September 2021 Week 1
Nancy Waggoner
2 years ago
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dbarron
2 years agoslowpoke_gardener
2 years agoRelated Discussions
September week 1
Comments (73)Jack, What yummy pepper recipes! Thanks for posting them. We live on poppers here in the summertime, and I freeze tons of them so we can have poppers all year long. That's one reason I grow a ridiculously large number of jalapenos. I was so proud of KC---I wasn't expecting them to win either---but, woo hoo, they did it! Even better was the fact that they beat the Patriots. So, it was a great football weekend---your team won, OU beat Ohio State, the Dallas Cowboys won and so did OSU. I stayed up too late watching the Cowboys last night and had a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning. Rebecca, Any and every variety of garlic I've ever grown does well here, so either we have an ideal climate for it (with proper fall planting) or it just isn't that picky. I like trying new ones often because there's so many different flavors. I probably grow more softnecks than hardnecks but they perform equally well in my soil. Michelle, Ha! I bet Tim and I are tied with you as most boring persons in the world too. So are all our neighbors. Once, in a hot dry summer, we finally got a cool, rainy day. Everyone in the neighborhood, including us, sat outside in their lawn chairs after the rain stopped and just watched the frogs and toads and dragonflies doing their thing, enjoying the cooler, more moist air and all the puddles covering the ground. When we gathered and talked later, we laughed because every neighbor (we are spread out too far apart on acreage to see each other out in the yards) was sitting outside watching the wild things just like we were. We all agreed that our kids (at that point they all were high school or college aged) surely thought that we need to get out more...not outside....out of our little comfort zones at home. I'd still rather be out in the yard, sitting on the patio, watching the frogs, than sitting in a movie theater. For us, the best flowers for low-irrigation areas, especially in western- and southern-exposures, have been: lantana, salvia greggia (I have several different ones---some bloom red, one is red and white, one is pink or coral, etc.), Russian sage, daturas, moss rose, red hot poker, cannas, Laura Bush petunias (seeds are available through Wildseed Farms online) and gomphrena (I have Strawberry Fields growing down by the mailbox and it has survived for 6-8 years on no irrigation and reseeds itself---in horrible clay and driveway gravel). Oh, and salvia farinacea. It does well on little to no irrigation, and mine has come back for several years now though it really functions only as a half-hardy perennial here. It is just that we haven't had any cold winters lately, other than an occasional really cold night here or there. Mexican hat and gaillardia also do well in our front pasture with only rainfall, but can get tall and floppy in better soil and with more water. Mary, I hope your loved ones in Florida are fine. There's some horrible images this morning of flooding, storm surge and wind damage. As bad as it is, it could have been so much worse. Had Irma not hugged Cuba's coastline (and, sadly, done massive damage there) for so long before hitting Florida, I think Florida would have been hit even worse than they were. The amazing thing to me has been how that storm traversed the whole state while maintaining its circulation---and with such a huge wind field that covered the whole state, part of the ocean and part of other states all at the same time. There also were a gazillion tornado warnings (and there's more right now as I'm typing this with TWC on the TV), but thankfully, most tornadoes that form from hurricanes are not giant monsters like ours can be here in the Great Plains. Still, I wouldn't want to get hit even by a "small, weak" (relatively speaking) one either. Amy, Condolences on the loss of your childhood friend's mother. That's a tough thing to go through---it does bring back huge waves of nostalgia, does it not? Your parents have made it to such an awesome aniversary---66 years together is just incredible. How's your mom's hip? I am sure the refrigerant has changed at least twice, and we have had some added to ours over the years. I do dread having to buy a new system, but it is just one of those things that is inevitable here at some point. I'm just glad we have air conditioning. I don't know how people handled the heat without it---although we didn't have it in my childhood home either. We had swamp coolers when I was a younger child, and then my parents finally put in window units---two of them---one in the living room and one in the den when I was in high school. They didn't put central air in their house until around 1984 or 1985---after we bought our home on the same block as theirs and put in central air and heat right away. Then, suddenly, they added it to their house (with our encouragement), using the same HVAC guy that installed ours. Nancy, The western wildfires have been so awful this year and it is just heartbreaking. I also think that they really don't get the news coverage, at least here (but, really, not on the national news either) that they deserve. I've noticed the last couple of weeks that we are having the most gloriously beautiful pink and orange sunsets---but the reason for that is that the cool fronts have been bringing smoke in the atmospher to us---from the western wildfires. So, while the sunsets are gorgeous lately, I hate that it is smoke in the air making them look so beautiful. I hope y'all have a safe, fun and productive trip, and I'm so happy to hear that Titan is back to being himself