Yes Jennifer, praying for rain and cooler weather. Several times the last couple of weeks we’ve had heavy rain come within a mile of us and we got nothing. We did get 4/10” over 2 weeks and were grateful for that - at least it washed the dust off the pasture and the cattle were loving the shower. My garden is pathetic - the cucumbers all died this week and even the okra is looking bad, the spider mites finished the pole beans and more tomatoes, I did cut suckers from a couple of tomatoes and put in water, they’ve rooted so I’m going to put in a large pot and put in grainary. They will still get same light and wind and if we have frost early I can cover them. I planted more cucumbers, green beans and squash - not sure why but hoping the weather will improve and maybe I can get a decent Fall crop. I do still have lots of Cubanell peppers, hot chilis, and sweet peppers. I’ve made pepper sauce for us and family and put sweet peppers in freezer.

Larry, getting old is tough - my husband and I face something new almost daily, but having stuff to do is good to take your mind off problems, or make them worse. We still have 5 cows due and 22 calves on creep - if you think groceries are high you should visit the feed store. I enjoy all the posts and encouragement. Have a good week

I've cleared almost all the tomato plants out of the garden, just three left and they'll probably go next week.

The pickling cucumber plants are still producing and I've got more cucumbers than we can deal with. We've made enough refrigerator sliced pickle to last a good while. But I might start some plants from seed for the fall.

I've got austrian pea and rye seed ready for the garden as soon as I get around to tilling.

Outside of learning a lot about pickling cucumbers, its been a year I'd like to forget.

Jennifer, all my dog have not come home yet, I hope we all can put then in the pin soon.

Farmgardener, it sounds like you have plenty to do. So far I have not had to buy enough feed to be concerned about. There are only 7 head on my sixty acres, and there is enough grass for them, even after the renter baled it close. I do buy a few bags of range cubes every now and then. I am trying to keep the stock gentle so the owner can get them off the place, I don't like looking after someone else's stock.

I aired up the tires on my rear tine tiller and tilled a spot about 6 x 25 feet. I had been watering the tilled spot for a few days do it would not be so dusty, it tilled nicely, now I need to till in amendments and get ready for some fall plants.

Watering and insects remain a big problem for me.

My cowpea patch out east finally came up after the last rain. but it's double rowed. 1st from the first plantin of knuckle , 2nd from the replantin with cornett. can't till the middles with the Mantis.

Have to cull out the morning glories with a hoe.

winter squash replanting is coming up, so is the patty pan squash.

Green beans are coming up but the dang grasshoppers are already nubbing down some of them. Clearing out some more ground for rutabaga and turnip for later on.

Rick

No excuse to quit gardening:

https://www.newson6.com/story/62ec4bd353612c0706c0b53a/80yearold-claremore-man-uses-scooter-to-tend-to-flourishing-backyard-garden

Rick

Rick, I like the link, I had planned on making something like that using the controls off an old Snapper zero turn with joystick controls. My daughter had the old mower that had a bad engine, but the hydraulics were good, I told her that the engine needed major work, it was blowing oil out the breather. Anyway she had a shade tree mechanic pick it up to check it out, and he told her that it was not worth fixing, and just let him have the mower, but I wound up with a better system, I bought the small Kubota tractor. I have enough room that I can stretch my row spaces out to 6 or 8 feet if needed.

Rick, do you think it was just the lack of water that caused your peas to be slow germinating? I have had the same problem and I water mine in, and keep the soil damp. I am still waiting on my replants to come up.

I did not try to kill my morning glories out last year, and regret it. The morning glories over grew my water melons even in the drought. normally I will burn the trellises, and the grass/ground under them, that seems to help for next years crop. I will have glyphosate ready for them next year. I know the morning glories will be terrible then because all I have done this year is brush hog them down, melons and all.

I picked the okra this morning, we are getting enough now that we are going have to start freezing it.

The planting bug is really biting me, I cant hold out much longer. I will try to get some mulch/compost tilled in in a day or two, and be ready for some fall planting.

The wildlife garden, and neighbor's garden has enough space for 50+ rows of fall crop, but with no rain we may not plant that much.

