Did you get a lot done, Dawn? I DID, though not nearly what I COULD have gotten done. Were the rest of you able to spend time gardening?

I know many of you work outside the home. I'll bet you make better use of what time you DO have to garden than I do. I so remember the years of gardening when I was gone 50-60 hours a week at a paid job. Then, I just grew flowers and some herbs, shrubs. But put my all into it; as soon as I could get out to work in the yard (usually about mid-May), I'd be out there in my raggy gardening pants, then to shorts, and T shirts. Mud from head to toe day after day and on weekends. But again, unlike many of you, it was just me. Wade was grown, and no husband. My little granddaughter liked to spend time on the weekends gardening with me, and that was always a delight.

I planted and left 3 different yards/gardens over those 30 years, and took what few shrubs I could, each time, along with some flowers. It sort of makes me feel good now all these years later, thinking of the flower gardens I left behind and choosing to think the new dwellers were happy. And now I'm doing it again. THIS time, as the gardening joke (not joke) goes, only will sell the place to a gardening family!

I'm tired, but I bet Amy is more tired! Bet those two little guys wore her out! You all would laugh if you saw my gardening style, today more than usual. The mission was to get tithonia, cosmos, cape daisies direct sown in the full sun bed. Done. Then it was chaotic and all over the place. Planting by momentary whims. Weeding like a madwoman, moving a couple shrubs. More planting, more transplanting. No rhyme nor reason to any of it. I just had to laugh at myself.

I had to look green threads up, Megan. I did; congratulations!

8 new baby lettuce plants, dug up and destroyed by squirrels. One corner of the spinach bed. And one tray of zinnia seedlings, but I may have saved all but 2.

My only day to plant this week is Saturday, in the rain and 50 degrees. Tried to do some planting today, but pain won out. Time to get better control over it so I can have a life again.

Mom and I were talking tonight, but is there any reason why the National Guard can't be called upon to help with the fires out west?

Kim, That's too hot for this early in the year...but that is what we have this year, either hot or cold and little in-between.

Megan, Yay! You're a mom....again. (grin)

It is okay. We understand the joy of seeds sprouting, especially native ones because they can have tricky stratification needs. We'll always be ready to celebrate such joys with you.

Nancy, I did get a lot done, but it wasn't fun stuff. Mostly it involved digging out bermuda grass and Johnson grass where they invade the annual flower bed at the SE corner of the garden. This is about the third time I've dug them out this Spring, and each time, less and less of it comes back so I feel like I'm at least making progress. I add compost and dig it in deeply by hand each time, so the barely-improved clay in this corner is getting better each time I dig. I have sacrificed having poppies and larkspur there in that bed this Spring so that I can do a lot of digging, both to remove invasive grasses and to work in the compost. It should pay off with soil and plants that do better in the worst summer heat, which is when that bed generally begins to struggle more than the rest of the garden. I've just let poppies, larkspur and zinnias, along with a few other reseeding annuals, reseed there every year for so long without doing much soil improvement, so it really was essential to do some major soil improvement there this year. I've had to work around excessive rainfall and hugely muddy soil there and now very dry, rock-hard clay that's not fun to dig. It probably would be easier to do this task next week after some rain falls and softens up the soil but I want that bed cleaned out now so maybe I can plant it next week....unless we get a freak thunderstorm that dumps a ton of rain when we're only expecting a little over an inch.

I also watered all the planted beds as they really needed it. The crazy wind really has been drying everything out a lot lately.

Lucky helped me in the garden today, which means it took me three times as long to do everything because the second step of every operation was "remove cat when she gets in your way". She just sits and watches and when she sees me start to dig in a spot, she runs over and plops down in that spot so I'll stop working and pet her and talk to her, etc. as I pick her up and move her out of my way. Then we repeat that a million more times. Finally this afternoon she discovered some of the catnip, and that gave me a little cat-free time while she was rolling around on it. She loves the garden and probably is the most enthusiastic cat about the garden at this point in time. The older ones just roll their eyes and walk off to do something outside the garden. They must have forgotten how much they loved to play in the garden 10 or 15 years ago.

The sun has set, the coyotes are carrying on loudly and Lucky still is outdoors. I wish she'd come in before dark.

Rebecca, Those squirrels are already showing they're going to be a huge problem this year. I am sorry about that.

National Guardsmen are not trained/certified in firefighting, so that's why they don't call them up. I assume they could call them up, if they choose, to perform other tasks like running shelters or whatever, but usually the fires don't last for multiple days and shelters aren't open for long. Generally, the Oklahoma Forest Service orders what it needs through the Southern Area Coordination Center and then national and state forestry employees respond. You get people trained in every specific operation/function that needs to be performed during these large wildfires---your person or people who file insurance/workman's comp claims, logistics type personnel to run the supply chain, a fire behavior specialist, a fire weather specialist, etc. It can take dozens of people to run a big command post. They partner up with OFS and local personnel and they also bring in state forestry firefighters to from across the region and sometimes the entire country to work the fires so some of the local firefighters can return to handling all other local calls, working their paying jobs, etc.

Hopefully we'll all get rain this weekend, hopefully the weather will level out, hopefully the wildfires will end, and hopefully we all just get on with our lives. I know that is easier said than done for the folks who have lost their homes, belongings, businesses, livestock, pets, fencing, hay, pasture land, etc. I cannot imagine what they are going through and what all they'll have to do just to return to some semblance of normal life. I know that on my absolute worst day here at our place, nothing I've ever been through is remotely as difficult as what those folks are going through now.

Dawn

Dawn, it really is devastating. Very sad what those people are going through- praying for them.

Here's more of the garden report:

I forgot to tell y'all last night that the first edible podded pea bloomed today, so we'll be harvesting peas soon. The flowering sweet peas are not flowering and aren't growing much either. They just sit there. I'm concerned the early heat may have been too much for them already.

The chives are blooming.

The first seven tomato plants that I put in the ground a month ago are growing out of the tops of their 2' tall, plastic-wrapped cages. I planted all of them as deeply as I could back when I transplanted them in the hopes that they wouldn't outgrow the short cages too early, but they're doing it anyway. All of them have fruit, and some have fruit that is a pretty good size already. I need to remove the plastic soon and then attach the taller season-long cage atop the 2' tall easier-to-cover-up short cages. The only advantage to having this done so early in the season is that I don't put it off until the plants are too big to easily cage.

The remaining tomato plants that I put in the ground either last week or the week before are starting to bloom, making the plastic wrapped cages something of a possible impediment now. Why? Tomato blooms are self-pollinating and self-fertilizing, but in order for the pollen to move freely within the blossoms to achieve fertilization, the flowers need air movement, particularly early in the day when our wind always seems to be at its lowest wind speeds. Inside the plastic-wrapped cages, they do not necessarily get enough air movement since the plastic blocks the wind. So, I'll be thumping the blooms by hand for a while until I can be sure the wind has dropped enough for me to remove the plastic from the cages of these younger tomato plants.

