Answers To Your Questions…

And to your comments. Dang this ended up long. Who knew I was so windy? Dar… don’t you say a thing! So if you want to know what the heck I’m talking about you can flip back and forth between the comments on the last post and you’ll understand it all. Or you can just read my responses and make up your own questions or comments and live in my fantasy land for a bit…

PastorSharon - you bet we can, but I'll leave the buttermilk for you and my brother. I don't drink that stuff, and as usual, there is a story there,

Hallie, you are amazing. I'd be proud to be beside you if there was any way, but I was referring to Mary Ellen... ME... because I couldn't read it, I'd be bawling BIG time.

Aleta - if you'd asked me twenty years ago, I would have told you the same thing... I couldn't grow anything but weeds and grass, but I guess time, patience and the need for therapy of some sort turned me to the dirt... as best as I can remember I WAS NOT trying to dig a grave to bury a body…

M.E. if I could get you down here I would load you up with veggies AND let you play with my dogs...

And Dar, I haven't even ventured into lettuce land. I tried cabbage because in my mind it's tougher than lettuce. I really think I need to build a raised bed for salad stuff with all the jackrabbits around. One that I can net off.

Tina, the only other thing I know to do with okra is boiled, some do that and love it... I don't even go there. To slimy for me. Some say to boil it with tomatoes, but I say it would still not be one for me. If you decide to try it like that you might google for a recipe and I have been told that the best way to boil it is to use the young tender okra pods. You can pickle it, too, and those are pretty good munching, but I'm no cook so you'd have to look that up, too.

JoJo, I think you had problems with a lot of rain this spring didn't you? And a cool spring doesn't help in trying to get a garden going, even in raised beds or barrels. When I checked yesterday it was 64 F. and rainy in your neck of the woods. Whatever can you grow besides apples? Albeit, the best damn apples I ever ate…

We do, Caroline, have quite a bit of wind I guess. Folks back in the olden days used to tell me I needed horseshoes in my back pockets to keep from blowing away, but I'm learning to ask folks who know (gardeners, nursery folks, etc.) what to grow around here in our area. I figure if someone else had good luck growing it here in central Oklahoma, then I stand a modicum of a chance to keep it alive and maybe bearing fruits for my labor. And I try to plant twice as much as I should and hope and pray for at least half as much to harvest and if I have more than I need or want I have a large family and a few friends that will take the extra off my hands. I haven't gotten the nerve to try to sell it at the farmer's market because those people KNOW how to grow anything. and everything.

Stacy, you cool chick you, the one thing that I worry about around here is skunks… but only because of the dogs. I have this fear of them bounding out of the dog door in the middle of the night and then coming back in and jumping up on my bed to tell me that they chased off the skunk… and smelling like they were sprayed. If my prayers are answered, that will never happen. We do have gophers or moles or voles… I don’t know which because I only see the remains of the dirt piles where they’ve been digging, but I do find grubs whenever I dig in the garden or the flower beds and I throw them as far into the field as I can without getting off my butt or my knees, depending on the position I’m in at the moment. I’ll have to try the Bayer Feed and Protect if it helps with grubs.

Evansmom… I’m still trying to figure out the veggie garden stuff. For example, I came in a couple of days ago with the statement that next year I’m not only planting in rows to make it easier to weed, but I’m marking the outside edges of what I’ve planted so I don’t have to dig over hell and half of Georgia Oklahoma to find my dadgum onions and potatoes. I’ve been so used to randomly planting flowers for a more, oh, I don’t know, maybe a cottage garden effect and believe you me that is not very smart in a vegetable garden.

MargaretHall, I’m having fun showing you and anyone else that stops by ‘the garden’. Always in hopes of improving my knowledge base is one of the reasons I like to take the photos. Another reason is it helps me to remember my mistakes… like don’t random plant in the vegetable garden. And I’ll try to remember to do the corn photo update on Sunday… or maybe Monday.

Robynn, my dearest sweet Robynn… I know about all the weeds… way more than I want to know. Please feel free to keep your share there. It will give me something to do when I win the lottery and come to visit you and all the other blogging friends that I’ve met and come to love.

This has been really fun. I may have to do this more often… especially when I’m tired and a little brain fuzzy. All your comments and questions make blogging fun and hopefully keep my brain active.

Oh, and I'm going to try to start commenting to the comments in the comment section. I'll see how it goes...