March 2019, Week 2 Let the New Rain and Mud Games Begin....

5 years ago

We've made it this far in what has been a really tough gardener's year so far. Daylight Savings Time has arrived, giving us an hour more of daylight in the evenings, which may be helpful for anyone who wants to slip out to the garden for a little while late in the day. We've made it through the worst of the brutal cold weather that started March off with a big chill. We made it through the first brutally windy March weather and we are still here. As a bonus, some people have new hugelkultur material to work with after the wind did some selective tree pruning. Now we just have to deal with a couple of rainy days, and some rain would be great for the folks in western and southwestern parts of the state that have returned to Moderate Drought or to Anbnormally Dry (Pre-Drought) conditions on the Drought Monitor map over the last couple of weeks. The weather has cooled down again after a couple of nice days, but it is March after all. I'm looking at the temperatures later in the week and wishing we wouldn't even go there, but we haven't even arrived at our average last freeze dates so we should expect there will be some more freezing weather even though we don't like it.

Did anyone plant this weekend? I didn't because we were too busy, but this afternoon I might. We'll see. Lately my schedule seems to have time for everything but gardening, and that is making me a little crazy.

I just carried out tomato plants for 5 hours of sunlight. Well, today it will be sunlight heavily filtered through the clouds, but that's about the best they can expect on a cloudy and possibly rainy Sunday in early March. Early March? Kinda sorta still early March but about to become mid-March.

There's lots of garden chores that can be done now. Remember to prune roses and fruit trees while they're still dormant, and whether they still are dormant now depends on your location in the state. You can plant bare-root plants now, but don't delay too long. They need time to establish and make some root growth before the summer heat arrives. The nurseries are full of plants now, both cool-season and warm-season. Be careful with those warm-season ones because we aren't that warm yet, certainly not warm to stay.

I probably will pot up tomatoes from their paper cups to their red Solo cups beginning tomorrow. I've been saving that chore for a rainy day and we're expecting rain Mon-Wed, with the best chances on Wed., which also is the day that the NWS describes our rain as "heavy rain". I have seven flats of tomato plants to pot up, so it will take a while, and since the larger cups take up a lot more space in the flats, we'll have more than 7 flats of plants to keep happy indoors under lights while the cold continues.

There's not much new to report. The warm-up has all the fauna and flora all excited about Spring and signs of spring are busting out all over. That's a good thing, but I'm still keeping a wary eye on the forecast with what looks like a couple more rounds of cold weather this month before we can maybe relax a little. I'll be glad when the cold moves on out of here.

Happy Sunday everyone. Have a terrific day and a great week and be sure to let us know what is going on in your gardens and landscapes!

Dawn

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okoutdrsman

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Trying to get caught up on reading, but not quite there yet.

Just a quick comment to let everyone know we have a pavilion rented April 13th a few miles from Ken and Paula’s. I started a thread, but didn’t have time to go into a lot of detail, so I’ll edit it later.

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Comments (59)

AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
Robert, I'm no expert, but when I start peas inside (as I'm about to do) I try to put them out as soon as they germinate and are just appearing above the soil. If I can't get them in the ground then, I harden them off first, so they can adjust to direct sunlight and wind more than temperatures.

Megan, prayers are with you. You, too, Kim.

I just put one bunch of onions in the ground. They were dry and sad looking, so I put them close together and will thin if they actually grow. Also put 4 broccoli plants and 4 kale plants in the ground. Daughter ran out of gas (!) on the way to Bartlesville and we took her some. She was a mile from Smashed Thumb, and they had posted on Facebook that they had hardened brassica available, so we stopped in. This was yesterday when it was cold and cloudy. Today is gorgeous.

My onion/stridolo bed got weeded. Only one piece of bermuda and a bunch of dead nettle. The stridolo shades the bed so most weeds can't grow. I have all kinds of onions coming up there. I think most are walking onions, but some may be coming up from seed. Onions have bloomed in there.

I think there is garlic and multiplier onions trying to push through the mulch in their bed. After next week I think I'll take some of the mulch off.

The flower beds are nothing but weeds. No sign of comfrey, or Zebrina. I expect the Four O'Clocks will come back, and of course tansy, but I fear there is nothing else.

Ron put my garden scooter together today. I'll try to take a pic later. It's just in time, my hips hurt from getting up and down off my 5 gallon bucket.

One Gary 'O Sena sprouted yesterday. I'm thinking that is the last of the tomatoes. I started peppers last night. I need to start peas. And prime spinach. And direct sow some things. I guess that will be after the rain. Sigh. I think I killed my Miss Huff Lantana! Ron wants me to get a bay laurel, if I get another Miss Huff, I wonder if they have bay.

Have a good week, y'all.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
I’m thinking if I should direct seed my snap and snow peas yet, under clear plastic cloches.
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Jennifer, I will start by saying that I do not believe four o'clocks form long running roots like that--they form huge potato-like tubers that can get to be the size of a human head in just a few short years, but....having said that, those little plants, including the one you're holding in your hand, look quite a bit like emerging four o'clocks....not seed-grown four o'clocks, whose cotyledons are quite distinct and not visible in your photos, but returning four o'clocks. So, I guess the question is whether or not you have any four o'clocks to compare these little plants to, and if not, what else do you have growing that has similar foliage. I think they are a weed because those little heart-shaped leaves look so familiar, but I don't know the name of them. What I remember about them is that I removed little ones like that from our garden by the hundreds for several years in our first decade here until they finally all were gone. 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Even small hard-plastic 4' x 6' greenhouses are hard to regulate (I had a neighbor with one and an uncle with one) temperature-wise. I know folks who have gone off to work happily, leaving their plants in their little portable soft-plastic greenhouses like this, only to come home on a hot Spring day and find the plants pretty much roasted, toasted and dead or dying because they forget to unzip the door to release heat or they chose not to unzip the door because the morning air was so cold when they left for work. A person who is home all day and who can unzip the door and open it to vent out heat might have more success with them, but there's still the issue of them not holding in heat at night. I always like them when I see them and picture plants inside sheltered from the wind and then toy with the idea of buying one just for hardening off plants right inside the garden, but I don't buy one because I know how hard it is to regulate temperatures inside my much-larger hoophouse style greenhouse, and it has 4 operable vents for air flow and cooling and two walk-in doors that can be opened to facilitate air flow and cooling too, and I have a large evaporative cooler I can roll into it and use as well, and I've been gardening long enough to know the smaller the greenhouse, the harder such temperature and air flow regulation is. The best use for these little things is either inside a garage or barn to protect seedlings from cats, mice and such, or inside a house if cats are a problem, or maybe inside a larger greenhouse or hoophouse for plants that need extra cold protection or perhaps if you need to do serious plant propagation you could do it inside one of these because you could hold in the humidity better in such a small confined space---sort of like a propagation chamber. Be grateful you don't have standing water...it breeds mosquitoes and ground that has been saturated for months develops a sour smell that smells worse than a swamp. I am sure that all the grasses and wildflowers are dead in the areas where water has been standing almost nonstop since September. I always hope for rain to miss us here during March and April when it is time to plant because wet, soggy clay is hard on seeds, often rotting them before they can sprout. I can water if we are too dry, but I don't have any way to extract excess moisture from the soil. When I was planting brassicas this week, I hit standing water about 2" lower than the depth at which I was transplanting seedlings, and that is in a raised bed, albeit a raised bed at the lower, more soggy end of the garden. Sadly, that well-amended clay seems to wick moisture upward from the wetter ground beneath the raised beds. So, my brassicas may not make it and if they don't, they don't, and I'll just move on to the next thing. I am worried about what Spring rainfall will do to an already soggy garden but rainfall is one of those things over which we have no control. The sad thing is that we could use this moisture in June, July and August, but those are the months when rain can become quite rare to almost nonexistent. Jen, I am watching our forecast and thinking that the cold nights are almost done with us, so maybe you can squeak through this Spring without having to do too much more plant protection. Our soil temperatures, at least in the raised beds, are coming up pretty rapidly too. We just need for the nights to stop dipping into the 30s because that is keeping the soil from holding its nice daytime temperatures, which are in the 60s. I probably could plant tomato plants in the ground today, and certainly could plant them in containers, and feel like the soil mostly is warm up for them, but our average soil temperatures keep lagging behind our daytime soil temps because the nights are still slightly cool on some nights. We also haven't had much really strong wind....say, gusts in the 30s or higher, since the bomb cyclone moved on, so I'm hoping that March, which did come roaring in like a lion here, is now sedating departing like a lamb. This has been a pleasant change as the tomato plants are out all day long now and get enough wind to toughen them up but not so much wind that they are damaged. It is supposed to rain on and off here all day, so there's probably no hope to get in any gardening at all. At least everything that I transplanted into the ground earlier this week should get some nice light rain, and hopefully no big downpours or I'm going to have to build raised beds on top of my raised beds, which would be ridiculous. Almost "everybody" is back now....Purple Martins, hummingbirds, monarchs, etc. to add to a plethora of bees, bumble bees, wasps, yellow jackets, all kinds of moths and butterflies, craneflies, etc. This week Spring absolutely exploded into being here, not only in name, but in the reality of the flora and fauna, and it is so good to finally feel like I can start spending at least a part of every day in the garden. As long as the grandkids are still living here, it likely won't be all day every day because the 4 year old gets bored after about 4 hours of gardening time, but Chris and Jana are working on the last big project---that 14' long closet that is almost big enough to be a room and, once they finish that, they can move into their home. I'm going to miss them, and I haven't minded adapting my garden time so I can spend more time with the girls---it truly has been a gift to be able to spend so much time with all 4 of the---the big kids and the little kids---over the last month and the house undoubtedly will seem too quiet, too empty and sort of lonely once they are gone. Dawn
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hazelinok
5 years ago
Hey Everyone. Read all posts. Will comment tomorrow. Y'all don't post too much between now and then, okay? lol

Busy productive days make me happy.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Robert, If you're only going into the 30s, I would go ahead and plant the sugar snaps outside assuming they've just popped up out of the tray and don't need to be hardened off and just mulch over them a bit. If you're going into the 20s, I might wait until that bit of cold weather passes. It is hard to guess exactly what is the best choice at this time of the year, so if you want to experiment, you could plant half before the cold arrives, half after the worst of the cold is gone, and compare their performance at the end of the season to see if it made a difference either way. Garden experiments like that teach us a lot. If they emerged a while back and have been growing indoors in artificial lighting, you'll have to do the standard hardening off of 1 hour of sun/wind exposure the first day, 2 hours the 2nd day, 3 hrs the third day, etc. Like Amy, I prefer to pop them out into the ground as soon as they've germinated so I don't have to go through the whole hardening off thing if I can avoid it.

