All right. I'm first.

I'm hoping that the worst of the winter temps are over, but that's probably wishful thinking. About my overwintered crops, cauliflower froze out , even under the hoop tunnel. So did the fall cabbage .Really needed another layer of row cover or plastic to survive 9* that one night (whenever it was). Broccolli heads froze out but the plant looks to have survived and seems to be growing new leaves. Might get some side shoots at least. Mustard greens died earlier on, I suspect an aphid problem. which seemed to run rampant under the hoop tunnels due to the unseasonally warm temps in Dec . Winter cabbage (Tundra) under a hoop tunnel looks to be starting to tighten up and make a head. Just harvested a few more turnips and rutabaga, they're about done. Spinach seems to be holding up and should start growing bigger with the lengthening daylight now. Also got some overwintered lettuce under hoops that look to be making a show. The collard patch survived the 1st arctic blast when I had them covered , didn't cover them for the next arctic blast and they look a little droopy but I think they'll probably make it a while longer. Been getting plenty for stir fries lately.

It's getting about time to switch gears and start getting ready for spring planting. Dixondale onions have now arrived at my local feed store so will pay them a visit and see what varieties they have. It'll probably be what's on my list over on the onion talk thread. Seed potatoes are probably about to show up too. I've been been amending my ground with manure lately and will continue to do so till time to start up the tiller and get it all blended in.

Then when it's time and the weather allows , start putting out onions and potatoes.

Also about time to start seeding up cool season crops , brassicas and greens.

Rick

Sounds like lots of good stuff going on over there Rick.
My carrots mostly froze out. I consider it thinning. Cilantro finally gave up. I am doing lots of winter sowing so when I get back from Quitaque they should be close to ready. I have crazy lot of stuff to do this week to get ready for my work/vacation. My great niece will water while I am gone once. Mostly my container trees. And lots of Iris

This is the 3rd time I have tried to post today, not sure it is me or garden web, but nothing has posted.

I checked the gardens this morning and nothing looks good. I feel sure the walking onions and garlic will pull through, so far spinach looks like it may come back, also some of the turnips in the wildlife garden still seem to have a little life in them.

I expect to battle soil that is too wet this year ( same almost every year ).

I gave away more butternut today. Daughter, grand daughter and her boyfriend were over today, I told them that they were not doing their share of eating the produce I have stored, now they are singing the same song as Madge, " stop planting so much ".

When it warms up I will amend some more soil also. I have called the landfill in Ft. Smith, they are down because of broken equipment and have no idea when the parts will come in. I have plenty compost, but what I buy is better that what I make, has less seeds in it.

I didn't think anyone was ever going to post yesterday (and I saw Nancy's post late in evening, wonder if she ever made it over here)? More of the old Houzz magick at work?

Well, I took Jasper to the dog park, but I think it cost me several days back tracking my recovery. Coughing and draining more after I got back. My car's oil light came on about 2 blocks from the house on the way back. Stopped at light, car died. Started and got home. Engine hot and smoking. Guess I should have just stayed in.

So...I guess the car is ready to go back to shop today...assuming I can get it there. I requested an appointment this morning, awaiting reply.

Danny, check the oil before you drive the car anywhere, if oil is low and you dont have any at home, have someone bring you some.

I will look in garage but thinking I don't have any and also that I don't have anyone to bring me any. With my sickness, not sure that walking a couple of miles to a gas station is advisable or possible. I have 2 cycle engine oil (chain saws)..but I don't think it'd be a good idea?

I do have a 9:30 at the mechanic (3-4 miles away).

Oh Danny... I feel for you. So sorry about the mess when you and Jasper finally got out. I hope, you found a way to get some oil delivered.... and I hope, you can get the car fixed.

I know about the mucus. I still make plenty more than I would like... but had another successful hike.

Now, got to get on the bike while it's warm today.... and then, guess I will play with me seeds the next few days.

Rick, I had some beets die, and some lettuce froze at the edges... but I feel like the cold frames were not worth the trouble this winter.

