Same here. I couldn't live without a tiller with the size of gardens that I do. Couldn't keep all the dang weeds from taking it over. Sometimes I can't anyway when it gets too wet to till. And it'd take a whole lot of covering with mulch to do the no till thing that I don't have access to.

Rick

I think the point is...one size does not fit all. We don't need to pick fights or sides over till or no till. Or try to prove why one is better than the other. You do you.

I like a variety.

Dawn was able to go no till and her gardens were large so it can be done if you have the health, time, and desire to do it. IF you want to. If you don't, then don't.

However, I do think it's good to get outside of one's box once in a while and try something new and different. It truly is good for the brain and holding off dementia, etc. Also, maybe something is no longer growing well in your old method....perhaps try something different on a small scale and see if it helps. I have some tilled gardens on my property now. I'm outside my box--outside my comfort zone. And that is good for my brain.

If you want to stay strictly in your old ways (whatever they are), then do it. It's your garden and you can do what you want with it.

Kim, I can't run a tiller either, however I can pick up wood chips in the truck, move wood chips to the pathways in my kitchen garden, put down cardboard and pull the few weeds that pop up. That's what works best for me. I have to think about the future and how I can manage things when/if I'm alone. Tilling would not be it for me. But, I'm sure there are a few healthy 90 year olds running a tiller. I can't do it at my age now so wouldn't be able to do it in the future either.

Also, Kim, you have some exciting things going on!!!! Enjoy your cuddles! <3

I mentioned a while back about taking Dawn's posts & turning them into a book. I'm working on it (very slowly!) But one thing I've really enjoyed is watching how she evolved over the 13 or so years' worth of posts. I found one where she mentioned using Sevin or Roundup (not her, but as an option if you chose to not be 100% organic). I had to do a double take, because she was vehemently opposed to using chemicals in the last few years. But I came across one of her quotes that I love: "It's a big world and there's room for all kinds of gardening philosophies and methods." Sort of like the posts in the facebook group. Everyone has a different approach to gardening, so do whatever it is you feel is right for you.

I've never had a garden large enough to till. This round, Cliff's going to use the tractor to scrape back the top layer of grass for me, then I'll put down cardboard, set the bed frames, & fill with this mix of rotted wood & dirt that he cleared from under an evergreen. Hope to fill it almost to the top. I envision it sort of a hugelkulture bed. This whole first year is going to be one big science experiment anyways, so I might as well go all out.

That's what's fun about gardening, you learn as you go. What you learn may be of no use to anyone else, because it has to do with your conditions and needs.

I can empirically say that tilling destroys soil texture, aeration, and organic matter, and also brings fresh weed seeds to the top where they can germinate. But it still may easier than dealing with the current years crop of weed seed (if you let them freshly reinfest the soil this past year). It may not be better, but as pointed out, it may best fit the short term goals. Ideally plopping plants into holes and preventing (with mulch and vigilance) weed growth, the plant gets the most nutrition and water without competition. You save all that time and effort of plowing, but you trade time maintaining throughout the season for it. Another thing is that many of our agronomic crops aren't that efficient in resource gathering, so they don't compete well. That's one reason I like the paradigm of 'Eat the weeds', because the weeds do grow well. Too bad carrots don't grow like weeds ;)

Thankfully after they get started, corn DOES grow like a weed. That's why the Native American synergy of corn, bean, pumpkin works well. The corn grows fast and gets out of the way, the bean uses corn as a twining pole and provides nitrogen fixing, the pumpkin comes along slow then finally goes BOOM and spreads all over the place after the others are basically done (though if the bean is a still growing, it's over the head of the pumpkin in the dead corn stalk). The pumpkin helps provide ground cover to reduce weed growth. If we can make that kind of synergy, we get essentially 3 for 1 and improved growth.

As I recall Dawn's rant about tilling had to do with some ol' timers down there telling her how to run her garden. That would be a pisser.

Rick

Moni - I like your garden video. I've often thought of building cold frames but haven't done it. I did have some wooden boxes that I grew in and had some windows I would put over the top in the event of cold weather. The windows were vinyl and after a few years the frames gave and then I had large panes of glass with sharp edges to deal with. Along a northeast wall, I have a raised bed built of bricks when the house was built. For several years we debated with the idea of taking it out. However, the interior side of that wall is a bathroom and I was convinced that's the only reason the toilet along that wall didn't freeze last year. The bathroom is sort of L shaped and the sinks are along a southfacing (exterior side) wall. They froze. So now, I plan to keep the brick bed just for the insulation it provides to the bathroom. I am considering building a cover for it to create a permanent cold frame but that project will be a couple years away.

