I am plotting and planning what to plant next. I might throw some brassicas in a pot and cover it since I will be gone for a week and barely coming home to take care of my animals and water. I will take a look at my seed and see what I have but I’m pretty sure I’m completely out of cauliflower broccoli and red cabbage. Hopefully my order comes quickly from MI Gardener.

I know I am out of red cabbage seed, or at least good red cabbage seed, because I have not planted any in years, I just don't seem to do as well with the red cabbage. I hope I still have some of the small cabbage, Madge and I cant eat the large heads up as quickly as the smaller ones, plus the smaller produce quicker. I would like to plant collards, they are sorta like a Timex watch, they take a licking and keep on ticking. I would like to plant curly mustard also. I would like to plant some mustard tender greens for my aunt and uncle, they love them, but able to get out and grow them.

I would like to plant some beets, but here I am already make a list that is going to be larger than the space I will have.

My cucumbers are gone and need to be ripped out and something planted in their place. I would like to plant more cucumbers, but had rather not go back in the same spot with the same plants. I may have to clean out a place in the pasture garden to plant some of my fall crops, but I really hate that also, because the area has 7' tall Johnson grass in it, if I don't spray it first I will never kill the Johnson grass, and I had rather not plant food in sprayed ground. I have fought Johnson grass all summer in my sweet potato bed because I did not control it last year.

Watering may be the biggest mystery to growing tomatoes.

When I was setting up my drip irrigation system, I came here to ask about watering. I was having to decide how many emitters for each plant. Dawn told me flat out that " nobody can tell you how much you should water " . She said there were too many variables.

I was just trying to establish a starting point. I ended up taking the advise of the people I bought the emitters from, but it still came down to just having to experiment and find out.

And heck,that was 10 years ago and I'm still not set on a watering pattern. I followed Dawns advise for years, and that's too stress the plants with just enough water to keep them alive. She was advocate for stressing the plants to cause them to produce more fruit. I would never water till June or July, and then I'd run the system for an hour maybe once or twice a week. Really random, nothing scientific or measured.

But this year I've changed. I've wondered in the past if it was the blight killing my plants or maybe I was just not watering enough. So this year, I've got the system on a timer and it runs for 45 minutes early every morning. And so far, I can't tell a lot of difference.

But August will be the test. Usually, I'm pulling plants out in the last week of July to first week of August. I have a couple now that can come out, but the cutworm problem has muddied the water on whether they've died from blight or cutworm damage.

I have seen a difference in the size of the tomatos the plants have made in July. Its normal for the first tomatoes to be large, then they gradually reduce in size until this time of year when they ripen to the size of golf balls. This year, they reduced in size much faster. For the month of July the largest ones have been just smaller than tennis balls with most of them, closer to golf balls.

Unfortunately, it’s true. We can’t know how much to water because every single person has a different climate. Obviously, if it rains like I got 5 inches last night I will not be watering for several days. When I had mine set up on drip, I watered every three days For one hour and during droughts over in West Texas it seem to do the trick. Now I’m over here south of Gainesville and I get three times as much rain as I did over there normally. In the spring I had 12 inches in 12 days and then, four or five weeks of no rain. I do believe in stressing out tomatoes a little bit, but probably not as much as other people. It does encourage them to produce more fruit. But if the plant gets too stressed out then it seems to call in the pests.

I agree, Kim, about too much stress on a plant. The three tomato plants that had aphids earlier in the season, got beat up pretty bad. It's those 3 tomato plants that now have leaf footed bugs, while the other ones do not.

Luckily, they're still producing.

And that's a lot of rain! Trying not to be jealous, but that's almost too much.

Isn’t that a crazy amount of rain Jennifer. I actually don’t know how much we got because my gauge only goes to 5 inches and I just cleaned it out yesterday so I know that I got at least 5 inches. But I imagine Richard was very happy with thatshower because he loves a good shower.

I am trying to get some of my irrigation modified to supply water for late plants, but I have never learned how to water anything, it is just a fly- by-night thing with me. At 6-1 we go no water restrictions and have to water by hand held device, so that is what I use all the time. I cant water any more than every other day, but I only water when, and how much I think I need.

I don't get any sizable tomatoes this time of the year either, and I always have disease, some plants may still have tomatoes on them at first frost, most are dead by then, but I don't take them out till I need the space, or the weather cools of.

