Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 01/29/2010 7:05:47 AM PST by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners! Winter is still here with Ice and snowstorms from Oklahoma to southern Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and the Tennessee Valley on Friday. The Virginias, North Carolina, northern South Carolina and parts of northern Georgia will get hit by Saturday. To all Freepers in the storms path I hope you will all remain safe and warm. Come On Spring!
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
This is typically a low volume ping list. Once a week for the thread and every once in a while for other FR threads posted that might be of interest.
If you would like to be added to or removed from the list please let me know by FreepMail or by posting to me.
I’ve got about 50 various tomato seedlings up. I set them outside during the warm sunny days, but leave them inside on days like today.
Most all the bulbs are up and getting ready to bloom. With all the rain lately, we should have a beautiful wild flower crop this year.
Looks like the mid-south will be buried under more snow that frigid new England...temps in the 50’s with heavy rain this past Monday washed most of the snow away...bare ground with wind chills around minus 20 today. Weird. I have started tomatoes and peppers early this year so I can get salsa ASAP...yum! I am also growing more peppers designed for roasting this year...we are now BIG FANS of roasting vegetables.
Being patient is not my strong point, so I ordered most of my seeds yesterday, even though I know they will set in a drawer for four to five weeks before I can get them started.
BUMP...for after chores. :)
Mornin’ y’all! Cold here, but hopefully we won’t get any bad stuff on the coast. Course, when we do get snow, it comes up from the south—Georgia and SC. Got a pot roast in the slow cooker for supper tonight, and going to have green baby limas and ham and cornbread tom night. :)
The cole crops in the greenhouse are up about 2 inches and we’ll start first crop of maters and peppers next week. :)
Just about every afternoon around 4pm I have a snack of HiHo crackers, cheese and roasted jalapenos. Oh and a beer or two. Spices up the Beck program - as if it needed it! LOL
It is currently sunny and 21F up here at 8500 ft elevation in the Colorado Rockies. Have to go to Colorado Springs in just a bit so I probably won’t be around for the Glenn Beck thread today.
Di—you’ll appreciate this! A truck driver called last week, said he had a load of mowers to deliver and needed directions. I thought he meant from Raleigh or Kinston or at least somewhere in NC. I said, “Where you coming from?”
He answered, “Minnesota.” I couldn’t help it, I just busted out laughing. Told him, “Buddy, best I can tell you is head south.”
He got here okay. :)
I did a pot roast Wed. Roasted in the oven with onions and carrots and potatoes. Yum! We get two suppers out of a roast and the second night the roast is even better!
I like doing it in the slow cooker cause I can start it in the morning and it’s done when I get home from work! :)
If we have left-overs—I feed a lot of people!—I usually make stew or hash out of it for the second go round.
My wife roasted tomatoes last season, made sauce, and froze it for the winter. She makes a ravioli with it that sets off a pavlovian drool response the minute the smell hits my nose. Ergo; growing even MORE paste tomatoes this year. As for roasting peppers...I am growing several varieties of jalapenos; along with marconis, monster yellows, cubanelles, golden treasures, and a few others. Dammit...just drooled on my keyboard again.
Di—you’ll appreciate this! A truck driver called last week, said he had a load of mowers to deliver and needed directions. I thought he meant from Raleigh or Kinston or at least somewhere in NC. I said, “Where you coming from?”
He answered, “Minnesota.” I couldn’t help it, I just busted out laughing. Told him, “Buddy, best I can tell you is head south.”
He got here okay. :)
Winter is still here with Ice and snowstorms from Oklahoma to southern Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and the Tennessee Valley on Friday. The Virginias, North Carolina, northern South Carolina and parts of northern Georgia will get hit by Saturday. To all Freepers in the storms path I hope you will all remain safe and warm.
This is the storm that the weather people have been watching this storm since it was out in the Pacific Ocean. And it's been moving across the entire country... hoo-boy!
And you can see how it is, from the way it has been hitting Oklahoma... :-)
Previous FReeper articles on the current Oklahoma Ice Storm, which is what is moving over to the East Coast...
A good link for detailed weather forecast information in this area, updated all the time (given by FReeper "T-Bird45")...
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/media/tsa/briefing/player.html
[... When it says there is no briefing, it means that they are preparing another one right at that time and it will be out shortly. They keep updating it all the time. ]
Ooopsie! Double post must have been sent by way of Pluto! LOL
Ice storm. Woohoo. NOT! We very seldom get snow but we’re due. I hate either, but I’d rather have snow than ice any day.
