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Oklahoma Gardening

January 2022, Week 2: When the Cows come home

last year

last modified: last year

I dunno what the title means, just was what came into my empty mind.

I am on the fated recovery trail, I slept early and got up about midnight. I took the dogs out and didn't cough or blow for the first twenty minutes. That's quite an improvement of getting up because I'm non-stop coughing. I'm not well, but I'm definitely headed in that direction.

I was a bit surprised to find a light rain this morning that wasn't on the forecast, but it's still welcome after the summer/fall drought.

The temperatures look as if they are moderating after the bitterly cold last week. That's of course subject to change, as it always is.

It's approaching time to think about starting the earliest/neediest seeds toward the end of the month. I will try to resist starting anything too early though. I only last week moved the house plants from the back porch where they were cold and semi-dormant to the laundry room where I can more easily water (saucers) and a bit brighter and slightly warmer. Maybe in March it'll look safe to move them outside again, we shall see.

I attended the first WIld Ones meeting since March 2020 this week. Darn the waves of Covid have sure changed things. I still can't dine in at Wendy's (or any other fast food place)..whether that is pandemic or staff shortages, I don't know. And french fries aren't very good by the time I get them cold...so I'm not spending money there. Everyone I know pretty much has had at least one bout of Covid now.

Featured Answer

dbarron
Original Author

last year

last modified: last year

Regarding insects, their natural predators (if you haven't killed them with pesticides etc), will rein them in during the normal growing season (this year was obviously abnormal, and allowed growth after predators dead for the year). Aphids have a leg-up being born pregnant and fertile and most generations don't even require a male.

Umm, jumping on the anti-till bandwagon, which I seem to remember Dawn started praising in latter years. Tilling with a tractor,tiller, etc is just destroying soil structure, good bacteria/fungi, and bringing buried weed seeds to the fore. Even when I was going to school, the science was you should avoid it wherever possible and just do something like lasagna beds over top of existing vegetation to get the most benefit, least soil-degradation, and most fertility. Given that, I'm not sure if these theories allowed for bermuda grass.

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Comments (64)

