Hi Danny

Looks like no matter what/how, you have your workload to conger (spelling?). Have you considered to call the AmVets (amvets.org), to see if they might come and just get it all?

I have been watering a stretch along my new parking lanes that are still covered in a thick layer of wood-chips, just so I can dig out the Bermuda along there. With other words, I haven't gotten the rain you and several others did.

Yesterday at the Garden Festival at the Myriad Gardens I missed seeing Lisa and Jennifer... but had a GREAT visit with my daughter walking through it, and the Farmers Market after. I am now the proud owner of a pineapple sage.

Burrrrr it is cold out... and windy again, only the total opposite from yesterdays heat and south wind. Oklahoma at it's finest. LOL

Moni

Danny, it's so hard to believe it's already May. It was just February.

The unpleasant things...yeah. It is a bit scary to see the shortages of things we take for granted. You need a new chair, you go to the furniture store and buy one. Either take it with you or have it delivered within a couple of days, right? Now, so many items are backordered. So strange. We've been fortunate so far on our bathroom remodel. The things we've needed have been in stock.

And the cost of lumber and all...crazy. And houses. And the shortages of houses both to rent and buy.

Some of you who enjoy following people's stories on YouTube, might follow along with Roots and Refuge. They're selling their farm to a friend (another YouTuber in Arkansas) and moving to South Carolina. The property is gorgeous. It's almost hard to not be jealous. However, there is no house on it. And the cost of building right now...well, they're putting that on hold. They were able to find a modular home to purchase and from what people are saying...that's not easy either right now. I feel some relief for them because they have children and I can't imagine not having a house of some sort even on such a beautiful property. She did say they will put in a storm shelter (She's from Arkansas and he's from Oklahoma) but it will be an above ground one.

Anyway...I like following people's stories. Some of these channels are so much more interesting than anything on TV.

Other than Roots and Refuge, I like the Elliott Homestead, Hollar Homestead (but not as much lately), What's some of y'all's favorites?

Almost everything in the food category is planted at our house. We will put in the sweet potatoes this afternoon. Also, I need to plant the roselle, peppers, cucumber seeds. I'm shooting for Friday on those.

There's still several herbs and flowers that need spot too. That will come in the next week or two.

Yesterday, I was able to buy a new lavender, rosemary, milkweed, and a mountain mint at the festival. Those items need a spot as well.

So, Mom, sister and I went to Cafe Antigua for lunch. They had a tea that both Mom and sister ordered. I took a sip of it and we all tried to figure it out. The waiter called it hibiscus tea. We looked it up and it's actually roselle tea. I'm so excited to be growing roselle this year! I can make tea and jam!

I'll need some advice on several things regarding herbs and flowers and things from the SF. But, I am at work so should actually...work, I guess.

Thanks to covid, I've been bingeing youtube so mybsubscription list is a little out of control. I like Roots & Refuge, but the idol worship on her facebook group is annoying. It's like everyone HAS to have raised beds with tin siding, has to grow the same tomatoes and melons, has to have a greenhouse...

As for my list:

Black Gumbo Gardening

Citystead - urban homesteader who shows just how much he can do on a small lot in the city.

Rusted Garden

Charles Dowding

Morag Gamble - I love anyone who goes around barefoot, she's my kindred spirit.

Oklahoma specific:

Gardening with Leon

Arms Family Farm

Linda Vater

Random:

Garrett S. - he's a preteen who has his own channel. He's like 12 or 13 so a lot of it is just random stuff kids find interesting, but I love to see the younger generation getting into gardening.

Kneady Homestead - her family was in a bad wreck in Feb. Husband died and she's still recovering so she isn't putting out new content, but a lot of other youtubers are putting out "inspired by kneady" episodes to help her financially. I just leave it on autoplay, let the commercials run, & occasionally I stumble on one that I have to backup & watch because it's interesting to me.

Then there are a dozen or so that I find interesting at times.

I love roselle tea.

It's the second week of may and it's cold. WTH?

yesterday I sat in the poison ivy patch and Ron planted my natives while I pointed out where to put them. I'm still concerned about one, I'm not sure what it is, though I was trying to map what we planted. (Knock wood, I am not allergic to poison ivy. He did not realize it was there. It was the only shade.)

