Posted on 03/23/2012 8:53:54 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! Hopefully everyone has received beneficial rain this past week. We've had an additional 2 inches, which was a blessing because just to the south and southwest of us as much as 10 inches fell. While the area needed the rain, it didn't need it all at one time.
Looking forward to reading what you're doing with your gardens and plans this week. Photos will earn you bonus points! :^)
It is too wet for me to do anything in the garden, but I do have lots of raspberry bushes to get planted. Then, the beeyard. They are already capping honey in the supers and I will have a bountiful late spring harvest. Mark and I have 2 cutouts of bees in buildings that are coming up this week, which will make a total of 7 hives in my beeyard. We did a huge cutout 2 weeks ago and Mark added those to his beeyard.
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.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. 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 ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 5, February 03, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 6, February 10, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation?) Vol. 7, February 17, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Home Sweet Home) Vol. 8, February 24, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Structure Part 1) Vol. 9, March 2, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Transplanting Tomatoes) Vol. 10, March 9, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Useful Links) Vol. 11, March 16, 2012
Detailed State Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
International Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
Australia
Canada
China
Europe
Japan
After an insane 5 straight days over eighty here in New Sodom (NH); it has cooled off to seventy today. Back to normal Monday; highs in the 40’s, lows in the twenties. Can’t believe I had to protect my peppers from sun scorch in mid-March.
I just put some green onions in. I like to snip off the tops and put them in my salad.
Our runt, Anna, who we nearly lost to a blockage, showed the rest how to climb the deck stairs on Wednesday evening, and let three of them up the stairs last evening. This morning, she led all of them out of the house, down the deck stairs and to the pond.
We do not allow spoiled animals in our house!
The seedlings are doing well and we need to start getting the raised beds in shape as the Forsythia are blooming down near Concord, MA already!
I sit here in a fog bank accepting rain off and on all morning. My bulbs are in full bloom in the front of the house and the forsythia (I have a late blooming variety) is already a gorgeous, blazing yellow. In fact, some of my daffs and tulips are already curled up and brown because of the heat.
It’s been 80 degrees all week — most unusual for the middle of March. Yesterday I saw that they had erected the temporary greenhouses in the parking lot of Shopko. Are they going to fill them with plants? Now? And what are we going to do with those plants?
I don’t remember much, but I remember a snow storm the week after Easter that froze my little bulbs and killed them dead for the year. And another year, (about 1989 or 1990) I remember a wild snow storm on May 5 that broke all the blooming trees, including one of mine.
Ellendra said it best a couple of weeks ago. It is wise to remember that we probably have 2 snowstorms and a deep freeze to go yet this spring.
On the few remaing farms around here, I’m seeing green fields of winter wheat already up an inch. Of course, winter wheat will withstand any change in the weather.
It was the companion to this tree that I lost in 1989, or 1990, in the freak storm of heavy, wet snow on May 5. This picture is from 2 years ago. It won't bloom until the end of April, at least.
Do I get my extra points?
Finally .... the Kumasaka Camellia is blooming!! :-)
Beautiful tree and I LOVE your flag pole!
We had a very mild winter (sounds redundant for Houston but still, milder than usual) and I’ve had azaleas blooming all winter. This is the best they have ever looked...and I put in all of my garden plants/seeds during the past two weeks and everything is doing well. Leaf lettuce is the most fun to grow because those tiny seeds germinate so quickly
Starting over, here at the border of 8b/9a in Florida. I haven’t gardened much in a few years, except for a few fruit trees and a couple of grapevines that I mostly neglected but got fruit from anyway. This spring I have a couple of brand new new raised beds for veggies; I’ve never used raised beds before. I also have a few EarthBoxes.
I transplanted tomatoes, peppers and eggplants into the garden just over a week ago, and I direct-seeded my other hot-weather crops a week ago as well. I have seedlings everywhere. It’s so much fun watching everything come up!
I also seeded a few carrots, lettuce, and radishes, and a little cilantro. Usually I can plant those through March here, but it’s so warm this year that it’s probably already too late for them. I thought it was worth a try, though. If they fail, I’ll just start over in the fall.
Oddly, the marigolds are not germinating well (less than 10% are up after a week), though everything else is coming up on schedule with very good germination rates. It’s fresh seed, and I’ve never had trouble starting marigolds before, so I don’t know what the problem is. If they are not up in a few days I’ll go get a different brand of seed and try again.
We haven’t had any significant rain here in weeks (spring is a dry season for us), but we are expecting some rain today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
The tree was originally one of three, I’m told. There were only 2 here when we bought the place in 1987 and we lost one in a storm. I don’t know how much life is left in the remaining one. It has some splits in the trunk that worry me.
The flag pole has been here at least 40 years and has gone through at least 3-4 flags per year. It is lighted at night, and the flag flies 24/7. We love it.
No rain here this week, but it has taken most of the week to dry out from all we had the week before. Supposed to start raining mid day tomorrow and continue through until Sunday.
We’ve been patiently waiting for a “5 in 5” rocket launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, but the weather has been totally uncooperative. The launch window has between midnight and 3 am every night this week and it really looked like a go last night (this morning) but the weather went to crapola over the New Jersey viewing site and so it was once again scrubbed. It’s supposed to be really cool with 5 rockets going off with in a total of 5 minutes. it’s already a no go for tonight, so because of the forecast it looks like next possible window will be Sunday night/Monday morning.
Gorgeous! That is one plant that I cannot grow in Wisconsin. I used to enjoy them in Texas, California, and Washington, however.
The sugar snap peas, snow peas, collards, spinach and lettuce we planted 1-2 weeks ago are just starting to come up. I’m not sure we should have planted the collards so early, but we’ll cover them up if there’s going to be a frost. It’s unusually warm her in western Pa too. Forsythias, crab, all blooming like crazy. The potato experiment I tried is semi-successful. I planted seed potatoes last November. I dug up a few to see if they were still there. One was just a ball of mush, but two were healthy and sprouting. I covered them over again. Mr S wants that bed for something else. Can I move potatoes?
I put in all raised beds last year since Mr S has heart problems and can’t dig much. He is loving the raised beds. The soil is just as fluffy as can be, and all I did was add a bit more top soil and compost.
Wow! The competitive streak in me just loves those 10 bonus points. TY.
It’s been a soggy week here in Central Missouri. I expect that all of the seed I planted last weekend has been washed out and will have to be replanted. On the bright side, my pond is back up almost to the point of overflow. I’m sure to be in need of that water for the garden later in the season.
Have you ever seen the video of using a black trash bag to grow potatoes? Google it - really looks interesting
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