Larry, yeah it's was too dry for the first plantin of peas to come up. I planted them in late June after I dug potatoes and onions when it first started turning hot. I tried to keep the patch wetted down with a hose but it wasn't enough. It took an inch rain to get them up a month later but by then I replanted with the second planting before the rain and then both plantings came up ( along with the morning glories).

Watering with a hose just isn't the same as a good rain.

Morning glories are a big problem for me. they come up all over that garden space . If I can't keep them tilled out while they're small they vine out and wrap around the plants and go to seed for next years crop of morning glories.

My okra is still being slow to start production. Seems that the Red Burgundy okra is trying to start but the Clemson Splineless isn't. At least the plants are 2 to 3 foot tall now. The okra at Jennifers is hardly over a foot.

Rick

The rain god smiled on me last night. I am not sure how much rain we got, but there was some run-off, and it is 73 degrees now. The planting bug is biting even harder now.

I saw a flock of turkeys down by the creek yesterday, that is the second time I have seen them within a week. I would sure like to plant some winter grain, but when I ask about Elbon rye at the Poteau co-op several days ago, I was told that it was so expensive that they did not buy any. I expect that wheat, rye, and any other grain that can be used for food is going to be expensive, and may be hard to find. I have a bag of food plot mix, it is old, but I might as well plant it anyway. I have some brown top millet and Austrian winter peas, which are also old, but I may as well plant them also.

I just call the Greenwood farmers co-op and was told that they may have Elbon rye by the end of the week, price expected to be 25 to 30 dollars a bag, and wheat being around half of that. This looks like a good day to start getting a food plat ready. You can tell that I am a brain damaged gardener when I gripe about the critters all summer, then feed them in the winter.

Rick, my okra has started producing pretty well. This is the okra that received very little flood damage, and very little deer damage.

The row of sweet potatoes close to the camera is purple sweet potatoes, they are not really taller than the others, they are just growing up over the mulch border that I use to help with erosion. I try to kill the grass out farther around the sweet potatoes.

You can tell that the okra is too thick. when we had the flood, I thinned very little, thinking that I might lose more plants, but these plants did not receive as much damage as the other row.

The high spots in the sweet potatoes is where I dumped mulch/compost to repair flood damage.

The next picture is of the okra that had most of the mulch and top soil washed, plus was pruned heavily by the deer. I think the short okra will be producing before long.

When we had the flood, the water was running over the hwy like a river.

Moni, you can see that I try to keep a mound of mulch around the edge of the garden, sort of like it was a raised bed. I also spray along the edge to kill the Bermuda. By keeping the grass from crossing into the garden it helps keep the garden near weed free. The mulch helps with erosion also, but it is not much help in a flood.

Larry , I'm glad you got rain. Me and Jennifer have been praying for rain this evening but looks like it's going to miss us again.

I hate it when it always rains around you and not on you where you need it.

Grrrrrr....

Guess I ain't been readin the Bible enough. That's what my Dad would say.

Reminds me of Ruth Bible Beans. Jennifer tried to grow those this year but the grasshoppers got them.

Rick

Rick, I don't think reading the bible make it rain, if it did some people would drown, others would die of thirst. I use to really enjoy studying the bible, but my eyes got cranky, then my ears gave up on me.

I have wanted to try the Ruth Bible bean, just because of the name, we also need a Boaz bean also.

I brush hogged a spot between the creek and the pond to make a food plot for the critters today. I also did some brush hogging behind the wildlife garden.

Neighbor and I are working soil for fall turnips, I will also plant a few other things, neighbor even wants to plant beets. I gave him my excess beets to sell this year, now he has customers wanting beets. I hope he has better luck growing them than I do.

Slow, those sweet potatoes are looking damned good. I've almost convinced myself that those plants maybe the most dirt worthy of all we grow. The production and how well they store just can't be beat. Next year, i'm gonna dedicate a little more space for them.

We missed the rain this morning, but we're getting used to it. Maybe we can get some camels to roam around here.

Hwy20, I agree about the sweet potatoes. I do have some trouble with the sweet potatoes, but it is not the sweet potatoes fault. I really need better soil to grow the potatoes, my my soil is too shallow and too heavy. Amending my soil really helps but it still packs so hard that I have to plow the potatoes out with a tractor. The longer type of potato are more apt to break. I have better luck with the Covington sweet potatoes than I do with most other, because of their shape, and they seem a little dryer and harder. This year I am growing Covington, Purple, and Red Wine Velvet in the house gardens, and Beauregard in the wildlife garden.

