Everything here is just growing so beautifully. . . I'm wondering if the hammer will fall witih yet another grasshopper plague. Of course I'm crossing fingers they won't show up to decimate everything like they did 2 and 3 years ago, and to a lesser extent last year, and so my expectations are not high. I have a couple of growing projects going on for two acquaintances now. . . plants that I'll be delivering. I didn't even intend to be growing all that much this year, but now have these projects! Yikes, will I ever retire?! I see the dagnabbed deer have found a couple plants they love, so will have to transplant those into my fenced-in "Veggie Garden" area.

I'm so grateful I've found a couple garden helpers who come one-two times a week, and that has made such a wonderful difference! GDW and I were out wandering in the "back 40" of our 2 acres, where it's forest, mostly, and found that our pawpaw trees are finally taking off, the pear trees and apples trees are thriving; I found milkweeds growing randomly in the area, as well as many other pollinator native plants. It's VERY rocky with shallow soil, but the oaks, black cherry trees, elms, and hacberry trees grow nicely. I really do love our place.

Thanks, Glenda. I looked at the cloches and they look like something I should add to my garden supplies. AFTER we finish with the shop.

Last night, we went to my workplace to grab a few left-over concrete blocks (I have a strong urge to call them cinder blocks even though they aren't. I mistakenly used that term here once many years ago and some guy chewed me out for saying "cinder" instead of concrete. And my rebel side wants to always say 'cinder' now.)

Anyway, there was a community garden there and the beds were made of concrete blocks. I'm now using them to build shelving in the shop with our old closet doors that we saved from the remodel this year. They're working nicely for our holiday tubs. Before, we had the tubs stacked on each other and you had to unstack them to get to the bottom one. And it always seems to be the bottom once I want. So much nicer this way. I won't have to wait for Tom to help me.

I have the day off and am trying to decide what to work on. I have a few tasks indoors and need to run to get a few things for Administrative Professionals Day. It's tomorrow.

Maybe I'll work on the flowerbeds in the front of my house.

I love that you have a forest on your property, Nancy. I know that comes with deer, tho. Some of the houses I've been looking at in the Edmond area have a foresty area too. It would be fun to do mushrooms and understory things. A creek or stream on the property would be even cooler.

Nancy, is the school garden still going?

Josh, the first time I had slime mold in the garden, it was in the strawberry bed. I couldn't figure out what threw up in my garden. It's called dog vomit mold too. I've had it a few times here and there.

Time to make a decision about how my time will be spent today...and then get busy on it.

Jennifer I still call them cinder blocks. It’s okay. I got the car vacuumed and loaded all the miscellaneous for the fling. Plants and cooler on the third and I will be good to go. I am so looking forward to it. After the fling we are going into okc and spend the night. Gotta find something fun to do on Sunday

Jennifer, your remark about cinder blocks brought back memories from my child good. In my youth I remember cinder blocks, and I liked them because they were a lot easier for a young lad to move around. It also brought back other memories, this was a coal mining area at the time and I think the "cinder" was a by-product of burning coal. Dad work in a coal mine, and we heated with coal, and every so often we would have to clean the ash, and clinkers out of our stove, we would often place a sack of slack (dust and small chips of coal) in the stove to burn over night. That was a way to use up waste from the coal pile. It was my job to break up and carry in the coal to heat with. I would not want to go back to a life like that, but we were happy.

Glenda, Madge bought me 15 cloches from Dollar Tree, I hope she can tell me where they are next year.

Kim, I am excited about the Spring Fling also. I am trying to sort out what plants I think others might want. Jerry volunteered to take us, he has a 4 door truck, and I can get more stuff in the back of it than I can get in our car. I have a lot of peppers and tomatoes, but none that would be special. And, Kim, I have walking onion stumps in 2 flats, I think there was a total of 220+ stumps and 3 Sunny Boy tomato plants in those flats, and I am planning on bringing them to you if you want them. I am not sure how many stumps will survive, but I expect the percentage will be high. If you had rather I pack them in plastic bags I can do that, I would pot the tomato up in a 6" pot.

Jennifer, the passion vine does not look good, it you like I can dig up the other 3 and place all three in a pot and treat them like a root prune cutting, that is what they look like.