This year's major project will be the dry creek bed and rain barrel system along the north side of the house/property line. I know I will spend quite a bit of time getting bermuda out of the rain garden and the native grass border. The native grass border also needs some editing but the big project will be the dry creek bed.

I do not plant in rows and I do not till. It's mostly a matter of necessity on both accounts but to HJs point, it's what works for me and don't begrudge anyone their techniques - except pesticides. I get annoyed with that, especially when I'm walking the dogs before sunrise and all I can smell is glysophate, either from weed n' feed that's been soaked by morning dew or just so oversprayed that the smell lingers for days. It's not a problem this time of year, but I don't get a lot of fresh air on my morning walks once the bermuda breaks dormancy. The joys of suburbia.

Of no-till, and again I'm doing it in a limited space, I have found it to be a lot like other organic methods where it takes a few years before you don't feel as though you're losing the battle. However, I can cover the majority of my vegetable planting area with one truckload of woodchips or about a dozen bags of mulch. That's if I had to replace it every year. After reaching that ideal 3-4" thickness of mulch in most areas, I just need to lightly top dress from one year to the next.

The size and shape of my vegetable growing area dictates that I plant in what the British call peasant style (what we would call edible landscaping). If I were better at it, I would do something more along the lines of a Rosalind Creasly approach. Dawn thought very highly of her books and techniques and applied some of it to her gardening. I just don't have the designer's eye that Rosalind or others have. Still, I do try to make it look as pretty as I can since I'm trying to marry a garden into a small suburban landscape. Crop rotation in this setting is extremely challenging but I hope that all the interplanting helps mitigate my pest risks.

All this rambling and all I meant to do was ask a question. There was talk a couple weeks back about a good butternut squash variety and now I can't find it. Can someone remind me what it was? I've decided to plant them and see what happens. What's the worst that happens - I don't get any squash? I wasn't going to anyway, so even 1 is more than I would have had otherwise.

I never had wood chips.
When I gave up the tiller because it hurt me too much I used cut grass. I laid down lots of cardboard in the paths. Then I mowed and put the clipping in the path. When they dried I put in around the plants. I had 3 acres but my mower was electric. I could only go 100’. I am sure it looked comical. I was a mower with a mission. It worked very well until the mower broke. It was a beautiful garden for 2 years. Now I garden in pots. I still use cardboard and cut grass in the path.
My father in law did beautiful rows and tilled in between and had tons of produce. Lots of options.

Megan , was this it?

https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/winter-squash/honeynut-squash

Rick

The whole point of my question of the week:

Get the ball rolling and give us something to talk about. :)

Megan I hill, because my back yard floods. The lower walkways are drainage ditches more or less.

Moni

PS, I found a soap berry tree at Lake Arcadia today.

I still have work to do to get ready for spring. This is the north garden, and only about half of it is cleaned up.

These are some berry plants from Simmons plant farm in NW Arkansas. I order 2 or 3 doz. plants from them. I planted all but a few in the wildlife garden, planing for making thicket for wildlife, all of those plant died. I saver 3 plants and planted them in the north garden so I could save them for new starts, but the berries taste so bad, I don't want them on the place. I will remove these plants when the weather gets better.

The south garden is ready for spring. The onion, garlic and beet area will have to be cleaned after I find out what has survived the cold weather we have had.

I have a good supply of compost and mulch already piled up.

I hope I am not repeating myself, it has been a crazy past 10 days.

Moni, I had to look up Soap tree, I dont remember ever hearing of one.

Nancy, I think you mentioned that you liked the donkey pictures. This is the last baby modeling her winter coat.

Aw, what a cutie!

I picked up soapberry seeds a few years back, so I've got a few I'm trying to sprout. I know you can use them as a laundry soap, but that would be a little too hippy-dippy for my husband, & he's the one who does the laundry. But they make for interesting looking trees. Since this was farmland, it's flat & bare. So I think I want to put some trees out there. I've always wanted to grow trees, so now that I have the space I'm going to experiment.

Jen that is awesome. Have fun and grow all the lovely things

Cute lil donkey!

My Mom has a soapberry behind her property.