Moni

Moni, My problem with the hoop tunnels this time was that I covered too soon expecting colder temps to set in by Dec but stayed in the 70's much of the time instead and ended up providing a haven for aphids. But the thing is it takes time and a lot of work to put these tunnels up on the scale that I do it and get them anchored down to keep the winds from ripping them away. So I can't just wait for an arctic front to start coming down and then cover ,wouldn't have enough time and trying to put on row covers with winds blowin is like flying a big kite.

Here's an old thread involving Dawn about row covers:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2861684/row-cover-best-brand-where-to-order#n=15

Another Dawn bump:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2095492/floating-row-cover

Rick

Hi--I finally found it today. But am on my way to town now.

Danny, I wish you were close enough for me to take care of the oil problem. I am not much at normal work, but I am an ACE at going for oil, and installing oil. I picked up another 6 gallon of oil today. I like Rotella t4 for my tractors, and have had a little trouble finding it this year ( popular oil for 18 wheelers ). I have been buying extra oil and filters, and expect to try to keep some extra fuel on hand. I don't like storing the extra supplies, but I don't trust the supply chain.

I checked the wildlife garden a while ago, and it is not in as good of shape as I thought it was. I think the aphids and freezing weather has done the turnips in. I pulled a few to feed the donkeys, and ate one myself, they taste okay, and may put on more greens when the weather warms, but if the ground get dry enough they will be tilled in by then.

I went to check on my neighbor. I saw him out running around on his atv, while I was there I picked up a lot of planting containers. Many of them were some I had taken to him with plants in them last year. He is ready for me to do that again this year, he said that the plants from me did better than the ones he bought. I will have to say that my plants get a little better care than some of the box store plants.

Madge got a message from her son, saying that his wife was all wound up about gardening and wanted to come down and visit me and start some plants. It make me feel good to know that she wants to come down and visit, she lost her dad a year or two ago, he was her gardening buddy, I am happy to do what little I can to help fill his shoes.

I only assumed it was an oil problem. I *thought* I could see oil yesterday on the dipstick (but vision and being sick on top of it...etc). I didn't actually do it right and go in house and get a paper towel to wipe the dipstick off, etc.

According to mechanic (when I showed up two days early for my appointment (yes he had texted me for Wednesday, but I don't know what day it is...I never pay any attention and just assumed it was today *blush*, now if the text said Wed and not 1/26, I would have known better), my coolant reservoir cap had blown/fallen apart and all the coolant evaporated. He believes no damage was done (time will tell). That also was why my heater was no longer working.

Yes, Larry, I'd love for someone to be enthusiastic about starting plants.

Larry that sounds like fun. I love helping people garden.

I rode 18. something miles, and I am done for today. I did put the glass windows on the cold frames... but nothing else gardening related.

Already ate my supper... I was famished.

Hiking yesterday, and biking today did me in.

good thing, it is getting cold, and I will get to take a break. LOL

I need to get that room for the plant shelf ready. Will hopefully pull that off tomorrow.

Rick, that's a lot of tunnel. I don't think, I have the patience for it.

Moni

I've always liked the looks of those tunnels and how they had the potential to extend the season even into late winter/early spring. I've been curious and gun ho to try them out the last couple of years. But Dawn has a point about the erratic temps we have here in oklahoma. From too hot to too cold inside of a day. How can you change to different grades of row cover or no row cover or a 2nd layer of plastic and then vent it the next day before it gets too hot in there and have it all anchored down from the whipsaw winds. It's a bouncing yo yo.

It's a crapshoot like any other gardening. Some years it might work some years it might not. Just roll the dice.

It just boils down to a**hole weather, like always.

Rick

Got a little time on the treadmill this morning and was able to catch up. I haven’t had the usual gardening buzz I typically get this time of year. I’ve felt rather apathetic about it actually which I attribute to being stretched too thinly in all other aspects of my life. However, I did get motivated by a fellow gardener with questions about leaf mold to post a video on Instagram which I finally did. It was well received and that lit a bit of a fire under me.

