April 2019, Week 1, The Warm-Up Is Coming

5 years ago

While we are suffering through the freezing nights brought back to us by the latest cold front, April is going to come rolling in, and will be bringing some warmer weather. Here's the 6-10 day temperature outlook and it shows above-average temperatures:

CPC's 6-10 Day Outlook

I'd like to think we'll be happier with April's weather than we have been with March's, but our weather is so erratic that there's just no way we can be sure about that.

Even the warm-season trees like the mimosa and the Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) are leafing out, so it certainly feels like Spring here, notwithstanding the fact that almost all of us will see freezing temperatures tonight. I'd like to think this cold weekend is the last gasp of winter weather and that Mother Nature is just playing a mean April Fool's trick on us with this cold.

The garden chores I hope to focus on this coming week include weeding the garden (it isn't too bad---the heavy mulch makes a huge difference), planting bean, corn and squash seeds, perhaps planting a few more tomato plants, mowing, mulching, and digging up and transplanting a lot of cannas that have spread too far and are encroaching on the garden entryway and main path. I'm still contemplating finding a way to get rid of the asparagus plants....if only they weren't grown into a solid mass of crazy roots fairly deep beneath the soil surface. It might be easier to just pour concrete over them.....

I might find time to dig out the bermuda grass and Johnson grass that perpetually attempt to come in through the fence and encroach on the eastern edge of the garden. I also need to start some warm-season flowers in flats. That might be what I'll do on Monday. I've been putting it off because the tomato plants have been hogging the light shelves, but now that the weather is warmer (or about to be warmer), they can stay in the greenhouse after this current cold spell ends and I can use the light shelves indoors to start more seeds. As soon as the warm-season seeds germinate, though, I'll move the seedlings out to the greenhouse.

I hope to spend part of Sunday doing some plant shopping. I keep trying to go plant shopping, but then either it is raining or the wind is blowing 99 mph (slight exaggeration) or something and we ditch the idea of plant shopping until warmer weather returns. Hopefully when we go plant shopping tomorrow, we won't discover that the stores didn't cover up their plants and allowed them to freeze. The closest Home Depot to us is really good about covering up their plants, but the other stores don't seem to be nearly as devoted to preventing the plants from freezing.

What will everyone else be working on this week?

Dawn

Featured Answer

Rebecca (7a)

5 years ago

It was super nice for a couple hours this afternoon. I schlepped to Target and Lowe’s, then outside. Had a few more jugs to seed up (still have 4 left to do), planted more spinach (can’t ever have enough for Mom), threw some dirt in the potato bags (already). At Lowe’s I added 2 Bonnie Big Beef plants to the arsenal, since my seeds are doing a big nothing. I had plans to set up the newest bag bed, but didn’t get to it (Targets fault). Tomatoes and peppers have a box over them for the night, lilies covered in sheets, just in case.

I have cosmos that are pushing the tops of their jugs. Think I could get away with planting them out this week? I started them in old soil, figuring that they’d rather have that than fresh, and they took off.

Lettuce bins are doing well. Not much longer until I’m having salads.

TMD opens April 9. First Cherry Street Market of the season is Saturday.

I have a special new shirt to wear to SF.

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Comments (44)

oldbusy1
5 years ago
I haven't done much in the garden. I did put some cabbage, broccoli out and the deer quickly gobbled it up. I planted some english peas and replanted them again due to poor germination. Might try to get some sweet corn planted after this cold snap leaves. Iv'e got some tomatoes and peppers started in the greenhouse but they are still small.

Looks like my blueberries are starting to bloom. Looks like it's 34 F out there this morning they will make it.
Macmex
5 years ago
I hope to start some basil in a flat as well as marigolds and Frank's Thai Hot pepper. There's a never ending amount of weeding and cultivation to do in our main vegetable garden, but conditions have pretty much kept me out of there.

Here in Tahlequah our mimosa tree isn't showing any signs of budding at this point, nor are our pecans. We run quite a bit behind you, Dawn.

I have all my sweet potatoes bedded now! I don't believe I've ever had so many varieties before. Both Gary Schaum (Duck Creek Farms) and Glenn Drowns (Sandhill Preservation Center) are friends and look to bless me with varieties. I lost Brinkley White in 2017 and mentioned it to both of them, last spring. I ended up with more Brinkley White slips than I could handle, plus THREE more varieties of white, or light colored, sweet potatoes!