This is the size of the tomatoes I get this time of the year. Madge picked any that had any color on them last night. All of my tomatoes drop in size every year.

This is a row of 8 plants that I planted late, hoping tor a fall harvest. At this point I cant say it was worthwhile.

Do any of you mess with this flower? I am thinking it is called Moon flower. My BIL sent 3 plants home with Madge this spring. I told her that I did not want them, and he had given me seeds to plant a couple of years before, but I planted them just because he had given then to me. I have heard that they are poison, and don't plan on planting them again. Can any of you give me a good excuse to say if he wants to give me some more next year. I hate to just say "I ate some, and they made me sick".

Absolutely do not eat them. I can't tell what species of moon flower you have there, but none of them are edible. I'm guessing they are Datura or brugsmansia (not sure on spelling) both are toxic and psychedelic. You can put your horn worms on them. They could be the ones related to morning glories, which are invasive, and still not edible.

It always amazed me the difference between the first week of July and the last. Hundred degree temps and all the bugs do a number on our gardens. They go from lush and productive to withering and holey.

Interesting point about bugs targeting stressed plants, Jennifer.

Thanks, Amy, you can be sure I wont eat them, that was just some of my sick humor. The plants remind me of jimsonweed, which, I also hate. When I was a child, we seem to always have jimsonweeds around the barn and the pig pen.

While out a couple of week ago I saw a 16 oz bottle of Immunox fungicide, I have never used any of it. I will need to pull the label up on the computer so I can read it. It is hard for me to understand why the print on everything shrinks. Have any of y'all used Immunox, and if so, what do you think about it?

Datura is jimsonweed, Larry. https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/datura.shtml

Lynn, I agree about watering tomatoes and it being such a mystery. I guess we just continue to try to figure it out year after year and sometimes maybe we get it right.

And as long as we get produce whatever we did worked well enough.

This year, we've had many large tomato fruit. The ones in the SG are smaller now, tho. Some of the ones in the KG are still fairly large, but they're a bit behind the others.

My kitchen garden is entirely weeded other than the asparagus beds. They're half done. They are difficult to weed once their ferns are full and tall. But, they are always the weediest beds.

Anyway,

I got the first Kajari melon yesterday but can't remember where I put it. lol

Larry, your passion vine continues to be a source of food for the frittillary caterpillars and I'm seeing a lot of butterflies. I wanted passion fruit, but have butterflies instead. They are pretty ones.

Josi will be having surgery tomorrow to remove some skin tumors and to clean and remove some teeth and fix an issue in her mouth.

Wow. Vet fees have increased.

Tom about choked when I told him how much it would cost, but in the long run, it will be cheaper to do the tumors and mouth at the same time.

We may be eating beans and cowpeas out of the pantry for a week. LOL

She's ten and a half. And is some type of pointer mix. I've read that a pointer's life expectancy is between 11 and 14 years. She seems pretty healthy, tho. Lots of energy still, good appetite.

No more dogs. I love them. But vet costs have more than doubled since we got her. Plus, with a kid in Oregon and taking trips there, well, dogs just need more care than cats and chickens, although my neighbor has done a great job caring for Josi and the rest of the crew when we travel.

While she's at the vet, I plan on having a kitchen day to process elderberries. There's still several clusters on the bushes. I sure wish they would ripen so I could do them all at the same time.

Also, hoping to make pepper sauce, pickled red onions, and maybe pickled garlic.

Today, no gardening. I'm about to fix a quiche to take to my daughter. It will be enough for Tom's dinner and lunch for my mom, daughter and me.

Then Pilates tonight. When I come home from that, I might have time to water Rick's super-hot peppers in pots and check on the elderberries. See if anymore are ripe.

The datura is very pretty, Larry. If I had all the time, I would make a baneful garden and put datura in it. It would be great for hornworm relocation. Speaking of, I've not had any hornworms this year, which is strange because I don't kill them.

Anyway....maybe they just haven't found me yet. Or maybe the basil that is coming up everywhere is repelling them.

What are you all doing today?

