I didn't realize you were moving to Shawnee, Jen--I must have missed that post. So now I know which Bruce you meant!! LOL

My elephant garlic is growing like crazy. Should I cover cut or leave it

Nancy yeah, he's almost literally around the corner. Very convenient to know who one of my neighbors are.

That is so cool, Jen!!! He's a good one to have living right around the corner, for sure!!!

Kim, the garlic looks nice. I have never grown it in a container, but I would think that the biggest thing to worry about would be the bulb and roots freezing. I grow it in the garden and don't do anything with it.

My daughter, grand daughter, and her boyfriend can over today, and we went out to eat. I had call grand daughter earlier to see if she wanted to plant any elephant garlic in a container, she told me that she would try 4, I had found 28 cloves out in the shop. I had picked my peppers and had all the produce sacked up by my recliner for grand daughter to take home with her. I told grand daughter to take all the garlic she wanted, and I would just plant what she didn't want, daughter spoke up, and, said, " well for heaven sake take all of them, we don't want him planting more stuff, he has stuff growing everywhere".

When we came back from eating, I saw neighbor and his grand daughter out in my wildlife garden cutting turnip greens. When we got out of the car the donkeys came up to the fence wanting something to eat, so I got some sweet potatoes and was cutting them into bite size pieces to feed the donkeys, ( grand daughter was wanting a picture of the baby donkey ). While we were feeding the donkeys sweet potatoes a car turned into neighbors driveway. I told grand daughter, "that must who neighbor was cutting the greens for". When I went down to the wildlife garden this evening to talk to neighbor, who was over there again working again, I mentioned seeing the car, and figured that they were after the greens, he said "no, that one was after pumpkins". We may not be making any money off that wildlife garden, but we are having a lot of fun.

I have just been rambling, please forgive me, but I have had a busy, and fun weekend.

Hi everyone! Larry, I'm so glad you had a busy and fun weekend! So did we! It was an unusual weekend. Full of love and laughter! Talking with kids in MN--was super fun. Westie and Wade were in Vegas for a baseball tournament--Steph had a few days to herself. (Evyn doesn't live with them any more--she's 21 now and living on her own.) If I'd been lucky enough to have had a daughter, I could not have picked a better one than my DIL, Stephanie!

And then. . . .

A couple weeks ago, Moni told me to check my steps on phone. I mis-read that, and interpreted it to mean I needed a Fit Bit. DUH!!! I had no idea my Iphone is spying on me, and as long as I have it on me, it tracks every step I take!! I tell ya, this modern technology is something else! So now, of course, I am a bit obsessed with it all. I can see me turning into a walking machine! My final check-up with Dr. Hip Surgeon is next Monday. I'm pleased and know he will be, too. If I don't fall down between now and then.

I took off this morning, but it's raining lightly, so had to stop. Now it's raining a bit harder. I hope the rain doesn't make it over to Danny, since Moni's over there to do a camp-out and then to go walking with dbarron! Beautiful site, Moni--you need to share it here, please.

I needed a few more garlic bulbs--so found a couple big ones from last year! That should be enough--not enough for you big-time garlic farmers, but for me. Got the count up to 80. And they're all really good-sized cloves!

I guess I can't keep the Sugar Rush Peach and Fatalii peppers alive this winter--but by gosh will get them started early next spring!!

I feel a little foolish walking up and down the road out front--neighbors likely think I'm plum nuts. We don't have blocks, just lots. We figure it's 1/6 mile to neighbor Bruce's property and back. . . which is further than it sounds, if you ask me. lol This morning I set off at a brisk walk, and halfway back (which is halfway through next-door neighbor Tom's lot, I hear a meow, look down, and there is Mr. Tiny, keeping me company!! I bet I can encourage him to become my regular walking partner! What makes this funny is that Danny and I had been trading jokes about putting cats on leashes. Appears Tiny doesn't need a leash! I love it!

Darned Garry must have scratched his incision last night while asleep! GRRR. Should I put a bandage over it? Just gauze and tape?

Well--I need to set about organizing this quilt/paint room/office. I am going to attempt to do a bit of quilting and painting. Best to you all!

Nancy, it sounds like you have a lot of garlic. Last year I must have planted over 150, i don't remember, but it was too many. I found more onions and garlic this morning under the shop porch, I planted them in the garden. I also found about 5 or 6 tomato plants that I didn't know I had. I expect they were planted by a bird because they were on the north side of the house, under a trellis.

