Gradual warming to decent weather on a week from Saturday. We sometimes get snow in April. The law requires studded tires be removed in April, but we often have snow after that date. Not really an issue for me anymore, since I no longer drive into St. Louis City on a daily basis.
In fact, during this recent bad weather, I have not even stepped a foot outside, but have watched the dog and kids take multiple falls and near falls.
Basil is ready for another harvesting. Lemon tree is ready for spring and fresh air. Tomato Principe B. seedlings are now ready to be repotted into 4 inch pots. So far, I have 20 plants of 4 varieties, and several more varieties to go. These early starts will eventually be grown in containers outside. All the seeds so far are heirlooms leftover from 2013, and all the seeds have sprouted quickly.
On the menu tonight, we are going to try out some of the rib steak from the side of beef we bought from our local farmer. The Hamburger has been great.
Hope everyone is doing well, and surviving the freeze safe and warm. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Just got back from the orthodontist and guess what I saw?!! 3 robins! Woohooo. Spring is around the corner!
First time I have seen your post.........look forward to many more :) I have wanted to be a gardener for years and ever year I try but not doing very well. Will try again :)
Some of the flowers in the bed were starting to come out and I was going to take a picture of them to post here... but with snow, that ain't happening.
/johnny
Pinging the list.
Nice and cozy in the grow room, however, are my sprouts, which are coming along quite nicely. I've got 9 eggplant plants, 10 ghost chile plants, around 30 tomato plants (several varieties) and of course, my tobacco (which I'll have far more than I have room for, so I'll be giving a bunch away)!
My birfday is next weekend, and I've taken a few days off to staycation @ the homestead. I plan on getting a mini-greenhouse built, along with several raised beds/boxes. Each box should hold 8 plants, and what doesn't go in the boxes will go in 5 gallon buckets. This year is going to be a HUGE experiment for me and container gardening. If the volumes I've read over the winter on container gardening are correct, and my thumb is green enough, I'm looking forward to harvest this year!
My hops are still in the fridge, hopefully going through the process of cold stratification. I'll probably take them out next weekend and get them planted. It's supposed to take upwards of another month before they begin germinating. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Craft beers are the "IN" thing here in Western Colorado lately. I hope to add some Colorado grown hops to the mix. We'll see!
Dick G here!
Any banboo enthusiasts here yet?
My potted/containerized boo is getting ready to shoot, I think...in fact one of them (Spectabilis in a 3-gal container has one lone shoot that appeared coupla days ago and is now close to 3’ tall!) and I expect that the others will be not far behind.
Best to all...
Dick.G: AMERICAN
aka: Gunny G
Semper FIDELIS!
*****
We had 10 inches of snow Wednesday, broke all the records for North Alabama. I have went through 60lbs of propane in the last two weeks trying to keep the greenhouse warm, I usually use about 20lbs a year. I did manage to get 250 heirlooms maters up despite the cool temps, heated seedling mats are a lifesaver! My friend is coming Monday to pick up his 7 flats of maters and peppers, so I will have some room to start 250 squash and zucchini plants.
If you like Zucchini you need to try the golden egg available at Burpee.com, I grew 60 plants last year and never brought one home from the market, had multiple repeat sales and never had a complaint it was always positive feedback.
Cliff
Flint City Farms
20 days 2 hours and 37 minutes to Spring.
223 annual flower seeds planted under grow lights.
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.
Wow! You are way ahead of me this year. I’m going to be late with everything this year other than potatoes it seems.
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.
Hi all!
I’ve been slacking it really bad regarding the garden. I’ve been attending my master gardening class and loving it. We’ve already covered basic botany, soil, and plant propagation. It’s a lot of material to wrap my brain around. It seems that the most important issue is the soil and the amount of nutrients it contains and also the quality of the soil and its ability to hold moisture and provide enough oxygen. That is my wisdom for today.
We’ve had a little winter weather here in the Piedmont of NC. Still snow on the ground but the streets are clear. I’ve not even planted any seeds yet. I really need to get on the stick!
Everyone in the snowy, freezing places stay warm and safe.
Even, we in central Texas, are getting some bad weather. The other day we got some beautiful snow, at least I thought it was beautiful, but it was gone by noon. We have been experiencing 30 some degrees. Right now it’s about 40 with wind and it’s damp. My India mustard is one the patio and doing well. My collards are doing fine. The cabbage and broccoli are doing ok, we covered them with straw. Maybe next week, I’ll be picking up some straw bales, I think 5 or 6 and see what happens. I want to try some carrots and potatoes in the straw. Right now I have some potatoes in the ground, and will cover the leaves with
straw. I still have some and they will go in the straw.
My mini fig tree is putting out some leaves and the flower seeds I planted around the pot are beginning to come up. I don’t know which ones, cause I had a “few” small (short) flowers and ground cover seeds so sprinkled them in the pot. We’ll see what shows.
I’m thinking of getting a mayer lemon, the clerk told me it will grow to about 7 feet tall, I’ll have it in a molasses pot or whatever happens to be empty.
That’s great, greeneyes! I’m not going to be able to start my seeds until sometime in March. I just have to accept that and hope for the best.
Winter is back; Summer in January is long over: -8L & 22H today.
Light snow fell nearly every day this week, but it was mostly so fine & dry that we still have a lot of bare ground.
Last of our seeds arrived: butterfly weed, milkweed, and fennel. We do have a little wild milkweed around, and a very few Monarchs each year.
Oh, yeah; as I said, -8 last night, after -2 the night before, so naturally that was when Mama Rabbit decided to kindle.
Haven’t dared try to pry into the nest to count noses yet.
We still have canned & frozen rabbit from last year, but one of my co-workers wants to buy some.
Unfortunately my work schedule is changing again, so I'm going to have to fight for my gardening time. The problem with having Saturdays and Sundays off is, so does everybody else in the family. It's amazing how fast the guilt-tripping can start.
My plan to move into a camper in the spring has been thwarted. The truck is unrepairable, and the van I'm borrowing isn't much better. I need to find a reliable truck for less than $4000, and there just aren't many like that to find.
Who knows, maybe I'll get a settlement from Folgers? I opened a can of their coffee and there was a big wooden splinter in it. Right now I have a complaint in, but I'm not too optimistic about that. If it had happened to anyone else, I'd be sure they were making it up.
Ok, that was kind of rambly.