Posted on 02/27/2015 12:35:01 PM PST by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
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Well, I just heard from my daughter in North Dakota, and she said they have had a warmer than usual winter, but still plenty of white stuff. For the first time, she bought studded tires after she moved there in December.LOL
That’s some serious seed starts! What type of annuals do you grow?
Thanks for the picture. Love the fence.
Yes, Johnny, it is 27 degrees now and was lower a few hours ago. It won’t get above freezing. It is still snowing and has been since about 2 am this morning. We aren’t going out today. I think we have gotten more snow than you and it’s still coming down.
Tomorrow, Saturday, we will have freezing rain starting tonight some time and bridges and roads will be icy. We normally go to church on Sat., but won’t tomorrow.
HOWEVER, it will be in the 50s Sunday, so we will shop the art store (they are open from 1-5 on Sunday), and come to your house. We also have a 40% chance of rain for Sunday, but that won’t stop our going there.
By the end of next week we will be in the 70s. Maybe this cold/snow/ice we have now is the last one.
Stay warm! Not snowing down in the Hill Country but that’s only because the rain has circled around us. It’s freezing here and so doing a lot of hand dish washing to keep my hands from hurting from the cold. Of course, it’s supposed to be pushing 80 on Tuesday.
Am way behind in potting up seeds. Do have some potting soil in a bucket of water so maybe tomorrow. Just don’t have the motivation after a disastrous weed garden last year. Picked some rosemary yesterday. Only other green thing is the pot of oregano.
Ack, the kitties love asparagus. Had saved the bottom hard parts from some store bought from supper last night. I cooked those bits for lunch and put the chewed on waste (as if y’all wanted to hear that) on a napkin. Well, the kitties devoured it. Afraid they will have the garden asparagus eaten down in a couple months. They eat everything! Fruit, veggies, spicy chili. Doesn’t matter to them. Yeppers, I can see where this is headed this Spring.
Hubby stacked building material on the side garden and another small bed is out of commission so that’s cutting down the gardening area.
Part three of the seed starting article from Eric’s local newspaper:
http://www.thelaketoday.com/news/2015/feb/25/how-start-seeds-part-3-ongoing-care-and-maintenanc/
Everything outdoors is frozen hard as a rock, but I have many pots full of baby basil plants sitting in the sun room window.
I need a warm weekend so I can get the potting shed painted and move the cold frame out of my workshop. Sooner rather than later would be good.
18 degrees for a high today, but things look better for next week, high 20’s low 30’s. Still 100% snow cover about a foot deep. Going through seeds and ordering a few things. Hope your flowers make it Johnny. My best friend is here in Michigan but they also own a cattle ranch a couple of miles north of Dallas. They are driving there this next Friday and will be there about 10 days. They are hoping for some nice temps. Frankly I don’t know how they can stand it up here in the winter. Even though it is stinking cold the birds have started some singing in the mornings. A good sign. A few chipmunks have woken up and the fox squirrel’s babies are out of heir nest. We have gangs of them that clean up the base of the bird feeder. Yesterday a small red squirrel picked a fight with 3 of them, it was fun watching him kick their butts.
I like to grow some tomatoes each year in “new” dirt. I don’t have enough space in my raised beds to grow all the tomatoes I want and rotate them on a 3 year schedule.
At the end of the harvest. I dump the dirt from the buckets into the beds where I grew tomatoes, and amend it in the early spring for root crops.
True story: Some years back, a newly married couple purchased a home in Silver Spring (that’s MD). They were so excited! She painted all the rooms and told her new husband how she always wanted a garden of sorts. She had already marked in a catalog azaleas, roses, hydrangea, lilacs.. and such. However, the previous owners had used bamboo as a privacy fence. “No problem”, he said, “you’ll have all the plants you want as soon as I get rid of this bamboo”.
Step 1: he cut the bamboo down to ground level and tried to dig it out. He figured bamboo is like any other plant.. remove the root, you remove the plant. Right? He worked from Friday evening to late Sunday evening and announced he was done. By the following Friday, young bamboo shoots were springing up! Thick, healthy shoots!
Step 2: Time for chemical help! He went to Home Depot and bought gallons.. yes, gallons.. of every chemical that would kill darn near anything. The trench has already been dug so he poured, and poured and poured. His wife was concerned the ground would be poisonous so he purchased dirt so he could dig out the “old, poisonous” dirt and replace it with new dirt. Another weekend went by and by Friday.. the shoots. This time, they were bigger, thicker and grew faster as if he had fertilized them.
Step 3: At this point, poor Rodney was near “committable” to a psychiatric institute. Curse words followed by the word BAMBOO were frequent. He would stare out the kitchen window.. just looking at his nemesis and grinding his teeth. His wife actually got worried about him. To help, she said she really didn’t like roses.. or hydrangea... or lilacs. It didn’t help
On Saturday, Rodney lost it. He went to the gas station, and purchased gas. He poured the gas into the trench and lit it on fire. Yes, he did! A row of flames! His wife swore he smiled while the bamboo burned. It was done, he thought. It’s dead.. or so he thought. The following Friday, sprouting up from the black ashes of the trench was bamboo sprouts. Thicker, greener and healthier than ever before! That Friday night as he polished off a six pack, he decided “bamboo is functional. It is pretty. It’s a great privacy hedge”. It remains there today.
Don't worry about coming over here if the weather is questionable. I will live without the company. Not busting anything on the ice is the priority.
/johnny
We will have a decent day a week from Saturday, but I have a feeling that we’ll still have a few more freezing days after that, but the end of the deep freeze should be approaching.
Maybe hubby will just have to move the stacked building stuff or get busy and build something? LOL
As a kid I was climbing in the bamboo to get on top of the garage.
Did you know bamboo is a favorite place for yellow jackets to build their nest?
Lots of nest.
Have you ever tried to get out of bamboo with yellow jackets stinging the crap out of you?
I don’t care if I ever see another bamboo plant.
Thanks for posting this.
I think next week is supposed to have a nice Saturday, but not sure how long that lasts. LOL
I’m with you. I think I’d be spending my winter in Texas, if I was them. LOL
If you run into problems starting a garden or gust keeping it healthy just come back to this or future threads and let us know your problem. You will receive plenty of advice and help from any number of knowledgeable FReepers. I am more of a vegetable gardener especially tomatoes and a couple if other favorites vegies.
Wow! You are way ahead of me this year. I’m going to be late with everything this year other than potatoes it seems.
THRILLERS: black madras rice & pink spikes.
FILLERS ruffled petunias any color. wave petunias
SPILLERS:’snowtopia’ gigantic coleus
and of course a variety of herbs
I have a lot of large containers to fill to mix in with my perennials.
Vegetable get started next week
Central Ohio currently 10 weeks until last frost (May 10)
Otherwise everything is on hold until it warms back up (back to the 70s Sunday if the forecast is to be trusted) but in the meantime I have managed one nice harvest of asparagus.
Next week it's fertilize and especially the acid lovers which need a lot of extra care here.
Bad part is the neighbor has some trees on the other side of it. I gotta move out into the country someday with a little more land.
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