May Week 2 -- Time to get busy in the garden!
hazelinok
13 days ago
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Week 4, May 2017, General Garden Talk
Comments (102)I laughed so hard about you canning outdoors on the propane burners, Amy. Had to read that one to GDW. We both got a good laugh. Thank you! :) GDW says, "And the bottom line is, 'I DON"T WANT TO!;" I must say, the first two were enough to convince me I wouldn't be doing that. Maybe my mode of gardening is work really hard one day, do nothing the next, as I am exhausted tonight. I will be in bed by 12:30, which is a reasonable time for me. Up early for church. . . then into dirty jeans (I swear I could stand these jeans up at the end of every day and they'd stand on their own, and still, I insist on wearing them at LEAST two days of heavy yard work and sometimes 3). I feel like a bit of a degenerate cooking dinner in my filthy jeans and T shirts, but I do, honest, wash my face and hands and arms first. Just call me Pigpen. When GDW and I first reconnected 3 yrs ago in August, I looked just like this, as I was slaving all week in jeans moving my Mom into assisted living in Buffalo Wy. But the next time he saw me a month later, he visited me at my "contemporary" condo in Mpls, and I was in dress uniform, hair fixed, a minor bit of make-up, semi-dressy slacks and tops, nails done.. He must have been scared to death wondering who in the heck I was. My condo (that I had just moved into 4 months earlier) was a very cool contemporary eclectic mix, with off-white carpeting, and wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling paintings (of mine) ranging from small to large, mostly abstract. His jaw dropped, and I laughed pretty hard. . . I think at first he was pretty sure he'd made a terrible mistake. . . that I wasn't who he thought I was or who he remembered. (But I knew he was wrong, and have since proven it. LOL) Ahh. But I DID bring my wonderful bamboo floor lamp and Oriental writing desk and very cool custom couch (that I bought on Craigs list for $200) and wonderful large framed print sumi ink black stallion for my new home here, AND ALL my quilting fabric (which was one round trip for him before I moved, hauling back many boxes of fabric in the truck) AND all the painting supplies and classical music CDs! And the severely pruned collection of books. And now I'm Pigpen, and am quite comfortable and happy, happy as a pig rolling in mud. And he is mightily relieved, as you can imagine. I don't cost him much. No nails done, no expensive hair appointments, no clothes, prefer home cooking (and he prefers my home cooking). Work like a son-of-a-gun in the yard, don't ask him for help but if he offers I accept. I'm a cheap date and good bargain. And I'm even "kind of religious," to boot. He told me a couple months into our reunion, in the interest of full disclosure, "Umm, I have to tell you I'm kind of religious." I laughed, surprised and delighted, and said, "Ha! Well, I'll tell ya, I'm kinda religious, too." So now a friend just dumped 3 bags of sand plums on me at church this morning. And I've got to deal with those on Tuesday. Need to go to town to get some small jars. AGGHH. I really have no idea how you all do all the stuff you do! I love growing the stuff. But canning? OMG. Freezing, no prob. (I see a new freezer in our near future.) Onions, potatoes, good to go. Tomatoes, peppers, no problem. I can do those. Sauerkraut. . . okay. Pickles........... now sand plums, and GDW has visions of apple butter and pear stuff. The lady who brought me the sand plums has a bachelor/widowed? neighbor who is a jam and jelly, pickle-canning freak, and has all these wonderful exotic specialties. I told GDW tonight that he could do that; after all, he concocts the hummingbird nectar with great precision every 3-4 days. Know what? He didn't tell me I was crazy. He said well maybe he could do that if he didn't get the stuff cloudy.. . . .. . oh my gosh......... Gotta get the tomatoes staked up better tomorrow, finish clearing and enlarging this enormous southeast "bee balm/cleome/daisy/coreopsis" back bed, relocating many flowers and herbs that heretofore were IDKs or inappropriate for their locations, and do the laundry. . . and if time, to mulch mulch mulch. GDW is on a rock border mission. He confessed to me today that where our utility easement "alley" is, he'd long thought of digging up rocks there so he could mow it instead of tediously weed whip it. But it's hard work. . . . to state it mildly; and he didn't know what he'd do with any reasonably sized rocks he might run into, so he never did anything about it. But now he realized he could make rock borders around all my beds, so that's what he's tackling--and I'm here to tell you all it's a heroic mission. And I'm astonished at the difference it makes with the beds. It makes them look "finished," like they actually are a plan (which they never were!). I spent 5 hours today with my best loved new tool for decimating Bermuda grass, the hori-hori (tedious, yes, but ever so effective). digging it out of an area about 8x10 feet. Meanwhile, GDW had uncovered at