I’m in southern Indiana. We had our first freeze overnight. The pond has some ice around the edges.
We have warm weather this week, mid-70s and Thanksgiving was a pleasant 77 so we were able to sit outside on the patio.
I am starting to plant my usual winter garden. A few things are still blooming:
Petunias:
Hollywood Hibiscus:
Rum Runner Hisbiscus:
Exhausted after Thanksgiving - too much play and a lot of turkey!
Well, we got several inches of snow Thanksgiving Day. The garden is buried for the moment. All that’s left for the garden is waiting for seed starting time.
I do have some garlic to finish chopping up and freezing.
And we need to make snow resistant tree cages to protect my saplings from hungry deer browsing them to death.
Been going down a rabbit hole of the perennial/native nuts and berries but maybe with slightly improved cultivars. Elderberry sales in the US is on the rise due to Big Pharma taking a major hit with the COVID virus and jab plus MAHA.
Found that U of Missouri is the head of a new project — https://elderberry.missouri.edu/
Annuals are great to eat but a lot of work to grow for selling when you’re are little. Long lived perennials seem like a good retirement income.
Bunch of other fruits and nuts that grow here natively but tend to not be grocery store available are gaining popularity as well.
A little 401k money came in which is good because my 301fu money was running out so it’s almost job hunting time again, mid December, again.
My veggies are done for the year, so I cleaned out their beds of dead stems. The perennials are a mixed lot, with half of them dormant and the other half still blooming, like gaillardia and some portulaca and yes, a few roses. But tonight’s temps are in the twenties for the first time, so I expect even the late holdouts will be gone tomorrow morning. I have my numerous houseplants to tide me over for the winter, but can’t wait to start up the garden again.
Can squirrels carry off plastic mouse snap traps? Those plastic traps keep disappearing entirely, bait and all. I don’t want mice to enter my house, so I’m trying to eliminate them from my outdoors yards.
December brought cold and snow to Central Missouri. That was enough of that for me. I hate snow. I’m ready for it to be April already.
We had a nice Thanksgiving. Both Nephews were able to join us. Got to meet younger Nephew’s new-ish BFF. They’ve been a thing for awhile but this was the first time she’s been to the house. Seems like a sweet young lady.
Older Nephew gave me a hand with property cleanup on Saturday. Old hoop house is gone. Hoses are picked up and put away. Tree watering bags are put away. Deer butchering mess is cleaned up. Tank heater is installed in chicken water. Fresh round bale out for the horses. Heater in the horse drinker is operational.
Plumber guy got tied up on another job and hasn’t made it out to install the new freeze-proof hydrant. I need one more cattle panel for the roof of the new hoop house but I had no desire to fight the Black Friday crowd in town over the weekend so that task remains to be done. Also still need to pull the deep aeration diffuser from the pond and reset it in shallow water next to the fishing dock. Should have done that before the weather turned cold.
Happy new year to everyone! It got up to 4 below zero this morning so I got the smoker going and put in a run of bacon. Still in the -20’s in the bottoms.
Not sure if he's serious and doing it for class credits or he's a Nigerian Prince.
Regardless, others chimed in and I had looked at farm planning systems and spreadsheets before and you know me and tech and being a DIY guy.
Yeah, I'm making my own website app.
I wouldn't have bothered but I'm planting fruit and nuts trees over the next few years, something I should have done 10 years time ago. Some of them will hopefully outlive me.
I'll need something better than my notekeeping PC program that's kinda rambling thoughts(who'da thunk it?) jotted down when I happen to have it in front of me.
I need self set rules to prevent ramblings; or at least help.
Here's a little example, the best so far. I left out the Notes part because this is testing content and there are no real notes and I'm not writing a paragraph about an imaginary tree.
Anyway, This is an Orchard Note that links to my First Chestnut Tree planting event(doesn't exist yet). Clicking on the Tree Planting Event brings me to it, but I still need to link back from Tree ID 1494 Planting to ALL Orchard Notes for any given tree.
I've done a lot more than this based on my wants, plus other people that make a living on Market Gardening. It's turning into quite something.
I can go to an existing Tatsoi Planting and take a pic of a bug, insect or plant condition with the phone, upload it and later see it bigger on the PC back at the house, click a button that puts the image url in the clipboard, paste it here and ask; "What is this?"
More. I now have more top level menu items and the native wordpress menu.
I'll make a long post here in the next day or two. Might be an update or two on next month's thread but I'll try to keep it brief. No promises:)