Thomas: Maybe chucky is threatened by your 4legged friend. Keep said friend out there. We had a dog once and all you had to say was squirrel and she was on attack mode. Are you still on lockdown? I think that's part of why my family is more blah right now. Things are no longer normal - summer, friends, pool, ball. Maybe you just have the overall funk of this crazy time. As for the heat all I can offer for an idea is to get outside at first light. So far the bugs haven't been bad, it's cooler and quiet! You can converse w the birds and frogs. And you'll get your plantings done with time. Are those the berries that look like weird long semi ovoid shaped fat blueberries? Native to Russia? Or am I thinking something else?

Can you get your specific dates from OH extension or if your state has a master gardener program? Not sure if something like this would help:

https://milwaukee.extension.wi...

Amanda: lovely blooms! I looked up the names you posted. How pretty! Do you have a lot?

AM: whittling down my list as I found a different provider for iris and just kept adding to my cart those that I liked. Some are from my original list made this morn. These are more economical so will see if I make my order tomorrow or not.

I can officially say this was a productive and busy weekend. And I'm still tired. If I actually slept all night that would be a help. Here's hoping tonight is a different story. I'm a worrier.

May you all have a nice start to the new week!

Alot of irises in general? Yep!! Probably 20-30 or so varieties. Some heirlooms and some more modern.

They be the fat blue berries. Supposedly more shade tolerant than blueberries and yet the location I've decided to plant them in the yard is one of the sunniest locations. Still on lock down. Not sure if we will go back to work any time soon. July 6th for a few, and then every other day only for the foreseeable future.

I also bought this hokey plastic owl who's head turns with the wind. Only problem is I'm scared of owls so I don't go into the garden now! I don't think it'll do any good, especially since I chased a squirlee out of a bed this morning when I went out to harvest. I've decided to set up some mouse size traps. I'm getting tired of the chipmunks digging. Need to look up what chipmunks like to eat. They are live traps.

The extension office sounds like a good idea. I'll go check out their website and if I can't find the info, I"ll email them. Thanks for the idea!

Amanda: woot! What color irises do you gravitate towards?

Thomas: juicy fruit gum. Chew it so it is a tad soft and put it by your trap where you would like peanut butter for mice. They also hide in eavestrough runs during the heat of the day. Our best trapping came w the trap at the end of the eave on the ground we'd bang on the eave, they'd scurry and try to evacuate, hit the trap and well no more chipmunk. It was effective, they also love to nest in juniper roots. Just saying, I've a lot of chipmunk experience. Take away their hiding or living and it helps. Again if your dog can be nosing about that helps too.

Yes extension should be able to help or point you to someone that can help you out.

I have all kinds of colors. No particular color is a favorite, like most colors. Not all bloom every year so it's hard to remember what all I have out there. One bed has a purple/white, white and a dark maroon. Another is all dark purple, heirloom, another light purple, heirloom, have a salmon pink in another spot, and the mixed irises in a couple spots. They're everywhere here. They grow so I keep em.

I got almost done mulching the garden shed bed. My DB and his wife stopped this afternoon for a visit and a look around my flower beds. When they left, I was pooped so I stayed inside. Only a couple more buckets of mulch will finish that bed. I didn't get any thing planted so that is on the top of my list for tomorrow. Rain coming in Monday night and Tuesday so it would be nice to get the annuals planted in pots and get some of the SDB Iris that are in pots into the raised beds.

I usually have good luck with my Iris in my raised beds as long as they have time to get good roots established. I lost about 4 new ones last year for some reason. I put a bunch of Iris fans in pots and put the pots in my garden shed for the winter and lost every single one. I don't think they had time to get established before the cold hit.

I actually started buying TB Iris in 2016 and 2017 and again in 2019. I bought my Iris first from members here who advertised them for sale when they divided theirs. Last year I ordered from Winterberry Iris Gardens and again this year and I think from another company but can't remember for sure. I will have to check my credit card bill to see if they are listed. I guess I don't really have any favorite colors. I just like an assortment of all colors and 2 toned ones. There are so many that look a lot alike so I try to stay away from getting ones that look like some that I already have.