Amy, That's great news about your onion bed. Of course, I'm futher south so it shouldn't be surprising that I still have some herbs and flowers that never really went dormant....the lavender, rosemary, and Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina' being examples of that. The autumn sage has not bloomed all winter like it usually does, but it also hasn't gone dormant. It is sort of semi-dormant and needs to be pruned back really hard soon. Daylily foliage has emerged, but likely will suffer freeze damage as it is out too early. The comfrey is growing like gangbusters so it clearly doesn't seem to mind low temperatures in the teens.

Henbit in bloom blankets everything here now....yards, gardens, pastures, highway medians, etc. For the sake of the bees and butterflies, I'm thrilled to see it.

Here's y'all's BIRD ALERT: the cedar waxwings are migrating north. They arrived here yesterday and have been busy eating holly berries today. If you are familiar with both the waxwings and their propensity to consume winter-surviving berries that have fermented on the trees and shrubs, then you can image what sort of day it has been here. If you don't know....we keep hearing big thuds as semi-drunken cedar waxwings crash into the windows, the front door, etc. They then pick themselves up and wobbily fly away. The first couple of thuds really startled me, and then I looked out the window and saw the cedar waxwings and realized what was going on. This is just sort of their thing, and we saw it in Texas even more than we see it here. Silly birds.

If something happens, Amy, and your tansy and Zebrina don't come back, let me know and I'll bring some to the Spring Fling. My tansy isn't up either yet, but the lemon balm in the same area is, so I doubt the tansy didn't make it through the winter. Well, I cannot be sure about that because my tansy is at the bottom of the sloping garden and we've been overly wet since September, so I guess it is possible we've lost it. Time will tell.

Rebecca, I imagine you can unless you are expecting some extra-cold weather.

Jennifer, It sounds like you had a busy, productive day. I'm glad.

Nothing new here. It has been raining. Big surprise, right? Because we need to get a little rain and have a little thunder and lightning every day, right? Especially around bedtime to stir up the dogs, right? lol. At least the little barely-thundering storm ran through here pretty quickly, and I refuse to look at the radar to see if more storms are following. Our big rain day is supposed to be Tuesday overnight into Wednesday so I'm going to pretend that it won't rain tomorrow and mess up my plans for the day.

The tomato plants are excited. They get to stay outdoors for 7 hours tomorrow. They grow so much better and look so much happier when they are getting some time outdoors.

I see quite a few bluebonnet plants up and growing alongside the driveway down by the gate. I'd never suggest anyone plant these bluebonnets in the horrible, unamended, dense and slow-draining red clay that we have there because the bluebonnets won't like it. However, I sowed some seeds there anyway because I am stubborn like that and they are in about their 20th year now. We never have a lot of them since it is hard for them to survive in persistently wet clay, but we always have enough to make me happy. I'm always envious of neighbors a few miles down the road from us who have a big patch of bluebonnets in sandier soil, so they have hundreds of bluebonnet plants whereas we have only a few dozen in the best of years, but I'd rather have a few dozen than none at all.

Megan, If you see this, you and yours are very much on my mind this week and I'm hoping for the best possible outcome for your FIL and for your uncle.

Dawn
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
Dawn, I do need some gardening therapy, but there won't be time or weather for that until this weekend. I stuck my trays outside this morning, as sheltered and weighted down as I could get them, but I'm beginning to think they would have gotten more light staying indoors under my grow lights. I was debating running home and moving them back inside since it's so overcast when my mom texted to say I forgot my lunch (I sound like I'm 12, LOL), so I WILL have to run home at lunch to eat and to care for the plants.

I'm not sure what I did to overdo it on Saturday but my hamstrings are still tight! I've had to skip my PT exercises for 3 days but hopefully I'm loosened up enough that I can get on the treadmill in the morning. In the absence of gardening, a long walk on the treadmill will be a fair substitute.

FIL came out of surgery just fine and was doing well enough last night that he sent Beth home so the dog wouldn't be there alone all night or have to come spend the night with us. The dog is getting old and curmudgeonly and would not have appreciated spending the night in the chaos we call home. I haven't gotten an update so I have to assume no news is good news. Thank you for the explanation of the vitamin K. That's exactly what it was because he didn't get the pre-op call and couldn't get a return phone call from the surgeon so Friday he went to their office to get an answer. They screwed up and forgot to call to tell him that he was supposed to stop his blood thinners on Wednesday! This week is getting me really discouraged on the competency of our medical professionals or maybe it's the pace/expectations hospital systems are putting on them. Dunno. Don't care. It sucks and it just killed my uncle and put my FIL in serious danger.

Speaking of uncle, at last check his organs were shutting down. They expected him to pass on his own overnight - I would have thought they would have to shut off the machines but I'm not sure anyone is thinking straight or clear on what is happening so I'm over here confused. In my mind, he's gone. I could be wrong and if there is anyone who could claw their way back after what he's been through, it's my uncle. But I'm feeling what I need to feel to get through this and I need to feel that his soul has departed and isn't stuck in that body suffering through all this. The one consistent thing I've been told is Wednesday, so I guess something will happen tomorrow. As if I didn't have enough on my plate though, I have a job interview tomorrow and am in no mental state to prepare for it right now. I thought about delaying it, but I just explained the situation and hopefully I do well enough that they take it into consideration if I'm not 100% on my game. Just like with uncle, what's meant to be will be.

I have this garden rule for myself that I call BENS - and it's sheer coincidence that my husband's name is Ben. It stands for Beneficial, Edible, Native, Special. It's how I keep myself from buying all the things at the garden center. It has to check one of those boxes and preferably more. In the special category, I grow pansies which remind me of my Great Aunt Nancy, zonal geraniums which remind me of my grandmommy who at 95 years old still grows them on her patio, and a zinnia mix I call Mrs. Marsha's zinnias because my parents neighbor (Mrs. Marsha) had purchased the seed pack just before her death and the packet was given to me. I was thinking about Uncle Dave in the car last night and how completely right you are that I need garden therapy and wondered what "Special" I could grow to remind me of him. Well, Uncle Dave is a disabled Navy/Vietnam veteran with chronic pain and a prescription/license to grow/use weed as treatment. He wasn't using when he had his accident, btw. Well, I'm NOT growing THAT! LOL One time I got into a conversation with one of his friends on facebook about pest control on "tomatoes" and Uncle Dave had to clarify that they weren't really talking about "tomatoes." LOL Then I remembered the story about Texas Star Hibiscus being confused with marijuana and think that maybe I'll have to find one of those somewhere.

I did do some garden related things over the weekend. First Aldi's suckered me with Dahlia bulbs that look similar to the ones I grew for my bridal bouquet - did y'all know I grew most of the flowers in my bouquet? I did. Aren't I special? ;) The dahlias came back the following year when I didn't dig them out but then the year after that Ben dug them and we stored them like we were supposed to but they didn't come back. I saw on P. Allen Smith that dahlias are beneficial by repelling nematodes so they check B and S in BENS. Friday night I didn't sleep well so I lingered in bed later into the morning than usual and picked my phone off the nightstand to see the time when I saw a reminder that I had a class at Will Rogers Garden starting in 45 minutes - it's a 20-minute drive. I paid $25 for the class so I was glad the reminder reminded me! I woke up Keegan, then she and I threw clothes on and headed out without brushed teeth... OOPS! We made it and I had a really fun time tearing up my fingers making an obilesk out of willow. The donut shop followed and Keegan wasn't nearly as focused on homework as donuts and girl scout cookies and all the other figurative squirrels to chase. So we went to Home Depot and got mulch. We spent so much time in the backyard that even the dogs were wiped when we finally came in for dinner. Normally, if you're even standing close to the back door they're at your feet ready to follow you out. Saturday night, gthey just laid on the couch and looked at us like, n'ah I'm good. So I guess that accounts for why my hamstrings are so tight. Lots of prepping garden space.
slowpoke_gardener
5 years ago
Megan, Kim, My prayers are with you.

Amy, I have wanted a garden scooter for a long time, but I make do with some cheap plastic stools that I just leave in the different gardens.

I have not been able to keep up with what all of y'all are doing, but I planted a row of spinach day before yesterday and 2 bundles of onions yesterday. My garden is much too wet to work, so I just take a "v" shaped hoe and plant around the puddles. My garden looks like a piece of modern art. you just cant tell what you are looking at, or even if is not upside down. We seem to get rain every day (or night). So I just scratch a groove with a hoe for the seeds and then let the rain that night wash some dirt on them. It cant get any nicer than that. I have one more bundle of onions to plant today after the rain last night. (if I can get out there before it starts raining again). Then I will be off checking old folks.

Have a great day, and dont forget to water your ducks.
dbarron
5 years ago
The first winter sown natives is sprouting (and the label says notoscordium bivalve, however, since it's showing two seedling leaves, my intuition says it's actually clinopodium arkansanum which was seeded on the same day). I'm guessing I accidentally put the wrong label in the pot.

Oh, and so many things are peeking out of the ground after a few warm days. Unfortunately, so very wet, rain from Monday through Thursday and we didn't need it to start with.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Megan, For the last week, I have carefully carried out my tomato seedlings on the standard hardening-off schedule. Sounds good? Hardly. All they're hardened off to is cloudy skies and some rain and wind. When the sun finally emerges, I'll have to start out with one hour a day of direct sunlight. Still, even weak outdoor light usually remains stronger than indoor light even when filtered through clouds. I guess in tomorrow's high wind I'll keep them all inside because I don't want to risk having extreme wind burn destroy them....or having the flats go airborne. Tomorrow will be, statewide, our worst high wind day in quite a while.