again. Eileen, Yes, it is a well-known fact that the differently colored carrots all have their own unique flavor---and the purple ones are definitely a spicier flavor than the standard orange (and yellow) ones. I find grocery store carrots disappointing compared to home-grown ones. Summer carrots also are disappointing. My favorite carrots are any of the orange ones that mature in autumn through spring because the cooler weather makes them sweeter. Summer carrots that mature in hotter weather never taste as sweet and flavorful to me. Mary, Are you allergic to any of the standard late summer/early autumn pollen like ragweed? That could be affecting your breathing as well. I am horrifically allergic to ragweed and so is Chris, so we sneeze, sniffle and cough our way through ragweed season. Take it easy on your heart---I know it is good for you to be as active as possible to build better heart health to the extent that you can with your HF, but you don't want to overdo it. A lot of the stores here don't get fall crop transplants in the stores until late Sept or early Oct, especially kale, collards, spinach, etc. so if you keep watching, maybe you'll see some in stores there in a couple more weeks. I also have seen some new seed displays updated in big box stores for fall crops with lots of spinach and green seeds. They've been out for about a month now. We just stay too hot in September for kale, collards and spinach to be planted until late in the month or in October, so the stores do seem tuned to the timing that's best for our weather down here. I imagine your stores up there do the same. Having said that, I get so tired of seeing Halloween and autumn merchandise hit the stores in August, and Christmas stuff in late Sept or early Oct. I wish they wouldn't rush the seasons so much. It still is summertime here! Amy, The groundhog thing at Worley's is hysterical---that's the first time I've ever heard of a groundhog getting up on a table and eating seedlings. Granted, I don't live in an area with groundhogs. Really, the only time I've ever seen groundhogs alive (or almost alive) is when we visited Tim's family in PA, and they are dead alongside the roadways there constantly---sort of like armadillos are in Texas and OK. I don't think I've ever seen a live one, except in videos, but I know they caused Tim's dad lots of yard and garden problems. Mandevilla is beautiful, but not cold-hardy here, so I don't grow them often. I used to grow one of the pink-flowered ones in TX in zone 8b, and occasionally (though not often), one would survive the winter. The ones they breed nowadays are not as vining (unless you choose one that vines a lot) and are more floriferous than the ones we grew in Texas in the 1980s and 1990s. They do put out an amazing number of blooms here in the summer. AFAIK, they are not grown from seed, but you can raise them from cuttings. Jennifer, You're welcome. Spinach and other greens are so easy here in fall and winter, but keep those chickens away! My chickens are obsessed with devouring every bit of kale that I plant, so I really have to be sure to keep that garden gate closed or there's no kale for us. Jen, I think my friends finally have gotten used to me and my black tomatoes, purple potatoes, etc. but it drove them nuts in our early years here that I just refused to grow veggies that were the "right" color. lol. A more colorful diet is a healthier diet so I seek out the oddball colors to make our diet as varied and healthy as possible. Nancy, I'm glad y'all made it safe and sound and am happy to hear Titan was a champ. You and GDW can laugh at me, but when I think of y'all now, I think of Titan as your child. I do believe the tough summer experience with his illness and all the extra care y'all gave him bonded you three into a tight family unit (and I hope the cat doesn't feel left out, lol). Kim, I used to be that way, but too many snakey experiences have caused me to learn to stay out of the garden as much as possible in late summer and early autumn, and I'm okay with that. Once I've canned, frozen and root cellared all I want to, then it is easier to stay out of the garden, even if I am abandoning some stuff that we could be eating fresh still. There's just a point where we don't need more than we already have. Encounters with venomous snakes just ruin the gardening experience for me, so I just let the garden muddle on along without me at this time of the year. I focus on stuff indoors until the nights get cool enough that the snakes are out less and less often and I can then return to the garden more (usually in October) to clean it up and get it ready for next year. I do venture in briefly, occasionally, to pick peppers. They just keep on keeping on. I've also got beans that I never picked that now are reseeding themselves along with some cowpeas, so there probably will be a late autum harvest from them. Morning glories are taking over my garden right now, and I don't really care. I can look at them from outside the garden and enjoy them.....Grandpa Ott's is just so gorgeous in bloom. Amy, How terribly sad. I cannot imagine the heartbreak (and never-ending pain) of losing a child. You just had to mention FB---I've been as absent there as I have been absent here lately---when I put down the electronic devices and pick up the paintbrush, I lose touch with everyone and everything, I guess. One of my childhood friends lost his firstborn child at 17 or 18 months to drowning---in a bathtub. I think that in a lot of ways, that's the sort of tragedy that a family never "gets over", if you know what I mean. How could they? There's always a metaphorical empty chair at the table that that child would have occupied. How sweet that y'all released balloons at the cemetary for his