The price on brassicas at Lowe's today was $1.00 per plant when you buy the 6 pack. I don't want to pay that much, plus it is hard for me to get the plants harvested and space made for the things I want to grow for summer when I have a lot of brassica.

Larry I am glad you have your sweet wife to keep you calm dealing with these ding dong doctors. I usually pull my brassicas and plant melons or okra.

I am planning on planting some peppers in couple of my onion rows. I am thinking that the onions can be harvested before the peppers can get very large. I have never tried any kind of inter planting before, and know nothing about it.

Kim, I am a very lucky man, Madge treats me very well.

She looks like a sweet hearted woman. I saw her picture on fb. I have done inter planting after Dawn’s advice over 11 years ago. And succession planting too. I planted dozens of flowers and herbs seeds. I plan on planting one herb or flower with each crop bucket

Do y’all grow strawberries? After seeing an example of organic growers I can not eat any strawberries out of the store.

For many years I had success with strawberries, but the past two years have been rough. Hoping for a better year. Have you tried You Pick It farms, Kim? Or does that bother you?

I'm really wanting strawberries now. LOL!

Or any fruit. This carnivore diet is brutal. Today's breakfast: 2 eggs cooked in Kerrygold butter/2 slices of Paleo turkey bacon. Today's lunch: about 3 to 4 oz of turkey and a boiled egg.

How do people get enough calories on this diet? I simply can't eat more than 3 or 4 oz of meat at a time....and that's pushing it.

I have to work until 8:30 tonight so won't get home in time to cook anything so will eat another 3 or 4 oz of turkey for dinner. No wonder people lose weight on this diet.

I'm only doing it for a week. I was hoping it would make me feel great like all the carnivore followers go on about.

I feel achy and thirsty. Can't get enough water. I guess because I usually have fruit and a large salad each day, as well as other veggies. All have a decent water content.

Oh well. I only committed to a week of this. Four more days to go.

Anyway, I'm missing a beautiful day to be outside. I hope everyone else gets some outdoor time today. Enjoy!

Jennifer my son in law is carnivore. He does meat cheese and eggs. I won’t eat any strawberry unless they assure me that they have not sprayed anything. It’s a weird picky thing for me.

Understandable, Kim. We all have those things that freak us out for sure....sometimes with good reason.

He eats no veggies/herbs/fruit at all? He must eat a lot of cheese to keep from losing weight...and to keep the calories up. Or maybe he can handle a lot of meat. Did he struggle with it at first?

I'm only asking because I'm interested. I have no plans to cut veggies from my diet other than for this week. Mostly a Lent thing.

He struggles with it quite a bit mostly because my daughter is a sugar addict. So occasionally he turns into a carnivoreo. When I was taking classes at the Texas AgriLife in Lubbock one class that I went to was growing strawberries commercially and organically. But they had greenhouses full of strawberries that we couldn’t go in because they had just sprayed their “organic spray“. And I thought if it’s so bad organically what is conventional strawberries like and it just turned my stomach. I know lots of other foods are mishandled but and I do try to eat organically. But that is my main reason for growing my own

I love fruits and berries, but gave up growing them, there are so many critters that like them it is just not worth it.

I don't do well with meat either, I eat meat but it just does not seem to taste the same. A lot of our meals are meat free. I think part of my problem is age. I have heard that your taste buds start dying when you get old. I don't know if that is true, but Madge and I both say that meat just does not taste the same as it did when we were younger. Madge has dropped on the amount of food that she eats, I don't see how she gets the amount of nourishment she needs.

Larry if you’re buying conventionally grown beef you are right it does not taste the same as it used to. I’d buy grass fed grass finished beef only and chicken from farmers that raised them all pasture with organic feed. I have found that I feel better and it tastes much better.

Things don’t seem to be growing as fast as I would like. I up potted most of my brassicas and they seem stalled. I gave them a shot of fish emulsion so hopefully that will get them going I have Pak Choi, Tat soi, bok choy, Napa cabbage,green cabbage, collard and red mustard.

Kim, we buy from a local store, Harp's, we feel it is better than Walmart's meat, but I am sure that it is not special in any way. I would like to grow my own, I have the room, but I am not able to take on the responsibility.

Kim, that is a lot of brassica. My onions seem to be stalled, just when they should be taking off. I gave them a shot of nitrogen, and I think that I may have given them too much, I have bought some 46-0-0, thinking that it would be faster, and I could store less of it, I am thinking that I made a mistake. I normally have plenty of compost, but because I don't lease the pasture anymore, I dont have access to the hayring scrap. I watered good this afternoon hoping to flush the nitrogen from the soil, I am sure I will have to do that several times. I also got the rest of my onion sets planted today. I have onions everywhere. I hope to pick a couple of favorite kind of bulbing, and bunching onions, and then only grow what I need.