Since the constant coyote predation on our chickens put an end to their free-ranging a couple of months back, I planted tons and tons of greens in the garden for them. Now, one of the first things I do every morning is cut mustard, kale, lettuce, collards, etc, using the cut-and-come-again harvesting method, so I can carry an armload of greens to the chickens every morning to enjoy in their fenced chicken runs. Kale remains their favorite as always, and they don't get spinach because I don't plant too much of it (since it bolts so easily) and save all the Spinach harvest for us humans.

Some of the heading lettuce and butterhead types are starting to head up, and the cabbage is forming heads now too. I don't harvest those heading lettuces this early for the chickens---I just harvest the leaf lettuces for them. It looks like we'll get a good harvest from our leaf crops as they've really been enjoying the warm days and cool nights.

The brassicas are growing well, but it is too early to tell how well they'll produce---it is pretty much linked to how early we warm up. Generally the broccoli does produce a nice harvest in May, but the brussels sprouts and cauliflower are iffy in Spring. Some years we get too hot too early and they both bolt before they can produce. I'm hoping that with as cool as the nights have been, maybe they'll get to make a good crop this year.

I planted four varieties of bush beans back in March: Royalty Purple Pod (a very cold-tolerant bean that produces well even in very cool conditions), Bountiful, Contender and Provider. I noticed while covering up the beans with Agribon-19 last night (more about that in a minute) that some of them are starting to form flower buds---nothing large enough that they'll bloom soon, but they are likely to start blooming next week. Early planting of them will pay off with an early harvest that beats the heat (which causes blossom drop in beans).

So, last night's forecast really vexed me. The NWS had been saying a low of 42 degrees on our point forecast all week, and I don't cover up warm-season plants unless the forecast is for 40 degrees or lower. Last week we had patchy frost at 38 or so, so I do watch the forecast very carefully---if you want to push the limits like I do and plant warm-season plants early, you have to be sure to cover them up every time cold threatens or you can lose them. So, despite my efforts to make it into the house in time for the 5 pm news, I didn't walk in the door until almost a quarter after 5 and our local TV met was just wrapping up the forecast, but at least he was showing the overnight lows.....and he said "39 degrees and patchy frost for Marietta". Ooops. I might have missed most of his forecast, but I caught that part that mattered most. I wasn't exactly expecting that forecast from him but we had very dry air, so I knew the temperatures could go lower than forecast by the NWS. I checked the NWS point forecast again and it still said 42, but in my heart I know that our local TV met is always right, and when his forecast disagrees with the NWS forecast, I trust his. So, after I ate dinner, I ran back out to the garden and covered up only the warm-season crops plus the potatoes (because their foliage really is warm-season in the sense that it suffers freeze and frost damage very easily despite being grown as cool season crops here). I mostly used Agribon-19, which doesn't give very much cold protection (4 degrees if there is no wind or low wind) but does offer frost protection, and it was a possible patchy frost that worried me, not a freeze. At least the wind had dropped down to practically nothing, so I didn't spend a lot of time anchoring the fabric---just a few anchor pins here and there and a couple of heavy metal fence posts on the north side of long rows. It will be easy and quick to uncover everything this morning.

This morning? I won't know how cold it is in the garden until I go out there and check the Min-Max thermometer, but the Mesonet shows an overnight low so far of 37 so patchy frost definitely is a possibility....and Steve was right again! That's why I try to come inside and catch his forecast every evening even when it is hard to drag myself out of the garden while the sun still is shining. Patchy frost sometimes damages things and sometimes not, but since the garden is low-lying and slopes downhill, frost is more likely to damage my garden plants than anything else on our property.

I have more compost to add to the flower bed corner this morning and still have some Johnson grass to dig out, though I've got about 80% of that area finished already. Then, along the east fence line I have about 100 million pink evening primrose invaders to pull out or dig out before they start blooming. I think they are so pretty in bloom....somewhere else....but don't want them taking over the fenced garden.

I need to weed the onions today too. There are not too many weeds in their bed, but there's some and I don't like to have any weeds in any of my planted beds....it is so easy to ignore the weeds when they are small, but the problem with ignoring them is that they then get big really quickly and compete with my plantings for water and nutrients, neither of which generally is available in excess that I'm willing to share with the weeds. The onions do look really good. They like this weather. I haven't counted leaves lately, but just from looking at them, I'd say they have between 6 and 9 leaves depending on the variety. I can really see the necks starting to enlarge quite a bit on some of them, so the harvest probably is getting closer than I think---perhaps late May for the short day types. We'll see. It could be early June.

Jacob, It is sad to say that western and especially northwestern OK have looked more like California this week---some small earthquakes and plentiful wildfire. If only the rain this week will bring them some moisture---I am pretty sure that some of the OK Mesonet stations in NW OK, especially in the OK panhandle, have not recorded even 1/4" of rainfall in almost 200 days. Well, now that I said that, let's look at the map and see exactly what it shows:

Map of Consecutive Days With Less Than 0.25" of Rainfall

Earlier in the week, the QPF was showing parts of western OK getting 2-3" of rainfall, but as so often happens with the QPF, the amount predicted has fallen all week, and the higher totals are slowly shifting more eastward. Still, any rain would help.

Here's the current QPF:

7-Day Qualitative Precipitation Forecast

I hope everyone has a great day and gets to work in their gardens if their schedule permits. My whole schedule, other than taking care of all our animals and feeding the wildlife, is built around the garden today. Even though we are starting out a lot colder than yesterday morning, it still is going to be a beautiful day. One advantage of these recurring cold nights is that they are keeping snake activity low, and it is hard for me to feel unhappy about that.

Dawn

One thing nice about the consistent cool temps here is that transplanting hardened seedlings causes minimal trauma. It doesn't look terribly windy for the next couple days, either, which makes it even better.

And I'm looking forward to whatever rain we get on Saturday. I see that it won't be very windy, so looks like a soaker. I'd gladly donate our rain to those in the west, and am thankful it looks like they'll get some. Meanwhile, I'll keep watering, since it doesn't look like we'll get a whole bunch.

Now that I'm not worried about getting tomatoes out, the next pain is the peppers! My my, how they are growing! Healthy little buggers, but it looks like I will be putting an awful lot of them in big pots in the next couple days, something I was hoping wouldn't be necessary.

Thanks so much for posting the blurb about Weeder's Digest, Jacob. Nope, I was not aware of it. Now I am and have ordered a subscription for myself. It sounds wonderful! And I can see where one would want the back issues. What a gem. Your parents did GOOD, didn't they!