In the past I've bedded the sweets several weeks to over a month earlier than I did this year, but honestly, it has felt more like winter until the last two weeks, and we have ice on water buckets this morning. It's not good to wake up the sweet potatoes and then chill them.
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Nancy, I expect it will take a while for the house to feel normal again. We had gotten used to the screeching of the tropical birds, the sounds of a lot more feet going up and down the staircase, etc. Yesterday I came into the living room and automatically turned the TV on to Nickelodeon just out of habit because I'm so used to having it on for the kids to watch the cartoons. It was on for a minute or two before I realized there were no children here and switched it to The Weather Channel to see what was going on weatherwise. lol. We had a lot of rain considering it rarely rained hard but was mostly just a steady light to moderate rain that came in waves as the storm rotated around the low pressure center. We're back to being a colossal mud pit again, but I have high hopes that maybe it will dry up fairly quickly in the drier, warmer weather we're expected to have for the next few days. I believe rain and the chance of severe weather return mid-week. Centaureas in general don't like our clay, especially when it is wet, so I don't grow them much. I think I've grown Sweet Sultan only once, and it was in a very wet and cold Spring and didn't do well here. Mullein does fine but tends to be invasive when happy so, believe it or not, I avoid it because I do not want for every single plant in my garden to be an invasive one, and I have too many of those types already. I have no issues with tropical milkweeds and think it mostly is just a pawn in some sort of power struggle between different factions in the gardening-for-monarchs segment of the gardening world. When I have grown it, the monarchs seem to ignore it for the most part---perhaps because we have fields and fields around us with wall-to-wall (or maybe I should say fence-to-fence) native milkweeds in season. The monarchs always seem to prefer the natives, so those are the ones I try to grow for them. I do love the colors of the tropical milkweeds as they seem to blend nicely with a lot of the hot-colored flowers we have in bloom in our garden in summer, including Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), Cape Honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis), Texas lantana (Lantana horrida, a name that always makes me laugh), miscellaneous other forms of lantana, and Yellow Bells (Tecoma stans). Because of our heat, our summer plants tend towards flowers in hot summer colors of yellow, orange, red, coral, etc. I might feel differently about tropical milkweed if I lived in a coastal area where it undoubtedly is overplanted and probably in bloom far too late in the season. I can understand why it probably should be cut back near the end of their migratory period so the monarchs will keep on heading towards their overwintering grounds in Mexico. If disease builds up on it, then obviously that is an issue we don't see as much with the native milkweeds that are not as long-lasting each season. Jennifer, Oh those cages and sheets sound like a mess! I would imagine the trees would have been fine uncovered. Our cats finally have calmed down and stopped nibbling plants so much, but to some extent, it always has been a problem. It is just as they get older, the prefer sleeping in the sunroom to devouring my plants. When they are outdoors it is not such a big deal, maybe because there's a large area to roam and they don't focus overly much on the garden, other than coming in there meowing to find me when they need to be petted or to have their tummy rubbed or whatever. After they get a little loving attention, they run off to play again. It might help that we grow catnip, catmint and catgrass in the garden for them. I don't know. One thing they've never outgrown is nipping the bean sprouts and eating them, so when beans are sprouting I try to keep the cats away from them until they've leafed out a bit more and no longer are so appealing as cat snacks. Our chickens lack the sense to come in out of the rain too. We combat that somewhat by only opening their door to go out into their chicken run instead of letting them free-range. They'll get bored if they aren't free-ranging and often decide to just go back into the coop after a while, thereby staying dry more of the time. Yesterday while we were covering up plants, the winds rose into the 40s and the trees were waving and the wind was sort of roaring and it scared the rooster. He started having a big fit...the sort of loud screaming he'll do when there's a coyote, a hawk or some other perceived danger. We couldn't find any reason for his distress, other than the loud wind, so Tim just herded the chickens into their coop and closed the door leading out to the chicken run so they would feel safe and sound. It was only a couple of hours earlier than they usually would put themselves up, and it probably was good for them to get inside out of the moisture. I think the most frustrating thing yesterday was that we are so used to being outdoors and being busy on the weekends. It was really hard to stay indoors. We rarely have days like that where it literally rains all day, and I'm glad. The weather news is just so dismal this morning. The Franklin TX tornado and the others that hit about 100 miles from Franklin killed several people and the one near Alto tore up the Caddoan Mounds museum there during some sort of festival. Then there were more tornadoes last night and this morning, all of them destructive and some of them deadly. I hate severe thunderstorm and tornado season. It doesn't even take a tornado to do massive damage---large hail stones and strong winds do a lot of damage too. The propensity for severe weather makes April and May less enjoyable, weather-wise, than they otherwise would be. Last night's weather was odd. We were down to 40 degrees by around 9 p.m. with an overnight forecast low of 39. Then, before midnight the temperatures begin rising again and didn't drop again, so the time we spent covering plants was in essence wasted time. Oh well, that probably was it for this year and I'm glad. We just as easily could have gone colder than forecast, so it probably always is better to be safe than sorry. Last night a cardinal was perched on a little ledge up underneath the roof of the back porch when the dogs went outdoors one last time before bedtime. Poor thing. I think it was just trying to stay warm and dry. I imagine all the songbirds would like for the cold to back off a bit too. It just seems so bizarre (yet it happens every Spring) to have highs in the upper 80s or lower 90s and lows in the 30s all in the same week. Maybe the new week's weather will be kinder, but I do see possible severe weather in our forecast for mid-week so maybe it won't be. Dawn
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Y'all, I'm working my way backwards as I try to catch up. After 2 days of trying to keep up with 2 healthy, active grandkids, I am brain-dead and my body is not much better off either. Jennifer, We enjoyed the weather with the grandkids and later had a nice visit with Jana at their house. It was our first time there since they began unpacking and I'm impressed with the progress they have made in one week's time. The outdoor tour was the most fun. They had brought photos of their rose tree (more on that in a second) in bloom when they brought the girls over and I identified it as a Peace Rose and told them this variety has a beautiful history that they needed to Google and read. So, I knew it was a tall rose as you could see it through the 8' tall windows in the master bedroom and the rose went taller than the window.....yesterday we went outside and looked at it, sitting there on the south side of their house, and that thing has to be 12-15' tall, and part of it crawls sideways along the house's eaves. It's main trunk looks like a tree trunk. Sadly it is long neglected and we are not sure how much it can be rejuvenated without killing it. Chris wanted to move it, but I nixed that idea as it grows directly adjacent to a medium sized tree (I think that one is a hackberry) and the roots undoubtedly are entwined. So, he is going to take cuttings and raise some. Then, probably each Jan or Feb of the next three years, we'll cut back one of the three long main canes by a large percentage to see if we can spur new growth on that cane. Actually, if it fails with the first cane, I don't know if they'll try again the next year with another cane. I suppose the good news is that the Climbing Peace Rose is not old enough to be original to the period when their home was built in 1932, so they could take it out if they choose without feeling like they were stripping the home of its original plant heritage. I also noticed yesterday that an otherwise weed-filled front bed that runs alongside the covered front porch has three volunteer petunias in it. That entire bed is destined to have the soil amended and small mounded shrubs planted there as it is a pretty narrow bed that could have small mounded shrubs or a ground cover or shorter types of blooming annuals or perennials, but it really doesn't have space for all 3 types of plants between the porch and the sidewalk. With the Peace Rose, I believe they would prefer a new location, so if the cuttings work out and give them plants they may end up taking out both the hackberry tree and the overgrown rose later on. The whole landscape needs work on all 4 sides, so they are busy making plans for that now that their interior is finished and they've moved in. I didn't really find anything of historical interest in their yard, plant-wise, but the back yard has a lovely crop of clover and dandelions for the bees, and that area was being visited by bees, butterflies and one dragonfly yesterday afternoon. Mammy, It is sad but true that at the end of every beautiful day (and some not so beautiful ones as well), we gardeners end up sore and achy and in need of serious pain relief. Jen, I love reseeding zinnias. Mine have reseeded in the same spot for almost 20 years, but every few years I add some new ones to the mix just to keep it all from getting too monotonous. After quite a few years of reseeding, we ended up with mostly pinks and yellows, so I had to sow reds, purples, greens, etc. to get more color back into that bed. Nothing much attracts butterflies all summer long like the zinnias do. Do you have a house full of furbabies this weekend? And, the question is, do the dogs get to hunt for Easter Eggs (or something more dog-like)? Being pooped means a great day, right? Mammy, Welcome to the group and thanks for your kind words. Zinnias were one of the first things I planted here....in 1998 in a raised bed I built behind the area where our home would be built in 1999. Sure, why not plant a garden in the middle of a field a year before construction started on the house? We came up from Texas every weekend to clear overgrown brush and trees and to put up a barbed wire fence around our 14.4 acres. With decades of overgrown vegetation that included heavy woodland, it took us forever just to clear a narrow corridor and fence the land, but coming up every weekend meant I could water my plants (I hauled water up in here cat litter jugs because we hadn't even joined the water co-op and put in our water line yet). Those first two small raised beds had tomato plants, pepper plants, a couple of herbs, hollyhocks and zinnias. What impresses me most now is that the wildlife never bothered them because they've bothered everything we've planted since moving here. I remember the first zinnias I chose were Oklahoma and Will Rogers because, why not? Try as we all might to plan, to amend soil, to do things 'just right', I tend to plunge into planting projects with great enthusiasm and joy, not with a lot of deliberate planning. I just plant stuff and wait to see how it does. How it mostly did in the beginning was that it fed a lot of deer. Nowadays I confine my vast growing experiments to areas within two fenced garden plots with 8' fences, and sometimes one other plot with only a 4' fence, to exclude the deer. More plants survive that way. While I love growing edibles, I mix in flowers and herbs in every bed, which drives my old farmer/old rancher friends absolutely start raving mad because they don't understand why I 'waste' space on anything non-edible. I can tell them until I'm blue in the face that growing food feeds our bodies but growing herbs and flowers helps feed our souls, and they just won't concede I'm right about that. Apparently by planting it all mixed when we moved here 2 decades ago, I violated some unwritten neighborhood rule that the men tended large row gardens with nothing but veggies in them (narrow rows, wide dirt spaces between them to allow the tractor to travel through the garden) and the women were relegated to herbs and flowers in pots on the porch and in a couple of flower beds near the house. I caught hell for that, but just kept on being me and doing my thing. My husband isn't a gardener anyway and works long days that include a 3 hour round-trip commute to Dallas from southern OK every work day, so we would have been in trouble if we chose to garden in the traditional neighborhood style, as we wouldn't have had veggies or fruits grown here on our property I guess. It doesn't matter what mulch you use, just use something. Mine varies from grass clippings (we mow a couple of acres and use absolutely no chemicals on our grassy areas) to chopped/shredded autumn leaves collected in the fall to purchased wood mulch. For many years, several farming/ranching friends gave us bales of old spoiled hay and I mulched like mad with those, but stopped accepting all the kind offers of mulch hay (and livestock manure) in 2010 (after friends gave us 220 square bales of hay) because of the risk of herbicide carryover. It is a lot harder to come up with enough mulch nowadays, but I am glad we have avoided contaminating our garden areas with persistent herbicides. I have had friends, including some right in my own neighborhood, accidentally contaminate their own garden soil with herbicide carryover and kill their own garden plants. They didn't even imagine this was a possibility because they choose not to use that specific class of herbicide on their property, but they forgot they purchased hay in drought years, including in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, so when they added composted cow manure and horse manure from their own barn to their garden, there was enough herbicide carryover to kill their tomato and bean plants, among other things that year. I am sure that if they'd thought about it in advance, they would have tested their composted manure by doing a bioassay, but they didn't. Luckily, being rural, they just went a little distance away on their large property and built a new garden, but it was a shame that had to abandon the well-amended soil in the original garden plot. Several years ago someone traveling down our rural road in a large spray rig apparently had some sort of accident and apparently lost several gallons of herbicide that ran into our bar ditch. We weren't home at the time, but as soon as I noticed the dying, splotchy grass and wildflowers, we stopped using grass clippings from that area, leaving them there on the ground when we mowed instead of gathering them in the grass catcher. Here we are three years later and the area that took the biggest concentration of that herbicide still remains largely weed-free, and even grass struggles to grow there. I am amazed at how long that spill has contaminated that area, even though I know that it is technically possible. Go ahead and plant those zinnias. My volunteers from past plants are sprouting in a pathway and have been for over a week now, and I have a flat of lemon-colored Profusion Zinnias to plant in the front garden today, and then I'll sow that flat with seeds of the same thing to plant in the back garden in a few weeks. The back garden is the little stepchild on our property---it is vole-infested and I don't plant it until the front garden is full because voles tend to eat anything planted too close to wintery type cold weather, making cool-season crops a no-go back there. Usually if I wait and plant the back garden in May (made easy this year by rain keeping it too wet to plant any earlier), the voles don't start eating plants until we get hot and dry in July, so at least everything back there has a chance for a while. Nancy, I know you've been busy with the family gathering and loved seeing the group photos on FB. What a large clan y'all have here! Kim, I am thinking of your mom, you, your sister (was she okay after that trip to the ER?) and the rest of your family. I hope this weekend is filled more with joy, peace and comfort than tears as y'all are traveling down a tough road right now. Sharon, I hope the service brought y'all comfort and joy yesterday as you all shared your memories of your mom. I smile when I think of her in heaven, reunited with your dad, and I see both of your parents in you and your girls. Larry, Did you get more rain? Did it freeze? George, I am sorry about your plants. I hate surprise freezes and am glad you had backups. Jacob, Can you start planting in earnest now or is the weather still too dicey? Rebecca, Sorry about the car repair bill. I hope that plant therapy helped. Amy, Is your dad doing alright? I know y'all must be busy getting ready for another wedding---this seems to be your family's year for weddings. Okay, see there...I have been paying attention and trying to stay caught up with everyone here in the group, both on FB and here on the forum, even though the girls have kept me running. Why does God give you crazy-active and crazy-busy grandkids after your body is old, exhausted and cannot run, jump and climb like it once did? We should have had the grandkids first when we were younger. I need to go start this week's thread as the weather takes aim at us yet once again, but enjoy today y'all. I intend to spend at least half of the day in the garden today. However, we did have three fire calls yesterday, and one was an All-Page, and I am concerned the All-Page fire will rekindle and ruin our Easter plans. It is odd for us to have a forest fire and not a pasture fire anyway, and our relative greenness is 89%, so that All-Page fire never should have happened. Somebody started that fire on purpose. We weren't even here....we were up at the kids' house in Ardmore, and by the time we stopped in at three stores, picked up dinner and headed home, they didn't need us at the fire. I guess we would have gone after we got home but we got lucky, and I was relieved because I felt too tired to deal with it. Dawn
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June 2019, Week 1
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Nancy, Having cats is about like having small children at times, isn't it? I imagine you blasted all the aphids off before monarchs really have begun much egg laying up there. They're laying eggs down here, but we're always a bit ahead of those of you further north. With QAL and hemlock, the purple streaks on the stem usually are a very obvious indicator. If you look at your plants, you can check the main stalks for very tiny, fine hairs. QAL has those very tiny fine hairs running up and down the stalk, and hemlock's stalks are smooth. My favorite way to tell them apart is that the seed heads of QAL will curl up into a bird nest type shape as the seeds dry. So, if in doubt about any plants that might be QAL or hemlock, just watch the seedheads. We have QAL, but I keep it pulled out of the garden and adjacent areas. I don't mind it elsewhere, just nowhere near where I'm growing anything on purpose because of its invasiveness. This year we have a lot of hedge parsley, especially in the neighbor's pasture due south of us. We've cut it down on our property so it cannot reseed here, but their seeds will wash downhill to us. I don't mind it---it is a host plant for the swallowtails, but at the same time, I don't want it invading my garden and taking over. I'm guessing all the moisture we've had since last Sept. has made every seed that was in the ground germinate and grow. When we moved here we were in our early 40s and this was intended to be our forever home, so I've always had that in mind as I garden---not wanting to create more than we can maintain as we age. Our nearly constant recurring droughts help me a lot in that regard because I cannot create more growing beds than we can irrigate throughout the summer months, and that reins me in more than anything else. We were in the second consecutive year of awful drought and a huge grasshopper infestation when we moved here in 1999, so that helped too---you cannot go crazy creating beds and planting when the ground is rock hard and the grasshoppers are eating every plant in sight down to the ground. You could say that Mother Nature reins me in from going overboard with plantings. Rebecca, That's a lot of rain. We have had less than half than much over the last two weeks. I hope your plants are okay. Larry, It is a hard garden year and the deer are not helping. They keep coming to my garden in broad daylight trying to chase me out of it so they can come in, and they just stand and stare at me like "who do you think you are?" I try to remember to close the garden gate behind me when I go in there so they cannot follow me into the garden. I don't know what their problem is---there's tons of natural food or them. I am pretty sure they want my okra plants, and I don't intend to share them. Jennifer, Sometimes zinnias just do that. I am sure it is some sort of genetic defect or mutation. I don't see it often---just a couple of times ever 4 or 5 years. Echinaceas do it too. What would eat a toad's body? Snakes of many different kinds, hawks or raccoons for sure. Probably other things too. Don't worry. Your kids always will need you, just in a different way. I enjoy the company of our adult son (and nieces and nephews) so much now---it is awesome to see them continue to grow and develop as adults. Then, someday, they'll likely become parents and you and Tom will become grandparents, and that is its own kind of awesome. If the demand for your eggs is higher than your supply, maybe you can refer some of those folks to the Conscious Community Co-op. There's almost always pastured eggs available there. Nancy, It sounds like your water table is coming up pretty high underneath your plants. Hopefully with less rain falling, that water level will begin to fall. I cannot complain about our tomato plants at all. We are reaching the I-cannot-bear-to-eat-another-tomato stage because we've been overdosing on them for 5 weeks now. A lot of my plants look sickly with foliar diseases (not unexpected because I've grown tomatoes in the same soil for 20 years, and they were supposed to be in the back garden this year.....), but they're still producing like crazy. I give the early planting all the credit for this, because I don't think my plants are setting any new fruit now and I don't think anything but the cherry and paste types have set new fruit in the last 2 or 3 weeks. I think the high humidity might be holding them back, because we've only barely been into the 90s at all, and certainly not enough to (theoretically) impede fruit set. I don't even care. Since we've been gorging on all the tomatoes we can eat, if I walked out to the garden tomorrow and all my plants mysteriously had died, I think I'd shrug it off, pull them out and replace them with zinnias and cosmos. Why not? I have 8 beautiful and healthy tomato plants in large containers near the garage that are producing very well if you don't count the minor herbicide drift damage from the neighbor's fence line herbicide spraying. I could be happy with nothing but the fruit from those 8 plants. I'm at the grumpy tomato stage where harvesting them, washing them, sorting them and processing the extras by freezing, drying or canning is annoying me. Life really is a lot easier if you don't grow too many tomatoes. I clearly grow too many, and that is nobody's fault but my own. Every year at this time I swear that I will take off next year from growing tomatoes, but of course, I don't do it. I do wish I had the self-discipline to only plant 6 or 8 tomato plants. My garden is not nearly as weed-free as yours, but I am making good progress. I still have three or four raised beds to weed, and several pathways. I think I have a good chance of getting all that done on Mon-Tues as this is a grandchild weekend and I'm not stepping foot in the garden at all. The tomato-like fruit on the potatoes is the potato fruit (remember, the part we eat is the tuber) which is not edible but contains seeds you can allow to mature on the plant and then sow if you want to try growing potatoes. Some people refer to them as seed balls to make it clear that they are not edible fruit. Google True Potato Seed if you want to read about growing potatoes that way. I did it one year just for fun to see if it could be done (it can!). You won't always get the potato fruit---just like your potatoes do not/will not always flower. I only get potato flowers/fruit in years when the nights stay cool for a prolonged period and those cool nights have to coincide with the potatoes being at about the right stage to flower. I don't have a lot to add about our garden. Although the tomatoes look sickly, I could nip that in the bud if I was willing to spray them with a fungicide, and I don't think I am. Y'all know I hate to spray anything at all on my plants ever. I think I'll just harvest the fruit and yank out the plants one by one whenever I get tired of looking at them. At least the heavy rainfall stopped here a couple of weeks ago, so the tomatoes taste much better now because excessive rainfall is not watering down their flavor. All the beans and tomatoes have spider mites, though not at huge levels yet. Either the predatory mites and lady bugs and other beneficial insects will take care of the spider mites, or they won't. If they do, great, and if they don't, I'll yank out heavily infested plants after the beans are done producing. It is rare for the spider mites to kill tomato plants as the predatory mites usually catch up, population-wise, by July and start knocking back the spider mite population, at which time the tomato plants put on a surge of new growth and rebound. I am concerned about the plethora of grasshopper nymphs I'm seeing and the fact that they are chewing holes in every single leaf on every single plant in my garden. The issue, really, is that our two organic grasshopper bait type control products---Nolo Bait and Semaspore are not available this year, so that is a big problem. I have a bottle of beauveria bassiana and I could use it to control the grasshoppers, but I worry about the effect it would have on other insects inside the garden. I think I'll just try to wait out the grasshopper damage. Or, if I start feeling really desperate about the grasshopper situation, I could spray the beauveria bassiana in a wide band around the outside of the garden fence and hope it kills the grasshoppers as they make their way to the garden. That might be a reasonable compromise. I really don't want to use it inside the garden because it can harm some beneficial insects (not all, but I don't want to sacrifice any of them). Earlier this week I noticed the caterpillar of the Variegated Frittilary Butterfly on my pansy plants. I was getting ready to yank out the pansies and replace them with Profusion zinnias, but now I'll leave the pansies until the Frit caterpillars are done with them. Lillie has been here for a couple of days and nights now and we're about to take her home to spend the rest of the weekend with her family. We tie-dyed 12 t-shirts and 2 pairs of shorts (half for herself, and half for her little sister) so my hands might be looking a little blue, purple and green (and pink, orange and red). lol. I've scrubbed them pretty hard and think most of the dye is gone now. I did wear gloves while tying and dying, but not when I was taking the rubber bands off the t-shirts to rinse them before running them through the washing machine. That is what gets me every time. Now that I've washed the t-shirts and shorts twice in the washing machine with those SHOUT dye-catcher things in there with them, I think they won't fade in a normal laundering, but I'll send the rest of the box of dye-catchers home with her today so they can protect the next few loads of laundry they wash. That worked out well for all of us last year, and now that we have tie-dyed t-shirts for 2 consecutive summers, Lillie has declared it to be "our family tradition". I'm okay with that. Hope everyone is having a good weekend. It is 88 degrees here and starting to feel a little bit toasty. Dawn
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Comments (44)
Rebecca, Well, the best we could do to beat the heat was 11:30 a.m. Fort Worth is so big and there's so many deaths and the funeral homes stay super busy, so you get the time slots that are available, if you know what I mean. I am not complaining.....at least it isn't an afternoon funeral. It is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far, but no one here on this earth can control the weather. I think the recent high heat index numbers (ours have been in the 112-114 range on recent days) have fried my brain. We were out at the pool this evening and the temperature was 90-something and the heat index was 106 and I told Tim and Lillie "you know, this really doesn't feel bad at all". lol. I've lost my mind. I've always been impressed with how well tomatoes can bounce back some years. I have abandoned the garden in some hot dry years....stopped watering, closed the gate and walked away, leaving it all to the spider mites and grasshoppers. Then, a month or two later, I look and the tomatoes have tons of new growth and look great. You just never know what they'll do. I'm glad yours are showing resilience. Your flowers do look great. Jennifer, I know how badly y'all need rain and was hoping you'd get more, but any amount of rain is a blessing at this time of the year. I'm happy for all of you who got rain. We didn't get any, but we had some last week, so we aren't in terrible shape again yet. The dewpoints and heat index numbers are horrible though---as if the plain old high temperatures wouldn't be bad enough as they are. I believe Sun-Mon will be out hottest days of the year so far. Don't let the heat get to you! September is just around the corner and will bring cooler weather. Really, the NWS is showing cooler weather mid-week, so that's something to hope for and to look forward to, unless the forecast changes and that take that bit of coolness away from us. I hope you have many more years with your mom. Our mom never took care of herself (don't even get me started on that!) and we never thought she'd live as long as she did. When our dad passed away in 2004, we all thought mom wouldn't live more than a year or two longer. See how wrong we were? I know it will take a while to get used to not being so busy with the band, but y'all did your job so well for so long, and now it is somebody else's turn, and you and Tom get to have more free time for yourselves. That can only be a good thing, right? Today the weather felt quite a bit nicer here than on previous days. I think it was because our dewpoint was falling late in the day instead of going up, so our heat index peaked earlier in the day than usual, and it peaked lower---at only 111. How sad is it that this is what I consider a better heat index? How many days until autumn? Winter? Can we start counting? Need heat relief? Skip going to the nurseries and garden centers. Go to Hobby Lobby and walk around admiring all the fake autumn flowers, pumpkins, gourds, etc. and all the other fall decor, and then mosey over to the Christmas area and pretend it is winter time. See there---don't you feel better already? Drought is spreading rapidly on the U. S. Drought Monitor Map and our fire conditions are worsening. All we need is for southwestern and southcentral OK (and much of central OK and western OK) to get some rain like NE OK had this week and then things will get better quickly. If, and only if, that rain actually falls though. I looked at the 6-10 and 8-14 day outlooks and they don't look especially promising. I say this every August---where is a good old tropical storm or hurricane off the Gulf Coast when we need one? I'm not asking for a big damaging thing...just some sort of storm that will send a plume of moisture up over Texas straight to us. Unfortunately nothing like that is in sight either. Dawn
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OklaMoni
5 years ago
At the top of my list is getting out of the house as much as possible... my daughter is back, and sick, and I have no desire to catch whatever it is. We, well, she does need to figure out what's next... cause I really want to stay a solo woman in this house.