Do y’all make homemade ravioli? My wife just loves our homemade cheeze ravioli. We have one of those Atlas pasta machines. Nothing like fresh homemade pasta.
BUmp...will be back later.
Not yet...it’s on the agenda; just a matter of time. Atlas pasta machine, eh? Hmmm...
That is a great site for the detailed weather statement for Ok. I wonder if other States have the same service?
When we make ravioli we don't use the cutters (different cutters for what ever) we just leave the pasta in sheet form and place dollops of the filling on one sheet and then cover with another sheet of pasta and use a wheel cutter to cut and seal the indivual ravioli. We let them sit and dry out for about an hour and then pop them in boiling water for a min. or so and they are ready for the sauce! Great stuff.
That doesn’t sound terribly difficult...I’ll pass this along to the ‘boss’.
I have one of those! I use mine without the cutters to roll out dough for mini pie crusts. Its just the right width.
Makes it a lot easier to roll out dough for lots of things, actually. Rolling pins aggravate my bad shoulder, so I need a little gadget help :)
That is a great site for the detailed weather statement for Ok. I wonder if other States have the same service?
Yes it is great for times like this... :-)
I only found out about it a day or so ago, when another FReeper posted it. It's an official weather service site, so perhaps they do, but I'm afraid I couldn't help you find it though (didn't even know this one was here...).
Ice storm. Woohoo. NOT! We very seldom get snow but we’re due. I hate either, but I’d rather have snow than ice any day.
Well..., for the most part, I would agree. It's very difficult for people to get by without power for an extended period of time. And having almost one million people without power in Oklahoma, two years ago, was quite a big thing all right...
But, for myself (if I wasn't considering all those other people), I've been looking at some natural gas powered generator that will come on automatically, and if I get that kind of a thing, then -- hey! let the lines go down... LOL..
Of course, I'm not there and although I would have heat (natural gas still goes anyway), I would be "in the dark" nonetheless... :-)
If we could all keep our little "cubby-holes" nice and warm and dry and stocked with food and be able to come back to them, after venturing out, I'm sure that no one would care and would love the weather...
FIL has one of those. Thye’re sweet, and make almost no noise. Course, when there’s nothing elctrical running, any noise stands out. We live in hurricane country, so a genny os some sort is par for the course.
Pretty quiet here in the southernmost area of Puget Sound - a bit of a false spring happening with temps about ten degrees above normal. The Iris bulbs we planned on relocating are sprouting too fast, so forget that - fired up the mower yesterday and cut our 1/3 acre wildflower meadow back to stubs. I have a 1/4 pound sack of red (buddy) poppy seeds to spread tomorrow - that’s around 850,000 individual seeds, they are really small.
It is currently sunny and 21F up here at 8500 ft elevation in the Colorado Rockies.
When I do that I hit the abuse button and ask the Mods to delete one..
Thanks! I’ll do that next time! It was really weird—I hit post and I got an error message/page cannot be found so I sent it again and then it didn’t show up for forever! LOL
32 degrees with an occasional snowflake drifing down from the heavenly storehouse.
I just found out that I was supposed to dig the hole for my live Christmas tree in the fall when the ground wasn’t frozen. Now they tell me.
On the bright side Mrs. Happydog gave me one of those rolling carts to put my tomato plants on. It’s a standard practice in Bend - you can wheel them out during the day and bring them in at night to keep them from freezing and eaten by mule deer.
I have enjoyed the thread this past year. Made some good friends, but alas the freedom of speech Nazi’s on this board have been deleting my posts ... not sure if this will go through either.
Evidently my Christianity and conservative views are not appreciated in a board the is being watered down my moderate thought.
Best wishes to all.
Please don’t stop posting on the thread! Your knowledge is apreciated very much. I had another FReeper FReepMail me that her posts were always being reviewd also!
I don’t know where or on what threads you post but I doubt a post on this thread would be deleated.
I never realized that using the n-word was a Christian thing to do.
LOL! Any of us that head south in the winter are unlikely to return north!
Later this afternoon I plan on bringing all of my seeds to the kitchen table and start planning ‘The Cheapest Garden Ever.’