My stuff seemed stalled also. I was counting on rabbit manure but I think I should’ve smashed it or something because I don’t feel like those little bowls of poo are releasing much nitrogen. That’s why they all got a shot of fish emulsion. I really don’t like using that stuff because it stinks but I wanted some thing that would work quickly. And I know that I can’t over fertilize with it so I feel safe using it on my baby carrots and brassicas

I tried fish emulsion years ago, but one time trying to bring it into the house put a stop to that,plants like that stuff, but there is no way to bring it into the house, and stay married.

I started some tomatoes and peppers, and have plans to start a few other things. I also tossed out about a gallon of zinnia, gaillardia, coneflower, liatris, and i'm not sure what else into that big circle bed. Hoping a few things sprout. And my cilantro is still hanging on; I'm surprised it lived through the deep freeze, but it's still tasty. Garlic looks rough, but it's starting to green up. I need to put some fish emulsion on them. Larry, I agree about the smell. Cliff wouldn't let me live it down if I tried using that stuff inside. I tried something called Super Thrive last year on my houseplants and they seemed to do well with it. You use like a teaspoon of it in a gallon or so of water, so there's almost no odor to it at all.

My neighbor came over yesterday for a few seeds. They did a small garden last year and are planning to start one this year and wanted to try starting seed, so I'm trying to enable her. Dawn corrupted me all those years ago, so now it's my turn. And in return she gave me some fresh eggs. Her chickens started producing again and they're overrun with them. I told her I never turn down "real eggs".

That is the truth. You can not use fish emulsion in the house. First and only time I did I wanted to slap myself. It was so bad. Even outdoors I am leery of attracting pests. Hopefully it works.

I use miracle gro in the house. I mix up a pretty strong solution in a milk jug, then pour some in a gal pump up sprayer to use to water inside. I try for one tea spoon per gal.. My garden soil is high in P & K, and I buy the miracle gro that is high in N and use it inside and outside of the house. I buy 50# bags of fertilizer to use mainly on the food plots, pasture, house garden and wildlife garden.

Jen, that Is a lot of seeds you are putting out. I bought a pound of zinnia seeds a few years ago, and I expect to use the last of them this year. I hope to get the disc on the tractor today and work up a strip along the highway, in the wildlife garden to plant zinnias and sunflowers. I may put a few vegetables over there also. I don't want a lot of vegetables over there because I will have to haul water to them.

I'll never forget the time I put fish emulsion on my paper cup seedlings outside in one of those zip up green houses. The dogs said "oh, look! Mom put salad dressing on the greens" and ate some.

I use the liquid sea weed fertilizer on seedlings.

I've been procrastinating. And I have to organize tax stuff, too. Sigh.

Using fish emulsion in the house is about like cleaning fish in the house.

I haven't had much experience with anything but manure and chemical fertilizer. I guess that I like composted manure as well as anything I have used, but I am not sure Madge would let me bring that in the house either.

I have the south garden cleaned up now, except the area I plan on growing sweet potatoes or butternut squash, which is to the right side of this picture.

Here is a before, and after picture of my junk onion bed.

This picture was taken about a month ago. I have been harvesting the onions and chopping them up for the freezer of replanting them. Some of the plants I would save about 1/2 to 1 inch of the bottom of the stump to replant, in some cases I would just replant the bunching onion plant whole.

This picture was taken today. The row of onions on the far left looked bad yesterday, I think I burned them badly with Urea fertilizer ( 46 -0 - 0 ). I am sure this fertilizer has its place, but if not used properly you can sure burn a plant with it.

Stumps have been planted in the bald spots, some have not broken the soil surface yet. The pale plants are garlic that I have found coming up.

If I ever figure out what I am doing, I will try to manage a lot fewer onions.

I've used fish emulsion on seedlings on a nice day outside. Feed them and then let them stay out in shade (or whatever stage of hardening off they're in), but will then bring them indoors at night. There's a bit of odor at that point but not too bad. They're in a room that isn't part of the main living.

It does stink, tho for awhile after using it.

Jen, if even a portion of your seeds germinate in the circle bed, it will be just gorgeous.

Larry, do you have a good success with butternut? I sure wish the squash pests would leave my squash alone.

