Hope everyone in freezing zones are surviving your storms ok. I have had no time for gardening and other enjoyable activities these past couple of weeks. I have watered the indoor garden, and that's about it.
I am hoping to wind up the indoor cleaning chores and take some time to devote to garden planning and organizing during the first couple of weeks, and I plan to catch up one reading the rest of last week's thread.
February is the time that I will sow some Red Clover in all the beds that have winter rye as well as any that simply have leaf mulch, if the weather warms up to around 50 degrees. The clover and rye will be turned under later in the spring as soil improvement/nutrition.
I'll also update my seed list and plan any new purchases that may be needed, as well as the planting scheme for spring.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
I also worked on the bed for the lemon grass. It's got 12" of compost and 10 lbs of charcoal worked into it now.
I broke down and actually watered the onions and potatoes in the big garden with city water. I'm completely out of rain water. I hope it doesn't kill my microbes in my soil.
I also started from seed my romas, 108 tobacco, jalapenos, NM chili peppers, and the baby bell peppers that my daughter wanted.
Some of the spinach is up. Everything in the cold frame is doing well except for the broccoli that is just too darn tall for the lid.
/johnny
Not doing any sort of planting yet, greeneyes. However, I have all my seed/roses/flower bulb magazines. I go through them at night... sitting in front of the fireplace. A winter’s night.. longing for Spring!
We have been eating fresh broccoli the past few days. Can’t keep the stuff more than a day and wife will eat it with just a bit of salad dressing. Turnips are doing great.
The Deer around here are a cute but greedy menace! I’ve tried lion urine spray to no avail! All my tomatoes and string beans gone!
From Southern California—
We’ve had VERY strange weather here the past two months or so— 80 degree days (instead of the usual Dec. - Jan. 68) — that plus winds. AND, no rain.
What happens is the fruit trees bloom at the wrong time of year thinking it’s Spring and then when it does rain, get cold or the winds stir up, all the blossoms drop and there goes your summer fruit crop.
We are also about to go on even MORE water restrictions here even though people are still pouring into the state and large condo building go up everywhere continuously.
A lot of people in my area are ripping up their lawns and replacing them with cactus, gravel and native plants, which is what folks do in dry, hot cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas. The city of Los Angeles has been offering cash to people who take out their lawns and median strips.
Today, it is cooler and cloudy but by now my plants don’t know whether to hibernate, bloom or flower. Strange indeed. We are a tinderbox waiting to explode with wildfires — then the ashes settle on my car and garden.
I’ve held off planting anything this winter until the weather settles down — or doesn’t.
Got some Roma tomato seedlings sprouted. The Serrano pepper seeds are not popping up real well— maybe they like it warmer than on my east window sill. Have to rake up the oak leaves out back (again) then mulch them with the mower. My cilantro is doing ok under the glass outside. Going to try some swiss chard again—haven’t planted any since many, many moons ago. I’m in /johnny’s area here in DFW and we can really use some rains again like he mentioned.
Thanks for the Ringy Dingy Pingy. Weather has been great here in NW California but I am just getting over my cold and not doing anything except feed the birds. I spent 3 hours in my garden chair soaking up the sunshine today plus a little cleanup here and there. My garlic has recovered from the bear walking on it and the last plants are up. It looks like I have about a 95% success rate and they are healthy. I will fertilize them just before the next rain… if there is a next rain. The common vetch is taking off and averages about 6 or 7 inches tall and is suppressing weed growth. I will pickup a gross of barefoot Sea Scape strawberries early next week at a nearby mom & pop nursery.
The beds are being renewed with fresh manure so they will be ready by the end-of-March planting season.
The garden was watered down, and the orchard received a good drenching too. The stone fruit trees are coming along, and some are even putting out new leaves already. Too bad that it's too soon in the year. We usually get a surprise freeze in March.
We planted two new Brown Turkey Fig trees, and tomato seedlings are sprouting in the house. So far, jalapeno's are the only peppers that are spouting.
Nasty ice all over things here in Central Missouri. I bought lespedeza and clover seed for the pastures. Need to get the seeder mounted on a tractor and spread that stuff while there’s some snow cover. Later this week looks pretty good for that.