I'm going to see if he can plant bush beans this afternoon.

Danny, I feel for you having to deal with your dad's things. We can't get dad's bank account closed without going to probate it seems.

Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms. I got biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Have a good week!

I’ll be back, but wanted to drop this here.

Rebecca, since it looks so lovely, I'm going to accuse you of buying it this spring? (lol) I say that because I never had that much luck with growing foxgloves in Oklahoma...they don't like the heat seems.

Nope, I honestly can’t remember when I planted it. It’s been at least 2 years since I tried starting any from seed. Doesn’t matter, I’m thrilled with it. It won’t like summer, but should bloom again in fall.

Impressive...I've never had them last long, I might have gotten one to last from spring to spring once or twice.

Danny, I feel for you. Mom moved in with me about 5 years before she died, so I wax able to fake care of most things ok.

Some of ground is too wet,some about right, but I still have a lot to plant.

First pic is my largest tomato, second is my prettiest. Third is the plants i need to plant.

My computer is messed up and l am trying to post with my tablet, who h I can't see, none of this may make sense.

Jen, I grew several dwarf varieties last year. You gave the seed to me. The Tiny Tim made a surprising about of cherry tomatoes. And the Baxter Bush was quite productive.

Tomato math is about the same as Chicken math for me....

Moni, I'm sorry I missed seeing you and meeting your daughter.

Rebecca, pretty flower!

Amy, biscuits and gravy--yum! How are you doing? Any rash yet?

Your pictures came through, Larry. Thanks for sharing them.

My mystery plant looked really familiar but I was certain it couldn't be what it looked like. I was wrong. It's exactly what it looks like. I had forgotten I put them there. They are potatoes. LOL. When I pulled out the potato box, I found a few potatoes and decided to tuck them into a bed.

I have several questions, but won't be overwhelming so will start with two herbs:

Soapwort. I have a plant from Jen. Is this something that would do well in a container? Could it survive a container until next year when it could possibly go into a pollinator type of garden behind the shop? How seriously does it spread? Would it be a mistake to plant it in the ground? Will it take over the garden?

Mountain Mint. Sort of the same as above. Can it survive a container for a year or so? I'm trying to gather plants for the future pollinator/wildflower gardens.

I get confused on "wild" gardens. Obviously, you want them to be wild but you don't want one plant taking over...and at some point doesn't it become necessary to thin some? Like, my echinacea area in the kitchen garden. Once you plant a coneflower, you'll have many--all over the place. They can get quite crowded....and spacing suggestions are like 2 ft. apart.

I'll be back with more questions later.

Thanks!

Soapwort: I planted one plant 2 years ago & it got maybe 8-10" wide. Made a nice specimen plant in my front garden. Last year it got about 1ft x 1.5ft & I thought it was just the one plant, but it may have been more than one. This spring it seems to be a little closer to 2ft x 1.5ft, and there are several babies from it in random spots. It's considered invasive in some areas, so if you do grow it, cut the flowers before they set seed. I have one that's been in a container since last year; it didn't flower but it was a first year plant. It's still in the pot, so I'll have to let you know whether it flowers this year.

https://www.thespruce.com/herb-soapwort-4107277

Mountain mint: Anything in the mint family I consider a thug.

It depends on the mountain mint and the conditions, a few are thugs, most aren't. I have three species of mountain mint and I'm not scratching the surface.

Coneflowers never proliferate for me. One year in Oklahoma they were everywhere but the finches usually keep the seeds from even maturing, they're so hungry for them.

In my experience, it's easy to keep anything under control. Simply yank extra or turn the lawnmower on it and trim it into a spot. The only thing that doesn't work..is let it go :)

Here's a pic of my soapwort, to give you an idea.

I'm going too put my mountain mint out front in a pot. It will be in partial shade. The first one I had dried out/didn't tolerate heat or neglect. The soapwart I grew lived in an extra large coffee can. I winter sowed it and I think it bloomed the first year for me. My husband has a habit of dumping pots out. He likes to remix the soil, so the soap wart got remixed. Twice.

No rash. I am concerned because since I was in it, the dog came around and she could transfer it to Ron. I went out and read the tags for all the native plants. Figured out I had 2 black eyed Susans. One was labeled black eyed Susan, the other R. hirta. I thought one was a Sweet Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia subtomentosa) but I'll have to find the cup it was in, because it wasn't on the marker. I need to come up with permanent markers, something bigger and weather/sun proof.