The first row of sweet potatoes (purple ones) I planted for my grand daughter, she said that she would dig them. The Beauregard, neighbor said that he would dig next week, He likes a smaller potato.

Hi. Catching up here....

The rain missed us again. I am so grateful that we got some a couple of weeks ago, but we need more.

The sky above our neighborhood often has bright blue sky while there are rain clouds in all directions around us. I can smell the rain and see the lightning and hear the thunder....but none for us. This is common out here. It's almost funny.

It was pleasant out this morning. I got out around 7 to do outdoor chores then came in about 9 and fried an egg, toasted some Ezekiel Bread and sliced a tomato. It's one of my favorite breakfasts. I ate it outside. Our backyard is nice in the morning. The tree to the East blocks the sun. The flowers were perky, the chickens were perky, and I felt perky.

Really, I should be deep cleaning the house. I start back to work full-time tomorrow. I just don't feel like cleaning, though.

Josi will have a hard time when I go back full-time. In the past she had Kane for companionship. And last year was different for some reason. I think I worked more days last year. She has gotten used to me being home most days. She tries to stay near me all the time.

This week, other than watering, I mowed over some dried leaves and mulched the shelling beans in the raised bed. They haven't sprouted yet. Pretty sure that bed was getting too dry even though I watered it every day. So, I watered it deeply and put the mulch on it and Tom helped me put a shade cloth over it. Maybe they'll come up now.

The beans in the SG are popping up already. We mulched those a few days ago. Tonight, Rick and I will water it and put the shade cloth. Last year the beans fried in the sun, and we didn't even have any 100-degree days.

There's an old shed at our property line. It belongs to the man who owns the house behind us. We bought our house from him and he has long time renters in the house behind us. He offered for us to use the shed a few years ago. It was just sitting empty (it's pretty rough). Tom, Rick, and I moved some of our garden supplies to the shed on Sunday. It's nice to free up space in the shop and the hoophouse.

I always thought that is where I would put my miniature cow. lol! If I could just find a way to not have to work outside the home, I would have that little cow!

I want an herb spiral in the kitchen garden. It's been the plan for a couple of years. The area is cleaned up and clean out, but it's been too hot to really work on it. This morning I did measure it out.

I've been so neglectful of my herbs for the past two years. Herbs need to be everywhere on my property!

I'm also trying to figure out where I can have a medicinal herb garden. Although, I need to slow my roll on that and finish the things that I've already started--the pollinator bed behind the shop and the herb spiral for instance.

Something I've thought about....

Maybe each year focus on a specific number of herbs--3 or 5? And really get to know each of those. Learn the medicinal uses, culinary uses and even the "magical" properties of them. Really learn to know them and use them well. Begin collecting and drying them again. That's been on my mind.

Have any of you grown Scotch Bonnet peppers? Our friend gifted us with a bag of them. He did last year too. I made pepper sauce with them last year. They are a pretty little pepper, but hot.

Anyway, that is my indoor activity for today--making pepper sauce.

I'm laughing at myself because we were supposed to have a "cool front" today (that's what the weather people kept saying last week!), so chili is on my menu for dinner tonight. It's a really good vegetarian chili, although I do a side of meat for the guys to add to it.

Okay...that sauce isn't going to make itself.

Have a good day, Friends.

Jennifer, I enjoy your post, you talk so many different things.

I think that you, Nancy, and kim have said that you enjoy the animal pictures. I know that you have seen this young heifer before. She is the younger sister of the steer the owner killed in my pasture. He borrowed my rtv and chased the steer while shooting it with a tranquilizer gun so many times, killing it. I tried to just buy the steer, if he would just leave it in the pasture. I could have tamed it just like this heifer, and put it in the freezer.

Anyway, sorry if I have posted this picture before, but I just love this little heifer. She likes watermelon, but she likes to eat them out of your hand more than she likes to eat them off the ground, a true lady does not like to eat dirt.

HJ, in the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, I started binge watching YouTube videos & got interested in medicinal herbs. Found some online trainings too, though I didn't get very far with them. I'd like to learn more too, I think it's fascinating to know all about the plants around us.