Well, I am exhausted so it is bed time for this old gal. A little sip of my ZZZZQUIL and I should have a good nights sleep. At least if I wake up, I can fall right back to sleep.

Jeanne: thank you for that info. I will look at their offerings as well and see. I used to have a ton of colors but I'm having issue w these buggers blooming of late. I currently have my red ones, pinafore pink, Circus World, a white, white purple Was that the one I said was Art Deco? And a peachy to mid purple. I did use to have black, mid blue, A pale yellow, rusty yellow, batik. But the problem is when I split the last time I think I petered our and didn't mark any of them well. Again totally smart on my part. Grrrr.

I appreciate the help on the raised iris beds. That was my concern not being within the actual earth. I can loose things that way too but if there are ways to prevent problems I'm all ears to do what others have tried.

Amanda: do you live in an area that you fight the soil with or lighting? Irises make me happy. They are tall and nice colored and a welcome break from all the snow when they finally appear! Hearty is another good word I think! It's time to refresh them all and see if moving them around is a help and maybe on their own.

Thomas: you keep mentioning lack of rain. I got a bump to my phone for flash flood watch Tuesday - up to 4" of rain. Dangnabbit, good thing I never did water the dahlias. Won't do it with that forecast. We are already sitting high with water right now. We had something similar last year but it wasn't tied to a tropical depression. It was just deluges daily.

Mainly in the winter I'm just raising flowers until around March when I start the tomatoes. Do you grow your greens all year long? See this is in part why I'd love one of those sweet English greenhouses one day! I could move things out of the house and in a nice little warm spot w the outside world. But I'm zone 4 so totally not practical I'd guess. It's just be fun to have one.

Remind me BEAN TRELLIS.

AM: Totally not having this aging body! Up early again due to pain in my elbow. Combination of issues, but darn it hurts. Maybe I'm just prepping for all this future rain?!

Today I'm going to pot up some coleus I took cuttings off. These are the ones I planted at my moms and didn't buy for my house. I have found wintering coleus to be fairly easy, just work in watering as I don't have a sink in the basement. So a lot of up and down the stairs when all my plants are in house and under the lights. This batch can go sit on my porch and I'll see how they do.

I'm hearing the birds singing outside my window. Still dark out but I guess they wake early like me. Well I could have worse sounds first thing in the morning.

I need the hubs to stop on his way home from work and see how much a load of wood chips is for a truckload from a small local landscaper. We need to get new under the kids fort. Then the backyard will look good and done if but for the moment.

I forgot - I need to get those peonies in the ground here and I will go get one in the ground for my relative who is ill (one of the ones tested) alas what Illness they do have has knocked them down hard. So I'll help them out and get it in before all the rain and they can move it when they feel up to it.

Hope you aren't part of the upcoming deluge. I always worry as my house is over 100 years old but at the same time that should tell me she's seen quite a bit in her lifetime of standing and protecting her families. Crazy time.

No watering except for my pots and planters today I think. Don't want to have overdone feet. I do hope the dahlias can deal. I have some that are still babies coming up.

My best to you all. I'm off for my cuppa.

Ordered my iris. I got some lovely orange ones as well as some different brighter colored ones. No pastels really here! But that's me. I have a few already so these will be a delightful addition to what I have. Now to figure out the bed I can put them all in. That is part of my challenge for today. In between the extreme heat and the deluge of rain tomorrow that they expect for my dear old state - well then.

I am off to go slay the stalks of the bloomed ones so they can get busy readying for next year and I end up with the same colors. I just read not taking off the bloomed on stalk confuses them into making seed. So off I go armed with my knife. How true that is I don't know but I will heed advice.

