We are just getting over an arctic blast and by Monday the temperatures are supposed to go into the 40’s and STAY THERE!!!!
Whoo Hoo!!!!!!!!
OK, we’re moving to a new house in the country that is loaded with deer. The house comes with a garden that is fenced in but I understand that it is no guarantee to keep deer out.
I know deer like some veggies more than others, like beans. But what is there that they would NOT be so interested in.
Does anyone have any suggestions to help make it less attractive to the deer? I understand they to not like fragrant plants and I do plan on having an herb garden. I also an planting onions and garlic.
Do deer eat the corn plants or just the corn when it’s ripe?
What about tomato plants?
Very unusual weather for Benderville...
http://kymkemp.com/2020/02/28/driest-february-on-record-for-much-of-california/
Leap Day - yay! I was up & at ‘em early this morning, trying to beat the Saturday shoppers & score on some $2.99/lb chuck roast. There were 3 left in the case when I left. On the way across the parking lot back to the car, there was a brief “graupel” shower. I’ve seen it once before so I knew what it was ... looks like little snow pellets:
https://snowslang.com/graupel-definition-precipitation/
It’s going to be a chilly day (40’s), but at least the wind isn’t gusting/howling like it has been the last two days (the birds were hanging on to the swinging bird feeders for dear life). We got more rain so things are soggy and I’m not going to do anything in the garden until maybe tomorrow or Monday (after which ... more rain!).
Took a ride in the country Thursday & the winter wheat in the fields is lush green, some crab apple trees are blooming & I saw one forsythia bush also in bloom. We have camellias, crocuses & daffodils blooming at our place - it’s been a very mild winter. Seeing all the “green” reminded me I needed to get my mower serviced - that is now scheduled for March 11 so I’ll be ready to roll as soon as something other than the wild onions start growing in our fields.
My SIL’s chickens have started laying again, which means two dozen eggs came my way this past week & one of my nieces just got baby chicks (of course, they’ll be inside a while). The farm where I buy my grass fed beef had their first calf arrive this past week so the spring babies are on the way.
Tomorrow is March 1 .... the beginning of the end of my winter depression. Once we hit that date, I know if we get snow, it won’t last long!
We have had a very easy winter along the coast south of Boston and I' m looking forward to the signs of Spring. - Tom
Only 19 days till SPRING!
HUZZAH!
I thought that I’d pass this tid-bit along.
A couple months ago in my quest for eating healthy, I bought a Micro-Green germinating tray and a pound of seeds. The tray has a bottom that holds water and then a perforated tray that fits over the bottom and then a clear cover to hold the moisture in.
Well, germinating the Micro-Greens worked great but pulling them out and trimming them for a salad was way too much work. But, I thought that if the tray can germinate Micro-Greens, it should be just fine for flower seeds.
Yup, started with a variety of Sunflowers, Zinnias and Marigolds. All germinated in a few days to a week. I had put a layer of kitchen paper towel down on the bottom of the perforated tray to keep the tiny seeds from falling through to the bottom, but found that some types of seeds, pretty much as soon as they germinate, try to dig their root down into the soft paper towel which makes them difficult to transplant to dirt-cups for the next stage of their life.
So I started using normal white copy paper. The roots just grow/expand along the surface so that you can pick up the new plant with plastic tweezers for transplanting. The advantage of germinating the seeds in the tray is that you can see the germinating growth rate, monitor the moisture level and get a much better percentage of germinated seeds compared to just putting them in dirt. I transplant them to small plastic “Solo” cups with soft potting soil (the cups have a hole drilled in the bottom, and then after they have grown for a couple weeks and the roots are established, transplant to normal size Solo cups (with holes) Then a couple weeks later, to the ground.
This would work very well for most any vegetable too. I removed the seeds from an elderly Russian Black tomato a few weeks ago, (I put the tomato seeds in a screen colander, wash them with dish soap to remove the goo and then put them out in the sun to dry), put the dried seeds in the germinating tray and I now have 100 Russian Black tomato seedlings growing in Solo cups. No idea what I am going to do with them all but it was fun doing the process.
I’m in mid-Gulf Florida so I’m trying to get all the outside “farming” work out of the way (1/4 acre canal house) before it gets too hot/humid here. Lots of new flowers growing in the four flower gardens that were formerly grassed yard when I moved here last April. The soil here has lots of silica in it so you really have to blast the water hose into the soil to get it down and mixed. Dish detergent helps to break the surface tension at the beginning of the growing season.
By using the germinating tray, you can have a constant fresh supply of seedlings/flowers as the old one’s die off. Perfect for Sunflowers…Bob
Greetings from southern New Hampshire!
Our winter brood of Runner Ducks are about ready to join the rest of the flock. Right now, we are planning on Tuesday, when the temperatures are supposed to be above freezing. Huey, Dewey, Louie and Fred are developing their wing feathers and losing their duckling fuzz.
Y’all might like this. I liked the AZ gardeners because I am freezing my tailfeathers off. http://ace.mu.nu/archives/386020.php
Yippee! I can hardly wait!
Meanwhile, I came across a series of "prepper" threads starting from 2008, 3 of which ran over 10,000 posts!
Thanks for the ping. Beautiful day here. Lots of sun and really warm greenhouse-shirt sleeve weather outdoors.
Hubby got the storage shed set up for the wood chipper, which he has had by my newest patio all winter covered with an ugly tarp and all sorts of wood weighting the tarp down. One more eyesore gone.
I straightened stuff out in the greenhouse. Moved the indoor plants outside for a bit more sun. Tomorrow the seed starts go out to the green house(hubby’s project for tomorrow).
Some of my lemons are approaching small plum size. I worked most of the day yesterday on reorganizing the pantry. That’s about 30 feet of floor to ceiling storage shelves. Feet were hurting so bad, I had to quit before I finished.
I didn’t want to waste the sunshine working in the sunless basement pantry. So I’ll tackle the rest of the project on the next gloomy or rainy day.
I have forgotten what little HTML I ever knew so I hope this works...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/49654260@N05/49599075247/sizes/l/
We’ve had several days of nice weather here in Central Missouri. No rain/snow, warm temps, some sunshine. Very nice.
Spent some time on garden cleanup yesterday. It’s still too muddy for power tools, so I had to use elbow grease instead. I think I’ll toss some lettuce seed in the cold frame later today.
So much sympathy for this poor lady
Not such a green thumb after all! Stay-at-home mother spends two years watering and caring for her beloved succulent only to discover that the ‘beautiful’ plant is actually PLASTIC
I live on the North Coast and have not posted here on the Garden Thread. But I am hoping a few of you will indulge me in this discussion.
Since China is a major source of Garlic, I have taken one of the many heads of garlic I have and broken it down into cloves, started rooting them in water.
Can I pot them inside to grow?
Since the winter has been so mild, can I plant them now with a leaf muclch cover to harvest later?
Until I got so guilty I repotted it. Never bloomed again. My new theory is that it was so desperately aware it was dying that it was trying to attract some insect to fertilize it and save its genes. Now it doesn't bother.
