Posted on 01/18/2020 7:47:34 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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Hi Everybody!
(((Warm Hugs on a Cold Day!)))
My Holly bushes in front are doing well and loaded with reddish berries. A nice sight in the winter.- Tom
We’re on the back side of a major winter precipitation event here in Central Missouri.
We had freezing rain for ~14 hours yesterday. Fortunately, there was warm air behind the front so all of the ice that accumulated during the day was melted away last night. Had the trailing air been cold things would have turned ugly.
I’m not sure how much it rained, but it was a lot. My pond is running a nice stream of water out the spillway this morning.
1.3 inches reported north of the lake of the Ozarks.
Getting ready for more rain this evening and more cold temps...
Things I’m doing now here on the South Alabama farm:
1. Getting ready to plant 6 very low chill apple trees, six peach trees, and five blueberry bushes. Got the holes augered out and awaiting cooler weather. All the trees and bushes were bought on sale last summer, so have spent their first nine months in pots.
2. Plowed up the upper garden to plant Irish potatoes. I had a real great crop last year and I have many soft sprouters left over.
3. Added a ton of leaves, pine straw, wood chips and mowed grass on top of the lower garden beds. I need to rototill it all in, once the soil dries out a little. The existing soil is mud when it rains and dries like a brick. It needs lots of extra tilth!
4. Planted inside cabbages, broccoli, and kale last month. These are ready to go out in a few more weeks. Collards planted last Fall eaten by deer, but a couple of them are sprouting back. I just covered these with chicken wire this morning to keep the deer out!
I rarely report here weekly, but just wanted to give a seasonal update for the record.
When I helped my In-Laws with their Farm Market and growing for local restaurants, Big John always grew ‘Celebrity.’
They are a great tomato. Don’t crack, look nice, good slicer, tasty and travel well. :)
We also had ‘Heritage’ Raspberries which were HUGE sellers, but a PITA to pick. Ever pick Raspberries for 8 hours a day, Sunday through Friday night? Aarrgghh!
Very LUCRATIVE, though - selling $3K worth on a Saturday was the norm...and still better than picking strawberries for a living! ;)
Do I miss those days? Nope! :)
Thanks for the update! Sounds like my garden chores come May.
We Yankees are JEALOUS of your long growing season. ;)
You might check out Baker Creek seed for some of your tomato seeds. That’s where I get mine. Hundreds of different heirloom varieties.
SE Wisconsin (Zone 4/5) got about 5” total of snow over night. It’s nice and fluffy, so easy to shovel - which I’m about to go out and do, after a hearty brunch of Waffles. :)
I’m up to 18 seed catalogs, so it’s time to start plowing in!
Also - remember to lock in your Seed Potato orders in the near future. Jung’s and Seed Savers have been pestering me - the sooner the better. I think ‘Carola’ this season, one raised bed full, Please!
With the fresh snow, Beau is taking our young (and still GOOFY!) Plot Hound, Oneida, out to chase around some Coyotes. He took raccoon pelts to the fur market yesterday and 20 hides, some quite large, netted him $150.00. He was able to hunt longer into the fall with the rather mild weather that we had, and our two youngest male Walker Dogs (Fox & Ho-Chunk) got in a lot of training that normally they wouldn’t have. Raccoon hunting ends come February; that’s when they’re having their babies - which makes no sense to me, but trust me - we will NEVER run out of raccoon...or rabbits!
I’m sure there’s plenty of other trouble I can get myself into while I’m snowed in for a few days, so stay tuned. ;)
I bought a blue berry picker at auction (looks like a scoop with fork tines at the end) will it work for elderberries?
We like Baker Creek for some seeds. Celebrity is a highbred tomato so not available at Baker.
Elderberries are pretty small, unless you’re ordering those shrubs with the bigger berries, then maybe?
When I’ve harvested the wild ones, I just cut the whole bunch of berries off, then steamed them, stems and all, to get the juice.
I’m pulling my currant bushes and Beau is going to plant them down in the pasture for the birds - they are SUCH a PITA to pick.
These days, unless it’s the size of a fat raspberry or a strawberry, forget it; I’m not picking you, LOL!
Hi, Diana. Snow outside today. Longing for spring.
In winter, I do jigsaw puzzles of old English country gardens. For inspiration.
And I watch Britbox, mostly Monty Don reruns, to pique my appetite for when spring finally arrives. I tend to a couple of house plants, which are doing poorly, due to overwatering.
I want to have lots of dahlias this year.
You are ambitious! Come to my house!
Because I get so many tomatoes from friends and neighbors I stopped planting them a few years ago.
One time, I decided to grow one of he biggest tomatoes, so I went and bought the tomato bush, carefully planted it, and took good care of it.
When it bloomed, it was all cherry tomatoes, as someone had put that bush in with the giant tomato bushes, and changed the label.
My son was happy, since he uses home grown cherry tomatoes for salads. -Tom
Come on down here in late July when I just give out from the heat and humidity.
Anything that needs care from that point on is on it's own. I set up sprinklers, drip lines, and hoses before, and my efforts after are to turn on/off the faucets as needed depending on the weather. We get a lot of hit and miss thunderstorms and when they hit it's a deluge. Often these wet clouds seem go around my acreage—I don't know why but it drives me nuts.
It's during those times, and I read your gardening thread, that I wish I was in Wisconsin!
Sand Hill has great tomato selection too. I think some are on special right now too.
http://sandhillpreservation.com
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