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TomatoNut95
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Re: TomatoNut's 2020 Garden

All I picked today were two okra pods, not enough to do anything with. Wish okra kept longer in the fridge while other pods on plants grow.

Went uptown today trying to find some potting soil. Ended up buying a couple of chrysanthemums. I don't care much for mums but I got them anyway.

But I got home and was cooking some frozen broccoli and I noticed it smelled like poop so I guess I won't be eating it. Idiot cheap Walmart brand foods. That's a waste of food and money when food companies can't keep their food safe for people to eat. They must have watered the broccoli plants with sewer water or the workers squatted among the plants when nobody was looking. I don't put anything past people. I was I could grow my own broccoli but as much of that stuff that I can eat, I'd have to have an entire pasture full of plants to be able to get enough worth anything to keep through the winter. Just a few plants wouldn't be worth it.

However, I am trying to start some Romanseco broccoli which looks like lime green colored pointed heads. Very interesting variety, I had to try it.

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TomatoNut95
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Cloudy skies cleared up by noon and day was nice. As much as I needed to get out and do yardwork, I stayed indoors and cooked.

Harvested a nice handful of okra and added to the few that I already had in the refrigerator. Fried it all from lunch it was delicious!

This afternoon I made myself a cake, nothing fancy just a little yellow Dinette cake. I'll ice it tomorrow.

Then this evening, I worked on taco casserole for supper. House has smelled like food all day. :lol:
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TomatoNut95
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Do you know how difficult it is to try and get pictures of something that refuses to be still? :lol:

This evening I was out setting up my night camera and I had the privilege of seeing the adorable humming bird moths happily inspecting the butterfly bush. They were the cutest things, they'd make great little fans with that nice cool breeze they were emmiting. Sadly, the best picture I got was this blurry one.

Also heard a sweet screech owl off in the woods. I wish I could spend more time outside at night, but there were too many mosquitoes.
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TomatoNut95
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Haven't felt good the past couple of days with a touch of stomach bug. I've neglected my okra, pods that should've been picked a day or two ago are too big now I'll let them seed.

Had to post this adorable little toad, he won't be much help in the garden for awhile.
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TomatoNut95
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My internet connection has been a real slowpoke today, I don't know why. It's been a clear day today.

Harvested a nice batch of okra for frying for lunch! Some pods on the plants got way too big, I will let them seed.

Got on Baker Creek website today to check their stock. They're slowly restocking, but still out of a lot of stuff. I went to see what the Bunny Hop seed place had, and I know I told myself I didn't need to buy anymore tomato seeds, but I simply must have Applestars Shimofuri and Bulgarian Old Sort. However I noticed Bunny Hop was out of stock on some stuff that I would like, (of course, my luck) so I may wait until they restock those items before I order. I would love that dwarf okra!

Oh great, I think there's flying squirrels living up in my house. I am sitting out on my backsteps when I saw a little squirrel crawl up my cell phone booster pole and take off flying.

It's very interesting to be outside among the nocturnal critters, something just buzzed by me, sounded like a hummingbird moth.

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Mon Oct 05, 2020 8:21 pm
My internet connection has been a real slowpoke today, I don't know why. It's been a clear day today.
A fast connection will sometimes fill up with too many people then it becomes a slow connection. Turn off your router and wait 20 seconds before turning it on again. Your router will go in search of a fast connection it will usually take about 3 or 4 minutes to connect. Give it a try see if your connection is faster.

Slow connections will sometimes slowly speed up as people that know to reboot their router leave to find a faster connection.

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TomatoNut95
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My connection is usually better without my booster box being on. But yesterday my connection was rotten.
My booster box is on now, and it seems to be working. What do you expect for someone who lives out in the sticks...

But yeah, probably the normal people that are staying home are all playing on the internet, and kids on their online multi-player games.
I normally use use my tablet for internet browsing now, to do that I hook it to the Wi-Fi hotspot from my phone. Yesterday I was trying to log in to my account on Baker Creek and the website refused to acknowledge my password. They were claiming something was wrong with my URL, or that was account was temporarily disabled. Stupid, stupid internet. I'm so disappointed in Baker creek for having trashed their website, it didn't used to be that fancy. I miss their old, normal website.