On the Vitamin K thing, it is really important in the way it affects one's blood clotting. If you are on blood thinners, you don't actually have to avoid foods with vitamin K but you need to consistently eat the same amount daily. A person's physician will calibrate their blood thinner dosage to work in conjunction with the typical amount of vitamin K they get daily from their food. So, as soon as you mentioned kale, I knew why it was important. Both my dad and Tim's dad were on blood thinners in their later years, as are several of our friends now.

I am glad your FIL did so well, and still feel so disheartened by what happened to your uncle. Yes, I'll flat out say it....medical malpractice flat out killed your uncle. My son is a Firefighter-Paramedic and has a lot of experience with intubating patients while on emergency medical calls and as soon as I told him what happened to your uncle, he was flabbergasted that they didn't immediately catch and correct their mistake....had they done that, he wouldn't have suffered the brain damage that he did by going without adequate oxygen for so long. My son is not one to favor lawsuits at all, but after he told me what they should have done to catch their error and did not do, he immediately said "that is horrible and never should have happened, the family needs to sue". He isn't even thinking of it so much as a financial thing to assist the family but more as a financial penalty to try to ensure that the particular facility works harder to follow established medical protocols to a T so this doesn't keep happening to other patients. I do think that all of us have to watch medical personnel like hawks when our loved ones are hospitalized because they are only human and mistakes do happen. We have to be ready to call them out if we think anything they are doing seems out of line or inappropriate. There's no telling how many people die a year because of medical mistakes---I bet it is a lot more than we even realize.

Doctors and hospice nurses, in particular, can be uncannily accurate in predicting how long a terminal patient will last. When my dad was admitted to hospice care with end-stage Alzheimer's Disease and pneumonia, his hospice doctor said she was working the next 5 days and that he'd leave the facility before she would. The nurses told me she was unerringly right when she made predictions like that. I think mainly she wanted to be sure that we got everyone up there to say goodbye to him in time. She was right. He died on his 4th day there.

People can pass away on their own even when on a ventilator. I know that because my grandmother did in 1992, I believe it usually is because of organ failure or cardiac arrest with no attempt made to resuscitate, and not because of respiratory arrest since they're on a ventilator. I am so sorry about your uncle. I was hoping and praying for Keegan to get the miracle she was praying for. While we adults all understand and accept a bit better the inevitability of death in cases like this, children are still so young and inexperienced with death (thankfully) and expect a miracle much more than we do, I think.

I know lots of people who plan to/try to grow their own wedding flowers, with varying degrees of success. Congrats on being able to do that for your own wedding!

I do think you figured out the reason behind your tight hamstrings! One way I know that our dogs, Duke and Jet (RIP to both of these very good boys) were getting old is that they gradually stopped going out to the garden at all in their final years. It is sort of heartbreaking. When they were younger, they were like your dogs---generally happy to go out. As they got older, the trips out to the garden tapered off and eventually ceased. Our young dogs are not garden dogs because they are runners, jumpers and diggers and would just destroy the garden. They also are climate-controlled by preference, having become very spoiled to heat and air conditioning and preferring more and more to stay indoors when the weather is too hot or too cold....or too wet or too windy.

Hi Larry! It rained three or four times in the last 24 hours, so I don't have to remember to water my ducks. We're expecting another couple of inches of rain in the next 18 to 24 hours, and I am so bummed out about that. We had started to dry out a little bit, and now we're back to standing water everywhere. I either should open a fish hatchery in all these temporary puddles/ponds or start growing rice. I have done very little in the garden and don't know when it will be dry enough to do anything. I'm about to give up on thinking I'll ever get cold-season crops in the ground without them rotting. My biggest fear is that at some point we'll instantly go from too cold to too hot overnight as we have in some previous years.

dbarron, At least you're getting sprouts and you know by sight which ones they are! It isn't a normal year if I don't mislabel at least 1 or 2 things.

I agree with you on the rain. We don't need it either and I'm so tired of it. I think the cats and I are starting to grow webbed feet.

Now, for everyone reading, I'm write a separate post on this but here is your warning: HIGH WIND tomorrow. Depending on where you are located in the state of OK, you likely have either a High Wind Warning, a High Wind Watch or a Wind Advisory for extreme winds tomorrow. We're talking about gusts up to 70 mph in the OK panhandle, gusts up to 60 mph in central, western and parts of northern OK, and gusts up to 50 mph in the parts of the state. mostly southern and eastern, with "only" a Wind Advisory. The sustained winds are going to be awfully high too, so it isn't just the gusts you have to worry about. If you currently have a High Wind Watch, I'd expect that to be upgraded to a High Wind Warning too.

March weather is behaving horribly towards us gardeners, isn't it?

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago

Will this still be standing at this time tomorrow???

We will see.
dbarron
5 years ago
I wouldn't want to bet on it, Hazel.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
I think it won't survive. It likely will be destroyed if you don't find a way to protect it. Some people have protected these by staking them to the ground with 8' tall fence posts hammered into the ground by all 4 corners and then attaching somehow (zip ties are easy if you have them) the greenhouse to the fence posts. Other people I know have moved them indoors when high wind threatens, even if they are only moving them inside a shed or garage or something similar. Oh, and if you use the poles and zip ties, be sure to have zip ties close to the top and bottom of each fence post to help prevent the little greenhouse support poles from bending in the wind. The High Wind Advisory for your area says sustained winds of 30-50 and gusts of 60. Last week a wind gust near our son's house carried away and destroyed a trampoline with one gust of 52 mph, though most of the rest of the day the wind only gusted in the 30s and 40s. Do you imagine that little greenhouse will survive better than a big, heavy trampoline did when you're going to have worse winds than that? I just cannot imagine that happening. I wish we could just say "it will be fine" but I don't feel like it will be.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Megan. . . I wept for your uncle. Beyond horrible. I have no words. But prayers for him and prayers for you all.

And Kim, when this terrible thing abates, THEN can you get a vaccination, or is it too late?? Love and prayers for you, too.

And the rest of you . . . . prayers for all of you, too. Life can be challenging, I know.

I'm still drowning in seeds. Okay okay okay, I bit off more than I can chew. So not only have our yard, but thinking about stuff for the school too. Don't get me wrong. It's frightfully fun! But my brain is mush.

I haven't heard any mention of Chinese okra from you all, don't think. I met Gary at the school and he was telling me about this vining okra. Sounds beautiful AND fun. So I ordered a couple packets of it today. (Angled Luffa.) And Dawn, I was wrong--the fence is a 6'-high chain link fence with barbed wire atop that. I think it's not going to be as big and scary as it seemed, at first. We'll perhaps start a bit at a time. Good idea, huh! So I think I can ease off the seeds now. Probably by the time I get all these potted up, the cart will be overflowing..

Had to laugh, dbarron, thought, WHAT? Mollusk gardening? And then laughed thinking hos long a label it would have to be to get either of those two names on it! And then thinking what if I had to write that on five different labels because that's how many I was growing. Made me tired. :)

HJ, hope you figure out something for your little greenhouse. Isn't that JUST the luck. You don't have plants in it yet, do you? Or do you? Good luck!

We went to dinner this evening and now I have to pause and get this sent so I can go take a little nap.:) XOXO
dbarron
5 years ago
Nancy, gotta love those latin names (till the botanist rename them). It's a plain old lawn weed (false garlic) that I had in Oklahoma (Notoscordium), but I love it for early spring flowers and a fall repeat usually. So I had to try to grow it since it's just not available as plants. Based on how many I had in the yard in Chelsea, it's gotta be easy to grow ;) I miss my yard and my house and my pond (now living in town on a muddy lot).
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Oh, poor babe, dbarron! Sorry you're living in town without a pond and your yard. It's tough, isn't it, sometimesj!? I am still a little bit in mourning for my Zone 3 plants; hard to say goodbye. But have new friendly plants here. Still. . . wish I could have em all.

I have put off potting up my happy little tomato seedlings, and some of the flowers in their initial little 3-oz cups, thinking since it's seed starter, perhaps leaving them in there as long as possible will keep them from taking off like crazy. But I do think tomorrow is the deadline for potting them up, or at least many of them. Sure don't want to, gonna run out of grow cart space immediately after that, and then will be panicking when they outgrow that space. Probably just like last year. AGGGGGGHHH!

I've not been on here quite as often or writing quite as much, because I'm reading hours and hours each day, on gardening. And reading and researching germinating factors. And also Bible stuff. Trying to tend God's garden, ya know? :)

Also with our new jobs. . . the school. Who KNEW retirement was such tough work! Pay's great, though. Lotta love, lotta satisfaction. Flexible hours. Great rewards.
luvncannin
5 years ago
Yalls prayers and well wishes good vibes are working. Today I worked 9 hours AND made myself my first real dinner , roast chicken, potatoes , carrots, and radishes. It was the best but mostly because I cooked it in mom's 65 year old pan, an old enamel one.

Nancy I don't do vaccines at this point because of my immune system. It won't help me anyway. But only 5% have re outbreaks. And since I refuse to do this again wewell there you go :)

I do have aan appointment with Dr. of functional medicine. I must get back on track.

Any ideas why my blasted petunias wont sprout.
hazelinok
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I've wanted to catch up all day. I did read everything and enjoyed all of your posts, but here it is 10 already and I'm just sitting down. So, I'm going to skip all my comments...or most of them.

I do want to say that I'm thinking of you Megan and praying for your family.

And I'm glad you had a good day, Kim.

I was sorta joking with the greenhouse picture as I know the possibility of it being trashed is likely. But, I'm going to try to keep it safe. It is staked down and has 9 pavers sitting inside of it. The shelves are zip tied...and we ran straps over the top of it and attached them to stakes when we got in from the band concert a bit ago. I knew from the start of having this thing, that weight and stakes would be needed. I'm not a genius, but have lived in Oklahoma most of my life and am familiar with the wind here. Have had fences blow over, shingles fly off the roof. Spring winds are my least favorite weather. Nancy, I do have some seedlings in it. I'll probably sit them indoors in case our best efforts don't work. We will see if I wasted $35 on this sucker. I've had neighbors keep these type of greenhouses and they make it through the spring winds with stones holding them down. However, these winds may be more than anything we've had out here so far. I hope the roof of the chicken pen stays on. It's screwed down of course.