Many, many years ago, there must have been a house that sat behind her neighborhood. Unfortunately, you can't even see where the house sat now. They've put office buildings there. Before those were built, you could see an almost perfect square of daffodils that popped up around where the house (probably) once sat. I never actually saw the house, just the spring flowers.

There's very large pecan trees on the still empty spots of that area...and wildflowers. I'm sure those will be destroyed at some point too.

The soapberry is just behind her fence--in between it and the office buildings.

It's a cool tree, but pretty messy.

Jen, yes, grow all the trees.

Wow! What a cute donkey, Larry!

Well. . . I'm going to clear off my card table. It's time to get to planting. I am in trouble, though. I have shrubs and understory tree saplings in the mineral tubs. . . I put them here just to have them in a holding pattern until I could get them planted this spring. And SO. It's going to take some good timing. Get them out and planted before I get new stuff in them. I think there are 9 of them out there--and then 4 more out with the garlic. So! I have to find 13 places in the yard to plant shrubs/understory trees (to go with our 100 oak trees). Luckily, that's the nice thing about natives. . . only a couple of them want full sun.

Now, where am I going to put all those books currently lounging on the card table! Just have to laugh at the till/no till discussion. There is no choice here. We live on rock. Guess we have a sound biblical foundation. :)

I have mentioned that I have a large supply of mulch and compost, which is a good thing because I told my grand daughter that I would make her a garden this year. I am not sure where I will make, but I am thinking that I just expand my south garden. I have two lines of thought. First, if I make the garden here I know that I will be the one taking care of it. ( 2) If I make the garden at her house, hopefully she will take more ownership of it and care for it herself. She lives with her mother and maybe her mother will encourage her to care for the garden. Either way I slice it, Papaw has a lot of work ahead of him.

I had better go, Madge is telling me that the donkeys are at the yard fence, I will load up some feed and take it out into the pasture to feed them.

Nancy, you just need a bigger plow (to plow those rocks) (I grew up where there was maybe a little clay between the contiguous rocks). Digging was always hard (and an adventure). Things actually grew pretty well, after you got them planted.
Well, a health update...mine and my car. My sinuses continue to heal, they're almost at normal. However, my rib slides out several times a day. Fortunately, it realigns just by holding my arm out. Unfortunately, a cough usually pops it out again. So...lots of cough syrup. Car...wouldn't start yesterday when it thawed out. I replaced battery figuring that was the one thing *I* could do and likely with a five year old battery after a severe cold snap. Well, it still doesn't start today, got a mechanic coming tomorrow at noon. Darn car!
I keep thinking about starting seeds, then thinking...nope nope...too early, they'll just get ultra leggy (I don't have fancy lights)...so sitting on my duff mostly.

All the garden groups have people talking about how they have up potted tomatoes, and all I can think of is what a nightmare!

I have the pieces to a trampoline. Splitting it in half will make 2 hoops that would be just above my head & maybe 12 (possubly more) feet wide. I eyeball measured it tonight and it looks like the hoops would be almost the right size to enclose the 2 beds I'm making this year. I got a load of railroad ties, so they'll be 4.25ft wide & 8.5ft long. So what would be the potential downfall of building a huge trellis around the beds, then maybe come winter try and cover it with plastic? I plan to get the beds built this weekend, even if I don't finish filling them, so I'll try to post pics of what I'm talking about. HJ/Rick, I know y'all built a greenhouse not too long ago. Any tips for a complete un-handyman?

This was a 4 cattle panel long greenhouse, about 16 ft long , 8 ft wide , about 8 ft high.

Can make it however many cattle panels long you want... 2 , 4 ,6....

Start by building a rectangular box out of 2X12 lumber like you were building a raised bed. Use treated lumber throughout so the wood won't rot. Make a "lip" so as to set the cattle panels on top of the 2X12's to give it an extra ft of height. Set the cattle panels down into it and arch over. Tie the panels together with zip ties. Use the 16 ft long , 50 inch wide cattle panels. Use fencing staples to nail down the cattle panels to the sides of the bottom box "lip". Use pipe insulation on the outer edges of the panels , front and rear, so as not to rub into the plastic. Build the braced ends with a door at one end and a hinged window with a hardware cloth screen( stapled to the inside frame of the vent door and window so as to keep critters out when open) on the other end and a hinged vent door with hardware cloth for a screen at each bottom corner and a frame in the middle and a 2X6 ridge beam at the top for added stability. This one is plenty bottom heavy , built like a tank and anchored down at the sides and corners with rib iron driven into the ground and strapped on. Will take anything short of a tornado. Then "skin it" with "green house plastic" that should last at least 4 or 5 years or so. Put a weed barrier fabric down at the bottom for a floor and cover with gravel. We put in shelves along one side and a raised bed on the other. Can put in any arrangement inside that you want.

