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I'm so grateful for my new Garden to occupy my thoughts and extra time today! Redish oil and waves of sticky tar balls are now washing up on the beaches less than 20 miles from here in Okaloosa Island Florida. It is tragic and unspeakable and so hard to watch! I'm thankful for my plants to tend to and my new garden forum friends to distract me from the tragedy unfolding here.

So in the spirit of distractions and on a brighter note: I picked my first jalapeno today!! I could almost hear it say cha-ching when i pulled it from the plant! I just saved myself a quarter by growing my own! YAY! Take that you gas guzzling chain store big rigs who used to deliver my jalapenos! Hopefully the first of many triumphant garden moments to come this summer!


Here's a picture of the beach where I live (pre-oil spill):
Precious Waters

Yeah Crystal and your first Jalapeno
This whole BP situation is so very sad
I'm happy for you though all the dismal reddish oil and waves of sticky tar balls you found sunshine and happiness in your garden, Keep looking for the good things Crystal,, & keep picking your veggies planted by your own hands,

Very pretty.

Such a sad situation, praying that a clean up can be done.

Yup, whenever you are feeling a little blue, just come here...and we'll put some green in your thumbs

Put jalapeno to good use and made Salsa with him! This also gave me a reason to go pick some of my cilantro WOO HOO! Best batch of salsa I've ever made (even tho it was small)! Could only be outdone if I had some garden fresh tomatos instead of store bought. But either way I'm hooked!

First-- deepest sympathies. We live in north central Mississippi, not on the coast, but I'm not convinced the impact won't last for a very long time, and affect nearly every aspect of our lives.

On a brighter note, I laughed out loud at that statement above. I've had gardens going way back but what really pushed me over the edge to have a HUGE garden was that summer that the peppers and whatnot from Mexico were making people sick. That came just after going to three different grocery stores and not being able to find fresh or frozen yellow squash. Never again! Never again was I going to let someone else decide what I was going to be able to eat. That's when John learned how to can and freeze stuff. When we want squash in January, we just go to the deep freeze. And I potted some of my peppers up at the end of the season, and they actually produce a few peppers even through the winter. So take that you gas guzzling chain store big rigs!!!

Go team green thumb!!! I have a very small garden in comparison but i love it as tho it were an entire farm! :ding: Anyway, every little bit helps. It helps my pocketbook, helps the environment, helps my dinner plate, and so on. I'm great with that! I'm excited to learn how to can too. That's on my list of things to learn this year. And I've already got something on my Christmas Wish List: A Deep Freezer! I am a bit worried that the heat is going to really hurt my garden tho. We'll see how it fares. The watermellons and peppers are doing well and havent minded the oven atmosphere. But most everything else has begun to look a little or a lot droopy and who could blame them? Is there ANYTHING I might can do to help ease the stress of this heat? Thinking maybe adding a drip irrigation system will help them some. I water daily due to the heat and quick evaporation. But even still, by the end of the day the soil is dry again. Do you think drip system might help even that out and maintain moisture despite the hotness?

There is nothing like a garden! You've got it bad, girl!!

Watering every day isn't a good thing because you might not be really soaking the soil down, just getting the top. This means the roots may not grow deep enough. Once a garden is up and running (not seedlings any more) a good thorough soak once a week is better than watering every day.

In my little humble opinion, mulch is the most important thing you can do to help retain moisture. My preference is straw or hay-- like the kind you used for halloween displays. Don't use pine straw if you can help it because over time it lowers the pH of the soil, but in a pinch, for one year, even pine straw would be better than nothing. Straw is good because it decomposes pretty quickly (adding organic matter which holds in moisture), holds water itself (to cut down on soil surface evaporation) and it's light colored-- it reflects the heat keeping the soil cooler. (This isn't good when you're starting seeds, but you're well past that.) You can keep adding straw through the season, too.

This fall, you can just till the straw into the soil, and that will help a lot next year.

In short, anything can you can mulch with is the first step. Compost if you have it is excellent mulch, too. Even newspaper will work. It will dry out, but it would help keep the soil moist.

I've used soaker hoses in the past but didn't care for them. And if you do use them, they go under the mulch!

Two things about the droopiness. What matters is what stuff looks like in the morning. Like you say, who could blame them in the heat of the day? If they're not perky in the morning, though... .

I don't know what the situation is there where you live, but if your squash look great today, and tomorrow they have just keeled over and watering doesn't help, you have a problem. Let's hope it doesn't get to that!

Yeah! It's raining. OOPS. I left the truck up at the shop. Dang.

Thanks Marcia! I will change my watering to a once a week soaking instead. This will be much easier for me, and if the plants like it too, then why not?! My plants are much perkier in the mornings when I go out to water them. It's when I get home in the afternoon evening that they look sulky. So maybe there's hope for them yet?

I'm still considering drip irrigation but will likely wait until next year to tackle that. And I like the hay idea better than the mulch because I'm afraid it would be a pain next year if I had to till with all that leftover mulch. So I may give that hay a try. Thanks for the suggestion!

And YES!!! I sooooo have it bad! LOL My husband would agree whole heartedly! But I've cautioned him not to laugh too much because I might not share my watermelons! :wink: He clams up quickly when I mention that! Wait till I show him my chart full of savings! That'll change his tune

It's all about the soil. Next year will be so much easier!