least a dozen 20-60 lb rocks from his utility easement alley. And so it goes with our chores. I do all the little doo-dad stuff, while he's out performing miracles. I do laundry and vacuum, and meanwhile he has put in new shocks on the truck. It doesn't seem fair that I do all this little insignificant stuff (which to me is nothing) while he's performing miracles, but it's working out so NICE. Well I've rattled on far too long. . . and how little of it had to do with gardening. I was so overwhelmed with all the "little" things I have to do out in the gardens tonight that I told him just to take all the rocks away, plow it under and let it go to the weed lawn again. And we both laughed, knowing that's not gonna happen. Kim. . . thinking of you. . . my pioneer woman. BTW, found your friend on the internet, who does the pepper seeders. . . wonderful reading about her. Would love to get a couple pepper seeders and your sachets when you get them ready....See MoreMay 2018, Week 2: Spring Is In Full Swing Now, Summer Approaches
Comments (110)Nancy, Hooray for blooms on the tomatoes. Today's max wind gusts weren't as bad as yesterday's---in fact, 4 mph lower, so the wind wasn't as bad, but we were two degrees hotter so it still felt warm/windy and sort of miserable. I am sorry to hear that you and GDW have been through the wringer this week. That must have been very scary. My dad and I both reacted very badly to anesthesia. I hope I never have to have it again for any reason. Amy, Congrats on the score! I love it when a gift I've selected for someone else is an obvious hit so I know how you're feeling about that. I hope y'all's Mother's Day gathering with your mom was wonderful. Rebecca, I agree about just how bad this early heat is. I cannot ever remember a year when May was hot and then June turned back cooler, so I'm not expecting it to happen this year. I hate to say I've already lost hope, weather-wise, but I sort of have. Usually, at least we have May, you know? The cold of April is gone, our usual May weather is nice, we might have some severe storm days but we have plenty of other nice gardening days. We work ourselves to death in the garden in May because we know the June heat is coming and this is our last good month to really spend all the time we want in the garden, right? So, to have May feeling more like June or even early July is very discouraging. I'm already working around the heat like I normally do from late June onward. This isn't good. It is bad that your TV meteorologists already are comparing this year to 2011 and 2012.....it was okay when I was doing it because I'm not an official anything...but they are official....so we have to take them seriously. Hailey, Begonias are ridiculously easy and so pretty---I just love them. They are very forgiving of dry spells too---surprisingly so. With the Wave petunias, they are hybrids so any seed you save is not necessarily going to give you identical plants next year--they might give you some plants that look like this year's plants, or they might give you something entirely different. They might give you a similar color, but most people who have tried to grow F-2 Wave or Tidal Wave petunia seeds have gotten a whole range of colors. You might get the color, but not the same growth rate or disease tolerance or whatever. It depends on how the genes resort themselves in the F-2 generation (the plants you have now are the F-1 generation). So, if you want to get an exact color of Wave petunia or an exact growth habit, you'd be better off purchasing F-1 seed than saving F-2 seed from F-1 plants. Even if you have to buy the F-1 seed, it still is a lot less expensive than buying the plants. Petunias are surprisingly easy from seeds. We'd better have a fall! Mother Nature owes us a very nice, beautiful, mild, prolonged autumn to make it up to us for taking us straight from winter to summer with no spring. Actually, that's not a fair statement. At my location in southern OK, this is how the seasons have gone: January & February: Winter, March Spring, April Winter, May Summer. It isn't fair, though, to have Spring followed by a return to Winter. It sure confused all the plants. I blame it all on the convergence of Easter with April Fool's Day. I just knew something horrible would happen as a result, and the April cold is the horrible thing that happened. The whole month of April was one big April Fool's Joke, but then there's May. Who is to blame for May being so summery? I love liquid seaweed. It works great. Tips? Never use it indoors because it is stinky, and that's doubly true of liquid fish fertilizer. Both of them will attract cats and coons, and sometimes vultures, so keep that in mind. Are you rural or semi-rural? Every time I use blood meal or bone meal, I have vultures circling above the garden for days. Also, all of these can attract dogs and cats....I cannot let dogs come into the garden with me or they'll try to dig up the bone meal. You can use liquid seaweed either to drench the ground beneath the ground or as a foliar feeding. It seems to work fine either way (just like compost tea or manure tea). Since the NPK on