May 2018, Week 2: Spring Is In Full Swing Now, Summer Approaches

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

We all survived the first week of May and the severe weather threat that came along with it, so let's hope the second week is just as kind.

Does it seem to y'all that all the plants in your area are just bursting out into rapid growth and blooming to make up for the lost time caused by the cold weather in April? It seems like all the plants in our area are just going nuts.

How's everyone's plantings coming along? Are y'all catching up? Still behind?

I'm always happy if I have the front garden totally under control by Mother's Day. That includes having it all weeded and mulched....and, if not totally planted, that almost completely planted. Will I make it this year? I believe so. We'll see. I'm a little worried mud will hold me back, but since it is mostly weed removal (mostly dewberries) at the northwest quarter of the garden that is holding me back, I think I can dig out all those things this week thanks to the rain-softened soil. I made a lot of progress last week on digging Johnson grass out of the eastern fence line, but had to stop when I ran out of softer soil and hit harder clay. Now that rain has fallen, that harder clay ought to be soft enough to dig this week.

The garden is remarkably snake-free so far. I wish I could say the same thing for the yard and chicken coop. Oh well, nobody's life is perfect.

Parts of Oklahoma and adjacent areas of western North Texas are forecast to start hitting the 90s this week. That is bad news for gardeners with tomato plants that might not have managed to set much fruit yet. We just don't need summertime temperatures in early May when we had winter-like temperatures through at least mid-April. Hopefully night time lows will stay low enough for a while to allow for fruit set in the early morning hours.

Dawn

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luvncannin

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

I am not good about poop scooping either. In q I let her roam and when I had to chain her I moved it around. Now she's in a small back yard and I have to scoop :( I decided it's definitely better to do weekly.

On to prettier things. I worked in my flower bed and almost have it finished. There is a variety in there. Iris, day lily, dianthes?, cabbage, kale, 2 tomato, 2 big sage from q, parsley, Jack in the beanstalk, sunflower, moss rose, ice plant and probably something else. All mulched and watered

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Comments (110)

jlhart76
5 years ago
I love WTForecast. A friend showed it to me, and I've gotten several friends to download it.

A/C froze up last night, so I have a call in tothe warranty. Hopefully it's a quick fix and covered by the warranty. After our experiences, I'd recommend getting a home warranty to anyone who asked. It's more than paid for itself.

Part of my garden shares a wooden fence with the neighbor, and I noticed there is a couple inch gap underneath. So I'm lining the fence with cat litter jugs & will fill them with marigold, onion, basil, etc. That should protect his fence somewhat and keep all the mulch from washing onto his sidewalk. Not sure how decent it will look, though. But we don't have an HOA so I can almost do as I please.
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
Dawn, How I wanted to hear that Garrett's Juice is a magic potion and I'll love the results, but I do appreciate that you're not getting my hopes up. I did locate one of my ladybugs - I can tell them apart because one has spots and the other doesn't - and it's the same one I removed from my chard a few days ago. He/she was in the front yard but still in my yard so that is at least something. I have also seen a few lacewings in the yard, so maybe when the neighbor's grass was finally scalped this weekend, the beneficials that were feasting over there came to my yard where there is more shelter now that their grass is gone. I just wish I had more flowers blooming - oh wait. I just realized I have a legit excuse to go plant shopping this weekend and Friday is payday. Woot! Woot!