I need to finish digging up the BG in the front bed, take the tree out that is to close to the house, and move chip drop mulch off my gardening area from last year. It's on there about 48 inches tall, and I just don't have any other place ready for planting. Besides all that...

A trip to Meers for a Meers Burger with a friend, and assorted bike outings to get myself in shape for all upcoming bike rides.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
I've run out of cups for seeds, as well as mini blind slats. So today I'll get more potting soil, cups of every size, and another mini blind. I think the red 20 oz solo cups will get the plants through until they get to go in the ground. And the weather forecast looks great! It looks like nearly all of them can go out on the deck to live. I'll get more soil in the raised beds and get to work on the flower beds. Gotta go into town and work at the school yard, too. It will be a busy week.

It didn't freeze here last night--or if it did in some pockets of the yard, not much. I am beyond pleased with the weather forecasts. Looking good, while understanding we could get a curve ball at some point. However, today has been exceptionally cool, no desire to be out there today1
jlhart76
5 years ago
Looks like my gamble paid off. Everything survived without incident here. Being on the south side of the house makes a big difference, I'm sure. I went ahead and kept the greenhouse covered in sheets in the garage just in case, they'll all go back outside tomorrow.

I stopped in Lowe's Thursday and ended up with a dozen little violas and 8 good sized pansies for $12, so they're all planted out. Now at least my front entry looks a little bit welcoming. And I couldn't resist the price.
hazelinok
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I'm so glad that everyone's stuff survived. Seems like a lot of us (Dawn, Nancy, Jen, Rebecca, and me) went plant (and plant stuff) shopping over the past few days.

And Rebecca got a new shirt. A special shirt. :D

Moni, I sure hope you don't get whatever your daughter has. And I hope she's able to find her path soon.

MacMex (George?), Frank's Thai hot pepper sounds intriguing. Do you know what it's named that? Is it a "special" type of cayenne? I have discovered that Thai food is one of my favorites.

Oldbusy1 (Larry?) So sorry that I'm having a hard time remembering names tonight. How long have you grown blueberries? What variety do you grow. I have a "box" bed that was built for potatoes, but I've decided I don't want to use it for potatoes now. It's about 30 inches tall and it's 4' x 4'. I've thought about planting a blueberry in that box after getting the soil nice and acidic. Do blueberries plants need a companion?

It was a very short freeze here--if at all. I uncovered everything except the horseradish and columnar trees....just in case. It is showing a low of 36.

So...I worked this morning and went to lunch with my family. Then stopped by Marcums to see if Dale and Carrie needed my help with an event there. They did a beginners gardening class, and children's activities afterwards. They didn't need my help, so Tom and I walked around. and looked at plants. This place was packed! Two registers with very long lines. Forget that. I live 2 minutes from there and will shop at a less busy time. I'm still sad because I miss the old K & K. Since Marcums took it over, it has changed so much. I liked the feel of K & K much better. However, they did have a chaste tree and crape myrtle that are in my price range. I will go back to get those this week. I can't decide which variety of crape myrtle to purchase. Any suggestions? Maybe I'll get two.

Other than that, I couldn't focus. So many people. We went to Home Depot and Lowes too. I want an oak tree as well. Lots of people out buying plants. LOADS of plants. Cartloads of plants.

Tomorrow, I will try to focus on housework in the morning and work outdoors in the afternoon. That's the plan anyways. Maybe we'll go get those trees when Tom gets home with the truck.

So, my 'endless summer" hydrangea. That needs to be left alone--no pruning, right? It seems like I pruned it last spring and got no blooms, just leaves. I'm honestly impressed that it still is living. haha!

You know...I'm still impressed when I get anything to live and produce...and I do each year. Lots of stuff. But at the beginning of each season, I think...what am I doing? I don't know how to do this. It's such a weird and awesome feeling. Truly Awesome. It really is a big deal...but also such a simple basic thing too.

It was chilly outside today, but I had to do a little work outside because the sun was sunny. I chose the west side of the house. There's a narrow flower bed there. It's full of daylilies, cannas, iris, and comfrey! It will be interesting to see these things "duke it out". Any bets on which one will win?
luvncannin
5 years ago
I began my week with beautiful sprouts of herbs tomatoes. I planted in monday so that was quick. My porters are 4 years old. But still going strong. Most of y'all see this on fb but my porters my ex boss insisted was THE best tomatoe in the world and no good gardener ccocoucoulcouldes have a garden without it, lol. So I grew it. 2012, 13 ,14 ,and I gave to friends many plants. My best dear friend took some for her husband, Finies. He grew them and had a hemorrhagic stroke that summer and never got o harvest them. So I did. All summer for my Henny. And saved seed from them as well as my own like i always do. Every year i grow out Finies poters from the original stock and subsequent years. Keeping his tomatoes going. He has since passed and never did recover enough to work his soil again but his Henny does and will again carry her some Finies porters.

That balances my life and week with starting my day with a flat tire and purchasing 2 new ones :)
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Hi HJ. Do NOT touch endless summer hydrangeas. They bloom on old and new growth. Leave em alone! :) :) :)

I'm going back to bed now.
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
I checked out early last week due to family drama but it wasn't my side this time! WIN! I facetiously tease my MIL that I'm a little tickled when the Huntley's have drama because I didn't think my family could be outdone, certainly not by the Cleavers, and growing up they seemed like the Cleavers. MIL was a nurse and Sunday School teacher, FIL a hard working salt of the earth type and the two boys were ornery but overall good kids, or so it seemed. Turns out, BIL is Eddie Haskell. Obviously, I'm not truly tickled but as we all know - the older we get the more we realize everyone has their problems, and life's drama doesn't feel so lonely when we realize that! In my case, I get to see first hand that it's true of every family - even the Cleaver/Huntley's.

On the up-side though, my FIL did come home from the hospital on Tuesday night - I think he even got home early enough to see NCIS - his favorite program. The hospital stay certainly turned him around and they identified the source of the problems with regulating his blood minerals/hormones so he'll be better prepared to deal with the other knee replacement whenever that happens - hopefully not for a while!

Even though I wasn't able to attend my uncle's funeral, I talked to HR and was able to get it approved to take 1 bereavement day so I could have a long weekend to recover from the emotional rollercoaster I've been on. I probably need more than 1 long weekend, but Friday was some needed respite.

I had ordered some live butterflied to be delivered on Saturday to release on Sunday - the day of my uncle's service in CA. They arrived a day early (Friday) and due to the weather conditions, we came up with a butterfly habitat made out of a mesh hamper, a butterfly feeder and a snapdragon I hadn't planted outside yet. At the rate they're going, we'll have caterpillars before they're released which I'm hoping to do on Tuesday. But with the delivery driver ringing the doorbell, it motivated me to get up and head out to Bruce's to pick up some tomato plants because as we all know, I've been ready to plant tomatoes for about 2 weeks, only holding back because Mother Nature was doing what Mother Nature does this time of year in Oklahoma. Bruce and I chatted and chatted and then I ran a few errands around Shawnee. Overall, a good way to spend the day and Bruce only bribed me with tomato plants to say that. LOL

I did a lot of other fun things with Keegan after I got back to OKC and the next day a lot of exercise which helped with stress since there weren't a lot of gardening tasks to do other than cover plants. However, I decided on Saturday to use the cool weather to my advantage. I rented a trailer and headed over to the local dirt/landscape/rock shop because Ben said 2 months ago that he wanted flagstone to build a path so the dogs won't be trampling through so much mud right before they come in. Since it was cool out we were able to wear thick clothes and I only ended up with 1 or 2 scratches even though it was up to only the two of us to unload 2.5 tons of flagstone. I got the trailer, picked out the right rock (he got off work just in time to nod yes at what I'd already picked out) and got it home no trouble, but then it was time to back into the driveway! Uh oh! I gotta brag on my husband's trailer backing skills. I'm pretty sure he could look at where the thing needs to go, close his eyes and get there without a hiccup so long as I was there to say "whoa" at the end. Which is heck of good because I'm one of those who takes about 20 minutes to get the trailer backed into the general vicinity of where it needs to go!

Since we were working on the north side of the house on Saturday, I noticed that we had significant damage to the window frames from the hail storm a week ago. Glad we caught it so it could be included in our claim. I don't know how much they'll cover because they're the original windows, (20ish years old) but if they'll do anything it's better than nothing.

Yesterday, we started out paying our respects to my uncle - sans butterflies. But we went to the local Harley store (his passion) and sat in the parking lot sharing stories and memories about him before going out to breakfast. Once it warmed up a little, I was able to find a wind sheltered but sunny spot on the patio where I worked on potting up a bunch of plants. Many of them will be planted out in the next week or two, but they were drying out quickly and close to getting root bound so it needed to be done even if it is short lived. I did make an interesting observation though - when I started the tray I had a little left over Black Gold brand seed starting mix, but not enough to fill a full tray. I dumped it in the center cells and filled the remaining cells with Jiffy seed starting mix. I noticed at the time the Jiffy was much looser than the Black Gold. Well, the plants in the Jiffy mix are by far outperforming the ones in the Black Gold mix. If you buy a mix, what's your favorite? I remember Ken Druse mentioning one in a podcast but I was walking the dogs and couldn't write it down. I just knew I would remember - but don't, of course.