birthday. I hope this sort of memorial activity comforts your son's wife and her family, and all of you who love them. It is important for a grieving family to remember the one they lost---and, to me, the loss of a child is the worst loss of all. We all expect to lose our parents, our grandparents, our aunts and uncles...maybe a cousin or sibling somewhere along life's journey and that seems natural and fitting---it is the way of the world, after all, but we never expect to lose a child. There, I read everything and tried to respond to everything as much as I could remember to do so. I'm going to try to do a better job of staying caught up on everyone's activities this week. I've got The Weather Channel on right now and the news out of Florida looks so awful---the flooding, the power outages, the trees that are down, etc. I am so glad that so many people took this threat seriously and evacuated, but then the storm track shifted (forecasting remains an imprecise science) and some people who had fled their homes also got get hit hard in the areas where they are sheltering. It is too early for the death toll to be known yet. I think I've heard of 5 deahts so far, but am sure there will be more. There were 16,000 power crews massed and waiting at certain staging areas outside the state before the hurricane hit, and that included contractors to cut down trees and clear all that debris so that power can be restores. Hopefully the recovery will go smoothly. We are in an endless pattern down here at our house---cool early mornings, fairly hot afternoons, and no rain. The ground is cracking, and our lovely green grass is browning. Bah humbug! Why is it that rain in August means no rain in September? It was exactly the same way last year too---only I think September stayed hotter. I am not watering anything except my fig tree in its container. Everything else can sink or swim on its own. Dawn...See MoreSeptember 2018, Week 1, September Morn.....
Comments (33)Lisa--so amazed you did it, and so proud of you for doing it! And am so thrilled it was good for you. I've had two other friends who did it, as well. Very rewarding for both, just to know. One of the friends and her family bonded and see each other. Wasn't as good an experience for the other, but she was grateful that she knew about it all, finally. The deer incident affected me more than I thought it would. First, the reality of it and how to handle it. How sad it was to see this creature in such distress. And how problematic it seemed to wonder about the appropriate way to deal with it. It's like we live in the country, with all the critters around us; and yet we live in the country with neighbors very near to us, save for the forest directly across the front of our immediate property and behind our immediate property. GDW felt strange, walking across the street and shooting the poor thing in view of whoever might be driving by or outside. I felt a little freaked when I went out to help him load her into the truck, and two vehicles drove by about that time. I don't think they saw the deer, who was in a bit of a ditch right next to the road, but I felt kind of like a criminal. Had push come to shove, we'd have felt fine about our actions had we been asked to explain. I suggested we call the game wardens, but GDW said the chances of them being able to come right out were slim; so that's when we loaded her into the truck to go to the burn pile. As it stands now, she is still in back of the truck; we will unload her tomorrow nearby, with the nice game warden's blessing. He said I might be surprised to know how many calls they get like ours. And he told me to thank my husband for him, in choosing to put her out of her suffering. And here was poor Garry, with one eye swollen shut! He waves it off, and any of the rest of us might, too. But he is definity hampered temporarily. Now if he was going to be like that from now on, he'd get used to it. We've been laughing about it today; I found myself thinking, "Let's see; if I lose an eye, which one would I prefer to lose. Definitely my left one." hahaha I've been loving binge-watching Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown series, connecting with people all around the world through food. I had only caught 2-3 of the shows when I had TV. Liked them, but not the way I do now. Eileen, it's your fault. How little I knew about Singapore! And now I know a LOT about that supercity/super country. (AND my new favorite, Asian foods and learning to fix them!) And it sort of lit me on fire with how little I know of other cultures. I won't be doing any traveling (not any more than necessary now), but I will travel through books and excellent documentaries. I am absolutely blown away by these journeys of Bourdain's, and the care and attention that team took, to present important and worthy shows that illustrate societies around the world and our commonality. And the sadness many of the countries have gone through, might even be going through now, and the buoyancy and resiliency of the people. And how he manages to bond/communicate with them in these episodes, and also to introduce the rest of us to these people all around the world, a bit of their history, and the common love of food. Great show, glad I finally am watching it all. And so with this great Asian way of cooking, it has ignited and changed to some extent, the way I want to grow veggies. I see a lot more greens in the future. Sigh. I hate salad. BUT when I watch or read about Asian cooking, greens look good and fun! LOL Thanks, Eileen. It's a little late to be planting some of what I want to, but have gone out on a limb with a few. But will be putting in a few more greens tomorrow. I got my garlic order in to SESE before they ran