I did a little weeding and took the row cover off the winter lettuce to allow the sunshine and fresh air in.
I mentioned before that Europe was experiencing a food shortage due to cool weather and floods. Today I read that army worms are making their way across Africa and expected to show up in Asia and Europe in a few years.
I'm also reading long range weather forecasts that we can expect cooler weather in the future-possibly even a mini ice age - meaning that the planting season could be shorter by about 2 weeks in the spring and 2 weeks in the fall.
I have been reading also about some extra radiation on the West coast and fish with high radiation levels due to continued leaking from Fukishima. Just wondering if any one on the West Coast has any info on this?
We are planning on some sort of green house this spring. Wanting it to be a sunroom style to attach at the patio door. I really want to be able to grow enough fresh foods during the winter for salads etc.
OOPS accidentally hit the wrong button. Prayers up for all. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Anyone got a list of suggested stuff to start indoors, besides tomatoes?
“...meaning that the planting season could be shorter by about 2 weeks in the spring and 2 weeks in the fall.”
You can do a lot to extend your growing season with plastic sheeting and some hog panels. We all best git bizzy! ;)
I’ve just been buying seeds and Jiffy Pots for starts in another TWO MONTHS!
I am sprouting like crazy, and we are still eating Spaghetti and Butternut Squash from last season, and I started another flat of micro greens for cutting...I got 3 cuttings from the last batch, so that’s all good!
It was 63 degrees today here on The Tundra, so I spent most of the afternoon outside filling up the trailer with limbs, and branches from the dead Cottonwood tree that Beau cut down earlier this winter. I picked up anything that was big enough to give my mower ‘issues’ come Spring. Two trips to the burn pile so far - another in the morning.
It was LOVELY to be out in sunshine and warm weather, today in February! I really don’t care about the changes in weather patterns - in The Grand Scheme Of Things, I won’t be here long enough for it to matter, really. ;)
My Garden was 8' x 36' x 12" high. I have made one long 40 x 2 garden strip, another 18 x 4 and third that is 16 x 4. Using all the dirt from the area now a walkway raised my beds to fully 12" high! I can now walk without getting in the garden(s). The Garden will have a Sprinkler Zone dedicated and a variety of sprinkler/drip/mist/spay water plant types.
My wildflower garden is going to have a dedicated sprinkler zone as well, and I am now in the process of removing all Perennials for replanting in groupings - I am considering putting down weed block and then cutting out places for each plant grouping - Cone flowers in a 1/2 dozen groupings, others placed around as desirable - maybe I will put pine needles down so I can walk around in the garden for cuttings and maintenance.
I am also replacing our 16 x 3 herb bed with two 8' x 2' kits from Amazon which will be moved so we can walk around it completely instead it being against a side of the house - also a dedicated sprinkler zone.
I am about 10-days into putting together the planning - whew - but doable. My costs have gone from an expected $800 to nearly double by the time I rent the trencher:) I am totally pumped about getting full automation on my lawn, my shrubs, trees, and the garden boxes/flowers. Everything I will plant this year should be great. One flower I really wanted and bought seeds for is the Passion Flower (Tennessee State Flower). Cannot wait for the 811 Dig folks to get back to me by 22 Feb.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) first detected cesium-134 in seawater samples from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach located in Oregon.
However, should Americans be worried? WHOI notes that the detected radiation traces are very low and would not harm people.
"To put it in context, if you were to swim everyday for six hours a day in those waters for a year, that additional radiation from the addressed cesium from Japan ... is 1000 times smaller than one dental x-ray," said Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the WHOI, via USA Today. "In Japan, at its peak [cesium-134 levels] it was 10 million times higher than what we are seeing today on the West Coast."
Lookout for Godzilla!
Those average swings are very gradual, but even in a cooling cycle the SunSpots will alter a few days to a few weeks with unseasonable weather changes.
An idea for those Army worms would be Salt of the Earth, water and electic, and a cold period.
In 2006, my father told me he had the data and it was pubically availabled to show the temp swings... but he also said he was ashamed that he bought into the SCARE for first 70 years of his life and that he knew the government was using Global Warming/Cooling and now Climate Change to TAX.
I put down another bag of potting soil outside around the A/C unit in prep for spring planting. Will be seeding the spots on my lawn this week since it will rain on Tues and we’ll have at least ten days of 60 degree weather. Give the sprouts time to start growing.
Planting peas tomorrow. Glee! And I got my bareroot trees shipped in and planted per Tilted Irish Kilt’s instructions, so I am totally blaming him/her if they die.
We have a defunct swimming pool about fifty feet from the garden, and I am eyeballing it with thoughts of creating a sunken greenhouse for tropical plants in 2018.
We have been enjoying spring like weather Have transplanted pansies and sowed more lettuce and arugula seeds. Snapdragons and dianthus have started to bud, which look like they will be blooming soon. The daffies planted around the holiday time bloomed yesterday! Need to spray because wasps love to build hives right by my front door. Hope all is well.
My sweetie took me to a Mother Earth News preparedness fair this weekend. Had a ball :) Came home with some fresh seed native to our area, some composted bat poop and he got himself some reading material. Saw lots of presentations. Was informed while we were there that he’s decided he would be okay with me getting some bees! No bees yet, but that’s the best news I got of the weekend :) also came home with a Berkey and an infrared foot gadget. The foot gadget has already given me 1 night of neuropathy relief :)
Still, I want me bees soon! Been reading, studying and visiting whenever possible with local beekeepers. Now, I can go for it. They’re gonna love it here!
We spent a good bit of Saturday cleaning up winter mess in the yard. Finished pruning orchard trees. Added a couple loader buckets full of firewood to the pile. Turned the compost heap and made arrangements with currently unemployed nephew to start hauling in stall waste from the horse college.
Went to the farm and cut some 3"-5" diameter hedge poles to use for legs on the park benches that I'm building for Mrs. Augie. I put her to work with the belt sander smoothing the slab to get it ready for stain. She got it slicked up real nice and stained the top side yesterday.
The market garden got an application of lime on Friday, and I got that tilled in Saturday morning. I still need to clean up the tomato fence, but aside from that it's ready for planting time to arrive.
Nephew and his GF helped a ton in the kitchen garden. We pulled up the west fence and moved it to the other end of the potting shed. Tilled up the sod and buried it with compost about 6" thick. Fences are cleaned up. I used some of the oak lumber that we sawed last weekend to build a new box for the cold frame. The other one I built had some issues so I decided to just replace it. It will be nice to have it inside the garden fence so I can open it up without the chickens tearing up my green salad.
Greeneyes! I found another Gardener that wants to join us. Please add him to your Ping List. Thanks! :)
bfl