Since I'm not growing brassica this spring, or beans, I am kind of coasting, just with what I've got, plus the herbs and flowers. I feel a bit like a slackard. You mentioned how tickled you were about seeing liatris, Megan. I felt that same delight (mixed with a bit of apprehension) at seeing the asclepias tuberosa popping up by the shop bed. I was beside myself last year, first at successfully getting them germinated, celebrated when it worked, then after they'd grown up, at the merciless onslaught of oleander aphids. I was glad when they were eaten to the nubs, frankly. Now here they are, in triplicate. Good luck guys. Maybe I'll move some to a different bed and see if they can avoid being detected. THAT is why I was excited to see your "common milkweed." Maybe the aphids won't recognize them?

It's 52 and I'm waiting just a little while longer to go move plants.

A check of the garden Min-Max thermometer reveals an overnight low temperature out there of 36. I didn't see any patchy frost, but that's likely because I didn't go out to the garden until almost 8:30 so any frost would have been gone by then. I uncovered the plants and they are fine, but the hummingbirds are cold. They clustered around the feeder outside the kitchen window on the west side of the house, roughly 8 or 9 of them, and fought over the feeder in that sheltered location. Because the wind was cold and was out of the E/NE, the feeders on the east side of the house were not very popular earlier this morning. I made fresh nectar for all the feeders and am about to refill them as soon as it cools off a bit more. The hummingbirds have since moved to the front yard and are fighting over the three feeders out there now. Maybe there's always this much activity up here by the feeders in the mornings and I just miss it because I'm usually out in the garden.

Oh, and I thought of something I forgot.

Rebecca, They do have 2 National Guard helicopters available for firefighting, though I haven't seen any of them in the videos of firefighting aircraft that are being posted on social media. I think the NG choppers probably are Black Hawks and they have a bucket that hangs from a long rope or chain or cable. They can scoop up water out of ponds and lakes and drop it on fires, but it is a relatively small amount of water compared to what dedicated firefighting aircraft can carry. So, to some small extent, the NG is involved.

Today's winds sure are a lot lighter. I hope that helps the firefighters get better containment on the wildfires.

It looks gorgeous outdoors, but still feels cool. I think in another hour or so, after it has warmed up and doesn't feel quite so chilly, the weather will feel as good as it looks.

Dawn

It's still 40's right now. We got down to about 34 with a feels like of 30, probably had some frost. Was chilly this morning when I went out to the chickens. Supposed to get up to 57 today, and possible patchy frost tomorrow morning. 50's, low 60's for highs for the next couple weeks, possible rain on Saturday and Sunday. Everything in the garden is doing well.

There's an area of the garden that I'm digging, as I didn't get to the weeds soon enough, so they're bad. Kind of half and half digging/ not digging this year. Honestly, I think that will be better, as it opens up a lot more to this experiment. I can compare the same crops digging to not digging, and also possibly only digging at the start this year, and going no dig with the previously dug beds for next year, just applying compost to the surface in autumn with lots of leaves/grass clippings. Then compare that to the area that never got dug once! It will prove to be a good experiment I think.

I still need to put out another 60 ft. or so of potatoes. I'm going to aim to have that done by the weekend, before the rain. Digging the new beds has been a lot of work, and the ROCKS! Oh my gosh, I pulled out wheelbarrow full after wheelbarrow full of huge rocks yesterday, from a 15x4' space, and I'm still not done. I learned the hard way I need to wear gloves. I grabbed a rock, as sharp as a knife, and it sliced right into my finger. Took a bit to get that one to clot up, and figured that could have been much worse, so I got some gloves. I hate gloves :( I'm digging 12-15" deep, about 2-3" of compost. There are a ton of worms, and I'm getting a chance to pull out all these grass roots in this section, a benefit. The soil is extremely rocky, but very fertile and a loamy clay, so great soil to plant into. All our soil smells quite sour, so I suspect it's a bit acidic, but for some reason it never seems to bother anything. My grandpa gave me bucketsful of limestone, so I'll mix that in and see if there is any difference.

I like the book a lot, Nancy. I'm very excited to see what the seasonal editions have to offer. I like the older editions of Mother Earth News quite a lot, but the newer editions have sucked. They've changed a lot!

Jacob, I grewup by Grand Lake, so I can relate to your rock comment. There was this one garden we had to pull rocks every year. I swear they grew back over the winter. In our new place, I've found 7 rocks in the last 3 years, & the largest was slightly larger than a golf ball (other than the scattered ladscape pebbles the previous owner had). I don't know if it's a fluke or OKC just doesn't have rocks, but they're not in my yard. Pity, too. I could use them for garden borders.

I got a pretty white flower at SF last year that came back. I actually got 3 but I think one got "weeded" when I was cleaning the bed. And something I wintersowed last year (that promptly died) has come back. Now to let them grow and find out what they are.

I am sick in bed after being up all night. I am dreaming of moving soil from the tree cluster to my beds. And planting irises. I planted tomatoes yesterday which really consisted of moving soil for over 3 hours. We put the soil up around the bottom of the plastic to keep the wind out. It works like a charm but moving wet soil wears me out. I have so much to do before the fling and here I lay like a dead fish.

Add it's so nice to read about a what yall are doing while I laying around. Gives me ideas and something to look forward to.

Bless the rocks; my soil is certainly not mineral deficient! I do think they breed down there.

There are officially leaves on the pecan trees. So, I take that as a sign to plant out...provided I'm not doing it in a cold rain on Saturday. Travis Meyer says 'almost' time for warm season crops, but hey, we gamble.

Also had a sandwich tonight with the first lettuce from the garden. The stems are a bit bitter, but the leaves are wonderful. Guess I'll need to replant the lettuce bin that the squirrels dug up, and get some row cover.

I really hate having to go to work when I could be planting stuff.

Nothing I started for SF has germinated yet...

Oh, Rebecca, I KNOW! Today would have been perfect to stay home and work in the garden. My day started off cranky again. Part of it is that Ethan has to be at school even earlier than before--he has a zero hour that starts at 7, but now even earlier because they've added minutes to the school day to make up for the teacher walk out and he's exhausted but can't have anymore tardies in that class. He had a NHS induction tonight and I really did not want to go, but didn't tell him that. He told me to stay at home because it's not that special for the juniors (unless this is their first year). I stayed home. My day got so much better once coming home from work. Mason came out and I made a tasty dinner and we walked the dogs and I got to do a couple of things in the garden. I wonder how it would feel to wake up everyday and choose how to spend the day. I have so many projects and it would be a dream to spend my days working on those things.

My planted tomatoes are looking good. So happy about this! And the 19 that looked like crap, they're putting on new leaves so I think they'll be okay. I might have SunGold, Arkansas Traveler, Eva Purple Ball, and Early Girl to share.

Rebecca, sorry about your lack of germination...and congrats on the first lettuce.

Kim, I hope you are feeling better.

So, I had a piece of horseradish in the refrigerator leftover from when I made fire cider in the fall. Decided to stick in in a big pot and guess what I noticed today! It's growing! I finally have horseradish!