Speaking of dogs - I might be getting two more on a semi-temporary basis. My BIL may need someone to care for his dogs for a while (a year or two) and a friend has offered to, but my husband is worried that she'll either run off with the dogs or they'll be too much for her. We're talking BIG dogs - a Catahoula mixed with something even bigger than a Catahoula and a boxer mixed with a whole lotta hyper - a boxer mixed with Jack - that's what she is. I'm shaking my head in defeat just thinking about this. Husband says if we do end up with them, the yard is mine and we'll put up whatever fences I want to keep the dogs out of my garden, exact words: you don't have to garden around them, they need to learn to stay out of your gardens. That's all fine and I'm glad he has that attitude, but it also sounds expensive! And we'll need bigger doggie doors, and then there's the fact that both dogs think they're lap dogs. Oh my! Wish me luck.

HJ - I have an Endless Summer hydrangea too and moving it from a back garden into a pot in the front this past February hasn't killed it! It is putting on new growth from the base, but I haven't seen any leafing out on the old stems yet. The second year I had it, it put on big blossoms but then we had early heat and the blooms dried out one super windy day. It never bloomed since but a tree had also grown in and shaded more - too much probably - which is why I moved it. I'm keeping it in the pot though to see how it does on the north side of a tree in my front yard. It will get plenty of evening sun but nothing until after about 3 pm in the heat of summer. I'm hoping it does good there. I need to expand the "island" the tree is in because as the tree has matured the grass isn't growing as well on the north side of the tree. If it's happy, I'll expand the island and add it, if not, back to the drawing board.

My snow peas were a complete loss to the hail storm, but so far that seems to be the only thing completely gone. I lost 1-2 lettuces and a few kales are struggling, but there are plenty more of those. I do need to see how the lettuce faired in the freeze. I completely forgot to cover it! I glanced at it yesterday, and it looked fine, but I wasn't really paying a lot of attention. It could have been limp and lifeless and I just saw green. I was in a bit of a daze after so much hard work on Saturday.

I commented on the Spring Fling board with a few things that I'll have to swap. Can't believe we're only 2 weeks away!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Robert, The deer seem ravenously hungry this year. I'm not sure why that is because it really wasn't that hard of a winter, but for the last week or so they have had to share their daily deer corn and hen scratch with the wild turkeys....and ain't nobody happy about sharing. The turkeys (8 of them) have been coming first, so they're getting first dibs on the food.

George, It probably is a good thing y'all run quite a bit behind us because we get too hot too early in the year and I don't like that!

Moni, I hope your daughter feels better soon and that you don't catch whatever she has. I am sure she is grateful to be able to move in with you while she figures out what to do next with her life. Yum....a Meers burger sounds like a nice start to Spring.

Nancy, It is good y'all didn't freeze. We went down to 32 on Sunday morning and 34 this morning, but everything tender was covered. Our mesonet station got colder than we need, so I'm grateful we stayed warmer, even if only a tiny bit warmer. We shouldn't get colder than 38 tomorrow morning, but since the row covers are in place, out of an abundance of caution, I'll throw them up over the hoops tonight, and then tomorrow morning I'll remove them and put them away. With our low-lying microclimate (remember, yall, warm air rises and leaves the coldest air in its place) there will be no need to protect plants later on if our forecast can be believed. Well, there's always hail as a possibility, but it usually misses us (except for the one year we got hit by hail 11 times during the growing season) so I am not going to obsess over it every time they have a chance of hail as a possibility, which seems to be every single time possible thunderstorms are in the forecast. I'd have to throw row covers over the beds every time it might rain.

Rebecca, Based on the forecast, you probably could put cosmos in the ground now. It is early for them, but as long as your soil temperatures are above 55, and really above 60 would be even better, they ought to be fine. They won't grow or flower if soil temps are below 55 though. These colder last couple of days have brought down soil temps a little bit, but I expect they'll rebound quickly.

Jennifer, There's at least dozens of named varieties of Crape Myrtles available commercially today, so all I can suggest is that you choose the one whose mature height is right for the area where you intend to plant it. They come in every size from 18" weeping varieties to 40' tall bush/tree types, so you have all kinds of options depending on the space available.

Want a preview of the kinds of crape myrtles that might be available? Here's the variety page from Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney, where they are endeavoring to grow every variety of crape myrtle available today.

Crape Myrtle Trails Website: Varieties

In the long term I think cannas will win, but in the shorter term, comfrey will give them a good run for their money.

Kim, Porter is much beloved by many Texans mostly because it produces tomatoes in July and August when nothing else does. We grew it all my life, and I really don't care for its flavor, so I finally just stopped growing it for sentimental reasons. Sentiment and hot weather production still couldn't get me to eat them and like them, so what was the point? To me, the flavor is only meh. My gardening friend, Fred, really loves them and was disappointed when I stopped growing them from seed, but I always would just pick up some at Walmart for him when I saw them. What I really and truly miss is the Porter & Son Seed Company (naturally they did breed Porter, and others as well). Texas lost a true treasure, as did the rest of us, when the Porter & Son Seed Company ceased operations, and it wasn't all that many years ago....probably in or around 1994.

Sorry about the flat and having to purchase two new tires. Those things always seem to happen at the worst times.

Megan, Honestly, I think every family has its drama. My sister and her kids are drama queens, though my sis finally has gotten to the point where she is tired of all the drama (it is about time) and has toned it down. Her kids haven't though. I'm laughing at your description of your BIL as Eddie Haskell!

It sounds like you had a very productive weekend, and also a lovely time set aside to remember your uncle. I just hate that y'all found him so late in his life and didn't get to spend more years with him, but I know you're grateful for the time you had with him. I think releasing butterflies in his memory is a wonderful thing to do, and I bet Keegan really loves this idea.

I usually just use Jiffy, mostly because it is quick and easy in terms of finding it locally. I used to mix up my own, but as I've gotten older and less energetic, I'm happy just to buy the Jiffy.

I do wish you luck with your BIL's dogs. Yes, that fencing will be expensive, but in the long run it will pay off because you'll always have it there to either keep dogs in, or to keep them out of your gardening spaces as the case may be. I've never regretted any money we've spent on fencing as it is a great, long-term capital improvement type item that makes life so much simpler in the long run.

Tonight is our last cool night, and then the temperatures skyrocket. I can't wait. It actually is nice out there this afternoon and has gotten several degrees warmer than forecast, but I'm doing laundry and watching the 4 year old sleep on the sofa....hoping she doesn't roll off onto the floor. When she gets tired, she doesn't fuss, whine or cry. She just stops playing and lies down with her baby dolls and then, bam, she's out like a light. I'd rather be out in the garden, but that's not on my list for today. I'm sure that by the time she wakes up it will be time to start preparing dinner. Maybe tomorrow afternoon at some point, we'll have some garden time.

Today I noticed the last dreadful, horrible, grass-killing, perpetual puddle of water in existence at the SW edge of our garage/driveway since last September finally has dried up. Yippee! There's no standing water left anywhere after it being somewhere, and often everywhere, since last September. There's really no surface mud although you will find mud if you dig down a couple of inches below the surface. It is about time! I'd love a few mud-free days or weeks. Y'all know how clay soil is...now that it finally is drying up, before we can blink our eyes, it will be cracking and I'll be whining about how dry it is getting. That is just how clay is.

There's more purple martins returning, and more migrating hummingbirds passing through here today. You all who are further north should be seeing hummingbirds soon. There's more craneflies, bees, bumblebees, butterflies and moths out and about, including the moths and butterflies whose caterpillars devour brassicas. There's a ton of brown snails after the long, wet autumn and winter. I remember when we moved here that we had no snails and no slugs as the red clay had absolutely no organic matter in it. We now have tons of snails in the areas where we have improved the soil. Seeing them, in one sense, is a little victory because it shows how much the soil has improved, but I'm never actually happy to see them.

The hummingbirds are so early that I felt compelled to buy a few plants for them because they are so far ahead of 95% of the garden plants that have been slowed down by the recent cold spell. I bought a flat of red petunias for them, and three Cape Honeysuckles (Tecoma capensis) which are zone 8 plants. I have a large Cape Honeysuckle in the ground from last year, but it shows no sign of reawakening yet. Sometimes they survive our zone 7 winters and sometimes they don't, so it is just a game of wait-and-see with the one I already have. They leaf out late, like lantanas do. The three I bought were in smaller pots (trade size quarts I guess, which aren't really true quarts) and in full bloom, undoubtedly forced at the wholesale greenhouse, but the important thing is that the hummingbirds love their blooms. I'll plant them and the petunias in the ground tomorrow if I can convince the four year old she wants to go out to the garden. She likes the outdoors a lot when it is warm, and today the cool air didn't really fit her definition of warm, and I sort of agree with her on that point. The air is kind of chilly today even though the temperature seems decent enough, but I expect it will be significantly warmer tomorrow.

The burford hollies and dwarf burford hollies are in full bloom today with each of them covered in thousands of tiny flowers, so we have a real bee frenzy going on today with small native bees of all kinds going totally bonkers over the flowers. It is the same each year, and for them, it must surely be one of the big highlights of Spring as it closely follows the end of the fruit tree blooming season, giving them another big round of flowers to carry them through at least part of April.

The pollen fest continues and we all still have massive allergy issues. That is the one thing I hate about Spring as I am allergic to pretty much every kind of pollen that exists, and Jana and the girls seem to have the same issues. We have a coating of pollen covering everything outdoors. I even can see a coating of pollen on the exterior of the windows of the house. On the other hand, though, the rapid greening up and leafing out of the trees is really nice to see. Denton, Gainesville and Sherman still are way ahead of us, but our trees are catching up pretty quickly on this side of the river now.

The 6-10 day temperature forecast still looks great, and here's more good news with the 8-14 day forecast, at least for the southern half of OK:

CPC 8-14 Day Temperature Outlook

If you compare this to the current 6-10 day outlook, it obviously shows a big cooldown for much of the US that will swoop down into the northern portion of OK, so maybe keep a slight eye on that as you're planting since northern OK still would be pretty close to its average last freeze date within the 8-14 day period.

It is April and Easter still seems so far away. That is making the grandkids antsy as they are eager to dye Easter eggs and hunt for them. At least we'll have tons more green grass and flowers growing by the time we have the Easter Egg hunt.

Dawn
oldbusy1
5 years ago
@ hazelinok I've had these blueberries for several years. I have 5 different varieties. I don't know what they are off the top of my head. Some of them have done really well and some of them haven't. I'm sure the ph is off. I think i have around 88 plants. I transplanted 25 of them this spring to give them a little extra room. They are still what i would consider too close but it is what it is.
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
I forgot my bug report in my post yesterday - before the freeze, I saw a 2.5-3" long grasshopper on a window screen which I knocked down and Jill prompted played a game of cat and mouse with. No interest in the actual mouse I saw the other day, but the game with the grasshopper was fun. Over the weekend, I saw my first Cabbage White but don't remember now if it was before or after the freeze. I have some BT to spray but I have been collecting old lampshades with the intent of creating cloches with mosquito netting. The netting will arrive on Wednesday, so hopefully the freeze held them back a bit. I'll probably treat with BT before I cover since there are likely eggs out there but hopefully I'll only need to use it once. I don't have any issues with BT - I think it was one of the better vetted and tested of all pesticides, organic or synthetic - but would prefer not to be dependent on any pesticide.

We should know in a few days what is happening with BIL and dogs, but with what we know at this point it seems likely we'll have them for a while. Jill likes sticks and will pull anything stick-like out of the dirt in my containers/beds too, so I'm going to start shopping for fencing.

My grandmother has some of that old wrought iron fencing with the scroll work and floral pattern and I LOVE it. I don't know what about it appeals to me, it certainly isn't any of the aesthetics I normally gravitate toward but I kinda wish I could go rip it out of her yard and bring it to mine. It's just what came with the yard when she bought the house in the mid-90s and I'm pretty sure it's original mid-century. She has a prairie style, mid-century style home - like many built in Bartlesville near the same time as Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower - and the fence must date from the same time because it exactly matches the wrought iron column on her front porch. To my knowledge, she isn't attached to it, and at one time mentioned preferring a privacy fence like the neighbors have. Even if that were an option though I don't think she has the footage we need. Much of it has been removed/replaced when neighbors have put in privacy fences.

I'm not disappointed to be getting the fencing, just disappointed that it, combined with some additional expenses my BIL has created, will deplete our vacation fund. We haven't had a big family vacation in 5 years, and we agreed when we got married to try to do it every 3 years at least. Best laid plans, right... Well, knowing that factored into my decision to not go to CA for my uncle's funeral and now my BIL's drama is going to drain it. Oh, and he hates me. He thinks that his brother would have swooped in and rescued him already if I weren't in the picture. Bless his heart.

School just called. Kiddo was selling Blue and Gold and forgot her order which is due at 9 a.m., no later. I asked her to put it in her backpack last night. She didn't. Asked her twice this morning if it was in her backpack. She said it was. It's not. Motherhood is magical, right.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Megan, you're a better woman than I! Taking in two extra (big) dogs! If you chicken out, take em to Jen. She won't even notice a couple extra.

