Those are fresh? Nice. I still have over half the yard covered in the devil’s dandruff, and it’s well below freezing every night.
Spring Preview: How to Force Flowering Branches to Bloom Indoors by Joy Yagid
You’re getting impatient for spring to arrive. You’ve had enough of winter. Time to move on! Time for spring to arrive.
Mother Nature, however, is on her own schedule. It varies from year to year and she won’t tell you if she decides to change things up with a late season cold snap. Because she can and she will. Don’t mess with Mother Nature. But you can go behind her back—you can jump-start spring by forcing flowering branches to bloom indoors.
Here’s how.
Forcing Branches Indoors
Cut flowering branches are long-lasting statement makers, suitable for any room of the house. A huge spray of apple blossoms in a large vase can be a focal point on your dining table, and a single magnolia bloom in a hand-me down porcelain cup and saucer on the kitchen counter can transport you back to your childhood.
To force branches indoors, make sure your pruning clippers are clean and sharp. Remember, you are not just picking a few branches for forcing, you are pruning the tree or shrub. If you only want a few branches, take them from inconspicuous areas and stay away from the larger main branches.
Once inside, place them in a clean vase filled with fresh water. Try not to place any blooms below the water level if possible and keep the vase out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources. Slicing or scoring the base of the branches will help the branches to take up more water and make them last longer. Change the water every few days.
One of the easiest flowers to force is forsythia. It’s as easy as cutting a few branches off the bush, bringing them inside and placing them in water. That’s it. Within a week, you’ll have happy sunny yellow flowers perking up your kitchen table.
If you’re lucky enough to have a pussy willow, you can do the same and have those furry little pussy toes and their delicate tiny yellow flowers in about two weeks.
Trees in the rose family—cherry, apple, crabapple, and quince—all can be forced inside and will take about four weeks to bloom. Stay away from the ornamental pears though, some of the varieties can have a very bad rotting fish like smell.
You can try other flowering trees, but some are more difficult than others such as lilacs. Lilacs tend to be more than a little picky and may wilt quickly. If you have a favorite tree or shrub that flowers, try one branch and see what happens.
And when the blooms are spent, don’t throw them in the trash! Check the branches for roots. One of the unmentioned benefits of forcing is propagation. You may have new baby plants. You can transfer them to a pot with potting soil and treat them as transplants.
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/how-force-flowering-branches-bloom-indoors/
Critter cam caught a raccoon pilfering tomatoes last night. Picky eater, the bandit punctures many tomatoes, partially eats others, knocks a few on the ground, then lumbers along to the next vine. Grrrrr.
Low 20s out there this morning and 56 degrees in my seed starting room, up from 48. Trays stay up around 70 in the little grow tent. New grow lights came in yesterday and they’re nice and bright. They’re longer than my original two so I’ll be turning them sideways. Still two lights per two trays and two 1020 trays is 21 x 21 but the tent is wider than deep. I’ll probably turn the old ones sideways too since the ends do push out on the door. The new ones would actually prevent me from zipping up the door.
'Orange Nugget'
'Night Queen'
'Glorie Van Heemstede'
And thought I rarely plant pastel colored flowers in my garden (I like BOLD!) I kinda fell for these candy-colored Gladiolus, so I bought them, too. They're just called 'Pastel Mix' and I don't remember ever seeing them before.
Later on, convert it into a manure/compost spreader. I've got axles and metal frame from an old mobile home I could use to put a frame, wheels and a hitch on the box. For now, it has that hatch on the bottom of the end and I could fork the compost out. You couldn't even buy the metal to make one for $200. I don't have any sides on my trailer and even the materials to build some would be more than $200. Lot of work too since I'd want them removable. Hard to go get compost with a flat bed trailer and I can only get a yard or so in the bed of my pickup. Did that once with pickup truck only and gas cost almost as much as the yard of compost.
This same person sells a lot of stuff and has a few more things I'd like. One thing is a four foot wide belly mower for $50 that I could put on my little tractor. I'd have to set up a lift mechanism and run a belt with 90 degree turn to go on the engine. I have an extra set of belt pulleys for the 90 turn off an old Sears Suburban garden tractor.
He's also got an umbrella for a tractor for $50 and a leaf shredder that would probably need a new horizontal shaft small engine for $160 but I'd have to get the shredder cheaper than that. It's belt run which is cool. I hate things that are built integral(I'm talking to you generator makers). Might have to work a package deal for all.
Got my paystub in the email for tomorrow's check and it has my $500 sign on bonus on it. He's had the mower deck forever and is apt to have everything still in a month but I'd hate to miss out on some good deals on things I need(or at least want).
Woke up to this frozen flower pot full of baby radishes on Saturday morning. It didn't bother them any, but I did lose some seedlings in the greenhouse. I think the low Friday night was 18°F. I didn't do much in the greenhouse on Saturday because I had bigger fish to fry - the recovery of an heirloom.
In 1957 my Grandpap bought a new Ford 860 to use on his farm. After he passed in 1982 all of the farmer stuff of value was auctioned off. Our next door neighbor BJ Blackwell bought the 860 and owned it until he passed a few years back. BJ's son RC asked me awhile back if I'd be interested in buying it back once all of the estate ruckus calmed down. Saturday turned out to be that day.
Pops and I made our way to RC's place, spent a couple hours visiting, and traded a handful of Benjamins for Grandpap's tractor. BJ took good care of it. I doubt that it spent even one night parked outside. There's nothing on it that needs any fixing done. It could use a fresh coat of paint, but I'm going to work it, and I like the patina, so I think I'll leave it as-is cosmetically. I wore blisters on my butt working the fields with this tractor when I was a kid and I'm extremely grateful to RC for allowing it to come home again.
That wasn't all of the tractor fun for the weekend, though. Yesterday I gave Mr. Clarence's clothes back to him, then took him outside and put him to work.
I hadn't yet picked up the brush from trimming orchard trees so I bolted a hitch ball to the drawbar, hooked up the trailer, and we got to it. This is one of three loads, and there's more on the ground out by the pond. Foreman and line boss are taking a break between loads here.
Tucked away until next time...
For a damp, cold, windy, and just generally miserable weekend it turned out alright.
Did some post hole digging. Got 18 holes marked/started for the high tunnel. Went 8-12 inches deep and will plug away at them after the next rain session. I went as deep as I could without spending more time knocking wet soil off of the post hole diggers than actual digging. The soil is a fairly dark brown down to 4-6 inches due to feeding the goats three round bails of hay there Winter 2021. Hay+poop+pee. I’ll only need enough compost to suppress weeds/grass.
Too windy to weld on high tunnel frames/trusses as usual. Windy for another three days at least. If it comes down to it, I’ll have my son out there holding a piece of plywood up to block the wind.
Getting a wee bit of rain here in East Central Missouri. University of MO, Cook Station AG research center down the road from me says 1.97 in. last night and 1.59 in. so far today and it’s still raining. We’ll probably hit 4 inches in 30 hours. I work this weekend and will have to take the long way in and out due to the creeks overflowing their bridges.