The garlic is doing well, only a few little spots of brown from the freezing temps. Winter lettuce growing slowly under the row covers.
We have received our seeds from Baker's Creek. I'll be ordering some potatoes a little later. I really like the Butte Russets, and the Yukon golds. We are in the planning stages for setting up the sunroom/greenhouse.
Received some of the long-term #10 cans of dehydrated food that we ordered. The shortage of veggies has already hit in Europe and prices are tripled. Seems like a good idea to restock the pantry now, just in case prices go up here too.
Have a great weekend. Prayers up for all, and for our country. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
Thanks for the heads-up, and thanks keeping this going during the cold winter months.
My asparagus and garlic are slumbering under 18-inches of snow, but just knowing they are there brings a smile to my face.
And the chickens are down to their usual winter slow-down, but still look healthy and producing yummy eggs.
I added some newly-bought potting soil to my indoor plants two weeks ago and it rejuvenated the soil, bringing up about a dozen stalks with little shamrocks of a shamrock plant I thought was dormant. Speaking of, I’m looking forward to buying about eight new shamrock plants when the garden center puts them out for St. Paddy’s Day.
Hi, All:
Again...
I live in zone 7, maybe 7a, 45 miles from the Pentagon. A nursery owner here says I can forget about growing roses. Says the humidity is just too much.
I never have rose success unless it’s with Knockouts.
Is he right? Is it just too much trouble, and is humidity the cause.
He’s owned the nursery for 39 years; I gotta believe he knows a thing or two.
Thanks
Greetings from southern New Hampshire, where he predicted 1-3” ended up 18”! I am dug out and ready for the next, for which, we already have a warning.
We are going to try out the Parks Bio Domes for starting seeds this year. I got two, which Barb confiscated, already. She is going to order one more.
Thank God for a tractor-mounted snow thrower! Coop cleaning and dump run tomorrow.
I have been busy in the strawberry field removing dead leaves, runners and oak leaves that have blown into the patch. It has taken two full days to clean up three rows, only five more to go. It’s hard to believe early next week I will start planting potatoes and cabbage, this winter has flown by. The second greenhouse is beginning to fill up now with tomatoes, cabbage, chives and bunching onions.
I got my email from Gurney’s that my order is ready to ship as soon as the calendar allows. Cherry trees, apple trees, and a peach tree as well as some berry bushes. Here’s hoping I don’t accidentally kill ‘em.
Found two cases of cheap Ball canning jars at a going-out-of-business sale, and am daydreaming about things to put in them. Other than that, I’m tending to my gardening jones by pulling up random handfuls of wild greens. Chickweed is gooooooood in a stir-fry. :)
I got my email from Gurney’s that my order is ready to ship as soon as the calendar allows. Cherry trees, apple trees, and a peach tree as well as some berry bushes. Here’s hoping I don’t accidentally kill ‘em.
Found two cases of cheap Ball canning jars at a going-out-of-business sale, and am daydreaming about things to put in them. Other than that, I’m tending to my gardening jones by pulling up random handfuls of wild greens. Chickweed is gooooooood in a stir-fry. :)
Shoveling snow.
More to come.
I wish I never left Florida. (sigh)
Rainfall for the season is 170% of normal and it’s to slippery to walk in the garden. All of our rivers are currently at flood stage but a few days of no rain are forecast. New Strawberry plants are still on the cold frame and are looking very healthy. Lady Bender has all the seed catalogs spread out on the dining room table
God Bless you. I’m happy to hear you’ve got a break from winter :)
I’ve got some of my seedlings sprouted nicely which is a major praise report. Last week I was thinking I’d lost them all. They got hot and very dry a couple of weeks ago when I was not able to get up and look after them. For me, that is one of the blessings of my garden, it’s more forgiving than critters in a crisis. I’ve wanted some chickens and a couple of milk goats but those babies would need me to get up and care for them when it’s sometimes not possible. Hence, I love my plants even more :)
Got 3 tomatoes held over from last year that are covered in blooms and I don’t know why but Ive had two pepper plants (one a banana pepper and one bell pepper) that did not seem to take their winter rest. They’ve blessed me with enough so I’ve only purchased 3 bell peppers thru this whole winter. That included enough for ingredients in 10 quarts and 5 pints of canned chili and 14 qts and 20 pints of spaghetti sauce.
I know I’m speaking to people smart enough to know this but with the shortage of veggies we have to stock up on meat as well. Crop shortage problems will make the meat more scarce as well. Always surprises me when folks give me a “deer in the headlights” look when I bring that up in conversation.
Beautiful day here today. Supposed to be in the 80’s later and we have rain in the forecast. My rain barrels are just half full after watering yesterday so I will appreciate some rain.
Bkmk
We loaded seven 13' oak logs Friday afternoon. Saturday morning my truck blew a brake line while I was getting ready to head to the sawmill. Lucky, lucky, lucky it happened in the driveway and not on the road. So we took the load that was hooked to Pops' truck, unloaded it, dropped the trailer and came back for the 2nd load. Back to the sawmill and went to work making boards.
The mill belongs to my old buddy Mikey. We've been friends since we were kids. Here he is making little ones out of a big one.
I brought one trailer home Saturday after we'd had all the fun we could stand and went back for the other trailer Sunday morning. Got home and went to work installing kickboards in the new mini barn. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. Should be darn near indestructible. Leah's horse was supposed to arrive yesterday, but bad weather in Colorado delayed that until this morning.
This is what I have left. The bay it's stacked in is 15'x15'. The widest boards are 15". Very heavy. I've got four 6"x6" posts in another stack, two logs at Mikey's, and another 10 or so that I need to load up and haul over there. I'll have plenty of lumber to rebuild all of the stalls in the big barn and some left to make furniture or something. I saved back one of the big outer slabs to build a couple park benches.
Now that I've got that project out of the way I can finally start to get ready for some gardening. The ground is plenty dry to work now, but it's really too early to plant anything. This week I'll till in the manure I applied last fall and have that out of the way. It won't need to be tilled again before planting. When the time comes I can just chunk some seeds in the ground and then watch em grow.
Mother Nature’s roller coaster ride with the temperatures continues. So one one of those nice spring days, I sowed lettuce and arugula seeds. Watered well and covered up all the garden pots. Pansies bloom profusely and daffies coming up with nice buds forming.