Larry that sounds good just the way you have them. I will get pots ready this weekend and planting areas. Tomatoes are going in the ground and into pots. I have so many plants. Not sure what I’ll bring but it all had to fit in the back end of my van. Going home I will have more room after I get rid of all the stuff I am bringing.

Larry and Kim, you're way ahead of me. I'm honestly not going to start planning anything for the SF until Monday. I'm glad Tom can ride with me. There was a concern he would have to work that day.

Larry, no worries on the passion vine. I'll see if I can purchase one at the OKC Flower and Garden Fest. IF I can't, that's okay too.

The rain missed up today so far. I really should water tonight. Things are dry. I want to trust that we'll get rain next time--like tomorrow and Saturday, but the weather experts have been wrong the past few times.

Right now I'm just struggling to stay awake at my desk. Pretty sure I didn't sleep well last night, thinking about all the things that needed to be done today by 9. I got them all done--gifts purchased for our administrative professions and my dtap vaccine. It had been 15 years since I had a tetanus shot...and as often as I cut myself in the garden and/or on/around the chicken yard, it was past time. To be around new babies, we're supposed to get the whooping cough one too--so the dtap covered it all.

I seriously haven't had a shot since, I guess 15 years ago....and before that who know how long. I never got any of the covid vacs or the flu shots. My arm does feel a little sore, but they warned that would happen...and to just keep using it...not baby it.

Hope everyone is getting some rain and, if not, enjoying their garden today.

My tomato plants are setting fruit. I put them in the ground on March 29. I might have an edible tomato by Memorial Day .

Lynn, those plants really look good, you are ahead of me by a month. I have put tomatoes in the ground, and also have some plant damage.

I put in another row of sweet potatoes before the rain ran me inside. No more rain than we got I think I could have worked through it.

I think that I have time to plant another row of sweet potatoes. I have enough plants to plant 2 or 3 rows of Covington. I should finish up with 20 purple, 20 Red Wine Velvet, and 40, to 60 Covington.

I feel I waited a little too long to get my insect netting up. I was determined to get it done today and I am glad because I saw grasshoppers. I will make it better another day but for now this works

This is one of Rick’s Cherokee Purples in the SG.

Larry that’s a lot of sweet potatoes. I will plant two or three. Not sure how many pots I will have available. I have slips and will probably bring some to fling too. I am planning my fall garden and I think I can put plastic over this insect netted garden area. I could grow greens all year.

Kim, I like trying to grow things in pots, but it's a learning curve for me. I think once a person learned how to grow in pots, it would be a better deal all around.

What kind of sweet potatoes are you growing? I have read about some white ones that I think I would like to try. I would like to find something to replace Irish potatoes, that keep like the Covington sweet potatoes I grow. I Have never had good luck growing Irish potatoes. I think that my soil is too shallow and too wet for Irish potatoes. I have watched a lot of videos of grow Irish potatoes in tubs, but I am not sure I am smart enough for that.

Jennifer, that is a very nice plant, Santa must have brought that plant for Christmas. I have some Cherokee Purple that I planned on bring to fling, but I am ashamed to now.

Kim, your growing area really looks large, a lot of food can be grown in there.

My Cherokee Purples have been lagging behind, they were even slower to germinate. Not anywhere near setting fruit.

We went out yesterday and bought tomato plants. I never got any started from seed. We also bought some herbs. Went to Atwoods. I got Arkansas traveler, Large red cherry, super sweet 100, jet star and early girl. Hopefully we will get some tomatoes eventually. The cherries should keep us in salad.

Larry, I have grown Irish potatoes in all kinds of things. I grew them in straw bales in 2015. We had so much rain that spring other people's rotted. I won't say it was a huge crop, but we got some. I have grown them in bags. Both expensive bags from the nursery designed for potatoes and recycled dogfood and chicken feed sacks. The hardest part is getting soil in the bags. We used a mix of 1/3 peat, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 compost. I put 2 or 3 "seeds" on top of 3" of soil and fill the bag up. (About 18" tall.) The potatoes will grow through that much dirt without problem. Look up the Kenosha potato project on YouTube. I will try to do a link later.

Kim, how big is that area?! Looks great.