I missed the heat waves you describe - it was part of the 10-11 year stretch I lived in other states - but I do remember 1998 because I was in college, taking summer school and worked a job that didn't allow even khaki shorts but did consider jeans professional attire. I only had a couple skirts and also no transportation so I was walking to/from work or class in jeans during 100-110 degree days for something like 30-40 days. That year falls 5th on the heatwave chart compared to 2011 which is #1. Can't say I'm sorry I missed that based on how horrible 1998 was. I made the comparison based on NOAA heat wave data, here.
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Kim, I wasn't worried so much about the shed warping as I was worried about it blowing away, but we built a deck-type wooden floor/frame set in posts anchored in the soil in concrete today, so it may warp in morning sun/afternoon shade, but it won't blow away. It did hurt my gardener's heart to cover up beautiful garden soil that was humusy and rich with a shed floor. Regardless, there now will be a shed to hold the tools. We plan to assemble the shed tomorrow and bolt it down. Tomorrow should be less windy than today and that will help will assembling the shed. Hooray for being caught up on your To Do List and for feeling so relaxed, and happy to have traveling money. This is just your week! Jennifer, The netting does break the wind some, and how much just depends on the size of the holes and all. I do think it helps and sometimes all a plant needs is just a little bit of help to get through these crazy Spring winds. The water heater news is not good. I don't do anything for chicken wounds---they heal just fine on their own. You can clean them with Betadine or hydrogen peroxide, but if they're minor they tend to heal quickly with no human intervention. Our chickens are independent and don't especially want us messing with them. Wounds aren't real common here. If it is a puncture wound, keep an eye on that for infection. Nancy, I'm glad they're keeping GDW in the hospital on those IV antibiotics. It will be better to have him more healed than less healed when he is released. Sometimes it seems like hospitals are too quick to shove patients out the door. I'm glad this one is not doing that to him. About the SF, I cannot rearrange our schedule (ha ha) because it is a family wedding (extended family, not immediate family) and I wouldn't dare ask our niece to change her wedding date now. Don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of gardening? (grin) We just had either our second or third day in a row with highs in the 80s, and with only minor fire calls, so it is another good day here. It helps that our relative humidity and dewpoint are really being driven upward by the relentless south winds. I really think the big outbreak of fires here on Wed scared everyone so badly that they've been really, really careful the last couple of days. With all the rain that's supposed to be coming, I'm feeling like our county may already have peaked in terms of the winter fire season and maybe things will start improving now. The green-up needs to speed up though, or that will not be true. Rebecca, I have no idea if I am right or wrong about the weather, but I trust my instincts and they rarely let me down. If they do, I have enough frost blankets to cover my entire front garden and about a third of the back. so I could, theoretically and if the ground were warm enough, just lose my mind and plant everything now. So far this year I haven't covered up anything a single time, except I put a little mulch and autumn leaves over the volunteer pineapple sage plants on a couple of nights when we were going to drop below freezing, and they survived. I suppose the fact that pineapple sage reseeded and the volunteers are growing here already is another sign that our soil is plenty warm. Y'all have to remember, though, that I am really, really far south compared to the rest of you. My weather is more like the weather in Dallas than in OKC, and I plant accordingly. I won't plant everything now, but it is tempting. Not only have four o'clocks sprouted this week (they're usually one of the last volunteers to pop up as they really like and need heat) but so have squash. It is hard to guess if they are winter squash or summer squash, and it won't matter because they are in a compost pile and I'm not going to transplant them and hope they're something worth having, but I find it interesting that the seeds are sprouting. Squash seed will eventually germinate at soil temps of 60, though they prefer 70 or 75 and even will germinate when soil temps are 90-95. Our soil temperatures in the raised beds are staying in the mid-60s and even going up warmer than that during the day, but I didn't think the finished compost that is earmarked for a flower bed I'm reworking was getting that warm. Apparently it must be. There's a family of 7 deer lurking near the front garden. They are making me nervous. They are there every night. They are there every morning. The other day, they came to check out the garden at mid-morning while I was out working, and they were probably less happy to see me than I was to see them. I know in my heart they're trying to find a way over, under or through the fence. I rarely pay attention to the fence on the north side of the garden but I think I need to check it carefully tomorrow because that seems like the weakest section of fence and I don't need for a herd of 7 deer to find a way to breach it. That is a really old fence on the north side and we need to redo it, but that's not going to happen this weekend because it is shed weekend. I've had a flat of purchased tomato plants---7 in all---four Early GIrls, 2 SunGolds and 1 Cherokee Purple that I've been carrying outdoors every morning and indoors every night for at least a month. I meant to pot them up to larger containers (they're in 5" pots) but never got around to it, so now they are big, blooming, have baby fruit on some of them and are getting rootbound. So, today I did the obvious thing and put them in the ground. Oh no you didn't, y'all say. Oh yes, I did. I did it and I'm not sorry. They are in the second highest raised bed and it is staying really warm. Zinnias have been popping up in it for about a month now, and there's a pineapple sage volunteer in that bed too. I lined them all up in a row, three feet apart and I didn't cage them because it is easier to put a frost blanket over them if they aren't caged. I did stake them to help them endure the wind. I know my microclimate, I know my ability to cover and protect these things and I'm confident I made a good decision, but I'm not mentioning it on FB because I do not want to lead astray any less experienced gardeners who might decide to follow my lead. Most people in OKC, for example, have little understanding of the fact that our weather down here is more like the weather in Dallas than the weather in central OK. These days in the 80s are making me worry that we're about to go straight to hot weather with very little mild Spring weather. It isn't that I don't think some cold weather lies ahead---it probably does. I just think I can keep the plants warm enough to mitigate any return to the cold that happens. The great thing is that these are purchased plants, not my sweet baby plants that I've raised from seeds, so if something horrible happens to them, it doesn't hurt as much because I'm not emotionally attached to them. Regardless, I haven't lost tomato plants to late freezing weather in many years, so I don't consider this much of a risk. Well, unless those 7 deer jump the fence, get into the garden and eat the tomato plants. Now, if that happens, I'll consider it a sign from God that I shouldn't have planted so early. My precious raised-from-seed tomato plant babies probably won't go into the ground for another couple of weeks yet as they are younger and smaller than these purchased plants. Oh, the final thing that made me decide it was time to just go ahead and put them in the ground? When Tim was doing the dirt work to combine the two narrower raised beds into one wider raised bed this past weekend, he dug up a sweet potato I had missed when digging sweet potatoes last year....and it was sprouting underground. I say that if you have a sweet potato sprouting in one of your raised beds, the soil probably is warm enough to plant tomatoes. The real miracle is that I restrained myself all week long and didn't rush the plants into the ground the minute Tim dug up that sweet potato. I waited almost a full week, watched the soil temps, watched the weather, etc. and made a fairly rational decision. So the beans are planted and the first round of tomato plants are in the ground. If I can get the east end of the garden prepped in time, I'll sow corn seed before the rain falls. Or, if I don't get it prepped, that will be the first thing I do after the ground is workable again. This might sound early, and it it a little early, but that little voice in my head is telling me it is okay to risk it. That little voice in my head never lets me down, so I trust it. Now, don't y'all go rushing out planting things like I did unless you're willing to risk the consequences. (grin) Dawn
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May 2018, Week 1......Finally Safe To Plant it All?
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Our internet service is back (it was the service provider, not us, who had technical issues after the storms) so I'm playing catchup and working my way backwards from the most recent posts. Amy, They all were rooted....they were branches that were creeping and crawling along on top of the mulch and putting down roots. So, yours should have had roots somewhere. Our dogs and chickens never have bothered tomato plants, so I suspect the plant parts taste bad---deer will eat them though. It sounds like you and your Wild Women of Owasso had fun. That dog needs the biggest most gigantic rawhide bone y'all can find---something the size of a tractor tire perhaps---so she'll have something to chew and maybe, just maybe, then she'll leave your plants alone. I haven't seen a true golden viola, but...California has a native viola that is golden, so it seems to me like someone could have bred a golden viola out of it. Also, there are some pansies that are golden yellow and the violas are close cousins to pansies, so it seems reasonable to think you could have a golden yellow viola. All the yellow violas I've grown have been more of a lemon or pale lemon yellow though. Nancy, We're so rural that I actually am amazed that the WiFi works 99.5% of the time. Typically, if we are forecast to get severe weather, I'm not extremely worried about hail, wind or tornadoes because they are only slim possibilities that might occur. The sure things that will occur if we have a severe thunderstorm? First, the Satellite TV will freeze and then go out. That will last until the storm has moved on. After the TV goes out, it is somewhat likely that the internet will go out too. It doesn't always, but when it does, we always have to wait a day or two to get it back. At some point, the power will flicker off and then come back on. This is only a minor annoyance. Only once in the 19 years we've been here have we lost power for even 4 hours, and that was just last year. Prior to that, our longest power outage had been only 2.5 hours. So, it is briefly annoying, but our local electric co-op guys are awesome and are out there working to fix things the very minute they know something is wrong. This morning, while we were at CostCo, Tim called our internet service provider to check on the outage and they said it was them and not us and that they had fixed it this morning. Sure enough, when we got home, it was working again. Long, long ago--probably 2001 or 2002, Tim figured out that as soon as I had empty plant flats, I'd start more seeds. Still, I think it took him a couple more years to realize that I constantly start more seeds from February through June no matter what. It wasn't as obvious when we had a smaller light shelf with only three shelves that only held 3 flats. Now that we have a larger one that holds a lot more flats, it is a bit more obvious when more plantless flats appear on the shelves that I have started a new round of seed-starting. I have a lot of flats sitting in the garden waiting to be planted. Then, I have a few more flats on the table outside the sunroom---mostly waiting to go into the back garden when I get the front one finished. Then, on the baker's rack in the mudroom, I have 3 or 4 more flats of flower seeds I just started yesterday, also for the back garden. I'll move those outside tomorrow so the flowers can sprout and grow in full sun from day one. I just don't want to move them out until today's rain has ended. Even after I have planted every square inch of space that is safely fenced off from the deer, I'll have succession crops of one sort or another started in flats. It is what I do. When I yank out a crop that is at the end of its productive life, I have small seedlings in flats ready to put into that space, so we have bare space for just hours, not days. Eventually, at some point, it gets too hot for me to care, so I rarely start new seeds in flats after June. Until then, it is just a seed-starting merry-go-round here. Jennifer, I see those strange black boxes sporadically, but they always go away quickly, so I think it is Houzz/GW and not your computer or mine. Coral honeysuckle grows fast in good soil and with good moisture. Mine doesn't grow much in bad drought years, but I planted it in unimproved clay....though I think that years of decomposing mulch should have improved the soil a lot by now. Still, it holds its own even with temperatures well above 100 degrees and no rain for 4-6 weeks straight. I only water it if it wilts, which it seldom does. A year from now, you won't believe how big yours has grown. Jacob, It is very common for our part of our county to get caught in a dry slot (I don't know why) and to have rain falling to our west and east simultaneously and completely missing us. I've learned to live with it. Once, when I met the spouse of a forum member at one of the Spring Flings, he asked which part of this county we lived in. I started to describe it in general terms and he said "Oh, you're in that dry area that the rain always misses" and he could describe our area right down to the road names. Turns out he worked for several years on a custom wheat harvesting crew and had been in our county fairly often. At least while other parts of our county had flooding roadways and power outages on Wednesday, we were fine---albeit dry. When it finally rained here yesterday, the same folks that had heavy rain the day before got heavy rain again....and more flooding, etc. Some of them had small hail on Wednesday and I was relieved that missed us too. We didn't even have enough rain for our part of the county to flood---though some roads a mile or two north of us did flood. It is hard to be patient and wait for the rain to find us, but yesterday it finally found us. Now we're wet and muddy, but at least we didn't have storm damage. Nancy, I wanted asparagus until I had it. I really, really wanted it and knew it needed great soil as it is a long-lived crop, so I waited until I had improved the heck out of the soil for almost 10 years before I planted it. This was especially important because it is at the northern end of a sloping garden, so the runoff all runs from the higher southern end of the garden to the lower northern end. So, now we have it and I am starting to think of it as a garden thug and starting to hate it. It grows like mad. I really think a lot of the irritation is a timing issue. In late winter/early spring when I am busy with wildfires and trying to plant and torn in two by the need to try to find time to do both, there that asparagus is, sprouting and growing like mad daily and demanding that I must drop everything right that minute and harvest it before it gets too tall. Once you harvest it, you must eat it, preserve it, etc. and then the next day there's a whole new crop of spears saying "Harvest me, harvest me....". The other irritant is that once you've harvested for a couple of months, there it sits, blowing around in the wind, flopping over into pathways, providing a natural trellis for bindweed to climb and just taking up space for the rest of the year......so, in some future year, if my asparagus mysteriously disappears, no one should be shocked. The only thing that will kill it is to cut it down to the ground repeatedly over months or sometimes years so it cannot grow and store energy for the next year. If I get tired enough of it, I'll do that. I'd just dig it out, but it has been there a long time and all the roots are grown together in one gigantic mass---it would take a backhoe to dig it out, and I'm not letting a backhoe get near my garden. I keep hoping the voles will eat it, but nope, they only want to eat things that I do not want them to eat. It is too late to plant more edible podded peas. They perform best at cooler temperatures---say when highs are lower than 75. The higher you go above 75 degrees, the more they begin to fade. Mine seem to stay fine as long as the highs are only through the mid-80s, but once we start hitting the 90s (usually that happens here in May), they begin to get powdery mildew and, no matter what you try for the PM, the pea pods are diseased and not fit to eat. So, when PM hits, I harvest all I can, yank out the plants and replace them with something that loves the heat. For years, I tried to fight the PM and keep the peas growing, but the PM hits the pods almost before it hits the foliage, so that was pointless. Often, since the edible podded peas are trellised, I plant icebox melons in their place when I remove them because the icebox melons can climb the trellis and produce marvelously on it. That is a space saver for me. You also could replace your peas when the time comes with a vining form of cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, southern peas, lima beans (produce better in the heat for me than regular pole beans), yard-long beans, malabar spinach, vining types of squash or gourds or mini-pumpkins. or the vining annual flower of your choice. You can plant a fall crop of peas in late summer for an autumn harvest. Generally you'll get a great harvest of fall peas if you plant them about 10 weeks before the date of your average first frost of autumn. They will produce until your temperatures hit the mid-20s, at which time the plants do not necessarily die---but the cold can make the flowers abort, which sort of wrecks your chance of getting a harvest. Amy, Not to burst your okra bubble, but every single person I know who grows okra thinks that their variety is the absolute best and absolute most special okra in the world---far better than everyone else's. I don't know why. Perhaps because okra, when it is happy, can outcompete, outlast and outproduce everything else in the garden in the heat and the drought conditions. (Although it will do better with regular water.) So, folks who grow cowhorn okra think it is the best and the most special. Folks who grow green velvet think the same thing about that variety. Folks who grow one of the orange or red varieties (they all look red to me, regardless of the fact that at least one of them has orange in its name) think they are far superior to others, etc. People who grow Heavy Hitter are sure it is the best, and folks who grow Stewart's Zeebest think it is the best. I have grown a lot of okra varieties some years in order to compare them to one another, and they all did well enough. For what it is worth, I haven't had sharpshooters in OK. Maybe they are more of a TX thing. Kim, I hope you're feeling better and I hope the first market tomorrow is a big success! Tim is back from Salt Lake City, y'all, and I 'think' that was his last work-related trip for the next few months. The dogs were delirious with job when he walked into the house and wouldn't give him a moment of peace last night. One dog or another had to be almost in his lap or leaning against him for the rest of the evening. Thinking about how many times he has had to travel lately, I asked him 'do any of y'all ever work a week in the office?' (referring to him and the other three assistant chiefs), and he thought about it and said "not really". lol. Even when they are in town, they're constantly at multi-agency meetings, planning sessions, conferences, police academy graduation ceremonies, legislative lobbying sessions, FBI Academy classes, etc. I told him today that "while the men are gone away to play, it is the women (their administrative assistants) who are in the office running the show", and he was forced by his own honesty to agree with me. It is good to have him home. We went out for breakfast today and did our usual CostCo shopping run on Friday instead of Saturday, and we did it in the rain. There was a method to my madness, though, because I figured if we did all the errands and shopping chores today (and we did) in the rain, then tomorrow on a beautiful sunny day with highs in the 80s, we could (and will) go plant shopping. That is called planning ahead! Had the rain stopped, I would have dragged him and the carload full of supplies and groceries to a few favorite nurseries, but the rain didn't stop until we were almost home, so tomorrow I get to go plant shopping with an empty car trunk. I'm not looking for normal stuff tomorrow like run-of-the-mill bedding plants, but more for special accent plants for the containers or for perennials for the hummingbirds. There is not a lot of extra space left to fill in the front garden, except for the area currently overrun with native dewberries, and I'm going to take them out, rototill that soil, rake out all the roots I can and fill up that semi-shady area with flowers. Native dewberries are the bermuda grass of the native fruit world, so they just need to be completely gone from the garden. There is one thing in the dewberries' favor---they are attempting to take over the asparagus bed. It might be interesting to see them slug it out, but two garden thugs like them is simply one to many. Today Damon Lane and NWS-Norman both posted maps showing the path of the Norman tornado the other night.......it traveled alongside and crossed Paula's road (no wonder they were in the storm shelter!), though I couldn't tell from the map how close it came to Ken's and Paula's on its 8-mile journey. Dawn
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May 2018, Week 4...The Heat Is On, Part 2
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Comments (94)
Good Morning, Everyone! Nancy, Bruce alerted me earlier in the day to the fact that he had rain and it was moving my way, so I started watching, but I still wasn't really believing because it always seems to veer east of us. This time it didn't veer east until it had gone south of us, so we got almost an inch of desperately needed rain. I was so thrilled. So, the garden will be happy for a few days, but I suspect the moisture won't last long in the high temperatures. This really was our first good rainfall since around May 3rd or 4th, and for once, we got more rain than our Mesonet station instead of getting a lot less than was recorded there. Lillie helped snap beans and string beans for a couple of hours. She's a hard worker and loves gardening (she has a great-grandfather with a huge garden and always has helped with the garden since she was very small). We had 4 varieties of beans all harvested together, and she was fascinated with the purple ones and loved the Provider beans, which are more flat like Romas than round, because the Providers have very obvious strings and she loves pulling the strings. She'd pick those out of the pile to string and then snap. Catmint makes me think of Yellow Cat, who we lost a few months ago at a very old age, because he was the only cat we've ever had who liked catmint more than catnip. I can hardly bear to look at the catmint right now because it makes me miss him so, but we'll always have it in the garden because some of the little beneficial insects love it. Paula, I'm sorry to hear about the seizure. I'm so glad you're okay. Did they figure out what caused it? That must have been frightening. Take that Short Term Disability and live it up in the garden! God has a plan, and maybe his plan is for you to have a few months of gardening and grandkids without any other distractions. As far as gardening in one's PJs, my experience with that is that if I venture into my garden for just a minute in my PJs, I end up staying out there in them and that will be the day the mailman brings me a package that won't fit in the mailbox and there I stand at the garden gate accepting that package while wishing a hole in the earth would open up and swallow me right up. I'm always thinking "maybe he won't think these are pajamas" but who am I kidding? Melissa, I'd been wondering where you were. You poor mama! She'll come back, you know, even if only to visit and she's very young still so they might move back here at some point. Or, their relationship might not last anyhow. Often, what you think you want at 18 is not what you discover you really want later on as you continue to mature. Chris was the same age the first time he left home (for Georgia) and he was back home in a few months. Congrats on getting through to your son about the importance of living at home for at least the first year since he lives so close to school and congrats on his scholarship. I think college is such a huge adjustment anyway, and I think he has no idea how lucky he is to be able to live at home. I am glad that you and Sassy Pants will at least have the butterfly garden. You didn't mention how your mother-in-law is doing. I hope she is okay and is in remission. Mostly we're just excited to have 3 weekend days together because Tim's workdays are so long during the week. We're going out to the dinner tonight with our son and his girlfriend at their favorite restaurant in Ardmore. That's about it for our big weekend plans. Other than that, I suppose our big plans are grocery shopping and mowing a couple of acres. It doesn't sound very exciting, but I like having all the supplies bought and put up so we don't have to make little trips to the store during the week and there's nothing like mowing the grass to help make it easier to avoid stepping on snakes at this time of the year. Rebecca, I hope the next round of rain doesn't miss you. I know exactly how it feels to watch the rain fall everywhere else except at your own place, and it isn't encouraging at all. Jennifer, Your hen sounds okay then. Her broodiness should pass and she'd get back to normal soon I imagine. I probably won't be working in the garden this weekend, y'all, because I feel like I worked so hard all week getting that pallet of mulch into the garden that I deserve a break today....and tomorrow...and maybe the next day. I weeded and mulched until I couldn't see straight any more, and the last thing I want to do for the next three days is any weeding and/or mulching. Well, I'll have to harvest so that requires going into the garden, but except for that, I'll get a break. Actually, going into the garden is dangerous because if I see new weeds sprouting, which is so common in May after rainfall, that then I feel compelled to weed. It is sort of sad to see all the cool-season stuff coming out of the garden, but it is late May, so it is time. I've already got most of the hot season crops planted, so the succession crops to fill in empty spots left by the harvest of the remaining cool-season plants (onions and potatoes) will be mostly melons of all kinds (muskmelons, watermelons, Crane melons.....) and probably some zinnias. I am working so hard, lol, to have an easier summer that I'm being very careful to not plant too many succession crops of edibles. This is hard for me to do because I have to fight my usual pattern of just planting more edibles. I'll probably plant more zinnias over time, and maybe some cosmos. You never can have too many zinnias for the butterflies in the hot summer months. The heat and general lack of adequate rainfall are encouraging me to stay on my quest for an easier summer with less time spent processing and putting up the harvest. I still have 5 large containers to fill, or maybe six, and will be plant shopping for plants for those containers either today or tomorrow. I do not understand how this tomato problem keeps happening. We have so many tomatoes piling up on the kitchen counter that we either need to eat a ton of tomatoes for three meals a day all weekend long, or I need to make some salsa or sauce or something to use them up. I cut back so much on how many tomato plants I planted that I didn't think we'd hit the 'too many tomatoes' point until at least June. I think the heat is speeding up the ripening of the tomatoes too much. I'm not complaining about having tomatoes, but just about how they all seem to ripen together at one time instead of spreading themselves out better over a longer period of time. I need to have a talk with them about that. Last night, I awakened in the middle of the night to the sound of a bunch of coyotes that sounded like they were sitting right outside our bedroom window. It was at least one adult with a bunch of babies yipping and yapping, and it was close enough to be scary. I was glad all our animals sleep indoors at night. It is more typical to hear the coyotes howling further off, though not always very far away. I don't like it when I know they're in the yard. The cottontail bunnies are very plentiful at this time of the year, so I expect Mama was teaching the babies how to hunt for their meal. Something has been roaming through the woods all day and our dogs are barking at it nonstop. I never see anything when I look for whatever they're barking at, but Princess and Ace just have a conniption fit constantly. Now I'm wondering if that mama coyote is raising her young ones in there and if our dogs are hitting on their scent. I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend, whether inside of or outside of the garden. Dawn
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August 2018, Week 2, I Love A Rainy Night
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Comments (52)
Nancy, I hope your nice weather lasted. I wasn't watching the weather much last week other than trying to keep an eye on our own. Tim said something to me yesterday that reminded me what a tough summer it has been here. He said he couldn't think of any community in our county having two such awful losses of members in such a short time, and after I thought about it a while, I think he is right. We are in a little unincorporated rural to semi-rural area of Love County in between the towns of Marietta and Thackerville, and our neighbor who was the lineman was the second tragic loss of a community member here in the last couple of months. The first was a gentleman who perished in a fire after the gasoline tanker truck he was driving was cut off in traffic, overturned and burned. Two horrible losses suffered by two families in such a short time in such a small community as ours....it is unfathomable. The first was one of those things that your brain refuses to believe when it hears it, and then the second one was exactly the same.....too horrific to be real. I think all of us here are just so done with 2018 and trying to remain positive and look ahead to what hopefully will be a better year in 2019. I wonder if your burnweed will be burnweed? I still think when Jason IDs a plant, you can take his ID as gospel. I don't think I've ever seen it here, but y'all have such different soils and different climate up there in some ways that it is like we are in a whole different country----ha ha, at least you are in the Green Country and we're in the Mostly Brown Country. That would be funnier were it not so true. Larry, In August of any year, I still think it is better to be too wet than to be too dry. We had good rainfall last week, but the dry ground slurped it right up. Well, at least the rain did fall. Since you came back and posted a photo of your little Yorkie (he is so adorable!), I guess you and the tractor survived the mud and are not stuck out there in it. Jennifer, I didn't try Vick's on the feet because we didn't have any and I wasn't going to go anywhere for any reason. I am starting to feel better but it was a rough week, and I think the recovery is going slowly. I am bored, but that's a good sign, because I don't start feeling bored until I start feeling better. It sounds like you had a really fun day babysitting that six year old. I bet she was disappointed to learn she was going somewhere else the next day! There will be time later to catch up on outdoor work. Just take care of yourself. Nancy, Heavy rainfall in August is such a gift that you just have to get over the pouting, you know! My grandmother always admonished us to never look a gift horse in the mouth. If I whine about rain in August I know what will happen----the following August we won't get any rain at all. So, I hope you got the pouting and all out of your system and can appreciate the gift that August rainfall truly is. Sometimes when we say we are bored, I really think that what we mean is that we aren't able, for whatever reason, to do the things we really want to do. Sometimes I'll be whining to myself that I'm bored, but it isn't because there aren't things to do---they just aren't the things I want to do. Because of that, I don't do them and just sit and say that I am bored. Your 90 degrees sounds nice to me (unless the heat index was, like, 99 or 100). We were 97 on Friday and 96 yesterday. I think today is supposed to be closer to your 90, but I guess I haven't looked at the forecast in a couple of days so I'm not sure. Larry, Hercules is so precious. I love Yorkies but we always have medium to big dogs. I'd have a Yorkie in a heartbeat though. It is hard to watch our furbabies get old and sick. We have been down that road with so many dogs over the years, and our black lab mix, Jet, who is now 13, has chronic kidney disease and, according to the vet, is in the final months of his life. He is on medication and a special prescription diet and I try to treasure every day we have left with him because there likely won't be too many more of them. He was never supposed to be ours. Born to a stray dog, Honey, who followed me home when I was walking our other dogs, he was one of a litter of four. Tim's best friend picked out two of them, Jet and Duke, to adopt as his own when they were only two days old. He got the pick of the litter and we promised Ken we'd reserve them for him and not give them away to anyone else once they were big enough to leave their mother. The following week, Ken was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor. Again, we promised him we'd keep his two puppies with us until his treatments were done and he was ready to bring them home to his ranch. Sadly, his cancer progressed quickly. Diagnosed in late March or early April, he was gone before the end of May. By then, we were too attached to "Ken's dogs" to let them go, so we kept them. His wife didn't want them, as she felt she couldn't cope with two new dogs while coping with his death and trying to keep the ranch running full time while also working full time in Dallas. We understood and were happy to keep Jet and Duke ourselves. Duke left us three years ago and I've been all too aware ever since then that Jet's time is coming too. It is hard. I wish they aged at the same rate as we do, but they don't. As hard as it is to lose our furbabies, I have accepted that we just have to endure the pain of losing them----it is the price we pay for having had such wonderful pet companions to share our lives. Dawn
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Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
I can't drink water unless it's icy cold. Really, I can't drink most things if they aren't icy cold. Even hot tea I have to have very warm rather than hot. I can't drink anything lukewarm or blazing hot, ever.

