropping every day here no, so they have peaked. Ditto for the June bugs, which this year have been March bugs. I am seeing fewer moths this week than last but I don't know if that translates yet to less damage since the moths undoubtedly laid lots of eggs. This year, in an effort to draw the cabbage worms away from the broccoli and cabbage, I planted mustard because they love mustard and usually gobble it right up. So, guess which plants in my garden show virtually no damage while everything else is holey? Yep, the mustard. I have beautiful perfect mustard crops. Sometimes trap crops just don't work like they're supposed to, and I guess this is one of those years. Everything is accelerating here because of the early heat. Flowers have bloomed a month or two ahead of schedule, pests have made early appearances, etc. It is bizarre. I also think it partially explains the heavy insect damage because bugs that usually do damage in Feb and Mar, for example, have had the company of plenty of other insects that usually don't show up until Apr, May, Jun or Jul. I wish I could know what that means in terms of what the pests will do in the coming months. And, yes Susan, I think the cucumber beetles are likely to give you more trouble since you're growing more cucurbits. However, nothing in nature is predictable. Who would have predicted I wouldn't see a single squash bug in a hot year like we had last year? Or that the Colorado Potato Beetles would be totally absent this year (at least so far). Or that I wouldn't have squash bugs here but Kelly would have them up there in northern OK. Mother Nature likes to keep us on our toes by throwing surprises our way just about nonstop. One thing that's missing at our house this year is wasps. We had some swarm on the first really hot day, and then they were around a day or two and I haven't seen one since. Usually by now, they are everywhere. That's bad news. I haven't seen predatory wasps either, which probably helps explain all the caterpillar damage in the garden. I've order some wasps for delivery next week and I'll release them in an effort to restore some balance to the garden's ecosystem that it is sorely lacking right now. Dawn