This is the list of all the seeds I ordered from MI Gardener. I should have plenty of onions to try and get two bulbs next year some of them. I’m not sure if they were long day or short day or intermediate, but I need lots of onions in my life, especially red ones are supposed to be really good for nerve repair. And my red ones this year got eaten by grasshoppers. I’ve got some planting to do. Yesterday I went through all my seeds put away ones that I’m not using and pulled seeds that I will be planting From now until fall my pink eye purple hull peas did not come up and now the bed is covered in grass so I need to clean that out and replant.

Well, geez, I guess it helps if I post the picture

Thanks, Amy, I knew that the plants looked a lot like what we called jimsonweed when I was a kid. My BIL is a very nice, and gardens a little I think he was just being nice to me, but I don't want the plants. Madge said that BIL bought a whole flat of those plants, I hope the others that he gave plants to were more happy to get them than I was.

Jennifer, I am glad you think the Datura is pretty, and I hope the people driving along the highway like it, but I don't think I have room for it. I only have about 2400 sq.ft. of gardening space + 12 mineral tubs to grow in the lawn, and if I were going to grow flowers, it would be a different kind.

I have had pretty good luck with large sunflowers and zinnias, and a few others. The Teddy Bear sunflowers I grew this year were a flop, I planted them in the garden and the garden plants soon over grew them.

Kim, that is a lot of onions. I thought that I had a lot of onions, but they are growing fast. I have told family to help them selves to the produce I have on the cabinet, on the porch, and in the garden, and they have been doing it, they have also been taking some to extended family and friends. I am trying to develop a love for gardening in the kids, but I may be developing a love for free produce, only time will tell.

My sweet potatoes are looking good, but I think that the north garden will grow into a mess, the sweet potato vines and pea vines will cover most of the garden. I have a lot of peppers in the north garden and some of them are already fighting the pea, and sweet potato vines, I may have to do a lot of pruning.

I need to go pick the okra, my aunt, uncle, and cousin are not doing well and we want to go visit and take fresh produce to them.

I just went out and picked the south garden, not close and not all,but I filled a 5 gallon bucket and I got hot, I am now in front of a fan cooling off. I will sort the produce and take a good supply to my family. We still have much to get rid of.

Next year, I am going to be much more diligent with my onions because I got barely any onions and they were golf ball size or smaller. That doesn’t work for me when I like to dehydrate make my onion powder, onion chunks, and onion salt. I used to harvest about 200 onions and that seemed like enough for the year. So that is my goal 200 large onions. Each package of those onions has about 250 to 300 seeds and they’re only good for one year so I may be bringing onions to the fling next year.

You ordered some good stuff, Kim. I tried the cipollini variety last year. It was ordered from Dixondale, tho. They grew very well. I had a lot of good sized onions last year. They didn't store well. (I've already said this) They had some rain come in sideways on them during the curing process.

This year my onions didn't size up as much. But, the bed they were in is deficient. Nothing is growing well in them. I didn't fertilize other than once. Normally I splurge on the Dixondale fertilizer. I just fed them once at time of planting with a 10 10 10.

Rick has a lot of the fall ones spread around in the shop, so we have plenty of onions now even if they're not large.

Mine are cured and hanging in the utility room. They are maybe tennis ball sized and down.

Kim, does the pickling process kill the benefit of red onions? I can't get enough of the pickled red onions. They are so very good. I only did refrigerator ones. Didn't can them. Hoping to make more tomorrow.

Onions are definitely necessary in the kitchen. At least the way we cook. I would love to make onion power, but probably won't for awhile.

I made a list for Tom. It's garden related things we should get done over the next month. At least some of them. I can do a lot of it myself but it would be quicker and easier with his help.

We have a tall raised bed that was given to me. I don't really want it any longer (anyone who lives close to me want it?). I need his help taking it down, but I want to scoop the soil out and put it in the Vego bed. It's about time to get the Vego bed planted for fall.

And the other biggie is our wood chip pile. One of the Chipdrops had enormous logs in their drop. They're cool looking but will take some type of equipment to move them. I want to top off the walkways with a thick layer in the kitchen garden soon even though I just did it in March. And top off the perennial side of the native garden. Then, because the woodchip pile is such a mess, put a silage tarp over it all and let it break down. Woodchip piles are good if you use them quickly, but the longer they set, the more weeds and grass grow up into it. It's really a nightmare right now and probably full of snakes.

We have to get it cleaned up. The newest pile is still grass-free, but they dropped it right up against the raised beds on the north side of my kitchen garden.