Trampolines are like kites in the wind. The wind gets under them and off they go.

I have so badly wanted to start more seed the past two nights, but it just didn't happen. Maybe...Thursday? A few more tomatoes are sprouting, so that is good. Glad y'all have plenty to share. :D

Bell peppers and spinach need to be started. It's been over 2 weeks and no sign of the bells. This will be 3 times for the spinach. The first time was old seed. The second time was generic peat pellets. This time will be new seed with "name brand" peat pellets. Maybe it will be a charm.

I'm antsy to start peas, carrots, and finish planting onions. Skipping potatoes this year.

Alrighty. Time to take the dogs out and grab the seedlings from the greenhouse.

Best wishes for little property damage to everyone. Hold on tight, Y'all.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
The weather already has been slightly ugly here this morning, but we are lucky compared to others. Our max wind gust was 59 mph as the leading edge of the squall line rolled through. I'm sure we have minor wind damage outdoors, but it is not unexpected. We had thunder, lightning, heavy rain (almost zero visibility for a few minutes so I couldn't really see anything when I looked out the windows during the storm) and lots of loud wind. We were awake from about 3 a.m. on with the weather issues....nervous dogs pacing, weather radio alert feature going off with warnings, loud storms, etc.

More importantly, Chris and Tim are okay, despite the storm damage at DFW Airport. More about that later. I just wanted for y'all to know they are okay if you saw any news reports about the damage there.

I'll be back later to read what y'all posted above and to comment, but right now I need to make breakfast for a 4 year old.

Hope the weather you got overnight was kind. Today's going to be a long, windy one.

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
Dawn, glad Tim and Chris are okay. I didn't hear any news reports about damage at the airport.

The little greenhouse made it. The next few hours will be the true test, though. We did have trashcans blown over and stuff blown to the far side of the property.

Generally, I sleep the best in storms. I dunno. So weird. I didn't sleep well until about 3 am (which has become typical for me) about the time the storms started. Ethan woke me around 1 with a stomach ache, so I let him sleep in an extra hour this morning.

This is going to be a killer day. SO much to do and I'm sure I've forgotten something important. Wine Wednesday but I gave up wine for Lent. Dumb choice. lol
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, Thanks. The reports are slow to come out because there is damage all over the metroplex and the reporters are running all over doing live shots for the morning news but not much info is posted online yet. I've seen lots of people reporting first-hand damage on their property in the comments section of some of the storm chaser/weather blogs and on some of the scanner blogs. One man in Zephyr TX was blown out into the middle of the road while still in his house....supposedly it was a pretty small house and the wind just pushed it off its foundation, carried it into the road and left it there. That's what I'd consider a bad start to the day. The gentleman in the home was unharmed.

Tim is in the Emergency Operations Center helping coordinate things and he says it is not too bad there. As far as I know, the max wind gust they recorded around the time of the damage was 78 mph so it seems like this is likely to be straight-line wind damage. Chris is out with the guys from his station, documenting the damage in the part of the airport that is their specific fire district. After they take photos and write up a report summarizing the damage, they will be able to leave. He anticipates not leaving before noon, so that would be 29 straight hours of work time there. I bet he is tired. I believe the damaged/demolished warehouse building near Chris' fire station was the Amazon warehouse but I haven't seen any official confirmation of that yet.

Here in our county the storm damage is mostly downed trees and power lines, and our electric co-op linemen have been out restoring power for hours now. We never lost power at our house and have very little damage. I already had taken precautions to secure loose items that might blow around.

We now have a total of 1.75" of rain in the rain gauge for this week and I hope that is all we get. We didn't need any, and of course, the ground is fully saturated and water is standing everywhere.

After the squall line went through, the winds settled down quite a bit but I was just outside a few minutes ago and they are starting to come up a little bit stronger again. They're still out of the south though, so what we're seeing now isn't the strong westerly wind expected later today.

Because of the wind, I didn't carry out tomato plants today. I hope they don't complain and sulk over being left indoors. They are so happy when they're out, but today's wind likely would be fatal to them.

Sleep disturbances are the worst. I went through a lot of that during pre-menopause and menopause, but it is not as bad post-menopausal, so I feel like I am slowly getting back to a better sleep schedule. Have you trying taking one of the drinkable, flavored magnesium drinks? They are said to really help a person relax and fall asleep and I think there is something to that. The one I have is called Natural Vitality's CALM and it is lemon/raspberry flavored. They label it as an anti-stress drink that helps restore healthy magnesium levels, but if you read the reviews, many people stress how it helps them to sleep better. I just mix a teaspoon with a glass of water and drink it about an hour before I plan to go to bed, and I do think it helps me fall asleep faster and also to sleep more deeply. Most people have to drink it nightly for a week or 2 or 3 before they see the sleep change, but some folks insist they slept better from the first time they used it.

I hope Ethan is feeling better.

Nancy, Vining okra grows well here as it loves the heat. I am glad the fence is 6' tall---that makes it a lot more useful as a trellis.

dbarron, That false garlic is easy to grow, and I will say you might be the first person I know of who's growing it on purpose. It infiltrates all the pastures here. I like seeing it, but I don't let it stay when it pops up in the garden because it tends to be invasive. I hope yours do well for you there. I imagine you do miss your land and your pond. I know I never could go back to city living after living out here in the country with plenty of space and no neighbors too close. (I love my neighbors, but am glad we are spaced out more widely than city houses tend to be.)

I assume the rain is almost done with us here. The skies over us are filled with clouds but they are lighter in color. To our east and northeast the clouds are very dark and low and look like they intend to drop more rain. If all we get is the rain that has fallen, that's more than enough as it has done nothing but create tons more mud.

All our fruit trees are blooming now---the plum and peach cultivars we planted, the native sand plums, and the surprise peach tree that sprouted in a compost pile a few years back. We have freezing nights in the forecast, so it wouldn't surprise me if we lose all the fruit.

Now it is just a waiting game to see what the wind does, but our forecasted max gust was dropped from 49 mph to 40 mph so any wind we get later today won't be as bad as what we've already had.

I feel like the garden and I are set back a few more days by this additional rain. It sure is going to be a late Spring, and clearly a really wet one. Our soil was still 92% saturated before the rain this week, so we're back over 100% again. One good thing is that the constant rainfall has limited wildfires so far. The downside is that if you have them, it is too muddy to drive out into pastures to fight them because you'll get stuck. I think if we can get decent enough rain for a couple more weeks to encourage more green-up in pastures and fields, then the winter fire season will end almost before it starts. I hope the same is true for the rest of the state---NW OK has already had a couple of pretty bad grassfires, but nothing like the wildfires of recent winters that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres per each big wildfire.

So many cool-season plants have sprouted that our yard is really green and we've had to mow once already. We are not mowing down the dandelions or wildflowers though, preferring to leave them for the bees.

The garden looks muddy but happy, but there's not a whole lot in it yet either. It really needs to dry up or planting seeds will be challenging....we will have to teach all those seeds how to swim so they can save themselves from the constant rain.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Haha, Jennifer! Re giving up wine for Lent. Glad the greenhouse survived! It IS a strange day, Dawn. It was really windy when I got up. . . not much at all right now. I suppose it will be back, though. It's raining--about .5".

I'm gonna be bored silly by the time I'm finished potting everything up, have a feeling . Potting up, potting up, potting up. Probably all day long. Bet the grow cart will be full to overflowing by the time I finish. Sigh. Was not going to do this to myself. I'm growing more than a few extra, but I need for friends to get little grow lights for themselves so I can farm these things out! Right?

Yes, glad Tim and Chris are good, too. I never see ANY news.

Kim, my LB petunias were only a year old, but they had a VERY poor germination rate. I also planted some trailing ones for containers, and they had probably 100% germination. Did you plant new seed? Ahh, get it regarding compromised immune systems and no vaccinations. Well, the plants aren't going to pot themSELVES up, so best get to it. Cheers, all!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Kim, I'm glad you were able to put in a full day and also make dinner. It sounds like your energy and strength are rebuilding.

Petunia seeds need light, so just press them into the soil without covering them and they should germinate. Or, as Nancy said, perhaps your seed is old. Mine haven't been that great about germinating inside in flats, except for the very first year I tried it and heavily oversowed them, but they do great outdoors. Mostly I just grow Laura Bush petunias, though I have raised Exerta petunia from seed a couple of times and they did great---they also are very old varieties. Since LB petunias are not real fancy hybrids that have been tampered with a lot, I'm wondering if they do best outdoors with alternating warm/cold stratification maybe? That would be the sort of thing that volunteer seedlings are subjected to.

Nancy, We had that really strong wind early in the day, and then only really moderate wind the rest of the day until 3 or 4 and then it started blowing like crazy. I had watched it via the Mesonet as it kicked up strong in the panhandle and then slowly moved across the rest of the state. I think most of us are getting strong wind now. Well, I don't remember how far it has made it in the NE part of the state, but in the last hour, ours has gusted to at least 46.

So, here's the max wind gust in the last hour:

Max Wind Gust In Past Hour

Then, here is the Max Wind Gust Recorded So Far Today

Max Wind Gusts Today

All of this is nuts. We have had reports of trees, limbs, power lines, trampolines, shingles, trash cans, etc. blown around, down or all over by the wind....and of some high profile vehicles, like someone's 5th-wheel travel trailer, blown off the highway. Even though our wind is gusting late, it sure is loud.

I will try to get the tomato plants out in the sunshine beginning tomorrow. I suspect they'll enjoy the sun even more than they've enjoyed the week of clouds. You know, except for a slight chance of rain next Tuesday, and if you ignore the chilly nights, the forecast for the next week looks pretty good. I'm afraid to go look at the 8-14 day forecast because if it shows another round of below-average temperatures for us, that will be depressing. Maybe I'll look at it tomorrow. I want to bask this evening and tonight in the knowledge that we're supposed to be sunny and mostly dry for the next week, and for the next 5 days for sure.

