[Mattie Jo]

goodpasture, lol. i meant that they had allegators there too.

[CAGAL]

Originally Posted by jessaka

CAGal, One word of caution. Chiggers. I would rather have poison ivy or mosquito bites, and finger nail polish doesn't work on chiggers. be sure to spay your clothing when gardening.

Where do you live? I have yet to see all of your posts. Good luck on gardening. My garden didn't go well this year. What I learned is the sun is in one place in my yard in the winter and in spring I planted where it was sunny but in a few weeks it moved and everything was in the shade. I ended up with a few tomatoes that the squirrels all ate. Even the jalapenos disappeared. And then my herbs didn't like the shade even though they are growing some.

so mark your spots now and then maybe you will get it right. Hopefully you have an open area. I have 60 trees that shade most of my yard, and the trees are not all mine to cut down.

Sixty trees seems like a forest to me. There are maybe 20 oaks here and we brought three trees from CA -- two avocado (which will most likely freeze) and one that will stay green all year (I never could find out the name of the tree). I love the sound of the wind blowing through pine trees, so we planted one and hope to get four or five more. We live in Sand Springs, not far from Pogue Airport and Shell Creek Lake. The garden will be in an open area. There is a spot that I am almost sure was a garden at one time, with a wire fence around it -- the one place that has yet to be weeded. We plan to burn thin oak twigs and branches in that spot as soon as the weather and fire department permits. This way, I will not have to worry about any insects or snakes when I start digging.

What type of herbs did you plant? By chance, did you grow any cillantro? Do chili peppers grow very hot here? I love Mexican food, but cannot find any restuarants here that have fresh salsa, and cillantro. I was used to eating California Mexican food and it was a bit spicier than it is here. I'm wondering if most OK natives just like their Mexican food less spicy.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I had chigger bites, along with poison sumac. I found some poison ivy plants along our property line and decided to confirm it by looking at pictures online. In doing so, I ran across some pictures of poison sumac. I discovered the beautiful red stemed plant that I relocated in my flower garden was, yes, poison sumac! Both c-bites and p-sumac itched like crazy and bubble up and ooze. (It reminded me of chicken pox.) I resorted to daily soaking in Aveena oatmeal baths, used prescribed cortizone cream for just one week only then applied Neomycin ointment and kept both my legs and ankles wrapped with gauze for another week. I remember using benedryl a couple of times during severe itching periods also. I think this combination of treatments worked best for me.

Thank you for all your advice. I hope you will have a more "fruitful" garden next year.

[Mattie Jo]

Yes, you can plant chili peppers here. My husband and I both love Mexican food and so make our own since the Mexican restaurants here don't have great Mexican food. Of course having traveled all over Mexico I can honestly say that I didn't care for most of the food there except in the city of Oaxaca where the food was the best!!! Every now and then we found a great restaurant in our travels. Mexican food isn't really all that spicy, at least I didn't find it so in Mexico. And then again it depended upon the region. I think people here don't like really hot peppers. My Irish husband loves peppers hot and sometimes he adds too many for my own taste. He makes that meatloaf recipe I have post here under Ok Recipes and once it was too hot for me. I told him to keep the jalapenos down to 2 or 3. When you ask if peppers grow very hot here do you mean temperature of chilies?

If you have squirrels they will take off with your tomatoes and chilies. They may or may not eat them. They are rather hungry this year since the pecans and acorns didn't produce, so we got two squirrel feeders.

I love the sound of wind through the pines too, and it made me wish we had a few, but then I don't like that nothing grows under them very well. I also love how snow lays on their branches.

60 may have been too large of a number of trees in my area, but we do have a small forest in the back of our yard, which we will keep, and there are other trees that I don't wish to cut down except that I want more sun. We have a sassafras tree that I love due to its leaves, as well as some oak, maple, hackberry, pecan, mulberry, and maybe an elm. Small trees are growing up everywhere, and I have cut down most of the boxelder that were small enough to get rid of. So maybe including our neighbor's we have 40. I should get a head count. I could have said 100 when we first came here because we had 60 boxelder babies that all came out. They looked so much like poison ivy that I was afraid of them at first.

I read that poison sumac only grows in swamps, I think that is what I read. We had something growing here that reminded me of it but then I think it was something. I began cutting them all down out of fear. We have one tall one growing in what I call our jungles--two corrals that have not been touched yet. I am feeling rather sad about our yard because it looked so pretty and now it looks barren due to having sprayed the poison ivy and taking out vines. I am still fighting some poison ivy and have learned that it is cheaper and faster to just pull it out. The spray doesn't work so well as you have to keep it up. It killed everything else but the trees.

I haven't planted cilantro yet. I am so fighting over the need for more sun and the desire for trees. But I have a garden plot figured out for herbs right off the new back porch, but then I noticed that the neighbor's trees shade half of it. What I have growing in some sun/shade is artemesia, oregano, thyme, and I forgot. Most of what I have is not herbs but is wild like herbs, such as a butterfly bush that I have no where to plant due to not finding the right amount of sun. Most of my plants are planted along the fence where vines grow, and they don't get enough sun, but at least for now they are in the dirt.

You will lose the avocaco. I brought flowers in pots from CA and tried to protect them, but everything but my husband's bonzai died. I had beautiful rose bushes. I put them under the porch, but the snow got on them as did the frost. I didn't know about putting straw around pots in the winter and if in the ground add a lot of grass clippings.