Finally got the last of the peppers in - a sheepnose pimento, a poblano, and a couple different kinds of bells. Also, a couple of dark colored basils, a sage plant, and some of the last flowers out front. Still have to finish the front, have lots of African daisies and a few marigolds to put in, but I want to wait until that bed is in the shade. I put in a $2 6-pack of pink vinca, too. I know it won't survive summer, but my mom always planted it and I like seeing it in my garden too. The last of the tomatoes will have to wait until the weekend, maybe Friday evening, maybe Saturday morning. Fence will be finished tomorrow, and the cherries will go up against it. You know those days when the only safe thing you can do is just strip down in the laundry room, and leave it all there? That kind of morning. It was only in the mid-80s, but felt hotter. I was filthy and drippy after an hour.

I can't take another super hot, super dry summer. My heat tolerance is going down the tubes already.
hazelinok
5 years ago
I am ready for fall.
hazelinok
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Megan, thanks for sharing pics of your garden. It looks so nice and tidy. Those tomatillos were so easy to break. I hope you have success with the one. I broke two more while trying to plant them the other day. I was going to give two to Dale, but...sorry, Dale. The ones in the garden look good, though.

Although I didn't really start paying attention to weather in how it relates to gardening, I vividly remember 2011. I've said it before, but that was the summer that Ethan's piano skills increased greatly because it was too hot to play outside or even go to the pool. People were taking their kids (and walking their dogs) out at 8:30...and it was still too hot. Then there was the fun day that our AC went out.

2012 seemed to follow 2011's weather pattern, but wasn't as bad...then it got better in 2013, other than the tornadoes that took out many of my friends homes', schools, and destroyed the children's wing at my work, as well as my office.

I glanced at the garden by flashlight tonight. Everything still looks okay. Megan, one of the sunflower died...but the other looks great.

I really am not ready for fall. I just want spring...and then a mild summer. And then fall. But, don't we all.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Amy, Oh no! Why in the world would your son do that? I might be a little ticked off if my son did that.

Mia, With a baby and a toddler, I do not know how you get any gardening time at all. When our son was a toddler, I only gardened when he was at my parents' house.

The big green-up has been amazing. We were already greening up, and then it got warm and everything just exploded. I expect that's why the pollen counts are so high lately. It is so unfortunate that we went from too cool to too warm/hot so suddenly.

Good luck on getting the honey-do list things checked off the list. A 100th birthday is an amazing reason to have a celebration.

Jen, I hope the AC is a quick fix and that it is covered by the warranty. That's a good, fast solution for the gap under the fence!

Megan, I wish we had such magic potions!

We have had too many heat waves since 1998 and I remember them all. I particularly remember 1980 because it was go awful, and I had to drive to work at 1 p.m. every afternoon in that heat in a car without an air conditioner. That was my first car, and the last one I ever owned without an AC. By the time the next summer rolled around,I had a car with an AC.

Rebecca, I've had periwinkles survive the whole summer, particularly the Cora variety, which has the best disease package available in a hybrid annual vinca. They are not as susceptible to the phytopthora rot that kills regular annual vincas/periwinkles. It might be harder for them in your more humid climate since it partially is the humidity that makes them susceptible to the phyotpthora stem rot that has been killing them in increasing numbers the last 20 years or so. I bought the seeds to raise my own Cora vincas this year because the nurseries where I see them charge so much for them. I haven't even started the seeds yet. I need to do that this week. Maybe tomorrow. They are easy from seed and grow/bloom quickly in the heat. It is like the heat accelerates their whole growth process.

I cannot take the heat either....ever since I got heat exhaustion during our daily summer wildfires during the heat wave of 2011. It simply destroyed my ability to tolerate heat. I don't think I'll ever have the same heat tolerance I had before. I just try to go slower and pace myself now. Last year we put two Adirondack chairs and a metal table with an umbrella in the garden and I began forcing myself to stop every hour and sit in the shade and cool off for a few minutes. I thought it would drive me nuts because I hate sitting while I have a mental To Do list running through my head. Instead, I found that taking a short break and cooling off from the heat re-energized me. I always have my phone out there, so during my regular breaks, I just check in on FB to see who Bruce is arguing with at the present time. : ) Mind you, I'm not saying it is his fault....he's just trying to educate people. Today ants were climbing the umbrella pole and climbing all over the umbrella, which is mostly red. I was wondering if they thought it was a big red flower, at least until they climbed up there and discovered it was some sort of man-made material.

Jennifer, Me too.....and it seems so far away. I hate it when summer heat arrives early and causes us to wish away the summer.

All the cool-season greens and brassicas are shellshocked by the sudden heat. By mid-morning they are wilting and looking like they are praying for a quick and merciful death. The broccoli varieties are heading up nicely. Everything else just looks suicidal. Well, the cabbage heads are okay but the big outer leaves wilt badly. The edible podded peas have wilted the last two days but then, on the other hand, they are blooming and setting peas like crazy. I think the heat is sending them a message to "hurry up". The tomato plants look good, except for the handful that got herbicide damage when the county workers were out spraying. I think those plants will recover, but it did set them back. I also found herbicide damaged (but not dead) weeds, and herbicide-killed zinnias as well as some that are damaged, but not damaged badly enough to die. Luckily I have some leftover zinnia plants so I can replace the dead ones. The hot pepper plants kicked into full bloom, even though the plants are pretty small, as soon as the hot temperatures arrived. The sweet peppers are just sitting there looking disgusted with the weather.

The Early Girl tomatoes are starting to change color. By that, I mean they are going from light green to yellowish green. I'll pick them as soon as I see the first blush of pinkish-red color. We're getting plenty of SunGolds, though some are (of course) splitting after the heavy rain we had recently. The potato plants look good, though not particularly happy with the heat. I've really piled up the mulch around them to try to keep their soil temperatures low enough that they'll keep setting tubers.

Something is eating holes in the leaves of everything in my garden. I don't see anything doing it, but the holes are there in the morning. I'll scatter Slug-Go tomorrow and see if it makes a difference. I suspect it is a variety of little critters. I have seen a few small grasshoppers but not yet enough to make me think that I need to buy Nolo Bait. The thing with Nolo Bait is that it works best in cool temperatures, and when we had those cool temperatures in April, there were no grasshoppers because it was too cold for them.

Guess what I am not seeing in my garden yet? Squash bugs (other than the two I found in early April or late March), potato bugs (not a one!), asparagus bugs (zero, zilch, nada), cucumber beetles (I've only see one this entire year, and it was a striped one), aphids or leaf-footed bugs. I'm sure they're coming and I'll be moaning and groaning about the leaf-footed bugs soon enough. However, thanks to the early heat, both the Cherokee Purple tomatoes that we have harvested have cloudy spot, which is the damage caused by stink bugs. I've only seen two stink bugs, and I killed one of them, but the other got away. It is sort of abnormal to have stink bugs this early, but I know they're here. Today while pulling weeds I found a few small cutworms--so these would be new ones that aren't even really big enough to do damage yet. They won't do any damage now because they are dead. We do have lady bugs but I am not sure what they are eating. I hope they are finding enough food to eat.

Yesterday I had a ladybug (I think it was a lady bug) riding around on my arm for a long time....apparently a lazy bug. It was a new color that I don't think I've seen in the ladybug world---a shiny dark metallic green. I need to spend some time Googling and trying to find out for sure what it is.

I was checking the bush bean plants for small beans today (there are plenty--now if they will only enlarge and grow) and found lady bug eggs on some of the plants. Yay! We already have lady bugs, but the more the merrier.

Are y'all seeing mosquitoes yet? We have plenty, and I've found a few ticks as well. I might have to let the chickens out to free-range for a few days.

We're having a serious outbreak of cottontail bunnies. They do not bother the garden much. Occasionally one of the babies finds a way into the fenced garden and I tend to just let them stay there and to put out a pan of water for them. I'm just a sucker for baby cottontails, and I've let them grow up in the garden before with the only plant damage being a few nibbled plant stems, including bean plants and nasturtium plants. I see them in the yard every morning and every evening and put out hen scratch for them....doing this has trained them to come to a specific area to feed and that area is not close to either of our fenced garden spots.

I am trying to think positive about this heat wave. 1) It will make plants grow quickly. Since a lot of plants were behind because of the cold April, this can help our plants catch up to where they'd be in a normal year. 2) It is nice to walk outdoors to low temperatures in the 60s in the mornings instead of in the 30s or 40s. 3) No one is having to cover up plants or worry the plants are too cold. 4) Soil temperatures are warm enough now to plant sweet potatoes, okra, winter squash, melons, etc. with no worries that the soil will be too cold. 5) Since butterflies prefer warm weather, we now have tons of them out and about---a lot more than we usually see in early May.

I refuse to list the negatives, but we all know what they are. Really now, isn't Oklahoma hot enough as it is without having an early heat wave that makes May feel like July?

Ever since the summer of 2011, I've tried to make myself come indoors from the garden whenever the air temperature hits 90. I don't mind doing that, and it keeps me from staying out too long and overheating, but it sucks to have to do it in May.

And, finally, this one is for Lisa and Bruce because they love been green hornworms. The first hornworm this year to reach its final Instar and form its pupa was a big green Hyles lineata, not a tobacco or tomato hornworm. This actually makes a lot of sense because (a) I see more of the white lined sphinx moths than any other, especially early in the year, and (b) we have tons of their favorite food sources on our property, both inside and outside the garden.

Pretty much missing from our garden? Craneflies and June bugs. We had a brief hatch of June bugs about 3 weeks ago but they almost instantly disappeared. I don't know why, but I'm not unhappy that we aren't seeing them.

The fire ants didn't get me today. That makes today a notable day in the garden.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
I'm beginning to think the problem you all have is not enough shade! Mia, are you kinda glad you have so much shade now? (And WOW for your Grandma's 100th! How is she?) By 4:30 this time of year, the back yard is in mostly shade, and then it's not bad working out there at all. I managed to get some prime weeding done then. We're pooped tonight, but more because of washing windows than anything else.

And that was only the five windows on the front. Of course, it was like rocket science figuring out how to get the screens out. One can wash them without screen removal, but GDW decided it was time to properly wash the screens. What a comedy that was. I finally got the first one out and he asked how I did that. I said I had no idea. Then I got the second one out. Still no clue how. Eventually we saw the magic trick and now it's easy. I told him that was enough window washing for today. I'll do the sliding glass doors and other two windows tomorrow or next week or next year. The ones on the west front side sparkle like diamonds now. :) Not to brag--oh heck, yeah, why not--I am a very good window-washer.

You guys and your crazy tomato names--those are two good ones: Amy's elephant ears, and now Rebecca's sheepnose pimento. How very exotic.

I DO know those strip in the laundry room days. In our case, the pantry. Which is small. But I've done it. Good job, though, on your part.

So HJ, I guess you were working in the garden today? This evening?

Friday payday--perfect for plant shopping! And especially now that you have an excuse, Megan! Loved your shipping containers and flagstone. Did you guys just put the flagstone in?

Down here, as in Wyoming, I only wear jeans to work in the yard. Too many bugs and pests for me to want to wear anything lighter weight or shorter. AND of course I wear shoes and socks, even. haha, true, though.

Did you lose your mind today, Amy? AAGGHHH! LOL

Dawn, I'm sure you're right that it feels hot because we're not acclimated yet. Does a number on me every year when it first hits. And if there's one thing I'm used to, it's humidity from the 30 years in MN. Incredibly humid up there. Plants loved it. But my first 38 in Wyoming were as dry as MN was humid. Wyoming summers were probably more like yours, but with extreme heat only 3-4 weeks, usually.

No, I wasn't here in 2014. First year was 2015 floods. . . lol

Well I see others are posting while I'm writing, so will sign off. Yard and garden looking great, flowers are GROWING. Gaillardia, hollyhock zebrinas, and nicotianas are about to bloom.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
PS: Garry has five little apples (that we saw) on one of his trees. . . those sorry "On Sale" skinny, tall and unwatered trees we got last year! Hallalujah! The two pears and both apples look GREAT. I can't remember what they are. I have to find their labels from last year. They had a bit of rust last summer, and we treated them. He also planted them in slight wells and we mulched heavily. . . no idea now if that was the thing to do; he also watered them occasionally during our zero-moisture winter. (Did we do okay by planting them that way?) The rest blossomed just before the freezes, but the one apple waited and bloomed right after the last freeze.

AND I see 10 potential blueberries on the 2 yr old blueberries! Woo-HOO!! Scott said they'd never grow here. . . heh heh heh. He freely admitted last time he was over that I somehow found the perfect spot for them, apparently, and now is inclined to try them himself. He lives close to me with a similar yard, so I'm sure he'll give it a go.

The endless summer hydrangeas are bound and determined to live up to their name this year, as they are now finally growing like crazy and making little heads.

Got a good laugh out of your "Bruce arguing with someone on FB," Dawn. Set them straight, Bruce!! So much bad gardening advice floating around in the country, on the internet.

Dawn, I have yet to experience my first hornworm. I just am so afraid. Truly, y'all. I have an almost-phobia about bugs. Now I know that is not acceptable for a gardener, and I do my best. I was squashing caterpillars off the cabbage and broccoli with the best of em last year. I'm much better at finding and dealing with bugs on the plants than I am on myself. A big ole bug landed on my arm yesterday--no idea what, but it didn't want to leave, and I almost had a conniption fit.

Oh, Jacob. Sorry you were out of the loop of recent. Can WE help it if you're studying all the time? (And I trust you are.) I hope you all have a wonderful trip. . . I love that you take these trips to see the country. So impressive and admirable, and fun for YOU all.