Larry that is so cute. What was the guy trying to do with the steer?

Larry, so cute!

I feel sad about the steer.

ooo! Jen, maybe we can do the herb thing together next year! Either choose the same herbs or different one.

Kim, I think that the renter just wanted to move his cattle to another location. He had cut the pastures very short and baled the hay, with the grass gone and the drought the cattle soon ran out of anything to eat. The black mother cow that I have shown in some of the pictures is a little wild, she would run from the rtv, and the guys on horse back. The red heifer was a calf then, the steer, her older brother was young enough to follow his mother, she was only trying to protect her babies and lead them through all the rough areas she could find. I think the renters idea was to take the steer to market and other cattle to another location, the renter rents a lot of properties. I sent a letter yesterday stating that this place is no longer for rent.

The renter is a good man, but he does everything is a dead run and tears up more than he can keep repaired. He left 3 donkeys and a cow and calf here, and as far as I know he did not feed them last winter, I fed them enough to keep them healthy, and a health female donkey and a healthy heifer calf has been born here in the past few months.

I plan on building up the place, and maybe running to 6 head if my health improves. I think I can find a few people that will buy good healthy beef. I dont want to run more than what I can give top notch care for.

Do you have the seeds you need for next year? Will the seed companies run out of supply? I think I have all I need, even more than I need if they germinate, but we have made arrangements to pre-order with the local co-op. I expect the seeds will cost more next year. The seeds I bought yesterday had gone up over 50% of what I have been paying. We are buying potting soil ahead of the spring rush also. This all may be a waste of money, but it is not the first money I have wasted in my life.

I used to buy my seeds for the year around Feb but have been stocking up before Xmas for the following spring ever since Covid. I hope I don't have to order any earlier than that. Might end up with this years seed stock instead of next years seed stock and I like to use fresh seed when I can.

I know about the cost of seed going up. I run up quite a seed bill every year.

If I wasn't still working I couldn't do it.

Sweet corn seed is one of the worst I've seen . $20 some for half a pound or worse.

Just got through ordering a couple of 1/2 oz 's of rutabaga seed for $21.

It's a good idea to buy ahead though. Hard to know what's going to be available later on.

Rick

I bought 2 oz of rutabaga seed yesterday for $.75 per oz, but they were in the old seed bin. Two once of Early wonder beet seed cost me $1.59 per oz. they were marked for year 2022, I have been paying $.99 per oz. Pea seeds have gone up from $2.50 a pound to $3.99 per pound. The last I check on corn it was running about $12.50 a pound, but the price on corn varies a lot, depending what type you get. I did not check the price yesterday, but I am sure it had gone up also. I dont plant corn anymore because of critters. The coons are already eating our cantaloupe, we have not got a cantaloupe yet, we like them a little more ripe that the coons do, the same with corn.

I got all the empty plots in the wildlife garden tilled this morning, total may have been an acre. Most of that will go to turnips. If I can get my John Deere started I will go bust up a food plot between the creek and pond, that will be approx 3/4 acre and near 1/4 mile from the house. I hope I can draw some of the wildlife away from the garden onto the food plot, but what is more likely going to happen is just draw more critters down into the valley. There is not much to eat on the hillsides now.

I do a lot of my seed ordering online. it's more convenient for me , saves a lot of running around but more expensive but it's usually pretty good seed. Plus I'm a sucker for trying out different varieties.Some varieties are more expensive than others.

I probably should try to grow some of my own seed but I'm not very good at saving it to be viable for later.

I gave up trying to grow sweet corn out east for the coons. I do field corn instead. It makes a taller stronger stalk that's a little harder for the coons to pull down plus it ain't sweet enough to suit them unless they're really hard up.

I have problems with varmints getting the cantaloupe too.

Rick

I save all the seeds. I mark them specifically so I know which ones may not grow true to type. But if I am ever caught with no current seeds I will have something. I grow them out occasionally to check viability. I have some from 2011 that have 60% germination. That’s better than a few seed companies I won’t mention lol. I have carrot seeds forever and basil. I just brought home some cantelope seeds from my daughters. Huge melon so I figure it’s hales jumbo. I even saved seeds from a job where I cleaned melons for sale. I can’t seem to help myself. Cucumbers I let go too long. For seed : )

Kim, I have been getting cucumber from my north garden from seeds that come back every year. I dont remember what I planted, but they sure are hardy. There are a few that hide from me ever year and end up making new plants. I am trying to get a new start of cucumbers in the south garden, these are just some cheap seeds from the coop that "long green cucumber," I have no idea what they are, they have not been planted long, maybe a foot high now.