HJ, I can related to what you said above about not knowing what you're doing at the beginning of the season each year. I have that feeling when I first begin planting seeds for the cart, and it's always such a little thrill when one sees them sprouting.

I have figured out how to successfully grow stratified seeds. Take them out of the fridge, throw them on a nearby table and forget about them. And then when you remember them, decide to go toss them in the garbage because you don't have any room for more seedlings. Then take a look and you will see that they have all sprouted.

Wow, Robert. I love blueberries. I hope I see some this year. I'm going to get a few blackberry bushes this year. Thornless ones, Amy! LOL I forgot the name of yours. . . Vicious Sid?

Dawn. . . did you see the Easter egg thing on FB where they add drops of coloring to spread-out Cool Whip and swirl the colors through it? Fun for the girls, They looked so nifty, I thought I might even do some, and take them to little kids.

Hearing you talk about all the birds and especially hummingbirds underlines how different our springs are from yours, Dawn. George mentioned it. . . yes. We are just about 3-4 weeks behind you. I know the hummingbirds typically show up here about Apr. 10-15, but I sure don't look for an early appearance this year. And though our temps should finally be nice for working outdoors, I wouldn't say they are "skyrocketing." But should be beautiful. . . 66-72. I can work with that and be happy!

I was shocked to see Kerria japonica blooming yesterday. I had no idea they bloomed so early. This poor shrub began as two single twigs 2 years ago. Last year it had filled out well, and the deer stripped it down to nothing. Now this year it has come back Nicely. I had better get some protection around it. And now suddenly the rest of the yard is springing to life. The sweet grass has spread, so I think I'll have to fine a more suitable and larger space for it. Tiny has discovered it, though the other two haven't. He thinks it is mighty tasty.

I'm anxious to get a Vitex. Do they grow quickly? Do they send out runners, like lilacs or Rose of Sharons?

It's still very cool out, so I'll wait until this afternoon to get out and weed.
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I'm distracted today, and wanted to drop by to share this article. Not so much for the content - it is interesting - but what I thought would be facinating to everyone is the map about 1/2 down. It is animated and shows the difference in Zone boundaries from 1990 to 2006 (yes, 2006, not 2016) and it's drastic. On Arbor Day's site you can see a side-by-side of 1990-2015.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
That was unsettling AND interesting, Megan. Thanks for sharing. I'm still amazed at a possible 4-dog family. On the other hand, with a fenced yard,it would be possible. Out there there are what sounds like herds of dogs at various folks'. And all barkers. (Except Titan, bless his heart. I'm sure he has other vices.)

Lowe's didn't have Vitex bushes. Bummed, but ordered some from Almost Eden. I am getting some very cool things from them this spring. . . The beautiful crossandra, the peach gingers, lantanas, coral honeysuckle and now these. Some for the school, most for me. lol Garry was very scared as we walked through the flowers and plants and shrubs and trees at Lowe's. But he made the mistake of noticing how cool the braided hibiscus were, so I told him I was buying one for a present for him. A pretty pink one, no less, and it was even in a pink pot. I'm sure he learned a very important lesson this evening. And kudos to me, the only other plants I got were two purple aquilegias, since my seeds have shown no desire to sprout. So I threw em back in the freezer for another round.

Dawn, I have yet more and more respect for your powers. I just spent a brutal day potting stuff up. I did some little things, and started out very carefully, saving way too many of the various little plants. Then by the time I wanted to be done with em, I was saying. . . ."Really? How many thyme plants do you need! Two. How many of the dozens of mulein? Uh, 3. I got positively brutal. Kind of. And then the tomatoes. Dawn, I was ready to throw beautiful big healthy tomatoes away 2/3 of the way into only 50 plants. And most of them skipped 3 grades, like bright students, going from 8 oz cups to big black nursery pots. I figure if Lowe's can set them out and leave them, then I will too. So they are huddled together in their big nursery pots, buried up to their chests (metaphorically) out on the deck. I had been hardening them off quite cavalierly and they've been doing well. My thinking is that their soil is certainly warmer than 60 degrees during the day, on the deck, in the sunlight. On the other hand, at night, they're going to be below 60. Like closer to 50.

There is a question in all of this. Dawn or others, as long as I keep an eye on freaky temps, will they be okay? I DI put a frost blanket over them tonight just so they won't be shocked into a colder evening than they're used to. Well, they are so big that I have little choice.

It will be fun to see you all in a couple weeks. And meet new friends. XOXO
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Megan, We have plenty of crickets living in our mulch, but I haven't seen a grasshopper yet and I am so glad. They've been horrific here the last few years, so I'm hoping the wet soil this winter killed off a lot of them or their overwintering eggs. We'll know soon, as we usually start seeing newly hatched nymphs in April.

Your BIL sounds like some of my relatives and he needs to save himself instead of waiting for family, particularly your DH, to swoop in and save him, and I am sure you already know that. My messed up relatives straightened up and stopped getting in trouble when we all stopped enabling them/saving them.

I hate that this all is messing with your family vacation plans, but at least y'all will get new fencing and some dog love out of it all. Hopefully the dogs will not be a lot of trouble.

I think kids that age have trouble remembering. Our granddaughter will say she is going upstairs to put something in her backpack to take with her, so we assume she has done so. Nope. She might even "remember" doing it, but I think what she remembers is that she went upstairs to do it before she apparently got sidetracked and didn't do it after all. I think there is a reason that parenthood makes parents' hair turn gray!

Nancy, I didn't see that Cool Whip/egg dye thing on FB. I'll have to look for it. Lately I'm mostly in the garden and not paying a lot of attention to my FB feed, other than gardening stuff.

Today while I was sitting in my chair in the garden, taking a break in the shade, a male ruby-throated hummingbird started visiting the blooming comfrey in the bed about 4' from where I was sitting. I was enjoying watching it when Lucky rushed in, ready to attack and kill (the bird flew away because it is quicker than she is), which earned Lucky a trip indoors and banishment from the garden. She still is learning outdoor etiquette, which includes "thou shall not dig up mama's plants", "thou shall not use mama's raised beds as a litter box" and "thou shall not go after the hummingbirds and butterflies". She has a long way to go and tomorrow I'm going to leave her indoors while I work in the garden.

Vitex do grow quickly. They branch out low to the ground, more like a shrub than a tree, and they spread out really, really wide. One of the cool things about them is that you can rejuvenate them as needed by cutting them back within inches of the ground if you want to. We need to do that with ours this year. It is about 15 years old and very wide, low and spreading. They regrow amazingly quickly. We have a neighbor with one that is about 40 years old and I'm guessing her husband trained it as a tree decades ago. He's gone now, and I never thought to ask him while he still was living, and she's in a nursing home. I hope her kids don't cut that huge vitex down. It is about 25 or 30 feet tall. In Texas they have been planted as highway median trees since I was a child, so for well over the last 50 years, because they get by or little to no care or maintenance.

Megan, I've witnessed the zone movement over the decades, but it is ragged. We do get hotter here in winter than we used to and usually stay warmer, but we still have occasional nights that slip down to nearly zero degrees, so we still have some zone 6 nights even if our winters more commonly are acting like zone 8. The very erratic nature of it all is maddening--it is literally the worst of both worlds instead of the best of either one of them. It is getting to where we have too many chilling hours early in winter (or late in autumn) so the fruit trees meet their chilling requirements, and then we have warm winter weather in Jan and Feb, the trees bloom early, then we get "late" cold and they freeze out, over and over and over again. I'm done with fruit trees. Even with old reliable varieties that used to tolerate our winters enough to give us fruit 2 years out of every 3, it is becoming impossible to get a crop. I've always grown some zone 8 plants here, and they tend to live 3 to 4 years before a really cold winter (or abnormally late cold spell) gets them. That really hasn't changed in the 20 years we have been here. I wouldn't mind if we finally reach the point that my beloved zone 8 plants consistently survive here instead of basically being short-lived perennials that die just about the time I think we've "made it" and they are here to stay this time.

I saw some serious monarchs headed north today. They weren't messing around...they were flying straight north as fast as they could. Y'all should be seeing them (and the hummingbirds) up there pretty soon. We've had both for a couple of weeks already and they usually don't take that long to travel from here to central OK.

In the garden today I saw watermelons sprouting, not that I have planted any, but there's two of the plants popping up out of the ground in the bed where I grew icebox melons last year. So, that establishes just how warm our soil is....I know it is in the 70s and has been for a portion of each day for about 10-12 days in the raised beds, but I didn't get out the soil thermometer today to see how much this cold spell has cooled it down. With high temperatures expected to be near 80 later in the week, I know these aren't the first hot-season volunteers I'll see.

Today I got all the flowering plants I bought over the weekend into the ground, hurrying to get them out there accessible to the little flying critters who need them. As soon as I would slap a small marigold or petunia plant with blooms into the ground, tiny bees and wasp-like things were visiting them. It was like they were hovering in the air waiting for the plants to go from the flat to the ground. I planted as fast as I could and then I got out of their way. I made a mistake by wearing a pale rose colored t-shirt in the garden today as a plethora of flying insects were attracted to the color, and buzzed me endlessly, apparently thinking I was some sort of big ol' flower. I was sorry to have disappointed them.

Everything is breaking out of the ground now at breakneck speed. It is truly crazy. I suspect this all began last week and then things stalled during the weekend cold spell, but they aren't stalling now.

Our part-time neighbor, the gentleman who often spends weekends on the farm he grew up on which sits between us and the river, passed away today. After I got the news, I was just like a zombie, going through the motions in the garden sort of mindlessly---working on automatic pilot, thinking about him and his family, and all our conversations over the last couple of decades. The last time Tim and I saw him he still was healthy as far as all of us knew, his cancer diagnosis lurking out there in the near future, and now he is gone. We had such a lovely conversation with him that day. I remember he was looking tanned and relaxed and happy, talking about the family coming up to visit him at the farm soon. He was just so darn happy and I was happy for him because for him, it was all about family and he was looking forward to seeing his up here at his place here. His BIL told us about a month ago that he would be making only one more trip up here to OK....his final trip home to be buried, so I have tried to mentally prepare for this day, and yet I didn't feel prepared for the emotion of it all. And so, this week he is making that trip, and I am heartbroken over it. I just kept thinking about his huge family--the kids, the grandkids, his sister

Tomorrow I have another full day of garden work planned, hoping to get things done before the Wednesday night/Thursday rain finds us. I'd rather not have rain, and it has missed us a lot lately, but it probably won't keep missing us.

Dawn
hazelinok
5 years ago
Robert, thank you . (I think I called you the wrong name. Sorry!). You have a lot of blueberries. I was just thinking of planting a couple. haha.

I'm tired (and possible getting sick. What in the world?! I stayed well all fall and winter.) so will probably miss stuff I want to comment on.

Dawn, so sorry about your friend.

Megan, feeling your pain about the kid and forgetting stuff. SO frustrating. Mine is just now getting better. And, wow! Four dogs. A new fence is cool though.

The chaste tree...I'm going to buy one this weekend. I want to form it to look like a tree too, instead of a shrub/bush. There's one at the master gardeners garden next to the Cleveland Co fairgrounds. It's lovely. There's a book that I picked up from a thrift store--"Gardening in Texas including Oklahoma" (the Oklahoma part in small print! Rude! lol). That's probably not the name of the book, but it's something like it. ANYway, they used a lot of chaste trees in their landscape designs and they're always shaped like trees. So, if I get a chaste tree and a couple of crepe myrtles, I'll have a lot of tree planting to do this weekend. Still have the fig tree, the last elderberry, and the Jane magnolia.

Okay...I'm leaving a lot unsaid...but am fading fast.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Jennifer, Our friends, Ken and Donna, planted a Chaste Tree probably around 2000. Their ranch was just a couple of miles from us and the house/yard were on a very rocky limestone ridge, but the tree tolerated the planting site well as vitex is very tough and can grow in almost any soil. They tried and tried to keep it pruned into a tree form, and found that the tree fought them hard on that point because its nature is to branch out down low to the ground and to be shrubby. I had planted ours around the same time (so that makes it older than I thought it was perhaps, and tried to prune it tree form, but not necessary to one trunk....maybe to two or three like some crape myrtles. What I noticed is that in the years when I was pruning, inevitably those trunks would, at some point, crack and break during a thunderstorm. I don't know if keeping it tree form (or attempting to) was causing too much growth to go into those 2 or 3 main 'trunks' or what and making them too heavy, but the tree broke every year at some point and then I had to get out the pruning saw and clean it up. So, I decided to stop fighting Mother Nature and let it grow the way it was meant to grow, beginning somewhere around 2007 or 2008. I don't believe we've ever lost a trunk/major branch in a thunderstorm since I stopped trying to keep it tree-shaped. Long ago (2005) Ken died of cancer and Donna eventually sold the ranch and moved away. I wish I could see that vitex from the road, but I cannot as the house sits very far back from the road as does that tree which sits in the side yard, because I wonder if the next owner of the ranch (a summer and hunting season type resident) maintained it or let it go. Given how awful the summer of 2011 was, that vitex might not have survived the summer.