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I'm in a very, very bad mood! My internet connection is running slower than a snail crawling uphill, my neck is bothering me from an incorrect sleeping position last night, my electricity went off while I was outside trimming and pruning and culling weeds and plants. I came indoors to get a cold drink and nothing was on. Generators on now. Also, the Whitefly infestation is too severe, I'm really at a loss. I'd need a vacuum cleaner the size of an 18 wheeler to suck them all up, there's just too many.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:45 am
I'm so disappointed in Baker creek for having trashed their website, it didn't used to be that fancy. I miss their old, normal website.
The website design community seems to be populated by people who think if something 'ain't broke' they'd better change that. Or maybe teenagers who neither know nor care about making pages useful and convenient for the end user, because they're having too much fun making them as complex & graphically dense as possible.

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TomatoNut95
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Vanisle_BC wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 3:47 pm
TomatoNut95 wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:45 am
I'm so disappointed in Baker creek for having trashed their website, it didn't used to be that fancy. I miss their old, normal website.
The website design community seems to be populated by people who think if something 'ain't broke' they'd better change that. Or maybe teenagers who neither know nor care about making pages useful and convenient for the end user, because they're having too much fun making them as complex & graphically dense as possible.
Exactly! That's a very good phrase for people who want to change everything 24/7: If it ain't broke, fix it anyway. Or, if it ain't old, update it anyway.

Baker Creek wouldn't recognize my password to my account, the stinking website. I may have to just create a brand new account. Or order the old fashioned way: by mail!!

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Hello Kay B and welcome to the forum! I would LOVE a good camera, but such good ones are extremely expensive. Plus, I will need to do a lot of research on which brands of cameras are the best for distant shots, night shots and action shots. So many electronics are hard to pick from due to inferior quality. I'm having the hardesrt time finding a CD player due to the reviews of the products being poor.

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TomatoNut95
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Kay B must have been a scammer, her post disappeared off my thread. What is it with all these scammers??

Before the rain, I did lots of culling and pruning in the garden. Pretty much all that's left is the okra.

Oh nuts, I guess I already deleted that picture of my big pile of mess I hauled off... :lol:

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T-nut, I believe advertising it against the forum rules. When I see a post that's doing that I often report it, and it gets deleted. I suppose the poster gets banned as well, to whatever extent that's possible.

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Kay B did mention my getting a camera but I guess she was just advertising one. People are weird.

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I've made a decision: it's time I stop fooling myself thinking I can grow cold crops from seed. I know Bonnie plants are horribly expensive, but it's easier than keep starting scrawny stuff from seed. It happens every time I try. Plants are always small and floppy. And it's already getting close to November, I need to just find transplants instead. They're already up and big.

This weekend I finally got to freeze a nice big batch of okra for the winter. Okra is still growing strong, despite some of the cold mornings. I hope these three seed pods I'm saving will ripen before frost.

Some insect has taken over my rosemary in bubble nests, can't remember the name of the pest, but no matter- the hose will eliminate them.

Saw a little grass snake in the backyard, he was so cute! I tried to pick him up but he didn't want to be picked up. :lol:
But speaking of cure little things, I found an adorable little toad.
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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:52 am
I've made a decision: it's time I stop fooling myself thinking I can grow cold crops from seed. I know Bonnie plants are horribly expensive, but it's easier than keep starting scrawny stuff from seed. It happens every time I try. Plants are always small and floppy. And it's already getting close to November, I need to just find transplants instead. They're already up and big.

This weekend I finally got to freeze a nice big batch of okra for the winter. Okra is still growing strong, despite some of the cold mornings. I hope these three seed pods I'm saving will ripen before frost.

Some insect has taken over my rosemary in bubble nests, can't remember the name of the pest, but no matter- the hose will eliminate them.