Tomato math, LOL! Been there. I hope the small plants work for you. I wasn't happy with the ones I grew. (Not the ones you named) I do like Fred's tie dye, but it's still a feed tub sized plant. We brought feed tubs home from spring fling, and Ron keeps buying pots. We have these weird pots, they have a "moat" in the bottom. A raised section in the middle and the drainage hole is there. The tag says you just set your nursery pot in it without transplanting. So Ron put things in fabric pots before he put them in those.

H/J, why don't you start a separate thread for your questions? It will make it easier to find later.

I'm rambling. Have a good week everybody!

Is tomato math about the same as sweet potato math? Each year Madge and I say 12 tomato plants is all we need, we already have 18 in the ground. Last year we had 40 + sweet potato plants, it was too many, but I now have 80 + sweet potato plants in the ground.

HJ, I love Baxter’s Bush Cherry. Always does really well, is tasty, tolerates heat and disease.

My tomato math is 200 plus tomatoes.

HU

And what pray tell do you do with 400 billion tomatoes? Open your own katsup factory ? :)

In the past, I've found that six plants yield more than one person can EVER eat fresh.

Can , eat fresh, give off to neighbors.....

Open my own katsup factory? Good idea.

HU

I was defeated just reading your intro comments, Danny. Brings all that mess with my stuff right back. I wish you the best with your Dad's stuff.

I'm wimping out on the tomatoes this year in a major major way, and I don't even feel bad. In fact, feel good about it. I have seven here, and another six at Lincoln. Peppers. . . now that's a whole different story. I have no idea what I'm doing or what I'm going to do. And in a few days it will be time to get the melons and okra in. I have some mountain mint somewhere around here. Probably still on the grow cart.

Megan--were you the one who handed off the Black Beauty hibiscus off to me, or was it you, HJ? Or? Is that a roselle? It certainly is pretty.

John and I had a good trip over to Tahlequah and beyond to pick up milkweed plants. Fun visit with Bob and Lori, and they have the cutest and smartest rat terrier puppy! What a doll she was. Oh I am tired. Later.

Hi y'all. Thanks with the herb help. I am going to take Amy's advice and start another thread. I was all gung-ho about it until I sat down a few minutes ago and ate dinner. Now I'm tired. Haha!

Rebecca, I agree. Baxter's Bush was a great tomato. I finally pulled them out this fall--half dead, but still making fruit. It's a good one especially if you don't have a lot of room for full sized plants.

Nancy, that wasn't a plant from me. I was selfish with the roselle plants and didn't share any.

Okay. I'll go start another thread beginning with the variety of my Mountain Mint. It's on my front porch, so I'll grab the tag which hopefully says what it is exactly.

This could've been my Grandad Dollars farm

Oklahoma Historical Society @okhistory · 6m Whoa. What do you think they were canning? Unfortunately, this photo from our archives is undated and the family is not identified.

My dear husband brought home cucumber and SQUASH plants yesterday. I know he likes summer squash. But you know the issues. He says he'll plant them in buckets and cover with netting. Whatever. I did explain that the soil wasn't warm enough yet. I intended for cucumber seeds to go in when it warmed up. I didn't tell him those things don't really like to be transplanted. It IS funny, since we're buying most plants this year, he's really in to it. Bought marigolds too. Wish I'd seen borage, though. Do you think I could throw some seeds out and get borage? Wonder if Ron would let it live, he can never remember where I've planted and weeds. Maybe I should have him do it. I got a bee balm. That's another one I kill.

it's raining here. Buddy, the dog who's afraid of thunder is in the bathroom. He pushes his way through the child gate (!) and eats the catfood when he gets in there. He stays outside the gate unless there's thunder. The cat, named Miss Priss, is NOT amused.

It looks like I can garden tomorrow. Unless it's too wet. Maybe I can get him to bring the potting soil to the patio and I can put things in pots.

BTW, H/J, I planted my "wild" garden. I know most things will be too close together. But I also know that in nature they fight it out and the strongest wins. I hope that works for me. I figure I can always relocate things. I don't think anything I planted is aggressive. Maybe the asters, which can hang over the edge of the bed. And I want the frog fruit to propagate, I need a lot for ground cover.

