Weekly Garden Thread - March 4-10, 2023 [Signs of SPRING Edition]

March 4, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The 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.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. 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! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.

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 to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

It has been a long time since I provided an update to the home build and the garden.

House is only a couple of months away from being done. Siding and roof soon.

Appliances arrived and are in storage....black Friday sales with delayed delivery are fantastic.

We saved about 4.5-5k by purchasing all shower tile materials for both bathroom (master bath is a wet bath with shower and huge tub in the same space but seperate set ups) at Habitat for Humanity Re-use Stores. All brand new stuff that was donated...still in the box.

The 6, 25 yrd long 6 feet wide (4.5 feet usable) garden beds have been filled with 40 yards of garden soil.

I got my “Made in West Germany” (1982) Stihl chainsaw up and running after having it sit for 20 years and have been cutting down and sectioning dead oak trees.

The appropriate sized sections are becoming the borders of my raised beds since I don’t want to spend 5k on lumber!

I purchased a 13x10x6 metal greenhouse (cheapo) on Amazon and as soon as I got it up the wind here ripped the cover off overnight.

So I am taking my leftover/extra....but still new.... 6mm poly greenhouse material and covering the hoop/greenhouse frame which is still usable. But forsy I grabbed scrap lumber from my home build and put wooden framing on the ends for extra support.

Now it will have a real door and a genuine temp activated vent window.

A quick Amazon find of wiggle wire tie down system has me confident that the poly will hold up in the wind with that and the extra wooden framing in the ends.

I am out of town this week for work stuff then back at it finishing greenhouse.

My deer proof fence should be up by the end of the month, just in time for first plants to get dropped in the garden.

[ApplegateRanch]

Hill City to Custer, then west to state line CLOSED
Maverick Jct to Hot Springs to Edgemont, to state line NO TRAFVEL ADVISED.
Minnekahta Jct to Pringle, NO TRAFVEL ADVISED
Hot Springs to Custer, via Wind Cave: Road conditions as of 10:31 PM MST on Fri, Mar 3:
from US 18 West-Hot Springs to SD-87 - ice, slippery, and snow covered with reduced speed and winter maintenance suspended;
from SD-87 to US 16 West-Custer - slippery, snow covered, visibility less than one quarter mile, and snow with reduced speed and winter maintenance suspended.

Last night, about midnight.
Minnekahta Jct is half way between Hot Springs & Edgemont; we're about half way between H.S & the junction.

Gardening is still just a gleam in the eye, reflected back from the window, while admiring the 24-30" icicles.

Have everything I want to plant, except more onion sets, and russet seed potatoes.
Thunderbird Calendar has alarms set for various indoor seed starting dates.

Meanwhile, it's mostly stay in; stay warm; stay dry; stay mildly lubricated: Don't want to rust!

[quantim]

Heh, it could be worse...we had our cottage up in Gaylord, MI for over two decades, it's right in the snowbelt and it doesn't thaw until who knows when. I've been going to this website forever http://snowmancam.com/ to see how much it can be worse! In fact it is snowing right now, miss the flora/fauna up there but don't miss the weather!

[ApplegateRanch]

Kim Desmuke
nosStdrpoet4

This worked well for me for many years - it's a simple, weed-free way to grow lettuce, spinach and even radishes.

Take a 2 cubic feet bag of potting soil (I used Miracle Grow), rumple it around quite a bit to loose the soil, poke quite a few holes in the back side for drainage, then lay the bag on a smooth surface that will allow drainage and not get too hot, and cut out the top, leaving about a 4 or 5 inch border all around. Lightly rake through the soil to even it out and loosen it even more, then carefully, and evenly sprinkle the seeds around.

I put my salad green seeds in an old spice bottle with large shaker holes, added some cornmeal, shook it all up to mix well and sprinkled them out of it. I put the cornmeal in there to allow me to see that I had covered the soil evenly.

If doing radish seeds or spinach, just make lines the depth mentioned on the seed pack, plant the seeds and cover appropriately. For salad greens I sprinkled a lite covering of soil over the cornmeal and seeds and then spray-misted to water them in.

I put my bags on metal sawhorses and grates to make them waist level. This kept the bags off the hot concrete and I didn't have to bend over when cutting my salad.

When harvesting, just use a pair of scissors and cut what you need - don't pull the plants out. Same goes for spinach - they will grow back almost magically overnight, and you can't tell where you cut.

Spray mist the seeds and plantings at first when watering, until they are established, then you can water more vigorously as the plants mature. You will probably need to water more often, since the depth of the bags are not as deep as a regular in-ground garden. I just kept mine moist, but not sopping wet.

— with Sean Mclaughlin and Ashley Rasmussen.

[MomwithHope]

That is beautiful and ingenious!

[Pollard]

Lilies and Iris popping up and the serviceberry trees are budding. Probably redbuds too but I don’t have any on the property. Grass is growing and greening under the leaf litter.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks for the update! Please continue to keep us posted! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“And Diana I have all the seeds I need for your bouquet planters.”

Yay! We’ll have to compare photos later in the season. I love those little ‘Persian Carpets’ zinnia. So sweet!

