Posted on 02/09/2018 6:54:47 PM PST by greeneyes
he Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds.
From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
Hubby completed painting the green house concrete floor black. The shelf and supports are up for the curtain rod. I'll be shopping for a heavy duty rod to put up some plastic curtains to give a smaller space and added insulation for next winter.
We have our list for Baker's Creek Seed, and we will order those this weekend. I have been making lemonade using my homegrown lemons. So much tastier and juicy than regular lemons.
I am continuing my study regarding the Grand Solar Minimum. We have entered that cooling stage - will be called Eddy Minimum. Read several articles that are saying we will at least have a Dalton - type minimum.
For Gardeners, that means a reduced growing season, and those in the Northern States that usually grow grains or corn may not be able to - the map showed a shift to the south for the Corn Belt etc. We had already decided to grow more stuff with shorter maturity dates, and after reading this-glad we did.
Food in your pantry is a good investment/hedge against inflation, and unless Martial Law is declared it's not subject to manipulation like the Stock Market etc.
I had a couple of really nice graphs that I would like to copy and paste, but they wouldn't transfer. I did a right click/copy/then tried to paste and it wouldn't paste on this. So then I tried to paste to my spread sheet and it posted just fine.
If anyone knows how to post pictures and graphs from articles, please let me know. Have a great weekend. Prayers up for all. God Bless
Pinging the list.
Hello from the great green North!
The daffodils are 6-8” tall with flower pods sitting 3” out of the bulb, the irises 2” taller than the daffs, the day lilies are 5-7” tall.
All the fruit trees are starting to bud, I need to spring prune them and mow the lawn within the next week or two. A couple of mushrooms (not edible unfortunately) showed up in the front flowerbed.
I have to get on the roof with bleach again to slow down the moss, as it is going bananas. (Moss was the root cause of the water/roof/door/windows/more water problems I had last winter).
The indoor garden room is fully drywalled, and the first layer of mud is drying as we speak. Man, is that ever a workout! Second layer of mud goes on tomorrow, then it’s firewood fun for the rest of the afternoon, weather permitting.
Happy growing to all!
Seed starting starts tomorrow.
The forecast is for ice and a bit of snow here in mid-missouri. Good time to be inside the beach house/green house and set up the starting equipment.
Wish I could share pix fom previous years but I think wife and I are prepared.
Fun !
Nothing going on in Connecticut, cold with snow cover. Walked around the
gardens and wished them well. But soon they will be comfortable as the temperature is going to rise. Looking forward to a wonderful Spring, but it is only February.
We’re ahead of you a bit.
Time will tell if we’re too early to start seeds.
Snow and cold here. So, normal weather. Thinking I had better start a few tomatoes and some peppers right quick. Garlic went in when it should have, so that should be OK. Hope my poor peach tree will yield one last time this upcoming fall while I get a new one established. It LOOKS like it is hanging in there ...
Nice to hear from you. I am intrigued to know more about your garden room. Any chance we could see some pictures?
Over a foot of new snow yesterday & today; high of 5F.
Naturally, I couldn’t get out for work. The tractor is still in the shop, so called the local service company to send out a road grader. Got a call back a bit later, and was told that on the way here, the blade hit a rock, and broke the central pivot plate...no replacement parts before Monday.
I called off for tomorrow, too, then fired up the snowblower. I still have a 1/4 mile of steep driveway to finish, to get to the mile of private road out to the county road.
Needless to say, nothing new on the gardening front, other than the arrival of another catalogue.
Wouldn’t one of the previous years thread have some pictures? IIRC, your wife wrote some articles, and that year you also posted some pics.
I have no idea what you said here....
LOL!!
We are supposed to get cold tonight and for a few days, and then have a moderate 40s & 50s for over a week. Hard to believe it is almost time to start seeds again.
I have almost given up on Fruit Trees here. Planted in 2010, and still no fruit. We bought some more a year or so ago from a different company and plated in a different location, so keeping fingers crossed.
So far we have not had much snow accumulation this winter. We had some really good rain that started wet and turned into snain, then sleet. Followed by moderate temps so it melted pretty quick.
Western Pennsylvania had an ice storm, snow and freezing rain mix on Wednesday. It iced over the buds coming out on the dogwood tree. Friday the temps rose to mid-forties.
Full 8’ ceiling, 16’ X 9’ floor with proper floor drain to sewer, 2 ea 3’w X 4’t south facing windows, 3 banks of 2 X 4’ twin tube grow lights 32” apart situated 4’ from the East and West walls, 3’ X 4’ X 6’ 6 “ tall starting chamber, 4’ X 4’ isolation chamber. Single laundry sink. All with a powered venting system (room vents to starting chamber vents to isolation chamber, though that can be adjusted in any configuration desired including pressurizing the garden room).
I don’t have any photos yet, as it is not quite complete and I don’t have any shots of it, nor do I use any online photo site. Once I’m done I can send you some photos by email, if you send me your email addy via Freepmail.
Started growing flint/field corn for my own homemade cornmeal and hominy. It began a couple years ago when seed for Hopi Blue Corn became more widely available. The corn stays on the stalk as long as possible (fall weather here is rainy). Then the seeds are removed from the cobs and placed in a food dehydrator for one or two days. Hand powered grinders produce a medium-coarse cornmeal. Also making hominy using pickling lime (a.k.a. cal). The results are mostly used for posole stew and cornbread but will try making some polenta soon. Last year grew a dark red corn called ‘Bloody Butcher’ in hopes of making some nice red cornbread. But it turned out mostly having just a bunch of red flakes in it. My hopes for red colored hominy were also dashed as the pickling lime turns the beautiful red color black. Not sure what I’ll grow this year. White or yellow field/flint seed is available but I prefer the colorful kind even if the flavor isn’t rated as high. (Indian Corn would be the non-PC name.)
To post a picture, it has to have a URL, which means you’ll have to upload the image(s) to an image hosting site, and open it there. Copy the URL, and paste it into the following (minus the spaces at each end: < img src=”(paste URL” > Leave the space between img & src! Yes, it is “src”, not “scr”!
If you use Pinterest, you can put it there, then open it in a tab by itself, and copy that URL.
Caveat: if the image is removed from the hosting site, it will disappear from the post, also. Photobucket was always the host of choice, but now the only allow third party posting from premium accounts.
LOL. OK. I’ll post a wee bit more (we ain’t warming we are cooling) - from Wikipedia:
Solar minimum is the period of least solar activity in the 11 year solar cycle of the sun. During this time, sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes, and often does not occur for days at a time.
Grand solar minima occur when several solar cycles exhibit lesser than average activity for decades or centuries. Solar cycles still occur during these grand solar minimum periods but are at a lower intensity than usual. Grand solar minima have shown some correlation with global and regional climate changes.
While the Year Without a Summer, in 1816, occurred during the Dalton Minimum, the prime reason for that year’s cool temperatures was the highly explosive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which was one of the two largest eruptions in the past 2000 years. (Some scientists dispute this).
One must also consider that the rise in volcanism may have been triggered by lower levels of solar output as there is a weak but statistically significant link between decreased solar output and an increase in volcanism.[5]
Bottom line is that we are more likely than not to have some growing seasons that are reduced in length and temps might be a bit cooler than usual on average.
Since Volcanic activity and Earthquakes are more active during Grand Solar Minimums, and I live close to the New Madrid Fault area, I take an interest-the big one happened during the Dalton Minimum.
I am relieved to report, that so far, the quakes and slippage of the Pacific Plate seem to be letting off most of the steam in Oklahoma - there’s been a lot of drilling or fracking for oil there - path of least resistance.
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