XOXO

Let's see. . . Yep, Amy, we bought tomato plants, too. Aside from herbs, we're not going to have many veggies. I still need to pick up a couple jalapeno pepper plants. Egyptian walking onions thriving, of course. . . I have several clumps away last week. And I did a burn on the are where our asparagus is, as there was a lot of Johnson grass trying to establish itself. Then, as it began coming up, it was easy to dig up and get roots.

Kim, I just shuddered, looking at your netting--good job on your part, but there's just no way to net stuff here. And so I'll just cross my fingers and pray that the grasshoppers won't show up much this year. How'd your presentation go?

HJ, ha! I really don't have many plants out in the beds that deer find to their liking, thankfully. The strawberry bush (euonymus americana) was an exception. But since the shrub was only 2 yrs old, it was no problem to dig it up--and now it's safely planted in the former veggie beds within the fenced area.

The "forest" is becoming somewhat more foresty, with fringe tree, flowering dogwood, oakleaf hydrangea, American beautyberry, fragrant sumac, and black hawthorn shrubs sprinkled here and there, and poke! Poke--what a monster. The roots on it are monstrous. I let it go in the big center bed, but will try to keep it confined. And a friend gifted me two winged sumac and prairie sage, but the perfect location for them is going to be tricky planting, as the soil is so very shallow out there. . . just rock everywhere. Well, we'll give it a try.

In my walks through the forest part, I found volunteer milkweeds, frostweed, wild garlic, and lots of penstemons and fleabane, adding to the volunteer passiflora and horse nettle, which is nasty and thorny, but my neighbor will be pleased, as it's a good herbal medicine. Nice.

No, Jennifer, the school garden is no more. They lost their lease in Dec. 23, and so we disassembled the garden, rehoming as many plants and shrubs as we could, as well as the cement blocks and soil. So now parts of the garden are spread among friends. And at least that's one good thing.

Looks like we're in for a few rainy days, and looks like SF--what's new, eh?--might be rainy, too! Ugh. Well, that's about all from here. . . hope you're all having a good week.

Looks like the Miricle Grow potting soil I used to pot-up my peppers, had some hitchhikers.

My daughter got me a cat mint plant not catnip, cat mint. She says it blooms all summer, deer dont like it and I cant believe the bees and butterflies that are already covering it. My chinese cabbage and baby choi are covered with aphids so hoping it will bring in lacewings or ladybugs. I’ve planted a lot of vegetable and flower plants so hoping we get rain tonight. The wind today is brutal on plants and people both. My red Pontiac potatoes are blooming - going to take a peek underneath for anything big enough to grub - sugar snap peas have been blooming about 2 weeks but no peas yet. First hummingbird yesterday. I even heard a quail yesterday kept calling to it and came closer but never spotted it

Speaking of Miricle Grow potting soil ................... yellow bag or blue bag ?

The bags say the yellow is a potting mix and the blue is moisture control.

When I pot-up my tomatoes, I prefer the potting mix because the moisture control has some larger pieces of wood, etc.

Lynn, I have had some hitchhikers before, but, I don't recall any damage from them.

After moving all my plants outside, everything has really slowed down, but many things need to be up-potted, and fed.

Kim, it has been a week and a half since we started out walking onion project, and it looks like a success story.

You can see to the right of the onions is some Red Wine Velvet potato slips. I thought I had more of them, I had to steal from this container to finish my row in the south garden. I have been letting people just take what they need, may there was more of a need for slips.

Lynn, here are the rest of my peppers, I hope to feed them and hold them another 9 day, many will go to fling. You can see that I have many plants past pot-up time. If I have to pot up I will have less room for plants. I expect that unless there is a hail storm, most people already have all the plants that they need.

Larry I grew white ones years ago. I believe the variety was Nancy hall. I used to get all my slips from Sandhill. I never was a plant in pots person. But I love it now. I move my chair around to work a few pots. And I can control the quality of the soil better.

I have dozens of tomato plants as does Larry. Please do not buy any more. One week and I have Porter, large red cherry, pink brandy wine, basil, mallow, and a few giant crimson tomato. Most of my tomatoes are over a foot tall. Ready for you. …….. my growing area is 12x22. I have 25 pots and. One in ground area that is 10’x30” and one is 20”x8’. There’s alot going on and even more coming. Larry those onions look amazing. I am looking forward to getting them home.

