Cleanup continues a bit on the patio. Still researching the green house. Got to withdraw some IRA money for purchase.
Hope all is well with anyone. Have only had few hours of sleep the last few days so am heading to take a snooze. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the list.
I talked with my friend about the ancient maise he has been growing for several years. He’s going to give me an ear for seed. I will try to post a picture of it when I get it. It looks like wheat on a cob, lol. He said it grows some 20 feet tall, I’m excited. Yes, I’m interested in getting a small greenhouse too probably 8x10 or so. My outside cats are getting to be a problem, always knocking over my pots or worse.
Biochar
Greetings from southern New Hampshire! We got clobbered with close to 20” of snow. It took me two days to dig out. Drive belt and shear bolt failures on tractor mounted snow thrower.
Barb’s seedlings are going great guns. I am planting leek seeds this evening.
Barb found my copy of “Crocket’s Victory Garden”! What a wonderful book!
I ran across a video making a self-watering seed starter out of a plastic drink bottle. It was on Facebook so getting a link proved problematic (just took me back to the entire page, not that particular post/video). I got to searching around for something similar & found this:
Self-Watering Seed Starter
http://www.homesteadnotes.com/make-self-watering-plant-containers/2/
The idea is the same except for one thing - in the video, a hole was drilled in the bottle cap. A piece of thick yarn was soaked in water, squeezed out & then threaded through the hole, enough to coil around 2-3 times in the bottom of the part that holds the plant. Soil was then put on top of the coiled yarn & that is where seed(s) was planted. The part of the yarn dangling through the hole going the other way went into the water to wick it up into the soil.
Before you spend a lot of money on a greenhouse have you considered using the plastic that is made for just for greenhouses? A simple framework and a few staples or simplex nails and your done? It allows you to dismantle it if you so choose and is portable? I have built small and big ones...very frugal way to create good growing conditions!
It’s been very cold here. I’m waiting for the temperature to get above 32 before I can go out again an use a metal shovel to clean off more of the ice and snow on the deck before it collapses. :)
@#$%&**&^%$#@ Weather!!! It’s raining again... YET! We are over 50” with ‘Normal” being 30. Lady Bender did get the strawberry patch (12’ X 15) spaded and I got 2/3 of them planted with 36 plants to go. We have not started a thing in the greenhouse due to this most unusual weather. The temps have been normal 45 nights and 58 by day so I was able to turn the water on for the garden which makes it nice for cleaning tools. I post a couple of photos later...
Daffies finished blooming. Have enough lettuce greens to pick a small salad helping. Pansies blooming, as are dianthus and snap dragons. I have converted the largest planter for vegetables only and can hardly wait to be able to plant tomatoes, cucumbers and egg plant!
Actually get to do some some tilling & chipping this ‘weekend’—I have Sundays and Mondays off. Way too early to think about planting though, other than stuff I opted to Fall plant instead.
I’m using chipped pine cones to help acidify a bit, as well as add organic matter. That’s in addition to the coffee grounds I’ve been using. Unfortunately, I lost my source for these, as the restaurant owner will be using them herself, for her garden. :-(
I have a sweet potato in water in the kitchen to get slips from, if that counts a “Spring planting”. LOL
Garlic is coming up gangbusters; onions not so much yet, except for the Egyptians. Not a strawberry leaf in sight yet, either.
Temps are all over the map: in the past week highs have ranged from mid 30s to 83 today, and everywhere in between, randomly; lows in low teens to mid 40s, as well. By Tuesday, it’s back to freezing overnight, and low to mid 40s for a high, with snow.
The lovely weather this weekend in Central Missouri has caused me to lose my mind.
I got seriously jump-the-gun stoopid yesterday and planted 100 row-feet of potatoes. I know that I shouldn’t be putting spuds out this early, but the moon is right for planting root crops and I didn’t want to wait until late April, so in the ground they went. I’ll either be hero or goat.
Nephew helped me set up some pea fence and seeded ~40’ row of sugar snap peas. We also did one 20’ bed of carrot seed with a few radishes mixed in.
Today we’re going to do another bed of carrots, a bed of beets, and a bed of rutabaga.
The kale I seeded in the cold frame last week has started to germinate.
The freeze we had Tuesday night made a wreck of my orchard trees. Every blossom that was open is dead dead dead. It got down to 15° here, which I would have expected to kill even the buds that hadn’t opened, but new flowers are emerging every day so maybe I’ll get a little bit lucky and still wind up with a peach or two.
I managed to protect 400 early tomatoes through two nights of 23 and 21 degrees this week in North Alabama. I had about 25 plants that received some minor freeze damage, I will take that in a heartbeat. We have great weather the next several days so I emptied the greenhouses and got everything outside to get some sun and harden off. It’s about to get crazy here with planting, I will post some pics next Friday.
I HURT!!!!!
Had to reseat & rim-seal a tire on the tiller; then tilled about 6-30’ swathes, when the other tire deflated and rolled off it’s rim. GRRRR!
Fixed that, and finished double- tilling a 20 X 30 plot, and a 4’X 30’ swathe between two sets of perennial plantings; and then made about 5 or six increasingly deep passes over a 6’ X 25” patch of transplanted wild red raspberries that never produced an edible fruit the 6 or 7 years they’ve been there.
After that, I rolled out about 130’ of the 330’ roll of 4’ heavy (and is it ever heavy!) field fencing on the outside of the lower side of the garden fence. Got over half of it installed, to repair the damage the elk, and then the deer, did last Fall & Winter. Harder than it sounds, as I ‘m elevating it about a foot and a half off the ground, along the top of the rabbit mesh.
Not all that many years ago, this wouldn’t have bothered me at all.
Some more ibuprofen, and back to bed.
Finished the bach side of the garden fence today, as well as did more tilling. Also got the carrot, turnip, and Chinese cabbage seeds planted. Naturally, I’ll plant more of them later.
The far end of the fence doesn’t need any work, and the front side is in much better shape than the rear was,; but the near end, with the gate, needs the full length of it fixed, so maybe half done.
Light rain tonight, and tomorrow, so should work out well.
Seedlings starting to sprout, all except bell peppers and leeks. Started wife’s spices - parsley, fennel, basil and thyme. Will transplant mint in about two weeks.
I’ve been using opaque BJ’s orange juice gallon jugs to fill from my rain barrel for plants and seedlings. After about two years use, I’ve got serious mold inside some of them. I had threw the worst 8 away. Trouble is BJ’s stopped using them and went to a clear bottle. Throw away, clean with baking soda or leave alone?