Scarlet, I so totally agree with whatever article you read about dead heading. With the dead blooms cut off, the plant will use the energy/resources growing roots, new growth, regardless of what plant that you are talking about.

Our lack of rain is really specific to like a square mile at most. Ask other people in central ohio and they'd probably say that we've gotten normal amount to a bit more than usual rain this year. I'm really still thinking aliens.

I've been growing greens for about 7 months straight now. I started late december growing greens in the grow room to see how'd they grow inside. Then I had so many growing that I realized I wouldn't have enough space to start tomato/pepper plants so I set up another set of shelves with grow lights. Now I'm trying to use that space and finding it rather difficult to fill the shelves. More out of lack of time/commitment on my part. I start lettuce seeds and then get busy outside, too tired to keep an eye on them and they die due to neglect. However, I do have several different types of bok choy and and various lettuces growing right now. Just this morning I started four different types of lettuces that aren't currently growing in the grow room. I'll probably start some more bok choy next week to keep the harvest growing. For some reason I can't grow spinach inside. I'll likely try to grow it in a row cover throughout the fall and winter along with leeks and various carrots and radishes. Still trying to figure out what I could grow under a layer or two.

Jeanne, I used to love taking the quil family of medications. Best dreams and a lot of them. However, my dreams have not been nice to me for the last year so I stopped taking Nyquil or Zquil and actually leave the TV on. I find with the TV on, I don't either dream, or remember what I dreamt.

They are saying rain tomorrow afternoon through weds. Hope so. I have plenty of water in the rain barrel, but it's always nice not to HAVE to water. It's going to be so hot tonight, I'll likely be in the mood to work outside for hours. There's another pound of water loss. LOL

I got the peonies planted this morning at 75° and it's about almost 95° now - ugh!!!!!! I'm MELTING.

So instead I am doing household chores indoors, cleaning here and there, baking, laundry and trying to hide from kid2 who is full of everything today. I am not successful on that front.

I did get my rhubarb picked, but have to dice and freeze yet. And the irises are ordered. The bed not figured out yet. As I said, I think I need more yard!

Kid1 has their succulent collection moved under the lights, I will condense all to one shelf and turn off the other lights which will be a help. I need to take my snake plants down for a while as well as, they aren't as prolific as they should be in the rooms that they are in currently. Therefore my basement will be prolific in Oxygen production for some time.

Thomas: Well, if I indeed get the 4+ inches of rain tomorrow, I will most definitely send it your way. I don't need that much rain, plus tomorrow is clinic day and that's a drive to get there and back over a lot of low lying areas, heck w/that much rain we get mudslides too. I think the only thing that may enjoy the rain are the hostas and hydrangea but only to a point. I have to get the rest of my plants out from the grow in the basement just the nasturtium is left. I will try to get outside tomorrow morn and get that planted. Until then, I look at the sunshine but just shake my head and say too hot not doing it. Besides I make a mean cookie and I sit here and eat it while doing my watch out the window. I forgot to ask if your Grandpa brought the seeds with him if he was an immigrant? I always wondered if mine did as they traveled here in the early 1900s. Can you imagine being on a boat for a week plus, with few clothes, a few family momentos and an envelope with some seeds? Or was your grandpa a farmer who grew his own unique tomatoes?

Jeanne: all ordered on the iris front. I went with a bunch of bright oranges! Sweet now, plan the bed and I'll be good.

Amanda: You should get hit w/the Cristobal heading my way today shouldn't you? How much rain are you to get? It's to hit a cool front by the time it gets up this far. Yippee.

I am off, time to go get more laundry switched and folded. Why is that worse then weeding? I have yet to figure that out.

Scarlet, glad that you got your Iris order put in. Good luck figuring out where to put them.