I walked more today than normal, but , that is still not much. I am thankful I have the side by side, it makes it possible for me to drive right up to where I want to work, and have all my tools with me. My gardening has really changed over the years. At one time I did not even want a tiller, but I had a very small garden at that time, plus, I was a lot younger.

I need to go back to the wildlife garden and move some stumps that were dug out. We have rain on the way, so I need to move them in an hour or two. Those stumps were dug out for 4 bushel of purple hull peas, but we wont have any till next year, night before last the deer got in the peas and eat all we had. It is nice to live in an area where neighbors help one another.

Neighbor is over picking roselle now, he even sells,or trades roselle jelly for other stuff that can be eaten or sold. George and Ron both sent me roselle seed, which I have been sharing. The roselle seems to be a big hit.

Nancy, Cliff teases me because I make comments that I need my phone on me all the time or I don't get credit for my steps.

Speaking of, it's pretty obvious when we moved lol. No wonder I'm exhausted!

OH NOOOOO!!! You poor babe!! (I'm kinda lovin' this! LOL )

Hi Friends!

Thanks for starting this week's thread, Nancy.

I love Halloween, but unfortunately haven't been able to fully enjoy it for a couple of years. October is my favorite month and I feel like I need to "take it back" from everyone's expectations of me.

Is it just me or does candy taste different than it did at one time---the basic candy brands and all? It's not as good to me. I don't know if it's because I've become a candy "snob" because I really do enjoy a few brands from stores like Natural Grocers OR if it's some other reason like they're not using cane sugar any longer but some other type of sugar. I don't know....but it tastes different to me.

Nancy, I am glad that you're feeling so much better and am sorry you have to deal with all the household chores so soon after your own surgery.

I'm ready to get the garden cleaned up too. We took down the tomato trellises yesterday. Rick is busy putting up hoops and put a frost cloth over the cauliflower. He also has been sowing cover crops. I started the brassica seeds and cared for them since July. Keeping up with seedlings on a light shelf (and then the hoop house) during the summer is not as easy as it sounds when you work outside the home and have summer veggie production going strong. All that to say, is that I did my part of it and he is building the hoops, etc. and will handle most of it for now.

I do have my hinged hoop of greens and the hoop house bed which is absolutely lovely. I'll share a picture on FB for Garden Monday in a bit. In the fall and winter, those are the things I care about most. (as far as the garden is concerned)

I hope Garry starts feeling better soon and I hope he doesn't scratch his incision again! Ouch!

Larry, my Halloween work duties are over and they all went well. I survived it all. I am super tired though. I haven't had a true day off work in about 10 days. Tomorrow is a day off and I intend to fully enjoy it, although I will be decorating for Thanksgiving and cleaning some. A day at home alone is just what I need.

And, Larry, I love what you and you neighbor are doing with your gardens. Does he make the roselle jelly to sell?

I didn't get as much done with my roselle as I would have liked, but did get a batch of jelly made. What an amazing plant though. And so pretty. It's a keeper.

Danny, Jasper is so beautiful!

Amy, we don't have trick or treaters out here either. It makes me sad.

I feel bad for people who waited until Friday or Saturday to buy Halloween things or candy. Stores were completely wiped out. I spent about 4 hours looking for items for games and activities for Sunday--nothing was left. I was able to piece together items for a few activities--but it all came from stuff that I already had. It was nuts out there.

I especially feel bad for people who maybe had to wait for Friday's paycheck to get a costume or whatnot for their kids. But, I'm sure with a little creativity they were able to put something cool together. I've never seen stores so wiped out BEFORE a holiday.

If you see something you want for Christmas, I wouldn't wait this year.

Jen, I'm so excited that Bruce is your neighbor! I can imagine how exhausted you must be.

I can't wait to see your place...and for you to start making your garden dreams happen!

Kim, your garlic looks good. I put garlic in a pot one year and it froze. Maybe cover it? Or wrap the pot?

I'm starting to put together my plan for Garden 2022. I really must be organized and focused this year. For my mental health. I'm not doing a lot of extra things or trying to squeeze stuff in random places (I'll leave that to Jen this year! LOL).