I want to get better at saving seeds. One year we were eating at a pizza place, I love salad, and this was just a few days after Christmas and I was tired of left overs, the salad was so good and the little tomatoes just hit the spot. I squeezed out some seeds in a napkin and grew them the next spring. I grew those tomatoes for a few years, never knowing what they were, I just called them grape tomatoes.

I got my food plot torn up today. It was a rough job, I had just brush hogged it a day or two ago, some of the sapling were 2" in dia., but I was able to bust through the root systems. I want to get the food plot planted and the fall stuff planted also, I may have to have some heart work done in a week or two and am told it that happens I am not to do anything for a month, Madge may have to shoot me to keep me out of her hair.

Hj, I'd love to have someone to swap medicinal plants with. So far I've just been researching the things I normally grow, but want to expand. And my sister in law is Wiccan so she's interested in the magical aspects. When we start planning for next year, maybe we can compare lists & swap a few plants. Or go in together on a couple seed orders.

The garden is pretty much burnt toast. But the wild sunflowers that planted themselves in my garden are going gangbusters. At least 8ft tall & still putting out blooms. I've got a few seedheads drying & next year I want to plant more of them.

Dragonflies are visiting daily. I love watching them & the big fluffy bees.

Jen, I would like to trade you a few seeds. I saved some (mutated?) sunflower seeds. I dont know what else to call them, some of them produce a lot of heads. The one at center top had over a dozen blooms above the 5' height, this picture does not show it well, but it does show the fat fuzzy bee attacking the flower in front of it. I don't know what it is about the flowers but the Bumble bees, I think, I cant see well enough to know for sure. Anyway they are a black bee magnet.

• Larry

Sure Larry. Just let me get them harvested & make sure they're viable.

Jen, I'm trying to decide the "focus" herbs. I might do 5 (but should probably do less). I'll grow the others but want to really learn 5 deeply. And then 5 more the following year....and so on.

I love yarrow but feel like I know it well. It immediately attracted me after moving out here. Even before I knew what it was. I remember digging up a plant and bringing it indoors during the winter. Had no idea what it was at the time.

Anyway....

First thoughts are: valerian, comfrey (I have a plant from Dawn), and probably a culinary one too--perhaps rosemary, which also has medicinal and magical properties. I really want to choose calendula and chamomile. Our climate is awfully hot for those two, but I love them so much. Last year I had a good harvest of calendula because it stayed coolish throughout June. I really am living in the wrong climate. lol

Do you have any that you're wanting to try?

Book suggestion for your sister-in-law. It's The Green Witch's Garden. It's not necessarily Wiccan and maybe she does not consider herself to be a green witch, but it could be useful for her. And you too. It has some pretty interesting ideas about different types of gardens like a moon garden and an element garden. I might try an element garden next year--a really small one. For her, it could even be altar size, if you have a place for her that is somewhat sheltered like next to the barn. The book talks about journaling deeply about the plants that you grow. Maybe she has a grimoire.

So...rain would be nice, right? I have so many projects in the garden but who has time for them? All my outdoor time is spent watering.

I do want to work on the herb spiral and must up my composting. So, those will be the 2 biggies going into fall.

Back to work full-time has been tiring. A few difficult situations that make it so.

Jennifer, I doubt you will be able to make the compost you need. I have made a lot of compost and I really can buy it cheaper than I can make it. Compost has gone up to $15.00 a yard, but I cant make it for that. The problem with me is that it is so hard to unload, ( my body just wont do that anymore), but I would still buy it if I had a steady supply. I would reinforce the tailgate on my trailer and drive the tractor up into the trailer to unload, but there is no need to do all of that if I cant get a cheap supply. I could use 10 yards a year if I could get it. It takes a lot of time and a lot of organic matter to make 10 yards of good compost.

I am not trying to discourage you from making compost, but dont become a compost slave like I have. I have had people stop and ask me if I would sell some compost, I told them to go to Ft. Smith and buy good compost.