Asparagus. HA! I was worried that my two 8 ft beds wouldn't provide enough. That stuff has to be harvested everyday.

We got news that the property across from our neighborhood is supposed to become a mess of structures--homes, businesses, even a multiplex. How can they do this? There's cows on that property and trees and a pond. And wildlife. It's lovely. I can't even believe that I'll pull out of our neighborhood and be facing all that mess when right now it's so pretty with wildflowers swaying in the breeze. Why? So sick about it. The traffic...what will that be like?...it just stinks that they are doing this. The property to the north of the neighborhood is already being built up. Large homes. Our neighborhood will be so weird. It's unincorporated and we'll just be stuck in the middle of all the new structures--our little hillbilly/hippie neighborhood. Oh, and we won't be able to see the stars so clearly once all the lights come in.

Rebecca, Our pecan tree has finally leafed out, though just barely. All the other trees are fully leafed out and I am enjoying the gorgeous array of the light spring green colors of the leaves while it lasts, because soon they'll be the darker green of summer. The continued leafing out of all the trees probably is why our county's relative greenness jumped to 57% this week (finally!). We're still not as green as usual, but it is getting better.

I'm starting to wonder who planted all the lettuce in my garden, why it takes up such an enormous space and how we're going to eat it all. It is almost enough to induce a panic attack. Then, I remember that the chickens eat lettuce and I calm down. I still might have planted too much because I like using it as a ground cover type plant to shade the ground around taller plants like tomato plants. Our spinach plants are getting really big finally. It seems like it took them forever. You know, I never have seen a squirrel in my garden and find it hard to imagine the 8' tall fence keeps them out. I guess they are too lazy to climb its wooden poles. Or, they just prefer stealing bird feeder food or the chickens' hen scratch. I'm not complaining about not having a squirrel problem (the squirrel problem will manifest itself as the peaches begin to get close to ripening....) but just surprised that I see them in the yard non-stop all day and not in the garden.

Jacob, My brother's place south of Fort Worth was built on caliche' clay---more rocks than clay, and he tried to garden in it. Finally, after he'd had major back surgery and couldn't do any sort of physical labor any more, I spent a whole winter digging out all the rocks from his veggie garden so I could build him raised beds. When I was through digging the rocks (I only dug where the raised beds would be, not where the pathways were going to be because I am not a glutton for punishment), we filled in the depressions in the soil left by their absence with soil, cow manure and compost. Then Tim and I built raised beds above grade level and filled them with a purchased load of sandy loam/compost blend, hauling one wheelbarrow load at a time to the fenced garden plot from the place where the dump truck unceremoniously dumped it in a big pile and left it. It was the hardest I've ever worked to build a garden, but I wanted for my brother to have a garden where he could grow things and enjoy gardening despite having a very bad back. The lesson I learned from all that was to be sure we didn't buy rocky land when we bought our land up here, and we didn't. I knew I could improve any soil we had on our new place, but I didn't want to spend years digging out rocks. Our red clay has great mineral content and is enormously fertile. Our sandy soil? It is pathetic. I did kind of look for clay on purpose for that very reason---it is much easier to turn clay into great garden soil than to do the same with sand.

Kim, I do hope you're feeling better. I laid around yesterday and didn't do anything much all morning because my allergies were so bad. I took Benadryl, which did dry up the drainage right away but it always makes me so drowsy that I'm worthless for the next 4-6 hours. So, I ate lunch early and took a nap. I did finally make it out to the garden in the afternoon after the side effects of the allergy medication wore off and hauled tons of compost, one five-gallon bucket at a time, to the flower bed corner of the garden. I bet I hauled 140 to 150 gallons, and still need to move another 40 or 50 gallons this morning. Then, the race is on to dig it down deeply into the soil before it starts raining tonight or tomorrow. I'll let the rain settle that area in and then I can plant it, perhaps next week. I feel so far behind because of the recurring cold weather, and the garden is especially deficient in blooming flowers. We have some, but nothing at all like most years. In a couple of months, the flowers will be dense and thick (I hope) and everywhere, but right now the garden just looks sad...or, at least, the flowering portion of it looks sad because the poppies and larkspur are missing. The veggies look great, although delayed planting means there's not enough of them yet. I have tons of flowers in flats---a million kinds of zinnias, and then some balsam, gomphrena, calendula, cuphea and Texas hummingbird sage, but I'd rather have them in the ground. Because of the late cold, we don't even have chamomile in bloom---so it is about a month behind at least---but I do think we'll have some of it blooming soon.

It is supposed to be cooler today than yesterday, which is a shame because yesterday was pretty close to perfect. Today might be a little less than perfect. Our daytime highs and nighttime lows are running at least 10 degrees lower than average, and I have no idea how long that will last. At least the sun is shining and we're not freezing....and it isn't snowing. Things could be worse.

Now, I need to get off this computer and get out there in the garden and get busy. I'm wasting sunshine when I'm inside and not out there working in it. Tomorrow will be rainy and I'll be indoors wishing I was outdoors.

Dawn

Nothing like a 2 hour workout in 40 mph winds to get rid of a fever. I had to get my irises set in before the rain and clean up my yard ; ]

Well it is mostly done. I am ready for a long nap now. Rain is coming soon

Yay, Kim, you apparently found the cure! No you just have to remember to conjure up those 40 mph winds when you have 2 hours. I sure hope you get that much-needed rain!

haha, Jacob. I gave away a truck full of rocks a few weeks ago. I think they're going to come after another load. Now you see, this is why I build garden beds UP not down! lol, no WAY could I do that, and GDW probably wouldn't help, as he has dug more than his share of rocks up from here. You know what, though? I do love our rocks when I'm not running into one with a shovel.

I bet it ended up being nice there, Dawn? It DID get "nice" here. Certainly nice enough to get some outside stuff done, anyway. I watered all day, even though we are supposed to get rain tomorrow. I have the tomatoes in. They've been use to the temp swings for the past 3 weeks, so not a big move for them (minus the freezes.)

I had some allergy reactions yesterday, too, which is not typical for me. A very runny nose for most of the day. My least favorite thing about gardening is hauling heavy stuff around. I need to do push-ups when I'm off gardening duty.

HJ, I am SO sorry about the building news. Big OUCH there, for you. I hope someday you DO get to get up in the morning and do what you'd like. (Only took me 66 years to get there--I hope you get there a little more quickly.) However, once Ethan is out on his own, I bet you'll find a lot more time on your hands--and undoubtedly be glad for it, to help you not miss having the kids home quite so much.

I mowed our immediate back "lawn" and with all those raggedy weeds cut off, looks like a lawn. Woo-hoo. That's always an upper.