slowpoke_gardener
last year
Jen, if you and Hubby get a tractor, you will love it as much as he does. The Smaller tractors are around 25 horse power, about the same as a riding mower. Most small tractors are sold with a hydrostatic drive, which is a breeze to use. The front end loader will take a few times to get use to, but they are great for carrying compost, supplies, and firewood. I even use mine to lift the riding mower so I can work on the bottom side of it.
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January 2019, Week 2, Making Grow Lists & Checking Them Twice
Q
Comments (69)
Rebecca, I am happy your drought is gone too, but sorry this dreary weather contributes to your aches and pains. I am hoping for warmer, drier weather for all of us, but not sure when we are going to get it. January always seems like the dreariest month to me. Stock will grow here, but it is pretty picky, and I have better results from it when I plant it in October or November which is the same time here in my area that you can plant pansies, flowering kale, flowering cabbage, dianthus, and snapdragons. Stock is not only a cool-season plant, but it is a bit pickier about the cool weather than some other cool-season plants seem to be. For example, dianthus goes in and out of bloom cycles here pretty much year-round, whether the temperatures are high are low. Stock doesn't do that. Stock blooms when the weather is cool, period. I believe it has to have temperatures in the 60s in order to set flowers and bloom. Once your temperatures are hotter, then it is pretty much done. If you can find some transplants in flower or ready to flower and plant them in early Spring, you can get a few weeks to a few months of bloom from it if the weather cooperates. I like stock but don't plant it often in Spring as we get too hot too early down here most years. It also tolerates cold less well than the other plants I mentioned above, so may need to be covered up in the winter and early spring on nights going very far below 32 degrees. It will tolerate some light frosts but not real heavy ones. Lupines? I haven't tried the ones that grow in northern parts of the country as I don't think they'd do well in our hot summers but I grow the kind of lupines that God gave us....Lupinus texensis, aka Texas bluebonnets. They either are perennial here or reseed in our clay, and some years we get big stands of them and other years we have smaller stands. Our clay really is too dense for them here at our house and I knew that when I planted them, but I figured that maybe if I was foolish enough to sow the seeds and plant them here, then maybe they would be foolish enough to grow and bloom at least a little bit....and they do. I also have grown the red-flowered variety of Lupinus texensis called Alamo Fire and it does pretty well here. In our area, all kinds of Texas bluebonnets do better from seed sown in the fall than in the spring. The bluebonnet seeds have a hard shell and sprout sporadically over a period of a couple of years. I do see fairly large (maybe one gallon, maybe two gallon) pots of Russell hybrid type lupines in stores each spring. They have them around the same time they have delphiniums in bloom in large pots, so maybe in April. To me, these are the kinds of things you buy, bring home and plant for instant impact, and you do so knowing they are likely to be relatively short-lived in our heat. If you don't expect them to thrive and flourish in our heat and can be content just to enjoy them while they last, I don't see anything wrong with buying them and planting them. I suppose they could be a big disappointment if a person bought them thinking they would bloom all summer. Yet, you never know---what if we had a cooler than average summer and they did bloom and survive? Cool summers aren't common here, but we had one in 2015. Nancy, I've grown Drummond's Phlox here and it did okay, but not well enough that I continued growing it. Drummond's Phlox is one of the smaller varieties and it needs well-drained sandy soil (which I really cannot give it). As for the taller garden type phlox, there's a handful of heirloom types that thrive here---we had someone in our neighborhood in Ft Worth whose home was just surrounded by the old magenta-flowering one grown back in the 1960s and prior. I don't know the name of it. There's a few of the taller garden phlox, like the variety "David", bred to be mildew-tolerant, but I haven't grown any of those. Jennifer, We have a fenced chicken run. We always have had one. I wouldn't have a chicken coop without one. I believe our run with the only coop now in use (we have four coops, and each has a fully enclosed chicken run) is 10' x 20' and it is fully covered in sturdy fencing, including a fence type roof. The chickens are fine when they are in it, but they hate being confined because they are used to free-ranging. I think that if they never were allowed to free-range, they wouldn't know what they were missing and they'd be content to be in the chicken run. We have lost more chickens to predators in the last 5 years than we did in the first 15 years, and I'm just done with that. If we buy more chickens, they are not going to be allowed to free range because it really is just setting them up to eventually become some predator's meal. Our predator problem probably is 20 times worse now than it was when we moved here. As land a few miles from us continues to develop, the wildlife gets pushed upriver to us. We have to change how we manage our chickens, or there's no point in having them any more. Tim is gone from home roughly 14 hours a day on work days, so he barely sees the chickens except on weekends and he is out of touch with our current reality with regards to the predator issues. I wish we were in a nice, quiet semi-rural neighborhood where chickens can free range and be relatively safe within their own yard, but we live in a wildlife jungle. It would help if I could convince him to fence our entire yard, but he hates fences with a passion. I don't know how to have chickens any more without an 8' tall fence around the whole yard. Dawn