In the future, we'll just go get truckloads of woodchips when we need them instead of keeping a pile.

Maybe once it all breaks down, I'll plant a tree there. It might take over a year though. And who knows what we'll do with the giant logs. They're bigger than me. They would look cool sitting around with pots of plants on them, but they can't be moved once they're in place., so I don't know. One of them makes a nice little sitting spot. It would be good in the kitchen garden next to the herb spiral, but I don't know how to move it there without equipment running over my raised beds.

Like I said, it's a mess.

Trying so hard to get things tidied up and streamlined just a bit. I'm nervous about getting everything done once September comes. Only having Saturday at home will be tough.

It's all good, tho.

Jennifer, you can repeat yourself as much as you want. I am sure that I do. I have been trying to get a lot of house stuff done and the yard also gearing up for going back to school. It has been a lovely summer. And I’ve got quite a bit done, but I have so much more to do. it seems I always have projects in the wings. My doctor in Waco wants me to drink green juice. So I grind up my first batch in the mix with a pear and I am hoping that it doesn’t taste too horrible. I did not even go out to the garden today and we had a huge rain for about an hour. I did not look at the rain gauge. I had no idea it was going to rain and my shed was wide open. So now I have it open again to hopefully dry out everything that got soaked.also I ordered what I could from Emma Gardner because he was sold out of so much. It’s all the stock that expires this year.

How was your green drink, Kim?

Yes, I repeat myself all the time, but I'm aware of it at least. lol

Sometimes repeating something is helpful for the story. Especially if someone is newly reading here.

Josi is at the vet. I'm about to finish cleaning the kitchen and start in on the elderberries now.

Hope everyone has a good day.

I couldn’t drink it lol. I wanted it cold so it’s in the frig for this morning.

I have been looking at my garden this morning and I have five tomato plants inside the garden. They are in pots and I need the pots for my fall garden so between now and August 5 I need to decide which ones to rip out they are all healthy and one is producing so I definitely will leave that one for now. The pink Brandywine, the giant Crimson mystery plant are not producing at all. I think I have gotten to giant crimson and the word giant must refer to the plant because the tomatoes are, I would say a 2 ounce tomato. Not impressed then I also have a pot with a giant mallow and I believe I’m going to cut it way back and dry everything for tea. My noodle beans are producing. It seems like I just planted those. Out of 100 black eyed seeds I put in two came up so I am trying to recover that bed from the grass and I replanted those. I hope it’s not too late.

Larry I hope I am up to my neck in onions. I am going to be much more proactive about covering them in insect netting. These grasshoppers show no mercy.

Kim, my Giant Crimson plant has small tomatoes also, I am using it more like a giant cherry, I will hold judgement till the end of the growing season, if it will keep producing there will be room for it again next year.

We had a young lady come by and take all the tomatoes we had on the counter, she is the daughter of Madge's doctor, and trying to learn to can, and grow food. I showed her my garden, and she had a lot of questions, which I think I answered for her.

Good morning. It's my long work day, but before I get started why not talk some gardening and gardening related topics?

I was overly optimistic again. I didn't get all the stuff done on my kitchen day.

All the fresh elderberries that aren't in the freezer are now processed into either syrup or an oxymel.

I used 3 different syrup recipes. We'll see which I like best. I had to go to Sprouts for more honey and that took up valuable time.

Also, got a hot sauce made. Habanero, jalapeno, red habanero, and Sugar Rush Peach peppers were all used. They made a pretty orange sauce, but wow it's hot. I was coughing the entire time the peppers were cooking.

I'm hoping to go to a You Pick It on Saturday to get some peaches.

(There's a neighbor who has a lovely peach tree and no one is collecting the peaches. I wish I could have those! I would ask, but it's a bad situation. They're going through an ugly divorce and the sheriff has been to their house twice in the past 4 days. It got pretty loud at one point. We could hear it and they're on the other side of the neighborhood. SO, I can't really ask for their peaches. Very sad.).

Maybe I'll get a watermelon too at the You Pick It.

Anyway, back to the peaches....I might make a milder pepper sauce with the peaches and hot peppers. Replace a few of the hots with sweets.

Things I didn't get done: pickled garlic and onions. Maybe tomorrow. Those should be as complicated.