If it's not on my list of things to plant, it's not staying at my house AND I'm not stressing myself over it or trying to find a place for it.

They'll be other years for that again. 2022 is not that year. As far as food goes, I only want to grow what we'll eat and/or use for canning.

This year has been exhausting for some reason. Maybe because there wasn't much of a gardening break last year. I spent a large amount of time trying to keep frost covers over plants in random areas all over the kitchen garden. They blew off every day and I had to recover them and weight them down. Then it was time to start seed in January.

I love all of this....but I need a better plan. A plan that allows me a break so that I feel refreshed and excited to start again.

I've chosen the onions I want to grow this year. (Kim, I'll go in with you when you place your Dixondale order. )

I'm working on the tomato list now.

Does anyone have an opinion on the best paste tomato? We'll stick with the Jet Setters for diced ones. For paste we did Amish and Roma this year, but I'm not opposed to trying something different in 22.

I loved the German Johnson heirloom that I picked up from SF, so I want to get seed for that one and a couple of other heirlooms.

I have the layout done too.

The SG will be up to Rick mostly. We'll put the canning tomatoes in that bed and some beans--the rest is his choosing.

Take care, All!

Looks like we had better settle in for a long winters nap. I don't like cold wet weather, but I guess very few people do.

I have had a wonderful day. I played in the dirt a lot today, I nearly always enjoy that. I moved about 20 ton of topsoil and some large stumps, filled in the holes and leveled the ground. My neighbor came over and helped by dragging the roots out of the dirt as I tried to sort the soil and roots with the tractor. After I finish repairing the root holes, neighbor picked 20 gal. of roselle. I think he is trying to work his wife to death, she make the jelly and cooks pumpkin, and I think he does the harvesting and processing. I try to do the dirt work, because I have larger tractors.

When my neighbor came over the told me that he needed another 10 bushel of turnip greens, I'm not sure there is that many over there now, but we do have a bunch of them. By this weekend we wont anything left but greens.

This old man is tired, I think he will hit the sack.

Good night, gardening friends.

Jennifer, I just lost a long post that was mostly a reply to you. I will try again later, Madge is waking up, and I need to check if she is needing anything. She also had a big day yesterday. Madge went to Mena Ar. yesterday to take her baby sister for a drive. Baby sister had a stroke some years ago and does not get around well, and, Madge tries to do special things with her, it also give husband a chance to have some alone time. I got to have a special day also, I got to sling a lot of dirt yesterday.

I need to go to the bank today, and go pick up the tractor I bought Saturday.

I go to the Dr, tomorrow, and at least one more time this month, my test are saying that I may need treatment of some kind.

I wish I was smart enough to type in another program, and copy to Gardenweb, I am always losing post.

Well Nancy, I left my phone home a couple of times this past week (forgot it), but I still clocked 23,000 steps. It's probably enough :)

H/J, DIL went to Walmart Sat and found most costume stuff sold out. She got a makeup set, and made the 8 year old into a zombie in army fatigues. The 4 yo was a ghost. He. May have been wearing a pillowcase. BTW, the 1 yo was Mickey mouse.

Regarding candy, it probably is made with corn syrup and artificial flavors. Most people aren't in tune with their taste enough to notice. 40 years ago my oldest was on a diet that forbade artificial ingredients and preservatives. The only candy he could eat was peanut butter cups (wonder if they're still legal?) and Bit-O-Honey.

Have you grown Heidi tomatoes H/J? They are so prolific for me and better tasting than Roma or most paste tomatoes.

Larry, glad you had fun in the dirt yesterday.

Danny, I probably managed 230 steps.

We got our new weather station. We got a Davis Vantage Vue and are putting it together today. It does not connect to the internet without additional equipment. Maybe someday I'll get that. I have to read the instructions and of course it uses weird batteries.

Happy Tuesday!

San Marzano were highly recommended to me. Summer 2021 I got two Porter. Thankful for those to perpetuate my seed stash. I have been growing these for ten years. I hate to break the chain because of grasshoppers.
Larry thank you for the encouragement. I will get there. I got here and never thought that would happen. I just keep chugging along. I applied for a business grant. I believe I have a great chance. It would mean the so much to get my business off the ground.