If we'd had these winds today without the good rainfall that preceded them, this would have been a historically horrific wildfire/grassfire day like we had April 29, 2009 when so much of OK burned and so many homes were damaged or destroyed. Luckily for all of us, it was not. I'm grateful for that.

The building destroyed in the 78-mph wind gust at DFW was the Amazon Fulfillment Center, so I can just imagine what a mess they'll have trying to get that ship shape and running smoothly again. I hope people's packages didn't did carried away like the building's roof did.

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
I'm still at work and got a text from Tom. "Probably shouldn't sell this at the Aldis in Oklahoma". LOL!

Referring to my greenhouse. It must be bad. haha. Oh well. I tried.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
5 years ago
Amazon says my package shipped today, I was worried!
slowpoke_gardener
5 years ago
Beautiful sunshine today, I hope the ground can dry some. The back part of my lawn I can hardly walk on.

I sent Red Dirt a message and was told a shipment of plants will go to Atwoods this Monday. I hope to go Tue. and get some I can pot up. I have plenty of Yellow Jubilee, Roma, Mountain Fresh, and maybe another kind on the heat mat now. I had to install a handicap shower where I use to start seeds. I must have given my light shelf away because I cant find it, I hope I have time today to build another one.

I have not use my tillers in such a long time they wont run, the carburetors are plugged because of old gas setting them. I gave my large Troy Bult away because it was much too heavy. My mantis and poulan will be the subject of repair. I never did care much for the mantis, but may be my tool of choice now, if I can start the temperamental 2 cycle engine.

I am still trying to go " no till " , it is very difficult when I grow root crops like sweet potatoes, because I am not able to dig then and have to use the tractor to harvest the potatoes. I tried to grow sweet potatoes in a tub one year and that was a lot of work also.

The sun is so beautiful I will have to plant something even if the ground is waterlogged. I also need to try to start some sweet potato slips, but that will be done on the inside. I plan on placing some small sweet potatoes in a seed starting tray with potting soil and placing them on a heat mat. I have never done this before but I think it may work.

Well, y'all have a nice day, I feel that I have a million things to do and will be lucky if I get 2 or 3 things done.

Larry
luvncannin
5 years ago
Larry my list is that long too. Yesterday I did 1 load of laundry!

I planted collards in a pot outside. My elderberries are coming back BRUCE, thank you. Goji berry is not showing sign of life. Rhubarb is coming up nicely thank you DAWN. And all my many irises. They will take 4 tubs to move lol. Got some rain water for indoor plants and hauled trash. Had to clean frig since I got sick beginning of February I have not touched it. Lots of science experiments. Too bad I dont have compost.

I am going to plant lots of herbs today and my porters. I like to grow those out every year to keep my seed fresh.
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Kim, I'm glad to hear you're recovering and your energy is rebounding. I think that is so hard to go from feeling so awful to not feeling so awful, but still not be able to do the things.

My uncle officially passed away on Tuesday. I've tried calling my dad to check on him and he answers and says he's too upset to talk or just ignores my texts. Understandable. Opps. I spoke too soon. Just got a catty text from him. <eyeroll>

I'd been thinking yesterday of something to grow in memory of my uncle and when I got home, my daffodils were blooming. That made me smile. I had a bloom about to pop on one of the daffodils that I rescued a couple years ago from my grandparents former home. I'm so excited about that. I posted about it on Facebook so you can take a look if you're interested.

I kept my plants indoors or undercover yesterday and glad I did. I'm a little worried about things today because our winds are still high, not as high as yesterday, but... Hopefully, nothing is blown over. I did start a new tray of mostly dwarf basils over the weekend and most of those things are sprouting. The cotyledons on the dwarf basils are barely a speck but cute. They are still indoors under the grow lights. I'm not confident they're ready for Oklahoma.

Dawn, I did take a look at the 14-day forecast from the Weather Channel and the period leading up to April appears to be about what I expect for the latter half of March. I normally try to plant my tomatoes on the weekend closest to April 1 and it looks like for me - because I'm in raised beds - the ground temps will be appropriate. However, my uncle's memorial service is the 31st so I'll wait until the following weekend to plant. Well, unless the weather in early April decides to pull an April 2018 act on us.

Larry, I'm glad you were able to get a response from Red Dirt. I tried last year about whether or not they treat with neonics. I should try again.

The weekend is shaping up to be a busy one. I'm feeling pretty run down today so I hope I'm not coming down with something. I hope it's just fatigue from the week I've been through, but one of my coworkers has the flu and came back to work while still running a fever. That would be my luck, avoid it when my kid has it only to catch it at work.
luvncannin
5 years ago
Megan I am so sorry about your uncle. PlantPlants are such a sweet remembrance of loveloved ones. I have a plant indoors that was my gramas. I need to get another from my sister she has aboutb20. I also have a beautiful ivy reminds me of my dad and his struggle with indoor plants.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, Well at least he broke the news to you sort of gently.

Amy, I'm glad it hadn't shipped a day or two earlier. That might have been a problem.

Larry, The sunshine sure was gorgeous, but the wind still was pretty rough. I think tomorrow we get more sunshine and less wind.

I'm glad you're going to be able to get some Red Dirt plants. I've been really happy with the quality of their plants.

I haven't used my Mantis much at all since going no-till. I bet if we tried to start it up, it wouldn't even start. I hate to let it go, though, in case we ever need to till up a new area.

I hope you had a lovely day and got a few things done.

Kim, Yay! So glad your plants are coming back. Getting one load of laundry done is progress so yay for that too. Hopefully you'll be back to 100% soon.

Megan, My deepest condolences on the loss of your uncle. I think planting something in his memory would be such a wonderful thing to do. You have a sympathy eyeroll from me for your dad's catty text.

Our long-term forecast looks good after Saturday morning, when we are expected to be below freezing for a while. Tonight our local TV met, in whom I have a very high degree of faith, said that Sat morning might be our last freeze. Do I believe him? Well, I want to.....and, I do think he is right for the general Texoma area. I'm just not convinced our really low-lying microclimate won't get hit again with a late freeze. I'll watch the native plants and animals for the next week and see if I can get a feel for whether or not it is going to be okay to go ahead and put tomato plants in the ground. Mine go out for their 3 hours of sunlight tomorrow. It irritates me that they are fully hardened off to wind and cloudy skies, but not to sunshine. Of course, that's because the clouds haven't been letting the sunshine show up here so I can't blame the sun. By the time I have the plants hardened off to 9 or 10 hours of sun per day, it should be time for me to make a decision about whether to plant some or not.

I do hope you are not coming down with something. You certainly have had a great deal of extra stress the last few weeks.

No real garden news today. It was windy and that wind was cold! The tomato plants are early in the process of being hardened off to sunlight, but at least we are going to have the sunshine for the next 7 days so I ought to be able to finish the process and have them ready to go into the ground. Now if only the mud will cooperate. I'm hoping the sun and wind will combine to dry it up at least a little.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Yes, Megan, truly devastating. My heart breaks when something like this so unnecessary thing and careless thing happens. I know it sounds awfully critical of me to say careless. But in an ICU situation, there is no such thing as an okay accident. When my son was in bone marrow transplant ICU ward, I WAS with him 24/7. When I saw underperforming staff (and there weren't THAT many, but you know. . . always the top 10%, middle 70%, and bottom 30%.) When one has a loved one dying, one is not going to put up with the 70% average or bottom 30%. For example, he had NO immunity system at all. Everyone who entered that ward had to stop at a scrub station and scrub up like medical professionals entering the surgery room. On one night shift, there was a "nurse" working in that BMT ICU ward, and though Russ was on a ventilator and not fully conscious, I was. This nurse obviously had a cold. And what was she doing? Wiping her nose on her arm. Sniffling like crazy--I ran to the nurses' station and alerted them, and she was gone. But that was just one of maybe 20-30 examples of why a strong patient advocate needs to be there.

It underlines the importance of trying to find loved ones or friends who will be competent, intelligent, and strong advocates who can be with us 24/7 in the hospital if we end up there in serious condition and need an advocate. I'm sorry about complications with, how did you refer to him? Crabby Daddy? It must make things very complicated and difficult at times to have your Mom living with you right now and him where he is. I think you're a saint to be trying to maintain a decent, if not good, relationship. Why do things have to get so complicated and difficult. How can some people be so critical, so judgmental, so crabby all the time, and so insensitive and crude. Makes one ears burn off, I swear. But I can escape. I can be at home with GDW and our yard and God and all you lovely gardening people.

And still out in the yard, the only things I'm daring to set out are lettuces and greens. Crazy. It is a cool spring indeed up here in the northeast Whitehorn Cove area. Probably more so 70 miles north of this place--and thinking of Jacob, too--probably another 2-3 weeks behind me.

I have been ruthlessly throwing stuff off the grow cart into the garbage. And though I just got through potting up all the tomatoes, I panicked--called my neighbor half a mile away and said HELP. So he came up and took a flat and a half of tomatoes and other stuff. He said he'd take whatever I handed off. So that was good. He loved the Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter last year so took half a doze of them. And a few others. About a dozen. And then we went through and he took many other things I had way too many of. And can get rid of another dozen tomatoes to our little lovely school and my planting partner there. He likes his veggies, I like my herbs and flowers--good match, no? He always grows his tomatoes but this year decided not to, he'd just buy them--lol, guess who stepped in the grew them for him! And one he likes!

But I have 2 flats of 3 oz. ers to pot up, and when I do, I'll only have 2 places left to grow new ones. Picture 1 is the cart. Picture 2 is of the possibles my little school, or me, or both of us, would like to plant. I need 5 more grow carts.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Patti Johnston
5 years ago
Good Evening Everyone

Megan I just wanted to say how sorry I am for your loss. I’ve read about how many people die in hospitals due to malpractice is scary. We had our first hospital experience in November when my husband had his gangrenous gallbladder removed. If I hadn’t stayed with him around the clock to get his pain medication on time it would have been horrible.

My Master Gardener Group got to tour the Red Dirt nursery last month. They have 54 greenhouses. Just an amazing business.

I bought some some Red Dirt cabbage and chard plants at Atwood’s in Enid today. Going to wait till Monday to plant them I think. We’re going to have freezing temps over the weekend.