Josi is doing okay. Poor thing. The spot in her mouth was worse than the vet originally thought. He had to shave down some bone and said those types usually end up being cancerous. But they're slow growing, and at 10 and a half, she could reach her life expectancy without it becoming a real issue.

I really missed her yesterday. I didn't realize I would miss her so much. She is my little companion while I work in the kitchen.

Outdoors, I got the watering done and that's about it.

We have some cucumbers now and that's a nice addition to my salads.

Have a great day!

Jennifer, I am glad Josi is okay, I know how attached a person can get to a Burr Baby. We still miss our Yorkie, but we are keeping my daughters Yorkie for 2 weeks, and we often slip up and call him, Herc, which was out Yorkie's name. We decided when we had to have our baby put down, that we did not want another pet. We feel that we are too old, and there is a good chance that the pet's would life would go after ours ended, and if they would miss us like we would miss them, well we would not would not want to put them through that. Plus We are getting unable to care for our selves, and a pet would be added work and cost.

I am in the house cooling off now, I am repairing a tow rope that is on a type of sled that I made, the old rope had been repaired so many times that there was not enough left to repair, so I went out to the shop and got a new rope to put on the sled, then I will drag mulch to the garden to put between the plants.

I am glad that you got some cucumbers, Jennifer, mine have died, they produced well, but all good thing have to come to an end. I need to clean out the tubs and trellises, and make ready for something else.

I cleaned out and replanted my black-eyed peas bed area. I covered it in peas. They are probably only two or 3 inches apart but I can thin later if they come up. I don’t have birds getting my seed and I’m pretty sure Richard can’t get in that bed because the sides are 6 or 8 “ tall. I was watering the seed in this morning. Had the sprinkler on a little bit and he came running to get in that sprinkler so I moved it so he could get a nice shower. He stayed in the water for at least 10 minutes and when I moved the water away from him. He ran well hobbled to get in the water again. I planted a flat of cabbages, basil, dill and pac choi. I covered them very well with insect netting. hopefully it is not too early for them. After they sprout, I plan on keeping them in the shade and cooler side of the house.

Kim, I have had the planting bug also, but I already have more stuff than I have room for. I think that I might plant a short row of collards along the trellis where I have your tomato and some peppers, the collards will be in the shade till frost (or I ) kill out the other plants. I also have a spot that I might squeeze in a row of something, but it will be shaded by my okra. It really looks like I need to just go ahead and spray a spot out in the pasture to kill the grass and weeds, or plan on taking out plants before they are finished producing.

I think that I must be an addict, it is so easy for me to plant more stuff than I can care for.

Larry me too. But is so much better than all the other addictions I’ve had. Haha

Anyone out there other than Larry, Kim and me? lol!

It's a busy time for sure.

Rick came out and watered the SG last night. I didn't water much, but watered everything really well the night before.

There were 12 strawberry runners on my Greenstalk tower berries. SO, I'm trying to get them to make roots in little cups of water. I hope I'm able to do this. Twelve free plants are a good thing.

They're in the hoop house and hopefully won't get too hot. I might throw some type of shade over them in a bit.

All of Rick's (other than one pod) brassicas germinated.

All of mine germinated too. Mine are indoors and I'll move them to the hoop house in a few minutes. I did two varieties of cabbage, collards, and two varieties of kale. Skipped broccoli this year.

What's everyone's favorite varieties of those plants?

It's time to start lettuce too, I guess.

The tall raised bed that I'm giving away has decent soil in it, so I moved some of it to a Vego bed with Tom's help. I just need to top it with some good compost from Marcums.

I'm going to little rows of onion sets, carrots, beets, and turnips. Also some chives that are currently in a pot.

Would it be stupid to put in more Seminole pumpkin seed at this point? Maybe the SVB moths are done for the year?

Today, I need make a endrocrine tea blend. My herbs from Mountain Rose came in. Also, I picked another pint of elderberries last night so will do a quick oxymel with those.

The Oklahoma John and Bob Gordon have juicier berries and they're sweeter too compared to the Ranch variety.

I found more moon water in my herb cabinet, so need to go bless something with those things. I found a strawberry moon water from last year, I think, I can water the berry plants with that.

Then, maybe pickled onions.

What are you all doing today?