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January 2020, Week 2
Q
Comments (50)
Jen, I'd start out by buying one of those inexpensive indoor Min/Max thermometers that Wal-Mart sells (the store nearest us has them with rain gauges on a row right beside the paint aisle) and put that out in the garage. Check it daily for a week or two and log your results and you'll know pretty quickly what the temperature range is in there. Then, you can make choices accordingly. With a light shelf, up to a certain point, the fluorescent lights create their own heat. When I have all five shelves on my light shelf in use (2 4' long light fixtures per shelf, with 2 tubes per fixture, so a total of 20 4' long fluorescent light tubes in use at once), they heat up a standard bedroom so much that I have to keep the blinds closed to exclude heat from the sun, the ceiling fan running 24/7, and the HVAC vent into that room closed and the room still heats up about 15-20 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Sometimes I have to open a window to cool down the room because if it stays too warm, the plants grow too quickly and outgrow the light shelf while it still is cold outdoors. I haven't used one in an unheated space like a garage, so I am not sure how much they would heat up the garage overall, but they should at least keep the plants near them pretty warm. Of course, if you use LED lights, you won't get the heat. I would think if y'all keep the garage doors closed, that would help hold in the heat. Our detached shop/garage is very well-insulated but not heated, and it will stay around 18 to 20 degrees inside even when we are in the single digits outdoors. That is why I have been able to over-winter some tropical type plants, like brugmansias, inside that building some years, but I haven't raised seedlings in there. Before I had a greenhouse, I often would move the tomato plants out to the garage once they were outgrowing the light shelf, so probably in March, and they did fine in the unheated garage even though we had some freezing cold nights. If you find your garage gets too chilly, you could try taping space blankets (those shiny ones that look a bit like aluminum foil, often sold in camping section at Wal-Mart) to the back and sides of your shelving unit to reflect the lights' heat and light back onto the plants to keep them warmer. Having the shelf enclosed on 3 sides but with the 4th side open for good air flow should ensure the seedlings stay healthy. Amy, I'm sorry you and Ron are stuck with lingering illness and hope your health continues to improve. dbarron, I just hate that your wet soil means there are plants you cannot grow. My dry soil does the same thing to me, lol, but at least I can add moisture (up until the point that the water bill gets too scary) to my dry soil, while you have no way, unfortunately, of vacuuming up all the excess moisture to get it out of your soil. Am I the only one who things we all are crazy to try to grow plants we love in our erratic weather? As soon as I figure out which plants (including natives) will tolerate a dry year with 19" of rain as well as an excessively wet one with 78" of rain, I'll let y'all know. All I've learned so far is that plants that will tolerate the 19" year generally die in the 78" year and vice versa, and that does include many natives. So, even the natives here ebb and flow and completely disappear at times. It can take them years and years for them to come back after either a very dry or a very wet year. Why can't they all be like Johnson grass and just live through it all? Nothing kills that Johnson grass. Amy, The native sunflowers here don't take over. They do aggressively reseed sometimes, but generally the first ones to grow and get taller pretty much shade out the shorter ones and that is the end of that. The ones that are shaded out just fade away on their own, and the taller ones grow, bloom and reseed. Nancy, You can do it! Just organize your thoughts, speak with authority and encourage everyone with love. Your presentation will be great, and your messages will come shining through. Jennifer, My experience is that coyotes will come back daily for a while once they find a potential food source, so keep your eyes open. They seem to go in spurts, so will be around a while, and then will disappear for a while as they move on to a potentially better hunting area. January and February are usually the worst months for them. Moni, That is just more work than I am going to do for fruit! I am at the point now that either it grows and produces, or it doesn't. Larry, Partridge peas are easy. They grow equally well in sandy soil or clay here, shrug off both excess rain and heat/drought, reseed themselves, and attract tons of pollinators. They do have a slight tendency to be invasive, so keep them out of your good soil. They are perfectly happy in native soil that is not amended. I had one pop up in a raised bed in the garden once, reseeded from a nearby pasture and I thought I'd just leave it there for the pollinators. Well, in the good soil it grew three times as large as they do out in the pastures and started taking over everything, so I had to hurry up, cut it back before it could reseed, and dig it out before it became too well-established for me to ever get rid of it. I had a hard time digging it out and it only had been there a couple of months---those roots went deeply and they had spread out very wide. Lesson learned! Our weather has been bonkers. We awakened to 68 degrees yesterday and it felt like a May morning with lots of good moisture in the air. Then, over the next 24 hours we had this: light rain at first, severe thunderstorms, tornado warnings, kids stuck at school in tornado shelters after school had ended for the day because of tornado warnings coming our way from Texas that made it risky to let the kids leave the schools, heavy rainfall near dinner time, flash flooding, flooding, hail, more rain, more