No fruit trees budding out yet. And my daffodils are finally showing some color. Spring is finally starting to appear.

Patti
hazelinok
5 years ago
Megan, I'm sorry about your uncle. I'm giving you a hug in my mind. You are probably exhausted from stress. Maybe you can get a good night's sleep and feel better.

Kim, so glad your elders are coming back! That is exciting!

Larry, I hope you enjoyed the sunshine. It was delightfully shining this morning (got cloudy in the afternoon) and I enjoyed it seeing if from the window during staff meeting.

Tonight was wonderful. We didn't have a single place to go, so stayed home and I didn't even cook dinner. Weird. I did make some quesadillas with cheese and leftover pork for Ethan, but that's not real cooking. ANYWAY, it was nice. And, even better, I slept SO wonderfully last night. Only woke once during the night and only for a couple of minutes. I felt great today.

The greenhouse didn't blow away. It was staked to the ground...but....but the bars bent and then it all collapsed. Tom tried to take it all apart to put the pieces in the shop, but we had so many straps and zip ties on it, that it was difficult. It will just sit there until we get a warm day without wind. I might try to rebuild it and use it in another way. (The way someone mentioned earlier about moving it indoors during very windy days) The thing is, some of the metal bars are actually bent. They're those hollow types of metal. I'll at least try to reassemble it.

Funny thing though, the seedlings stayed a day or so in it and grew so much in that short time...even though it was overcast on those days.

Other garden things. A couple of the bell peppers are starting to sprout. Finally! I did start a few more bells and pimentos tonight. I would like to have 5 plants of each. I have 6 jalapenos growing well.

Also, started the peas. I'm so glad y'all shared how you let them sprout indoors and then move them outdoors. That method works well for me. No hardening off. That's the best.

Also, started more spinach. Third try. Phew.

Guess what? We are taking a day trip to 360 Farms on Saturday. I'm so excited. I'm going to pick up a couple of plants. I failed so greatly at the cuttings. Maybe the plants will be better for me. They only have the Ranch variety available now. It's a smaller elderberry plant that is an Oklahoma native. I'll give it a good try and maybe add other varieties later.

Dawn, the wind really helped dry up the mud here. Already. Usually the area just outside the chicken pen is a mess, but it's already dry.

Speaking of chickens, I haven't shut their door. Better do that now. Night!
jlhart76
5 years ago
Megan, my thoughts are with you and your family.

My elderberries have tiny leaves on them, too. I need to figure out a permanent location for them, right now they're in a large terra cotta pot in the front yard. How big do they get?

Also planted a tray of cosmos and zinnia. I'm trying to get rid of all of the old seed, so this year's garden is going to be a pot luck. I still have way too many zinnia seeds so I may just dump them in a couple weeks and see what comes up.

My little shelf is packed, and I need more lights. I saw where someone made a grow box out of a plastic tote and a string of christmas lights, so I'm debating about trying it. If they'd stay warm enough I could put them in the garage and save a little room inside. Might be a test for next winter.

I planted peas a couple weeks ago then covered them with plastic cloches, but they're still not sprouting. Think I'll sprout some inside and plant them out later.

Busy couple weeks for us. Spring break means everyone needs dog sitters. So we're going to have a full house for the next 2 weeks. Our first client is back (he's stayed so often he thinks he's part of the family), then the next wave comes tomorrow. I'm gonna need garden therapy just to get away from all the furballs!
hazelinok
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Hey Jen. Letting peas sprout indoors where it's warmer and then (almost) immediately moving outdoors really worked well for me. Not my idea. Dawn's or someone else's idea.

Do you know what variety of elderberry you have? Looking at the 360 Farms website, it shows different sizes for different plants. The one I'm picking up on Saturday is supposed to be a smaller variety. Brent (from 360) said he recommends it for urban areas. I'm getting it because it's the only one they have available right now. It's the Ranch one. I think it's not supposed to get much bigger than 5ft tall. Some of them can get up to 10ft, I think, and probably even bigger. I saw a Rosemary Gladstar video about elderberries and the one she was featuring was huge. I'll see if I can find the video and put it here.

Also, Jen, do you watch Calikim on YouTube? She has a urban garden and makes a grow box out of a plastic tote and one of those lights that look like the ones I use for baby chicks. I think she got the idea from the Rustic Gardener. I'll see if I can find a video for that too.

I should probably work now and stop YouTube-ing. lol
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
Thank you, everyone, for the thoughts and prayers. So far today I'm feeling better, emotionally and physically so that's good. In the absence of much to do in the garden, I've been spending far too much time drooling over the garden pictures on Instagram. Vicarious gardening. Not my preferred way to do it, but it's something. My gardener persona has it's own instagram account so that I can look and admire and like and comment without strangers getting into my business or looking at pictures I share of my family. My former hairdresser had instagram accounts for each of her dogs. And they were friends with each other on instagram. And liked each other's posts. Obviously, she was doing all this on their behalf, and that's just too much. But I don't mind having the two. It has created a separation that helps me be a little more comfortable.

When it comes to Crabby Daddy, I try to strike a balance between staying true to myself and the golden rule with not letting myself be a victim of his lashing out and mind games. It's a tightrope but I have to be loyal to myself first, so I'm learning to put my foot down.

HJ - that's basically what happened with the greenhouse shelf I had a few years ago. If I'm repeating myself I apologize, but my Okie Engineering idea was to use t-posts at the corners to help reinforce the poles. I ended up not getting one of the greenhouses this year because I couldn't think of where I could put it that wouldn't have the potential to stir up the HOA.

Nancy - I hope that by the time I have to pot up my tomatoes, they'll be able to spend most of their time outside, only coming in for too cool nights. Fingers crossed that what Dawn's local met said is right because if so, I think they'll be able to spend most days outside and only come in at night starting on Monday. If I were starting more traditional sized tomatoes, I would be in a bit of a pickle like you are, as the 1/2 dozen regular sized toms that I have were ready to be potted up... like yesterday. But the majority of the ones I started myself are dwarfs and I was counting on that to keep me from running into space issues too soon. As spring drug on last year, I stacked cups under the under cabinet lights to get plants as close to them as possible, and the hubs wasn't a big fan. Since he got me a few grow lights for Christmas, I did my best to plan ahead to avoid that. I'll be in good shape as long as we don't get any surprises this April.

I would soooo like to have elderberries and got some from Bruce last year before I tragically sent them to plant heaven. The more and more I try to find an appropriate spot - that I could amend heavily to accommodate their needs - the more I realize that they're probably not in my future. I'm watching a Crepe Mertyle to see if it survived our winter. It was killed back to the ground in 2015 but was coming back from the base. If it were ever killed back completely, that would be a potential spot for elderberries.
jlhart76
5 years ago
I have the "Bruce special" variety. They're still just sticks so I'll probably leave them in their pot one more year, otherwise I'll mow them down not thinking.

I'll have to check those videos out. Maybe this weekend, we'll have a houseload of dogs so I won't be going anywhere.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Okay, I feel so far behind and by the time I read my way through all the posts, I couldn't remember what the first ones said, so I'm working my way backwards from bottom to top.

Jennifer, I bet having a house full of dogs is fun but also tiring.

Meghan, I think you're doing a great job of dealing with Crabby Daddy. I have been worried about him putting you in the middle between himself and your mom, but I am sure you can handle it. I just try to cut toxic people out of my life as much as I possibly can so that I have to deal with them as little as possible, but it is hard to do that when it is your own dad.

I hope what my TV met said applies to y'all as well as it does to us, but keep in mind that he was referring specifically to the Texoma region consisting of the counties in the Red River area and slightly further north---like as far north as Ada---as well as adjacent counties on the Texas side of the river, so most of y'all are a bit further north and you may not warm up as early as we do.

We're expecting a freeze in the morning, and near-freezing temperatures Sunday morning, but after that I think we are in pretty good shape if the forecast is right. IF.

So, I looked at the temperature outlooks and they seem to be sending a strong signal that the weather is changing for the better.

Here's the 6-10 Day outlook:

6-10 Day Temperature Outlook

Here's the 8-14 Day Outlook:

8-14 Day Outlook

That second outlook takes us almost to the end of March and it still looks good.

Jennifer, The wind didn't help us much in the mud department, but the soil moisture map shows us at only 99% saturation instead of 100% (or more---I've seen it show 104% this winter) so that's a very slight improvement.

I was afraid that would happen with the little greenhouse. I've never bought one because I can tell looking at them that they won't last in our climate. That doesn't mean I haven't been tempted, but I knew I shouldn't get one and so I didn't. When I see one in a store (and Sam's Club and CostCo have had them in the store recently), I want one but I know better and talk myself out of getting one. My hoophouse-style greenhouse has survived winds gusting into the 80s without damage, but it is a lot sturdier than those little portable things. I wouldn't really expect them to tolerate much wind.

Patti, I am glad you're at the point where you're about ready to plant. So am I, but I want to get the next couple of cold nights behind us first.

We're still awfully muddy after this week's heavy rainfall, but I think that I can plant in the raised beds okay as long as I don't mind getting my feet muddy in some of the pathways.

Our TVMet said again tonight (right now in fact) that things are looking good for gardeners beginning next week, but cautioned everyone to be aware of the potential for freezing tomorrow morning. He also says the wind is going to decrease (finally) tonight, and I'm glad because the tomato plants I am hardening off have been taking a beating from the wind today.

Nancy, I've been holding off on starting any more seeds so that I don't have more flats than I have room for, but I am about to go crazy with sowing warm season seeds anyway. As soon as they spout, I can move them out to the greenhouse since our forecast looks so good.

I know stronger wind returns next week, but I think the tomato plants catch a break tomorrow and Sunday with lighter winds for those 2 days anyway. It is hard to harden them off to wind without the wind itself beating them to death in March. It would be easier in April with less wind, but I hope to have these in the ground or in their large containers before April.

The kids are through painting the house and today Chris has been working on putting up blinds. Oh, and painting the interior of the coat closet. They're getting closer to being able to move in. There's an electrician coming Monday to fix a wiring issue in the attic, and then the kids are going to rent a machine on Tuesday and add more blown-in insulation to the attic as it does not have enough. The hard part is just finding time to do all these things on their days off while still keeping the kids on schedule with all their activities and stuff. So, I think we'll have a full house for only another week or so, depending on how Chris' days off fall. With him working 24-hours on and 48 hours off, it is hard for me to keep up with his schedule.