One last thing. Our daughter who recently got married, and they got this to-die-for house right next to the lake up north, posted on FB that there were two copperheads and one water moccasin on their deck yesterday. She said she hid in the house while her neighbors dispatched them. OMG!!! One of her friends commented that it was one of the perks with having a lake place. I can't imagine.
hazelinok
5 years ago
No, Nancy, I was not working in the garden today at all. I had playground duty at 8:30 and no shade. It already felt SO hot at that time. My skin just looks awful after being exposed to sun. I really hate it.

And OOO...I need to wash my windows.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
HJ, I can imagine the havoc that hot sun has on your fair complexion. Sympathies. Where's your hat! I guess you need to take it to school!
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
You're supposed to wash windows?
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Where is the laugh emoji!!!!??? That's what I thought. In my defense, I washed the outsides 2 years ago. But no thought to removing screens. THIS time we removed the screens, with a great deal of difficulty, and I wiped out all the dead spiders, spider-webby stuff around the outside. I was thinking to myself, if we were going to sell the place, this would be the time to do it! How impressive it would be to a home-buyer if they thought to look, to see that the windows were all in pristine condition. As it is, GDW and I agree that the windows are good for another 4-5-10 years. Right?
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
I started out this morning in the most depressing way---by looking at the 7-day forecast and seeing our chances of rain early next week have dropped more and the heat wave continues next week....so, I'm thinking the heat is here to stay, and that is depressing. Also, Kim has a Red Flag Fire Warning today because of the heat/dryness and low relative humidity, and that is so peculiar. I know it must be the lack of rainfall because normally the winter fire season ends in March and we stop having Red Flag Fire Warnings and Fire Weather Watches. I should just stop looking at the forecasts every morning because it is depressing to see how bad things are so early. The state continues to green up more where rain has fallen, but still is nowhere near as green as it was this time last year. Gary McManus had shots of the green-up on FB a couple of days ago and repeated them on yesterday's OK Mesonet ticker.

Nancy, I used to clean windows. I don't remember the last time I did it, and probably ought to do it again sometime this century. This house has 22 windows, not counting the sunroom, and 32 if you count the sunroom, and there's four French doors. That's a lot of windows to clean.....and, ironically, because it is nice to let the sun shine in on cool days (which we have so few of)---they all have heavy blinds and drapes to keep out the sunlight and heat in hot weather. So, we have a ton of windows we usually keep covered, but in this climate it is more important to keep the house cool in summer, which started here last week apparently, although for the rest of the world there's still about another six weeks of Spring. Can we blame this whole weather mess on the groundhog somehow?

A lot of my garden is in shade by 3 or 4 pm, so I plan my garden work accordingly. I work in the garden's sunnier east and southern areas earlier in the day and then work in the shadier west and north areas later in the day. That helps a lot. In the beginning it was pretty much a full sun garden except for the western fence line which had dappled shade, but 19 years later, we have had a lot of tree growth and a couple of new trees west of the garden just barely outside the fence, so we have better shade. It is a delicate balance to try to achieve enough sunlight that the garden has some heat/sun relief but enough sun for stellar veggie production. Pretty much all the flowers I grow are full sun flowers so they can tolerate the hot Oklahoma sun, but they surely do not mind afternoon shade. I do grow the old-fashioned balsam which is more of a shade lover than a sunshine lover and I grow it at the west end of the garden. It will tolerate full sun if you can keep it well-watered and in moist soil at all times but it is hard to keep it happy in full sun in July and August in my garden because keeping the soil moist at all times isn't very likely.

Hornworms are only a problem if a person lets them be a problem. I just move them to nicotianas or daturas or brugs when I find them. They get plenty to eat and those plants all put out new foliage really quickly in the heat. Really, in my garden, the tomato and tobacco hornworms all self-regulate themselves really really well. I almost never find any hornworm damage on tomato, potato or pepper plants, and that has been true even in years when I've had 100-150 tomato plants. I've heard all my life that growing four o'clocks will 'repel' the hornworms and keep them off your nightshade plants, so I grow an ocean of four o'clocks outside the garden fence and that might be why I seldom have hornworm damage. We have them all round....just not on my garden veggies. We have lots of hornworms here, not just the tomato and tobacco ones but the white-lined sphinx as well as the various ones that feed on Virginia creeper, cherry trees, willow trees and walnut trees. I guess it is because we have so much natural habitat for them here.

I've gotten pretty used to insects. Their presence in any natural setting is normal and to be expected. I only get unhappy when I see the ones that like to hurt me---like scorpions, for example, and I'm never happy to see ticks anywhere....in the garden or out of it. I don't even worry about the insects much in the garden except for the handful that arrive on plants in such huge numbers that they must be stopped before they can wipe out a planting. In my garden, the worst offenders are squash bugs, leaf-footed bugs, stink bugs (hard to catch and harder to kill), grasshoppers and crickets. Oh, and spider mites. Most of the above do not have many natural predators, so we have to work to keep their population down. The various caterpillars that bother brassicas sometimes have a large enough population to cause me to stop what I am doing and handpick and destroy them, and sometimes there's just not that many of them. This year, I've largely been ignoring them. Grasshoppers are really starting to show up now with this heat, and I am not happy about seeing them or the crickets either. They do a lot of summer damage in my garden. My garden is very full of insects most years and I'd say less than 1% of the insects in the garden are doing damage, and most of those are from the family of true bugs or from the locust/grasshopper family.

I have quite a few heads of iceberg lettuce to pick today. I'll put it in the extra fridge in the garage until Tim can get around to eating it. There's still lots of leaf lettuce and crisphead/buttercrunch varieties left, but they tolerate heat better than the icebergs do so I don't have to worry quite so much about them in this heat. I'm having my doubts about having any lettuce making it beyond May though. We're just too hot too early even for the ones that tolerate a surprising amount of heat.

Last week, Neil Sperry had his list of Top Ten favorite hot season plants for annual color on his e-newsletter. I remember looking at it and thinking it was too early---that we didn't have to worry yet about putting in the real heat lovers just yet. Ha, ha, ha....the joke was on me, and Neil was right again, as always. He must have already decided the early heat was here to stay. It took me another week of denial before I was ready to believe that myself.

Usually I get on my laptop computer shortly after I wake up and then later on I go downstairs and feed the animals, etc. Today I did it backwards---went downstairs and fed and put out fresh water for all the cats and dogs, started the iced tea maker, ate breakfast, fixed my 32-oz. water bottle for the garden (albeit, filled with tea and not water), etc. and now I'm ready to go outdoors as soon as it is light enough to do so. The temperatures for the first 2 or 3 hours of daylight are so nice and then the sun gets high enough in the sky to ruin everything. I love being out there in the early morning hours---the rest of the day, not so much, but only because of the heat.

Dawn
luvncannin
5 years ago
You all are so fun and funny. As I lay in bed contemplating if I want to get up and when I am trying to get motivation from you all. I read and reread and still can't remember everything I want to say.

Nancy I went to that tree class of Howard Garrett at menf and he is the one to ask. If I knew how to link his info I would. The main thing with any tree is not to plant below grade and keep the flare ( the very bottom of the trunk by the top most root) exposed. Anything above the top root is trunk and needs air. And don't plant anything around the tree because the top roots need no competition. And mulch is good but not near the trunk. He keeps his mulch a foot or so away from the trunk.

Hj don't forget your hay and a lightweight long sleeved blouse. I almost burned up yesterday and I was working in my own yard. I got a half load of soil finished my raise bed and my other flower bed. So glad I didn't get a whole load. Then I washed my friends pickup some I got it all dirty and the I planted my new beds. The one by the porch is full of iris and I love it. The raised one is not planted yet but I got the dripline in and ready to go. My friend is going to water and take care of Sophie. I don't want it to be to hard for her.

So glad everyone is getting lots done even in this ridiculous heat.

My throat finally quit hurting so I can drink without forcing myself and yay! I got to use the ac for 2 days.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Correction: You guys and your crazy PEPPER names. LOL. I find myself often confusing the word tomato with pepper. LOL

Speaking of heat. . . a noticeable absence of it here today. 76, a little overcast for now, and a gentle breeze. I wouldn't be uncomfortable with a heavier long sleeved shirt at the moment. What a nice start for a day for small bedding plants. I just realized we have not yet had the AC on this spring! Wow. Obviously it is not the heat so many of you are having. I suspect the log house helps in terms of insulation (except for the occasional "vents." We really need to make a decision on caulking. We've both looked and looked and biggest problem is we haven't been able to settle on which to use. We need to do that.)

Now that you mention it, Kim, I realize we DID put the mulch away from the little trees, after having read up on it. lol I don't go down and look at them as often as GDW does, so forgot that part. The below grade bit concerned me so I went down and checked. . . What was a small dip seems to have leveled out over the past year, I hope not to the trees' detriment. Thank you for the words on trees, Kim.

My hope for you all today is that it's not too hot for you!!
okoutdrsman
5 years ago
Where? I didn't see any crazy pepper names! Nancy, you probably think my Hinkelhatz and Malawi Piquate are crazy? Lol!

I guess I do tend to argue with a few special ones on occasion! Not sure why I bother. You can't fix stupid! Or they can't?
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
HJ - let me assure you that the beds didn't look that tidy until last weekend. You couldn't even see the pad because when the fall leaves come down, I just leave them so they get stomped and crushed and become ready-made mulch in the spring. I started mulching beds last weekend, so I raked everything into a pile so it was easier to scoop, and hosed off the pad to make it pretty. The pad was a gift from my in-laws so I like to keep it up, and they're around the corner, so they get a chance to see how I'm caring for it (or not) pretty often. Thankfully, my MIL is as low maintenance as my DH.

Dawn - I got my first mosquito bite of the year yesterday morning and thought of your warnings that they would be popping up soon. I'm a little concerned because I'm usually the last person the mosquitoes come after and DD, who must taste like mosquito ambrosia, is horribly allergic. She gets big red welts the size of a silver dollar when she is bitten and they last for a week or more. When she was 2 she got a staph infection from a mosquito bite and it didn't look like she'd been scratching at it much if at all because we covered it as soon as we saw it. The doctor said it was possible the bite itself allowed the bacteria into her system, not scratching. We had to add bleach to her bath for a year after that to ensure she didn't have too much bacteria on her skin in case of another bite. Once the mosquitoes arrive, it's nearly impossible to get her outside as a result. She's terrified of them, justifiably. I do buy herbal skin repellant lotion bars at farmers markets when I find them so I don't have to spray her with chemicals and I use Avon bug guard which contains a chemical different from DEET. I feel a little better about it because it was originally researched and approved in Australia. 1) if it works in Australia, you know it's good 2) Their approval processes seem to be a little more stringent than the FDA - or at least that's my perception.

I am seeing several of the bugs you listed as having not seen, so please take them back. I don't want them. Whaaaa!!! I discovered last night that the reason my ladybug moved to the front yard after I removed the chard is because my mums are covered in aphids. I'm trying to be positive and tell myself that means lots of food for them which hopefully means a big colony. I like the mums but they're only there because they were decorations from my wedding and tossing them felt like bad karma. Saying that feels a bit like bad karma too, but I'm happy to have them if they're the key to keeping my ladybugs happy. I do have more flowers in that bed than elsewhere - a big pretty row of pansies that I overwintered and a nice stand of iris - so it makes sense that they're happier eating aphids on my mums, that also get a lot of shade from the heat and where there is nectar nearby. They wouldn't have such luxury on my tomatoes right now.

I don't have time for a lot during the week, so I've been mostly watering and getting impatient with my dahlia corms. I got excited yesterday because my new garden hose and sprayer arrived and the plants in front thanked me. I had one of those pocket hoses for the front because it's fairly small, but DD popped it last weekend. I suspected it was her because it broke while she was playing with it, but they pop so easily I didn't want to place blame where it didn't belong. She came clean last night when I got excited about the new hose - "Sorry I popped the other one mom." No pocket hose this time, so no more popped hoses.

I've been working on my drip lines and should have those operational by the weekend which will give me time to focus on planting. I'm chomping at the bit to get my sweet potato slips but I don't have the tubs ready for them, and won't have time this weekend, so I guess it's for the best that they're not here. I ended up doing Vardaman since I didn't have space for the minimums the specialty growers required.

Kim - I know exactly what you mean about this thread being entertaining and all the things you want to mention but forget when you find the opportunity to post. I do the same thing - and there are so many things to tell, even when I have a long post like this, I always forget something.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Kim, I hope you were able to get motivated to get up and moving. I am glad your throat feels better and that you could use the AC again.

Nancy, I've noticed today's heat is not as bad as the previous days, and I am relieved. It is likely we all got some slightly rain-cooled air from the rain showers moving across far northern OK this morning. I hope the afternoon heat stays low too. It was glorious out in the garden beginning around 7 a.m. and even when I came in for lunch, it wasn't too insanely hot yet.

Bruce, But you have to keep trying because every now and then, you can see the light bulb go off in someone's head when you explain something and they "get it". There's just so many people who fall for all the old wives' tales or who are seeking quick answers and quick fixes. We have to work slowly and gently to drag them into the real world of longer answers and a better understanding of how all the moving parts of the gardening world fit together to form a whole system. Education is power, so we try, try, try to educate.

Hinkelhatz is one of my favorite pepper names. Now I call my chickens hinkels for obvious reasons.

Megan, Good luck with the mosquitoes with your daughter. I feel for her. I always got big welts like that from mosquito bites when I was a kid, but now I don't, so maybe there's hope for her that her body will not always react that strongly to them. Really, with as bad as West Nile Virus can be, we all ought to be as careful as possible during mosquito season. One of our son's friends from school was bitten by a mosquito 3 or 4 years ago in Denton, TX, and contracted West Nile. She was in her late 20s and really fit and healthy and she still had a hard time recovering. I cannot even imagine how much harder it could be for an older person who was not as fit and healthy. I've always liked Avon's bug products.

I'm sorry your garden is insect-plagued at the moment. I am sure our insects are just late, but it is quite peculiar to see so little insect activity. Mostly we have caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets and fire ants, and I can deal with all of them. I'm planting a trap crop of Kong sunflowers along the north garden fence this week to try to lure the stink bugs away from the veggie garden plants. We do have tons of butterflies, and there's lots of dragonflies and damsel flies in and around the garden. I really think they are doing a lot of the insect control. I've never seen as many of them in the garden as we have this year. My prediction is that even though grasshoppers are late to hatch out here in southern OK, they're going to be very, very bad this year. I don't even know if I can offer an evidence-based reason for why I feel that way, but I do....just call in instinct or something. I always jokingly refer to those instincts as 'the voices inside my head'. The thing is that those voices are usually right, so I've learned to listen.