flooding, high winds and, eventually, temperatures that fell like a rock, wind chills down near 10 degrees, freezing temperatures, sleet and snow. The sun just came out a few minutes ago, sort of....it is peeking out from behind clouds sporadically, so our temperature just now made it up all the made to 33 degrees and the sleet and snow are melting. We aren't expected to make it out of the 30s today, but the warm-up begins again tomorrow and we're supposed to be in the 60s next week. It is a good day to stay home, stay indoors and avoid all the mud, the muck and the mess. Lunch is going to be homemade chili, served with shredded cheese sprinkled on top and crackers on the side. I didn't even have to make the chili this morning because not too long ago I made a big batch and froze it in 2-cup portions in plastic freezer boxes, so all I had to do was defrost it and heat it up. The roads are a mess here, with icy overpasses and ice on elevated roadways and people sliding off into bar ditches, medians, roadsides and such. On the Texas side of the river, where heavier snow and sleet fell, the roads between here and Denton are a mess. Just over the river in Texas, on I-35, roads southbound out of OK are closed down by numerous semi trucks jack-knifed near the Red River. At times, the traffic backup extends into our county, so no one really is able to head southbound into Texas from here this morning. I imagine it will take a while to get all the semis towed and the roadways reopened. Like I said, a great day to stay home....not that we have a lot of choice in the matter. Have a great day everybody and stay warm. Dawn
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January 2022 - Veggie Tales
Q
Comments (94)
We've been dealing for 3 days with snow, maybe 5 or 6 inches total. And went to -2 recently. When the skies are clear and it's too cold to snow it goes way down, and then we get more snow with a much warmer temperature. Take your pick. I blew the snow off the walks and the car with a snow blower. I ordered seeds today from Baker Creek. Four different lettuce varieties, none of them the Black Seeded Simpson I always grow. So I went to pay with a gift card and noticed there was a very small balance, enough to order one more package of seed. So I added Long Island Cheese Pumpkin as a gift to the person who gave me the card. Suddenly sales tax shows up on the order which wasn't there without Long Island being involved?? To confirm I looked at two orders I made last year, no sales tax?? I plan on growing the 2 eight foot rows of Black seeded Simpson and 4 half rows of the new lettuce looking for tasty lettuce that perhaps doesn't bolt till later than the BSS. I wouldn't order the seed but my heart problem seems to be disappearing. I'm getting no where near the shortness of breath and have much more energy.
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January 2022, Week 3 ALREADY... where does the time go?
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Comments (49)
Larry, I love your heart for animals. I would be the same way. When the neighbors' animals come up to our fence (or our backdoor) even if I'm running late to work, I'll stop to give them treats and/or feed them. And I also LOVE that Madge started music lessons at 80. She is quite the woman. Very inspiring. Amy, I'm glad you're home and hope you're feeling better too. I don't like a lot of clutter, so don't save everything BUT there's certain things that I do tend to hoard--weird things. It does feel good to clean out doesn't it, Kim? Feels fresh and ready for something new. Again, congrats on your job. (I know we talked on messenger, but I feel like saying it here too!) I'm glad you'll get a day of cuddles with your grandkids on your day off. Nancy, I don't even know what a Rocketbook is. haha. Jen, can't wait to see this tractor. I'm still absolutely excited for you...for your property and tractor and new adventures. Megan, love it when you check in here. I like reading about your garden plans. I'll have to research peasant gardens. I can't store sweet potatoes in the bathtub. I use my bathtub every night. We got a new soaker tub last year and love it so much. I know a lot of people aren't soakers and a bathtub is just wasted space. Glad that it's being used for something productive. Moni, did you ever find a place for your sweet potatoes? I've been around, just busy with life. I was sick a couple of weeks ago. Everyone around me had the virus, so there's no reason to think that I didn't have it. Not bad. Just fever for a couple of days and fatigue. Not much gardening really. Just harvesting from the greens bed for daily salads. Rick is still puling turnips and rutabaga from the SG. We had a bit of broccoli to harvest and I'm still eating on it. Usually put it on the salads. The turnips too. The sauerkraut turned out lovely. I didn't get much, but I'm happy to have what we got. I just put cucumbers in the crock today to practice with fermenting pickles. Obviously, I purchased these cukes. Oh! I saw a seed rack at Walmart. They are beginning to get their seed starting stuff in. I bought a new seed tray with peat pellets. It holds 72, so I'll do half cabbage/broccoli and half lettuce/kale. That's probably all I'll do for the spring,, other than onions (and Rick will do potatoes and peas in the SG). Last night, I got all my seeds ordered for the year. Our budget is really tight right now, so I had to wait. Seems like the cost of everything went up last year. I am excited to get those seeds ordered, though. It's only 6. I should get those greens and brassicas started!
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Kim Reiss
last year
Megan I would do cole crops and cover immediately with agribon. That’s what I have to do. Jen I am a little jealous. Please do plant fruit trees. You won’t regret it. Pecans would be good , cash crop
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
last year
I was going to say cover cole crops, too, but check regularly that something wasn't in the soil.