Rick

Thanks! I know HJ posted a lot of pics on facebook as y'all were building it, but seeing them all together like this helps.

Jen , I see that your using railroad ties for the bottom bed ,a straight trellis surrounding the bed , using your two hoops for a top and then stretching plastic over the whole thing for a make shift greenhouse. Correct ? It's probably doable to some degree. The biggest pitfall I see is stretching the plastic over the thing to make it wind hardy. Using hoops for a top leads to some droops in the plastic between the hoops and the wind will flap it up and down and wear holes in the plastic anywhere there is any sharp edges or corners. You would probably need at least one or two more hoops in the middle to support the plastic a little better with less droop. You could use PVC tubing for additional hoops.

The advantage to using cattle panels arched over a bed is that it gives a smooth rounded surface to stretch the plastic over without any droops. People have done the same thing using hoops too but the plastic would need to be stretched tighter for no droops. Any droops leads to the plastic flapping with the winds and any sharp corners and edges will wear into the plastic.

There's lots of youtube videos out there with lots of variations for either hoops or cattle panels. That's how I came up with my design for ours.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cattle+panel+greenhouse&rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS689US690&oq=cattle+panel&aqs=chrome.5.69i57j35i39j0i131i433i512j0i512j0i457i512j0i512j0i131i433i512j0i512l3.10662j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmuVjKF5t-o

Rick

Oh, I love the picture of Jennifer in the hoop house! Such a pretty lady.

I've been sickly again. So tired of it. Tired of zero energy.

I was told today there is a new bird flu going around. It could be what Danny has had. My daughter is sick again and going to minor emergency this afternoon. I feel for her. My son, who lives with her is in San Antonio doing training for national guard, so she is alone with the baby, and sick. And, of course I worry about the baby catching it, though he's probably a carrier. He had a bad night Monday. He's cutting 2 molars.

Ron said he would put together shelves for lights. Hasn't happened. My list for today says pull out seeds. We will see.

That's my initial thoughts, yes. Mind you, I have little to no natural aptitude to using tools, so this is all academic right now. I've been binge watching youtube "how to build a greenhouse" videos for several months, taking notes & plotting. I know I need something to hold the plastic between the hoops, either cattle panels, wood or metal braces, something. And if I use braces, I'll need additional reinforcement to keep it from bowing from rain or snow. But I know our biggest issue in Oklahoma is flying greenhouses, so I thought mounting them to the railroad ties would pretty much guarantee they won't take off.

We also have a lot of rebar, previous owner started to lay out the flooring to pour cement in our large building but never got the cement, so it had to be pulled up for us to park the tractor in it. Some pieces are 16ft, maybe longer, so I had thoughts of using them for a hoop house too. Been looking up "rebar hoophouse" & found a couple options.

Railroad ties would probably be heavy enough to weigh it down.

If you use the 16 ft rebar for additional hoops , put pipe insulation around them secured with zip ties to keep the rebar from wearing into the plastic. Some sort of ridge beam attached along underneath the top of all of the hoops would help a lot for stability so that the hoops won't sway back and forth between each other.

Something like this:

https://cdn.iamcountryside.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Cattle-panel-hoop-house1.jpg

without the cattle panel.

For a ridge beam underneath could use any board or piece of PVC tubing , also attached with zipties to the hoops underneath along the top. Run the ridge underneath the hoops and not over the top of the loops so that the ridge doesn't rub into the plastic.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/fd/27/38/fd273815b2827e280ea36692558efa09.jpg

Rick

Amy, I'm sorry you're feeling yucky again. And that your family is sick too. Your poor daughter! Being sick with a baby is so hard. I was fortunate to have help the few times I was really sick with a baby. My Mom talks about the Hong Kong flu that I guess was the big flu when I was a baby. She was so sick that my Dad had to take off of work to care for me.

Did you get a chance to look through your seeds today?

And thanks for your nice comment.