I guess I should contact a lawyer today. Sigh.

Bee balm (other than the native monarda fistulosa) never did for me either.

Squash bugs...err yep....the cause of death of every summer squash plant:)

Canning pic above looks to be 40's vintage.

I'd say the 1st row of canning behind the corn cobs looks to be jelly.

HU

Danny, I was just reading about Redpurple beebalm, Monarda russeliana. Which is supposed to be native to OK and is beautiful. I could not find a seed source. I'm sure mine is some cultivar, being a Bonnie plant. Part of my problem is such things used to get planted in the "poison" bed. I don't know what's under that bed, but it killed several things that are supposed to be unkillable. We took the flower beds out, for various reasons.

I don't particularly LIKE summer squash. I told him he needed to build me screen boxes to grow that kind of stuff in. He has a LOT of projects though, and I'm not much help these days.

I might need that one, Amy. I like that it's smaller. Right now I have Monarda fistulosa and didyma. It appears that Monarda in general is native to US.

I went to Sanders in Broken Arrow this morning and was disappointed. I'd have probably done better at Lowe's in Muskogee. Maybe I've just gotten more picky. I actually had a real list. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? Going to a plant nursery with a list!? The prices were very high, to boot. And then it began raining, and it was cold! It rained all the way home and is still raining. Oops. It was still raining when I got home. Now I've been sitting in the recliner reading for the past 3 hours. oops, that was 2.5 hrs ago. Then we had to do you tube for fridge repair. We fixed it.

Rain finally quit. The main things I wanted were "spillers" and maybe a couple thrillers. I got a huge expensive hanging pot of asparagus ferns, a favorite of mine. I can take it out of the hanging pot and divide it to put into containers. Also a few trailing petunias. (They had only about 1 dozen of them and they were all the same purple with white borders ones.). Then I got just 4 succulents--they were outrageously expensive; a nice good-sized pot of dark-leaved dahlias, and a big hanging basket of dark-leaved rex begonia. I'm putting ornamental peppers in a couple of the mineral tubs, soapwort in one, and will put the dahlias and begonias into the other two.

I actually love summer squash--it has such a delightful delicate flavor. I pour melted butter over it, in a shallow baking dish, then mix shredded parmesan with ground Ritz crackers and a bit more melted butter. Pop into the oven at 350 for 30 min. Yum.

That was a nice batch of canning. I wonder if they all participated. Amy, your mention of marigolds brought this to mind.

There were 4 different patches of it like this (at Lincoln). . . I guess I'll be thinning out some marigolds. And cosmos. I haven't seen zinnias yet. Do they come up a bit later?

I like biscuits and gravy. I DO. But I can never pass up my biscuit with butter and honey or strawberry jam. And so by the time I've eaten one of those, can't also do the gravy/biscuit.

Speaking of food. . . gotta go make a TexMex chicken casserole.

The two men in the canning pic look like they could be brothers. That could've been a two family operation.

In our family pics from circa 1955, my two older brothers are wearing overalls like that boy. But I thought subsistence farming was pretty much done by the 1950's.

My Grandad sold the farm around 1950, after Dad's older brothers moved to California and Grandpa did not have any more cheap labor. He bought the farm in early 1920's and they raised and grew everything they needed to survive. I can't imagine how hard a life that was.

It is cold and wet here. I worked till 1:15 yesterday, when started raining, I wore a coat all that time. My helper came down and helped me for a couple of hours. I still don't have any peppers in the ground, and not much of anything else,other than 30 tomatoes and 81 sweet potatoes.

Jennifer, my carrots did better than I thought. I had my helper pull them yesterday, they were pretty nice carrots, and pretty good flavor, I did not have tine to do anything with them, just put them on the compost pile

My goodness, y’all. You‘re going to fast! My morning routine has been out of whack since Late last week and this is when I catch up on your posts and contribute myself.