I think some kind of tractor may be necessary for 5 acres. Discuss tilling with Bruce. Soil should be similar. It may need amendments tilled in to begin with.

Nancy, have you looked at nolo bait for grasshoppers? You want to do that early.

Monday. My days are messed up. Thought it was Sunday.

Have a good week, stay healthy.
slowpoke_gardener
last year
I went to get my heart monitor installed this morning and stopped by the Farmers Co-op on the way home. I doubt that they have ordered spring inventory yet because they were out of a lot of items. I bought 3 bags of pro mix, one bag each of 46-0-0 and 10-20-10. The fertilizers were not my first choice, but I did want something to give the plants a little boost, especially in the wildlife garden. I will try to work compost into the soil, but if you have 2 or 3 acres you need a lot of compost. I have no idea what the supply chain will be like around planting time.
Kim Reiss
last year
This year I am covering entire garden. I should have enough row cover and I will get insect netting if needed. It won’t be the prettiest but it will produce.
I am trying to fashion greenhouse out of what I have here. Except for plastic I think I can do a little one. I have space heater to keep it warm. I am planting winter sowing and some starts in the greenhouse.
Nancy RW (zone 7)
last year
Yes, like Kim's idea on the agribon. Which reminds me. THIS year I vow to grow cabbages without caterpillars. It's something Garry and I both like, so I'll plant lots. Here and at the school.

I have two things to get done today. Get my list of shrubs, and finish my seed spreadsheet. Oops 3-5 things. Washed hair, washed bed sheets, got shrubs list updated. . . not seeds yet. Then sidetracked. Needing to continue on job for friend. Rats. I guess the updated seeds spreadsheet will be waiting.

We have to go do BA tomorrow for Garry's 2nd carotid artery appt. Maybe I can get spreadsheet done in the morning. And will work on getting the shrubs/trees list completed. If any of you want, go ahead and start the "Native Shrubs and Understory Trees" thread. Otherwise, I'll get it up in a day or two.

Kim, sure hoping something good happens for you, soon! You need gardening place! And a fun job? Take care, everyone.
jlhart76
last year
So here's the Google map shot of the property. The red line is our property lines. Yellow is the dog yard. The green line just behind the house is where I plan to put the garden, the building behind that is our storage shed. There's another huge building to the right that's really too big for what we need. Plus it doesn't have electric or windows and it just has dirt floor. Cliff's buddy wants it, so if we can come to an agreement on cost the plan is to sell it to him. Then get me a garden shed with electric & water so I have a dedicated place for seed starting. Everything to the north & east of the house is what looks like hayfield. Plenty of space for trees where they'll be out of power lines, and not a threat to our house or the neighbor on the west.

This is a closer pic of the garden area. At some point I'll get it fenced but at least this year it's open. The shed is 30ft wide, and from the shed to the fence is probably 60ft. So more room than I've ever had for gardening. Right now I'm playing around with layouts, trying to decide how big to make them.
dbarron
Original Author
last year
Start small vs over-commiting yourself (imo).
jlhart76
last year
Lol yep. Best advice Dawn ever gave me., & it's served me well. It's really tempting to just dig up the whole area & go crazy, but I know that will be a mistake in the end.
slowpoke_gardener
last year
Jen, I agree with Danny, start small, but allow a lot of room to grow, especially if you get a tractor. Cliff will want to just go out and play on the tractor. The easiest and most fun things to do on a tractor are make a garden, mow, and work on the drive way. If you have a drainage problem, a tractor can be used for that also.

I think my fuel bill went up just looking at your picture, I can feel the wind in my face and smell diesel smoke. The wind is a little cold but I think I will have to just go out and fire up the small Kubota, there is always something to do with a tractor. I just may need to go down to the creek and get a bucket of gravel for the driveway.
dbarron
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
I meant to come back and edit that above comment, but since I didn't (lol), here's another.

My great aunt used to garden in about 3 raised beds of something like 12x6 each. It was simply amazing what she would harvest and can each year from those areas.

So, conceivably you can get a great and bountiful harvest from not that much space. Leaving you much less work clearing and caring for it. I suppose that probably takes planning on crop sowing, harvest, replanting, etc. But I've ALWAYS found that careful planning is better than just going crazy. :)

So...make plans, figure out how much space you need for your goals and remember you can expand next year if you find you want more.
OklaMoni
last year
When the Cows come home, or when Moni plants her trees... LOL

I planted an Arkansas Black apple tree, and a grape vine... (to lazy now to look up what kind).