Impressive insect netting, Kim!

Larry, my neighbor/friend grows potatoes in fabric grow bags. I'm not sure the brand or size (but they're not giant). She surprisingly gets a lot of potatoes. She has maybe somewhere between 12 and 20 of the bags. She gets enough potatoes to can.

I don't know where I'm going to put our potatoes if they do as well as last year. Especially if Rick's garden in Morris does well too. Canning is probably not going to be an option, but perhaps if it's the only things I can, maybe I can squeeze in a day/night of canning potatoes. But, I'm going to need to eat through more of the jars currently in our pantry to make room for them if so. We use the food in our pantry, but don't make as many chilis, soups, and casseroles with canned tomatoes and beans since it's just the two of us at home now.

Last year I spread them out on Ethan's bedroom floor, but that will no longer work in our house. New carpet plus they're coming to visit and will need a room to sleep in.

It would be nice to have them ready to harvest towards the end of summer like the northern people do. And like the sweet potatoes. They could be stored in the shop and utility room that way. But, that's not how it works here.

The Cherokee Purple is a plant that Rick purchased.

Amy, my heirloom tomatoes don't look great. They got a little stunted in their potting mix. Normally this will work itself out once they're planted in the ground and get some nourishing rain and nutrients from the soil.

Hopefully I'll eventually get some tomatoes too!

What herbs did you buy? Herbs are my favorite.

Glenda, I need a cat mint too! I haven't seen any hummingbirds yet!

Nancy, I need to look into a fringe tree. I have elders and beautyberries now. And an Oakleaf Hydrangea.

What is something that stays somewhat short and doesn't spread too much? I want something like that at the west side of the native (plus red poppies) garden.

Sorry about the school garden, but am glad you could distribute the plants and all.

I watered some things last night. Felt bad because some plants were really thirsty. I'm simply not used to needing to water in April. The horseradish, rhubarb, and cabbages were especially dry.

Y'all, I don't know if I've already said this, but last year I put a couple of dead gaillardia plants (with dried flowers attached)in one corner of the property--sorta near where the Indian Paintbrushes are (and lots of other wildflower---yarrow, purple, and yellow). I've been watching it closely and there are probably a 1000 gaillardia coming up in that corner. Tom is going to kill me. He's doing really well about not mowing everything and letting me enjoy the wildflowers. I'm the biggest pain about this and luckily he's playing along. I have things marked---I insist on walking him around the property before he mows each time, to remind him of the wild violets and still very small beautyberries. I realize at some point he'll need to mow the area with the gaillardia/yarrow/Indian Paintbrushes and the purple and yellows that I can't think of their name right now. But, if I can hold him off until June....

We were looking at that corner a couple of nights ago, our neighbor (with the growbags of potatoes) was walking her dog and she asked if we were putting in another garden. I showed her the wildflowers. She said that their mower has been broken this year until this week so her husband was unable to mow. She's never had so many bees in her garden before. She was amazed. Unfortunately her husband doesn't play along as good as mine. He already mowed.

Okay, now I'm just rambling. Have to work late tonight. Hoping for rain.

This is dinner. Minus the bugs.

Kim, I would like to try one of those Giant Crimson tomato plants.

I plan on planting another row of Covington, then saving the rest to share. I can cut runners off of the plants I have planted now for later planting. I want to mound up a row much like planting Irish potatoes. My soil is not good potato soil, matter of fact it is not great soil for anything. My soil is too shallow for a great garden, and it needs a lot of amendments. My soil is pretty good as far a P and K goes, and once amended with organic matter it is good but shallow.

Larry I will put your name on one.

We got rain! It was not quite half an inch, but it was something. I bought a new rain gauge a couple of weeks ago.

Here's the link I meant to post yesterday.

https://youtu.be/ilk-gP_9I8s?si=IBrEdS-d3NsDr2tI

Jennifer, you mentioned how understanding Tom was about your flowers, and the feeding of the pollinators, well, I also have an understanding mate. My lawn looks bad, it really needs mowing, but Madge does not say much because I try to leave a lot of the clover, and other "weeds" for the pollinators, I even keep Ladino clover seed on hand, and toss out a little if I feel the bees need more feeding area.

I like to keep the fence rows sprayed, but not when the buttercup, or other weeds are in bloom.