Not a lot has happened in the garden either. I went to Scissortail Market on Saturday followed by the garden festival at the myriad. It sounds like I missed some of you. I did have a great convo with Marilyn Stewart from Wild Things nursery about plants for my rain garden and also got to ask her when the Doug Tallamy talks will be rescheduled. She and the Tulsa chapter person are hoping from fall but waiting to find out if he’s comfortable traveling yet.

once I got home I was absolutely wiped out. I crashed, took a nap, stayed in bed watching TV the rest of the evening and still fell asleep early. I had a rumbling tummy for a few days so I suspect I had a touch of the bug the kiddo had.

Sunday I gotinto the garden and did a ton of work but it was at a much slower pace than usual. I was still a little sluggish getting out of bed yesterday and was “off” all day so I’m probably still recovering a little, though I feel much better today than yesterday.

Two gardening books arrived in the last week. Monty Don’s revised edition of The Complete Gardener and a book on designing gardens. I dont have room for more books and typically force myself to check out a copy from the library to evaluate it then purchase the kindle version, but that wasn’t an option for either of these. We have a good sized bookshelf but we need to find a loving home for my DH’s late grandparents 100+ volume collection of leather-bound Louis L’Amour books. We would like to keep them together as a set and none of the estate sellers we’ve contacted will do that. Anywho. Both gardening books are here and I think they’ll be good ones to have around once I find space for them. That’s not a worry now though because I need to read them first.

One question before I go. Does anyone know where I can get a fair sized bay laurel (culinary bay) tree? I would be good with bare root. Given their slow growth, I’d prefer something 2-3 ft tall at least (price depending of course).

I don't know how to start another thread, but can anyone tell me what this plant is? It looks a little like clover, but will grow about anywhere under any condition.

Thanks

It's a confused tangled mess, but it does kinda look like some kind of clover, that's about the best I can do with the pictures provided.

I do want to ask you though, if the carrots you harvested were good, why are they on the compost pile?

Okay, Larry, I'll bite. Do you not like carrots? Do you have lots more coming in? Compost bin? WHAT? LOL

I sent a note to my BF in Wyoming to tell them about the leather Louis L'Amour set, Megan. They're quite the old/rare/unusual book collectors. I'm curious to hear what they'll say.

Yes, re Doug Tallamy; I've been tracking in OK Native Plant Society's site. The one they cancelled in this area was in Jenks. I expect that's where it will be this time, too, providing they're able to schedule it.

Yes, I think that's clover, too.

When you say "wild" gardens, Jennifer, are you meaning "wild flowers/natives"? I did a journal entry of all the shrubs and forbs I've planted since I moved down in 2015. Came to 85-90 total I'm sure I forgot a few things. And many are nasty--I didn't know any better, but now we'll be taking out some of those (Rose of Sharon, DAY LILIES--ugh!) I ended with 85-90, and only 45 are native. Even the pretty echinacea cultivars don't really count, as I noted little pollinator activity on them. Garry took out the six clumps of monkey grass a couple weeks ago.

I may take out the Endless Summer hydrangeas. They turn pink here, and I'm not all that interested in treating them with aluminum sulfate to keep them blue. I was thinking I could put the three Clethra where the hydrangeas are, though would no doubt have to prune them to keep them at about 4-5 feet tall.

Designing gardens. ROTFL. Great idea. For me it would be a laughable fantasy. I seem to be incapable of such a thing. Pretty sure I totally am. And here's the thing. For every new plant that goes in here, the chances of that being its forever home are slim. I have a black lace elderberry that is now settled after its fourth move. The ninebark sat in a whiskey barrel planter for nearly two years before I figured out a place I could put it. Now the "flower beds." There are roughly 10 of them--the smallest are about 4-5'x20', and 4-5'x40'. And actually there IS a plan. It boils down to which bed a plant will do okay in. I would hate to see a book on garden design now, since 9 of those beds now have rock borders and therefore are not subject to change--not by me in this lifetime! My first one was the big center bed in back. The one across the front of the house in shade was there when I got here. The last one I created was the shop bed. Somewhere around the 5th or 6th bed, Garry asked me if I'd like borders and I was thrilled. He saw it as a way to prevent me from enlarging any of the beds. Smart, GDW.

Amy, I'm sorry you're still dealing with legal stuff, too. Such a major hassle. I got a kick out of Buddy the dog--but who is he? Did he used to live with Travis?

Miserable overcast 57 degrees here today. Maybe I'll clean my office. I think that sounds much better than sewing room or painting room or junk room.