The good news is that vitex grows on new growth, so you can prune it and shape it all you want, and you'll still get blooms in the current year. I love these trees and should plant more of them. When they are in bloom, they are a magnet for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

I think I bought that same book a long time ago---presumably an older edition of it as it ought to be in at least its 3rd or 4th edition by now....or its fifth. It was a pretty good book as I recall.

I hope you aren't coming down with something. Here it is just allergies all around and by here I mean in my whole region, not just the city or county. It is just that horrible pollen time of the year. Long ago I tried Claritin and it did nothing for me at all, so I've mostly stuck with Benadryl because it seemed to work but hate its sedating effect---I do not need to be sedated and drowsy and falling asleep during planting season. So, this weekend I read something that said often if Claritin doesn't work for you, Zyrtec will, and vice versa, so I bought the generic version of Zyrtec at Sam's Club when we were there, and it is a miracle medication! I am so excited as my allergy symptoms are under control and I am not falling asleep. Even while taking Benadryl every 4- 6 hours, too much mucous was either being produced or draining into my lungs and I was getting horribly congested and coughing all the time, and the more time I spent outdoors, the worse it was. Now, on only the third day of taking Zyrtec, I no longer even need to take a decongestant. I hope this stuff continues to work because so far the change is amazing, and I even worked outside almost all day yesterday and didn't come in sneezing, coughing and wheezing. Come on, pollen, hit me with your best shot and I'll watch the Zyrtec defeat it!

In the garden, more and more plants are waking up. The peony is about a foot tall now. I walked by the tall raised bed that I converted from a potato bed last year (yes, less potatoes for us, but I always grow too many anyhow) to a butterfly/pollinator/hummingbird bed and noticed that the Cape Honeysuckle I planted there is showing new growth down around the base. I really am sort of surprised it survived the winter here, as other Cape Honeysuckles have not, but it might be because this bed drains so well. I've noticed with some other zone 8 plants that they can survive our typical zone 7b winters if in very well-draining raised beds but not if grown in slower draining soil at grade level. Anyhow, it is not the typical zone 7b cold that gets them, it is the occasional zone 7a or 6b nighttime low that will get them, so we'll see how many years the Cape Honeysuckle can last. I planted the three new ones in large containers and will site them where the plants can climb a trellis, or maybe insert a trellis into each container. I've also never had much luck keeping lavender alive, even in really well amended clay in raised beds, but 2 of the 3 lavender plants survived in that tall raised bed and are doing great so I'll just replace the one that died. There's not much in the garden or landscape, in terms of perennials, that's not leafing out, except there's as yet no sign of life from the hardy hibiscus or crape myrtles. They are always about the last things to break dormancy. The pecan tree is budding now, as if it knew somehow to wait for this weekend's cold spell to pass before it even made the attempt. I saw the first tiny datura volunteers popping up last week and am sure more will follow. There's also a tiny volunteer pineapple sage growing where one of last year's pineapple sage plants grew. I guess I'll have to buy more pineapple sage if more volunteers don't appear soon.

Dawn
Megan Huntley
5 years ago
HJ - I noticed yesterday that my Endless Summer hydrangea is starting to green up on the old growth, but the new growth is going at a much faster pace. And Oklahoma in small print on your book title... that deserves a Michelle Tanner (Full House) "How rude!" meme.

Nancy - Cavalier is the perfect word to describe how I've been with my plants recently. I've got a lot of work in them and I don't completely disregard them, but I do have a lot of - "This is Oklahoma, sweetpea. You're gonna have to sink or swim now if you're going to live through the heat."

Allergies are bad for a lot of folks. Two of my coworkers were knocked down this week with allergy symptoms - and maybe a touch of boss-is-gone-itis. Not to say their symptoms weren't legit, but I think they would have been more inclined to tough it out if the boss and his boss were here this week. I'm not able to take any antihistamines - I took zyrtec about 20 years ago - back when it was still a prescription - and thought I was having a heart attack, or stroke, whichever one makes your right side numb. While Keegan was a baby, I accidentally grabbed some Visine-A (allergy) and noticed some "amped up" sensations but not as severe as the zyrtec. I discussed this with the pre-screening nurse from the anesthesiologist's office before my surgery and she was the first person to ever confirm that antihistamines can do that to some people - she said it's rare but what I experienced was likely a panic attack triggered by the antihistamine. Thankfully, decongestants don't seem to bother me so I rely on them quite a bit this time of year. I also have a great neti-pot type device. It was designed by a pediatrician so it's a lot easier to use and regulate the flow of than a regular neti-pot.

Natives in my pocket prairie are waking up. The Mexican Hat has had green foliage all winter, but it's really lush now. The Indian Grass is sending up a few green shoots and there is new growth near my tall coreopsis, so I assume that's what is coming up there. Out front, my milkweed was just starting to peek out before the freeze, but still not visible above the mulch. I expect it will be more conspicuous after the warmth this week. It tends to take off like gangbusters once it wakes up.

I need to figure out what I want to grow that is native and greens up/blooms early. My favorite garden shop typically doesn't open until early April - they tried last year and were burned by the late freezes - so I doubt they'll open earlier than April ever again. I guess I don't HAVE to plant natives, but that's what I like. However, when I look around, other than tiny bluets, not much that's native is blooming, so some annuals might be in order to give the birds, bees and butterflies something to cheer about. Typically by this time of year, it seems like there are a 1,000 people asking what the pink flower is on the side of the roads (primrose). I'd rather have the primrose arrive late than to have freezes in April!
hazelinok
5 years ago
Megan, my hydrangea is also greening up from the bottom of the plant. The light freeze/frost didn't hurt it. Maybe because it's close to the house in the front flowerbed. Nancy said to leave it alone so I will be leaving it alone. :)

Dawn, I'm just stubborn enough that I will probably try to shape the chaste like a tree. It may win, but I will try. I like the look of a few "trunks". The one at the Cleveland Co fairground garden is like that. My friend also has one that is shaped like a tree. I will give it a go. If it fights me too much, I can let it be bushy. After reading your post above, I feel like I've chosen the perfect place for it. I will be able to see it from my kitchen window. It and all of it's little visitors.

The same friend (who has the vitex), brought me a variegated pesto basil plant. I'm super excited about it. Apparently it doesn't flower.

I think it's a cold not allergies. I could be wrong. Normally, I don't have allergies. My throat hurts and I'm tired. Tom probably has it too. I know that Ethan does. Dumb.

I started on the echinacea tincture. Hopefully it will shorten it's duration and symptoms. No time for sickness.

I'm ready to go home but still have a couple of hours left. Two more weeks then I can have "Wine Wednesday" again. I'll make a fun herbal drink instead. I like those--herb leaves, lemon, simple syrup and bubbly water. Not quite as good on a Wednesday, but it will have to do.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Yawnnnnnnnnnnnn. So tired. My experience with the endless summer hydrangeas is that the old wood always comes on much more slowly than the new stuff. Last year was just all wrong for those hydrangeas. The new growth shot up way too quickly because of the warm weather, and to my recollection even were beginning to form buds, and because the old wood had started the late frosts got them both. I think I am remembering that I ended up cutting the old growth back, and then the new growth eventually put on a few puny flowers. This summer will be their 5th summer here. They are happy campers--BUT. Because of our alkaline soil, they're pink. I poured massive amounts of peat first, and then azalea/rhododendron food on them over the past few months in an attempt to get at least purple out of the deal. But now I am going to get radical. I'm going to go buy at least one blue Endless Summer and put it in a giant container. I really really am MEHHHHHH about them being pink.

The climbing hydrangea out back is looking the best yet--this is its fifth summer, also. Last year the Japanese beetles and grasshoppers chewed it up. I hope with lots of new growth this year, it can do better. I note the branches climbing up the north side of that oak tree REALLY have multiplied.

The new coral honeysuckle I got last year from Almost Eden. . . I was sad this winter, as it didn't look like it grew hardly any last summer. . . but suddenly, it is taking OFF! GO honeysuckle!

I had 3 lavender plants--one in the shop bed out front, one in the herb bed. perpendicular to the end of the deck, and a large on in the big center bed out back. The center one was quite large, the other two, smaller. It is looking like the center bed one might have bit the dust, but the other two are looking good. There's about 12' between the dead one and the herb bed one, and probably 100 feet from the shop bed one, which looks the best of all. Interestingly, come to think of it. . . our property slopes down from the north to the south and west to east. And so the lavender in the shop bed is higher than the other two. Maybe. Didn't seem like it was that much higher, but hey. Maybe enough explain the difference in microclimates.

Forget-me-nots are the most charming sweet flowers, but alas, they are too small to be a bed plant unless planted en masse. So I think when I have more time (like next September), I'll gather them up out of the shade east bed in front of the front deck/porch and move them out to the center bed.

Ahhh........................... and I am in love with cilantro anew. One of my great delights of 2018 was discovering the perfect time for cilantro is to plant them in oh, September or October. . . ours were ready to pick in November, and never did die, though kind of slowed wayyyyyyyyyy down when it got chilly. But now they are WAY happy. I expect they'll probably seed the instant it get a touch warm. So guys, just sayin if you're cilantro lovers, plant them in late September for at least a 6-month yield. THEN switch to culantro. Have you others tried it? Well I know you have, Amy. My culantro is growing nicely and I'm anxious to see it grow.

GDW and I THINK we have the boat fixed. But it was one of the harder fixers Garry Dean has performed. I tell you. I never wanted a lawyer or doctor in my family, but I yearned for a carpenter and mechanic. I never DID get the carpenter, but got my mechanic guy. If it can be fixed, Garry Dean can fix it. (He was a mechanic at American Airlines for a long time.)

This was one of our hardest fixes, and scary because the part was expensive ($300) considering it was just a guess on our part. In truth, I'm part of that team, because in order to find the problem GDW has to explain it to me so that I can translate that to a google search, usually with the Repair Clinic. So the front part of the disease is the diagnosis. The surgical part is Garry alone. And I swear, he is a motor/wire/engine/ajf;jaf;jaf;jafajaf;jaflj wire kind of stuff that most of us will never understand--a genius in that mumbo-jumbo mix of tiny screws, hard to locate tiny parts, wires. . . . and furthermore the fine motor skills to do it! WHO CAN DO THAT. I think maybe Garry Dean is an idiot savant in the mechanics' world. I say that in the highest form of a compliment. A couple people said that about me in my past many years of life, and I felt like I'd just been nominated for a Pulitzer prize. Not sure THEY meant it as a compliment. . .. :) LOL

I have so many wonderful plants I could bring to SF, but can't remember them to tell you about em.

And I have 269 3 oz to 20 oz pots on the grow cart that have to be watered at least once a day, and the little ones twice a day. And I'm the person who once said one of the worst jobs she'd ever want was nursing. EXCUSE ME, Nancy, who can't leave home because you have to water the plants in the morning and at night. It's like having a milk cow. Or newborn babies.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Megan, I've noticed that phrase"....and Oklahoma" added to quite a few Texas gardening books in the last 15 or 20 years. I don't think it is an attempt to be rude, I just think it is marketing. After all, Texas has a population estimated at 28.7 million in 2019 and Oklahoma's estimated population is 3.95 million, so guess who has a lot more gardening books targeted to their state? I have found that most all the info in books on Texas gardening applies here (other than the obvious Gulf Coast stuff that we cannot grow because we don't have their warmer winter weather), so the Texas books are useful for us too, and the publishers surely have realized that as well. Still, it would be nice if they didn't make the 'and Oklahoma' in such tiny print that it clearly looks like an afterthought.

I can take most any antihistamine, though some clearly work well and others do not, but decongestants tend to make my heart race, so I avoid them as much as possible. It is odd how different persons' bodies react to different medications.

The prairie natives that bloom early here are, for the most part, the tiny ones that bloom so low to the ground that most people barely notice them, but the bees and butterflies that come out in winter (more common than most people think, at least down here where I live) still find them. Henbit is one of the first, often blooming as early as late December, though not this winter. It is followed by dandelions, which were even earlier than usual this winter, Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) and Bluets (Houstonia caerulea) in February or sometimes in January in warm winters, and then those are accompanied by some blooming weeds like creeping Veronica, chickweed and the like, which all are finishing up blooming now and going to seed. Bloodroot usually is next, sometime in the latter half of March and there's tons of it this year, followed by wild onions and wild garlic. All of those are in bloom here now, along with Texas bluebonnets (not native to our place, but I sowed the seed here), which I sometimes see blooming along I-35 in Carter and Love Counties, though I am not sure if they are native there or if the highway department sowed the seeds. Indian paintbrush starts blooming in late March most years, around the same time as the bluebonnets and wild onions and wild garlic. Some of the wild brassicas are blooming their billowy yellow flowers now, although the bloom is much heavier in Texas so far than on our side of the river. I've only seen one in bloom on our property, and I tend to pull them up when I see them because I don't need wild brassicas attracting cabbage whites and the like.

