Yom!
Anybody have the ping list?
I thought my garden was dead from drought.
Then it rained and it all came back! :-)
(I found the ping list! TY to JADB for putting it on her profile page. At least, I hope it’s the right list, it wasn’t labelled)
Gardeners’ ping, come and join the fun!
Thank you for the thread.... I do not have the list... BTTT!!!
Yom!
Denver gardening tip....
Wait for 2 feet of snow to melt...
Over the weekend I finally got the last of the fall harvest in the freezer. 2 pumpkins and one zucchetta rampicante that had been sitting on the counter since October. The pumpkins were tiny little pie pumpkins, but the zucchetta was huge! It took 2 roaster pans to bake that thing!
The pumpkins were from an experiment. There’s a hybrid variety that I love, so I’m trying to breed it back into an open-pollinated one. Homesteading guru Jackie Clay has done this successfully with tomato varieties, so I’m trying it with my pumpkins. Most of the ones from this last batch were missing one trait or another, but one of them was perfect, so I’m saving seeds from that one for the next round.
The zucchetta is actually an Italian zucchinni. It has a firm, meaty texture that I love, and is good enough to eat raw or cooked. Over the summer I’d read that this same variety makes a decent winter squash, so when one got buried in leaves until it was too big, I decided to let it finish ripening all the way. Besides, I wanted to save the seeds before I ran out of them.
My goodness that squash is sweet!!! Not “sweet as vegetables go”, but “who snuck 4 cups of sugar in the blender with it” sweet!!!! I was tempted to try getting sugar from it like you can with beets, but decided not to. We made pie with it and left out 1/3 of the sugar in the recipe, it still came out a bit too sugary! And we got 13 and 1/2 cups of squash puree from a single squash, that one is definately getting more space in my garden this spring!
As long as we don't have a hard freeze, I expect many of us will have early blooms this spring. How about the rest of you?
My outside thermometer is showing 60 degrees here in western Washington.
I GOT TO get some of the cold weather seeds in the ground!!
Spinach, lettuce, carrots, cabbage all start ok when it’s cool.
Nothing new to report here due to the icky weather. Did get some leaves for the bottom though.
Good for you!!!!!
What a nice surprise seeing this at the top of my ping list when I came back while taking a break from cooking dinner!
Last weekend I assembled my tomato seedling incubator, AKA 'Mater'Bater. It holds 4 Jiffy seed trays and provides grow lights up top, and bottom heat below, all controled by timers. Of three trays of mater seeds, all but about 20 sprouted, and I reseeded those earlier today. The tray of various peppers are starting to come alive.. Its supposed to be 36dg here tonight and 31dg tomorrow night. So the 'Mater'Bator is fine tuned and ready for the cool nights.
Other garden varieties will be purchased from the local seed store. My soil test results have arrived but I have not been over to the ext serv to have it translated into common Eglish. Gotta get going. I saw blooming Japonese Magnolia yesterday. Gotta get that soil test read so that I can ride the tiller rodeo over the garden patch.
We are discussing adding a second patch out back by the road back there and growing something that will not be attractive to young thieves, maybe okra, squash, beans.
We go a new supply of drip irrigation tubing and feeder line and with lots of small stuff so that we may expand some this year, our second springtime in Texas.
I will try to get some pictures of the 'Mater'Bator to post.
Had a little dip in the temp this week. Supposed to get to single digits tonite. I got maple tree buddings on my porch from the warm weather. Poor guys.
Got a nice batch of sprouts going and am going to start cole crops this weekend.
My plowman just showed up. My husband always did all the plowing around here until he had brain surgery last winter. Plowing involves installing a tractor mounted snowblower on the 28 year old tractor and tweaking it until it works. THen, it’s a matter of getting out in beastly weather and blowing all the snow off the driveway so we can get in and out.
Last year, when he was recuperating, I arranged for the man who plows our manufacturing plant to come over here and do my long driveway. We call him St. Bobby.
THe first morning he came (my husband had been out of the hospital 2 days after having a piece of his skull removed) my husband jumped up and dashed for the outdoors intending to lay in the snowy driveway and install the snowblower. Nothing I could stay would stop him. Finally, I said, “Go ahead. Take a look at the driveway.”
He opened the garage door and saw that the drive had already been plowed. Despite all his bluster, I could tell he was relieved. We’ve never looked back. This year he talked about putting the snow blower on the tractor just to tweak the edges and to plow a path to the barn. It never got done, and this is only the 2nd appreciable snow this winter. Hardly seems woth the effort now.
Just for fun, we're going to try growing peanuts this year.
Thanks for the ping!
Well, it has finally gotten seasonably cold here. I’m going to try tapping some maples (first time) in a week or two. The neighbor offered to show me how. I will probably end up with enough sap to make 1/2 cup of syrup - but I want the EXPERIENCE :).
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the raspberry jelly/jam I put up was not gummy at all. I was afraid to try it, but finally did, and while it comes just close to being too firm, it is fine and the flavor bright and fresh. Yea! My thick tomato sauce came out really nice also - a blend of different tomatoes, 50% were heritage varieties.
So, I am putting in my own raspberry bushes this year - just a few.
We have onions, leeks, and garlic that have wintered over and will hopefully be a decent size this year.
Gotta get pulling out the end of season weed garbage, yuck. Can’t plant here until May, so I have time.
Thanks, Ellendra!
1/4-1/2” of extra-dry (brut?) snow last night & today; down to -5 by Saturday morning...it’s starting to feel like winter.
The warm weather, with intermittent severely cold nights & no snow cover has been brutalizing the winter wheat we planted last fall: doesn’t know whether to stay dormant, or try to grow.
This is mostly JADB’s fault for going to Montana, and complaining about not having to drive through any blizzards to get there.
Still getting 1/2-3/4 egg/day/hen.
Thank you Ellendra for getting us together today. You are a gen. Back tomorrow, having a fund raiser here, today, for a friend. Gotta get things ready. Oh, I have one raised garden cleared of weeds and ready for a bit of compost. I’ve begun my “worm garden”. I’m thinking of getting some red wigglers and setting up spot for them.
Thank you for picking up the torch!
I’m in the Philadelphia area. Is it too late to start germinating seeds indoors in preparation for planting them when the weather warms up?