A lot of women would not want the lawn this messy.

That lawn looks fine to me too. We had a storm and all my insect netting came down. I was very sad and I am not sure how to fix it

we had some wind, and lost power for an hour.

Well, Larry, Madge and I aren't most women. ;)

Kim, I'm so sorry. That crazy wind ruins so much.

Last fall I bought some Anasazi bean seed, mainly because my neighbor said that theywould not grow here, well today I was at the Farmers Co-op in Poteau Oklahoma and saw some Giant Specked Lima bean seeds, so I had to buy some of those also. I have grown very few bean in my life, but I want to try to grow both of these, do any one of you have any words of wisdom?

Larry, I planted the Anasazi bean seed too - right from the package. I was told about them last year from a friend who is a ” health nut”, and discovered I like them even better than plain pinto beans. They look exactly like the Jacob cattle beans I planted years ago. I never raised an abundance of them but enough for a few meals. I also planted the large speckled butter beans this year, long time since planted those but found them at the Lincoln County farm store and remembered how good they are. I did buy a package of innoculant this year at Stillwater Mill - their seeds are very reasonable and great selection. The innoculant was a large bag for a few dollars, I rarely use it but decided I might try it this year. Both beans were planted in husband’s ”Victory garden” as he calls it and they are both up - mixed in with the corn and everything else. It’s ”his” garden because his idea to put one there and he layed off the rows with the old push plow and also has been watering it. I did the planting for him but the way he wanted - everything mixed in the rows. So far all the corn, anasazi beans, butter beans, purple hull peas, red zipper peas, crowder peas, scalloped squash, radishes, 3 kinds of okra, sugar baby watermelons, and several kinds of flowers mixed are up and looking good! I’ve been eating a lot of words about stuff not growing in that clay and being too early to plant things, but it makes him happy and proud. I don’t care if its his garden or mine just as long as Iong as we have produce to eat, can, freeze and share.

Kim , my experience with bird netting was not good. I tried it quite a few years ago to keep birds off my tomatoes. But the unintended consequence is the worms were terrible that year. I needed the birds to help me with the worms.

Dawn's advise to pick the tomatos when they were blushing eliminated the need all together.

I gotta think theres some beneficial bugs that insect netting would keep out ? Maybe not.

Today is gonna be a bad weather day. Somebody's house is gonna get hit by a tornado.

The odds of that are even lower than winning the lottery. We've got 4.5 million people in the state, that's probably a million residences and only a few will be damaged. But I always wonder on these days, if this is the day my number comes up.

I've lived here almost 72 years and have only seen one tornado and that was 3 miles away. But I hope we all get through today safe with our property. I don't worry bout my personal safety, but I'm too dam old to have to lose all my possessions and rebuild a house.

50 years ago, we did not even know these days were coming, we just went about our business. Sometimes I think ignorance was bliss.

I don’t really have birds here. They tore all the trees down to move in a double wide and they never came back. I am trying to avoid complete decimation from grasshoppers. They took out everything last 4 years.

Everyone be careful today. Right now I’ve got Oklahoma Gardening on tv, and Damon Lane on the ipad. And cleaning the kitchen. I’m nervous after losing last years garden to the Fathers Day storm. 11am and already tornado warnings out west.

Well, I've had a shower and shaved, put on clean underwear so when they dig me out of the rubble and take me to the morgue, I'll be presentable and smell good.

Its cloudy and a little windy today, matter of fact my computer says it will be cloudy for the next two weeks.

I would like to plant beans, okra, and squash, the temp says it is a little on the cool side for that, but I think it will work. With the cloudy damp weather I expect the seeds will germinate fine, maybe a little slower.

I am picking through my plants trying to find some of the better ones to take to fling, although it looks like there may be some damp spots around the country next Sat., this time of the year we have to expect almost anything.

I went out to check my sweet potatoes this morning, other than it being a little earlier in the year than I like to plant, they look great. The overcast skies should help them settle into their new home for the next 5 months, but I will try to plant a few more in about a month. I have one more lady in the area that is still wanting plants, I will Have Madge take the plants to her this coming Fri.

Another pro tip, keep a ball of raw hamburger meat in your pocket, it makes easier for the rescue dogs to find you in the rubble.