Jen, Rick did the building of the hoop house. I just held things while he built. I will say it is very heavy. He built it to hold up to the Oklahoma wind. In a few years we'll probably have to replace the plastic but it's holding strong after a year. The only damage we've had so far is to the door plastic. Either a critter tried to claw into it or something blew into it during a cold, windy night.

It's time to up-pot the lettuce, broccoli and cabbage. Maybe Friday. That's all the garden news I have.

Rick, I think that is the squash and if it isn’t, that one looks worth the try!

I’m excited because this weekend is seed starting weekend. (Happy dancing) The cabbage aphids are still so bad that I’m going to skip coles for spring and plant calendulas in their space.

Speaking of starting seeds, I am also cringing at everyone who is already potting up. I tend to start a little early but to be potting up already! Yikes. I’m benefitted by raised beds and the metropolitan heat bubble and the earliest I’ve been able to plant out tomatoes is April 1. That was a fluke year. Last year I went in the last weekend in March but had to do a lot of covering and uncovering. I still barely managed to get tomatoes thru. But gardening is a learning process and they will.

Time for me to get off the treadmill so I’ll drop in again another day.

Take care!

Megan, I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday (already?)

I ended up at the doctor yesterday, so no seeds. Maybe today. I feel better. Daughter went to minor emergency. Covid negative. She has a sinus infection.

When I had the tulle cover for a bed some years back we used pool noodles to keep the top brace from tearing the tulle. It would help with hoop house plastic if you find you have a place wearing through. I see that Rick has something like it on the ends of that green house. Pipe insulation?

I noticed the evolution Dawn went through, too. Sometimes she was saying virtually the opposite of what she said 10 years before. But then we all evolve over time. It will make the book difficult, which piece of advice to include. Or maybe just let the reader know at the beginning that she did evolve and let them take the information the way we did.

There was a Christmas Ron and I were both sick with the flu. We took turns sitting with the kids. The kids thought it was neat to get frozen pizza for Christmas dinner.

I wish I could find a soap berry tree near here. I don't have room in the yard for a tall tree, but I would like to try soap berries. A few years back the crunchy people were buying soap berries...from India. How is it better for the environment to ship something that far. I assume someone figured out you could get them here.

I'm rambling and I need to do things.

I'm glad your feeling a bit better, Amy. I hate that the past month (2 month?) has been so harad on you. What IS it about January and Ron and you always being sick then? So. Seed sorting going to start?

Yes, I noticed that about Dawn, also. Her last couple of years she was saying she thought she'd ease off vegetables and grow mostly flowers. Yes, as we learn more and more (and as science learns more and more), I guess we DO evolve--if we're healthy, normally curious lifelong learners.

I loved seeing the greenhouse process--I am so glad I don't covet one, because I'm sure I'd run into resistance from the other half. Rightly so. (And yes that IS a pretty lady in the greenhouse, Amy!) As it is, since Covid and the hip nonsense over the past couple years, I'm not sure I can get back to the more energetic me. But at least I am pain-free, and still can't believe it. Feel better all the time.

Did you all see the warning about ticks spreading? Great. Just what we need. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/why-lyme-and-other-tick-borne-diseases-are-on-the-rise?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pbsofficial&utm_campaign=newshour&utm_content=1644506224

Let me ask you what you all do about ticks? We're very aware of them, and leery. With our neighbor being so sick with Rocky Mtn spotted tick fever, and Titan almost dying from ehrlichiosis, we feel as though we HAVE to take precautions by putting out tick killer. And I HATE using the pesticide. HATE it. It is the one pesticide we do use. Know we kill many beneficial insects in the spreading of the tick killer. . .And to keep ticks down, it's suggested that one keeps piles of leaves away and properties mowed short--which is contrary to what we should be doing for pollinators and birds. Sigh.

Oh. Those of you who know Lori Darling. . . she has a great gardening set up and uses straw bale gardening. I decided this year I'll give it a try. I can put the straw bales in one of my raised beds. That'd make the plants about waist high--this could be a really good thing. What do you think? Have any of you tried it?

