Shorty purchased a bald cypress, an Autumn Blaze Maple, a red twig dogwood and a forsythia at Lowe's today on his way back from work trip in Enid today! His idea not mine! Bless him. <3
He called me and checked it all out with the head gardener first! He said he's covering his bases! What a man! 
The tulips, daffs and Tommies have started coming up for about a week. The temps have been in the 60's and 70's for the past week and we only have one night in the forecast of 32* for the next ten days. It's still February though so don't get in too much of a rush! Patience, planning and persistence is the order of the season.
Shorty and I started bell peppers and jalapenos 2/19 and have them on heat mat under the grow lights. Either this weekend or next weekend we will start tomatoes. I haven't decided quite yet. I want massive amounts of peppers and tomatoes to freeze and can this year. We eat a lot of those.
I need to get all my houseplants out from under the grow lights and resituated through the house so I can have space for all my seed starting to grow in the next couple of weeks! A lot of the house plants will go outside under the barn porch for the summer when it is time.
I need to get the rest of my planting mapped out for the season because this is going to be hugely different gardening season than ever since I put my notice in at my job. If finances permit, I am going into retirement and food production and preservation will be my new job 
There is so so much to do! If Shorty can't get the new beds built I will have to plant in ground and battle the stickers and the bermuda all season. He's also building me a garden shed out in the garden as well. I need the beds first. This weekend is the big push to get started on building them and then we will have to go to the city for raised bed mix to put in them. $$$ 
We are doing the hügelkultur method in these raised beds since it worked well in the long bed in front of the barn porch we built last year. Plus it's so much more economical than filling an entire 21" high raised bed with soil. Plus water retention is good in hügelkultur. We need that since we have sand. It's like a beach out there. Plus, sand eats compost for breakfast and is hungry by noon. I don't want to feed that beast!
We are planning on getting chickens this year! So, we have to build the chicken run and coop as well. Oh my. Can we get it all done this year? I don't know. It seems like too much. When Shorty gets in the mood, though, he can do a lot and spring fever is hitting him as well as me. We will prioritize and do what we can.
We went out and did another walkabout in the back last night after work to look at all the beds and trees. Everything seems to be doing really well since we had a mild winter except for the couple of weeks when it was absolutely frigid outside. I don't think I lost anything except the Fluffy arb I planted late in the season. He didn't have time to get established. User error on my part. We had to water everything.
This evening we will walkabout in the front acreage and see what is coming up and what's is leafing out. 
The deer have been using our little trees for rubs and a deer took the top off the little blue spruce. I found the top of it laying on the berm amongst the tulips.
Dang deer. They need to be in my freezer.
I have seen a lot of rabbits, too. The coyotes have been pretty close to the house and Red shot a skunk that got into a tussle with Pee Wee on the front step of Sis and Red's porch yesterday morning. Broad daylight. Pee Wee is fine. No bite marks and no scratches that Sis and Red could find. I am glad he is current on his shots!
I am excited about this year! It's going to be so much fun and so much work and I am going to love it!
Quitting this stressful job makes me feel like I can live again. Yesterday evening when I was making dinner I told Shorty that I feel like I am coming home after a long time away. It seems like I haven't quite been home since April 12, 2018 when the wildfire wiped us out. I love the new house so much more than the one we lost but it just hasn't been homey yet. I am getting there!
I found this website for herbs and I don't want to lose it in the vast amount of websites out there and the bazillion emails I get every day from seed and plant companies. I really like this website for the pics and the info given on each particular plant. They also offer 6 pack gardens and 36 pack growers assortments.
https://mountainvalleygrowers....
I've never purchased from them before so I don't know their quality or anything. They are certified USDA and Organic.
Located in Squaw Valley, CA about 60 miles north of Porterville where Hubs is from.
I saw a post on this site about a bare root rose sale at MenagerieFlower.com and I went to look and of course I went down a rabbit hole since I apparently cannot resist roses.
I have been thinking about replacing the 2 Cancan climbing roses I have on either side of the front path arbor because I don't feel they are doing well there.
I planted them late in 2020 and they are only about 4 feet tall in 3 years. Shouldn't they grow significantly more than that in 3 years given they are climbers? It is a continual bloomer growing 10'h x 4'w and is winter hardy which it needs considering the arctic blasts and ice storms we get every single winter.
I am hoping to do bareroot since it is cheaper than potted roses but I don't have a problem paying for a potted rose to get the right plant for the right place.
Maybe a Zéphirine Drouhin rose would work well there. It does get up to 6 feet wide though. Not to mention at Heirloom Roses I'd have to pay $70 each for it. 
I thought maybe a New Dawn rose would be nice but I was told it is quite thorny and apparently it is more of a rambler than a climber and quite aggressive. It grows18-20 FEET high! Too big for our front arbor. It might ramble up the sycamore or on the barn if the climbing hydrangea doesn't make it. (I have low expectations of the climbing hydrangea.)
It was also suggested to me to look into Renae or Reve d'Or. I will have to look for those. I've never heard of them and I didn't find them on Menagerie website.
Maybe I should give Cancan another year and give it extra care and see if it will flourish but it is so, so thorny and I am not fond of the look of the older blooms?
No, I won't do that. I am not happy with that particular rose in that position. I will move it and put something stunning there and grow some clematis up through it or something.
Cancan roses on the arbor May 2023
(Planted in 2020)
It's been a minute since I have written anything let alone even visited this site but gardening season is coming ever so fast and I am needing to get busy planning my garden for 2024.
I did finally get all the bulbs planted a few days after Christmas and just in time before winter decided to visit. It has been cold and wet since Christmas.
We have been enduring an arctic blast for the past week or so with temps below zero and windchills down to -20. We have used all of our firewood so the house just isn't as warm and cozy with just the central heating.
We have had about 7 inches of snow total since January 1, 2024 which is mostly still on the ground, but it is finally warming up outside and should all melt off within the next week or so. Day temps back in the 40's! Whoop! Night temps in the teens so that will help kill off pests.
Spring is right around the corner and I need to prepare for seed starting and hubs needs to get his rear in gear and get my raised beds built. I'm not doing in ground planting in this sand anymore and the tubs I used last year didn't work well. We are either going to up our food growing garden space or not do it at all. I'm tired of working my tail off for failure. We are either all in or all out.
I gotta do something with grasshoppers and sandburs as well. Those two issues are our greatest challenge to growing anything aside from the poor soil.
I can't get my hands on NOLO Bait anymore and I don't know why. I guess it's been outlawed or something since I haven't been able to get it for a couple of years now.
Maybe if we till the soil a couple of times to expose grasshopper eggs to the cold this winter but that brings sandburs to the surface and makes the weeds worse. At least sandburs doesn't eat everything in sight like the locust hoard of grasshoppers does. It's worth a shot, I guess.
I don't want to spray any kind of pre-emergent herbicides or insecticides. I want to grow as naturally as I possibly can. What is the point of growing a garden if a person kills all the life already in the garden both beneficials and pests? I suppose the pests have their role in the ecosystem as well. They are just a pest to me.
And if I am growing plants for the pollinators I don't want to lure them in and feed them just to off them with -icides.
Welp, I need to plan some more...