I’ve been good about cutting back on my seed buying, but there are some things that I was out of and really needed for the season. So far, I’ve limited my seed purchases to under $20, and between the things I have on hand and some free seed I’m getting from the gals at work who want me to grow out some tomatoes and peppers for them (keeping a few for myself per our agreement), it should stay around that $20 mark for seed. Maybe $30 when all is said and done.
Still, not a bad investment for hundreds of dollars worth of food! :)
I’m thinking about moving farther south! LOL
It is cold here, and getting colder. Possible snow. Bleh!
you mind telling me where trhe “n” word was EVER used?
Do you deny using it on FR?
You owe me a keyboard. I was eating lunch.
Seeds are sorted! I should have MORE than enough for my entire garden. I think the only thing I need is a packet of spinach (Melody or Tyee) from work because my rock garden this season is going to be a salad-producing machine from early-spring to mid-summer.
I’ve freshened up my ‘secret seed mixes’ which are jars I keep with leftover seed (by type) from year to year; germination goes down a little, but each season I add in leftover seed, so the rate doesn’t drop that much. My ‘secret mixes’ include:
Bush Beans - I have Dragon’s Tongue, Burgundy Podded and Yellow bush beans. Won’t that make a pretty row? I’m also doing a row of ‘Provider’ which is a regular green bush bean with great productivity.
Beneficial Bug Mix - This is cilantro, dill, a few kinds of calendula, blue bachelor buttons, orange cosmos and there may be some leftover borage or fennel in there, too. Brings the GOOD bugs into your garden to eat the bad bugs. I swear by it. It’s also great for feeding Monarch Butterflies when they show up later in the season, and it makes a very pretty cut bouquet for the kitchen table, too. (Let the cilantro go to flower; that’s what the GOOD bugs really like!)
Butterhead Lettuce - A mix of a few kinds, but I will plant Yugoslavian Red Butterhead from Seed Savers on it’s own. The most BEAUTIFUL lettuce known to mankind, IMHO.
Looseleaf Mix - There’s so many in there, I’ve stopped counting. All are cut and come again looseleaf varieties in green, red, deep burgundy and speckled. It’s SO pretty in the garden and it’s a good seller when I sell flats of it. I use four-packs, so one flat holds 12 4-packs @ $1.00 each. $12.00 for a flat of lettuce. Not bad for a few minutes of work!
Cutting Zinnia - These are assorted colors of tall (3’-4’) zinnia to pretty up the garden and for me to use in bouquets. I will plant the Will Rogers seperately; a clear red (Jung’s) and I’m trying a white this season from Jung’s. White is a tough color to get right for zinnia. They don’t always turn out a pure white; more creamy...so the quest goes on!
Sunflowers - Again, all manner of colors and sizes for cutting. Soroya is a favorite, as is Valentine, both from Jung’s. There are some ‘red’ types in there, too, but while they are unique, they’re not that great for cutting. I am planting the HUGE ones at the back of the garden; I’m planting Titan from Seed Savers for huge heads (2 feet across!) to dry for the birds come fall. They’re a good eating sunflower for people, too. 2” seeds!
Tomatoes and peppers stay in their own packets and final ddecisions will come later. I’m going to do two varieties of slicers, two varieties of paste, (40 plants, total) two cherry-types (Chocolate Cherry and Sungold or Sun Sugar; can’t remember) and a Tumbler Tom in a hanging basket by the kitchen door. Peppers will most likely be Carmen, Margret’s, Zavory (a not-hot Habanero), Goliath Jalapeno and Holy Mole Hybrid, all from Jung’s and Napolean Sweet from Seed Savers.
There’s a little more to do, but that’ll have to wait for another day. I don’t have to start planting until end of April into March, anyway.
My Grandmother was given a gray fluffy ball of feathers that a pilot flying up from Central America had secerted in his pocket. That bird was a member of the family way before I arrived. My Great Aunt grew sunflowers just for Polly. My mother would take me to her place to get the seeds.
That bird was over 50 years old when it died. Loved corn cobs, chicken bones (marrow) and in the morning a small piece of toast with a tiny pat of butter and soaked in coffee. You could not have coffee in the morning without him getting his share.
My Mom used to raise Finches and Cockatiels. The finches were really sweet, but those cockatiels were BRATS! Grandma always had Parakeets.
I, myself, don’t understand a bird as a pet in the house...but you know how I love my chickens; Nature’s most useful critter, IMHO!
It got up into the teens here today. Ugh.
I mailed out my seed order today as well. It’s not a matter of being impatient, but wanting to get my order in before they run out of stock.
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