I'm here! I just hate posting because I fight with the Houzz system.

favorite varieties:

The only cabbage I've ever been able to grow were minis. I had seeds for both Gonzalez and Pixie that year. A convenient size for just the 2 of us.

Collards, my favorite is Yellow Cabbage Collards from SESE. A little milder than the common Georgia collards from Bonnie (which grow like gangbusters, so they are kind of a favorite).

Kale, oh my. That is hard. I prefer lacinato types. There is plain lacinato (sometimes called Nero cabbage) , hybrid Black Magic, and Dazzling Blue. All time favorite was Arkansas purple land race from a Guy who no longer sells and I have used all my seeds. There is also a Scarlet kale (with the frilly leaves) that survived the drop to below zero one fall.

You didn't mention Swiss Chard.

I went out of my way to order these from an Italian supplier.

Bietola a Costa

Bionda Di Lyon Swiss Chard

Prima Rosa Swiss Chard

Verde De Taglio Swiss Chard75

I have grown Bionda and Verde before and one of them survived till spring, so I need to test that.

And want to try

Lucullus

Silverado (sold as improved Lucullus)

We have our own drama as #2 son is divorcing and staying with us right now.

XOXO

I'm sorry your son is going through a divorce. That's such a hard thing.

Thank you for your favorite's lists. I actually just wrote them down. I neglect to do that and then can't find the thread again. I do like the lacinato type of kale the best too.

Mini cabbages sound like something I would want to try as well. In this season of life, I'll need to downsize some. That could change at some point, but for the next year or two, downsizing for me.

(Of course, if there's something crazy happens in our world, that can change. I always feel like I need to say that.)

Houzz is difficult.

I am concerned about the crazy world, have been more concerned since covid. I had set my gardens up to where I could drive tractor and tiller in between the trellises, but the year of covid I started planting in between the trellises also so I could get more food per foot of garden space.

I don't have a lot of different seeds, most of what I buy is stuff that I buy at the co-op, at what use to be $.69 to $.99 per oz, but seed have gone up a lot now. I have a small cabbage, I think it is a 40 or 50 day cabbage, I think that may be the one called All season cabbage, I have a large cabbage, I think it Is Flat Dutch, which I think is about a 70 day cabbage. I also have cabbage seeds in the small packs also, but I am never able to plant all the different seeds I have, and even if I did I would be unable to care for them. I told Madge yesterday that I thought this was my last garden, but she said to just cut back. I have cut back many times, but I always start adding till I have more than I can care for again, I am a slow learner.

I don't know if I mentioned this or not but I already have sweet potatoes pushing the ground up, and coming out of the ground, and we still have 2 month of growing season left. I have not found any of the purple sweet potatoes coming out of the ground yet, but hopefully I will. those were planted just for my grand daughter and her husband, as far as I am concerned that area would be better off if I had planted Covington sweet potatoes in spot. If the critters don't get the sweet potatoes I should have a pretty good harvest.

Larry there used to be a early flat dutch that matured sooner than the late flat dutch.

Thanks, Robert, I think that I had rather have the Early Flat Dutch, and I might have some seeds. I have way too many seeds, if I live long enough to use up all my seeds, I will die an old man.

I went out into the pasture to drag up more loose hay to use for mulch to put on my late garden, and as my normal style I have planted things too close, some of that was on purpose to let the plants shade the ground, but I think that I may have over did it, because the peas and sweet potatoes are trying to overtake my peppers.

My late sweet potatoes are already forming potatoes also. I planted 34 slips in this garden.

I tried my first Chocolate Pear tomato, and it did not taste anything like a pear or chocolate.

Larry your garden sounds so lovely and productive. I would hate to see you quit gardening. I agree with Madge just cut back.

Kim, I plan to go as long as I can, but Madge and I both are really slowing down. Like everyone else, we are getting older.

I agree with Kim and Madge, Larry.. Just cut back. You can still grow and have fresh food but won't have so much to care for. I have to cut back too for awhile. It's seasons of life.

Jennifer, was your Sunny Boy tomato productive? My Sunny Boy is a dud. It produces small tomatoes, I would guess that they are no more than 1.5 inches, and the plant does not seem to be disease resistant? Matter of fact, most of my first time tomatoes are sub-par. I know that with many plants I have to go through a learning curve to get peak production from them, and one of my problems is that I seldom feed my plants, and not using compost, in itself is a learning curve.