I hope, the third time is a charm... cause I don't want to type this ONE MORE TIME! :)

I pulled all my Malibar spinach. Will NEVER grow it again. Didn't like the taste nor texture, and it grew up on EVERYTHING. Look what it did to my hands... took 5 washes with soap to get it gone.

I was out earlier watering my cold frames.

Moni it is a very beautiful color. I grew it and when I get land I will probably plant it in my wild garden section. I don’t care for the taste either. It was recommended to me to try something 21 different ways before you give up on it. Don’t know about that.

I think the birds like malibar spinach, it comes up randomly.

I have Malabar spinach, Moni, but it's in shade, and I've weeded Bermuda and crabgrass like crazy there, so it hasn't had a chance to grow crazy. Some friends gave it to me and they eat it all the time. I didn't care for it--was pretty coarse. But DID stir fry it a bit.

Did you make your cold frames (feeling certain you did)? How big are they, how many?

I am surprised that you don't remember Heidi as THE paste tomato end-all and be-all of tomatoes for Dawn, HJ. Then Amy, then a bunch of others, including me. It's Heidi for me, followed by San Marzano, so far. I WILL continue to try one new paste each year, though.

I've been thinking of get-togethers here for those of us who can do it (and Moni, who seems to be able to do ANY trip!). Seems like the challenges right now are Larry and Madge on the south end and Amy and Ron on the north end. I'm thinking any trips including the rest of us might be a bit much for you four. (OH, and should be including Eileen and Larry and Rebecca--they haven't been contributing much for a while, but they're certainly part of the group!) And Marleigh, if she'd like to be included. Danny's a ways away, but seems to be a trooper for trips. I HATE traveling, but that hatred is overcome, for now, by a desire to visit with good buds. GDW said he feels good today--I think he'll be fine in another week. Doc said to give him 2 weeks. While those who know Garry can tell those of you who don't, he's not much one for visiting or being a good company--he IS, at least, a good sport! Don't you think that's funny, Amy and Eileen and Rebecca? Good Lord--how did the two of us EVER get together!!?? And not only that, most of the time we actually enjoy each other's company! Okay--so back to a get-together--seems logical for all of us to meet here--even Moni and Danny, as far away as they are. BUT as I'm not sure Ron and Amy or Larry and Madge can do it. . . get togethers might have to be here and there, as Moni does them. I don't know--what do you all think?

I am SO tickled that you're a next door neighbor to Bruce, Jen!!! How cool is THAT! I would love being a next door neighbor to him!

I kind of overdid with the step-counting phone yesterday, Moni/Danny. I ended up with 4900 steps. . . today I forgot to carry it with me, but ended up with 2800. And didn't take any of my out-front walks. Legs ached. Probably the weather.

Well, here it is: I plan to devote a good bit of time to quilting, in the coming months. It's not like I "PLANNED" it, it just happened. I'd been more and more interested the past month--today I visited the local quilt shop and visited with them for an hour or so. (And only spent $28, on a book.) This necessarily means not much time will be spent on the 24/7 year-round gardening. No winter-sowing, very few things started on the grow cart. Very few seeds ordered. My life used to be devoted to painting. Then, mostly due to my living conditions, switched to quilting (couldn't paint in the apartment I was in due to the fumes from oil paints. . .) And then after I got down here to OK and GDW, gradually was consumed by the gardening.

SO--if any of you active folks or lurkers love quilting, get in touch with me!!

Keep in touch, friends. Hugs.

Amy, congrats on your new weather station.

I'll try Heidi. It's one y'all have been talking about for years. I'm not sure why I've never tried. I can't remember why I chose Amish Paste for this year. I'm sure there was a reason.

I'll try that and the San Marzano maybe. How did the Porter do for you, Kim?

I still have all of our paste tomatoes in the freezer. I need a full day for getting those canned.

Moni, that's how my hands looked when I pulled my Malabar spinach.

I like the plant. It's pretty. I don't mind it for eating either, but only cooked. Next year, it will go in two large pots on either side of an arch thing in the kitchen garden.

Kim, I, too, just recently saw something about trying a veggie different ways (21 times, I think) before declaring that you don't like it!

Hmmm....maybe it was Shaye Elliott that said it just recently.

Nancy, I get confused on tomato varieties for some reason. I DO remember all the chat about Heidi, but there was a specific reason I chose the Amish instead. I can't remember why, though.