This weekly thread is our virtual replacement for gathering at Starbucks to grab a morning cup of coffee or tea and visit and share our latest news. Or, in small towns like mine without a Starbucks, there's always the little local diner where all the old guys gather every morning to drink coffee and sit around a big table, "solving all the problems of the world" as one of my friends (one of those old guys) says. Actually, I don't think of him as old---he is active and ageless---but he is in the same age group as those other old guys. : ) Imagine if we lived in the same little community and it had a nice community center that offered yoga classes or pickleball (if y'all don't know what this is, look it up! Doesn't its name alone sound like a gardeners' game?) and we all could sit around after class and talk. Since we are too spread out geographically that we cannot do that, at least we can 'sit' together here and visit and catch up and share our garden news and everything else too. Sometimes we even solve a gardening problem or issue or two. More than anything, though, I feel like this is the place where we can whine or rant or complain and everyone understands. It is good to have other gardeners who understand.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
22-32-40 windows Dawn. No possible way to clean those windows, certainly all in one stretch! And that IS SOOOO ironic that you have to keep the blinds and shades over them! So you have inadvertently given me a great perk to having so few windows (which I tend to whine about, a lot.)

GDW's having a rough couple days, poor guy, so I'm just puttering. . . doing stuff I didn't want to do, but in spurts. Clean up a bit of my gardening mess in the garage, then out to rearrange or plant stuff. Cleaned the potting up stuff off the dining room table, again, back out to weed. I'm trying to be quiet so he can sleep, since he didn't get much sleep last night. He thought he was good to go yesterday, but obviously was not. NOW he tells me he didn't feel well yesterday.

Yep, outdrsman, sometimes there is no fix. Still, the voices of reason and knowledge need to surface so others don't catch the disease. And I appreciate all of you who do step in. Aha--just saw your post re the same, Dawn. Yes, so glad you guys are there to educate.

Uh, hinkelhatz. At least Malawi Piquate kinda sounds pepperish. A google search brought up, after a slew of evil warning stuff, this little gem. Must try it. Or not. I confess, I've never yet tasted alligator. Maybe I could use chicken. https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/alligator-sauce-piquate/169033
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
I bought a Golden Marguerite at Worley's today. I've tried to grow from seed with no luck. They didn't have potting soil made up so I'll have to go back tomorrow.

Well yes, I immediately had to go get WTForecast. My DIL sometimes posts weather that must come from that...or something like it. Then, I got this email, supposedly from Cox saying a device behind our router was infected with blah blah blah. I kind of wondered if I had screwed up. Son says its a spoof email. I ran malware bytes on both my tablet and the desk top. The desk top has hard drive issues. I ran the virus scan and now it won't boot up. Son comes tomorrow to replace the hard drive. I should not be taken in by these things. I don't think WTForecast had anything to do with it. I also got a call from "Microsoft" telling me something was wrong with the computer shortly after the email. Mutter, mutter, mutter.

Jen, hope your AC is fixed!

I had my knee replaced in late 2010, so I spent 2011 in bed with bad hips. I have no memory of that summer, really, which might also have had to do with pain pills. 2012 had both hips replaced. 2013, Ron built 3 4x4 beds and told me gardening would be good therapy for me. Ha ha ha did he open pandora's box!

Dawn, I told the boy Poppop and I had headaches, so he took it outside. If he put it on the lowest volume it was tolerable, but it reset to a louder level every time he turned it off. He got in trouble getting into things when he was supposed to be napping. Going to have to rethink those arrangements. I will have both boys next Tues and Wed. I hope you have eliminated the fire ants from your garden. I thought I saw a Colorado Potato beetle earlier this week. It is dead, because I brought it inside to google. I wasn't sure, but wasn't taking any chances.

Ha ha ha Rebecca, re washing windows. Ron thinks so. At least once a year. But Sasquatch slobbers on ours, so what's the point?

Bruce, you can't fix stupid, but you can't let stupid infect the newbies. I go through spurts where I barely look at FB. Maybe I should.

Megan, our first Christmas tree was so bare I took the tulle roses and paper flowers and ribbons that came on our presents and put them on the tree. After 41 years, I'm afraid to NOT put a few of them on, because it might be a bad omen. They're so tattered now they have to go on the back of the tree. I LOVE those stupid pocket hoses, they're so light. And they pop so easily, usually all over you. This year we have metal ones. Sasquatch thought the old ones made good chew toys.

I haven't had lunch yet and it's 3:30! I plan to go to the Tulsa Garden Center tonight for the Grower's co-op farmers market. If I can get the herbs I want, I won't have to get up early Sat for Cherry Street market. Though might do that anyway.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Nancy, I do like to let the sun shine in during the winter months. In the summer? Forget it.

The fire ants are endless. I've been working on digging out Johnson grass and bermuda grass roots from the remaining 5 raised beds along the eastern garden fence. I've got 4.75 beds done and will finish that 5th one tomorrow. I think all of them had fire ants in them, but an orange oil drench sends them packing. I am not sure how many it kills or how many it causes to flee. All I care about is that I drench them one day and then can come back to plant in that bed the next day and not get bitten. We're hardly alone in the fire ant infestation---the last numbers I saw said that roughly 367 millions acres of land in the USA are fire ant-infested.

I hope GDW is feeling better soon.

Amy, I hope that your computer works fine after your son replaces the hard drive. Computer problems are so irritating.

I harvested the first Early Girl tomato today and it also has stink bug damage on it just like the 2 CPs did. So, I grabbed my scissors and searched all the tomatoes for stink bugs. I found two and cut them in half with my scissors. There's probably more but that's all I found. It is frustrating to have stink bug damage so early, but not unexpected with the sort of heat we are having. Stink bugs are hot weather lovers.

Today's heat was not quite as awful as some other recent days, but we still hit 86 degrees.

The wind was pretty fierce and should be stronger tomorrow. Heat and strong winds are hard on plants. I usually love the month of May. Now? I'm over it. April is starting to look better and better. At least then we weren't burning up back then.

Our little cat, Lucky, has gardening all figured out. While I'm out in the sun digging up bermuda grass roots, she sleeps in the shade by the shed, with a bowl of water right beside her. Every now and then she ventures out into the sun to check on me, then she rolls on a little catnip plant close to where I'm working, and then she goes back to the shade. She lives such a rough life.

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
Hi Everyone. I know I say this all the time, but how is it already 10?! I seriously just sat down. And really need to go thru paperwork. I just don't have it in me tonight.

So...I think i have flea beetles on the tomatoes and tomatillos. Are they doomed? In a bit, I'll search the forum for a discussion about them, but if anyone wants to save me some time, feel free to chime in. Need treatment options. It will be a miracle if I ever get a single tomato this year. My neighbor's tomatoes look good and already have fruit.

Lucky is smart, Dawn.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Plugging my ears. Do not want/won't hear about bugs. Won't listen. In total denial.

HJ. . . okay, I'm retired and I still say "How is it already 10 (or 11 or 12)." I think that is a GOOD thing, frankly. I thinks those of us who wish there were 48 hours in a day are probably blessed.

BUT. It is very important (for GOD knows what reason, not me) that we get good sleep. (WHY? It seems such a waste. And yet, when one is very sleepy, sleep is a great gift. This sleep thing has always mystified me.)

Lucky IS smart. She knew a good thing when she saw it! Suckers!!! LOLOL Likewise with Tom and Jerry. They are not peaceable-anything-goes Daff. Tom climbs the door screens inside or out if we aren't right there at his command. And THAT is not acceptable. The solution? To BE there at his beck and call.

Dawn, I love your gardening conditions and reports, on the one hand. On the other, I begin worrying that mine aren't doing what yours are. But I'm learning. I am in a totally different place than you are. Right? I keep trying to remember that your conditions are but a forecast for mine in 2 weeks. I'm getting better at it.

One great example of the difference from where you are and where Kim is and where I am, is that we haven't even thought about turning on AC yet. I actually suspect we're more like where Jacob is than some of the rest of you, though Jacob's weather definitely trends more cool than here.

Seems like those of you in OKC are more like Dawn's conditions? And NW, prayers. And West, prayers. And those SE, you must be in Eden.

For me, in my little tiny piece of heaven on earth, today was a very very sweet day for the gardens/property. Too hot for a little while, but by and large, a gift.

Just had a fun chat with Amy about comfrey vs tansy. They're planted right next to each other. Amy seems to think tansy will win. Well maybe, if left on its own. But I just chopped down half of the tansy because I have something else (forget what) DSd next to it. WHEN will I learn to put labels next to everything! I threw the tansy cuttings into the potatoes. Amy reported that was a good thing. Yay me!

I also moved many mis-planted plants/flowers today. Story of my life.

I weeded. Good job, Nancy.

I will never ever again have drapes in my house, you guys. We have heavy wood blinds on the west (most sun) front of the house. In Mpls in my favorite house, I custom-made heavy lined deep red drapes for the 10x18' living room. There were 10 windows there. And I needed those drapes for the cold winters in a house that was built in the 1920s. The drapes made a dramatic statement, and kept the house a little bit warmer. They were wide open for 6 months, tightly shut for six.

I loved your first Christmas tree story, Amy.

A ray of hope for your DD, Megan. I have had weird developments with mosquitos, though none as dramatic as your daughter's. My mosquito allergies have swung in wide swings through the years. At times, nearly as severe as your daughter's. And in some decades, virtually no reaction. (Those were my favorite years.) Now they are annoying but don't cause the welts and many-day effects. I hope she finds relief like I have, at various points in her life.

Dawn, loved your comment earlier about this being our Starbucks coffee time. Indeed. Love ya all!!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, Lucky definitely is the smarter of the two of us. She has the sense to be in the shade and clearly I lack that sense.

I feel that way about time every evening when I look at the time and realize it is time to leave the garden and go indoors, get cleaned up and make dinner before Tim gets home from work. It boggles my mind every single day that the time has flown by so quickly. I don't understand where the time goes.

Flea beetles generally are a nuisance only and will not harm a plant enough to kill it. They really only like to feed on new, tender vegetation so after a few weeks, they'll leave your plants alone as the plants get older. The only exception I've seen is very young eggplants which can get so many holes in their leaves that the plants fail to thrive and grow. I usually see flea beetle damage only for 3 or 4 weeks, and normally it is very early in the season---maybe late March or sometime in April, but I've noticed the flea beetles were late to emerge this year as I've only been seeing the damage for a couple of weeks. Next year sow a few mustard plant sees or radishes in late February or early March and let those serve as a trap crop to attract the flea beetles to them. Then you can spray those plants to kill the flea beetles before you put tomato plants in the ground. Flea beetles are the reason some folks plant radishes with their potatoes, for the exact same reason.

If you want to divert the flea beetles from your tomatoes right now, you can plant some radishes as soon as possible, preferably near the tomatoes. The radishes will emerge and grow quickly and normally the flea beetles will move to them. Or, if you see smallish eggplants at the store this weekend, buy one or two and plant them near your tomato plants. These should be treated as sacrificial lambs that will be pulled and discarded after they attract the flea beetles away from your tomato plants. If you need to treat your tomato plants immediately, you can spray them with Safer Insecticidal Soap or Safer Tomato Spray, which is insecticidal Soap plus Pyrethrin, or with neem oil. Safer brand products usually are easy to find at big box stores. Or you could dust the plants with food grade Diatomaceous Earth. Of, if you happened to have any Surround WP, which is a finely micronized kaolin powder, you could spray the plants with it. The Surround forms a very fine layer of a white powder on the plants as it dries and many chewing insects avoid plants sprayed with it.

Planet Natural, which sells many gardening products, most of them organic in nature, has great pest control pages. Their pest control pages usually are written sort of in Integrated Pest Management style, so they will list the treatments or controls the same way you do pest control IPM techniques, starting with the mildest method first and working their way up to the more hard-core things. Usually, for them, a botanical insecticide is the most toxic thing they recommend, except I think their recommendation for grasshoppers goes one step beyond that. So, here's Planet Natural's pest control page for Flea Beetles:

Flea Beetle Control

Now, relax and don't worry about your tomato plants. They will be fine. The odds are that they will overcome the flea beetle damage and will grow well, flower and set fruit. While this early heat is some cause for concern, the temperatures still are staying below the range that negatively impacts fruit set in most of the state. All bets are off for folks, though, in far western OK where temperatures are already hitting the 90s. One thing that might help the folks in western OK is that the relative humidity values are staying lower, and tomato plants tend to set fruit better at high temperatures with low RH than with high temperatures with high RH values. If you feel like your tomato plants aren't growing/fruiting as they should and if you haven't fed them since they were transplanted into the ground, you can feed them with the water soluble fertilizer of your choice. There are both synthetic ones and organic ones on store shelves. Even our Wal-Mart, which isn't overly devoted to organic products, now carries 1 or 2 brands of organic water-soluble tomato fertilizer. Espoma is one of them. Its new liquid formulations have been on store shelves here for a couple of years now. Depending on when your tomato plants were transplanted into the ground, they may be just more focused on root growth at this point than setting fruit.

Nancy, I'd say any damage done by insects in my garden is done by less than 1% of the insect population, so I just don't worry about it except in the cases where the pests are present in such overwhelming numbers that they can do massive damage before the beneficial insects find them. Cabbage worms and cabbage loopers are an example of the types of pests that can show up in large numbers and do massive damage. Another example of this type of pest? Army worms, squash bugs or Colorado Potato Beetles. Or, harlequin bugs. Those are the pests whose presence concerns me enough for me to drop what I'm doing and hand pick them and drown them in soapy water without one shred of guilt. Otherwise, I tend to ignore insect damage. Most plants outgrow it and there's no need to do anything about it. This might drive some people crazy if they expect to have picture-perfect plants with no damage on leaves, for example, but I am not one of those people. The only way to have picture-perfect plants like that is to spray the plants regularly with some of the more heavy-duty pesticides and I'm just not going to do that. You can get used to insects in your garden. Many of them are beautiful and play very important roles in the ecosystem. Yesterday I had some beautiful blue dragonflies in my garden searching for prey, and tons of spiders too. We always go through a period in Spring where the plants get hit hard by a lot of pests. That time appears to be occurring right now, but in a few weeks the beneficial insects will catch up and take care of many of the pest insects.

I agree that whatever is happening in my garden in any given week generally should be giving you a preview of what soon will be happening in yours, maybe 1 to 3 weeks down the line. That should be helpful in most cases, but perhaps not when it comes to harvesting. It is hard enough to wait patiently for the harvest in one's garden as it is, but even harder when someone south already is harvesting what you're still waiting to be ready to harvest. The early heat here is pushing some things along in a not-so-good way. The brassicas look miserable. Broccoli harvest has begun with the earliest variety, and the three later varieties are just now former smaller heads. There's no visible activity on the cauliflower or brussels sprouts and I think that both of them are likely to be a bust because of the early heat. The plants are big and healthy, but I think the minute they try to form flowers or sprouts, they're going to bolt. If I had any sense at all, I'd yank them out and put to heat-loving crops in their place. I may do that next week. Some of the iceberg lettuce is sunburning and I need to harvest it today and fill up the garage fridge with it and then start urging Tim to eat more of this iceberg lettuce he so adores. I could shade the iceberg lettuce with a shade cloth but I think the heat will make it bolt soon so there's no point to go to all the trouble to shade it.