Yes, that meant, dig up Bermuda grass first.. in my case. All done, planted, and watered... and I am done too. LOL

Moni
dbarron
Original Author
last year
I love Arkansas Blacks, they're very late to ripen and keep well and flavorful.

I'm giving up and scheduling a dr visit, Moni. Because I relapsed yesterday..again.
slowpoke_gardener
last year
Danny, maybe I could go to the dr. for you, they like me. I had an appointment last Wed., one today, and two this coming Thursday.
jlhart76
last year
Yes, yes, yes...make a plan and stick (somewhat) to it. Sadly, I just can't seem to follow through with that. Every year I have grand intentions, and, well, y'all have seen my seed horde.

Realistically, I know I can clear out one, maybe two, 4x8 beds by spring. I also have the circle bed in front that needs to be cleared of landscape rocks (Cliff's first project once we get a tractor). That I plan to just toss out a bunch of flowers and see what grows this year, then next year plant with intention. So knowing realistically I have those 2 beds, plus my bucket brigade, I know what I ought to plant for this year. But it's still fun dreaming of having some huge mammoth garden to grow everything I never had room to grow.
OklaMoni
last year
Good Grief Danny... yes, go to the doctor. If I don't feel better, cough less by Wednesday I will do the same.

Moni
Nancy RW (zone 7)
last year
last modified: last year
Wow! I'm updating spreadsheet this morning and ran into a bunch of native plant seeds. Glad to be doing it--I quick have to get them thrown in the freezer! AAGH. I'm going to include them with the Bushes, though I'll keep the bushes separate.

I just lost the entire post ! Oh my gosh. Don't have time to redo it now. I'll have to do it later. But I can put a starter list of the shrubs and plants, at least.
dbarron
Original Author
last year
Is your freezer full Nancy ? (*lol*).
Nancy Waggoner
last year
Hahaha, not even, Dbarron. I am downsizing with veggies this year, if not with $$ spent in ordering native shrubs. I will be spending maybe 1/10 of what I usually spend. I simply don't need more stuff. I have finally come to grips with what we can actually eat. And with regard to flower beds, they're full of perennials and self seeders. AND if someone can tell me how to destroy Bermuda, then perhaps I can enlarge beds, but that doesn't seem likely. Only tomato I'm ordering is Egg Yolk. Not ordering any peppers. And I have 19 varieties of each on my spreadsheet. But won't grow more than 2-4 varieties.

GDW and I went to Broken Arrow today for his appointment with heart surgeon. We really like this doc, and he said GDW could wait for 1-2 years before considering carotid artery surgery on right side (had surger on the left side 3 mos ago). I so appreciated Rick's threads on potatoes and onions--good stuff--and thank you.
dbarron
Original Author
last year
You know...I find myself feeling like I should be buying things, and enjoying looking, but not buying anything.

I think it's because I already have it all (lol) that will tolerate my conditions. Since I just have the most abyssmal conditions for most vegetables, they're out. Oh, I found my favorite liatris got holed (hollow) by slugs this year, so that's my reward for trying to harbor more dry loving plants on mounds. They still get predated on by the herbaceous predators.

The mole hills this winter (argh)...well I suppose I'm providing native habitat for moles.
OklaMoni
last year
I continually find posts higher up, that were not there the day before. This is so WEIRD.

Today is my alternate exercise day... aka, dig up more Bermuda grass, and whack away some more on the stumps from the bushes I cut down to the ground. Looks like it will be a perfect day for that. ;)

Moni
dbarron
Original Author
last year
Yes, Moni, I gave up, I am not going to reread the whole column to see if I missed something. Ridiculous ;)
slowpoke_gardener
last year
Moni, you must be a very special person to have so much Bermuda grass. It seems as I don't have as much Bermuda since I quit using raised beds, maybe because it is easier to get in and dig it out, and easier it get a tiller in and bust everything up to make it easier to dig everything out, including rocks.

Madge was just saying that there may be a shortage of potatoes ( must have seen it on TV), that comes just when I said I wont be growing any.
Kim Reiss
last year
Moni the appearing posts seems to happen often. I think it’s a key word that throws the post into outer space.

