Evelyn, I am so sorry. I did not know your son passed away. That is heart breaking.

I did not do much today. Two dog walks, ate a cucumber/sweet onion sandwich for my first meal. Usually around 1. Wind blew most of the day, so I just stayed inside and putzed.

My DH's nursing care giver still comes by to visit and she was here this morning.

I only have one appointment next week and that is for a pedicure/manicure. If we have some decent, no wind, days, I will gt a lot done. My housekeeper will be here Monday so I think I will go buy my tomato plants.

Got on here lat, so you all have a wonderful evening and Good Morning to all.

Been researching, figured I would add in some notes - writing helps me remember some things longer.
*Aspirin treatment for vegetables: 600 mg uncoated aspirin, 1cup water, crush, blend til super smooth. ( Uncoated keeps the sprayer from clogging so often) then add to 1 gallon water. Spray vegetables every 2 weeks. Purpose; makes plants think they are being attacked so their natural defenses are raised. Used Where; especially in humid and hot regions.
* Epson Salts: is magnesium sulfate. Will create a deeper green in plants, but shouldn't be necessary in most soils. 1 Tablespoon in a gallon of water. Can be used on soil and leaves for absorption. Maybe as often as 1 time a month.
*Rock Phosphates: add to bottom of planting hole when planting vegetables for the first time. Especially tomatoes.
*Bone Meal: slow release nitrogen works best on bulbs - place under bulbs when planting - approximately 1 Tablespoon or more to each bulb.
* Tomato sprouts: reddish color found when sprouting tomatoes indoors is due to nutrient deficiency. Add nutrients to their sprays, even fish emulsion helps.
*PH balances: garden lime is either calcium carbonate or dolomitic lime. It is added to tired soils, soils that are too acid a ph, or too hard a soil. Purpose: helps plants uptake nutrients and calcium. Not to be added if alkalinity is 7.0 or above as it will only make it more alkaline.
*Cow Manure: manure from beef cattle isn't as 'hot' as manure from dairy cattle. Reason: urea salts and cottonseed meal. Mushroom compost is made from chicken manures and straws, is very 'hot'. Rabbit, goat, horse and beef cattle manure is easily used half and half with soil straight into garden.
*SOILS: black or 'gumbo' clay; before Winter, turned and soaked and freezes turns it into soft powder until compaction in summer. Tight grains keep nutrients locked away from reaching plants, usually can stand heavier applications as it takes longer to work. Sandy loam; water runs thru it faster, needs more water constantly. Will turn to hardpack cement without water. Smaller, more often applications of fertilizers and water. Kaliche limestone: heavy limestone sand and rocks, ph balances need watched, lo iron - won't grow pine trees or onions, but cedars thrive. Black Gold: loamy loose black composted soils. Gardners dream. Iron Ore clay: Iron and calcium are fighting feuding enemies. Soil bitterly hard, binds roots, nutrients, water, drainages...
*Wood mulches: wood grew in soil and sand, decomposes into fine sands if it decomposes, holds moisture, tends to grow wild mushrooms of all varieties as it decomposes. It WILL shrink more than half its freshly shredded state within 1 year.

Okay, my eyes have floaters gumming them right now, time to let them rest.
Hard to believe the boy is gone Ev, beautiful greats I hope you get to see occasionally? Sharon, I had to add dirt, so took a break at pulling weeds and rearranging garden, ran into town and picked up the dirt, a few groceries and a MOD PIZZA for lunch, came home and fried bacon, yumm. Have a cauliflower casserole to put together tomorro, the SIL is going back to keto. I told his dog its butt was getting wider and he piped up and said, so is mine, do you gals mind if I go keto again? My daughter and I looked at him and said no, so we are brushing up on what to feed him. If I ate that food, I would get so wide I couldn't even waddle, chuckl. I can cook it tho and do just fine. 85* was windy and miserably hot today in the sun, salads look good.

88 yesterday, 13 hour pond never cleaned before but owner has become disabled and needed it done once so it should be ok. I'm still yawning, only got 5 or 6 hours sleep, have to go back and do plants in a few minutes.
I am sorry you lost your son to skin cancer Evelyn. I've been having bits cut off since 1997- melanoma, but I caught it before it spread or I wouldn't be here.
it's a tricky disease. If I hadn't gotten a massage and the therapist spotted the mole I would not be here.

my store bought tomato plants are in, need to divide and plant my seed starts when I get home, if I don't take a nap or mow the lawn , which needs it.

Evelyn I have a float activated sump pump under my house now for rain that gets where it shouldn't. It didn't cost much at Harbor Freight, but you can get a kit with all the plumbing parts for about $400 online. I have a lot of plumbing parts.