I started peppers yesterday and am ‘experimenting’ with very early spinach and lettuces in the greenhouse. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Life completely STOPS for some spots in the Wintertime. I just dug out the VW Golf and am getting her road-worthy again for the Spring.

That’s one of MY ‘signs that Spring is here’ when I can dig out the car instead of driving the truck, LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That’s exactly what I do in the unheated greenhouse in the fall, going into winter. I cover the plants with the flipped-over bottom of a storage bin at night.

I had lettuces and other greens until December 23rd this past winter.

Everyone should try this. It works amazingly well!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We have a cabin in WAY northern Wisconsin (almost to Ashland, which is the tippy-top of our state, near Lake Superior) and it’s the same up there.

I’ve been up there to open up the cabin for the season in May and snow is still on the ground.

Yeah. Not for me. This is as far ‘north’ as I go. If I can’t grow tomatoes easily, I’m not moving! :)

[Pollard]

Will have to try it.

Speaking of storage bins or totes. Have one out in the yard with goat manure in it. Evidently a goat knocked the lid off and it ended up with 8 inches of rain water in it. I started to pour it off and then thought to myself; Wait, this is manure tea. Why am I throwing it away?

I’m going to fill some jugs and let them sit and brew for a while.

[Redleg Duke]

Signs of spring in New Hampshire - 8” of heavy wet snow.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Perfect. That’ll be some good stuff!

[campaignPete R-CT]

Extended Autumn has ended here in Hartford county. Early Spring has begun

Our 60-hour winter was comical

[left that other site]

Same here...but March can be a cruel month in New England!

[Augie]

It was another mild week here in Central Missouri. We got a bit of rain but need more yet to fill the ponds back up.

The pole saw I ordered was supposed to arrive last Monday, but UPS destroyed it before it got to me so I had to re-order. With any luck the replacement will be here on Wednesday. It's a bit late to be pruning fruit trees, but they look like crap half done so I'll finish them off when the saw gets here.

I got the tiller out and chewed up the soil inside the hoop house yesterday morning. I've got broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage ready to stick in the dirt.

Planted a row of spuds yesterday. Yukon Gold that didn't get eaten over the winter. I've got enough left to plant another row. Think I might do that after work today if the rain holds off.

The radish seed I planted last weekend is already up.

I built some planter boxes Saturday, filled them up with compost, and planted carrot seed in all of them. Carrots struggle in the heavy soil here but they thrive in a box of nice fluffy composted horse poo. I need to rig some hoops over the top so I can cover them with plastic sheeting.

The big win for the week was the progress I made on Mr. Clarence. Bought a new radiator, water pump, and exhaust elbow last week. Got all of that stuff installed, poured in some fresh coolant, and Pops took him out for spin yesterday. Now the coolant is staying on the inside where it belongs. There's a bit of oil seeping from the rocker cover gasket. I'll check that when I pull it back apart to do the final valve lash adjustments. Once that task has been completed it will be time to reinstall the bodywork. But the really big deal, the thing that made me so happy I did the Snoopy Dance, is the three point lift now operates like it's supposed to.

[Qiviut]

Monday - another sunny, nice day here - temps should top out 66-67. The grass has really greened up the last week - definitely going to have to mow next weekend.

Yesterday, I finished up my herb bed - the very last raised bed in the veggie/flower “complex” of beds. I have grown oregano before, but the plants (from memory) always stayed fairly small. This sucker just about took over the end of the bed, about 1/4th of it. It was like a ‘mat’ of roots, so cutting it back was not a solution. I ended up cutting it into pieces with my pulaski, then digging up the smaller pieces. I kept one piece with some nice green leaves and replanted it when I got the ‘mat’ totally dug up and out of the bed. The mat took so much dirt that I had to haul a 5-gallon bucket to fill in the hole.

The lemon verbena plant died so that came out, cut back the sage & a lemon thyme that was looking raggedy. I have another thyme plant that is more compact, very green & looks great. The rosemary survived the winter, too.

After getting the herb bed straight, I started hauling wood chips to cover up the shingles that are around the beds. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve tripped on the edges - my ‘recovering’ knee leg tends to not get raised as high & I’m tripping. I hauled until almost sunset and my back was giving out, so I called it a day.

Getting ready to head back out & haul more wood chips this afternoon. Hopefully, I can get all the shingles I have down covered. Tomorrow will be the last ‘mild’ day of the week and we’ll be on the road all day, so what I get done today is probably where I’ll be when the weekend rolls around.

[Augie]

I started peppers yesterday and am ‘experimenting’ with very early spinach and lettuces in the greenhouse. :)

I forgot to mention in my other post that I harvested spinach from the greenhouse yesterday. Filled a two-gallon bucket. Mrs. Augie used some of it in a salad at supper time. Very tasty.

Using the bagged soil to grow salad greens is brilliant. I'm going to put that idea in my pocket and pull it out next fall. I'd about bet that if you put the bag on top of a heating mat and placed a clear plastic tote over the top you'd be able to grow salad greens all winter long in the greenhouse.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I want to be Augie when I grow up! :)

Everything looks great! I’m SO excited to get digging in the dirt myself, but I have weeks and weeks to go, yet. :(