liquid seaweed is low, you probably could use it weekly if you wish. Jen, Plants always do that. When there's something I really want to take to the SF, those volunteers never sprout until after the SF. Your comment about the doctors in Tulsa is not the first such comment I've seen or heard. When we moved here, we just kept using our Texas doctors because we were so comfortable with them. Nancy, I'm glad your blooms are beginning to appear. It is about time! I still feel like not enough is in bloom yet, but we do have lots of blooms in our garden-just not as many as usual. The wildflowers in the fields are the same way---some didn't bloom at all, some haven't shown up yet but I still have some hope we'll see them, and others are blooming either very or somewhat early---there's no rhyme or reason to it. Blame the weather. The weeds are indeed growing like weeds with many new ones sprouting daily. I weeded most of the asparagus bed today as it is the only one that didn't get weeded during the week, and it looks so much more normal and under control now. Rebecca, Those tomato plants were born in a cabbage plant....no, wait, that is Cabbage Patch kids. Hmmm. Well, it all starts out with one tomato blossom that has anthers and pistils.......hmmm. That might be too boring. Well, where did they come from? Did they fall off the turnip truck? Follow you home wagging their tails behind them like little stray puppies? If you do not know where your tomato plants came from, how are we supposed to know? Let's ask the squirrels what they think. I bet they'll know. Hailey, The bottles of liquid fertilizer ought to have directions right there on the bottles. So, it hit 89 degrees here today and it didn't feel quite as bad as some days earlier in the week, but it was no picnic either. I worked in the garden this afternoon while Tim mowed. I weeded, planted a few things, water those things in well with a watering can, etc. and harvested some more tomatoes---this time Early Girls. I also ate Sungolds while working in the garden---they are a natural form of gardener's Gatorade. Tim broke some sort of belt on the riding mower and didn't want to push the push mower around in the heat, so his workday outdoors ended early. He came and offered to help in the garden and I sent him to the house. I felt like he needed some free time that didn't involve working on anything. Mosquitoes are horrible, horrible, horrible here now. Now, I'm off to bed because I hope to get into the garden early for a couple of hours of work before the day gets too busy. Dawn...See MoreFebruary 2019, Week 2, Planting Time Is So Close....And, Yet, So Far
Comments (60)Kim, Prayers for fast healing for you. Bon, Where would we be without our beloved OK Mesonet? It has all the most helpful info in so many different formats. I just love it. I'm glad Bill made it home in time to chop wood. Hopefully that wood will keep the stove fed and keep you all toasty warm. Maybe you coulda/woulda/shoulda been chopping wood, but we know that it wouldn't feed your soul the way that gardening does, so we totally get it. Your wind chill was bad and it was bad so much earlier than ours. The cold front didn't make it this far south until tonight, but we're plenty chilly now. Megan, If you need some time to just chill, then allow yourself to do that. I think when our bodies are telling us what it needs, we need to listen. With a three day weekend, you should have adequate time for chilling and seed starting. Enjoy your holiday weekend. dbarron, Maybe the cat and dog were just playing and neither is too much of a fraidy cat? I'm glad you got the car into the garage so you won't have to chisel ice off the windshield later. The plants don't seem as bothered by the cold as we do. I guess that's because they are out in it 24/7 and are somewhat better adapted to it perhaps. Rebecca, I hope the procedure went well and that you and your mom made it home just fine. Y'all, the models look like somebody is going to get some snow next week, but I do not necessarily think it will hit many of us unless something changes. We have an unexpected, last-minute bonus weekend with the older granddaughter this week as her dad is unavailable for his weekend with her. Well, his loss is our gain and we're going to enjoy having her here with us, though she might climb the walls a little bit without her little sis around to play with. Of course, we can do things we don't do when little sis is here, like maybe go to a more mature movie (something not G-rated) or to a restaurant that little sis doesn't like. Tomorrow will be just her day and she's already voiced her opinion on where we should eat lunch. : ) Before they called to see if she could come stay with us, I had thought I might do a little plant shopping or something tomorrow but I think instead we'll do something she'll enjoy. It still is pretty chilly to be buying plants, especially since the cold weather doesn't want to go away. I'm ready to do some gardening, but the weather isn't really right for it yet, especially with the persistently soggy soil. Dawn...See MoreMay 2019, Week 2, Are We Gonna Need A Bigger Boat?