Today I am starting winter sowing. I did it years ago and it seems like the only viable option here. Any tips?
jlhart76
last year
Plant extras

Make sure you seal the container

Leave caps off or punch holes (depending on the container you use)

Water well

Check periodically to make sure they have enough water. Our biggest hurdle is making sure they don't dry out or broil once warmer weather comes.

Been out doing some wintersowing myself. We went to buy a tractor today so I took the rest of the day off. Got home & planted a few seeds, cleared up some of the fence we took down, and debating about what my next steps should be. Lots to do & I keep thinking "but THIS needs to be my priority, no THAT needs to be the next thing..."
OklaMoni
last year
Jennifer make a list... do it on your phone... that way, you can move something up or down easier. :)

Moni
Kim Reiss
last year
Group onion order is canceled. There are not enough people to make it a decent price. My trip is pending.
Kim Reiss
last year
Jen thanks for that great info. Do you think I could use 2 gallon buckets with clear plastic on top? I am limited on jugs but I have several buckets.
OklaMoni
last year
Larry imagine a city lot, with nothing but Bermuda in the front and in the back yard.

2016 when I made the offer:

today:

from the other end

today:

There is absolutely NO Bermuda grass in the areas I worked. NONE. I am increasing by about a square yard at the time. There are two layers of Bermuda... on right on top, and another about 4 to 8 inches below. Apparently one of the previous owners had a load of soil added at one point. Yipeee, more B to dig out.

Moni
dbarron
Original Author
last year
Moni (being an idiot...an annoying idiot), it's a lot less green now. I see you took out your Bradford pear (yay)!
Kim Reiss
last year
Yay more veggies Moni
OklaMoni
last year
Danny the trunk is still there. The tree was an eyesore, the trunk is too... but I don't have the means to cut it down more.

Kim, yep, VEGGIES! :)

Moni
dbarron
Original Author
last year
I took mine out with an electric chainsaw (was going to say crosscut saw, but I remembered that was incorrect). I figure mine was smaller trunked than yours though...mine was just something that came up in the fencerow and got about 25 foot maybe?
jlhart76
last year
Kim, I have used just about everything imaginable for wintersowing. If it will hold a couple inches of dirt & still have a couple inches for growing, I'll try it. Especially if I can get it free (I'm too cheap to buy when I have plenty of free solutions). So yes, 2L will work.
slowpoke_gardener
last year
Moni, you have a very pretty place, I can see you take pride in it.

An electric chainsaw was a good investment for me. I cleared quite a bit of land with them, but it made my surgeon and physical therapist unhappy. They told me I was using my artificial shoulder too hard, so I finished the area I was working on and hired a couple of men with a bulldozer and excavator to do the rest of the clearing, I now wish I had followed the doctor's advice from the beginning. I have a gas powered chainsaw, but if you dont use them often they get hard to start.

I had to cut down a Cleveland pair tree and I am still trying to get rid of the sprouts that come up every where.

The Bermuda is a real problem. When I had raised beds the Bermuda would get down deep in the corners and under landscape timbers. I would use a water hose to make the soil very soft, and reach down deep and pull the roots out, that is a messy job, and you still can't get everything and the grass just comes back after a while.
Kim Reiss
last year
Larry her place is adorable. She takes very good care of everything inside and out. Is fun to watch her take over an area little by little. She is more persistent than bermuda
slowpoke_gardener
last year
I dont remember if I have showed you the piles of course hay ( Johnson Grass I think ) that I have piled for mulch or compost, but the first pile you see is compost, the second pile is pretty nice old hay that I will pile some of the compost on to speed it the composting, then the next 3 piles are the Johnson grass.

This is a picture of the critters I have in the pasture. The black cow next to me is the wild cow that the owner could not catch. The white face calf is this years calf of the black cow. They were both eating out of my hand a few minutes ago, but the cow's tongue was so rough it was about to take the hide off my hand so I dumped the feed on the ground to save my hand.
Kim Reiss
last year
Larry I have heard that the tongue is like 50 grit sandpaper
Nancy Waggoner
last year
Moni--such a great job on the Bermuda. I can't even imagine getting it out of here. I so hope some amazing person comes up with an option--and this is one more testament of the stupidity of other persons in bringing invasive species to us, after convincing us the invasive species are a magic potion. Here's a though I just had. Paying 10 or more people who are hard workers, $15.00/hr to dig it up. Probably only cost $500-$1000. . . It would be so worth it. Hmmmm. I really don't think I could do this-- could I???