I went to pull out all my seed-starting stuff this morning and couldn't find it all. AND I remembered I was transitioning over to black seed-starting trays. SO much faster to plant them than the little cups. Just dump the seed starter mix on them, smooth it over to fill them up. https://www.greenhousemegastore.com/containers-trays/trays-flats/traditional-inserts?returnurl=%2fcontainers-trays%2ftrays-flats%2f%3fgclid%3dcj0kcqiajjoqbhckarisaekmto2cxcficjow9_bda6-fi45tgrb8vv75x2bbxjhkq45nbo0ke4rt_-4aamifealw_wcb

I liked the speed at planting. . . but I didn't wash them out last year. Now I have a bunch of dirty flats to wash--and have to take them outside. And it's too cold! Oh well. Guess I learned a lesson.

And I couldn't find my mini blinds for labels. And couldn't find my flour scoop that I use for tiny tiny seeds. Aha! I went out to throw something in the deck garbage can and there was a box on top of one of the tables. And there was my missing seed starting stuff along with a whole bunch of cut-up mini blinds. I am good to go--that is, soon as I wash the flats.

Well, I've been a little slow getting into the gardening frame of mind, but believe I am there now!

Amy , yes pipe insulation, to keep the front and rear panel edges from rubbing into the plastic.

Oh , and Dawn did used to till 10 years ago.

I'm still collecting old Dawn threads and listing them a few threads down.

For everybody's reference and whoever is working on that book.

Rick

Rick I do remember she did use mantis tiller when I first came to gw.

Yep , I saw it mentioned in a few of the old threads. Then she started to change to no till and some ol' fart down there kept giving her a hard time about it.

Rick

Rick the pictures are like a GREAT tutorial! You should make it in to a video.. :)

Using Nancy's words: And yes that IS a pretty lady in the greenhouse.

Nancy I hope, you can get your energy back. but no matter what, I am so proud of you for walking for some exercises now.

Amy I hope you got to play with your seeds... and that your daughter is feeling better.

I spoke with Danny. So sad, we both had issues after we met and hiked... and more issues later... and he is still not over it all.

I gave up on my washing machine... I will go shopping for one instead. :)

Moni

Keep us posted Moni.

Rick

Moni, we bought a used washer & dryer from a place off Sooner Road when we moved here. Great service & the machines were great, even if they were rebuilt.

Jen, where on sooner? Do you know a nearby cross road? Do they have the old style? I don't want one with a lots of bells and whistles... to much can go wrong... and besides, I really want one like what I had... and one I can use spin cycle when I do handwash.

Moni

Moni, in case you have to buy a new one, I always check those "slightly dented" sites, but never have any luck. We went with the basic cheapest--I was like you. Didn't want any bells or whistles. We got the basic--Whirlpool. I've only had it a couple years, but love it.

None of the ones nowadays have agitators, I found out. And most are water-savers. I like that part!

My speed queen has an agitator, but it was more expensive even though fairly old school. Supposed to be the brand commercial laundromat use. Ron wanted it, hoping it would last the rest of our lives. I think that Moni's old machine was just like our old one.

If you want Dawn threads, google: +oklahoma+okiedawn site: houzz. You can stick in a subject like tomatoes with a plus sign after okiedawn. I was looking for some stuff about keeping early tomatoes warm earlier and couldn't find what I wanted.

Nancy, if you could keep Titan from eating them, ducks eat ticks. When we first moved here we had tick problems. We got a pair of geese (supposed to eat snakes). A duck adopted us, you know, free cracked corn and private kiddie pool. He would follow the geese around as they grazed and eat the bugs they stirred up. The geese eliminated dandelion from our yard and for years after they were all gone, we didn't have ticks. With all your trees, though, I wouldn't even think pesticides would help.

Yeah, my thought about ticks is try to eliminate the vectors (cats, dogs, rodents, rabbits, foxes, wolves). Chances are that you have a lot of those..maybe fewer wolves. Rabbits while cute, are certainly garden pests.

Amy ,here's a Dawn thread about keeping early tomatoes warm:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3587435/tomato-varieties-dawn

It's further down in the thread:

"In addition to using floating row cover, you can use Walls O Water, homemade devices similar to WOWs, or even two-liter bottles or cat litter buckets filled with water to help keep the plants warm on a late cold night. In a year when the spring weather stedfastly refuses to warm up as quickly as I like, I put a cat litter bucket filled with water on the north side of each tomato plant. The water in the bucket heats up during the day as the water absorbs heat from the sunlight and the buckets keep the plants warm at night by releasing heat as the water cools. Using a combination of the buckets of water and heavy-duty frost blankets, I haven't lost a tomato plant to frost or freezing temperatures in the springtime since probably 2008 (the years are starting to run together in my memory, lol). It might have been 2007. Either way, the forecast low that year on the night my plants froze was 50 and the actual low at our house hit 32 on an early May night and I hadn't done anything to cover up the plants or protect them because, honestly, by early May, who thinks that a freezing night is still possible, especially when the forecast says "50"? That was the last time I flat out trusted the forecast low and the last time I lost plants. Now I watch my weather carefully and cover up the plants if I think they will need it, no matter what the forecast says. In the years when I set up the cat litter buckets of water (I didn't use them last year, but some years I just know that I need to set them up at planting time and so I do), I leave them in place until around May 5th -7th (because we've never frozen after May 5th-7th).

For me, whatever work I have to do to get the tomatoes planted early is worth it because my yields can be 2 to 4 times higher from an early March planting than from a mid- to late-April planting. It is all about getting the most fruit set possible before the heat arrives. I cannot tell you when the heat arrives"

Here's another one:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2065568/possible-frost-save-tomatoes

Here's what we did last April late freeze. with 5 gal buckets over the tomato plants inside the tunnels

Don't remember what the temps were then but the tomatoes survived.

Here's what we did spring 2020 for another late freeze in the spring:

And another: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2100369/fiber-row-cover-really-work-in-ok-tomato

from the " Book of Dawn"

Rick.

The vectors are the deer, primarily, I'd say. No rabbits, few foxes, few coyotes; Squirrels? Oh yeah, we have squirrels! No poultry possible, Amy. . .not worried about Titan, but there are many dogs that come roaming.

Speaking of seed sorting, Amy. Yikes! Crunch time. Have to finish getting inventory updated. SO many pepper seeds and greens! How did this happen?!

Rick, the hoops look great.

I suspect that we have a lot of ticks and chiggers because we have cattle on 3 sides of us, plus we have roaming dogs and cats. We seldom get a tick or chigger on us, my guess is because we seldom get out and walk in the tall grass. We do have a high bird population, especially in the gardens which may help keep the insect population down. I wish we could find something to eat the fire ants.

The weather was nice today and I got to do a little work in the garden. I though of Moni when I was working on the north end of the south garden. You could see a line of solid Bermuda Grass that came up to a solid line of Henbit. I tilled the Henbit, and will go back and address the Bermuda at a later date, its not going anywhere in this cold weather anyway. I do rather well at keeping the Bermuda out of the garden by stopping it at the edge, and then when mowing I drive around the garden two passes blowing the seeds away from the garden. I still have to deal with the Bermuda, but this method really cuts down on the work.

Ah yes Nancy, forgot the hooved rats. Those are hard to get rid of, though they probably do need some pruning.
Bermuda makes me cry, but I gave up the fight a long time ago.

Well my car is in the shop till the end of march (aka carless) and after much thought and agony, it's getting a new engine, which is affected by all the shipping problems, coming from Japan. I didn't know whether to walk away and get another car or assume that with a totally new engine, there was only the transmission to worry about (hasn't given any problems). I have to use my father's moneys from land sales to pay for it (that was a good part of the should I/shouldn't I, and I have no one to ask really, so soul searching). I finally decided that he gave me the car, he would probably feel responsible for it being somewhat of an engine lemon.

Danny, I am sorry for your car problems. One hundred years ago few people had cars, now we have to have one, or more. We put too many miles on a car, Madge likes to go, and does quite a bit of it, but I don't really mind, I just have her pick up the things I need while she is out.

Its will seem like a long time till the end of March. It seems that an engine should be is stock some where in the states. I think that we may be having supply issues for a long time. I saw on the news that warehouses are a hot item now. Some companies feel that we need to have more inventor of some items.

I face some of the supply problems that you are seeing. I have some old tractors that I try to keep running. The tractors range from 22 years old to 72 years old, trying to guess what part will be needed next keeps me scratching my head. I have been stocking up on oil, fluids, and filters, but there are a lot of repair parts that you may need also.

Would renting a car be something you would want to do? The only time we have rented a car was when our car was in a wreck and the ins.co. paid the bill, so I have no idea what the rental cost would be. It would really be nice to have a friend close by to take you places, or do your running for you.

Where did summer go? I work in the garden yesterday and it was really nice, now it is 32 degrees outside, that is too cold for me to enjoy being out. I think I will just take Madge out for a Valentine diner today, and forget about doing anything in the garden.