And, I've not really grown paste tomatoes for sauce until this year.

Quilting is so interesting, Nancy. I tried it once, but am not good at it. Have fun with it! It seems like such a cozy thing to do in the winter.

Halloween is down. Thanksgiving is up. I don't have much Thanksgiving decor and that is good. In less than a month, the Christmas tree will be up and having less Thanksgiving decor will make the transition to Christmas easier...and quicker.

I didn't get any cleaning done. But did get caught up on laundry.

I also used one of the two remaining jars of Seminole pumpkin puree from the freezer to make pumpkin bread.

Those were such wonderful blessings to me. I used most of the 60+ pumpkins...and was so happy and delighted that they stored for as long as they did too. They were harvested in October 2019 and 7 or 8 had to be thrown away in April 2021.

Someday I hope to be able to grow them again. Dumb SVB and squash bugs.

The pumpkin bread is good.

I also chose a new soup recipe....Southwestern Corn Chowder. It's one of those fun recipes that most of the ingredients came from the garden. It's a Cookie and Kate recipe.

I did cook up some shrimp for the men in my house to add to the soup....and made rice too.

They loved it (I wasn't sure they would) . Between that meal and the pumpkin bread...well, lets just say that everyone around here are/is in good moods. Nothing like good food to make people happy.

And my house is happier when I'm home. I sure enjoyed my day off.

I didn't get much gardening done today...okay, I got no gardening done. But, the rain is giving it a decent drink.

You know....my red creole onions are sprouting and rotting. Normally they're the ones that last far into the year in storage. The others are doing fine.

My Pilates workout was tough tonight, so I'm about to take an epsom salt bath and relax.

Night!

Jennifer it was Shaye. I had quit watching her. I am not into the sponsored videos and the long videos with mostly music no narrative. But there was a video that caught my eye. Lots of content creators are doing the long music watch me work segments and I do not like it. Most of the time i am listening while I work. But I do believe in trying things many different ways before giving up.

Nancy, I could make it to your house. I don't know if I could DRIVE that long, but if Ron drives, I'd be ok. I have fresh pain pills if I need them anyway. ;)

H/J, I grew Amish paste once. I think the catalog description makes it sound good. However, performance, even as close as Missouri or Kansas can be very different than here. Mine got BER on most of the fruit and that was after waiting forever for it to fruit. Dawn used to like Speckled Roman before she tried Heidi, if you want to try more than one paste tomato.

The weather station measures rain, but not wind, LOL. The old one did wind but not rain. Rain is more important to me.

I had an appointment for for some normal female screening today and we stopped at Jersey Mike's for lunch. I had an Italian hoagie.

Tomorrow I have regular appointment with cardiologist. May go to Bartlesville sun as it is sister's birthday.

Kim, I understand about the music and little narrative in videos. I do like those, though. I really do. They are relaxing to me, I think. I just can't watch them when I'm sleepy. haha.

I do not like all the sponsored stuff so usually skip over it. I understand why they do the sponsors. This is how they make their living...and I can appreciate that. I have yet to pay for any videos, though, not even R & R. I guess they have patreon? I know they have their show and it's a pay to watch thing.

You know... I'm having a difficult time getting into the channel (I hate to mentions names, but you know who I'm talking about) that bought their little farm in Arkansas. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's her voice? I am disappointed too! She seems like a perfectly lovely young woman. And it is probably stressful trying to live up to what used to be there.

R & R types of videos are different from Shaye's for sure. I follow a couple of other people and their content is more curated like Shaye's.. I like both kinds. A lot of it depends on the person IN the video. Shaye and Jessica are two that people are attracted to...for whatever reason. And, they are very different from each other.

I'm rambling and need to wrap it up here at work and get home.

Amy, my Amish Paste actually did okay. The plants were odd...and I don't really know how to explain it--sorta leggy and wild?

But, I feel like it's not the paste tomato for me. So, on to the next.

(maybe it was the catalog description that caused me to chose it?)

Jennifer
The you tubers get paid from ads. Even if we don’t watch the ad. There are people who sub to YouTube as free for like ten a month. That money goes to you tubers.
I do know who you are talking about and I can’t watch her either. Darling family but I just can’t do it. I can’t watch anyone who talks super fast either. I love Liz Zorab. In fact I bought her book. Fascinating lady.
I noticed Shays husband doesn’t get in the conversation anymore and I think that’s what drew me to her. Having conversation made it more homey. Since I do not watch tv this my entertainment. I have a wonderful list of people I watch.