I think tansy wins the battle with comfrey in one sense because it will get tall and fall over and bury the tansy beneath its rampant growth. A person can prevent that by shearing it back pretty hard. I think comfrey wins the overall battle because it spreads underground whereas the tansy spreads more by reseeding. In either case, with these herbs you can just cut them back and let them regrow when they are acting thuggish. Sometimes I cut tansy back right to the ground. Two or three weeks later it is massively huge again. It won't die and you cannot kill it. I grow both of these on the edges of my garden where they can duke it out between themselves without bothering the other plants. Borage is another herb whose growth is so rampant that it needs its own spot away from other more sedate plants so it doesn't overwhelm them with its rapid growth in the heat.

If we had all of your shade, we wouldn't need the heavy blinds and drapes, but we don't have that much shade yet. Many of our windows face east, so that helps a little. We deliberately put fewer and smaller windows in the west wall of the house in order to keep out the hot western afternoon sun. The sunroom is an exception as it is west of the house, but it is a sunroom, after all, so the blinds are open in winter and it is a delightful warm oasis from winter and spring in there, and then the blinds are increasingly closed in summer. We did deliberately and strategically plant a lot of shade trees around the house after we built it, and some of them are reaching a good size now and provide a lot of shade---but not enough shade yet that we can leave all the curtains and blinds open.

Some of y'all have a Wind Advisory today. I don't think we have very many Wind Advisories issued in May. This year's weather is so weird.

Okay, it is just after 6:30 a.m. and I need to get off my computer and get outdoors while the weather is cool and nice.

I did do a Mesonet check of my county's average monthly temperatures this morning and it confirmed what I already knew in my heart---we are have June/July high temps here in our county this week (and more forecast for next week) and June type overnight lows. I guess the weather is just skipping May this year and going straight from April to June. Stupid weather.

Dawn
luvncannin
5 years ago
I read somewhere that insect damage increases the phytonutrients in the plant. So when I ate my flea beetle damaged greens last night I just kept thinking how healthy they were for me. And good too. I mixed beets, turnip, and kale with fresh onion and bacon grease. It made over 2 gallons just from the thinnings.

The wind was so bad yesterday I could not plant plants. It was like a blow torch, reminded me of 2011. The year of my first garden, drought and death of garden by blow torch. Horribly hot and as soon as I got my yard fixed to leave and the greenhouse and planted some okra zinnias and dill I came in the house. Miserable day and today is going to be the same. But I don't care because I will be in the car. Denton here I come.
luvncannin
5 years ago
I was going to say

Nancy if you use what Dawn is doing as a guide for your to do list in 2 weeks or so it works perfectly. My friend in Rhome TX area posted a picture of big beautiful squash she harvested last night. It was a minute before I remember how much different their weather has been than mine. Also I did not have the option of taking chances. Maybe next year.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
This weather is stupid Dawn. Our weather forecast for the next 10 days ranges from 79 to 89 degrees. This is the first time I've seen 89 degrees this early in the last 5 years we've lived here.

Speaking of that, I realized today that we moved here over 5 years ago now, right on the first of May. That's crazy.

Nancy, all of my gardens get sunlight all afternoon, and the shade ones get dappled shade all morning, WHEN the sun is as high as it is. The new area I'm using for gardening this year, which funnily enough is the majority of my space now, gets full sunlight from about 8 in the morning to 6 at night on the right side of the garden and 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon on the left side due to a fir tree blocking late afternoon sun (which I'm okay with!!) Our raised beds are probably 10 or 11 in the morning to 4 or 5 in the evening. The back garden is a whole different story...

I'm amazed at how much better lettuce seems to do in partial shade as opposed to full sun. Next year I've decided I'm growing all of my leafy greens in the back garden with the shade as opposed to the front garden. They grow a little more slowly, but it just seems like the quality is so much better, and they last longer. Of course, this is with Batavian and leaf lettuces where I'm picking the outer leaves every week or two and not letting them form heads.

I need to finish getting my last bed dug today so I can get my beans in. I'm thinking a 15x4' bed. I had originally planned on it being 30x4', but with a particular tree sending roots into the extra space I'm downsizing the bed.

Dawn, I've read your posts all spring about removing Bermuda grass, and I'm really glad we don't have it at our house lol.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Kim, do you go to Denton on Fridays and stay over? How far is it? Good for you, glad you don't have to work in the hot outdoors today, then. O . . or listening to her plant progress, knowing mine will be following in 2 or so weeks. I need to log this to see if that's really the case. Of course, my planting times weren't exactly 2 weeks behind her--in some cases, but not all.

Jacob, so at last count, how many garden areas do you have now? Or have you lost count! It occurs to me that I am thinking of the folks here now, HJ, you and I have all been at our current residences about the same length of time. HJ and I both new to vegetable gardening (well, I had a garden for two years at the ranch 35 years ago.) Actually, if I'm not mistaken, Kim, aren't you fairly new to gardening, too? I never grew a flower until I was mid-40s but had always wanted to.

Speaking of. . . noticed 4 of the onions had begun to set blooms yesterday. I was a little surprised, actually. I guess maybe it has been hotter than I thought, which would come as no surprise to the rest of you. Perhaps I have been living in denial?

I feel like my tomatoes and peppers are actually about a month behind Dawn, trying not to freak about that, and they are in such better shape than they were the previous two years, so this is progress.

It was just a year and a half ago I found you (Jan of 2017) and began listening and reading all your stuff. And this is my second year with the super duper grow cart. Hard to believe. Poor Garry had no idea what he was getting himself into with this. And now I have all these exotic things, like enormous garlic (last year I didn't know they needed to be planted in November), and leeks, all kinds of peppers and tomatoes and onions and potatoes, butter crunch and Jacob's rouge grenobloise, which are about to fry. I think I'll start some in a shadier area; a little patch of corn and 2 artichokes! Woo-hoo. Lots and lots of herbs, though, some of which I've no idea what they'll grow up to look like. I'll wait on cukes and give peas another chance in the fall, as Dawn suggested.

Maybe I'll just put in a cover crop when I take the garlic, potatoes and onions out.

Here's another thing among so many things I didn't know. Well, I didn't know about the proliferation of fennel, but Dawn clued me in; the re-seeding of annuals is all new to me down here, and delights me to no end. I see all those happy little hollyhock zebrinas and chuckle. The first zebrina flower showed up this morning. Oh--the other thing. I didn't realize parsley would re-seed so happily. That's very cool.

Lemon balm, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, parsley and chives were among my first plants; this is the 4th year for all save the rosemary, which I had to replace last year. Four of the six I put in survived, and I grew another little one from cuttings last year. I don't need four, but it was an experiment. Now I know where NOT to put them.

Question for you. How big do these LB petunias GET? lol I have some in a big full sun pot, and they are happy petunias, about 14" tall at the moment and about that wide. I must say, I now have a whole new (good) slant on petunias. I can't find the horseradish! I wonder if I "weeded" it! Well, guess it will show up again, as I definitely didn't pull up any horseradish root.

I go around sometimes and take pictures of the yard at various times of the day to try and get a better shade/sun idea.

The two trees and enormous branch we took out last fall--there IS a lot more sun in the center bed, but not exactly the way I thought it would be. Of course. Right now, most of that bed is in sun, except for the 15 feet triangle end. I need to keep studying it so I'll know what plants I need to move. Tough assignment, but hey! I can DO this. I'll walk around the entire yard (cept for the easy vegetable garden and full sun flower bed) every half hour and make notes.
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
Dawn, maybe this is the year of flip-flopping months. April jumped backward. May jumped forward. Maybe June will jump to... well something other than July or August would be good. If it continues what May has started, I’ll have a good sweet potato harvest. And it’s my first year doing black beans and they’re supposed to like the heat. I’m trying to stay positive about this.

My Sun Gold tomato is big and covered in blooms but the sunsugars that Bruce gave me were the first to set fruit. I’m looking forward to seeing how the flavor and overall production compares because my family has been addicted to the Sun Gold since I discovered them a few years ago. My lemon boy and Mr Stripy tied for first slicers to bloom but the rest have buds. There is one lagging behind but I noticed that due to tree growth its spot isn’t getting as much sun as it used to, so it’s being moved in the morning.

I’ve given up on my dahlias. They’re in my south bed and the soil is still pretty tight with clay so I fear they rotted. I should have started them in pots first but I’m spoiled by having started them in established flower beds in the past. They were just sooo easy that I didn’t stop to worry about them. I’m used to just plonking them in the soil and carrying on. Of course this means I’m stalking the Holland Bulb Farm page eyeballing all the beauties on there. I think it smarter to plant some zinnias though. At least until the soil is in better shape.

HJ, I left the roots and stem of the broken tomatillo in the ground because it broke as I was covering it up and it looks like it might be trying to grow! We worry so much about our little plant babies but they really have a voracious desire to live.

Gave the mums a glance this evening and easily spotted three orange flecks among their foliage without really looking! Carry on little ladybugs. Have lots of babies. I’ll reward you by growing lots of stuff to attract more bugs.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Kim, I read that too. I believe what I read said something about stressed plants producing more phytonutrients in an effort to combat the stress. So, in theory, we should be stressing our plants to get healthier food?

You're not the first person to notice how much this year feels like 2011....Tim and I were discussing that earlier today. We want to be wrong. We don't want another 2011. Once was more than enough.

Have a safe trip to Denton and watch the traffic on I-35. Now that some of the construction is done, they've raised the speed limit in some spots to 65 and in others to 70.

Jacob, This weather is stupid and crazy and insane and nuts and any other descriptive word you want to use.

More and more of my cool season greens and brassicas are bolting daily. I just pull them and feed them to the chickens. Oh well, at least the chickens will be well fed.

I usually plant my lettuce in morning sun/afternoon shade, but this year I put it out in full sun because the shady end of the garden is under reconstruction with the new shed, sitting area and new landscaping and growing beds. So, it obviously is a bad year to have made that decision but when we were shed shopping and shed building and doing all the work around the shed, we would have trampled and killed the lettuce so it really was more a case of putting the lettuce out in full sun this Spring or just not growing it at all. It is going to be interesting to see which lettuce variety will last the longest in the sun. I'm betting on Cherokee or Crawford. We'll see. In the meantime, maybe this weekend I'll start a planter of lettuce seed in the shade. Today we hit 87 degrees and had wind gusting into the 30s, so the lettuce, brussels sprouts and cauliflower plants all just wilted and wilted and wilted....and their soil is plenty moist. It is just that between the heat and the strong wind, the plants couldn't transport enough moisture to all the leaves. Even the edible podded peas and broccoli wilted but they did perk up much more quickly as late afternoon shade moved across the garden from west to east.

I have the bermuda grass and Johnson grass dug out of 90% of the eastern end of the garden where it had invaded last year. I'm very pleased with how well it has gone. I need to do something to get rid of the grass directly outside the garden fence because as long as it is there, it will creep under the fence and invade. I'm contemplating rototilling up that area just outside the garden fence, raking out all the roots, and then letting it regrow....and then rototilling again, raking out all the roots and then covering it up with heavy duty clear 6 mm plastic to solarize it. I could, eventually, hit that area with a grass killer type herbicide, but not until all the onions are harvested because the type of herbicide that would kill grass also would kill onions. After the grass is gone, I could plant a cover crop for a few years to improve the soil and eventually plant it with a wildflower mix once I'm sure all the grass is gone. The thing with bermuda grass and Johnson grass is that they're about the last plants to give up and dry up and look pathetic (but they never really die) in the summer heat, so they're just incredibly tough and resilient and hard to kill no matter what you do.

Nancy, Onions bolt as a reaction to stress. It can be from several different kinds of stress. The most common reason is that they are biennials, and it is just really easy with biennials to mess up their internal/seasonal clocks, and then you get bolting. When we have buy the little bundles of onions and plant them, that is the start of their first season as far as they are concerned. As long as they keep actively growing with no stressing interruption in their growth, all is well. However, once they're actively growing and have reached the 5-leaf stage, all it takes is a week or so of cold weather to make their growth temporarily stall. That stall is perceived as dormancy or winter by the biennial plants, so then when it warms up and they begin growing again, they 'think' (well, plants don't think....but you know what I mean)...they react as if they are in their second season. What do biennials do in their second season? They flower and set seed. Usually by the time we seed the flower heads forming, it has been a month or longer since the stress occurred, so it can be hard to backtrack it and figure out what caused the bolting. People always think it is the heat, but usually it is prior cold that caused a stall in growth. I've noticed the most bolting occurs in years when the Spring weather has been very erratic. Sometimes it is just that we received onions in our bundles that were so large (pretty much anything larger than the diameter of a No. 2 pencil) that they were, technically, already at the 5 leaf stage before we planted them. So, in that case, since they are at or beyond 5 leaves, once growth starts up again, they perceive they are in their second season and start preparing to flower. Any stress that interrupts normal growth for a few days can lead to bolting, including heavy rainfall that literally overdoses the roots with water and causes a stall in their growth or extreme drought with no irrigation which also causes growth to stall. As erratic as our winter and spring weather can be, sometimes I am amazed we get onions at all.

Happy LB petunias can get a couple of feet tall and about 4 feet wide. They just keep growing and flowering and growing and flowering and growing and flowering. Unlike all the fancy petunias we can buy in stores, the LB petunias don't start getting yellow foliage and looking unhappy as the heat builds. They just keep going and going and going. To keep them manageable, just cut them back hard whenever you wish. Sometimes I cut them back by 50% to 75% to reign in their size. In a couple of weeks they've grown like mad and are in full bloom again. You know that these are in my favorite group of plants---the ones about which I say "they won't die and you can't kill them".

I have all but one of the little beds at the east end of the garden planted after digging out all the grass roots. The one that is left is in pretty good shape, but the pathway between it and the fence has been infiltrated by Johnson grass, so I want to dig out that pathway and get it clear before I plant that bed. I'm thinking of putting Earlene's green ornamental cotton there, with LB petunias as an edging. I also put the last of the plants I bought last weekend into their bed today. So, I pretty much met my goals for this week, and harvested a lot of broccoli and cabbage today as well. I need to harvest peas tomorrow if we aren't gallivanting all over the countryside tomorrow. And, now that there's not all those big plants sitting there waiting to be planted, I might feel free to pick up some more plants tomorrow. I need about 3 to 8 more butterfly/hummingbird type plants for the new pollinator bed on the north side of the garden. They even could be annuals because the perennials planted this year will not necessarily expand a lot in size their first year, so I can plant annuals in between the perennials and then next year, the perennials will fill in all that space occupied by annuals this year. The hummingbirds kept trying to come visit the plants while I was planting them so we were sort of in a standoff---they wanted me to go away so they could visit the plants and I wanted for them to be patient and wait another few minutes and let me finish planting. Being bigger than the hummingbirds and more strong-willed, I finished planting and then left the area so the poor, long-suffering hummingbirds could visit their new bed.