Megan, this is what my friend said about the books--you probably already knew this. "No thanks Nancy. I appreciate you asking; however, the freight alone would be tremendous. It is a fairly valuable set --those books will sell for about $12 to $20 ea. Ken

Nancy, I love carrots. I did not think they would be any good. I had already told my helper to pull the carrots and take them to the compost, knowing that the cattle would probably eat them. I sampled one as he was pulling them, it was great. This is the 4 th. time to try to grow carrots, and the first time they were fit to eat.

Madge and I are so overwhelmed, we just can't get caught up on our work. I have some cabbage to bring in also, but I am not sure where we can put them. Old age sure slows a person down, and I still have a lot of plants to plant.

Larry, the picture is a yellow trefoil clover. Cattle graze it in a pasture, some people consider it a weed in their lawns. It’s a legume that adds nitrogen, but yes it spreads rapidly and is very aggressive.

Framgardener, thanks. I am happy to know it is some kind of clover..

I am trying to get more clover on the place, I have been planting Lading in spots, hoping to improve winter pasture. I have trouble with clover in the garden. I even have more problems with hairy vetch, but seems to be my best nitrogen producer, but it has such a long root that it is hard to pull.

I love that picture. I wish I had pictures of my grams with her canning

I love that pic also, keep going back to look at it. I wonder about the story it tells. How long it took them to stage the pic. Who took the pic, not to mention what they've canned. It even has their pressure canner in the pic.

I have that same canner. I bought it at a sale for a couple dollars

I remember my mom talking about when she was first exposed to one. Her family did not have the money to buy one. She had an aunt that could afford one, but was afraid of them. Said that she would buy one if someone else would do the canning. The county, or state sent people around to teach the people how to safely use a cannier. At that time most of the people in this area still used a team and wagon, or walk to get from one place to a other. The people that did the teaching had an automobile and could cover a much larger area.

i keep going back to that pic. too. the larger jars about 4 rows back look to be larger than quarts. Maybe 2qt size. Probably those where canned with fruit, like pears, peaches, aprocots , apples... My mom used to can those like that.. I think I see a jar or 2 of whole potatoes over on the left side. Think I see a few sweet potatoes over on the lower left corner below the large gourd.

HU

I went back to look at the canning picture, too. Is that a quilt to the right of the jars? And bottles of...wine? As far as I could tell there were no jelly jars with wax on top. When they cleaned out my grandma's cellar there was plum jelly with wax on top that had probably been there for 20 years. My mom used to make watermelon rind pickles. She must not have made them when I was around, I have no memory of a pot big enough to can in. In my short "earthmother" period I had both a pressure canner and a waterbath canner. No one liked my tomato sauce because I used lemon juice in it to make sure it was safe. I probably made bread and butter pickles and I made brandied peaches, which I would do now if I could figure out where I got the recipe, they were really good. Any way, while my grandmother canned, my experience was limited. How did they can when they didn't have running water?

Ron planted bush beans yesterday. Now soil temp is supposed to be 60° for them to germinate, but Tulsa mesonet was 51° yesterday. Johnny's catalog says Provider will germinate in colder soil. We'll see. It's already pushing it if we get hot in June. Maybe I can do a fall crop of something.

Nancy, I feel like plant prices are higher this year. As I waited in the parking lot and saw the plants in front of the Walmart neighborhood market yesterday it was all I could do to keep from going to look. I simply don't NEED anything else and I pulled the trigger on cross vine and coral honeysuckle from Almost Eden this week.

I have procrastinated on the legal stuff.

Friday, have a good weekend.

I have always wanted to put a pot of flowers in my canner. Since I just picked it up in Quitaque I may just do it.

Amy, they did the same thing they did when they washed clothes. Big fire with a cauldron hanging over it either near the stream or well house. I remember going with mom when she'd do genealogy interviews and one relative talked about how they'd have canning productions like that photo. It's amazing what they managed to accomplish compared to today.

It was a terrific gardening day, all in all--except I forgot to put on gardening gloves while planting plants/seeds at Lincoln this morning, so I have THE dirtiest fingernails. Any of you have magic tricks for that?