I'm trying to not incur costs. I'm way way down from my sustainable level for this income year..ie, if I didn't have any available backup funds, I'd be selling my house.

Gosh Danny, that's a long time to be without a car! Do you have Uber? Delivery service from grocery store?

Ron asked me if I wanted to go anywhere today. No, I don't mind staying home anymore, pandemic has trained me. He goes stir crazy. But he's putting the light shelves together so no excuses for seeds.

Rick, thank you for the Dawn posts. The first one was exactly what I wanted. How do YOU find them?

Yeah, Nancy, when I worked at the ranch the owner cursed the deer that brought ticks to the cattle. He was looking into feeding stations with pesticide treated arms that the deer would rub against. But you had to have a license to use the pesticide. You would just attract more dear with a feeding station. An 8 foot fence around your place would cost a fortune. Maybe an electric fence. I think you would still have tick problems. I wonder what Native Americans did about ticks. Maybe they were in better balance predator-wise than now.

Need to go, have good weekend.

I have a feeling that the native wildlife (aka passenger pigeons darkening the skies) (and my own toads like one every square foot in the spring after a rain, with bug clouds overhead) along with the hunting (I would imagine that there would be MUCH less mammalian carriers near a pre-contact Indian village). Even a mostly agricultural village in the SE or SW wouldn't mind an extra bison for supper.

You didn't ask, but I find Dawn posts by googling what my issue is and adding Okiedawn. I just typed in her name on FB and it brought up a whole long string of posts, most by GW people. Bittersweet.

I think our country was definitely in better balance a couple/few hundred years ago. I just was reading one of the reasons we're seeing a rise in ticks is because of warmer temps. Another one that makes sense is that like other wildlife, their habitat is shrinking. And yes, an 8' fence would be a bit more than we could spend! LOL

Danny, I am so sorry about the car problems. I would think it would be fine to use Dad's money from land sales. Meanwhile, if you're not going to be making any friends over there, then you'd best be moving back to OK, nearer to friends.

Any of you Back to Eden growers? I just watched the documentary--it's perfect. . . . except for the wood chips part. Like we can all just order up a truck load of wood chips? We can't. The only reason we ended up with a truck load was because we caught the power company in the act--right next door to us. I guess I could call them and find out when they might be out in our area. Yes, I guess I'll do that.

Nancy, that sounds like a documentary I would enjoy. I looked it up and it's so long. haha. I have a hard time committing to watching long "shows". I can't binge watch things either. I can do one episode usually, even though I might really like it.

Ticks--yuck!

The thing I miss about Dawn is her new "content". Or maybe I just miss her. Her inclusiveness and fresh suggestions and advice. The old stuff is wonderful, of course. It's helped us and so many others over the years. I don't often go looking at past threads

Yeah....I mostly just miss her.

I had enough potting soil to get half of the cabbages up-potted....and the broccoli. Purchased some more today, but don't feel like doing it. It's too cold in the shop really. I could turn on a space heater, I guess.

The Home Depot had cool season plants. I almost picked up a parsley, but it was over $4 for a single plant. Normally I'll pick up herbs from a couple of places/events. If they're all so expensive this year, I'll need to begin starting my own again.

Norman will let you pick up wood chips for free...or $10 if you want them to scoop it into your truck. It's much nicer when ChipDrop brings them to you. It took 4 years to get a drop out here. But, when someone is working in our neighborhood, we'll ask them to dump them next our garden. Well, we've done that twice. I like to put the chips in the pathways of the kitchen garden.

It's been a weird day. I actually went shoes and clothes shopping. Shoes are difficult for me because of my various foot issues, but I was able to score a pair of boots on sale (cute orthopedic shoes aren't cheap!) and my special-made inserts fit. I hope they work out.

When I fed the chickens their evening meal and to look for eggs, I found Duchess dead. No marks on her. She wasn't sick. She was inside the coop and she was stiff already. But, she was fine this morning. I just don't know. She was one of the new ones--only 6 months old. This round of chicks has been really hard. Half of them have now died. Most were small when they died. So frustrating. These young ones were just starting to lay.

For those of you who like recipes (and cooking with garden food), I'll post a link of the recipe I made tonight. You can use lots of garden things in it.

If you can tomatoes, brown and black beans--you can use those. Also: onion, pepper, garlic, sweet potato. And some garnishes like green onions, radish, and cilantro.

Sweet potato chili