I brought in another Early Girl tomato today, and have 2 or 3 more to pick either tomorrow or Sunday. The early tomatoes are producing really, really well now. I can't even keep up with picking all the Sungolds. Back when I kept having to cover up these 7 early tomato plants in April, I was really irritated about having to do it, especially since I'd never had to cover them up once in March, but now that we're getting ripe fruit, I know that the time spent protecting the plants was time well spent. I can laugh now looking back at those evenings and how I just hated dragging myself out to the garden and covering up the beans and tomatoes, and it was a real thorn in my side at the time. I hated every minute spent doing it, and kept grumbling to myself about why can't we have nice, normal weather. Now that we're getting a harvest, I'm no longer grumbling and irritable though.We have beans that are about 3 or 4 days away from being a nice harvestable size. I could have harvested them today as baby beans, but I want for them to reach a more mature size, and we have plenty of peas to eat anyhow.

Now that we are hitting the upper 80s and lower 90s, the flowering sweet peas....remember those....they are cool season flowers that absolutely stalled and refused to grow in April during the cool weather....well they are growing now and starting to (finally!) climb the trellis. Never mind that the edible podded peas planted at the same time now are 4' tall. At least now the flowering sweet peas are about a foot tall. I have no idea if they'll bloom. Their refusal to grow in the cool April weather is just bizarre since they normally tolerate cool weather very well. Gardens always are full of surprises.

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Nancy, I love sleep. Really love it. When sleep is healthy, it's such a restful and lovely thing--a break from stress. After reading the Twilight series, I decided I couldn't be a vampire because in that world, vampires don't sleep. I need that break. lol

However, I want more awake hours. There's so much that I'm interested in and want to do. I agree, it is a blessing. In a way. I feel bad for people who have no real interests or hobbies other than watching TV.

Thanks for the info about tansy, Amy and Everyone. I planted it in my herb bed (and picked one up for my daughter). I suppose I should dig it up and put it in a giant pot.

When Mason was little, I put Skin So Soft (Avon) on her during the summer. She never got a bite. They say it's not a repellent, but it works regardless. Maybe because the product is so oily the mosquitoes can't properly take hold on your skin.

Thanks so much for the info on flea beetles, Dawn. I'll come back with a picture. All my plants are so beat up from the wind...but this is definite holes.

Jacob, my "salad garden" is in a shady area--under a tree. It gets sun in the morning. It is doing amazingly well. It's my favorite thing in the garden right now. I'm truly enjoying the produce daily. Lettuce and arugula for my lunch and other greens for dinner. It is SO nice to not buy those items at the store. Often the store bought ones get slimy by the end of the week.

Nancy, I also had a year of veggie gardening many years ago. When Mason was a toddler, I had a cute little veggie garden that did amazingly well. Other than I had to learn to not let the okra get a foot long. LOL. I was so proud of my big okra until I tried to eat it. My father-in-law helped me with it. I"m not sure why I quit veggie gardening. I can analyze it, but won't here.

My parents/grandparents never taught us how to garden. I think my grandparents had the feeling that they had "made it" and didn't need to grow their own food any longer, and their children and grandchildren could shop at the grocery store. They weren't poor any longer. Oddly enough, they always kept a small garden even so (but never wanted us to help with it or taught us about it). It was mostly onions, southern peas, tomatoes...and maybe okra. If I remember correctly. I wish I could find some pics of it. I know there's pics somewhere of me posing by my grandmother's giant cauldron which was near the garden. But who knows where those pics are...I was little and it was the mid 70's.

My great grandma always kept a garden too. AND my great, great grandma (Lucinda Francis Ward) was widowed in 1924 and actually sold her garden produce from a horse and wagon. (I have a fascination for this line of women because it's my haplogroup line.)

Before my Dad got sick, my parents started veggie gardening again in their backyard. But that didn't last long because of Dad's cancer. Dad passed and Mom made the backyard a flower garden. It was lovely. (The man who bought by childhood home let the pretty landscaping go to crap.)

Anyway...I'm rambling.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
Nancy, I've got the back garden, which has 5 15x3' beds (the rest of the fenced in area is heavily shaded, dedicated to CARS!), the raised bed area, with two 30x3' beds and 1 20x4' bed, and the area up top in between with fir tree and white oak that gets the most sun. Up there has 2 20x4' beds, 2 30x4' beds, and soon to be one or two 15x4' beds in addition. According to my handy dandy calculator, that accounts to.... an estimated 1,000 square feet, which I'm satisfied with. I've wondered what our neighbors think of me hogging our front yard, and originally I'd wondered if I'd have convincing to do with my parents, but both are over the moon that there's less mowing. On top of that, I've taken over mowing just so I can get the grass clippings. Lol Funnily enough, I found a new area at the side of the house that I'm considering expanding to next year....maybe not though!! I can't be greedy.

The one 20x4' bed in the raised bed area has such poor soil. It's because it's on top of sheet rock, so I'm considering doing a lasagna bed there and focusing more on growing there next year. It needs work.

Dawn, according to all the long range forecasts (other than the inaccurate Weather Channel...), this summer is supposed to be a scorcher. Though you may be happy to know my Old Farmer's Almanac claimed a cool, wet summer, but I'm not quite buying that.

Megan, flip flop year sounds about right. What's next? A freeze in July?!

Im ready for tomato sandwiches.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
Nancy, that is crazy. The three of us have lived here a similar amount of time, and all new to gardening.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I have a 3 day weekend, so I'm dedicating myself to finishing the garden (autoimmune flare be damned) so it can just grow. Finish planting, build the new trellis, and clean up.

I'm having the first snow peas of the season for lunch. They look better than the snap peas, which I think are unhappy with the heat and are really starting to turn brown. That probably also has something to do with me planting a little too intensively. I'll move the snap pea pots to afternoon shade today, to see if I can get at least one harvest out of them. There are lots of flowers and tiny peas on them, at least.

Tomatoes are happily growing. Some flower buds are appearing on the potatoes. Peppers are happy. Beets and carrots aren't beeting and carroting up yet - is that a problem? A lot of the flowers are budding out. I'm trying to push the rosebush into blooming tomorrow, so I can take it to Mom for Mother's Day. Lilies are getting close. I bought a Red Hot Poker and 2 purple gomphrenas today to put in.

I'm having a heck of a time starting certain seeds this year. Parsley and cilantro, tithonia, morning glory, moonflower, lettuce, spinach. The paper towel trick will work on most any seed, right? Even pelleted seed, if given a bit more time?

Dawn, would putting LB petunias in pots rein in their growth at all?

Am I the only one that has random carrots popping up? There's several in the beet pots, one in a pepper pot, and one in each of two tomato pots. However, none came up in the carrot pots.
jacoblockcuff (z5b/6a CNTRL Missouri
5 years ago
Rebecca, I haven't even grown carrots in previous years and I have random carrot-like plants popping up. I've wondered if I spilled a seed packet and didn't know this previous spring.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jacob, I saw the forecast in the Old Farmer's Almanac and hoped it could be true, but feared it wouldn't be. And, honestly, when I first read it, I laughed and told Tim it was a nice fantasy but not likely to be true. If May weather is any sort of indicator, I think summer will be hot, dry and miserable. And, you know, it isn't that we aren't getting rain. It is just that we'll go without rain for 2, 3 or 4 weeks and then get a lot at once, so on paper, our rainfall amounts looks pretty good, but in reality we're having to water a lot in between the little bursts of rainfall. It seems like it it either feast or famine with the rainfall.

Also, not to rub it in or anything, but there's three tomatoes on the kitchen counter ready to be made into sandwiches either tonight or tomorrow. I hope you will be able to eat tomato sandwiches made with your own home-grown tomatoes soon.

Rebecca, I don't know if putting the LB petunias in pots will reign in their growth or not. I haven't tried it. Typically it does work with most plants if the container is smaller than what they'd really like merely because the plants lack the root system to reach their maximum size. The nice thing is that when they get too big you can just cut them back and it doesn't hurt them.

With the weird weather, I think the beets and carrots are just confused and don't know what to do. I imagine they'll be fine in the long run.

The paper towel trick for sprouting seeds will work with any normal annual seeds that do not require any special sort of hot or cold or wet or dry or alternating conditions for stratification. Most seeds that require stratification are perennials, and the paper towel trick works with them only if their stratification needs are met.

That's odd about the carrots. Hopefully they are real carrots that are popping up and not some carrot-type weed like Queen Anne's Lace or poisonous hemlock, which are related to carrots and look similar.

I am stalling and putting off going back outdoors. It is 86 degrees and only going to get hotter. Next week's forecast still doesn't look any better. I will be really shocked if the May weather turns back cool and normal. I think summer conditions are here whether we like it or not.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Finally, I see a few blooms on tomatoes.

Is it windy where you all are? Yesterday, very windy! Today not as windy.

I will mention this just as a heads up regarding medical stuff. GDW had a colonoscopy on Tuesday. I've always heard that after 50, people should have them regularly. I understand the necessity for some (history of colon cancer in the family, severe intestinal problems of other sorts.) We learned (re-learned?) a valuable lesson. Research, question, do not assume the doctor is infallible. Garry's experience has been scary. If I'd thought taking him to "the doctor" two days ago would have made him feel better, we'd have been there. Unfortunately, he was fine until he went to "the doctor." Any time someone goes for a procedure and is put out with a general anesthetic, it is serious. I/we learned. Find out what medicines you are taking, and how they may affect you. Find out what any procedure entails and possible side effects and appropriate diet and aftercare. He has been about as sick as I've seen him (to the point where I know he thought "this is the end" and I was worried sick) and thank God he is better today. . . not 100%, but 80% better.

My head was buried in researching online. Although it didn't make him feel better physically, I know and he admitted as much today, that hearing others' after effects and complications eased his mind mightily.

Suffice it to say, I doubt I will be having any colonoscopies with a general anesthetic or previous extreme laxatives any time soon. I called our doctor Thursday (not like we could get him in), got a message back saying yes he could take a mild laxative and also if he had a UTI, needed to go to ER (in Broken Arrow.) Wow.

No talks from any medical person about diet before the procedure, diet after; no talks about what effects the medicines might have; no conversation about possible complications. No conversation about how something like that can mess up a person's plumbing. Nothing. It was more like, "Here, take this liquid the night before, show up at the hospital, go home and carry on."

I know for some of you, I'm preaching to the choir. But this is something I hope we all can learn from, once again. Not a topic for visiting about here, but thought it might be helpful info.

WHEW. Exhaling............ back to gardening! Rebecca, are you a relative newcomer to veggie gardening, too?

Doggone! Plants to get in! Jacob, your gardens are roughly twice the size of mine (though if I counted the "flower" beds, mine would entail a much much bigger area), so I figure you've got about twice the work I do. Your parents must be loving this! What a win win for you all!

Dawn, yes, I can say already that the LB petunias are a great addition, and thanks for the heads up on them.

I'll be back later after a grocery run. I hope you all can get in some good garden time, looks hot though.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
Rebecca, is the pelleted seed this season? The seed coating is wet when they put it on, so it starts the germination process. If they're not this season, they may be "dead" now.

All the tomatoes are in the ground. I have one (duplicate) that I can use if the one Sasquatch dug up doesn't survive. At least it was one that I'm not too sad about.

We're going to Bartlesville tonight for Mothers day with mom. She got her Mothers Day present at my birthday party. I had gotten her risers for her recliner, so she could get up easier. Then I got a memory foam chair pad for hard chairs. Turns out she can get up from her dining room chair much easier now, too. Plus she can take it to a restaurant with hard chairs and be more comfortable. Score.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I was only out for an hour, and came back in. I got a few shade tasks done, but it still got too warm for me. Plus, the neighbor's lawnmower started to get to me. I'll go back out this evening when the sun is lower, I think, and again early tomorrow morning. I need to put plants in the front flowerbed when they have the night to recover from transplanting. I should have done it this morning, but I went to Cherry Street, Stringers, and Sprouts while it was cloudy and cool. The clouds are coming in and out. This is bad that it's already so hot that I have to limit my time outside, and especially in the sun. Usually I have May to get things planted before the heat. Yes, I think this summer will be a bad one. The TV meteorologists have mentioned both 2011 and 2012, in talking about this summer.

Nancy, that is scary about GDW. I hope the test results are good. Yes, there should have been more talk about possibilities, but I think they don't go into it much because they're so rare. I wouldn't not take a needed test because of the worry about complications, though. Just ask more questions. Now you and GDW will know what to prepare for next time, and if they feel the need for that test, there will almost certainly be a next time. I am glad he's on the mend, though.
haileybub(7a)
5 years ago
Well I’m arriving late to the weekly thread party, I tried to browse through some posts but there are so many and besides, tomorrow is a new week! I finally have a day off and planted tons of potted begonias, cause they grow easily for me! I also did a nice hanging pot of wave petunias. I need to research how to save seeds from those two plants because I just laid down $18 for them! Oh well, they should give me many months of eye candy!

All of my plants that I wanted are in the ground or pots. My peppers are just stunted, it seems but I may just be impatient. I know the tomato plants have grown but the only two that are setting flowers are the ones I set in containers and the one container pepper is easily 3 times larger than the ones in the ground. My beans are growing nicely but something is munching on the leaves. Cukes are up and okra too. We’ll see how those do. My garlic is massive and most likely have at least another month to grow. My asparagus just won’t quit and I’m not complaining about that! My second attempt at spinach I planted with reluctance is actually doing ok! Time will tell if this heat is just too much for them. There’s always fall (right?? We will have a fall??) My zinnias are as cute as can be and are about 3” tall, I tried to plant them in lines but I think my initial watering mov
haileybub(7a)
5 years ago
ed them around a bit so they’re pretty scattered. Here’s a question! I’ve some liquid seaweed fertilizer I’ve not used and was wondering if anyone has used it and has any tips for me. Foliar? Ground water? How often?
jlhart76
5 years ago
After going through so many doctors with Cliff, I have zero respect for Tulsa doctors. The verdict is still out for OKC.

Got the yard mowed, several things potted up, and a few others planted in their new home. Wouldn't you know, SF is over and now everything decided to pop up.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Haileybub. . . was just thinking that as prone to mildew as my zinnias have been, "scattered" would be a very good thing! And with that in mind, I did plant the first go-round of them, definitely scattered. Where are you located? My peppers and tomatoes are a bit slow, too. . . but there's no way for them to grow but up, right?

I need to get mulch down in the center bed, as the weeds, though little now, are growing like weeds. So I know what my big project is for tomorrow. And I'll be happy to be making use of our huge mound of free wood chips culled from the trees in our neighborhood.

Now I finally see little blooms here and there. . . rose campion, the cute hollyhock zebrinas, nicotiana, gaillardia, and petunias, and coreopsis, clematis. Strange year. Husker red penstemon (about a month late.)

I loaded up on deck chair cushions from Walmart. What a price! And I got a bunch (we seem to have a bunch of chairs) so I'll have replacements when needed, for a while. I am flat broke now. But happy. That'll teach Garry to turn me loose on my own.