Another problem I am having is my peppers are small. I have fed them a little, but not much, I am using 13-13-13, or 10-20-10, this is fertilizer that I buy in 50 pound bags to used on my food plots and the wildlife garden, but being that I am unable to care for such large areas, I am trying to use up some of my old fertilizers.

Shown is a pepper I have marked as Jalapeno M, which I don't remember growing before, the peppers are about 2 inches long. The plants look like they may have had more nitrogen than they needed, but peppers are heavy feeders, and I have not fed them much. I might add that these same peppers are planted in the south garden, where the get full sun, and are taller, but seem to have a disease Also I think these peppers get too much shade, but my goal was a heavy, late production, now, for the big question, what is a good large heavy producing Jalapeno?

Thanks for the help, I feel that what little I have learned in life is slipping away, and it should be the other way around, like the older you are the smarter you get. Maybe I am smart, but, I just cant remember the things I have learned.

Larry, that’s a normal part of progression especially if you take any type of medication it does affect your memory. Part of the process. After I had surgery, I could barely remember my own name and it was horrible and terrifying all at the same time. I’m doing better now and getting better every day because I refuse to take any medication and I do understand there are people that have to take medication. I do take a thyroid pill without that I think I would be dead because I had my thyroid radiated many years ago. So do what you can do what makes you happy productive and don’t think about the other stuff just like you’re not able to run or work in the garden for hours and hours. don’t think about those things. Just think about what you can do, and look forward to another day with your lovely wife. I mean really if all you could ever do was sit down and visit with her. It would still be a great life, wouldn’t it?

And Larry that’s why we are here. Some of us can remember lots of things and some of us can’t period. So we help each other out and hopefully we will get some newer younger gardeners in here that can keep us going. I know Don used to grow Craig‘s grande jalapeño. I have tried seeds from them for years and never got anything. I finally got rid of the seeds. But I got it from a company. That’s kind of famous and their seeds aren’t as good as quality as their name thinks they are.

Larry, my Sonny Boy is productive. However, the tomatoes are small. I just thought that's how they were supposed to be. They're pretty lil tomatoes.

My Crag's Grande makes decent sized peppers, but not grande. I saved seed from it last year. I like it well enough.

We got up early and went to the orchard to pick peaches. I had ordered online a small box to pick, but upgraded to a large box when we got there. I should have only gone up to medium. I have a lot of peaches. Took some to my daughter, took some to a neighbor and will take some to my Mom.

Still a lot.

I made a batch of peach/habanero/scotch bonnet hot sauce. It's much better than the super hot one I made earlier in the week, which is just too hot for me. Tom's co-workers loved it tho.

I want to make peach-mint kombucha, a peach cobbler for Tom, peach/sugar rush peach pepper jelly. and another batch of the hot sauce I made today.

There might be some left over still. At that point, I'll just freeze them.

It's a pretty neat orchard. They grow over 30 varieties of peaches that are ripe at different times of the season.

It's not cheap, tho.

We just got back from visiting our daughter in Edmond. I'm so sleepy, but we need to mow tonight. And the animals would probably enjoy being fed.

I'm not sure my strawberry runners are going to make it. :(

In good news....the Laura Bush petunias are back! I got the original plant from Dawn many years ago and they always reseeded in the area where the original was planted. Until last year. Sadly, they didn't come back. Then one day I saw a pop of purply-pink in the burn pile. Lo and behold there was a Laura Bush petunia growing in that pile. I scooped it up and put it back in the original spot.

I was sad because I didn't see any this year --- until this week! Super happy now. It's the little things.

I really don't feel like mowing and weed eating, but it needs to be done. It goes faster and looks better if Tom and I both work on it.

I regret losing my Laura Bush petunias at one of the houses I lived in. I got them from Dawn also and thought that I scooped them up when I moved and never saw them again. so many things I’ve lost over the years that I regret and they’re all plants. Well, maybe one husband. No work today except for a little weed eating as usual. I took everything out of my living space tore out the carpet and put in a new platform style bed frame. It is wonderful and I may put my seeds under the bed. I don’t like them being in the loft since heat rises. We’ll see. It was a lot of work and I didn’t eat lunch until 6 o’clock. Apparently I didn’t need it because I wasn’t even hungry and I only had three pieces of bacon for breakfast so I must be tougher than I thought. We need to go out and put Sophie up. She cannot be trusted around the duck.