I am so sad. Amy sent me a list of vendors who will be at the native plants tour in Tulsa tomorrow, but I shot the heck out of not only my PLANT budget, but my general budget. I am BROKE. I might prefer to stay BROKE for the rest of this month than to dive into savings. Yeah, probably. To tell the truth, Amy, I have NO idea where I could possibly put any more plants.

I had about 10 milkweeds to put in at the school, as well as 8 or so tithonia. I got those in, and then finally threw my hands up--that big center bed has NO more room. So I planted 5 of the milkweed 100 feet away in the "sandbox."

The high school ag teacher, a wonderful young man, brought half a dozen of his students with him and they put up the cattle panel trellises and pegged them securely. Then the students (fun guys junior/seniors) helped me plant stuff. I told them not to walk on anything green in that huge center bed, and one of them said, "But EVERYTHING's green!" I said, "Yep, tough marching orders, eh?"

But speaking of that, I'd much rather try to pot some of that excess up and give away rather than to simply trash--I could easily take out a bunch of fennel, dill, cosmos, marigolds.

Back to the arches/trellises: YAY, this is going to be so much fun, but I could use your your advice, please. I planted some climbing okra, gourds today. But what other great vining stuff can I put in--Amy, know you do. Who else? Oh--I also planted some cucumbers. Advice welcomed, please.

Climbers...Korean summer squash, Seminole pumpkin, tromboncino, cucumbers, melons (small ones), luffa, cowpeas (I have lots of whippoorwill seeds, or the long beans), pole beans (kind of late, but could do a fall crop), coral honeysuckle, passion vine, Crossvine, cardinal climbers. What is the purple bean, hyacinth bean? Scarlet runner bean.

I would love to go to the garden tour, but I did it once in Tulsa and there's no place to park, and not really handycap accessible. I worked one they had in Owasso, but Tulsans think Owasso is too far away and they didn't have much of a turn out. There are a couple of Arkansas venders missing from the list. The venders I'm most interested in are at different locations or I would go to one location to see them.

In the past they have had a few vendors do a weekly sale at the teaching gardens. Duck creek and Utopia are among them, so later on there will be options.

It boggles my mind, Jen. My grandparents raised 5 kids in Minnesota on a place with no running water. There was a stove, because it had a soup pot that stayed warm, (gas? Wood? IDK), and scraps went in the pot and kept cooking. (Dad mentioned this once). I don't know how she did laundry. Eventually, when they added on and got water, there was an early electric washer with the tub and a wringer on top. It nearly shook the house down when it ran.

We had about a 1/2" of rain last night. I see where Tulsa soil temp is reading at 61 today. (I turned the heater off and the AC on yesterday.) We were at 80 yesterday afternoon.

Kim, that canner would be cute with flowers in it. Have you taken it to an extension agent to see if it's usable? They made things better in those days!

Have a nice weekend.

It is a nice day today. I am trying to get the north garden cleaned. I now have 15 Moselle and 11 peppers planted in it, along with 10 or 12 Irish potatoes. When cleaning I found some blackberry plants, and some cucumber plants I will try to relocate.

I am going to move my cold frame out, it just seems to be a weed magnet anyway.

I would like to plant okra, but, I may not have the soil ready as soon as I would like. I now have plenty ready in the wildlife garden, but, it is very poor soil, and I have no water over there, so I use it for an overflow area to plant my extra plants in, along with critter food.

Bonus harvest
My grandson found this beautiful rutabaga I thought was collards at first. Harvested baby second cabbage, chard, parsnip, 1 rutabaga, and dill.

Nice, Kim! Super cute! <3

I'm sick about my grandmother's family's cauldron being "lost' due to a foreclosure on my cousin's house. (Not her fault...her husband at the time's fault). I wanted that thing for YEARS.

Anyway...

It is amazing how our great grandparents were able to function without running water. My great grandma Stella had a stove and electricity--there was a bulb in the center of each room, but no water. Somehow she could cook up a huge meal from scratch without water in her kitchen and no one died from it. I do remember she had a bowl and dipper for drinking on a stand in the kitchen...and another bowl for hand washing. My cousins and I thought it was great fun to play with the well. We often were in trouble for that. :)

And, I remember her cellar that was just earth, her garden (very wild), the apricot trees and the feral kittens that were SO cute but we could never catch them. Oh, and the outhouse.

She canned food because it was in her scary cellar, but I never saw her do it.