I actually planted several cosmos over the last week. When do you think they will come up? Any other suggestions? :)

1. Agoldencomet - 1 2. Magothyrivergirl - ? 3. Woodenzoo - 2 (here) 4. Micyrey - 3 (4 received) 5. Tdsully - 2 (Received) Michelle, all your purdy birds arrived! I see how they all go together and I'm sure the winner will appreciate the matched sets! Marsha, I don't think there is a time limit to the Heat and Bond. I save some of the left overs for adding little details to paper pieced blocks and such and haven't had any problems after they've been sitting in my scrap bins. Cathy

Kim, 25 years ago, I tested allergic to zucchini. The Dr was surprised because he said it was an uncommon allergy. He asked how I fixed them. I said, rolled in egg and flour and fried or made into zucchini bread--with egg, flour and milk. He had already told me I was allergic to eggs, flour and milk so said my body decided zucchini was quilty by association. It was not the permanent type of allergy. I had to totally eliminate those foods for two years--that was HARD--and then return one at a time. I can now eat them again, but I don't eat any of them every single day like I did for years. The weather forcast showed a probablilty of us getting 2-3 inches last night. I slept late this morning, hearing nothing overnight so I was surprised to see 2.2 inches in the gauge this morning. Yay! I am so glad because while dad was in the hospital over the weekend--48 hours--we stayed with mother because she is disabled and cannot stay alone--our water was running on three 50 ft soaker hoses in the garden. Our water bill is going to be outrageous! So we won't water anything until after the 15th when the meter gets read. There are enough buckets, tubs, and barrels under the eaves of the house and greenhouse to take care of the container plants until then. We have had a very cool summer so far. 97 was the highest temp so far and that was just one day. We have had more nights in the 60s this summer than in the 70s and none in the 80s. We've had good rain too. 6 inches in June, 3 in July and Now 2.5 in August. But all the rain and cool has been hard on my tomatoes. Every plant has a fungus disease. Early Blight I think. 3 have died; all are affected. Leaf footed bugs are also in good supply this year and doing damage, sucking juice out of the tomatoes. But we have had more squash and cucumbers than we can eat. I planted too many and they have just kept producing with no sign of SVB and only a very few squash bugs. I don't know if I will plant a fall garden. Dad has sold his ranch and we are going to be super busy helping him get ready to move. (Anybody know of a good assisted living place in Tulsa?) Besides now that we plant cool weather greens in the greenhouse in October to eat on all winter there isn't as much need to plant them in the garden. Plus, I learned several years ago that since I take thyroid medicine I shouldn't eat turnip and mustard greens every..single...day...for 6 weeks as they suppress thyroid function and make me tired and when the Dr increases the dosage and I quit eating them after a while I get too hyper and she has to decrease the dose again. "Be consistent!" she said. The Kentucky Red cowpeas I got from George several years ago are in full production. The nasty Japanese Beetles don't like them, preferring the Kentucky Wonder pole beans. Next year I will plant more KR and fewer KW. The 8 ft fence we built three years ago is still keeping the deer away from the okra and sweet potatoes and they are doing very well. UNfortunately the squirrels are still working the fruit. They didn't bother the Hosui Asian pears at all. I guess because they are so brown when ripe, they didn't know they were ripe. But they took half of the American pears and probably a third of the Yellow Delicious apples before they got fully ripe. So we picked them early, froze, dried and juiced some and saved a few to eat. And now to bed. Tomorrow we will pick okra and cherry tomatoes to dry and then attack the grass and weeds in the garden with a weedeater.

Hi trpnbils, " If we don't maintain it, nobody does, and the grass gets to be 3 feet high and an eyesore. " They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If the grass grows 3 feet high, that soil can't be too bad for growing things the way it is now. This could be a "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade" type of situation. " What would be a good approach for us to maximize use of this? My biggest thing is that since we're not in school for most of June, all of July, and most of August that pretty much kills the possibility of growing food crops (and most flowers) in traditional ways. " Winter wheat is a food crop that is planted in the Fall, grows all Winter and Spring, and is harvested approximately when school lets out. There are many varieties of it, and you could plant patches of several different varieties to compare various properties. You could hand-grind some flour samples for the Home Ec class to use to make bread or something "edible". And you could challenge your class to brain-storm a good use for that 3-feet of grass. As I recall there were experiments in Florida to experiment with making wallboard from Johnson Grass. Maybe you could make some kind of paper from that dead grass by grinding it up. A good kitchen blender might be able to break the grass down. ZM