Posted on 12/08/2018 3:59:52 PM PST by greeneyes
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Yep. Dreams are good in the winter.
Thanks for the instructions. Sounds like a good thing to do.
You guys have had it much worse than we have this year.
It’s the biting cold wind that takes all the charm out of winter!
Yes, the wind always bites and makes things worse.
I think my banana in my Sonroom is about ready to put out the fruit spike. Should I fertilize it now, or not, when I water?
Got my garden “put to bed” for the Winter - all the old plants cleaned out, soil worked loose & smooth, fabric weed barrier topped by pine needles to keep unwanted stuff from growing ..... weeds DO grow in the winter - found that out the hard way! Last year was the first year I covered the beds & it saved me a huge amount of work in the spring.
At the moment, we are hunkered down as the snow started falling at 8 a.m. A relative to the west already has 4 inches (they are expecting 13-17”). We are on the dividing line between 4-8” & 8-12”. This is a major snow for December in our area. I think the temps are supposed to moderate after the 12th through the 24th so maybe (fingers crossed) we won’t be stuck with this stuff for too long. I am NOT a fan of snow - we don’t need it for ground moisture (ground has been soggy for weeks) & I am the one who has to dig us out (long driveway to the road). Looking forward to Spring already.
I got my Baker Creek catalog this week, too. It sure helps with the winter blues!
My rescue chicken started laying this week. My other girls had stopped laying completely around October, so I’m really glad to have home-grown eggs again!
I have kind of a poll question for everyone: If you had to grow corn in one of those hoop-style plastic-covered greenhouses, what’s the smallest you would go with?
(I’m hoping to put in some “isolation greenhouses”, so I can grow multiple varieties of corn without them crossing. I have pipe-benders and a source for plastic coverings, but the smaller ones are easier to build than the big ones.)
Here’s one to try for short season before or after main crops:
Little Giant Sweet Corn - used to be sold by Bountiful Gardens. 55 days to maturity. Short stalks. Link below may be the same:
https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p45/Little_Giant_Sweet_Corn.html
I personally like the Country Gentleman white corn. I also am thinking about the Stowells Evergreen which they used to pull up by the roots and hang upside down to have “fresh” corn well into the winter. Both are available @ Bakers Creek. However, I’m not sure about the height of these.
Ha Ha. We have a lot of spaces to shovel too, however, we’ve been lucky so far this winter. Precip has mainly been rain. The snow has either hit North or South of us so far.
Got some sun today, so was able to shut off the heaters in the greenhouse. If the electric bill is too much, may have to bring some of the plants indoors. Very cold outdoors-not going to do anything out there today.
I have a couple of beds that I didn’t get to, that will have to be weeded this spring, but most got either winter wheat/rye or garlic.
I have no experience with banana trees. However, in general, when the plant begins to put on buds/flower it is time to fertilize. Then again once the actual fruit is well on the way. Generally, I get the Fertilizer that mixes with water for this.
I also sometimes when growing in pots, sprinkle the slow release fertilizer beads around the pot. Hope this helps.
We’re up to about 14” with a few more hours of snow likely - might go over to sleet before all is said & done. My back is hurting already at the thought of shoveling & I haven’t set a foot outside yet. :-(
Everything is frozen here in Central Missouri. I’m still recuperating from that nasty RTI thing that started the day before Thanksgiving. I feel like I’m fully over the illness now. Just need to get my strength back. I tried to split some firewood yesterday and that lasted about ten minutes. Hopefully by next weekend I’ll have more gas for that kind of thing.
I’m starting to think about what I want to do in the kitchen garden this year. My old back has been telling me that bending over isn’t fun anymore, and that it’s time to build some raised beds, so I’ve been pondering lately how I might want to go about doing that.
I’ve been wanting to put up a greenhouse for a number of years, and now that the pond renovation is coming to an end I’m starting to consider what, exactly, I want to get out of it so I can do it right the first time.
I thought I noticed some garlic peeking out of the ground as I was leaving for work this morning, but I was running late and didn’t stop to look closer.
Maybe I should clarify. I meant what’s the smallest greenhouse you would want?
I have several varieties of corn I’m trying to preserve :)
That is a truly beautiful picture. Thanks for sharing it. Glad you finally got your pic poster figured out.
I am so glad we don’t have that here. So far we have lucked out with most snow going North or South of us.
My favorite spaces are the raised beds next to our patio retaining wall. I can stand on the patio and the wall is waist high as is the dirt.
That wall steps down several times, but at least I can sit on it and not have to bend over too much. In the regular garden spots, which I mostly leave to Hubby, but when I do something there, I turn a 5 gallon bucket over and sit on it.
I’d like to see all of the garden plots be at least 2 ft. tall. LOL
Well, then the answer will depend on the type of corn. How tall is it? What is the advice with respect to distance between plants and rows? And how many plants do you need to plant to keep the bio genetic reproduction going without degrading.
Deck corn for example, can be grown in as little as 24 sq. ft. about 4 ft. tall. However that only gives you 9-12 plants, and for me, I’d like to be able to stand up fully inside, so that would be a minimum of 5 ft. 3 inches tall.
My problem is my short term memory is not so good...
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