I didn't know that my fruit trees and dogwood would get fungus or that locusts an/dor grasshoppers would eat the leaves off my apple trees that also have fungus.

I didn't know that we would get so much rain that my veggie garden would flood and die. Today we are going to take a look at it since I have since put my herbs there and will try to see how to get the rain to not sit in it.

The chigger bites itch like crazy. As soon as they are gone my wild blackberries are out of here to some extent. They don't produce in that shade anyway.

[flintysooner]

We definitely have Sumac in Oklahoma but I believe that none of it is poisonous. Poison Ivy on the other hand is plentiful.

[peggydavis]

I don't think the sumac here is poisonous. I have good luck with the broad leaf weed killer on the poison ivy. I mix it extra strong and spray it twice about two weeks apart. I don't want to touch the poison ivy.

I grow cilantro but it does not do well in the hot weather for me. I grow it in part shade. I never seem to have cilantro at the same time I have tomatoes. Next year I will plant cilantro in April then again in late May to see if that works. Usually I just buy fresh cilantro from the store.

The fire idea is a good one if you get the right day to burn. It will burn up the weed seeds, kill the chiggers, and also the ticks. The ashes are good fertilizer.

If you ask for salsa verde in the Mexican restaurants that is usually hotter. I made salsa with habaneros I grew this year and it was pretty warm!

Gardening in Oklahoma is a challenge because it is so hard to predict the weather. This year I planted all drought resistant flowers and they were so unhappy. The fungus got most all my peaches this year, and we have trouble this year with fungus on the lower branches of the pecans. Not to worry, we will probably be back to drought next year.

[LadyRobyn]

Originally Posted by CAGAL

Sixty trees seems like a forest to me. There are maybe 20 oaks here and we brought three trees from CA -- two avocado (which will most likely freeze) and one that will stay green all year (I never could find out the name of the tree). I love the sound of the wind blowing through pine trees, so we planted one and hope to get four or five more. We live in Sand Springs, not far from Pogue Airport and Shell Creek Lake. The garden will be in an open area. There is a spot that I am almost sure was a garden at one time, with a wire fence around it -- the one place that has yet to be weeded. We plan to burn thin oak twigs and branches in that spot as soon as the weather and fire department permits. This way, I will not have to worry about any insects or snakes when I start digging.

What type of herbs did you plant? By chance, did you grow any cillantro? Do chili peppers grow very hot here? I love Mexican food, but cannot find any restuarants here that have fresh salsa, and cillantro. I was used to eating California Mexican food and it was a bit spicier than it is here. I'm wondering if most OK natives just like their Mexican food less spicy.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I had chigger bites, along with poison sumac. I found some poison ivy plants along our property line and decided to confirm it by looking at pictures online. In doing so, I ran across some pictures of poison sumac. I discovered the beautiful red stemed plant that I relocated in my flower garden was, yes, poison sumac! Both c-bites and p-sumac itched like crazy and bubble up and ooze. (It reminded me of chicken pox.) I resorted to daily soaking in Aveena oatmeal baths, used prescribed cortizone cream for just one week only then applied Neomycin ointment and kept both my legs and ankles wrapped with gauze for another week. I remember using benedryl a couple of times during severe itching periods also. I think this combination of treatments worked best for me.

Thank you for all your advice. I hope you will have a more "fruitful" garden next year.

CAGAL, Mind that there is NO poison ivy/oak in the area (or brush) you are burning. The smoke can hurt you (or anyone downwind) much worse than just coming in contact with it! The oils rise with the smoke and coat any surface it comes in contact. (your skin, your lungs, your eyes)

My Dad has alot of Oak trees at his place and fights the poison ivy/oak? every year. He swears by a product called "IvyDry".

You're right about the 'milder' chilis out here... I noticed it the first time I made Salsa using the same amounts I had always used. (2 Anaheims, 1 Jalapeno) The hubby thought I had left them out altogether! Next time around, I doubled the amount of Jalapenos and it was closer to my original.

Wonder if it is the weather or the soil??

[LadyRobyn]

In honor of Halloween, and to celebrate my brand new camera I thought I would show you a couple of spooky pics!

*WARNING* If you are scared of spiders don't look!!

While helping the daughter get moved into her new place I ran across this guy hiding under a rug outside.

Well Hello there! (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h61/jimeezlady/spider1.jpg - broken link)

Healthy guy! (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h61/jimeezlady/spider2.jpg - broken link)

A face only his Mother could love!! (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h61/jimeezlady/spiderface.jpg - broken link)

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

In honor of Halloween, and to celebrate my brand new camera I thought I would show you a couple of spooky pics!

*WARNING* If you are scared of spiders don't look!!

While helping the daughter get moved into her new place I ran across this guy hiding under a rug outside.

Well Hello there! (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h61/jimeezlady/spider1.jpg - broken link)

Healthy guy! (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h61/jimeezlady/spider2.jpg - broken link)

A face only his Mother could love!! (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h61/jimeezlady/spiderface.jpg - broken link)

Ugh. Like a train wreck, I had to look. What kind of spiders are those? I see them outside here in Texas all the time..

[LadyRobyn]

I warned you...

I *think* it is a common Grass Spider, but I'm not that good at insect identification. I have them all over my place too, but that one was kind enough to 'pose' for a picture!

[peggydavis]

Loved the picture of the spider's face, LadyRobyn.