Posted on 02/01/2008 6:27:10 AM PST by Gabz
Aren’t you glad that February is our shortest month? Whoever designed the calendar knew well what they were doing. February is dark and drear, cold and melancholy. A time for staying indoors and hiding like a bear, dreaming of warmer weather and sunshine, of flowers and green, growing things. The sooner it’s over, the better. Maybe this February won’t be so bad. Can you believe that some of the trees still had leaves well into January? On the other hand, did you notice how heavy the hollies and pyracantha were loaded with berries this year? Wonder if that portends cold yet to come or just acknowledges the fact that we had an extremely wet summer and the plants took advantage of it? Although, we had almost as much rain the two previous years and they didn’t show fruit like they’re doing this year. We’ll just have to wait and see. Put some bird seed out and feed our feathered friends! Their bright colors and amusing antics are as good as any circus.
Did you ever wonder why the same plant can have so many different names? Plants can be named for place of origin or color (Texas Bluebonnets), growth habit (giant, dwarf, creeping, weeping), fragrance (Banana shrub), and many carry local names as well (myrkle bushes). It can be very confusing! The same common name may apply to dozens of different plants, depending on where you live and what plants are grown in your area. That’s why, if you want the true name of a plant, most horticulturists use the Latin names. The Latin names tell you a great deal about the plant, although they are not always the descriptive names we tend to love. Lupinus texensis is the Latin name for Texas Bluebonnets. Lupinus means the plant is a member of the lupines, plants which have pea-like blooms. Texensis means it comes from Texas. The common name, Bluebonnet is said to come from the fact that they resemble a woman’s sunbonnet, blue of course! While descriptive names are much prettier, and more beloved, Latin names don’t change from one area to another. So Acer rubrum is always red maple, no matter where you live. Acer meaning maple, rubrum describing the color. Quercus is always oak, with all its many different varieties . Japonica tells you where the plant originated, in this case, Japan, or Chinensis, China. Latin names are used to classify plants and to identify them. Don’t worry if you’re not sure how to pronounce the Latin names, no one else is either!
Asparagus is one of the oldest vegetables known to man, and you either love it or hate it. It’s also one of the few perennial vegetables. (Can you think of another? Hint: it’s more of a northern crop, not liking our heat and humidity. It is used to make pies and jams, among other things.) The Romans recorded methods for growing asparagus and recipes for cooking it, and Caesar Augustus described “haste” as being quicker than you can cook asparagus. Asparagus likes rich soil with lots of compost. Pick a sunny spot you don’t plan to use for anything else, as asparagus beds can last 15 to 25 years, sometimes even longer. Dig a trench in well composted soil, anywhere from four to ten inches deep and allowing about 18 inches of space between plants. Asparagus is usually planted from one year old crowns, or root masses. Cover the plants at first with a just a couple inches of soil, gradually adding more throughout the summer, until the trench is filled. Sadly, you don’t get to harvest the first year. Some sources say harvest the second year is fine, some say wait until the third year. Like growing anything else, theories abound. Go with whatever works best for you. Asparagus plants are beautiful, lacy looking additions to any garden or flowerbed. (Think asparagus fern.) Plant some now and see what happens next year!
There are lots of things that need doing this month, if you can dredge up the energy and enough daylight. Fruit trees and shrubs need to be sprayed with dormant oil to kill any over wintering pests. Remember to fertilize your pecan trees this month using a 10-10-10 with added zinc, one to two pounds of fertilizer per inch of trunk diameter at breast height. That means, if your pecan tree trunk, measured about four feet off the ground, is ten inches thick, then you would use ten to twenty pounds of fertilizer. Spread it out to the dripline, which encompasses the area beneath the tree’s branches. If you haven’t pruned your roses yet, it’s not too late, especially since some of them still carried leaves last month. Prune bush type roses back to about 18 inches. Climbers don’t need to be pruned unless they are dead, diseased, or in your way. Martin scouts will be showing back up in late February or early March, depending on the weather, so get your Martin houses cleaned and put back up. If you haven’t done so already, send soil samples to the state college so you know how much fertilizer and what kind you need. After all the rain last year, the soil is really depleted. Sample boxes can be picked up at local garden centers or at the Ag Extension office. This service is free, except for the postage.
If you’re going to plant an early garden, now is the time. Things you want to get planted this month include; cabbage, broccoli, onions, peas, Vidalia’s, potatoes, snow peas, beets, carrots, rutabagas, and turnips.
If the dreary weather is getting you down, take heart! Soon Daffodils, Forsythia, and Hyacinths will be blooming, the first of the spring birds will be showing back up, and warmer, greener days will be close at hand.
Heh. :)
We have strawberries as perennials and rhubarb as perennial vegetables .......parsnips, yellow squash, okra and beef steak tomatoes are my pet crop. We always have onions, potato’s and watermelon as well. My favorite part about gardening is to make it easy for all too do from age 6 to 66. Raised beds, easy irrigation, easy to tiller and weed. Protected from pests with physical barriers and plantings that the little critters just do not like !
Over the years we have collected tools that let us grind and compost some really good planting beds. We can or freeze enough to get us through winter .
Good for you! Hope they do well!
Figs like full sun, away from large trees if possible. The trees will steal all the water and nutrients. They like compost/cow manure/etc and lime. The older folks here used to pile oyster shells around their figs.