GDW and I ran all over the country yesterday. . . up to Locust Grove to see Low Water Dam, back to Mazie's. . . no spoonbill. Back through Wagoner, up to Broken Arrow Aldi, back to Wagoner Walmart, then stopped for dinner at a new little Wagoner place we weren't aware of. Simple, basic Mom and Pop but lovely hamburger steak and fried chicken. We'll go back!

Today I was all over the house country. In the yard, in the house, major cleaning house and laundry, planting plants. Watering plants on the deck, beds in the yard. Each day I plunk some little shrubs and flowers in. . . funny, doesn't look like the deck and grow cart are any emptier.

I finally got a chance to plant some of my tomatoes and many of my peppers, it wasn't as windy when I planted, I'm a real chicken when it comes to wind, it makes the air feel cold to me and I just don't enjoy it. I'm watering them real good now, maybe it will rain but being the realist that I am (NOT pessimist!) I'll believe it when I see it! The sun was shining and I really warmed up, turned on my Animal Collective and jammed out while digging in the dirt. All those holes and I couldn't even count the worms! Then I saw one. WAH wah. Guess he didn't get the memo. If I was a worm, I would choose my garden. The soil is so loose, I easily dug down 10". I have my soil tested at my extension office every year and get a good report, well when I got the report back this year the pH was 7-7.5, but they said not to worry about adding anything so I didn't. I read somewhere that dutifully adding a couple inches of compost in spring/fall will naturally take care of the pH. And you can always trust The Internet. I had quite a worm farm going for a few years but in 2014 had a surprise brain tumor removed and let most of my worms drown. Oh I could have cried but didn't have the energy. I found a home for the survivors but I suspect they just were made into chicken food. I didn't ask because I like to believe they are happy and thriving and have forgiven me.

Right now the wind picked up, it isn't a breeze, it's wind! Haha and it really cooled off. After planting I put on shorts and made my favorite refreshing beverage of club soda with citrus juice. Ready to chill out and now I am literally chilling out! I have my jeans on and a hoodie and I would enjoy my soda a lot more if I were hot!

Tomorrow I will plant more peppers and tomatoes in containers and give that my best shot. My workplace did some landscaping last week and I couldn't believe what I found in the dumpster! Several heavy duty large pots that trees were in! Man, I had priced those at $8 a pop last year at a garden center. Glad I passed on those! A good friend moved up South (Dakota) and gifted me a lot of her garden supplies which included 4 very decent tomato cages! AND they fit perfectly in the big planters! Yay! So we'll see how things go this year!

Hazel, wow! It's horrible the way "progress" will ruin a beautiful neighborhood. Why??? That is a good question but I am convinced it's all about the money. Money money money. People don't know when enough is enough! Everyone wants more! Such greed. (I wouldn't complain if I had more, though!) BUT, I am content and the Lord provides everything I need. I bought my house back in 1983 and it is on the very edge of town with a huge farmers field behind it which is still, and most likely in my lifetime, will always be there. However, there is a Koch plant about 2 miles away that keeps getting bigger, louder and brighter what seems by the minute and it's so disappointing the way it diminishes the starlight. Well, that's progress and those Koch brothers need their money.

Time to move my hose, hope we get a good soaking tonight though!

Ha, Haley! Good move on not buying the big pots! I was just congratulating MYSELF on not ordering rhubarb or horseradish. BECAUSE I just got a notification from Pinetree saying my horseradish and rhubarb had shipped! I definitely need to keep better track of what I'm ordering, and what is still out! LOL Obviously you're an oletime GW person, whereas I'm pretty new, so don't think we've crossed paths. And oh my, SO glad you got through the brain tumor bout!

Well that was not the cure. I relapsed into bed. I am listening to thunder and rain is coming. My iris' will be so happy I got them all settled in their new beds. And my barrels are all set up ready to catch some rain. I hope the wind dies down so I can sleep to nite.

I tell you what. I spent two freakin days digging that 30x5' bed, 2 more beds to go, and by the time I was done, there were no rocks in sight!!!! I went out and transplanted some swiss chard today and put in the last of my potatoes. THEY'RE BACK!!!!! Guess I gotta keep at hoeing out that bed to uncover them.

Kim, sometimes it does seem like when we work hard during an illness, we "sweat out" the sickness. I hope you get your rain. I hope we get ours. I so wish I would have had time to plant a few more things today...but there just wasn't time. Oh, and I hope you enjoyed your nap. Naps are so nice. Oh wait. I read your most recent post. Sorry you're still sick. :(

Hailey, I wouldn't call our neighborhood "beautiful" but the country around it is. You said a lot in your post. You had a brain tumor removed? You had a worm farm? I'm sure your worms that were rehomed are living a nice life and have fond memories of you. ;)

Nancy, there's an old church hymn, "We'll work till Jesus comes"....that's our joke and motto. No one is retiring around here. We do put money in retirement funds. Honestly, if we could just find a way for me to be home more...life would be happier for everyone. Tom really should work. He would drive me crazy if he was home all day. He would drive himself crazy. Working outside the home does help one to be more mindful and productive with home time.

Can you really put some under "citizen's arrest"?

So...asparagus. When in the season do you let the spears turn to ferns? The previous 2 years, I just let them all go to fern as is recommended until year 3.

WOW, on his way home tonight, my dad was driving down the road by a field up by our house, and a big barred owl flew out of nowhere and right under the car, getting crushed by the tire. He was still alive when my dad pulled over to check on him, then died pretty quickly. That owl hung around our house a lot. A pity!

All this talk about spending the day in the garden... As of yesterday, I have 7500 days until retirement. And then I can spend my days pulling weeds, planting flowers, and squishing bugs.

How difficult is a worm farm, especially in winter? I've read the instructions for creating one out of rubbermaid totes and have thought about doing it. Is there a specific worm you buy, or could I just scoop some from my yard?

Jacob, when I only read the first part of your story (up until "right under the car") I was excited for you! Thought you got your Hogwarts' letter! lol

Sorry about the owl, though, what a shame. I wonder why she or he did that?

Think he had a suicide wish Hazel.

My dad also said it was a very busy night in town for the police. People are pulled over everywhere, being arrested, etc. Apparently it's "4/20" day. I sure feel bad for some of the things those officers have likely seen tonight!!

Jennifer, That is terrible news about a development coming in to ruin your rural neighborhood. It is what all of us rural folks dread happening. I am sure it will happen to us some day, and we'll just have to deal with it because we aren't going to pack up and move.

Congrats on the horseradish plant!

Kim, I hope the rain doesn't miss y'all. Your area has been pretty dry this year.

Nancy, It was nice here after it warmed up a bit, but the wind blew all day long and made it feel cooler out there than I'd hoped. Oh well, some day soon it will be hot and I'll be wishing for a cool breeze.

It is odd how planting and planting and planting doesn't seem to reduce the number of plants still waiting to be planted. It drives me crazy, but I just keep plugging away and eventually (sometimes after weeks and weeks of planting) I discover there's finally more plants in the ground than plants still waiting to be put in the ground.

