July 2018, Week 2, Summertime
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
5 years ago
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Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years agoRebecca (7a)
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Summertime O.B.F. Members Swap July 2014!
Comments (150)Morning!! Margo, it's not as bad to take care of as people think. I think because its bigger, its pretty self sufficient. I do need to get in it every month or so and weed. My water plants reproduce so quickly they would cover the whole top if I didn't. What's nice is I put all the pulled ones in a wheelbarrow and bring them down to the veggie garden. Pile them up and let them dry. I about a week they are bone dry. So dry they crumble! I use them for fertilizer. I don't know if its the pond water, fish waste or what but those plants work almost like miracle grow ;) Shirley, we have a Master Gardener's plant swap usually every year here around Mother's Day. I say usually, cause this year we didn't have one? I was so busy at the time, never asked why, and till you just mentioned it forgot all about it :) My fair swap has been growing a little every year by 1 or 2 people. :) A lot of the same people come every year once they get hooked. The like the variety of different things I bring every year. What's awesome is that it all comes from the gw. :) The seed swaps in the fall produce nice little babies for my swap. This year I tried a bunch of Dianthus.... I have Ipswitch, Black Adder, Yellow something I can't remember, Black Magic, Fire Witch...as you can see I got most of these from the Halloween swap last year :) I also have some different Althea's that I can't remember right now, lol. The turtle is officially done. He's not a fancy turtle, but, he does look cute. ;) The kids are so excited I hope he wins. Taylor was looking through the entry list for ecology classes. She's entering photography, art (painting and sculpture), sewing, flower arranging (gee, wonder where she's gonna get those?), and house plant arrangement. I have 1 house plant in my house. Taylor's zebra plant. This thing has produced 8 babies! She took my tea cup planter and planted them around in it. She then used one of my old spoons and stuck it in. Made a tea bag tag to tie to the spoon, " Taylor's Tea" It came out so cute! Billy is entering art. He made the most beautiful pastel drawing of a fish this year in kindergarten. It won an honorable mention at the school art show. I framed it. He's also entering the house plant arrangement too. We didn't have any house plants for him, but, we did have some hen's and chicks. So yesterday we got a pair of his old sneakers, washed them, and filled them with hen's and chicks. They are so cute!! Little blue sketchers!! So adorable!! My neighbor saw them when she was walking her dog and asked if they were going to be at the plant swap...lol! I have to get a photo of them. Have a great day!! vina Here's a weird one...found this double gaillardia. It looks like a science experiment gone wrong, lol....See MoreJanuary 2018, Week 2....The Week The Tomato Cravings Set In?
Comments (95)LOLOLOL. Doofus. No one was mean! Not at all. Just that they don't like folks going onto the site and doing something different. I can really actually see their point. It'd be different if I'd been winter-sowing for 5 years. It'd be like a brand new gardener coming into the FB forum and telling everyone they're going to plant their entire garden in hay bales. Or stuff like that, you know? What was a little exasperating was that some of them didn't read the post entirely and so it wasn't really a dialogue. No matter. All is good. But if they're mean again, I'll sic you onto them. ROTFL! AND, can't you find anything that contains collagen on a vegan diet?? (Not being vegan, I would not know that, you know.) Rebecca, I'm not as worried about them frying, I mean there are a ton of holes in them. Further, cross currents are usually more effective at bringing breezes through than from just one direction. I will say, that even had I put holes in the top, I still would have put holes in the sides, too. But. Okay tell you what. I'll go put a couple holes in the tops of some of them! LOL My larger concern is the bottom watering, just because I haven't seen anyone else doing it. I can't imagine why it won't work, since the indoor seedlings prefer bottom watering. But I'm still nervous about it. Could you please give me your thoughts on that? (Our first row of holes above the bottom is 1 1/2 inches high, which was exactly as much water as it took to dampen all the pots.) At any rate, yes, if I notice anything going awry, I'll spring into action to correct. I would say in Oklahoma ANYONE who WSes is in danger of frying the plants! We ALL need to keep our eyes on that possibility, right? But yes, with you working, you're not around to hover over them like I am. NOW. In the horrible event that I get called out of town for emergencies, I'll have to hire my nearby gardener friend! . . . Then I'd probably move everything closer in to the house for a minimal amount of sun. But then so would a lot of the rest of you be in trouble, too. Last year, I spent a good bit of time scooting my 15-gallon fabric container pots back closer to the house (and under the half roof on that part of the deck, either to get them out of the sun, or to protect them from the rains POURing down. I can certainly do that with the totes, too. Yes, Dawn. . . . Rebecca's cute little daisy was discussed in this article. I loved it and got a good laugh. http://dailyimprovisations.com/fun-flowers-to-grow-from-seed-cape-daisy-or-venidium-fastuosum This hybrid. . . . I think it'd be great to actually get even just a few seeds to see if any of them turn out to be true to the type--that would be very cool. If I live another 4 years, Dawn, I won't be winter-sowing anymore either, as I believe I'm growing everything I'll ever need to grow (perennial/herb/hardy annual-wise) this year. Hmmm. Who am I gonna unload these totes and pots on. Here I was thinking it was going to be one of those depreciation items. Perhaps not. . . .LOL Oh, Dawn, that is very upsetting about something scary out there. Please keep us posted. And along the subject of pets, I also would rather watch puppies OR kitties than almost anything. We are loving Tom and Jerry. . . even Titan is just fascinated. These guys certainly are not anything like Daffy. He sees possibilities with them being entertainment. But occasionally gets over-enthusiastic. He thinks it's fine for him to lunge at them as they race past him (and it's not, we tell him), but he is VERY touchy so far when one of them tries to attack his tail or foot. We think it's very funny of course, but he at least hasn't snapped at them, just kinda growled/woofed them off. That is VERY good on his part. Also when they would approach his dinner. . .THAT is his wild animal trigger response. We've worked and worked and worked with him on that one. We normally shut them in the cats' room (formerly the art room) to be eating their own dinner, but before we got wised up to that, they'd go over to HIS food dish--I almost got bit once, as did Garry once. There were severe penalties involved. Also a bratty 3-yr old liked to tease him with it--unfortunately, he was the one who paid--but so did she. So it was fairly miraculous that when the kittens tried to interfere, all he did was growl angrily and boy did they back off quickly. We're feeling very good about the kittens and Titan, they all three are fascinated with each other and full of good cheer. But Titan IS part wolf, after all, and we always are very aware of him--in unexpected situations. I am 100% certain GDW and I are gold with him. But I always keep an eye on him when he indicates he's uncomfortable with someone or a certain situation, and usually take him into the house then. The kittens are his first test situation with trust, and he's doing SUPER, but we still keep an eye on him. Little thinker, Tom, has now finally decided GDW is okay, too, and so now is landing on HIS lap and in HIS way. They're just precious, both of them. Kim, I missed your supportive post earlier, that was SO sweet!!! Thanks for believing in me--you KNOW I believe in you, too. You are a marvel! We're both kinda Ruth Stout people, I think. Ruth definitely figured out what worked for her and followed that path! But if the rumor Amy heard about Ruth is true, that she gardened naked, I know neither of US is gonna do that. I don't even like wearing short-sleeved T-shirts while gardening. Gardening is like full armor down here! Okay okay, I admit. Oklahoma gardening is not easy!!! It's the damn bugs!!! The critters! The aphids, the bad beetles, the slugs, the ticks, the chiggers, the fleas, the voles, the gophers. .............................................. a person in OK would have to be insane to be gardening in their shorts and tank tops and flip-flops and bare-handed, in my opinion! Let alone naked. Amy and Eileen, tomorrow our trip to Broken Arrow. Our whole day affair. Short notice, so maybe we can actually plan the next trip. But if you can meet up, let me know. However, Amy has a good point--will have more seeds if we meet up in a couple more weeks--maybe we should start talking about that--the seeds we have to give. Aldi, then back through Wagoner for buttermilk and candles, and then back home. We have been SO hunkered down here. And you guys who are so tired of winter? We are, too, of course, but you know what? I've made my peace with it, somehow. I wasn't allowed to hunker down in MN or WY, working every day all through the winter nonsense. It was COLD. Not easy, especially with vehicles. Those of us smart ones (sometimes I was smart, sometimes not so much so) had engine heaters for the cars plugged in for overnight. When I lived with my son and his family in Mpls, we had a street-level garage, but the rest of the property sloped steeply up. When it snowed, we'd have great fun the first few snows in December; partying out there in the driveway--with the snowblower and the others using shovels. By February or earlier when the drifts next to the driveway were up to 5-6 feet, not so much fun. It was so MUCH colder and more brittle and so much dryer in WY and MN in the winter. But I don't care. It's COLD here. I'm with the rest of ya. I used to trot out on my patio in Mpls when it was -10, in my short nightgown, for a last cigarette. It's all just so weird! Well, HJ, speaking of rambling!...See MoreSeptember 2018, Week 2, Try To Remember.....