This is a couple of pictures of my mystery sweet potatoes. I have taken other pictures, but cant get them to post. I think these sweet potatoes mated with Moni's spinach.

These are gorgeous. One of my favorite. Beautiful and so moist

Kim, do you know what it might be? I looked at pictures and "Stokes" looked the closest.

Maybe George will be on here to tell what kind of purple potatoes he has grown. The first one we cooked was cooked with a chopped up butternut. The dish was very pretty, but the hunks of the red sweet potato looked like meat. The dish was sweet, but it looked more like a roast. My grand daughter made something like mashed potatoes, with garlic and other seasoning, and they lover it.

Wow, those sweet potatoes cook up that color ? or is that raw ? I'd almost be afraid to eat something so vibrant (in nature bright colors usually are warnings of toxicity).

I was musing on what I could accomplish today after the sun comes up and the plan is to get rid of the old pale/dull iris that came with the house and replant with my potted iris (from this spring's order).

It also made me muse on fall bulbs. Last year, I planted sprouting bulbs after Thanksgiving, due to shipping issues last year and it looks like I'm likely to be doing the same this year. Brent and Becky's website has a note saying that due to slow shipping and high volumes, any new orders will go out in December. It definitely was too late to plant last year...*sigh*. Things didn't perform well.

Danny, yes, the sweet potato was baked. I did think about toxicity, but the plants were very healthy, it was new ground, second planting, had grown butternut squash the year before. I had my helper to till up part of the lawn next to the south garden. The crop before was very healthy, all of these plants were very healthy. I do think I got two kinds of sweet potatoes mixed together. I got two, of what we thought were Oklahoma Red sweet potatoes to make slips from, but I expect I got one Oklahoma Red, and one something else. Which I am glad, what ever they are, they are easy to tell from the Oklahoma Reds, and they produce slips like crazy.

If any of you want slips next spring, I plan on having plenty, I have already started some of the mystery plants, and the Red Wine Velvet. The Red Wine Velvet were slow for me to get slips from last year (only got two very productive slips from), those two slips gave me around 30 # of potatoes.

As I sit here thinking about these strange sweet potatoes, and their color. I think back to early spring, when I had my helper till this spot to get it ready for the sweet potatoes. The ground had fall winter crops on it, which included a 2' wide row of Detroit Red beets that I had not harvested yet. I ask my helper to till everything EXCEPT the beets. To make a long story, short, I ended up with a bunch of sliced beets, maybe all the beet juice was soaked up by the sweet potatoes.

Well, I have work to do, but it is still 43* outside, I am a wimp, I will do something in the house.

Larry was the skin purple, red, white, or tan

Kim, the skin was sort of a red wine color, that was one reason that I thought it might be the Red Wine Velvet, but it is not. George sent me a picture of the Red Wine Velvet, and they are just as I had marked.

The mystery potato turns darker when cooked. Madge has not cooked any of the other sweet potatoes I have grown this year, we are sill trying to cure the sweet potatoes in the house. I am just not set up to cure anything.

Larry
Molokai – Dark purple skin and flesh, very high in antioxidants, rampant vines, heart shaped leaves. Originally from Hawaii. Roots can be used for natural purple dye. Excellent keeper. Huge production of long, crooked roots which look almost black. Flavor is “purple.” Some adore these, some don’t like them.

Kim, thanks. I will wait and see if George grew these. I grew Covington, Ok. Red, and these. I have grown Covington for several years, the mystery potato and Ok. Red came from George. I grow my own slips, and, the 3 above were the only potatoes I had to harvest slips from.

This my wildlife garden, showing most of my turnip greens. I notice the neighbor over there and went over to see if he could help me get a message on my phone. He was unable to help, but did say he was needing 4 bushels of turnip greens.

Larry you got me beat with a stick with all those turnip greens. Mine is still getting over the dry heat from earlier on.

Rick

Rick, the ones at the house are prettier than these, but they are in the south garden where I can water them easily, and have well amended soil.

My beets are not doing too well. I dont seem to do well with fall beets. I did not get a good stand, and I am on pins and needles, because the deer will eat the beets the first chance they get.