I was outside early this morning when it was cool. This is what I got done.
1. I planted about 43 SDB Iris in raised beds that had been in pots all winter in the garage under lights.
2. Picked asparagus and snapped it and put in water in the fridge.
3. Watered my annuals in the 6-packs and potted up only one pot. Decided to wait until after the next 2 days of rain before potting the rest.
4. DH picked up the grass clippings with the lawn sweep so I helped him put it into buckets for me to use after the rain and wind is over.
5. Picked rhubarb and strawberries.
6. Did a little weeding here and there in raised beds.
7. Worked in the garage for a bit getting some pieces of Hosta untangled from the ferns that were growing in their clump. Now I need to pot them up.
8. Took a picture of my harvest.

Jeanne: too funny as I picked my rhubarb too. I chopped it up and put it in the freezer - eyeballing it I'd say I chopped up about 3 cups. I'll have more to harvest but not yet. Yours look lovely. I love fresh asparagus but due to my realization my yard is getting smaller for what I want to do. The best laid plans and all . . . I can't grow it. As it is I need to move my 2 blueberry bushes that the rabbits attack yearly. I'll be glad if the rabbits all run away elsewhere.

AM: I'm sorry but I feel Like a truck smacked into me this afternoon. My goodness it's horrid and if you tell me my body is taking over for a barometer I might believe you! Let's just say if this wicked weather gets here it better come quick and leave quicker! Super horrid. I hope no one else feels this way today.

Need to make sure my flag is in tomorrow as well as the deck umbrella taken down. The rest is just going to have weather w the weather.

I got 6 horsefly bites yesterday. Maybe that's my issue. I have one starting to look like a bruise. Fantastic. Makes you wonder what darn disease they can give you. Yuck. I like outside but not when I'm the one that attracts the crappy things!

Happy evening all. Maybe I can convince the hubs to help me get my bean trellis up tonight as my beans are starting to climb on themselves.

I live on a hill on clay soil so there's alot of issues with getting anything to grow. Add a couple black walnut trees to it and there's even more issues. But with my irises I just plant and let them go. Make sure they aren't buried. Just enough dirt on the rhizomes to hold them down but that's it. You want them mostly exposed.

I am itChy because I need to shave. That's been the problem for the last few days. LOL.

Cleaned up the front, saw three types of bees on the flowers. Planted the holly berries. Sweated a lot. I am either target practice or designated human for the mosquitoes tonight. It was pleasant when I went out. Not sure what happened. I bought a round for the snails, but I haven't seen these beer traps working at all.

Scarlet, I'm not sure what my great grandfather did, nor when he came to the USA. I don't think he was naturalized I think he was born here, but that would be about close to the time that my family came to the states on that side of the family. However, the tomato was something he helped develop. I'll need to see if anyone, my mother, has any information on it. I just know that he helped develop it, the variety went unnamed and uncatalogued.

Amanda's post made me remember. I was planting the holly berry bushes and the dirt was awesome. I haven't conditioned it in any way. Must be the original elevation aka, no crap clay put on top of the loam. Bushes should love that.

Got a new battery for my diabetes meter. It's been whining for a couple weeks about low battery. Don't really think it'll make a difference on the number, but part of me is hoping.

Amanda: black walnut trees are crazy. I read that you don't even have to one in your own yard that if your neighbor two doors over has one those roots can send juglone your way. We cut one down a few years back for that reason and I then moved to raised beds as my tomatoes died mid season in ground. I determined maybe it was the tree. Since getting rid of it no issues. Are your trees old and nice canopies? If you didn't have issues what would be your plant of choice to grow a ton of?

Thomas: did you make sure you have both male and female holly bushes? They are lovely in the winter, I've a relative that has them. Good luck w the meter. It's like the scale except sometimes when you put in new one you get the opposite effect and the scale has gone up. As for being the smorgasboard w the skeeters I'd think I'd rather that then the darn horseflies that got me yesterday. I envision them injecting me w crud. Ick. At least the deer flies weren't out too. I think the next couple days I'll be staying on in. Will see if the deluge has switched tracks. Maybe it will head your way instead of going into Canada. Oh and usually the snails don't take a dip in your brew until overnight. Check tomorrow morn instead. Of course maybe chucky likes escargot.