Comments (27)Jennifer and Nancy, Well, I started the new week's thread right after I said that I would, submitted it, and it disappeared. The last time this happened, it showed up after about 24 hours (why? I wonder?) and only after I typed a whole new replacement thread. So, then we had two for that week, though everyone mostly kept posting on the second one. This time, I thought I'd wait and see if it shows up today before I type a replacement one. Let's just keep chatting here for the rest of today to see if it pops up. These weird glitches are driving me crazy. I hate spending all the time to type something only to have it disappear for a half-day up to two days before it reappears. Jennifer, I hope your foot is healing and that Peggy is doing better. Nancy, Wait a minute, woman! I think you're better off just staying in Oklahoma and learning to live without Heavenly Blue MGs than to move back to Minneapolis for the summers which would separate you from GDW. Who would get custody of Tiny Dude? Would he live in OK most of the year and then travel to Minneapolis with you for the summers? Would he be able to sleep at night if he was missing Garry? Would he need counseling to help him adjust to the changes in his young life? Poor kitty. His world would be torn apart, all because of Heavenly Blue MGs. lol. While I think Heavenly Blue MGs are delightful flowers while in bloom, I could live without them. Kitty lived such a long and wonderful life. I think we are fortunate indeed when we have an animal companion who is able to be a part of our lives for so very long. Tuxedo cats are the best---our beloved Emmitt Smith was a tuxedo cat, and he really was Emmitt Smith II, replacing a previous Emmitt Smith we had when we lived in Ft Worth, who also was a tuxedo cat. I just love how tuxedo cats always look like they are dressed up in their formal best with someplace to go---even if they are only going out to the garden to sleep in their favorite sunny or shady place, or maybe to chase butterflies. Daff sounds like she was so special and so happy to be rescued and loved. I know that you must miss her. Perhaps she is Tiny Dude's guardian angel. We have had cats like Tom before who do experience great anxiety over many things---I think it is just their nature and we do have to work with them so they can relax a bit and become a bit more comfortable. Mostly I just leave them alone and let them be, though it can be a trial to get such a cat to the vet, or to get them to allow someone else to feed the if we are out of town or whatever. I agree that each cat is unique and special like snowflakes. Well, snowflakes with claws. Tim went outside and mowed the yard late yesterday. Nobody (meaning me, I guess) went outside and helped him by using the string trimmer to cut down the tall grass and weeds that the mower couldn't reach. I really should have done that, but I was tired and took a nap instead. A couple of days ago a friend of ours posted a photo of a timber rattler that she and her 4 year old son almost stepped on when leaving a friend's house. It was scary how close that snake was to them, and reminded me that this is the time of the year that we really need to be careful here. Having that snake photo in my mind might have played a role in my choosing a nap instead of helping with the yard work. I did go out later and fill up the Mr. Turtle sandbox that we use to provide water for the deer. Then I made a big puddle that Augustus would have been proud to wade in, so that the birds and bunnies would have a source of drinking water and bathing water. It is so dry again, although at least it still looks nice and green. It is just that the ponds and creeks remain low, since that 1.5" of rainfall we got a couple of weeks ago is long gone, the mud is gone, the soil is dry again......(sigh). I'd love to have more rain again sometime soon but that doesn't seem real likely as our year-long dry pattern seems to be continuing. We're getting mixed signals from the El Nino that is supposed to be developing for Winter 2018 and that is starting to concern me. I was counting on a rainy winter to leave the garden soil in better shape for next Spring and now I'm not so sure we'll get the El Nino or the plentiful rain it normally brings us here. On the other hand, as much as we need rain, I sure don't want to get half a year's worth in 2-4 days like some parts of North Carolina have received over the weekend from Hurricane Florence. The flooding there is so horrendous, and I cannot even imagine what it must be like to be there surrounded by rapidly rising water. I think I'd rather have a hot, dry, half-dead garden than a flooded one. We're supposed to be back in the 90s beginning today, though we already did hit the 90s on Friday or Saturday, or maybe both, so it isn't like the 90s have been totally gone. I think we're losing more of our cloud cover now, if yesterday is an indication of what this week will be like, and we'll be back to our usual warm and sunny September conditions. I'll be glad when we make it to October, which usually is when our real cool-down occurs here. Actually, last year the long run of temps in the 90s finally broke about 5 or 6 days before the end of September so we began to cool down a bit earlier. I also feel like I'm not adjusting to the shortening daylength very well. It keeps catching me by surprise that sunrise is occurring later and later while sunset is occurring earlier. I don't know why---it happens every year. I suppose that I'm not quite as ready to let go of the sunshine as the