Saw a little grass snake in the backyard, he was so cute! I tried to pick him up but he didn't want to be picked up. :lol:
But speaking of cure little things, I found an adorable little toad.
I know exactly what you mean I have the same problem. Seeds I planted directly in the garden soil are doing better than seeds planted in a 1" square piece of soil in 4 pack plant trays. No wonder I threw all my small plant trays away last year I could not remember why until now. I have best luck planting 15 seeds in a 2 gallon pot then scoop plants out with a kitchen spoon to transplant to the garden. I fill 2 gallon pots with garden soil then cover seeds with sand or potting soil. I will throw all my plant trays away again this year but probably won't remember why 6 months from now. Not many seeds grew in my small 4 pack plants trays. First frost is 3 weeks away today I dump my small plant trays. Chickweed in tiny plant trays is doing great.
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My okra plants have been good to me: today I picked a rather large batch. Put I promised to give some to my aunt, but thats OK, I've got another big batch that will be ready in another day or so.

Last year's amaryllis is coming back. But new growth seems to be week and floppy. I looked closely at the soil, soil is moldy. I doubt bulb will bloom, so I don't know if I should just discard the whole thing, or maybe just freshen the soil.

Red Sails lettuce is ready to be harvested.

My aunt sent me pictures of the plants she was seeing at a nursery she was visiting. I asked her to pick me up some cold crop veggie packs to replace the puny mess I started from seed and some snapdragons. But I think I want to go to that nursery myself and get some more stuff. Think I want to have a snapdragon patch. Chrysanthemums just don't please me very much. I like ornamental cabbages and kale as well.
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Can someone tell me what I should do with this daffodil bulb? It's growing, and I know it's not time for it to do that! I have to pull it up because I need the big pot that it's in (once I get rid of the stupid, dumb ants that is)

But if I pull it out while it's growing will that kill it?
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Is this the right time to plant them in Texas? It would be for me here. Daffodils are pretty resilient and can naturalize in the ground if you could find s place for it (and maybe others).

My MIL/BIL always gets those potted gift flowering bulbs at Easter time, and what I do is just plant them after they finish blooming — scattered all over the garden. This would typically be in early summer, but sometimes in fall if they have survived dormant thru the summer since if they are left above ground they would freeze solid and die.

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I'm not too sure if it's the right time to plant spring bulbs now, it might be. I know for sure I don't want anymore bulbs, they always, always, ALWAYS rot. I'm surprised it is still alive. I also had three caladiums but one bulb rotted. I was digging the bulbs up this morning to make room for pansies but there was some kind of ants in the container. They weren't fire ants or sugar ants, I don't know what they were. They were probably the cause of the bulbs rotting.

That mess is finally here, the sky is dark grey and thundering softly.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:41 pm
I'm not too sure if it's the right time to plant spring bulbs now, it might be. I know for sure I don't want anymore bulbs, they always, always, ALWAYS rot. I'm surprised it is still alive. I also had three caladiums but one bulb rotted. I was digging the bulbs up this morning to make room for pansies but there was some kind of ants in the container. They weren't fire ants or sugar ants, I don't know what they were. They were probably the cause of the bulbs rotting.

That mess is finally here, the sky is dark grey and thundering softly.
My grandmother use to plant bulbs late fall before soil froze. Bulbs needs to grow all summer to make stronger bulbs when green leaves die they can be dug up an transplanted. I watched a YouTube video about bulbs. Bulbs need to be in the soil already when weather is right for them to grow in spring.

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Good drainage is essential for most bulbs.

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Yesterday I picked another good sized batch of okra and got it sliced and frozen. So far I've only got three bags of okra, probably because I've eaten most if it... But looks like I'll get some more.

Today's temperature was wonderful, so I got outside, dug up that daffodil bulb saving most of the roots and put it in a smaller pot. Then I added more and fresher dirt to the pot and planted the ornamental cabbage and white snapdragons in that pot.
Next, I had to relocate my wild onion bulbs which were coming up and put my mixed colored snapdragons in their place.