Hailey, Great score on the big planters! I do hate it when the wind turns cold and I have to put on warmer clothing. For springtime, that is just wrong.

Kim, Sorry you've relapsed. Enjoy the rain.

Jacob, Those rocks surely are breeding out there underground. That's the only logical explanation, unless you are such a talented gardener that you're actually growing rocks. That is too bad about the owl. What in the world was he thinking??

Jennifer, Tim talks about retiring all the time and we've been putting away retirement money ever since we first got married, but I think he'll go crazy if he retires any time soon. I think he just sees so many other cops take early retirement after 20 or 25 years that he thinks he ought to retire early too, but he's a workaholic and I think retiring early would be a mistake....for him. When he was sick recently and was home for a couple of days, he was climbing the walls and dying to get back to work. He just couldn't wait. So, maybe that showed him how boring he'd find retirement.

Regarding the asparagus, if this is Year 3, you probably can cut for 3-5 weeks. Next year you ought to be able to cut for a full two months. One thing to watch for is that the spears start decreasing significantly in size.

I worked in the garden all day and got a lot done, although to someone else it might not look like a lot. I did a lot of mulching and a little weeding, dug out some invading bermuda grass I found in the asparagus bed, dug out all the Johnson grass that was invading the flower bed in the SE corner of the garden and worked a ton of compost into that soil, fixed a bad spot in the fence, etc. As soon as I finished one task, I moved on to the next one.

When I was thumping blossoms on the tomato plants today (because their plastic-wrapped cages block most of the wind), I noticed that one SunGold tomato is breaking color. Then, this afternoon, I looked again and there's two SunGolds breaking color. It will be a few more days before they are ripe---but at least there will be two of them. When there is only one first tomato and it is a bite-sized one, by the time you cut it in half to share, neither person gets very much tomato. This time, Tim and I each will get one whole cherry tomato. Now, if only the Cherokee Purple tomatoes would hurry up and ripen too.

I did all the work I could get done before the rain comes. If the rain is late to arrive tomorrow, I'll get more done, but otherwise I have a long list of chores to do indoors too. I just hope the rain doesn't miss us.

Dawn

Ok, there are still GW gremlins around, because last night and this morning, HJ's post between mine and Dawn's was NOT there, but now that I'm here this evening, it is.

Kim, could you maybe have gotten glutened somehow?

HJ, I remember when I was on a college study trip to London, and we were looking at all the office buildings and parking garages built over thousand year old ruins, we made the observance that progress doesn't always move forward. So true about your neighborhood.

I am not about to begrudge western OK their rain, because they need it, but why can't they keep it out there until Sunday so I can work in the garden tomorrow? I'll happily take the rain Sunday.

The rain missed me

Rebecca it was definitely more serious than gluten, maybe even food poisoning. Mrs boss, her son, granddaughter, and brother all had it. I am feeling better today but not 100%

Rebecca, That happens to me all the time. I'll see posts 10 or 12 hours later than I know weren't there before....even though I'll remember a post after the 'surprise' posts and I know it was there.....it is like they pop up out of nowhere. I guess the GW garden gnomes are playing with our minds or something.

Kim, Did y'all eat at the same place or eat any food in common? If so, maybe food poisoning or....maybe there's just a wicked stomach virus going around? I hope y'all weren't eating any pre-cut, packaged Romaine lettuce because that has been causing food-related illnesses in at least 16 states. I heard that on the news but they didn't say what states, so I don't know if it includes TX or OK.

So far, all the rain is staying west of us and is moving towards central OK so it might be a while before it rains here. I'm going to head outdoors after breakfast and see how much work I can squeeze into the morning before the rain comes this far east. The only thing that would ruin my plan will be if there is thunder and lightning close enough to us from the storms in the west that I can see the lightning or hear the thunder. In that case, the weather is too close to work outdoors safely and I'll come back indoors.

It isn't going to warm up much here today. It currently is 56 degrees and our forecast high is 57. I guess we're just going to stay the same all day.

I keep forgetting to mention that more and more wildflowers are beginning to bloom. The native phlox, which at our house chooses to grow in the bar ditch, is blooming now. The flowers are small (like those on the creeping phlox sometimes known as thrift) but very fragrant. I smelled it two days before I actually saw it in bloom.

I tried to dig out Johnson grass and pink evening primroses that are invading the garden's eastern fence line but the clay is dense there along the fence (if we were to soften that clay, rabbits would come under the fence, so there is just about an 18" wide walkway between the fence and the raised beds) and is rock hard. Thus, I'm counting on this weekend's rain to soften up that ground so I can dig out those invaders inside the fence line. After we mow the area just outside the fence, I'm going to put down cardboard and mulch outside the fence line and try to smother everything within a few feet of the fence. I am so tired of the constant plant invasion issue.

I hope everyone gets the rain that is in their forecast, and it is okay with me if mine is really late to arrive and I can squeeze in a few hours of gardening work. Rebecca, maybe you'll be able to do the same.

It is nice to see the zeroes on the rain map for parts of northwestern OK this morning, but I wish they'd received more rain. Maybe they'll get more today. The first two maps linked below update once a day I believe.

Consecutive Days With Less Than 0.25" Rain

A few areas got some rain, but not even as much as a quarter-inch:

Consecutive Days With Less Than 0.10" of Rainfall

And, finally, here's the 2-day rainfall map. I chose 2-day instead of 1-day since some folks got their rain yesterday and then for others it is falling today:

2-Day Rainfall Accumulation Map

For a month that normally is pretty rainy, April seems far behind in rain though I haven't checked the maps for the month-to-date rainfall totals to see if they support what I think. I'll do that this afternoon after the rain has had a chance to fall over a significant portion of the state.

Dawn

I got a good rain here in Garfield County, steady and oh so relaxing! Woke up at 1 in the night and heard it going, on and off, mostly on till now. Everything-my plants, birds, squirrels are loving it! I should have, key word SHOULD have turned my shredded leaves out yesterday for the rain to give them a good watering but I didn't. Oh well. I'll try to get out there today and do that, I'm almost, kind of sure, maybe we'll have another rain before summer is over??

jl, I had 2 giant Rubbermaid tubs full of worms, kept them for about 3 years. They were satisfying and extremely interesting to watch! They faithfully produced several gallons of marvelous vermicompost, however, it got to be a pain when it was time to harvest it, probably because I work 50-60 hrs at a paying job! I did it the hard (lazy) way and dumped the tubs out onto a large vinyl tablecloth onto my kitchen floor and shone a lamp over it, waited, then scooped up the compost. My tubs were kept in my kitchen and didn't smell one bit. When I was laid up and worn out after my surgery, I sadly let them soak, I didn't keep on top of it, and they consequently drown which was sad. If I do it again, I'll look into another set up that makes it easier to harvest, I know there are contraptions that allow the compost to settle in the bottom and it can be emptied but I've never tried it that way. It was no problem in the winter as the bins were inside. I say give it a try! Oh, I purchased 1000 (or was it by the lb?) of red wrigglers online for $30 (?) which for that one time cost, lasted until the end. I'm sure you can search for other ways to start that would be cheaper.