heat. Some people are even more ready for autumn weather than I am. When we were out shopping and running errands on Saturday (high temp maxed out at 90 and heat index at 99 so it isn't like it was a cool, mild day), I saw a young lady in probably her 20s who was wearing black leggings, black boots and a black-and-red buffalo plaid checked shirt that had long sleeves and looked like it was made of flannel. She must have been in the mood for autumn weather (I can relate) and chose to dress for the weather she wanted instead of the actual weather we had. We were down in Denton and I was thinking that maybe she was a college student who was new to the area and was used to having autumn actually feel like autumn. I bet she was feeling pretty warm in that outfit. Sadly we cannot force the cooler weather to show up here until it is good and ready. I love boot weather and flannel shirt weather but that sort of weather isn't here yet. I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival. The only thing new in our yard and garden appears to be a bunch of mushrooms or toadstools that popped up after the rain, and now they're already drying up in the heat. I'm starting to see a few hints of wild goldenrod blooming here and there, though I haven't seen any on our property. We have some---but it is apparently too drought-stunted to bloom. The ones I am seeing in bloom on property near us are not tall like they normally would be, but at least they are blooming. I noticed last night that the loud drone of locusts, crickets and grasshoppers is greatly reduced over what it was 2 or 3 weeks ago. The quieter evening was nice, but mosquitoes are out in force here now. Have a great day everyone. Dawn...See MoreOctober 2018, Week 2, We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat
Comments (43)Larry, That is a beautiful and awesomely tall example of variegated reed grass! Maybe yours is going to get head high to the Jolly Green Giant? Jacob, If I didn't have the 8' tall deer fence all around both garden plots, the deer and I would not be friends. I think Bambi lost her mother, perhaps to a hunter. We have tons and tons of fawns this year---it seems that most does had at least twins this year and one that comes regularly has triplets. I love seeing them. If only the fawns could stay little, cute and adorable forever. People who hunt the property due west of us (it is the buffer that sits between us and the river, so they get a ton of wildlife) are getting pretty large bucks every year....say they sit on their property and wait for the bucks to come off our property. I rarely see the bucks because they feed at night, but I know they are there because every now and then late at night when we are out late, we spot them as we are arriving home. I tried for the first 8 or 10 years to have nice landscaping around the house/yard, which my husband stubbornly refuses to fence off with an 8' fence. The deer ate every single thing I planted, so I finally gave up. Now we just have trees, shrubs, trumpet creeper vines (because apparently the deer don't eat those), grass and some four o'clocks. Everything else? Hostas, hydrangeas, roses, perennial salvias, any annual flowers I planted for color, day lilies, etc......all deer chow. They even would eat the tough, prickly leaves of the hollies in drought periods, but finally the hollies are so big and old and tough that they don't bother those any more. If I ever convince Tim to surround our house and yard with a big ugly fence to keep the deer out, I will plant everything I've ever wanted around the house. I think his desire to not have a fence is much stronger than my longing for one. Where he grew up in Pennsylvania surrounded by woodland, nobody had fences so you could look out and feel like you owned hundreds of acres of forest as all the back yards and farms just sort of flowed together. So, he remains anti-fencing based on fond childhood memories from the 1960s and 1970s.....even though, if you go back there to his childhood neighborhood now, everybody has fencing and the farms and woodlands mostly are housing subdivisions with lots of fencing. I still think that someday I'll at least have a fenced back yard I can landscape. We'll see! Nancy, I am so sorry about your mom's passing. I know I don't "have to" comment, but I want to. Tim and I send you and your family our deepest and most sincere condolences. What an incredible, long life she lived, and you did everything you could to move her to the place that was best for her to live out her final stage of her life. You were a great daughter and I suspect it is because you were reared by an amazing mom. When y'all do travel to Buffalo in a few weeks, I wish you a safe journey. I do think Tiny Dude needs to travel with you so he can enchant and delight your friends and family who see his photos on Facebook and undoubtedly want to meet him in real life. Many cats travel well in a cat crate. Do they microchip cats like they do dogs? If they do, I'd get him microchipped in case he escapes from the vehicle, or at least get him a collar with a tag so you could put your cell phone number on the tag. Being close to the interstate where wrecks are frequent, we get lots of requests to watch for/search for pets that escape from a vehicle (not necessarily a wrecked vehicle---pets can bolt from a broken down vehicle when someone gets out to check and see why the engine is acting up or to change a tire or just when their owners stop at a gas station or fast food place). Sometimes you can find the pet, even weeks