I hope you turnips start doing better, we had a very long dry spell, but plenty wet now.

Larry. This is one of George’s from the list he sent me when I ordered. I forgot to clarify. I looked at that list and this one sounds closest. Purple sweets are my favorite.

Kim, thanks, it has to be a keeper, everything I get from George is. If you want slips, I can send you some next year, or, send you a couple of potatoes now now so you can make your own slips, More often than not, I just cut the sprouting end off a sweet potato Madge is cooking for a meal, and just place it in wet potting soil. That way I get to eat most of my " slip potato ". The 2 potatoes I got from George produced over 80 slips.

If you folks want to see the area that we hiked Monday, here's a link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14XsZx5p4Pd1RXiBtmddpHNjtkGh1SpDw?usp=sharing

Please note some may appear to be duplicates..and they are (in the sense that they're from the same exposure), but the ones named like _Balanced (at the bottom of the list of files) are HDR enhanced with a program that I use. Most people agree those are better than the originals, but I left the originals (thus the duplicates) in the mix too. Beware there are like 53 files...so allow some time :)

We hiked several miles (some of which were somewhat off path...ie a old lumber road) and saw spectacular sights. The colors were the best I've ever managed to catch there (it's hard to find autumn foliage on the right days). Unfortunately the rain came about five hours earlier than forecast and caught us at least a mile from the car. And I with my asthma simply can't go that far that fast (especially uphill), so we had to stop in the rain. I wouldn't have blamed Moni if she just high-tailed it to the car, but she stayed with me. We didn't get *that* wet really, not dripping wet, for going that far, but boy it got cold when it was raining on us at 50F.
A good time was had by both of us though, and I feel sure we'd be open to doing it again. We could have planned better (rain, water, food)...afterwards I gave Amazon close to $100 for a hydration backpack, disposable rain ponchos, and a dog seat cover (lol...not related to trip..but to dog activities in car).

Today, we got the heavy frost and freeze....it's pretty much over now. I am hoping one particularly late aster (not yet opened even) is tolerant enough to pass through and bloom on the other side of the freeze. All my summering houseplants were moved Tuesday to the back porch. I need to clear off the table where they'll spend the winter in the laundry room and move them (hopefully today). I also started hacking old fashioned pale blue and pale yellow irises from the front yard, because I ordered (and have in pots) some very nice new hybrids all of which are striking and most of which have the potential for autumn rebloom. I need to get them into the real ground (vs their pots).

Larry Thank you so much. Maybe slips in the spring if you don’t mind. In this tiny space I run out of room quickly storing things. My seed collection is out of control

Danny, the pictures are really nice.

Kim. I will plan on sending slips when you are ready.

I enjoyed the pics--I'll catch them again, as I decided I need a nap. You're really inspiring me, Danny and Moni! I appreciate hearing about the hikes!

Larry thank you. I appreciate that. This year I ended up with one bushel but really I would say half bushel of good size tubers.

Kim, I like the smaller ones better. I got into the habit of saving the smaller ones for our fur baby, he loved sweet potatoes, but as he got older I had to chew them up for him because he had so few teeth.

I just got in from the south garden, I have sweet potatoes growing every where. The ground was so hard I could not even start to dig the potatoes at harvest time, and when I plowed them up I missed and broke a lot of them, then when I tilled it, I chopped many into smaller pieces, and I think every piece sprouted. I dug up several of the purple pieces that had sprouted and placed in a pot for one of Madge's daughters. She is crazy about the color purple, and I think she wears that color every day. I though that the sweet potatoes would make a good house plant for this winter.

Before I was in the south garden, I was in the wildlife garden, it looks as tho I have garlic growing over there. I did not plant any garlic over there, it must have fallen off my rtv some time after harvested in the south garden While over there I also noticed that I had about 16 pumpkins that still had some green on them, they will have to be picked soon, it was down to 33* this morning, with frost on the roofs, winter is knocking on our door.

Asparagus ???

Have any of you ever grown any from seed? I have lovely red seeds on my plants at the moment, two have changed to brown, and I pulled them off.. Am thinking I should plant them.

Moni

Moni, I am so unorganized I think I would want to have a special place to start the seed so I would not forget to keep an eye on the environment, from what I red, it can be a slow process.