Tis the season, I guess, tornado season. I've been planting seedlings this morning. It's nice but breezy right now. I'll go do some more, had to take a break--get the bell and jalapeno peppers in, and trumpet vine, asters, strawberries and a couple other things.

HJ, about any large clump of perennials could go there on the west side. Asters, goldenrod, more milkweed, In terms of shrubs, I'm not sure how tall is too tall. Smokebush would be grand, but you'd have to lop the branches off every year after blooms. I had one that was 20 ft tall; another one I kept lopped off and it only got to about 10'. Some of the sumacs might do--do you have thornless blackberries? Lantanas, of course, . . potentilla. . . I give up; I'm braindead this morning.

Catmint really does attract the pollinators, and has such a long-blooming season. I'm not sure of the nutritional value to the pollinators, but if nothing else, it draws them in and then they can move on to other bloomers, also. I'm thankful I have a big clump of it.

Break's over. . . time to plant stuff.

I didn't really sleep last night. Finally looked at my phone around 3:30 or so and realized that Larry had just posted a half hour prior. SO, Larry, you must have not slept well either.

Glenda, I've never used innoculant. Maybe I should try it. It looks like you have a great variety in your Victory Garden.

I'm not a bean snob. I really like ALL the beans.

I was gonna tell my tornado stories, but am a little tired and probably everyone already knows them anyways.

Nancy, I want a small tree really, for the west side of the native garden. Something that would provide a bit of shade. I might just not worry about it. I'm sorta braindead too.

I went about my day without regard for the weather and it mostly worked out just fine. We had a baby shower/brunch in Edmond. I got caught in a crazy downpour on I35 coming home. That was a little scary.

Came home and had not even a drop of rain at our house. Figures. SO, I decided to go grocery shopping.

(This morning the weather experts said we would have storms here from 3 to 6, so thought I would shop after 6, but that forecast was completely wrong)

Got the shopping done, walked Josi in the wind. Decided to water some things in the garden. Picked chamomile and asparagus.

I'll come back with a picture of a really weird asparagus spear that I got of the garden today.

While shopping at Walmart, I glanced at the garden center and was surprised to see pea and corn plants for sale. I don't recall seeing that ever before. How weird.

I guess the storms have missed us? So, my plan is to water deeply tomorrow and move stuff out for our big trash pickup after work. If we get rain overnight, I'll scratch the watering.

After tomorrow, I'll start looking thru the FB SF threads and see what all I need to dig up to take next Saturday. Looking forward to it.

About to head out to close up the coops and bring Juno in for a couple of hours.

Weird asparagus.

Jennifer, I am up late very often, Madge is the one that has trouble sleeping, I don't see how she make it on so little sleep. Often, if I am hurting I wont go to bed for fear of making Madge's night worse, but I can sleep in the recliner if I am not in pain.

We have weather warnings through the weekend, so I carried enough plants to shelter so I could replant if I have to, even though the weather has not done anything. If we get more rain it is going to slow my garden prep work, but I expect everything will work out fine.

I gave away another 50 or so plants this afternoon, so my pile of plants is dropping.

How is everyone up there? I am 30 miles south of Marietta. We had high winds and over 2”. Thankful no tornadoes.

Tornados everywhere. One in north side of Norman and another passed just south of Jennifer's. Another tornado passed close by my over east garden. About 2 inches of rain over all . Some wind damage here and there. At least no hail damage that I know of yet.

Damage reports are still ongoing.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0RgyyV8TUBDCHjcC1Z5i3sj9gPkenv8D2c1mq9B97waiHXkrP9fPMLu21H4ZUvSZBl&id=100076052882535&ref=embed_post

Rick

Marietta was nailed. My brother lives 8 miles from there. So scary

I can remember one year we were talking and joking around with Dawn about little boats for our veggies, we may need to start building boats again, it looks like we have a lot of rainy days for the next two weeks.

Yes we do too. Rain is forecasted almost every day and my ground is as spongy as it can be. I pulled a half a gallon of carrots today and put them in a jar to ferment with dill red onion and garlic. It is the easiest way to preserve food and so healthy. I had hoped to get this ferment done so I could bring it to the spring fling but I am not sure if it will be ready in time.

I'll make a new thread.