I need to go plant shopping tomorrow. It isn't so much that I have specific plants I need to find, but just that I want to shop for something.....anything. I feel plant deprived. Usually by now I've already bought some herbs and things, depending on what's in the stores. Every time I think I'm going to go plant shopping, something comes up, so I'm hoping tomorrow is not going to be that sort of a day. This is the weekend that the two girls go to their respective fathers' homes, so it ought to be pretty quiet around here and that might allow Tim and I to focus on outdoor chores that need to be done.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
Good grief. I finally looked at the garden after all these windy days. The wind pulled the onions up! I was able to poke the Red Creoles back into the ground and a few of the others. They haven't all be planted yet anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to do that Sunday night or maybe even tomorrow night if we get back from out Elderberry Adventure before dark. It's quite a trip over there.

We bought boards to finally frame the area where the onions are currently planted. I've wanted to do that for ages. It's the edge of the garden on the south side. So happy to get that done. Well, it's not done yet, but it will be soon. We also bought stuff to make another raised bed in the "middle" of the garden. All exciting. I'll put one more rectangle type of bed in the garden and then add a few fun beds like one of those spiral ones. Probably not this year, though.
slowpoke_gardener
5 years ago
I planted tomato seeds on the 10th and they are already too leggy. I placed them out on the deck in the sun and wind. I have been too busy running to really look after them. I will plant more to try to guard against having too few to plant.

My daughter wanted some brussel sprouts so I will buy plants and plant for her. She owns the land where the my wildlife garden is, so I will plant all my " overflow" over there.

I am still having radishes, beets and lettuce coming up in the garden where I planted without working the soil. I also planted collards and kale a few days ago, I hope I have as good of luck with those also. I hope the soil is dry enough to work when I plant warm weather crops. Where I have not had sweet potatoes I plan to just pull the mulch back and and plant, but that area has not been cleaned up yet., because I still have last summers crop to burn.
jlhart76
5 years ago
I put one flat of tomatoes outside for a bit. They're on the front porch which is on the south side, and protected from any heavy winds. We're fixing to go grocery shopping so I'll bring them back in when we get back. My brother's girlfriend gave me a funny look when I told her I was taking my tomatoes for a walk.

One of our current stays is a huge golden doodle. Within an hour he found the one mudhole in the yard and proceeded to dig it bigger. Now he's banished to the outdoors until we get back with a massive bottle of dog shampoo.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Oh my gosh--what a mess you have there, Jen. That's my laugh for the day!

I set my flats of tomatoes out for a few hours, too. Gotta get those guys tough. I set out some of the flowers, too.

And planted my last flat of things--mostly herbs--well, except for things that are stratifying. I'll worry about that when the time comes. I cleared out some of the tomatoes, will have gotten rid of another dozen and a half by the end of the month, as well as some of the flowers. And then there will be lots of direct-sowing to do, as well.

i'd been trying to think of things to grow in hot full sun. Now THAT's not something I usually have to think about! Salvia! I'll have to buy some pretty black and blooms for there. They're not going to have too many flowers this year, as they'trying to start small. So we'll have zinnias, marigolds, They have four small beds on legs, but they're relatively shallow. Recommendations? I'm thinking smaller marigolds, trailing petunias and/or LB petunias, petite zinias, easy stuff. If I had more heat/drought flowers--moss rose would qualify, wouldn't it? Oooooo, I could include some of my ornamental peppers, couldn't I! Any ideas for heat and drought flowers that aren't too big are welcome. I have gaillardia, daisies, dwarf nicotiana. But maybe you know of something I haven't thought of.

I can tell spring is finally on it's way. We've had several days that warmed up to 60 or thereabouts, though most have started out very cool. Last night it got down to 30.2. Since we have 50% chance of rain on Wednesday, I'll plan to get potatoes in on Tuesday, and then if it doesn't rain on Wednesday, so much the better.. Wanted to get that done 2 days ago, but the soil was a bit too wet. I was out walking just now--it's definitely spring-like and the sounds of the mourning doves was spring, indeed.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
Jen, I imagine puppy’s parents would love to see that picture. Hope you got him cleaned up.

Nancy, in addition to what you already have, you could do cosmos, strawflower, celosia, red hot poker, bachelor buttons, coneflower, and cannas. I have all those, except I killed the red hot poker with water, and lost the cannas to a leaky faucet. Oh, and sunflowers! Big or little.

I spent the afternoon cleaning up stuff in the garden, generally gathering fallen branches and dealing with last years leaves (gonna have to hire my yard kid). Planted the last of the potatoes. Filled a few more WS jugs. Discovered that most of my last years herbs either overwintered or are coming back, including my Simon and Garfunkel quad (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), and my peppermint, chives, and tarragon. Had to pot up the chives and tarragon- tarragon had an almost 2 foot long taproot! Lettuce and spinach are up in the totes. I’m leaving them uncovered during the days while it’s so nice out. Cosmos and calendula are up in their jugs. Tomorrow I’m going to dig in and finally build that darn trellis I swore I was going to do last year. Should be a good time with the softer ground. Guess it’s time to put sugar snaps and snow peas in. Oh, and lilies are up under their leaf mulch. A certain sign of spring, along with the ants I saw in the kitchen today.

I stopped at the winter market this morning, got some gorgeous salad greens and local pastured eggs so dinner was just scrambled eggs and salad. Now I’m drinking Riesling and eating raspberries.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
THX, Rebecca! I have gobs of cannas in the back that are going to waste here, as it's too shady for them. I keep forgetting that. They'll also get transplants from my iris beds, jonquils, many of the herbs and flowers that re-seed. Sort of the same things we all take to SF. Yes, want to do cosmos, but need to order seeds. No to bachelor buttons, one more celosia (I have two celosia already), coneflowers this year at any rate (cuz I don't want to give them any of MY echinacea, since I only have 3, and no time to stratify new ones), and already got sunflowers, forgot to mention. Kids love sunflowers, don't they?!! Actually, looking at this list, I'm not sure there IS room for any more. Keeping it simple while they're keeping it small. BTW, I've heard of red hot poker of course, but have no picture in my mind presently. Will have to google.

BUT I have a slew of vine stuff, as they have a giant fence around a giant "yard." We could grow probably 50 different vines! We're planning the Chinese okra (Vining okra) along the back fence; I've got half a dozen morning glory varieties, a coral honeysuckle, moonflower vine, cypress vines, thunbergia, hyacinth beans, CRAZY fun. Suggestions from y'all on vining stuff also welcome! So what vines am I forgetting, Rebecca? LOL

Oh YEAH!! Puppy's parents absolutely need to see that. Maybe they'll leave you with a great tip! At the very least will be a good laugh for all.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO ants in the kitchen. AGGH.

What a lovely lovely idea and vision! Riesling and raspberries. Not only that, but though I'd have never thought to have simply scrambled eggs and gorgeous salad greens for a meal, you made it sound like the most delicious thing ever. That whole meal description, and Riesling and raspberries thing was like a beautiful poem. What kind of dressing do you put on your greens?

Amy and Eileen and Rebecca and I are going to meet up next Saturday to have a mini Spring Fling. SO looking forward to lunch and trading seeds. I wrote them pleading that they'd take some tomatoes. :) hahaha. True though. AND by the way, you three, if you have any vining seeds the school could use that I haven't mentioned, bring those, too

Isn't gardening--and sharing stories, info, and everything seed-related--the best?! Now I've got a friend up in Wyoming who is going to be another seed-trading friend.

Larry, I planted my tomatoes on 2/26. Are you growing in indoor lights? I managed to keep mine confined to their initial tiny pots without getting too leggy until just about 4 days ago before I had to pot them up. Now that I potted them up to potting soil, I expect they're gonna go crazy. Woe is us, always.

Dawn--where I'd be without your guidance in the past 3 years. Well let's just say, it ain't pretty. I knew a fair amount up in zone 3, but was in deep trouble down here in zone 7.

Love and peace to your all.
slowpoke_gardener
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Nancy, I don't have any lights set up yet. I bought 2 LED lights ( 2 bars per fixture ) but have not had time to build a frame for them. My neighbor is still in the hospital and I use some of time visiting him and my mother, plus the fact that I am so slow getting things done. I had the flat on a bed in an extra bedroom and they sprouted sooner than I thought they would ( I should have been watching them more closely.) I hope to start more seeds today, but I really need to build a light shelf and start my potting shed, but my daughter is coming over and we will go out to eat and visit mom at the nursing home. I am sure I will be able to squeeze in some work time also, I may skip going to Ft. Smith to visit my neighbor at the hospital, which will free up some time.

I built a light shelf that I used up till 4 or 5 years ago that I could place 8 flats under lights and 4 on top, how do you loose something that large?? I have an old house on the back of the property, I will go dig through it again. I need to get some old lumber I have stored over there anyway. I am trying to build my shed without buying anything.

I got some good news today, I ask another neighbor if I could clean up around his hay rings for the scrap hay, and he told me to get all I wanted, so I will be hauling old hay and manure the first chance I get. Of course I will be doing this with the tractor because my wife and daughter have been on me good for not following Dr.'s advice.
jlhart76
5 years ago
I sent the parents that pic, then another after 45 minutes of bathing him. He looks much better now, but on my word that fur!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, It is crazy what the wind can do! I hate our windy March weather and always look forward to the calmer weather of April. Let's hope that we get calmer weather in April this year.

Jen, There's a dog like that in every crowd, isn't there! I am laughing so hard, and I bet the doggy parents were too. We have had an occasional mud-loving dog too.

Larry, I've lost my light shelf in the garage before, so it can be done. Luckily it was just behind and underneath a lot of junk and I dug it out. I hope you can find yours and don't have to build a new one.