Water. Water. Water. Figs like water! We water ours here at the greenhouse everyday, sometimes twice, during the summer. Even the one year old rooted cuttings will bear, and I can’t remember losing any once rooted. Ours are in 3 gal pots.
| Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday |
 52° F | 28° F
11° C | -2° C |
 63° F | 41° F
17° C | 5° C |
 63° F | 55° F
17° C | 13° C |
74° F | 57° F
23° C | 14° C |
 72° F | 47° F
22° C | 8° C |
There’s freezing rain from Buffalo clear across the state. They’re predicting up to 1/2 inch of ice for us. This is actually an ice storm warning, which we don’t get too often. The whole part of our state is shut down.
Unfortunately, without a lot of snow cover, the ground is frozen hard as a rock. Fortunately, the temps are supposed to be above freezing for a lot of the next two weeks.
If the ground is tillable by March we can at least get the peas in and MAYBE some early lettuce.
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WSYR Storm Team Forecast
11 AM: Sleet, Freezing Rain,27 degrees
2 PM: Freezing Rain, 30
5 PM: Freezing Rain, Rain, 34
My rule of thumb is “Don’t plant a $10 tree in a ten-cent hole”
Sounds like you have this down to a science!!!!!!
I have given up on berries of all types, I just can’t get them to work.
How big of a hole should I make to plant them? I will be planting them on a slight sloping incline in an area of my yard that has no other trees. The area used to have large pine trees which were cut down and the root balls removed then filled in with a sandy red clay and graded. This was about 15 years ago and has been just lawn since.
Ice storms freak me out. Stay safe.
Forecast here is for low to mid 50s for the next week.
When you say “raised beds” what do you mean?
I can handle about any amount of snow, and I have.
I hate ice.
If I suddenly stop posting, you can guess why.
Always dig a hole bigger around than what you need. With a 1gal pot, you shouldn’t have to dig too big of a hole. :)Mix any amendments (manure/soil) with the soil you took out of the hole to backfill with. If there were pines there, I would definitely add at least a bit of lime.
The hole needs to be about the same depth that the figs are in the pots. It’s not as critical with figs as with shrubs and trees.
Hold off the granular fertilizer—Miracle Gro is fine, add a Tblspn of epsom salts to 1 gal water, maybe some root stimulator. You don’t want to burn the feeder roots off, and a lot of times granular fert will do just that.
I like to make it fun , neat and easy and look good. We try to make sure we profit and save with gardening vs making it a task that we have to annually spend more than we save on food and fun. Aside from seals for the ball mason jars, a little oil & gas for the tiller and beer and ice tea for the gardeners. It’s productive at our house !
But the keypoint is there is always someone else coming up with something new or a better way and that will make these threads surfable for sure !!!
Thanks for starting such Gabz !!!
Stay safe !
SHHHHHHHHH - you’ll jinx yourself.
“70 degrees - BAH on you. It’s not cold here, mid 50s, but it’s raining.......SIGH.”
I want your rain and 50 degrees. It’s 20s and snow here this morning. I’m sure someone else will post and tell me they wish they had it as good as 20s and snow :)
The kids are having a blast outside playing though. I’m gonna call them in soon. They won’t want to come in, but they’ve gotta be getting cold. They’re bundled up really well, but still. I think I’ll make some hot chocolate.
We made raised cinder block beds that were same inside bed width as the troy bilt tiller for easy tilling and that elderly or ADA folks can wheel up next too and reach at least half way across the bed from either side. I have a ramp that I can move up to the ends of the beds and run the tiller up it if the old back goes out later in life or now as it just makes it easy in the spring and fall too till.
Less bending or rice paddy prone for those still walking , a place to sit while weeding or harvesting , easy access for anyone in a wheel chair.
“I can handle about any amount of snow, and I have.
I hate ice.
If I suddenly stop posting, you can guess why.”
Oh, I hope it doesn’t get too bad for you. Last year, we had a horrible ice storm, with long electricity outages and limbs and even whole trees falling down everywhere. We had a little ice storm this year, which while it made roads slippery, did relatively little damage.
Hope this storm is mild for you. I guess I should be happy with snow. Stay warm.
I still buy a few things from them and my wife gets a lot of her flower seeds. She is into starting seeds of annuals in our greenhouse for our yard and our Church gardens. She still does about 1000 plants down from the 2500 she started for years..
http://www.territorialseed.com/ The catalog is about 165 pages. My wife goes through about 10 seed catalogs before ordering.
Oh, that reminds me!
It's time for me to start my hot peppers and tomatoes. We put the trays on a card table by a window in the upstairs bathroom (which doesn't get used much). Because the peppers won't germinate unless the soil is 80 degrees or so, I put a little electric radiator under the card table, turned on low. That keeps the table surface warm to the touch, and our peppers just jump up out of the trays. It's plant 'em and look out!
Got a question, Gabz... I have found the just-add-water peat pellets to be really handy for starting hot peppers. You just plant the whole thing when they get big enough. Still, I've run into some survivability problems after transplanting. Sometimes I'll lose more than half the plants. I move the trays outside in the spring, leaving them in part shade and watering daily as needed for up to two weeks prior to planting. The garden is in full sun for most of the day. I water them in when I plant. Any idea how I can improve my survival rates?
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