Haha, Jen...... yea, funny about those rascals popping up AFTER SF. Mine too, everywhere!
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
OK, could someone PLEASE explain to me where all these tomato plants came from????
haileybub(7a)
5 years ago
Nancy, I am in Enid. It’s been quite warm here, I turned on my AC for the first time this year. I hold out for as long as I can, shooting for the end of May but I don’t know if it’s just really been hotter than usual or I’m just getting wimpier in my aged state but it feels great! It’s off now as the evening has cooled down and a pleasant breeze is passing through. I like your take on the direction the plants will go!!! I looked just now, two of the three tomato plants I set in the ground are flowering, that’s good! I’m keeping an eye out for he spider mites that killed my garden last year, I’m a bit nervous as I’m leaving town for a week in June and that’s just what happened last year. I hope to ward them off, does keeping my fingers crossed count? Oh! About the seaweed fert, anyone? I actually have liquid kelp too and some other sea thing. Oh brother.
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
Nancy if I remember correctly, they have GDW on a high fiber diet? And they didn’t give him any recommendations to cut back and have a very low fiber diet for a few days before?!? Do him a favor. Go to the feed store and get some corona! It’s udder cream but it will go a long way toward making the uh-hem tender area feel better. If you’re familiar with corona, they’ve changed the formula and it’s not the thick, grease-like paste it used to be but still very good. It has lanolin so beware if that is a concern.

For anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of this experience - even if they don’t recommend it - cut your fiber as much as possible 3 days before. I had 2 about 6 mo apart and they made this recommendation the second time. Still unpleasant but it certainly helped the prep finish faster and I was not quite as tender afterwards.

Not a lot of gardening to report on today. I got the last of my peppers in before heading to Enid for my last visit with cousin before she and family move to Georgia. (Sobs uncontrollably) Then stopped in Dover where I scored some more mineral tubs. There will be more as they clean their barn, which may not happen till after harvest, but I have a source. From the sound of it, I will have way more than I could use, so I’ll share. They’re charging $3 to $5 each. I know Bruce will be interested.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
THX, Megan! No no no no. Not a word about food or preparations. Yes, we'd been having really high fiber food lately. Just that he could have breakfast the morning before and nothing to eat the rest of the day, take the 2 liter dose of laxative (they call it prep), half at 6 pm 8 oz at 15 min intervals; repeat at 2 am. Then when they released him, they told him he should maintain a high fiber diet. We promptly went to lunch and had a big chicken salad (Quesadilla Explosion at Chile's.) The next night we had another really high fiber meal. And after that, he pretty much hasn't eaten the rest of the week. After my intensive research, I immediately switched him to small low fiber meals. And I gave him a mild laxative Thurs., broth, probiotics. . . I may up it a bit tomorrow since he finally says he's feeling better. I am angry with both our doc and the END doc's lack of information and advice about both the before preparation and the after. Did they give you a general anesthetic? I further learn that many times that isn't done. I appreciate what you said, as you confirm what I had concluded, too, after all my research AFTER the fact.

I am so sorry your sister will be in Georgia. That's gotta be tough.

Oh, besides new deck chair seats/cushions, I stopped by our local nursery. She did have it south of town about 5 miles. She now has rented a space directly across the street from Walmart (HAHAHAHA.) and I got to visit for the first time today. Knowing full well that I was going to find SOMETHING to buy, just to give my support, I ended up with two alternantheras (purple Joseph's coat), plumbago and two ruellia (as back-ups to the 3 small ones I have going.) I didn't know about alternanthera or plumbago, though I have heard plumbago mentioned here or on the OGFB. Having read up on them both, I'm going to pick up more tomorrow. (And she's having a Mother's Day sale! Woo-hoo.) I was tickled to see she had a few folks in there while I was there, and 3 different people left with several flats of various things.

Do you all have anything you can tell me about alternanthera and plumbago?

Having said the above, although she and her hubby have gone into it whole-hog, they don't know a lot yet, about the plants they're growing. They'll learn, of course. And that will make a huge difference to the success of their operation, which I'm hoping for! I was ready to spend $50-$60 and when they rang me up and it came to $35, I was going to go back and get more, but thought I'd wait til I researched the alternanthera and plumbago, first. Then I crossed the street to Walmart--that little car was so jammed full of "pillows," potting soil, a few groceries and the new plants, there was barely room for me. ;)
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Nancy, Hooray for blooms on the tomatoes.

Today's max wind gusts weren't as bad as yesterday's---in fact, 4 mph lower, so the wind wasn't as bad, but we were two degrees hotter so it still felt warm/windy and sort of miserable.

I am sorry to hear that you and GDW have been through the wringer this week. That must have been very scary. My dad and I both reacted very badly to anesthesia. I hope I never have to have it again for any reason.

Amy, Congrats on the score! I love it when a gift I've selected for someone else is an obvious hit so I know how you're feeling about that. I hope y'all's Mother's Day gathering with your mom was wonderful.

Rebecca, I agree about just how bad this early heat is. I cannot ever remember a year when May was hot and then June turned back cooler, so I'm not expecting it to happen this year. I hate to say I've already lost hope, weather-wise, but I sort of have. Usually, at least we have May, you know? The cold of April is gone, our usual May weather is nice, we might have some severe storm days but we have plenty of other nice gardening days. We work ourselves to death in the garden in May because we know the June heat is coming and this is our last good month to really spend all the time we want in the garden, right? So, to have May feeling more like June or even early July is very discouraging. I'm already working around the heat like I normally do from late June onward. This isn't good.

It is bad that your TV meteorologists already are comparing this year to 2011 and 2012.....it was okay when I was doing it because I'm not an official anything...but they are official....so we have to take them seriously.

Hailey, Begonias are ridiculously easy and so pretty---I just love them. They are very forgiving of dry spells too---surprisingly so. With the Wave petunias, they are hybrids so any seed you save is not necessarily going to give you identical plants next year--they might give you some plants that look like this year's plants, or they might give you something entirely different. They might give you a similar color, but most people who have tried to grow F-2 Wave or Tidal Wave petunia seeds have gotten a whole range of colors. You might get the color, but not the same growth rate or disease tolerance or whatever. It depends on how the genes resort themselves in the F-2 generation (the plants you have now are the F-1 generation). So, if you want to get an exact color of Wave petunia or an exact growth habit, you'd be better off purchasing F-1 seed than saving F-2 seed from F-1 plants. Even if you have to buy the F-1 seed, it still is a lot less expensive than buying the plants. Petunias are surprisingly easy from seeds.

We'd better have a fall! Mother Nature owes us a very nice, beautiful, mild, prolonged autumn to make it up to us for taking us straight from winter to summer with no spring. Actually, that's not a fair statement. At my location in southern OK, this is how the seasons have gone: January & February: Winter, March Spring, April Winter, May Summer. It isn't fair, though, to have Spring followed by a return to Winter. It sure confused all the plants. I blame it all on the convergence of Easter with April Fool's Day. I just knew something horrible would happen as a result, and the April cold is the horrible thing that happened. The whole month of April was one big April Fool's Joke, but then there's May. Who is to blame for May being so summery?

I love liquid seaweed. It works great. Tips? Never use it indoors because it is stinky, and that's doubly true of liquid fish fertilizer. Both of them will attract cats and coons, and sometimes vultures, so keep that in mind. Are you rural or semi-rural? Every time I use blood meal or bone meal, I have vultures circling above the garden for days. Also, all of these can attract dogs and cats....I cannot let dogs come into the garden with me or they'll try to dig up the bone meal. You can use liquid seaweed either to drench the ground beneath the ground or as a foliar feeding. It seems to work fine either way (just like compost tea or manure tea). Since the NPK on liquid seaweed is low, you probably could use it weekly if you wish.

Jen, Plants always do that. When there's something I really want to take to the SF, those volunteers never sprout until after the SF. Your comment about the doctors in Tulsa is not the first such comment I've seen or heard. When we moved here, we just kept using our Texas doctors because we were so comfortable with them.

Nancy, I'm glad your blooms are beginning to appear. It is about time! I still feel like not enough is in bloom yet, but we do have lots of blooms in our garden-just not as many as usual. The wildflowers in the fields are the same way---some didn't bloom at all, some haven't shown up yet but I still have some hope we'll see them, and others are blooming either very or somewhat early---there's no rhyme or reason to it. Blame the weather.

The weeds are indeed growing like weeds with many new ones sprouting daily. I weeded most of the asparagus bed today as it is the only one that didn't get weeded during the week, and it looks so much more normal and under control now.

Rebecca, Those tomato plants were born in a cabbage plant....no, wait, that is Cabbage Patch kids. Hmmm. Well, it all starts out with one tomato blossom that has anthers and pistils.......hmmm. That might be too boring. Well, where did they come from? Did they fall off the turnip truck? Follow you home wagging their tails behind them like little stray puppies? If you do not know where your tomato plants came from, how are we supposed to know? Let's ask the squirrels what they think. I bet they'll know.

Hailey, The bottles of liquid fertilizer ought to have directions right there on the bottles.

So, it hit 89 degrees here today and it didn't feel quite as bad as some days earlier in the week, but it was no picnic either.

I worked in the garden this afternoon while Tim mowed. I weeded, planted a few things, water those things in well with a watering can, etc. and harvested some more tomatoes---this time Early Girls. I also ate Sungolds while working in the garden---they are a natural form of gardener's Gatorade. Tim broke some sort of belt on the riding mower and didn't want to push the push mower around in the heat, so his workday outdoors ended early. He came and offered to help in the garden and I sent him to the house. I felt like he needed some free time that didn't involve working on anything.

Mosquitoes are horrible, horrible, horrible here now. Now, I'm off to bed because I hope to get into the garden early for a couple of hours of work before the day gets too busy.

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
Here's what I've been working on for the last couple of days:

Planted the extra tomatoes in the community garden. The guy who oversees it, showed up to do a little work and had some sort of catastrophe happen to two of his personal tomato plants, so he took two of mine (yay!) and between me and the wild wind, two snapped. But, I'm happy to give those remaining plants a chance to live and produce.

I've added chicken wire to the fence to our west. The fence is good for keeping their horse and donkey in, but the hens easily go under. Because we have to get them out of their pen for a few hours everyday, we are making a fenced yard for them--it's probably about a quarter acre--and hopefully it will be finished by next weekend. Both easter eggers and both buff orpingtons have a few feathers missing from their back. I am hoping there will be less pecking once they can stretch out some. Plus the little ladies need to join the flock and there's no way I'm throwing them into that pen as is.

And I transplanted two oak trees. I'm pretty excited about them and sure hope they make it.

Megan, I sure hope the tomatillo makes it!

Nancy, I'm sorry Garry has been so sick. How very scary. Glad he's feeling a little better.

Hailey, my asparagus is slowing down. It went strong for about a month. Asparagus frittata is a new favorite. It uses both asparagus and eggs. Things I've had plenty of lately.

I can just taste the SunGolds--can't wait. Mine have flowers, but no fruit. It's been a long time since November. :)

I'm still holding out hope for something unexpected and good (weather-wise) to happen this summer.

We took a break and saw the Avengers tonight.

I feel like I"m forgetting things I wanted to comment on...but maybe I'm just getting sleepy.

Tomorrow will be a new thread.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Megan, I'm sorry your cousin is moving so far away, but you know, y'all can travel to Georgia to visit and your cousin can come back here to visit. It isn't the same as being closer geographically, but it is better than nothing.

I have grown plants in feed tubs for 10 or 12 years. Maybe a little longer. I love them. They are the right size for tomato plants......I have found that many people grow indeterminate tomatoes in containers that are too small for them which significantly reduces the plants' yield and which also makes keeping the plants watered in summer heat and drought very difficult. When I grow indeterminate plants in feed tubs, the plants get the same size and give the same yield as the same plants when grown in the ground.

Nancy, Tim had his without anesthesia and walked out of the hospital feeling fine (and starving hungry). I'm appalled that the medical personnel didn't prepare y'all more in advance. Surely they know that different people's bodies react differently to these tests and they need to tell folks everything they could do both before and after well in advance because not everyone breezes through them with little to no side effects. My brother suffers from ulcerative colitis, diagnosed in his early to mid 20s, and has at least one colonoscopy a year, sometimes more often, and this has gone on for decades for him. He has a hard time with them---he has always said they are very hard on his body.

Alternanthera and plumbago both grow very well here, but they are annuals. The type of plumbago generally sold here is P. auriculata, a zone 9 plant that can usually overwinter in zone 8 in well-drained soil with lots of mulch. It also is commonly referred to as leadwort or Cape Plumbago. I think plumbago is gorgeous but it prefers rich, highly organic soil that stays moist pretty much all the time, and it is hard for me to keep the soil moist enough for it in our hot, dry summers so I generally don't grow it. (It is very hard to resist those blue flowers when the plants are in stores.....I looked at some yesterday but didn't buy one.) More and more I am buying perennials instead of annuals now that I feel like our soil has finally improved to the point that perennials can actually be perennial here, so I've been trying to largely avoid buying plants that won't come back reliably. High Country Gardens sells a different kind of plumbago---it is a lower-growing cold-hardy ground cover type. I'd buy it and plant it here outside the garden if I could be sure the rabbits and deer would leave it alone. The hardy plumbago they sell is cold hardy down to at least zone 5. There's different forms of alternanthera and some of the more colorful ones are sold under the name Joseph's Coat. There's another one called Purple Prince that I really like too. Some of them can be grown from seed. I've seen one in recent years that is a hot pink and doesn't have as much color variation as the Joseph's Coat. In hot weather they can be plagued with spider mites, and spider mites plague my rural area so I don't grow them as often as I used to.

Jennifer, All the oak trees except one around our house, which are taller than our two story house, were dug up from our woodland as tiny, tiny plants and transplanted into the middle of a bermuda grass lawn which had been a cow pasture for at least a couple of decades before we bought it. Prior to being cow pasture it was farmland. We transplanted tiny saplings because I had read in one of Sally Wasowski's books about studies that showed tiny saplings grew more quickly than larger trees as long as you were careful to dig up as much root as topgrowth. This is because they have enough roots from the beginning to support the above-ground growth. When we transplanted the oaks most were no taller than 12" high and the root balls were 12-18" deep. Those oaks took off quickly and grew like mad. The only risk to them was that deer would step on them during the night while walking through our yard, snapping them off at ground level. (Staking the remaining trees helped stop this.) And, sometimes Tim killed a tree with the lawn mower or weedeater, which I totally expected to happen. We had planned ahead for stuff like this and planted twice the number of trees we needed so we could lose some and still have enough shade. The soil got no special soil prep and the trees mostly have had to survive on whatever rainfall Mother Nature gives them, though I did water them well their first and second years because we were in drought. I hope your oaks do as well as ours have.

Now, I need to go start this week's thread.

Dawn

May 2018, Week 2: Spring Is In Full Swing Now, Summer Approaches

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