Thanks for the encouragement. Getting old is not as much fun as I had planned, although I really cant complain, it could be a lot worse. I got another reminder of living in an aging body before lunch today. A man likes to feel that he is 10 feet tall and bullet proof, and able to do anything his wife or kids ask him to do. Madge and I both have been having problems opening bottles and jars, she, more than I, but now it has gotten really hard for me. Today Madge brought me a bottle to open, and I just could not do it. I am planning to change the oil in out lawn mower, and had gotten the oil filter wrench out and it was lying on the deck. I used that oil filter wrench to open that jar, it work better than any thing I had ever used. I told Madge to keep that wrench in the kitchen draw because we had to open more jars than removing oil filters.

Jennifer, it seems as tho someone on this forum mentioned a jalapeno about a pepper called "Biker Billy", or something like that, do you remember anything about that? I remember at the time, I liked what ever I read when ever that pepper was discussed.

I just did a search on Biker Billy, and found a pepper I think I like better, Grande Jumbo jalapeno. I think that I will have Laken order me some seeds for them, just what I need, because I have at least 2 oz. of Jalapeno M seeds, and maybe an oz. or two of other pepper seeds.

I think that I have some PEPH peas starting to make, and some Contender Bean close behind, then some Taylor Horticulture beans behind them, then some Zipper Cream coming off next, and dragging up the rear should be Knuckle Purple hulls. Would you call that " counting your chickens before they hatch" ?

And, I am rambling, so I will shut up.

Larry, I save up my jars and then when I can grab my neighbor I have her come over and open them all at once. Of course that means I have to go days without pickles, but I survive.

Maybe I should give my jalapeno m more of a chance, I cut one length wise and dropped it into a pot of stew Madge was making, and it was about right for that pot, but I think larger ones would be more popular.

I mowed the lawn today, and part of the pasture around where the pasture garden was, if I could get a tractor running I might tear up a spot to plant a few fall things. I had rather use the house gardens, but to do so I will need to make space somewhere.

I check my purple sweet potatoes, and it looks like I have a few sizing up, but they sure are slow, and they have prettier vines than the other sweet potatoes, plus they have been in the ground longer than the others.

It looks like some type of disease has hit my tomatoes, many of them are dying.

Madge is out mowing and I sure don't like it. I mowed, but the touch up work has to be done with the small self propelled mower. I don't walk well, but I can walk well enough to do that.

Y’all make a good team

I have this 6 in one jar opener. It will even pick up a pull tab.

https://www.amazon.com/Seniors-Arthritis-Silicone-Adjustable-Multiple/dp/B0C1W3BJF3/ref=mp_s_a_1_40?crid=ZHMOZX2HMFT9&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Zhto2JcjVHfjHcGH2j3UeIhuEWVcCwBAEm843SR8klwbqG-zaeVUxHud04L29Pfe1HRLtqgsMPKrTx6cvgG_H0krGN1BUZLCzlY3r9JPjZ5bp2mh3QdGjQ1xD4ZkldE6zjYwQ9rktGWSyNYuQGSP5luy4n7Yur_yuvpp2HgIfVWHjP-yG4ZiJ5sOE_ssvy6APj7CVBxo7w09kTVrkmkehg.nPXQ0liI9NoRR8RmeQpM2l3WFx1zRSzNwlwn8Iw1GGc&dib_tag=se&keywords=bottle+opener&qid=1722176193&sprefix=bott%2Caps%2C525&sr=8-40

Larry you know enough people that someone should come mow for you! We're paying a guy to mow ours every 2 weeks. I am relieved Ron isn't trying to do it.

Amy, I am sorry that I did not notice this post sooner, and, yes, you are right, at some point we will have to pay some one to mow our lawn. The kids offer to do it now, but my pride stands in the way. We may have to even move into an apartment, but Madge, not I are ready for that.

We have a tool like you linked, but we are not strong enough to use it. I will show the tool that I have been using lately. I expect that the next step will be to also use a strap type tool, that I no longer have, and have not seen one in years, but I can make one if I can find one online.

This tool is not designed to be used on jars, but I have had it for a long time, and it has been used for a lot of things, the last, being opening jars.