later, but it is hard by then to figure out which traveler passing through was searching for that pet if they aren't tagged. In my meager 20 years of living here, an early winter almost always equates to a bad winter. Or, for snow-starved southern OK, a really good winter. But, we don't get the ice storms that folks further north get in bad winters so what a lot of you might view as a bad winter, I might think of as a delightfully cold and snowy winter....if we get snow. If we don't get snow, then who cares? All winter without snow means is that we are cold and wet. I don't like being cold and wet, but I love snow. Not that I've had much snow to love. Our county does sometimes get the ice storms that bring down trees and power lines, but so far, that sort of weather never has come as far south as our house---it has made it down to maybe 3 or 4 miles north of us though. The bad thing is that if we get cold enough for ice and snow, then we get cold enough to lose Zone 8 plants that I planted here in order to see if they would survive here. They will survive here for a few years until we get an extra cold winter and snow. So, I sort of hope for snow, and sort of don't. I rarely plant Zone 8 plants here any more, although I planted a couple this past year.....which pretty much guarantees a cold winter is coming so it can wipe them out. I haven't seen a hummingbird since a week ago Thursday, but left the feeders up in case any were going to ride down on the big cold fronts. I haven't seen any, but will leave the feeders up until Monday or Tuesday, just in case, and then take them down. We ended up with the oldest granddaughter coming to stay with us for the weekend after her plans to spend the weekend with her dad fell through at the absolute last minute. We are always excited to have her come visit for a weekend, even if it wasn't planned. So, we ate dinner out with her, her mom and Chris last night, and then they headed home to get sleep before the busy work weekend with long shifts scheduled at work. We went to Wal-mart after dinner and bought everything we needed to stay home indoors and out of the rain today. We're going to carve pumpkins, which she has been dying to do....but I wanted to wait for cooler weather so the heat wouldn't ruin the Jack-o-lanterns. I think the heat isn't an issue any more. We're going to decorate Halloween Jack-o-lantern cookies (pre-baked and sold with a decorating kit). She has a long list of Halloween crafts she wants to make, including the Halloween version of a gingerbread house (we'll see about that one), so we'll work out way through that list as much as we can. I awakened at six and saw on the radar that the rain was almost here so rushed to get the dogs outdoors ahead of the rain's arrival. Whew! That was close but we made it. We're supposed to have rain all morning. How deeply into the afternoon the rain lasts is the unknown. I wish it would blow through faster, but it might be a long, rainy day here. We're ready for it and aren't planning on going out in it. I have some amaranth in the garden with huge flowering seed heads I'd hoped to have harvested and drying by now, but the relentless rain has kept me from cutting them. I keep hoping for a warm, sunny, windy day without rain so they can dry out some and then I'll cut them. I think if I cut them while they are so wet, they'll just mildew and look awful. I want the flower heads for autumn flower arrangements, but the rain may ruin that idea. When I planted the amaranth seeds in July, I wasn't expecting record rainfall in September and October. Have a lovely Saturday everyone. I hope those of you that the rain keeps missing will get some of this moisture plume left over from Sergio. The unfortunate thing is that it seems largely to be traveling over areas that already have had too much rain recently, so flash flooding and flooding likely will occur in those areas. The Red River is up and running fast and looked ugly last night, so this rain will just make that worse. I am thinking the winter wheat crop here likely is ruined. Too, too much rain even for seeds to sprout and grow, so it is more likely that if the seeds sprout, then the young plants rot. That's so unfortunate, but that is how life goes here on the southern plains. Dawn...See MoreNancy RW (zone 7)
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5 years agoRebecca (7a)
5 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
5 years agoRebecca (7a)
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5 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
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5 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
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5 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
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5 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
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5 years agojlhart76
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5 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
5 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
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5 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
5 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
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5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
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5 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
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