Jeanne: did you eat any fresh asparagus for dinner? I made quesadillas and used last summers salsa I canned. Good stuff! Well have to compare rain and destruction of it does come to either of us.

AM: so sore today. Good grief. I took my ibuprofen and aleve and hope to be able to rest well tonight. I keep having bursitis issues in all different areas that keeps cropping up. It totally drives me nuts. My mind knows all I want to get done and my body just peters out so very quickly. I hate aging when it's like that.

I am hopeful I can get the nasturtiums in the bed before clinic tomorrow and before the rains. I only have 18-24 to plant. That's doable. Otherwise I'll just do more observing then not.

Happy evening.

Hmmm... what is this about black walnuts? The neighbor has one. Other than it dropping large nuts in my yard I don't really have a problem with it.

I got a honey berry collection so Stark's paired it up with a good cross pollinator. Here's a picture. Oh right I didn't take one. It'll look nice for the next day. Just like the front.

When I said snail I meant slugs. I'd been reading about slugs and snails before I posted that message and when I'm tired, my fingers do what they want. I've had the beer traps out for a few days and didn't see a single slug in them. I refreshed the traps last night and it's been hot and dry so we'll see if anything happened. I ended up buying Sluggo anyway after reading a couple things on extension offices websites. Speaking of which not sure if I mentioned that the local ext office came through and pointed me to a temperature database website. If I couldn't find last years actual first frost date I was going to use Oct 31 as the date. Found out that the date was actually Nov 1!! Going to go play with that site and look up the last 10 years to get a more accurate average.

The new battery in the glucose meter was discouraging. I took the reading with the old battery, 201. Switched battery tested again, 179. Tested a third time 166. These things just display a random number. :)

A snapdragon is in bloom right outside in the patio flower bed. It's the plant that has survived the last two winters at least.

Today is clean up day. I have so much I want to get done. I hope it doesn't rain! We're expected to get rain after 4pm... oh I so hope it doesn't rain.

Morning all! I slept ALL NIGHT LONG. That's been needed for some time.

Today we are to get Tropical Depression Cristobal. My area is marked to receive 4+ inches more if there are thunderstorms as part of it. Gale force winds too. Can I just say I am not a coastal state and I don't like deluges? Jeanne and Pepper batten down too! Stay safe. We'll have to compare tomorrow's damage.

Thomas: I'm sorry about the meter. Are you using the same finger to test? Sometimes that can affect your outcome. On a different test my hubs donates blood and when they do an iron check his left hand is always close to low/can't donate and his right hand is always fine. Weird right? So he's gotten to say to them just check the right side. Maybe see if your other hand does better? Unless you have one of those you wear on your body (no clue on that) but I will say endocrine is a weird science. I have my own endo issues and the phrase I like to use is yes there is a standard for numbers but what is normal for your own body may not be what isTHE normal. My endo agrees after I've been her patient for so long what's normal for a chart may not be normal for myself. With my issue it's keeping me low and .5 either way+/- I feel like crap. That's how tight my fight is to be normal. So I hope you can get yours figured out. Do you just need a new meter? Or have you been lax in good storage for your strips? And sad to say, but has your strip manufacture made any changes either domestic or foreign? For me if I go on the generic it wreaks havoc for me horribly but again a different underlying issue. Just a thought to noodle. If you were fine all along and just of late had issue that could be part of your problem. Final thought, check and see if there is a recall on your strips or meter. That can happen too and clinics don't ever let you know or are. Always abreast of these issues.

My coworker uses food grade diatomaceous earth for slugs/snails all pests she doesn't want. Read up on it. It scores their under bellies and they die. It's crushed oyster shells I believe or something similar. I got mine at fleetfarm but haven't used it yet. I think she said she also uses it in her Outside animals water. Not sure on that one though.