Also got my pansies planted in the little container after I finally got rid of those stupid mysterious ants. Also while I was fluffing up that dirt I found a bunch of dead leaf miner hopper thingys in the dirt. Don't know why.
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Fried a bunch of okra, probably the last batch of the year that I'll get. As cold as its turning, I think it's time to say goodbye to my okra plants.
I finally found some cold crops. I hate Bonnie because they're too expensive. But it's better than my puny home starts. However, I had trouble picking the plants out because they were kinda puny to. I fertilized my purchases later, they already seem to be more perked up. Stores don't care about their racks of plants, they hardly ever water them. Stupid lazy employees. If I worked in Walmart in the garden center, you'd never see me again. I'd be making sure the plants were watered, even pruned and healthy looking. I'd even help people pick out plants! I've had to ask an employee to water the plant I picked out because it was so dry, and I didn't want it to be thirsty while I finished my shopping.
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I am so stressed out thanks to AT&T! The local cell tower is on the fritz, and I have not been able to connect my tablet to my hotspot for three days now! I'm unable to get on the internet from my tablet, but I'm having a make do with my stupid phone. Thankfully I'm not the only one who complains about AT&T's low-down rotten service. With the added stress of the Covid, people don't need to lose their internet! I'm hoping they'll fix it, but knowing AT&T, and knowing how seriously bad this year has been, they won't get it fixed.

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Long time no post! But I've been busy, and stressed. AT&T is full of a bunch of lazy bums that are obviously not going to fix the tower. I miss getting on the forum from my tablet!! Wi-Fi has been out for over a week now.

Finally pulled up the okra, leaving two of the plants with the seed pods on them. An accident occurred and one of the seed pod plants got pulled up. So I don't know if the seeds got wasted or not. I can't tell if the pods are ready. They've been on the plants for almost two months but they're still green.

Harvested a bunch of turnip greens! I got tired of washing them there was so many. I need to plant some more.
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Another long time no post, but I doubt I'm being missed. :lol:
Found out why the AT&T Wi-Fi isn't working around here: stupidity. The technology warped world is pushing for 5G network garbage and AT&T is trying to update their mess. My neighbor has had trouble with her TV lately and my aunt is having trouble getting a cell phone signal from home. I've never seen anything dumber than people. There was nothing wrong with 4G. The world follows this motto, 'If it ain't broke, it's time to update it'.

I got the cabbage, Swiss Chard, lettuce and more turnip greens planted. Turnips are already germinating, bless their little seed leaves. I've been trying to Christmas shop this month but I have trouble finding certain things.

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Heh, I have to agree about AT&T!

When I first moved where I am now, AT&T had run DSL out to the house across the street (He paid big money to get them to run the line) so I called them about getting it too. They told me it wasn't available...

So every year or two, the marketing people would send out brochures wanting me to sign up for "Now available" DSL, but when I would call, "Nope, not available in your area."

I later found out that another neighbor called to get the service, and had the repair tech (who was working on that DSL line at the time) tell them that is was indeed available and could be hooked up right away. Again, it was "Nope, not available in your area." (I found out later that AT&T only wanted them to sell Uverse service, because it was more profitable for them.)

And their cell service never has covered our area... Sucky company!

Makes one appreciate the honesty of gardening...

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Happy Thanksgiving Eve everyone!

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Temperature only got to 35 last night. However, it frosted bad. Looks like a think layer of snow. Rain buckets froze over. Ground is slippery and crunchy. I think I lost my Swiss chard. Leaves look dark green and mooshy.
Most of my garden looks OK, but some of it I'm really worried about. I'm going to rinse the frost off some of the plants I couldn't cover.
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Found out why my phones hotspot isn't working. After being on hold and being exchanged from person to person, dumb man finally said Tracphone shut off the hotspot option on their phones. Why are people such inconsiderate dumbheads?? I've been using their hotspot and they DARE shut it off and I cannot connect my devices!! And EXCUUUUUSSEEE ME for not being able to afford a fancy smancy phone like everyone else!! There really isn't anything dumber than the human being. (Not all of them, but the majority) That's why I like plants. Plants don't talk ugly to you, don't tell you what to do, they don't require an internet connection and best of all, they don't come up with dumb stuff to make you mad. They only need your TLC in order to thrive.

Speaking of gardening, my stuff seems to be doing good and I hope I don't have another freeze anytime soon. Temperatures will be in the 30-40's at night and 50-60's during the day.



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