And the downside of rain at our house...

the power goes out even though it’s just rain. No thunder or lightning or strong winds. Rain. That’s all.

The animals.

Still thankful though!

Time to pack up and head to my moms. Lots to do today. No time for power outages.

Well I babysat both boys Tue and Wed and then got vertigo, so I've done nothing. I will have the older one next Tues and Wed.

H/J, I don't know if we'll get more hens or not. I have a friend who has some 4 week old pullets, but I told him I want STUPID chickens. No escape artists, no independent walk around the neighborhood types. He claims his chickens need a seeing eye dog to help them find their feed.

Megan, I direct seeded Greenthread last year, but if it came up it didn't survive. Maybe it will magically appear this year.

Rebecca, I am SOOOO sorry you have such awful squirrels. Maybe Zoodo? Does the zoo still give away/sell lion dung, or some other big predator that would scare squirrels?

Kim, I hope you're feeling better.

We are getting rain now. Have a good weekend y'all.

Yesterday when I planted tomatoes and did an inventory of the ones left (far more than were planted), I noticed--Carbon tomatoes had, by FAR, the stoutest main stems. I was easily able to pick the Carbons out from the rest.

The ants continue to plague us. We have tried anything and everything: store-bought bait traps; cinnamon, cayenne or both combined with vinegar. Lot of vinegar, lot of bleach wipes. Borax and sugar mixtures. Commercial killer spray in some places. A mixture of Dawn and vinegar to cut off new trails. Garlic, raw onions (they hate raw onions smeared around their fields, but wears off after a day or so.)

The problem is that there are so many, we're definitely not getting back to their main tribes very successfully; I suspect there are at least a few colonies. We can cut their chosen spots off, but they just find new places to come in. Yesterday found them in the pantry cupboard, so emptied that out (and threw away some stuff that's been sitting there unused in 3 years, which was a good thing). I'm cutting off that trail, but have no doubt they'll find somewhere else to explore. $%^&* That's okay. I'm not freaked out at all, but am on an aggressive "attack and destroy," I may not get all of them, but I am making a good dent. I'm glad they're not human-sized. We'd be a sorry match.

It's a beautiful 57 with no wind today. It would be a great day to plant, but the rain is almost here, probably within the hour. So I'll wait and do some planting tomorrow. I've been thrilled with putting out herbs and hardy annuals with no wilts. Unusual but makes it easy. I'm still dragging my feet on putting peppers out. . . no big hurry. They're mighty healthy to this point. Laughing at the monster garlic--in the veggie bed AND the 18 or so out in flower beds. We may have nothing but garlic and ants to show for this year.

I have 3-4 thriving plants/flowers out in the beds that I have no idea about, and I always get a kick out of that, wondering how long it will take me to figure it out. Makes the whole gardening thing a bit more fun, actually.

We're waiting for company for GDW's birthday today. I put on a big boneless pork butt for possible pulled pork (Amy, you inspired me!), or perhaps we'll all go to our favorite Mexican place to celebrate. I'm not even sure how many will show up, but all will be fun, and I look forward to more space on the deck and grow cart after they leave.

Nancy, I'm glad to know we're not the only ones to deal with ants. We'd been told by my grandparents that leaves sitting around the house attracts them, as it provides a hiding spot and shelter, but we've raked them all out this past year, and far far away from the house (other than some shredded in the garden), and the ants are still bad. Like you we have tried just about everything. Anymore it's just become a fact of life. We have someone spray them and it makes them worse!!! Once a couple years ago they had built a nest in our door frame. That was a mess. They don't seem quite as bad on sunny days.

An example of the annoyance they cause: last night when sleeping I'd wake up all through the night to them crawling on me. Slap them and go back to sleep. Annoying as heck!!

Yep, Jacob, a fact of life. LOL, can relate to the slapping them off and going back to sleep, although so far they haven't found the bed. Knock on wood. But in the course of fixing meals, slap em off, proceed. If some end up in dinner, oh well. Good protein, right?

We have no leaves around the house, either. No problem for them. I am wondering if they're worse this year because of the slow green-up. Nothing fun for them in the yard, so let's go see what's in the house.

Hailey, I must get worms now. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, but it's one more thing to take care of...I really want them though.

Amy, whatever you do, don't get a brown leghorn. One of my 2 month old pullets is a brown leghorn. I can tell we're already gonna have problems with her. She is FLIGHTY...and independent.

Dawn, thanks for the asparagus advice. And I know! about planting and not making a dent (seemingly) in the number of plants that remains to be planted.

Sorry about the ants, Nancy. They are such a pain once they decide to invade your home. Have fun at Garry's BD party.

It's been raining all day here. Much needed. I hope it's doing this all over Oklahoma today.

I've gotten word that the power is back on at home. My dress shopping is done, so I will go home and try to make myself look presentable for the band banquet tonight.

Nancy, go get the Terro Ant Bait traps. I promise, they will take care of the problem. I've gotten them everywhere - WalMart, Home Depot, Lowes, Reasors. I know you don't want poison, but these are literally the only thing that will fix the problem for me. The bait will get back to the colony and the queen. I've never had a problem with any of my cats getting into the traps either, but you do put them wherever they congregate, so if it's out on the counters, I'll build a wall of boxes or cans around it. Still works.

I was out running errands in the rain this morning, and it was great. I was in Stringer's greenhouse during the heaviest of it, and while it was a little loud, it was incredibly soothing to walk around poking through the plants, and hearing the rain.

At Stringer's I picked up a couple of Sweet 100s, a Park's Whopper, a Patio (out of curiosity), and a 4 pack of Early Girls, all to replace mine that may or may not make it. Also a peppermint, a Cal Wonder bell pepper, a couple 6 packs of petunias (to give the front planter some color until the summer stuff takes over), and some dianthus. Monday I'll make the pilgrimage to TMD to pick up a few things there, and get to planting. The rain will sure make it nice to plant stuff. Everything I bought today needed a little water, so they're sitting out in the rain right now.

Anyone know about rose rosette disease? Trying to figure out if my Tropicana has it. I think maybe.

In the meantime, I'll put the rest of the day to good use by making and freezing the cookie dough for SF. And laundry. Trying to decide between making pizza or ground beef goulash for dinner.

I harvested up some of the first radishes today. I'm currently eating them with cooked spinach, bread and gravy, cheese, and roast beef! I love radishes. I like to soak them in apple cider vinegar sometimes, then dip them in mustard.