I plan my garden in the fall and typically plant tons of Cole crops in the spring… more than we can eat and I usually give lots away. The original intention was to donate the extra to food pantries. I tried contacting some, including some listed on a website as accepting produce from home gardeners, and got no replies the last two years. A market farmer friend who specializes in hydroponic lettuce said they actually don’t want it because with little other produce being donated they don’t have the fixings for a salad and with shelf stable items like PB&J sandwiches there isn’t demand for it for sandwich making.

All that rambling to point out that I probably need to do a little replanning to cut way back on Cole crops. Not sure what I’ll do with the space though I’m thinking bush green beans in at least part of it.

While flipping thru a seed catalog I got the wild idea to possibly grow butternut squash. My family loves it and with a solid stem I would be fighting only the squash bugs and not also the SVBs. The idea does make me laugh at myself since I’m always preaching about how the best way to deal with squash pests it to stop growing squash.

I also haven’t decided what I’ll grow on the quaratrellis, which I’m a little shocked is still standing. I don’t know about cucumbers because I’m not eager to create the chore of pickling. I’ll do black beans in the fall but spring beans never do well. What an I overlooking that would be a good spring/summer vine? I’m even open to considering flowers.

We’ll, it’s time to get to work. I’ll check back in soon.

One advantage of butternut squash is it stores pretty well and long and I actually like it :) Of course i generally eat it unhealthy in sugar syrup with butter.

I LOVE butternut squash, but the neighborhood squirrels do too. :(

Megan how about sweet potatoes for your trellis?

Another butternut squash fan here! I wish Garry liked it more. We grew it 5 years ago, and from one plant, we had SO many squash--more than we managed to eat over the next year. Now you all have me thinking I'd like to grow it again this year. Thank you. (I use brown sugar and butter, Danny--about the same thing, eh?)

Megan. . . check out Chinese okra (luffa) for a vining plant. We grew it at Lincoln last year. Lots of fun.

Rick. . . the hoop tunnels might be a crap shoot, but they look SO amazing! I hope it's a good year for them.

I hope your car will be okay, Danny. You do not need any more car $$$.

Did you tell us what you'll be doing for the February gig, Kim? Well I will hope you have okay weather and a terrific experience.

Did you decide to wait and see if there will be Nolo bait available soon for this year, HJ? After Bruce told me that it was 2% Sevin, I canceled half the order of the Ecobran, and will hope Nolo bait shows up online soon.

Nancy Grow the honey butternut. It’s small so no waste for one person. I like to cut mine in half clean out cavity and fill with butter. Sometimes I sprinkle with cinnamon sometimes salt. Occasionally I toast pecans in butter and brown sugar and put those in the hole. Very tasty.

I am going to work in friends restaurant. I will also be working on my business, website etc. My grandbaby due any day in Lubbock, my grandsons basketball and a new garden club are all bonuses. I can’t believe how this just popped up and it all is working perfectly. Getting both vehicles running and cleaned and packing is the hard part. I am trying to sell my Ford now that my van is back on the road.

I hope, you explore how to use it yourself too. :) I used a Ford of that configuration back when I lived north of Ponca City... a whole lifetime ago.

Jen, that is really a nice tractor, do you have any other attachments to go with it? The 4 wheel drive is the only way to go, but only one of my tractors are 4 wheel drive, it is the one I use most, it is the smallest also.

We got the brush hog & the lawn mower (finish cut? I think they called it). All we need at the moment, maybe later on Cliff will decide he wants other ones.

Jen, I think you will enjoy the things you can do with a tractor. If you want to contour land a box blade is handy to have. I haven't used my finish mower in years, it makes a pretty cut, but I have too much that is too large and too rough to cut with it. Sometimes when weeds and berry vines would get taller than the tractor and I would keep burning the belt from slipping.

I am trying to sort my seeds. The large black bag in the far right back has small containers of seeds. The larger bags of seeds are so we can plant things to sell or give away.

I still have more seeds to dig out that is also for food. I have at least a 100 pounds of seed for the wild life in the shop.

What a beautiful tractor, Jen!! I'm so glad we don't have more property and so will never need one. But wow is it a beaut!