I am ready to tear my hair out. I am not winter sowing, I am not buying seeds. I have been wrestling with friggin Microsoft Word and/or printer mess-ups the past two days--probably at least 6 hours. Danny, maybe you can answer this. I have Office 365 and a Dell. I also have a Macbook Air, and I put Office 365 on it. But a friend sent me a book. And I don't know if it was my friend's settings, or Mac/Dell incompatibilities. But it is so haywire. That's what I've been wrestling with.

By the way, Danny. . . have your heard back from medical clinic? How are you feeling? I'm crazy busy, but love seeing y'all's posts. XOXO
OklaMoni
last year
Nancy, the problem is.. not everyone will be persistent in getting EVERY little bit of Bermuda out, like I do.

I know, I am getting it all. I do not want to go back and dig out more, because one stupid little piece was left, and it spread before I found it.

Danny here is one for you from June last year. :)
dbarron
Original Author
last year
That's greener ;)

Nancy, install Linux on them all.

As for the clinic, yes I sent an email (to their address for appts), they sent back, call us (*what I did not want to do*, because speaking means coughing). I called, I got hung up after 25 minutes, I called again, they said no appts left open today, and they don't book in advance, call back tomorrow :(
slowpoke_gardener
last year
Moni' that is a very pretty picture. When I lived in Ft. Smith I had a pretty house and lawn. Moving back to the country after living in town for 40 years seems different. I am not able to work like I use to, plus, I have so much more to take care of.

I agree that Bermuda has to be taken out completely. When my back is against the wall I turn to glyphosate. I don't like using it in the garden, but do use it around the edge of the garden if it looks like I am loosing the battle, I use it along the fence every year.

Has anyone of y'all bought any tearless onions, Sunonions I think they are called? I just heard of them today.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
last year
Jen, it's called butt first. But first I have to do this, but first I have to do that...that's what Ron says when he's wandering around the house.

Larry, I thought Johnson grass gave cattle the runs.

Moni, could you rent a chainsaw?

ok Danny, I'm in the hospital with Covid and some major infection. Daughter has walking pneumonia. Youngest son has Covid. Keep trying. Meanwhile drink kombucha. Don't shake the bottle like Ron did. (I read good gut bacteria was good for Covid.) I really hope you don't have it. I'm feeling much better after antibiotics and steroids and fluids. But son was told to continue musinex and tylenol. Not given any thing else. So now his girlfriend is exposed. It never stops. I don't go places. Though we did go look at mattresses and one guy was strange. We thought he was having a senior moment, but that was what I was like this morning. Could not think. Wonder when that was? A week ago, 2 weeks? I keep trying to figure out why I got sick and Ron didn't. He's the one that shops.

anyway, bye for now.
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
last year
PS Danny, snow tomorrow.
slowpoke_gardener
last year
Amy, I am sorry for the tough times you are having, I hope things get better quickly.

I think Johnson grass can be a problem in the fall. This Johnson grass shown Is just a scrap clean up job that the renter did somewhere, its too large for the cattle to eat, that is why you see so much of it piled up. I think that this is the last year I will rent the pasture out, I don't like to see the land or cattle abused.

Kim, I forgot to mention anything about the cow tongue sand paper, but I think you are right, it does feel about like 50 grit sand paper.
OklaMoni
last year
Oh, gosh, Amy... I hope you get to get out of the hospital as fast as possible... I don't think, a hospital is the safest place at the moment.

Moni
AmyinOwasso/zone 6b
last year
last modified: last year
Not sure this will work, but cow's tongues. https://fb.watch/aygjMxsDjp/ credit cow scan Edna kearney, their Christmas card. Ireland
dbarron
Original Author
last year
Snow in about an hour here...it's fallen from 50 at 11:30 to 36 at 2:52 am. I was tired and laid down (and stayed down) at 4 pm...decided didn't matter with being snowed in (possibly) and cold and weekend, when I slept or waked.

Yeah, I decided I should be happy that I didn't get into a germy clinic, however, I do have a televisit scheduled Thursday. May just stay with that vs contact with sick people.
dbarron
Original Author
last year
Someone call Santa and tell him Christmas is here (again).

I agree with Jasper, just stick tongue out at weather.

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