Maybe I should just shut up, your soil may be a lot better than mine. I do think no till is the way to go, but it is hard for me to get to that point.

I like to hear (read) your opinion, Larry.

My soil isn't great either.

I just need enough of good, broken-down compost to make potting mixes. The potting mixes and composts that I've recently purchased are junk really. So, I would like to make my own. It wouldn't hurt to start a worm bin for worm castings.

I've had some luck with making good compost, but it was when my gardens were much smaller, so I had time to tend to the compost. My issue was bermuda grass sneaking into the compost bin.

Recently I've been a lazy composter. I throw the compost items into new raised beds and let it sit over the winter, Then top it with purchased garden soil in the spring.

Because the garden areas that had the zeolite/chicken droppings dumped on them over the winter did SO well, that is what I'm going to do starting now. One bed that is empty has that combo sitting on it now. At the end of October, garlic will go there. Another bed that is mostly empty is now getting the buckets of zeolite/chick poo dumped on it (away from the 2 tomatillo that are still planted there).

Anyway, that's how I plan on amending the raised beds.

Rick has been purchasing Black Kow for the SG and then tilling it in. Dawn was a fan of Black Kow and it was about the only outside thing she would bring into her garden. However, the past couple of years' reviews for Black Kow have been negative. As is the situation with many purchased products.

It's very discouraging.

The YouTuber from Arkansas who moved so SC last year poisoned one of their high tunnels this year with purchased compost. It came from a reputable place, however the store that sold it to them was given a product that was said to be "organic", but had obviously been sprayed with Grazon or a product like it.

There's countless stories like that all over the country (and beyond). I got bad stuff in the spring as well--seedlings were stunted. In my case, I believe the compost IN the potting mixes was unfinished. It was very chunky. That's what I'm finding.

Anyway...it's really just too bad. I need to up-pot some brassicas soon out of the seed starter into a potting mix and I can't find anything that is good. IF I could get some good compost right now, I could make my own. Maybe I'll just splurge and use expensive worm castings.

Jennifer, I use to buy composted cow manure from Ace Hardware to make potting mix on a small scale, it then came from Miami Oklahoma, I think from a mushroom grower, but it is too expensive to use on a large scale. I would mix it with LC 1 sunshine mix or LG 15 Pro mix, I just don't have access to anything that I can afford, and be in stock. Collecting scrap from around hay rings is free, except for all the work and diesel fuel, and you are still not sure what you are getting. I expect I am going to be forced to really down size.

Can get lotsa good compost at the stockyards.

My neighbor brought home a trailer load to fill his raised beds.

I am not sure if you can get compost at the Ft. Smith stock yard, and I would wonder what was in it. Grazon can pass through a cow, but I am not sure composting would break it down, that is one thing I worry about in the compost from the landfill, so far I have only got damage from hay mulch. I check around the hay rings, if the hay is trashy, I feel that it has not been sprayed, and I try to check with bean or pea seeds, but that is still not a great test. I really feel that a cover crop to till in is the best way to go, but, tilling is very hard for me to do. Now that I have a tiller for my tractor, I may try a cover crop again.

My dad has bought a load of mushroom compost from Miami every year since he & mom put in that first garden. I remember going to get it, then driving home with that stinky stuff. But their garden always did amazing. They also live up in Grove, where the soil is rocky but practically anything will grow. If I could get it, I'd love a couple loads. But the cost would be ridiculously high.

HJ, she is a green witch, I believe. She talked to me a lot about it last year & year befoee, but since we moved she doesn't seem to have the same interest in gardening. Not sure which herbs I want to grow, other than all of thrm (of course lol). I love sage so I'd like to get a bunch of that going again. Borage, I love the flowers but never have been able to get any to grow. Mints, all different kinds. I have chocolate mint in my pot with Dawn's tomato, and that's the only one that doesn't have any disease or pests. I wonder if there's a correlation? I like your idea of focusing one a few each year. I started taking a bunch of notes, but nothing consistently enough to make sense out of it.

I would be concerned about the cow manure and herbicide too! Apparently some of the herbicides live through the digestive process of the cow and poisons gardens. Dawn talked about it frequently and that is why she didn't bring outside stuff into her gardens the past several years.