I'm hoping my zinnia bed has lots of volunteers. That bed had mostly the Queeny ones.

I'm also hoping calendula and chamomile volunteers will be abundant.

When I think of all the cleanup our garden and properties need, it makes me feel overwhelmed.

I might start flowers next week....hopefully the bedrooms will be complete then minus the flooring which we're hiring done.

The last room just needs the trim painted now.

Three more days of the carnivore life. Cooking veggies for Tom and not eating them has been a killer.

What does anyone think about Nourishing Traditions? That might be more my style. It's one of Stella's favorite books, so Ethan bought a copy a couple of years ago, but left his for me since Stella has a copy.

You know how I've been yammering on about high cholesterol and LDL for a couple of years and trying different ways of eating to lower it? I had my yearly check up today. I mentioned it to her (she's not my primary doctor) and that my primary doctor hasn't suggested meds for it. (which I wouldn't have taken anyways) She has some type of program where she puts in age, weight, height, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, blood pressure, and I can't remember what else. It gives you a likelihood of a heart "event" in the next 10 years. She put my info the program and I got a 1. 1%. She said it's not recommended to medicate people unless their percentage is over 5%, so I feel better about it all. I'm not sure how stress plays into all of it, though.

I know at some point in my life, there will be an issue with some body part because our parts do wear out with age. My feet are jacked up already.

Anyway, if anyone else is concerned about such things, it might be worth asking your doctors about the program.

A much older friend passed away a couple of days ago. He was almost 87. He was out in the garden and apparently had a heart attack. Really, passing away doing something you love is probably a blessing, right? Maybe 5 years ago, he and his wife gave me a box of canning jars. She is unable to can much now-a-days.

Anyway....I'm going to go home fix some lamb chops and paint trim, although I would rather be outside.

I love nursing traditions by Sally Fallon ?sp. i will never take cholesterol meds. I would rather take my chances lol. Everyone I know had or has dementia from it. Sad

Jennifer, I do fair with butternut, but if I have more than 8 or 10 plants, I need the help of insecticide. With 8 or 10 plants I can save 25 fruit for us, and maybe that many to give away, but the insects normally kill the plants before the end of the growing season.

My neighbor came over and tilled the area where I plan to plant butternut, and the pasture garden also. I will have to till more before planting time to kill the winter weeds and grass. I still have the north garden to clean and till.

That's a good amount of butternut, Larry. I would love to store back that many.

Kim, I'm the same about most medicines. I think it's why I try to adapt my lifestyle to prevent having to take medicine, like how I play around with different eating plans and such.

I do remember Dawn talking about statins and Tim's cholesterol. I can't remember the details, but he was either avoiding taking statins or was coming off of them for the reason you mentioned.

Nourishing Traditions guidelines seem fairly easy to do. It's basically how we've been eating for awhile. I need to source more pastured meat, tho.

I wish I had it in me to do meat chickens. And need to ferment more stuff, as well as soaking beans and making sourdough.

Need more hours in the day.

I need more strength. Since I worked out in the garden on Monday I have been exhausted. Doing a new thing at work has me stressing too. It’s just different and I am trying too hard. …….. My baby carrots are looking good. I need to take my scissors out and thin then a little. Earlier I had said the packages did not Spirit well they are sprouting now. Weeks after the others did. Never give up. Well I just watched a video on the benefits of red onion especially for nerve health and repair. Which I am in need of desperately. So Saturday I will see if I can find some starts.

I take statin and a lot of other medication. I had rather not take medication, but I feel that some of it has helped me. I have a lot of things that don't work right, and I am afraid to stop taking medications.

I understand that Larry. I guess because I am a recovered drug addict I stay away from most pills. I take enough supplements sometimes I don’t feel hungry. And I take my thyroid pill. I much prefer to eat my vitamins but that’s not always possible. It’s so important to me to eat a healthy diet.

Larry, I would not advise for you to stop any medications.

My mom takes a statin too, and blood pressure meds.

I'm trying to avoid needing to take those things in the future. And there's so much new science about cholesterol and how it's not really the bad guy that it was once considered.

I do take a calcium supplement and K2 D3 every day.

I have a friend who had a heart attack a few years ago. A month prior he had been to the doctor and had "great" cholesterol. Then, my husband who is not a healthy eater (but is better because he's trying and because I cook from scratch) has low cholesterol....but high AIC and blood pressure.

Anyway....

I will say the lamb loin I cooked last night was really good. That surprises me because of my dislike of the taste of most meats. I need our friend to grow us more lambs.