I still have to finalize my pepper and tomato choices. I know I will for sure be growing Sugar Rush Peach hot peppers (Scoville 50,000-100,000). Somewhere between jalapeno and habanero. But the most prolific pepper! And huge. And Ashe County. And Ros de Mallorca, if I can get one out of the four seeds I have left from last year. 2 for me, 2 for Amy. Crossing fingers we get plants. Those are the only three eating ones. I'll probably plant a couple more ornamentals. Tomatoes? Not sure yet. Egg Yolks for sure.

I've really not paid hardly any attention to gardening plans. I think I'll do what Jennifer said she was going to do. Did you really say this, Jennifer? That you're going to concentrate on Bermuda? I think that's what I'll do! Get the Bermuda out of the in-ground beds.

Meanwhile, a huge learning curve on Rocketbook and now Evernote--one can go practically 100% paperless with Evernote--it is an amazing app, but will take some learning. If one takes lots of notes and/or journals, Rocketbook is wonderful. I'm crazy about it already.

Well, I'm tickled that we have reasonable temps for the next 10 days. That means I can walk every day. Yay. Nothing like our friend Moni. You are such an inspiration, Moni, and it makes me want to do more walking. Thank you.

And if any of you are thinking of food, I'm always happy to hear ideas for "What's for dinner." :)

Jen that tractor is going to be such a big help with 5 acres. If you can get your husband off of it you will enjoy it as well

I worked in my sisters garden today. It wasn’t fun. I am going back tomorrow if I am able. Wish me luck tearing out old plants.

Larry I like the way you buy seed. Bulk.

Jen, nice tractor!

Nancy, yes, I need to get back to bermuda grass removal around the kitchen garden and I want to work on a new bed in the backyard area. Someday I would like to have all pathways and beds in the backyard area--no grass. It's quite ambitious, I know.

Dinner this week:

Did you see the Reuben sandwiches I made on Monday? There was a pic on FB. They were really good. Tom posted the recipe in the comments. The recipe is vegetarian, but I added pastrami to the boys' sandwiches. I used the kraut I made in the crock.

Tuesday: Sweet Potato Black Bean enchiladas

Wednesday: Salmon, baked potatoes, fried okra. (I had already breaded it last summer and put it in the freezer, so it was easy to fry up real quick.

Thursday: leftovers for the boys. I went to dinner with my mom and sister.

Nancy, IF you plan on coming to SF this year, will you start and bring me an Egg Yolk tomato? I'll pay you for it. I neglected to buy seed and I'm not going to order more seed now.

Hope y'all can see this.

Kim, I try to buy seeds as cheaply as I can, by doing that I can share with people and wildlife and still not have a fortune tied up in seeds. In the past I would pay $2.50 to $4.00 a pound for some of the seeds, most of the others were $1.00 an oz. I seldom share the $1.00 oz with the wildlife, they are tomato and pepper seeds, and things like that. The large black bag has a lot of seed that Nancy sent me, I am still trying to use them up. I also save seeds, the plastic bags are seeds that I saved.

Here are some of my turnips that I let get too large. I am sharing these with the livestock. The turnips are too large for the livestock to eat, I have to cut them into bite size pieces.

The turnips are sitting on some of my seed starting junk, I am trying to get things sorted out and get my flats and trays cleaned.

Well, I went through MY Evernote looking for a "Mother of a Hubbard" blog post about tying down row covers so you could raise the sides for warm weather. Couldn't find it. I am not pleased with Evernote. Periodically they have changed the format used, which in some cases requires me to go into settings to find the original post. If you're on the free version, you're only allowed a certain amount of space per month. The last update changed the home page, after 8 years of using it, and being familiar with it. It takes forever just to load and to load chosen notes. Be aware of these things before you invest too much time in it. I used to love it. When I tried to migrate it to a new note app, 99% of the notes were un-readable.

I can't get excited about seeds. Of course, I'm doing a lot of napping since I got home from the hospital.