The early bloomers are immensely popular, but once we have a lot of trees and shrubs blooming, as we do now, then the early flowers are not as vital to the bees and butterflies as they were before. The earlier of the showy trees to bloom here include the sand plums (interestingly, our yellow-fruited sand plums often bloom earlier than the red-fruited ones) followed by cultivated plants like forsythia and flowering quince, which often are in bloom at the same time as named cultivars of stone fruits. The Mexican plums follow the cultivated forms of stone fruits and usually are in bloom in mid-March through late-March along with the redbuds, followed closely thereafter by the hollies, including the native possumhaw hollies, which bloom slightly later by a few days than the Burford and Dwarf Burford hollies we planted on our property. Native dewberries usually start blooming in late March or earliest April, and started blooming here maybe 8-10 days ago. Native virburnums, like rusty blackhaw virburnum, will follow the Mexican plums by a couple of weeks. Of course, every tree in the woodland also is blooming now, though many do not have showy flowers, and a new wave of wildflowers will begin once the temperatures are a little warmer, as will the roughleaf dogwoods, which are late to bloom compared to most other natives here. Since we're supposed to start hitting the 80s any day now (I see highs of 79 here for today and tomorrow and highs in the 80s for at least two days next week), the wildflowers will burst out into bloom with wild abandon now. That includes the Queen Anne's Lace that carpets wild areas at this time of the year. I haven't seen any blooming yet, but it is very close. I work hard to keep it out of my garden, but it surrounds it. The pink evening primrose (invasive as all get out and tries to invade my garden every single day, though I just keep pulling it out) is about to bloom....I hate it and would eradicate every bit of it if I had time. The pink evening primrose is gorgeous in bloom but is about as invasive as bermuda grass, albeit much easier to remove.

In the garden, the Lyrical meadow sage is forming buds quickly and will bloom soon, as will the Spanish lavender. We have enough flowers in bloom now in the garden that I am pulling out the henbit, chickweed and veronica that I let bloom in the garden early for the pollinators. The fields still are full of them, but I'd like to get them out of the garden now before they begin reseeding.

Nancy, I have grown both culantro and papalo, but Tim doesn't like them as much as "real" cilantro, which he adores and overuses to the point of driving the rest of us mad. If he's making pico de gallo, you have to watch him or the amount of cilantro in it will completely overwhelm the flavors of all the other ingredients. He might as well skip making pico and just chop up cilantro because that's the only flavor you'll taste. Our cilantro and parsley plants are the stars of the early spring border right now, and swallowtail males circle that bed endlessly, probably anxiously awaiting the arrival of the females, who aren't really very active and visible yet. I think I saw one female swallowtail last week and haven't seen her since then.

I have tried really hard to avoid starting too many flowers indoors this year, and aim to direct sow a bunch of them instead as I do not like having to water them twice a day. It is enough work as it is just keeping tomato and pepper seedlings watered and happy until I can get them in the ground. I just planted the hot peppers a couple of days ago, but sweet bell peppers aren't really ready yet.

Congrats to you and GDW on getting the boat fixed! So, is it time to go out on the water yet?

I have a full day planned in the garden. It is amazing how much time a person can spend out there, but I can tell I am making progress, and all of its large raised beds are filled now, though I haven't planted anything in the 8 smaller (only 6' to 10' long) raised beds that run along the eastern edge. I have to decide which plants are most expendable and plant them there because that is the edge of the garden most likely to be hit by herbicide drift from every Tom, Dick and Harry that sprays them in our neighborhood (which appears to be virtually everyone except our family). I only have today left this week to give the garden my undivided attention because Friday is a school holiday, so I'll have both girls (not that I mind) and they will go out to the garden with me, but also are just as happy to stay indoors and play with their toys or watch TV---they still are waiting for warmer weather to arrive. You know....swimming pool weather....and it isn't quite here yet. I try to not spend a whole day in the garden when I have them both because they get bored after an hour or two out there, especially right now when the plants are younger and smaller and there's not much to harvest yet.

It is supposed to rain quite a bit Saturday, and I wouldn't be in the garden anyway. We have a graveside funeral to attend Saturday afternoon, and if it isn't raining in the morning, we're going to help the kids move their new refrigerator and dishwasher from our garage to their house and install them. If it is raining, we'll postpone that until Sunday I guess. They hope to start moving into the house on Saturday. Chris is doing the last of the Haz-Mat style cleanup today, trying to clean part of the house (he had the rest taped off with plastic) with some sort of lead dust wash/removal product because, of course, when they were redoing the closet, built in 1932, they disturbed some of that lead paint while working. Being a firefighter trained to work with hazardous materials, he has done all the lead paint mitigation the proper way, which is one of the reasons it has taken so long to redo that closet. Wearing the protective gear is exhausting as it doesn't breathe (obviously) so you get really hot inside of it and he won't even eat when geared up in all that PPE, so he came home starving and tired after picking up Lillie at school, which explains why some of us were eating dinner at 4 p.m. yesterday. (grin) Everyone else ate at whatever time they arrived home since I already had cooked. That large closet is the only 'room' in the house where they took down drywall and uncovered old shiplap and beadboard walls and then had to deal with lead paint, including paint on the wood flooring. He'll finish the clean-up today, he thinks, and then both he and Jana work tomorrow, so Saturday is the earliest they can start moving into their house. The last couple of weeks spent working on that closet has been a huge ordeal for them, but it looks amazing even though they changed their original plans to avoid stirring up more lead paint than they already had done by removing the drywall. I believe our son has discovered he loves woodworking and probably has found a new hobby for himself.

Piddly little rainstorms moved through here in the early morning hours, but seemed to have more lightning in them than rain, so I'm hopeful I won't have to deal with too much mud today since I'm working at the north end of the garden, which is the lower end. I've been waiting forever for it to dry up, but it still is horribly wet, so rain is something we still don't need. I have 15 Heidi plants to put in the ground at the north end of the garden today. I like to keep them separate from the varieties grown for fresh eating, as it is easier to have rows of them isolated where I can just move down the row, harvesting all the paste tomatoes for canning without getting distracted by whatever heirloom tomatoes are ready to be picked and eaten right that moment. I can graze my way down the regular rows of tomato plants at some other time....gotta be all business when it is time to deal with the canning tomatoes.

One weed that seems completely undeterred by thick mulch is the Carolina geraniums, but I just pull them up as I plant. Otherwise, the mulch has kept the weeds down to practically nothing this year, except right along the fencelines, where pasture plants constantly wage a war of aggression, attempting to invade the garden on all sides. Really, the mulch has reduced the number of Carolina geraniums I have to yank out by a huge amount---I probably only have 5% as much of them as we did 10 years ago, but my goal would be to have none of them in the garden. Bindweed sprouts in mulch too, but it is easy to yank out the new seedlings, which I do daily.

Have a good day today everyone, and I hope the hail last night missed everybody's gardens.

Dawn
OklaMoni
5 years ago
braided plant for Nancy

WOW, Dawn, your comfrey is already blooming... wow, mine's leaves are about 5 inches long... no blooms.

I am not making much progress except I put the foot board in the area for tomatoes to grow up on...

Moni
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Moni, I love those braided plants, as unnatural as they look!

Everything has gone crazy here, but we've already had high temperatures as high as 83 degrees once or twice, so why wouldn't the plants like that?

I've got about 60% of my tomato plants in the ground and hope to get the rest planted today and tomorrow, but right now it is sort of misty and foggy, so I'm sitting inside stalling.

There's maybe no reason to get in a big hurry to plant if you're much further north than I am. I just posted a separate thread for y'all, showing how the outlooks hint to us that the cold is coming back. However, the outlooks show that next week or the week after might be a nice time to visit Alaska. No, I am not making that up. This roller coaster weather not so unusual for April, but I like our weather more when it plunges straight ahead into warmth instead of taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Oh for Pete's sake, Dawn--I just checked your links. Appreciate the heads up. Oh dear.

Hahaha, Moni. Now THOSE are braided plants! Do you know where they are/what they are?

I was out taking pictures of everything coming up yesterday. The horseradish, comfrey and tansy are in a corner of the beds not far from my biggest rosemary. And right behind the rosemary is this guy. I've been trying to remember what herbs I was trying to grow last year and wasn't able to. Has to be one of those. This looks a little like Valerian to me, although I've never seen a Valerian plant in "person." I tried and failed with soapwort, don't remember what else I tried. Well, I guess I'll find out eventually.

Dawn, I enjoyed your narrative on nature as you're seeing it grow and bloom. It occurred to me that I have all these lovely weeds and have never really tried to identify them. Sure the henbit, chickweed, dandelions. . . but this one is omnipresent in our spring yard, as well, and I've never even thought to wonder what it is. Can you please tell me? It's so thick right now, it looks like a light blanket of snow.

We took the boat out for the first time last week (?), and promptly broke it. Nah, we didn't, but that's when the starter went out. Now we've got rain in the forecast Sat, Sun and Monday. We'll watch to see if it changes, as we'd like to get out again soon.

We were going to finish weeding at the school today, but we got .75" of rain so that's out. And the soil there is nothing like ours. It's--surprise--CLAY. They brought in a ton of topsoil last year and dumped it in this big circle area (500 sq. ft); wile the dirt feels decent, we'll make sure to get lots of mulches in it this fall.

I wasn't going to grow many things on the cart this year, but as I began more and more stuff with the school, it meant lots of stuff on the cart. I will be so glad to get rid of it all! Please quit raining so we can get done!
hazelinok
5 years ago
Nancy and Megan, is this how your hydrangeas look right now?
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Nancy, I hate the way the cold keeps coming back. As for the rain, it is missing us lately and I am not complaining because it won't keep missing us forever and our soil is still ridiculously wet from the long wet autumn/winter, courtesy of El Nino (which continues on, and probably into summer, so keep the muck boots handy). At least we don't have standing water and immense amounts of mud---only very wet soil in the garden, and how wet depends on whether a person is at the high end or low end of the garden. Unfortunately, I've done most of the planting at the high end, so now the plants left are stuck going into the low end and its excess moisture. If tonight's/tomorrow's rain wants to miss us, I won't complain. We have an 80% chance of rain tomorrow, which may put the kids' plans to move into their house on hold for a little while as you cannot easily move furniture in the rain. Sunday should be fine for them with a much lower chance of rain.

The little wildflowers carpeting your yard now are Spring Beauties, Claytonia virginica, one of the earlier wildflowers. They have been carpeting our lawn for almost two months, and now the blue star grass is beginning to join them.

Usually when folk haul in a load of "topsoil", unless they have specifically chosen and paid for a much more expensive and rich garden soil mix, they get either a load of crappy clay or crappy sand because they didn't realize that is what they would be stuck with if they didn't make it clear that crappy soil wasn't what they wanted. lol. It is what it is. Luckily anything can be fixed over time, and some clays are worse than others, so maybe your school has a loamy clay that isn't 100% clay like our crappy red clay was when we started. The great thing about clay is that it is naturally rich in nutrients, and it doesn't take a lot of organic matter to make a pretty impressive change in its ability to drain.

I think the precipitation outlooks stick to us having a rainier than average Spring, unfortunately, but if we can't have average moisture, I suppose we are slightly better off with too much rain than with too little. And, because clay is clay is clay....the ground here that was too wet on the surface just a week or two back and for months preceding that, now has a multitude of small cracks appearing. These are just little cracks, not the huge gaping ones we get in summer, but it makes me laugh. Clay stays too wet forever until it finally dries up and is just right for one or two perfect days, and then it is too dry forever. Some things never change. Goldilocks couldn't live here in Oklahoma because everything is so rarely just right--it always is too much of this or too little of that.

Last night Tim told me one of the hens was missing when he closed up the coop at twilight, and I just figured she must have wandered off too far from the house and from the rest of the flock and a coyote or bobcat got her. This morning when I opened up the coop, I found her setting on her eggs. He just thought she was missing because she wasn't up on her roost. Apparently he forgot it is springtime and a hen wants to set on and hatch out a few eggs.

We don't have ants in the kitchen like everyone else has been reporting, but they are in the mailbox, so I'm going to mix up some orange oil and water and spray the mailbox today after the mail comes. I'd spray before, but the mail has been coming around 11 am or noon, and I want to let the orange orange/water mix sit a while after I spray it, so it seems safer to wait until the mail already has arrived and been brought up to the house. This is a perpetual problem most every year when the ants apparently decide the ground is too wet down there near the road where the mailbox sits and they decide to try out high-rise condo (mailbox) living. It never ends well for them.

More wildflowers are beginning to bloom now, but I don't remember which ones I saw yesterday. I'll have to look at the pasture again to see what is new---there are lots more bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush every day though. Down in Texas, the cops are doing something cute with the Texas bluebonnets (which are both very early and very abundant this year). They are doing a Bluebonnet challenge, where they pose in or with the bluebonnets. Some of it is just routine photos, some is pure silliness....cops eating doughnuts while sitting in a field of roadside bluebonnets, police K-9's posing so cutely in the bluebonnets and, one very clever department staged a crime scene in the bluebonnets, with a bunch of cops, crime scene tape, a stretcher presumably for the dead body, the CSI team and their equipment, etc. This is sort of their take on Texans' annual tradition of dressing up the kids and taking their photos (especially near Easter) in fields of bluebonnets. Since the Texas bluebonnets are my favorite flowers, I've been enjoying seeing all those #BacktheBluebonnets photos. Apparently Tim's department is not participating because when I mentioned it, he just got a pained expression in his eyes that told me he had never heard of it and didn't care. lol. Some departments are more into doing these challenges as a positive kind of PR, and others are not because they are boring fuddy duddies. I'd love to pose our dogs in our bluebonnets, but they are not the sitting still types, they are the running and chasing rabbits types, so I won't even try it.