Comments (57)Our heater came on last night, Jennifer, and this morning. Oh you have dresses, don't you? Of course you do. LOL The strawberries at school are stretching up, too. I ran in this morning to see how things looked (wet in the low spot, but great everywhere else. And then back here to mow, and then weeded a bit. But on days that I mow, I mostly don't do a lot of other stuff. And sometimes NOTHING else. Garry had to get under the deck and put a cinder block under the steps supporting beam, as the steps had sunk some on one side. That was just about an all day project. Now we need to go get a couple pieces of lattice. And I need him to get the deck power-washed so I can get to painting. I am shocked--rain tonight and in the morning? Wow. I had a BUNCH of petunias coming up in the wheelbarrow. This morning I noticed they were all stripped to the stems. What is odd is that I have larger petunias in many other containers and they are untouched. I sure hope they STAY untouched! Do any of you have any idea what could have stripped those? It was a great day for mowing, but every time I went out just to sit, too chilly, so then I'd have to go walk around. There's not much action in terms of color. Stuff is happening very slowly. Verbena bonariensis, spider wort, hollyhock zebrinas are filling in, and the nicotiana, petunias, astilbes, and rose campion are JUST beginning. The hydrangeas are enormous, but taking their sweet time to bloom. Since they've been here (this is their fifth year), this is the latest they've been; usually by now they're in full bloom. I'm kinda liking this. I was looking at photos from 2 yrs ago. We are a couple weeks behind we were then. All's good out in the vegetable beds. I am a little freaked out with the flower beds. Remember, I panted SO many things last year. Sort of knew this could happen. . . . I see stuff coming up. Not remembering what I planted. Being fairly certain what's weeds and what's not. BUT just because I realize something is not a weed, doesn't really mean I have any idea what it is! There's a clumping plant out there--an obvious member of the mint faily (wow! Way to narrow it down, right? LOL) But it has no scent whatsoever. Rule out most herbs, right? The tiny worrisome part is that it is also sprouting in the veggie raised beds. . . What did you do now, Nancy! I know I have hyssop out there, several basils, but what else, no idea. No excuse for being in this position. Oh, wait. I have a list of stuff I planted out there in all the beds. I will have to retrieve and figure it out maybe. THIS year I was very careful to plant the labels with the plants. And then got the green beans mixed up with the okra, and now I'm not sure which is which. No matter--they're in styrofoam cups. I expect they'll let me know who is who. I soaked them all first, so they're sprouting up in record time--like 3 day was the earliest. I had ordered five aster tataricus from this obscure (obscure to US in OK--might be famous as all get-out in northern CA) nursery called Digging Dog Nursery. I ordered them in February. When I researched them and searched for sellers, this was the first one I found after much time looking. So it was a complete crap shoot. Then my debit card had a couple unathorized charges in Feb/March, so ordered a new one. Got an email from DD that my number didn't work; didn't see the email until maybe 7-10 days after they sent it. So called them frantically with new number. Then nothing.. . . 7-10 days later, got a voice mail from them saying perhaps they got the number wrong, could I call them. Well it was in the middle of a bunch of other stuff--plants for the school, phone calls from church people, and some family stuff. I totally forgot. But when the plant didn't arrive about when they should have, I called the nursery and wondered what the status was. She reminded me she'd left me a voice mail. I tell ya, friends, I am losing it!! BUT!! My plants arrived two days ago. They look healthy and perky. Do you all remember when I SO wanted my burn weed (which Jason identified correctly, of course) to be the aster tataricus. Well. At least the burn weed led me to the aster. I'm excited to see how it does. https://www.finegardening.com/plant/tatarian-aster-aster-tataricus Isn't it a riot to see the pains we all go through to get the plant of our dreams!! And of course, it's a toss of the dice....See Moreslowpoke_gardener
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