Went to primary doc yesterday. He showed me with graphs just how sick I was. It was scary. If you haven't gotten the 2 pneumonia shots, DO IT. Apparently the Step P bacteria I had (not the same as step throat) is one covered by the vaccine and that means I rarely cough. I'm just tired. I've had pneumonia before. If they hadn't gone out of their way to prove it, I wouldn't believe I had it. They were treating me with steroids and Covid treatments at first (they were sure I had it at first). And heavy duty antibiotics. It seems everything they did un-balanced some other system in my body, like raising blood sugar and blood pressure and potassium was low.

Happy tractoring. Make friends with some one like Larry. The local repair places will have a back log during certain times, like haying season.

I don't think my collards survived the last cold spell. I should have told Ron to water them.

Need to let the dogs out.

HJ, I saw your reubens. I love reubens anyway, but yours looked absolutely divine! And thank you for the dinner ideas! We had beef enchiladas last night. I love salmon, but always feel like I only want a tossed salad to go with it. Still--it's about time we have salmon again. We're having ham and cheese quiche tonight.

I'll be happy to start an Egg Yolk for you.

Amy, thanks for the tip regarding Evernote. I'll read more. I am so glad you're out of the hospital. PLEASE take care of yourself and stay well.

Speaking of reading, I'm in trouble. I have this book-buying thing. I need the weather to get warmer and need to get out in the garden so I don't have time to read or buy books. I just found a book I am thinking I MUST have! It's called History of the World, Map by Map. Only $37 something. NOOO! I have to stop this madness! I'm accumulating so many books, I had to do an inventory of them the other day, so I'm not buying the same book twice. haha

And speaking of reading again, I was already on a reading binge on a couple different subjects (history being one of them), when I saw Rick's Dawn posts. So that was another huge chunk in my reading today. She was so amazing. SO amazing!

Hugs everyone!

Nancy, I looked that up & it looks fascinating. And if it helps your decision, I found it on half price books for $25.

Jen, didn't like some of the reviews--found a super one for less than half the price. If I had money to burn, I'd get the Maps one. . . but I think the one I found will be more informative. Still, loved the maps. :) .

Oh my gosh. I fixed this veggie soup tonight. Cabbage, kale, leeks, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, green beans. . . chicken stock and herbs. Do any of you remember the old cabbage soup diet fad? My son used to love making it. . . and he threw every veggie in, just like I did today. . . in fact, he was my inspiration for this soup. I told Garry we had to love it even if we didn't, because it was so good for us. So now I'm so excited to grow the cabbages, kale, carrots, broccolini. . . The soup was actually delicious.

Well, it's Sunday, but it's someone else's turn. This morning when I have breakfast, I will have completed the course of pills. I'm not well, but hopefully with the bacteria zapped, I will be soon.

Looks like we're going INTO the deep freeze now with 4 on Wed for me, and 1 on Thursday. Geez!

Nancy, I remember mom being in weight watchers, I think that she said that she could eat all the cabbage soup she wanted, so it was often. I loved to come to see mom because I expected to get cabbage soup, I loved the stuff. Madge makes great soup, but I would love for her to use more cabbage.

We had a wonderful day yesterday ( Sat.). We went to see grand daughter and family, it was daughters Birthday party ( only 6 there because of covid ). Great grandson wanted to come to our house today, but I am sure that wont happen.

Danny, I am sorry for the problems you and the others are having. I am doing pretty well so far. I go for a stress test the 3rd. I seem to have to walk a narrow line to keep my heart happy, but it behaves most of the time.

Happy January 30. Larry, I remember Dawn recommending County Fair pickling cukes, so I grew those my first real year of gardening here. They produced well. I've been growing Straight Eights for the most part and like them.

Wow. About to be February. I can't put off growing seeds too much longer. Maybe until end of February. I just recently figured out that the later I plant them, the less work I have to do in watering the little rascals. And I liked that thought. Especially since I'm all about reading for now. Though I admit I'm wildly excited about growing the cabbages, kale, broccolini. . .THIS year, however, the cabbages and broccolini WILL be growing under row covers from the start.