Kitt, I fertilize my onions with blood meal every 2 weeks to get them to add leaves and layers.

Alice ~ I couldn't imagine 88° at this time of year! Glad you paid attention to your skin. I had a basal cell carcinoma removed from my nose last year, by Mohs surgery. I didn't want to put it off.

Kitt ~ Aspirin is also good in helping cuttings to root, since it is a synthetic of the active ingredient in white willow bark. Of course if you have any willows on your property a twig of will do. I have read that Lilac will help, but I have not verified that. (I have PLENTY of Lilac suckers.)

I miss lilacs, won't grow here, will edit post and add to my notes soon, thanx both!

I have so many tomato seeds, that I probably will not buy any "store bought" tomato starts. They are extremely easy to start from seed, and the seeds keep for many years. I could never use a whole packet of seeds! And if you have any open-pollinated seeds, you can save some for the following year(s).

Me as well on the seeds. Mini garden to work with as well. My tabasco is down,

temps have dropped to 60's gorgeous if pollen weren't being tossed down faster than you can clean it. Cukes holding their own with cat paw instructors, chuckl

Tomatoes hidden in the winter stuff

The boys are out on the pellet smoker making meat candy, and I am done with the loaded baked cauliflower and broccoli, Tylenol swallowed, break time to watch the younger ones run around.

I buy some tomato seeds - Totallytomato.com has Juliet seeds, and they are hard to find locally but will produce and set fruit in heat, so I buy those, I buy cherokee purple seeds and early girl, and san marzano. I keep seeds refrigerated because I never use a full packet and my 2015 seeds germinated just fine in 2023.

i don't refrigerate my seeds, but the tomatoes come up anyway!😁

Depends on the varieties, heirlooms were survivors. Others stuck the time test as well until they became a constant

We have had rain all day yesterday and a little today. Not a hard rain, but rain. My home town that is up in the mountain near the Utah border is being drenched and flooded. I am going to work on my irrigation tomorrow. I have an area I am going to add some mini clover. Right now it is just soil but mow and bow guys just keep blowing it away. From what I have read, the mini clover is more like a tight low growing clover and does not need to be mowed. Wish me luck.The seed is absolutely outrageous but if it works, it will be well worth it.

I get reels on Instagram about the snow in Mammoth. Absolutely amazing. Those Instagram reels suck me in and I can spend an hour watching them. There are several women on there I follow. Gardening, DIY remodeling and on and on. I have started watching some and decided I was wasting my time but the majority I enjoy.

Talk at you later.

Almost all of the snow has melted away. It was partly sunny and windy today with a high of 50°. I saw lots of gopher activity. And I saw a beautiful dark hellebore .I should have taken a picture. I never saw so many blooms on it before.

Hey guys, what is a "Thumbs Up".

thumbs up is the same as 'Good to Go', 'OKAY', ' I agree', 'I am with you on that', or 'I see you'. Same as on FB thumbs up. I find I miss it when reading other things now, we use it to agree with other posters on the thread.
Now, an acorn gets you those little icon thingys in the upper right corner, Sharon, I see you are loaded with those, chuckl.

one pond after another. Was supposed to be off today, I saw 3 customers. Now off sunday and monday. going to up pot my tomato starts before I go to bed and move them to the greenhouse. Only small hail here when the storms went thru and really not much of it or rain, but it came in sideways.

Tortie says hi

Drizzled maybe 1.75" in 24 hrs. 54* is already dropping, we've maybe 3 days before warm ups. Grabbed a headache and a fever last 2 days, but doin better now. Managed to get to town and pick up a few things, gray days. Sideways is hard on rain gauges, chuckl. I have clear fresh rainwater I don't have the energy to preserve, chuckl. The plants are all jumping for joy tho.

I'm home for a couple of days. Just in time to build a fire in the woodstove, lol

The truck cover worked. Tomatoes don't have frost damage. Good morning, I'm off today. The Back Porch is no longer on Dave's Garden and I think I'm still paid for another year.

Not surprised, looks good - just a few more nights. My sprouts are all healthy as can be, tho I dropped those bottomless pots on them again. Sun felt good, but that breeze kept me indoors. We had a small tornado in the form of a 14 month old great grandson keep us spinning this afternoon. I am glad to say it took about 6 or 7 hours but he was tired enough to be a grumpy boy when dad packed him off to his house. Do they make nerf blocks? Maybe I can teach him to build things as well as relocate the shelves he can reach. Those toys he has are all hard plastic and painful to contact, chuckl. I got a chuckl out of watching him make wide circles around growling dinosaur toys, doesn't trust those, smart boy.