And meat chickens too. lol

Rick is planning on planting potatoes in the SG on Sunday. I'm hoping to have my portion of the remodel done on Sunday and will need to start tomatoes and peppers and flowers next week. Onions should arrive by the end of next week.

I know I've said it before, but there is so much clean up that needs to be done outside and in the gardens.

I believe each person has to walk their own health path. What I do and believe works for me. And only me

I agree, Kim.

I think a healthy diet is wonderful, but I don't know it it would have helped with all of my problems. There seems to be evidence that my heart problem has been with me all my life, but it seems that the meds, pacemaker/defib and CPAP make my life better. I didn't even know I had a heart problem till 1988.

Kim, it seems as though most of my family have had a drug or alcohol problem at some point in their life, I guess I was lucky, I just felt that I never had the time or money for it. I have tried many forms of tobacco, and never like any of them, I felt the same way about tobacco, it was just a stinky nasty expense. I guess gardening is about the closest thing to an addiction I have ever had.

Larry I started smoking when I was eleven. My parents did so I did. I quit cold Turkey at 44. Not soon enough. Drugs started at 15 until 24. Horrible years. Now I do whatever I have to to stay alive. Diabetes had me taking all sorts of pills and shots. I hated it. So I went on extreme diet no sugar no grains. Much better. No pills or shots anymore. Unfortunately not everything is that easy to fix. I was pretty stupid for most of my adult life. After stage3 cancer last year it jerked me straight up. I’m just trying to do better. Gardening is my saving Grace. The fresh air and sunshine are healing. I am going to town tomorrow looking for red onion plants.

I found a seed company that sells short Day onion seeds. I am going to order several varieties to plant this fall. It’s called urban farmer

Kim, we were in Ft. Smith today to meet SIL and BIL for lunch, I had planned on buying more red onions, but I could tell Madge was not feeling well, so I did not stop anywhere to buy onions. We have gotten to be "take turn" shoppers, neither one of us can be on our feet long, so we take turns going into the stores, and sometimes we take turn going into town, also we try to pick up what the other one wants. Madge and I both are walking like a slow drunk, I am use t it, but Madge is having a hard time with it, she is the type that tries to do everything in a dead run, I am the type that you have to make marks along my path to tell if I am moving.

Me too Larry. They used to tease me at Whataburger before I had my surgery if I needed a rest after carrying a tray out. I’m a little better but I still pace myself so I can breathe. I get lightheaded off I run out of breath. Tomorrow will be a stretch. I have 6 places to go. Maybe 8 if I can’t find red onions at ace.

I barely survived. I got 2 bunches Dixondale red something. Planted most of them

I'm glad you found your red onions, Kim. Are they Red Creole or Red Candy?

And I'm glad you survived.

I've almost survived the day.

We did our weekly shopping and took the recycling in.

Then, I put a coat of paint on the trim. And up-potted the brassicas/greens/lettuces.

It was a beautiful day so I took the seedlings out to the shop, opened the doors and up-potted them. The lettuces really could go into the Greenstalk if I had it ready. Maybe I'll get it ready next weekend. All varieties look so good. Let's see if I can remember them all....Red Sails, Parris Cos, Red Salad Bowl, Sweet Valentine, Crawford Bibb, and Simpson Elite. There are 105 plants total including the kale, arugula, spinach, cabbage and broccoli. That should be plenty. Fifteen cabbages and 13 broccolis.

Tom helped me get the hoses back out, so I watered the hoop house beds really well. There are a few plants still alive in there surprisingly. They don't look good, tho.

I bought pellets to start tomatoes and peppers this up-coming week....and some flowers too.

The elderberries are waking up. I hope those little columnar apple trees wait awhile.

I'm going to put another coat of paint on the trim and then clean-up and go to the airport to pick up M & M at 9:45. They live in Edmond, so we won't get home until midnight and we both work tomorrow. I'll probably need a nap tomorrow before finishing the trim.

And we're taking food to the widow of the friend who passed away that I mentioned early in the week. I hope I can get it all squeezed into the day. Rick is going to be working in the garden, so I'm a little jealous.

That's what our weekend looks like. One more day of carnivore. I can't wait to eat a big salad and some yogurt and fruit.

Madge and I went to the community north of us, there is a bar-b-q catering rig that had been coming there on the weekend, so we got some BBQ and came back home to eat, Later in the day we went to Greenwood and bought some groceries, seed starting mix and a bundle of red onions. I worked up a spot to plant the 68 red onions, and got them watered in. The onions looked pretty good, except for being very dry, and they were Bonnie plants. I think Bonnie is improving some, but I had rather have Dixondale.