Glad to know most of you are getting rain. It's just beginning now. I got some more garden digging done before it started. My feet are SORE!!

Hazel, I learned tons on the website redwormcomposting.com. That guy loves his worms!!!! Meanwhile, since I became aware of the rain at 1 am, it hasn't stopped raining! It's just sprinkling now but WOW!

One even inch. What is referred to as a "good, soaking rain!!"

Yall are so busy I can hardly keep up. I still am out of it. Plus vertigo hit a couple weeks ago. Not a good time right now.

Went to class at ag center on how to grow strawberries organically with tons of chemicals. Interesting what they consider organic. Sad.

Speaking of chemicals I gave up on the case from the drift. It's time to let it go. It was an accident and I forgive them and move on. New chapter.

I wish I could figure a faster way to water in the greenhouse. With a can it takes forever. Our hose nozzle is so strong I don't use it.

I can't wait till I feel better do I can plant some more outdoors.

Thx, Rebecca. It is the one thing I have not tried. Will get to it straightaway. Thank you.

We have been hosting a HERD of goldfinches today. What a delightfully eye-popping event--seeing those bright spots of yellow everywhere against the gray skies and muted greens. There must have been 2-3 dozen out there this afternoon. Just an absolute delight.

I have never seen birds eat as much seed as goldfinches. Be careful, they will bankrupt you within weeks.

Rebecca... I know a little bit about RRD. I've had it twice in my yard. Neil Sperry has had some good information on it.

Rose Rosette.

Nancy, Listen to Rebecca because she speaks the truth about goldfinches. We feed them all winter and have dozens and dozens and dozens of them. We buy the finch seed in huge bags and it still lasts no time at all. I think we had 6 or 7 goldfinch feeders this past winter and I was filling up some of them daily. For such small birds, they eat a ton of food each.

Lisa, Did you see Neil's post this afternoon or evening about the live oaks he planted and Barbara Bush's funeral? It was pretty stunning. I wonder how amazed he was when he realized the trees he was looking at on TV during funeral coverage were trees he himself planted decades ago?

Kim, I agree with you about the shocking truth about 'organic' strawberries....and many other organic things. When they came out with the National Organic Program all those years ago, a lot of us were disgusted by some of the things they decided to allow....and it is a joke that the foods can be called organic. The only way for us to really know we are eating healthy food is to grow our own and not use that stuff on it, or buy at local markets from folks who don't use those things either. IN order for that to happen, you have to get to know your local farmer/market grower and be able to ask them how they grow the food they are selling. I've always said I prefer to eat food which hasn't been sprayed with anything---including many common and popular organic products. Just because a food is labeled organic doesn't mean it hasn't been sprayed with stuff that we don't want our food sprayed with.....and just because a pesticide, herbicide, fungicide or miticide is labeled organic doesn't necessarily mean it is better for us or safer than one that is synthetic. There are plenty of organic gardening products I never have used and never will use. Never, ever, ever. The advantage of growing our own is that we can decline to use all those things.

There are many kinds of greenhouse watering systems available. I don't know if they're too pricey for a small grower to purchase and use---there's everything available from misting systems to irrigation booms to drip lines or flood systems. Maybe you can put a pressure reducer on the hose so it would be usable.

For ants indoors, Terro ant bait traps are the best and I believe they contain just borax and sugar. To keep ants out, we spray around the foundation of the house with peppermint soap or an orange oil spray made from Medina orange oil and water (gotta keep the orange oil off plants thought as it can burn them). The peppermint soap (we use Dr. Bronner's) disrupts the scent trail so that ants cannot follow a scent trail left by previous ants. The orange oil either kills them (if you spray them directly or they walk into the liquid just after you sprayed it) by dissolving their exoskeleton. That's what we used to keep ants out of the sunroom when Chris' tropical birds lived there because he didn't want to use chemicals around the birds. For some reason, orange oil didn't bother the birds, but he was very careful about using it inside the room. He preferred to spray outdoors if he could find where they were getting into the room. Orange oil is an old organic remedy for fire ants---you add it to Garrett Juice to make a mound drench. It even was in one of the original organic fire ant products back in probably the 1990s---a mound drench called Citrex. It works on all ants, but I don't really worry about ants or use it unless they're coming indoors. We can peacefully coexist with most ants outdoors, but once they try to come into the house, they are not our friends any more.

I am too tired to write more. I'll try to be up early to start the Week 4 thread. I feel like the whole month of April has dragged by in a blur of freezing nights and wildfires. At least the rain adds a different twist to it all.

Dawn

Could I safely use the orange oil around the greenhouse? Those red ants wandering around in there are dangerous to me.

Probably. Just avoid hitting plants with it (too strong of an orange oil concentration becomes herbicidal) and avoid using it on painted surfaces where, again, too strong of a concentration becomes an eco-friend paint stripper.

I use 1 teaspoon of Medina orange oil to 1 quart of water in a spray bottle and spray the ants and their path. If I spray it on a painted surface inside the house, I wipe it up after a couple of minutes. Because the bottle of Medina orange oil is so very highly concentrated, one quart bottle of it will last me 3-5 years.

Another way to use it is to mix 2 Tablespoons (and definitely not one bit more or it is too strong to use around desirable plants) with a standard batch of Garrett Juice and use it as a mound drench for the fire ants. If you don't make and use Garrett Juice as a matter of routine, the recipe is here:

Howard Garrett's Recipe for Garrett Juice

Some people just mix a couple of tablespoons of orange oil plus a tablespoon of liquid soap with a gallon of water and use it as a fire ant mound drench.

Rebecca. . . did you ever settle on baked goodies? Amy and I worked up quite a list last night. . .

It is too cold to plant this afternoon. Well, not really, if I were determined. Not that determined. Well, was just outside and it's drizzling and 52. But tomorrow for sure.

Gotta get me some orange oil and Terro. But if Terro are just borax and sugar, I got my DIY terro. I thought maybe the Borax I had on hand had lost its potency, so got more a couple days ago and tried it again. The ants swarmed it and after I figured some had time to eat and leave, I mopped the remaining 100 or so up.

I love radishes, too, Jacob, and forgot all about them this spring. As cool as it is, I might still be able to plunk some in after I go to town tomorrow. I get a kick out of your menus. I also love bread and gravy, from my childhood days.

The goldfinches must have gotten impatient, and after they cleaned out the feeders, left for someone else's, as they aren't here today. Ha!

Nancy, Most likely the goldfinches were migrating further north. While we have some finches all summer long, the population increases by huge amounts in the winter. We feed them and have to fill the feeders daily until one day--BAM!---they suddenly are gone, headed north to wherever it is that they live in the Spring and Summer months before they migrate south again. We hardly ever see them at feeders after that. I assume they are living off the land. I have tried leaving a full feeder up for them after the huge crowds leave in March, and never have seen a finch at it after the northward migration begins.

Dawn