out; I got my coral honeysuckle order into Almost Eden (I had it in the cart and just remembered yesterday that I hadn't punched "Order.") So did that. And you guys know how it goes. Couldn't order JUST one thing, so also ordered some rainbow-kinda colored echinacea--a couple of them. That was because my present grown-from-seed ones have done so splendidly. I was so so ticked off today pulling Bermuda out of the front shop bed and the back Bermuda bed. I hate Bermuda. I'd rather have mud or dirt in our "lawn," or crabgrass, than Bermuda. YES, it's fairly easy to get out with my Hori Hori, but it's every brutal inch or two, and in the front bed today, some of it was 10 inches down. Thing is with those two beds, I didn't properly prep them in the first place and work to get it all out. Hmm. On the other hand, the soil is so much better now and deep enough, and loose enough, that it's easier to get out. So. I guess it's okay. My concern is the established plants. I may end up having to take them all out, just to get all the Bermuda. I hate Bermuda. Will sign off. Life is fragile, we must remember to appreciate every single day, even Bermuda grass days. Maybe especially Bermuda grass days. We're dealing with it, we're fixing it, inch by slow inch! And so far, I'm digging it up faster than it can grow . Diligence will produce victory....See MoreJanuary 2021 Week 1
Comments (72)I just went into my seed starting room, looked around and walked back out closing the door behind me. How can anyone let a place like that get into such a mess?? I have sweet potatoes from summer before last. The still look okay, but why eat them when I have last years crop sitting there also? I may have to grab a couple and cook them just to see what a very old sweet potato taste like. I also have winter squash and pumpkins in there also. I have a good supply of jars over at the old house, I wish I were able to can food. But I may never get able to can again, but that is okay, that is the hardest part of gardening anyway. The sun is out, but still pretty cool, 37*. I plan on picking some mustard when it gets a little warmer out. It felt so good to get out a little yesterday. I drove around in the wildlife garden, went down and tried to put a cow back into the pasture. I am not able to chase the cows on foot, but the rtv can run about as fast as a cow can. All though I dont chase them, but I do try to work them down to an area where I can open a gate and run them in. The cows belong to the guy that has the place rented, but I enjoy getting out and checking on them. I think that there are too many cows in the pasture, but that is how a lot of people operate. If I were raising cattle I would starve to death because I would over feed them, I would have other people's cows trying to break into my pasture. It is still 37*, but I think I will go pick some greens, it wont take long to pick enough for two people to eat. We had a wonderful lunch yesterday, salmon patties, potato salad and raw vegetables, I hope we have leftovers from that today....See MoreMarch 2021 Week 5/ April week 1
Comments (71)Lynn, you know... I grew up C of C too. As did Rick (HU). I still attend one...and am actually employed by one. It's not accepted by other C of C really because we're not so...C of C'ish. The one I am at is very, very near where you live. (I remember you telling me your general area.) I had a similar experience growing up. Sort of. My parents and people near me were NOT so hardcore with the "we don't know the true date of Christ's birth and it is wrong to celebrate it on a date that is not in the scripture." Of course you're familiar with the whole "speak where the Bible speaks, be silent where the Bible is silent" thing they had going back then. Some still do. My family celebrated these holidays as mostly a fun, family time. However, our C of C celebrates it all now. (I could ramble on about this, but won't. SO much to say.) Rick (HU) is like you. He left that behind a long time ago. I think the difference is my family (and people near me) weren't so strict. Y'all's people were. And that will make thinking people run far away. And...to prove the point that I'm not strict C of C, I'm enjoying a glass of wine RIGHT now. And coming up with an Easter lesson for my littles tomorrow morning. Sorry. That had nothing to do with gardening. I was just checking in....but had to chime in. I'm late to post on the Saturday night, so it's doubtful Lynn will even see this before the next week's thread will be created....See More
OklaMoni
2 years agoNancy Waggoner
2 years ago
hazelinok
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agojlhart76
2 years agoslowpoke_gardener
2 years agoNancy, I think you ask at one time for me to post a picture of each month of our fur boby calendar. I did not post last month. This is pictures of July and Auk. The pumpkins are not mine, although I had of him in my pumpkins, he was trying to eat them. He loved veggies in the garden.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
2 years agodbarron
2 years agoslowpoke_gardener
2 years agoOklaMoni
2 years agodbarron
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agojlhart76
2 years agoslowpoke_gardener
2 years ago
Kim Reiss
2 years agohazelinok
2 years agodbarron
2 years agoNancy Waggoner
2 years agohazelinok
2 years agodbarron
2 years agoslowpoke_gardener
2 years agohazelinok
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agodbarron
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoKim Reiss
2 years agohazelinok
2 years agojlhart76
2 years agoslowpoke_gardener
2 years agoKim Reiss
2 years agoKim Reiss
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2 years agoKim Reiss
2 years ago
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