30 degrees on the min/max, and light frost on the ground. I expect all the summer stuff is done, but for it to be 11-06-21, the frost may be a little late. Last year it was quite a bit earlier.

Moni, I winter sowed asparagus 5 or 6 years ago. I don't think the red Berry is the seed, but the fruit, with a seed inside. You WILL get asparagus weeds all over next year. I think you could sow the fruit without removing the seed for that reason.

The purple sweet potato is cool, but I fear my husband wouldn't enjoy it. He is sold on purple tomatoes, but that might be more than he can handle.

Have a good weekend.

I had my first real frost last night. Not too heavy.
I have a bunch of sweet potatoes the size of my finger so I was going to fry them like French fries

Kim, let me know how that works for you. We also got a lot of "french fry" sized sweet potatoes. I'm not a fan of sweet potato fries, but Tom likes them a lot. I mentioned to Rick that I should make all of those small ones into fries. Great minds...right?

Larry, I've not done anything yet with my sweet potatoes. I won't this coming week, but will put them on the menu for the following week. Then, of course, the week after is Thanksgiving and I'll more-than-likely make a sweet potato casserole.

We've so far dodged a frost or freeze.

Moni, I've not started asparagus from seed, but they sprout all over my property. I think that's what is sprouting. They get pulled or mowed if they're out of their two raised beds, though.

Danny, thanks for sharing your pictures. I love to hike but my feet are so messed up that I'm afraid to try much of a hike any longer.

I don't know what else to do about my feet. I've been to a podiatrist and have inserts for my shoes and buy expensive, orthopedic type of shoes. Thank goodness those are somewhat attractive now-a-days. lol

I'm not overweight, but am trying to lose a bit more. (I'm down to about 121 so it's harder to lose much more without extremes.) So, weight shouldn't be too much of a problem for my feet.

Super frustrating, but we all have frustrations, I guess, right?

Last night, Rick pruned all of his super hots and took half to his house to try to keep them alive over the winter. There's more in the greenhouse, though. I can't afford to heat a greenhouse so I'm pretty sure the peppers won't survive the winter in there.

We have a "big trash" pick up coming to our house next week, so we're pulling out all the junk and sorting through it. Tom worked today and we have dinner plans with friends tonight, so we'll have to hustle to get it all to the "curb" by Monday. (We don't have curbs out here. lol)

It's gonna feel good to get all that junk out of the shop. It will be good to be organized somewhat. We had it almost organized until the bathroom remodel. If we were in town, most of the stuff we're putting to the "curb" would probably be picked up by individuals.

Once we get the junk out, I'll let Juno out of her enclosure and she will have the entire 1200 sq ft shop to roam around in at night. She's doing pretty well with her new arrangement. I bring her in during the evening and we cuddle and all. She's usually ready to go back to her spot around 10 or so.

I brought the succulents indoors last night and put the citrus tree in the shop. We'll bring it to the house soon. I need help carrying the pot.

Kim, the fig tree that you gave to me has grown, but just recently lost it's leaves. It has been up-potted. Do you think it should be brought inside? Do you think it died? I realize they probably lose their leaves in the fall.

Personally....life is a lot right now. Jobs, friends, and we have some crisis in our extended family that really is just so sad and my heart is broken.

All of this makes me feel like I should have done more, known more, been more.

It really is hard to be everything to everyone. I feel like people are often disappointed that I can't be who they imagined me to be. Or are disappointed that I can't give them the attention and time that they need.

It's a lot.

Can't believe a new week starts tomorrow already! I was just having a cheerful lunch with my Mom on Sunday....and it's been nearly a week. Seems like a couple of days. Who knew that our lives would be turned upside down. Life was easier last Sunday.

Jennifer I am thankful no one is tugging on me. My grand kids get my best. Right now I don’t take care of myself. Fig tree... I would bring it in. If the roots freeze you would lose it. Sweet potatoes fries... I need to find some pure lard first. I have tried oven frying in evoo and they were terrible. Dried out too quick. After finding out that I was not chosen for the grant I needed a day outside. My granddaughter and I harvested seeds to plant. Crepe myrtle, burr oak, pecan, butterfly and I dig a few spider lilies at my daughters.
Came home dug sweets, planted grape hyacinth and spider lilies in giant pot. Now I rest