Lesson on black walnuts: they produce juglone. Juglone is a poison to a lot of plants, bushes and shrubs. Read up:

https://www.extension.iastate....

It wreaked havoc on my garden and threatened some of my bushes. I felt bad taking out a tree but I wanted things to grow here. And it doesn't help that the darn squirrels are always planting me new future trees to keep me on my toes.
In my area there are a ton of black locusts, poplars and black walnuts. Yeah for a tiny river that spreads wide when it floods. Yeah for crazy squirrels who find the need to be gardeners or arborists as well!


Amanda: are you getting the deluge right at present? How are the winds? Stay safe!

Jeanne: keep me posted as the rains come. I've got to go to the big river city today for clinic And then hurry home and take the kid to ortho in a different location but all while going through high areas known for flooding or the mudslides that are now becoming more common.

Thanks for the iris info to you and Amanda. That's all super helpful.

What do you plan to make with your rhubarb?

AM: I need to get ready for the day and then bring in my flag, take down the umbrella, pull down the hanging pots and one deck rail planter. The rest will have to do ok on their own. I never did get the bean trellis up and I'm not going to worry on it in case there is a horrid mess to cleanup tomorrow. Just saying I better not loose power! I have about 200 lbs of meat yet in my freezer. Grrrr.

And maybe the storm will peter out. Who am I kidding?!

Happy day all, I'm off to go build our ark.

Ah yes I heard about using too many black walnut leaves in compost, but I use them and I haven't noticed anything. Maybe another reason to get my soil tested? Would that show up in a soil test by ext office?

I read up on DE, and while it deters slugs and snails it doesn't cut them up as suggested. With the volume of plants that I have iropn phosphate is likely a better option for me. I ordered some Sluggo to try. I checked the traps this morning. Found three slugs in the trap that's in the pepper bed that's getting eating up bad. I have three traps in that bed but only found slugs in the one trap. Other than that, I might have gotten one more slug in the 21 traps I set out. Get this though. Most of the traps are empty! Either squirrels or chipmunks. Likely squirrel because I see one keep chasing another one around. I think the alcohol got him in the mood. Even though two of the traps are in the strawberry beds which have a cover to them and I haven't seen evidence of squirrels bothering that bed.

Picked some snow peas this morning. Not producing as much as I hoped but I really didn't have anything other than hope to know what to expect. Not sure if it's due to getting really hot weather early or not. Lots of kale needs picked. Need to look for a recipe.

Sky was getting darker as we walked into clinic of which where we sit. Fab. Just as long as I can get both appointments in and then it can rain!

Thomas: I don't know if they can single out juglone in your soil test. It's worth giving them an ask. Do you have a lot surrounding you? I can't say I've ever seen a drunk squirrel. Hopefully your using the super cheap stuff.
No help on growing snow peas other than are you sure rabbits aren't munching them at night? And kale I also can't help you with. I'm not a trendy type of gal, I stick w chard as it's less bitter and not as chewy. Can you add it to a lasagna type dish? Or maybe sautéed in olive oil and garlic?

Oh yeah the snow pea plants are 100% fine. No rabbit damage. I just thought there'd be more actual pods. I have three tee-peas with a total of 48 pea plants and so far only gotten a couple cups of snow peas. Not a lot of flowers remaining. Not sure if more flowers will develop or not. First time successfully growing snow peas. Will plant again in the fall.

Hot and sunny here. Radar shows nothing. That storm that you are all getting, did it originate in the gulf by chance? Wasn't paying attention.

I did some math on actual first frost dates for the past 22 years, with data for two years unavailable. Average first frost date with temp less than 32 degrees is a full nine days after the published date which uses data from the 1950's through the early 2000s. Using the date where multiple nights of temperatures under 32 degrees resulted in a date 17 days after the published average frost. Using both dates resulted in a date 13 days after the published first frost date. Yeah I know what's it matter, but I'm planning late fall/winter cropping so I need a more precise date and some plastic to create row covers.