It was a beautiful day.

Jennifer I’m not sure what kind of red onions I got I want to say it was a bell something they weren’t in the best shape but they’re dicksondale and they also they’ll be all right

You are so busy

I think there's a Southern Belle Red. Or something like that, Kim.

It is a southern belle red I just looked it up thank you Jennifer.

I can't get my red onions to keep like the white and yellow onions, and Bonnie does not offer as many different kinds as Dixondale. I use to be able to buy Dixondale at some of the mom and pop stores around here, it was sort of like they were seconds or overruns, they were smaller and cheaper than Bonnie, and I had better luck with them. The onions I bought today I think were cheaper than what I paid for onions last year, if I remember correctly all 6 bundles were under $5.00 per bundle, but 2 bundles were low quality and low count.

Speaking of healthy eating, I've been terrible today with sugar. 2 cinammon rolls and ice cream on the side. It all started before tilling. I thought, "yeah thats a good idea...I need a quick burst". Then after tilling, "Man, i'm hungry...one more won't hurt. I've earned it".

We've been making sourdough for several months now and it has lead to a bunch of sweets using up the starter discard. I'm gonna need to be more careful about it, but it's soooo good.

On the bright side, this was the final till and it was like a hot knife through butter. Nice and fluffy. I added 10 lb of sulfur that I can still smell, and about 5 lb of potash.

We planted a new onion called Tx early white. It said it was the longest of the short day, so I'm guessing it will be ready just after the 1015Y. Anybody ever grow those? I guess gardening is officially kicked off now, so hoping mother nature is good to all of us.

Hwy20 (Is your name Josh?), I want to do sourdough, but haven't found the time to start it up yet. Someday. Those cinnamon rolls sound amazing right now.

I've never grown Texas Early White. Let us know what you think about it as time goes by.

I'm hoping mother nature is kind too. With is being so warm already....what does that mean? Will it be a scorcher this summer? Will we get bit in March and April? Or maybe it will just be a nice mild year.

Larry, Red Creole stores well for me most years (not last year because of them getting wet during curing). They don't get very big, but I especially like the red onions to be a small/medium size anyways.

I'll start a new thread.

I have a hard time with red onions , they just don't do as well for me as the white and yellow ones.

But I keep trying. I just bought a couple of bundles of Sweet Red ( Bonnie).

I just got done putting in most of my onions over east.

I've tried "Texas Early White". It didn't really do well for me. I didn't even bother with it this year.

About to plant potatoes over at Jennifers.

Yep I'd say it's time to start gardening.

Rick

I have been out playing in the garden. A lot of the stuff I do in the garden is just to have something to do, and of course I pick the easiest stuff to do first. I don't bend well, so I spend a lot of my time on my knees, and sort of sitting back on my feet. At that distance I can see what I am doing better. Onions are the only thing I have growing now, so I have been breaking the bunching onions apart and replanting them. I have found two empty spots that I marked for pepper plants. The onions that I broke apart that ended up with no roots I brought into the house and put them in our lunch.

I hope to mark some spots for tomatoes and peppers. My plan is to use the post hole diggers and dig and amend planting holes for peppers and tomatoes. I don't remember ever having my garden ready this early, but the spring rains could set in and keep everything soaked past planting time.

I bought extra potting soil and a bag of perlite to add to the planting holes for about 6 plants each of peppers and tomatoes, this is another case of I don't know what I am doing, but I am going to add about a qt of perlite, and a qt of potting soil into the already amended soil in the garden. I also hope to use my irrigation tubes above the spots that have the extra potting soil/ perlite mix, hoping I will be able to do deeper watering easier.

Hey Jennifer, yeah, it's Josh. I'm loving the sourdough bread we've been making. Once you get the starter down, it's a really easy process. It's an easier recipe than the sandwich bread we make. Last year I said that I would learn how to make good bread, so all of this was a part of that process.

Since I've just gone through the learning part, I can offer some advice if you want to get started, and if you know somebody with starter already, that is half the battle.

I still smell sulfur today...that stuff lingers. With these crazy temps, I'm a little worried about what is going to happen. My gut tells me that we get this early spring bloom and a hard freeze is going to whack us. I'm on serious guard for the rope-a-dope right now. Just following the schedule and trying not to cheat.

Yep I'm leary about some March arctic plunge since I got my onions in the ground now.

Also a good possibility of some late freeze in April usually after tomatoes are put out.

Weather's an A - hole.

time to move over to the new thread.

Rick