I did have cottontails waiting for me to put out cracked corn for the doves this morning, and a flock of wild turkeys hiding just over the ridge waiting for me to drop the food and leave. The deer no longer are out there waiting every morning---Mother Nature is supplying them with plenty to eat now.

I'm heading out to the garden shortly, girls in tow, as soon as the rest of the fog burns off. Y'all have a good day.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Yours looks just fine, Jennifer. Yep, that's about how mine look. I don't know if you can see the little sprouts on the old growth, but they're there.
jlhart76
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
The Edmond dog park is having an egg hunt tomorrow so I think we're going to take the pups. We only have one guest, and he's stayed enough that he's part of the family. So hopefully I can get some gardening done in the morning beforehand. I need to get some stuff dug up for next weekend, finish weeding the rest of the bed, and transplant a few things so I'm ready to go the following week.
luvncannin
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I changed plans this weekend and did not go to arkansas. Felt like I needed to stay in denton. Good choice. Mom is not doing great and my daughter dropped a bundle of good news. After going thru the classes to foster/adopt inspections remodeling and more inspections

She is pregnant. So today I go work on my house in vv.

It has no roof yet so this will be really interesting.

I will try to get pictures :/
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Kim, My mom has had a rough week too---in the hospital with an infection and then to a rehab center to recover. Getting old is not for sissies!

Congrats on your daughter's great news!

Watch the weather today as severe is in our forecast.

We are helping the kids/grandkids move into their new (only new to them, not actually new at all) home in Ardmore today, but will be working around the forecast that includes some strong thunderstorms, hail to the size of golf balls and wind gusts of 60-80. Hopefully those stronger storms will miss us. I hope it all is gone by this afternoon because the funeral we're attending is a graveside service, and I've stood through those in miserable rain falling and it is no fun.

Good luck working on the house in VV today. We'll be getting a new roof soon courtesy of hail and wind gusts up to 59 mph a while back. Our insurance claim is somewhere in the pipeline now and we're just waiting to hear back. With all the hail damage from central TX to NE OK in recent weeks, everyone is snowed under with claims and repairs.

Dawn
slowpoke_gardener
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Please ID this plant

Thanks, Larry.
hazelinok
5 years ago
Sorry about your moms, Kim and Dawn.

and congrats on the pregnancy, Kim.

It just started raining here, so I will probably sleep. I'm not feeling great still...but better than I did earlier this morning and last night. We postponed outdoor pics until today...and here we are again. It's showing that it will be clear by 6. I hope so.

Jen, I hope your egg hunt didn't get rained out!

Dawn, glad your hen is safe. Stormy is broody...and she is my youngest hen. Not even a year old. She is the gray baby that hatched on Summer Solstice last year.

Thanks for sharing your pic, Nancy.

I know rain is good and it's probably really good for me personally. Otherwise, I would be outside digging or something. And I really should rest. But, I wanna be outside so badly...completing projects.

We did go get my Chaste tree this morning. And a cattle panel to make one of the trellises. Also, a few bags for garden soil to top off the new beds. The lower portion is filled with compost-y stuff.

Lowe's had flowers for .88, so I bought just 3 begonias to put in the shade garden with the coleus. The only thing planted there currently is a pansy...and it's at the far corner where it can get a little more light. It's a sad, empty bed. Can't wait to plant it!

The new bed I dug up this week will hold one of the miniature roses (the other died), my zinnias and the shasta daisies. We are trying hard to make the backyard look nice. I have an idea now how to do that. Sometime it's actually harder the more property you have. I need a special "backyard" spot to keep tidy and cute. Not too tidy...I like a little whimsy.

Okay. Off to sleep now.
Rebecca (7a)
5 years ago
I got out this morning to the first Cherry Street market of the season. Most vendors had mostly empty tables by the time I got there at 9:30, and it was crowded. I did get some mixed greens, fresh eggs, wheatgrass for Audrey, and a cinnamon roll for myself. Then groceries. Potted up tomatoes for SF, donation, and myself.

Planted calendula this morning. The cosmos, zinnias, and some of the bachelor buttons are dying to get out of their jugs, so maybe later this week. Just wish I knew what the cold snaps are going to do.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
I know, Rebecca. . . . re the cold snaps. I posted this on FB. I was out weeding in the beds. Well, first, it was work day at the church, so we went to that this morning and guess what WE got to do. WEED. Then we came home and WEEDED.

I was checking out the big center bed and was yanking out some lemon balm when I felt something prick my right wrist. Looked down to shake it off, and it was the biggest spider I have ever seen. (I have not seen a tarantula yet.) Its body was almost as big as a quarter And then its sternum and head; its legs were 1-1 1/2 inches long. I am so bad about spiders and bugs. Yikes!!
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Larry, I don't know what that is. Do you suppose it could be some sort of Asian green similar to Bok Choy? That white base is what reminds me of Bok Choy, but I don't grow it, so don't know what it looks like at a young stage.

Jennifer, I agree that the more property you have, the harder it is. At least the deer and voles have made it easy for me...they eat everything I plant that is not fenced off to exclude them, so I quit trying to have nice landscaping around the house, other than trees and a few shrubs and a couple of vines, because it all just becomes Deer Chow. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it forces me to concentrate my efforts only within the fenced garden spots.

I hope y'all got the photos done today. The weather here was bad in the morning, but not so bad by mid-afternoon. The sun even came out eventually, but now we're back to mud and standing puddles. The dogs came in from their dog yard, and I don't know what they did, but they all had wet, gooey mud about the consistency of chocolate pudding caked all over their feet up to their ankles. I spent a long time cleaning up after them since they left splotches of very wet mud with every step that they took. I'd rather have spent today in the garden, but it just wasn't a garden day today and tomorrow won't be either.

Rebecca, I guess everyone was beyond ready for the Cherry Street market to be open and to have all those wonderful things available there. They sure did sell out early.

I haven't seen anything 'yet' in the forecast that indicates your area will experience freezing temperatures, but I only look at the NWS forecast and it only goes out 7 days. Our coldest night so far looks like it will be Thursday night, and it really won't be that bad either (46 degrees on Thurs and 49 on Fri), but you're a lot further north, so seeing forecast lows in the upper 30s for your area isn't totally shocking. What worries me about forecast lows is that they often are highly inaccurate a week out. Last week we started out with a forecast low of 39 for our coldest weekend night, and then it dropped daily until it hit 32 I think, and our actual low was 31 or 32 but our Mesonet station was even colder---maybe 29. I think that whole progression of decreasing forecast lows for the 31st of Mar and 1st of Apr was a good reminder to me that just because the forecast looks good 6 or 7 days out, well.....I shouldn't assume it actually will be that good.

The rain has been kind to us though....only rain, no hail, and that is about the best one can hope for in April. Areas of Texas well south and east of us got the sort of hail that was in our forecast as a general possibility. At least one area got much worse hail---Grapeland TX had mixed hail that seemed to range from maybe quarter sized to softball sized. I saw not just car windshields and windows either completely knocked out or with huge holes in them, but big fist-sized or larger holes in the bodies of the cars as well. Can y'all imagine what that sort of hail would do to a garden? I heard on the news that some hail-related injuries were reported---mostly due to flying glass.

We were supposed to have 3 rounds of rain Friday night/Saturday and instead we only had 1. I'm okay with that. One was enough.

Dawn
Macmex
5 years ago
We were supposed to have storms yesterday. It kind of threatened, but in the end it was a really nice day. Just wish I could have gotten into the garden. I was stuck, processing chickens all day. Still, it was a good day. We put up months worth of meat, and all for free.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
George, I bet that was a lot of work, but now the freezer is all stocked up. How long will you wait before you start the next batch of meat birds?

Y'all, watch your weather in the Thursday-Friday time frame. It may go colder than they've indicated early on. This morning our forecast low for early Friday morning has been dropped from 46 to 41. I hope this is not one of those weeks where the forecast low drops 1 degree per day, or we'll be uncomfortably close to freezing weather by Friday.

Dawn
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
George, we live so close to you as the crow flies. . . right across the river/lake. And we probably have remarkably similar weather. I've only been to Tahlequah once, and that's when Garry took me to Sooner Plant Farm. That was a special treat, my first year here (April 2015). What a lovely drive it was, and I thought Tahlequah was quite a charming town. . . and then on down to Park Hill, but passing the oreo cookie cows! We had no idea they existed, but that's what I exclaimed when we drove by a herd--"LOOK Garry! Oreo cookie cows!" I still laugh about them. How very fun.

I mean to get to one of Green Country Seed Savers meetings, so does Amy--but we haven't made it yet, have we!

I know we had a horrible weather forecast for Sat, Sun and Mon, and it was exactly the opposite--beautiful.

And I'm not taking the "cold weather" this weekend too seriously, either. On our forecasting channel, it's already not as bad as predicted. I have over 200 seedlings/plantlings/plants-in-waiting? LOL sitting out on the deck. And though if push comes to shove, I'll cover them with a blanket. . . They are going into the ground as soon as I can get them in. Hardy annuals this week, the rest in next week. AND I have another app. 90-110 sitting in here on the cart. I asked Garry this evening as I was potting more up, "Honey, ask me how much fun I'm having." He asked. I said, "I am having no fun at all. But this is like a commitment. One can't just quit." He said, "Well, actually, one could." Hahahaha. Yeah. . .I guess that's true. But hey. When one promises, one can't back out. Right?

Strange day. We both got up early. We always print off the daily Sudoku and work it, and do a bit of devotional stuff, not together but in our times. . . Feed the critters and pay attention to them. Bonding time with critters. Usually we're pretty lazy unless we have commitments. I admire Garry so much. He avoids people, he tries not to engage with groups or people. He would prefer it if I didn't have a list of things to do here regarding gardening. He would PREFER being out on the lake fishing. Alas, I appear to be the guilty-feeling servant in terms of serving God that he never had before. Poor guy. And I am having the time of my life! I worked for 30 years in Mpls in the area of law. Loved the job for the challenges to the mind. . . . but now realize it was all just pretend life. Now it's more important stuff. Well, Garry was off to a faster start than I was today. Saturday, two days ago, was work day at church. We got there and there were hardly any folks there--they had a huge turnout the week before (which we forgot). So there were several tasks remaining, and what'd WE do? Weed. WHAT??? LOL So toward the end, it occurred to Garry that it'd be very efficient if he brought the weed whipper in. So today, he jumps up and does his Sudoku and I'm in here reading OKGW, email and FB stuff, and he's ready to go back to the church with the weedwhipper and go have breakfast at Duffy's. And this is just part of the day. . ..
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
So then . . . . I looked at the little babes on the grow cart, and they were all screaming or half dead, so I realized this was drop dead GOTTA pot up. Wrote a note to the school that I'd be there about 12:30. and spent the rest of the morning potting stuff up. Well Garry went to the school because he thought I'd be there. . . so Suzanne called me and said Garry was there. I said I was just finishing, and so would sweep the floor and be on my way in 10 minutes. 10 minutes later was on my way. Car battery was flat dead. DEAD. I run back in. . . text Suzanne because I realize GDW forgot to take his phone with him. FB messaged her. CALLED her and left a message. NO response. So. . . I knew when I didn't show up that Garry was going to be so worried. I also knew there was every chance Suzanne would be in meetings and wouldn't see my messages. Yep. all those things happened. Meanwhile, decided I'd just keep up with gardening tasks. Sure enough finaly GDW came roaring in with the truck, not even pulling into the carport but rather right next to the house. . . .I'd have been in crisis mode were it the reverse , and he was in crisis mode. I tell you all, we could not survive without each other.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Worked hard today. I first tackled the lantana. Those things have LOOONNNGGG roots! not deep, but in a wide wide circle. Tough job. I separated it into two bushes and it went in the back former bee balm bed. Then I took out the enormous clump of large orange daylilies. After I got it all out, I had second thoughts, but will carry on, as I remembered I have it in two other beds, also. 'The iris should probably be divided, too, but I may not get it done this year.

Groan. . . I just realized I have a whole bunch of things to direct sow. Oh NO! :)

I had no idea the ice plant I grew last year was a perennial. I was cleaning containers out yesterday and realized, just in the nick of time that what I assumed were some kind of weed in that container was really the the ice flowers coming back.

I'm thinking it's hummingbird time. . . have the rest of you been seeing any (besides Dawn, that is . . . lol.) Garry put 3 feeders out today. That is so much work; he asked if I thought it was about time and I said, probably, but whenever he wanted to quit that job, it was fine with me. Bless his heart.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
5 years ago
Hey Nancy, it all sounds very eventful. Umm....you are on week 1 here and the rest of us have moved on to week 2. (grin)
Nancy RW (zone 7)
5 years ago
Hahahaha. . . . I SAID I was screwed up with dates! hahaha!!