Nancy, I find zone 7 a bit harder than zone 8 even though we only moved 80 miles north....it is the way the cold nights just keep coming back after a relatively long period of warmer nights. I can look at our temperatures for this week and feel like I could put tomato plants in the ground by the end of the week, and it might work, but then April could arrive and bring back cold nights like it did last year. That's the hardest part for me....the huge inconsistencies in the weather. Then, there's those years we warm up really early and I love, love, love that because I can plant earlier with relative peace of mind, but.....a warm February and warm March usually mean a hot summer, so are they really a good sign after all? Oh, and microclimate is everything. They said we'd be 37 last night, then dropped it to 36....and, because our microclimate doesn't take orders from the NWS, our overnight low was 31 here at the house and 29 at our Mesonet station. So, I've learned I cannot trust the forecast either. It is maddening. I cannot even imagine the adjustments you'd had to make going from zone 3 to zone 7!

My tomato plants had 4 hours of sunlight and very light wind yesterday and looked pretty darn happy by the time I brought them inside. So, today we're going to put them out for 5 hours after the chilly air warms up a bit. I keep putting off potting them up again even though I have all the supplies on hand and can do it. I really must do it tomorrow. I must. I'd start potting up today but Tim and I have a day of outdoor chores planned. On the other hand, this week is Spring Break and I'll have both the girls here with me, so I might be too busy playing with baby dolls with the little one and doing crafts and baking with the older one. I am trying to make the most of the time we have together here while they are staying with us because their new house is almost finished and they won't be here much longer. Unless, that is, my son has another day like yesterday.....you can skip the rest if you aren't interested in house mysteries because it isn't gardening-related.

Their house is almost done, but you know, once you start poking around in an old house, there is no telling what you'll discover. Their house was redone in the 2005-06 time frame, and I'm not sure what all that involved but suspect it did involved total modernization that include putting up new drywall everywhere, which wouldn't have been easy in a house with 11' ceilings. I know it included a kitchen remodel with a sincere attempt to keep the old charm (successfully too) and new double-paned custom windows in the old Victorian style (very tall windows---about 7'-8' tall and thinner than modern day windows), and this probably also is when the central HVAC system was installed. However, there remains a huge attic fan that I cannot even describe (I'll try to on some boring rainy day) that likely dates back to the early days. While most of the house somewhat makes sense, the closet in the master bedroom has been a odd looking thing all along that I had believed was not always a closet. It does have drywall but had carpet whereas the rest of the house had hardwood except for tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. It also has an oddly-placed strip of border type wallpaper at about chair-rail height but nothing but painted drywall above and below, and the stupid border was a MLB one. In a closet. A closet with a mini-closet built in at the north end. So, with questions about the weird closet (honestly, big enough to have been nursery or a toddler's bedroom) in his mind, Chris went exploring. He pulled up the carpet intending to buy and lay hardwood if he could find a close match to the color of their existing flooring. Instead, he found the home's original hardwood from 1932, albeit covered in what looks like a gray paint. It sands off easily though, so he's going to restore the closet floors. I'm guessing that closet is maybe 5' wide and 12 to 14' long. Intrigued by the hardwood, he began peeling off the wallpaper border, but only drywall was beneath it. So, he then tore out the wall that separated the mini closet at the end of the big closet (after calling Tim and I to consult on whether it was load-bearing----which it was not). Anyhow, eventually he was sending us photos of shiplap walls, with tons of nails---some of which look handmade and likely date back to 1932. He found a beadboard ceiling--you know, the old original beadboard that was put up one skinny board at a time. After he kept sending us photos, we dropped the projects we were working on outdoors, carried in the tomato plants, and drove up there to see the stuff he was uncovering because by then we were just too curious about how it all looked in person.

So, once we got there, it got really interesting. To get to the shiplap he had to remove very thick drywall that looks like it is 5/8" thick, and beneath that he found three separate layers of wallpaper---one obviously from the 1960s, one from around the late 1940s or early 1950s and one from the 1930s. There were layers of cheesecloth between each wallpaper layer, and the bottom wallpaper layer wasn't glued down...it was nailed down! My word! I never heard of that before. Would they have wallpapered a closet back then and didn't they have wallpaper paste? The other bedrooms have tiny closets more typical of that time frame, so we think that my original belief from the very first time we saw the house that the closet originally was a dressing room or a nursery probably is accurate, and the tiny closet within the closet was the original closet. In the north wall of that tiny closet, a large section of shiplap didn't match the other shiplap exactly and had been pieced in to fill what probably was an exterior window back in the day. So.....now that they have found the hidden history of that room buried there in the closet, they want to take down the rest of the drywall in the closet, stain it a walnut color, refinish the floors, turn 1/3 of it into a nice, neat closet for them with built-in shelving and clothing racks (they are minimalists and don't hang on to huge amounts of clothing that they don't wear....) and then turn the other half of the closet into a nice little office type nook with a desk and space for a computer and all that. I think this project will only take a week or so extra, but you know I'm laughing....because now they're already talking about 'someday' doing something in the other rooms, maybe exposing the beadboard ceilings or something. Oh, and the closet always had very old, very nice trim around the interior of the closet door, but it was flush with the drywall....so now we know why....they added the drywall and cut it to fit around the old, existing trim around the door. We had puzzled over why there was trim around the door on the interior of the closet. This is like being a house detective--figuring out what was done and when and how and why. That sort of project to uncover more of their home's hidden history will have to wait though because they don't intend to do it before they move in. The longer they work on the house, the more they fall in love with with its history. They had intended to remove and replace an old side door that leads out to the driveway at the back of the house, but when they discovered it was the original front door with the original hardware and huge, thick locks, they decided to keep it. It also has one of those old crystal doorknobs. (A neighboring home still has this exact same door as the front door, so they're guessing it was moved from the front to the side during an earlier remodeling.) Anyhow, another big project like this closet, squeezed in between their work days, gives us at least another week with them here in our house with us so we aren't complaining. I suspect that our house will be much too quiet once they move into theirs, and I think they'll love the little bit of history they've exposed in their oversized closet. See, this is why we are so far behind on everything at our house right now....because we drop our projects to go help with theirs, or just to go see what they're doing.

I do know that the employee in the paint department at Lowe's knows Jana by sight now, knows just what colors of paint she keeps buying more of, and was totally thrown for a loop when Jana bought a new color yesterday....lol.

While we were there, I did study the yard, which seems mostly dirt and weeds at this point. They wanted to know if they have enough sunshine to grow bermuda grass there, and I think they do, so we discussed the timing of planting it, seed vs. sod, etc. They have liriope on either side of their front walkway, a couple of sweetgum trees in the front yard, and maybe one in the back (but lots of shade from trees on adjacent properties), and one rose bush, so the yard does need some work and some shrubs planted and such. The ten year old spent much of her day raking up tons of autumn leaves, and I intend to go up there today and bring home those leaves for my compost pile if Tim and I finish up all our outdoor projects on time to do so today.

Now, I need to go start the new week's garden talk.....

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Haha, Larry, I laughed so hard! How INDEED do you lose something that large! Too funny!

Dawn, I actually had fun reading your comments about the kids' new house. Won't the kids be having a small garden in the new house? Was surprised they'd try to grow Bermuda! WHAT? lol
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
The kids may have a garden, Nancy, but I don't think their heads have gone that far ahead yet. It might even be in next year's plan, because their plan for sometime this summer is to paint the entire exterior of the house (after their budget recovers from all the work they're doing now) and put up a wooden privacy fence to replace the chain link fence (which recently was crushed when a neighbor's tree fell on it). In their historic neighborhood, a beautiful lawn is expected (there's that whole urban/suburban peer pressure thing)....so I think they'll go the bermuda grass route with the front yard and side yards, but may save the back more for gardening and a kids play area. We'll see. I've noticed folks around them take great price in their yards.....with winter-flowering annuals planted in many yards in the little beds that lie between the porch and sidewalks/driveways. It is nice to see that much pride in an older neighborhood. They also have a small, crumbling retaining wall in the front yard and it will need to be replaced....all in good time. Chris was asking what to do about it, and I didn't have much of an answer except to check out the other homes on his street and see what the neighbors have done. I did convince him to leave the clover alone and let it bloom for the pollinators because he thought he maybe ought to remove it from the lawn.

Oh, and the bermuda grass thing? He is allergic to it....cannot cut it, cannot handle it, cannot lie down in it....even breaks out in a rash if he helps someone haul and stack bales of bermuda grass hay.

I would love to talk him into St. Augustine grass, but is it only marginally hardy here in OK and is a big water guzzler, so I only vaguely mentioned it. Actually, he'd be happy with a ground cover instead of a lawn and we may discuss that later....I can tell he wants to have a nice yard and fit in well with the neighborhood, so I will not suggest that they plant a wildflower lawn instead of grass....but I wanted to.

One of the best things about this neighborhood is that the school was completely torn down 2 years ago and rebuilt, so Lillie will be attending school in a practically brand-new building. After they closed on the house and started working on it, they discovered one of her closest friends from the Cub Scout Pack/Boy Scout troop lives just a few houses down. Then, the next week they learned that another girl who's in the same Webelos den (and whose mom is a den leader) lives right next door. Suddenly, any concern Lillie had about changing schools flew out the window because she has close friends right there on the same block. How lovely is that? This might be why she has taken a big interest in raking leaves, tidying up the front yard, etc. now whereas before she was focused on working inside the house.....you know, maybe a friend will come along while she's working outside.

I love how in love all of them are with their new old house. They are having so much fun getting ready to move in, and the new paint colors in all the rooms are stunningly beautiful. They've ordered a lot of furniture and accessories from Wayfair and other places, and all that stuff is piling up while the finish the painting. They are so ready to be done, and are getting closer every day.

I'm looking forward to the little things....like seeing what kind of rose bush is growing outside the MB window. I hope it is an old heirloom one suitable to the era in which their home was built. If it wasn't, I bet I can find them one that is.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
That is SUCH a fun story, Dawn! I so get the peer pressure and beautiful lawns thing, now that you mention it. I'd forgotten because it's not an issue here. Thank you GOD! And wait a minute. I was thinking the kids were in TX--they're not? They're in OK? Well, at any rate, love everything you have to say about the new house. It's sort of like vicariously experiencing their wonder and delight through your eyes. :)

March 2019, Week 2 Let the New Rain and Mud Games Begin....

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