Weekly Garden Thread - February 22-29, 2020

February 22, 2020 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[a little elbow grease]

Nice kitty.

[nclaurel]

Sautéed Roma tomatoes with artichoke hearts in a bit of olive oil with little kosher salt is so delicious.

[Qiviut]

Back in the ‘real’ world after a week following Iron Dog day/night - ended at 3 am this morning. I’m hitting the covfefe today ... might need a 2nd pot & have to take a nap.

In the meanwhile, it’s “Critterville” around here. I went to eat an avocado for lunch a couple of days ago ... it was in a bowl on the kitchen counter. When I picked it up, on the back side (not visible ‘til I did pick it up), there was a whole lot of avocado missing! I did not know mice ate avocados, but evidently they do. I promptly caught a mouse in a trap early that evening (it didn’t even wait for the kitchen lights to be turned off). I set another trap & missed a mouse ....

Night before last, while up late, I heard a strange noise in the living room - it was near the door so I thought an animal was on the front porch, but the motion light wasn’t going on ... hmmmm. Yesterday, I discovered a mouse had gotten into some packages of bird suet I had next to the front door for refilling the feeders the next morning. I set another trap yesterday afternoon - it was tripped this morning, but no mouse so I’ll have to try again.

As for the bird feeders, they are really busy these days - we have lots of cardinals (at least 4 pairs), a dove pair, chickadees, juncos, a few blue jays, finches, sparrows & lots of woodpeckers of all sizes, just to name some of what we see. We also have a very fat squirrel who ‘has been’ (note the past tense) visiting and hoarding/emptying the main black oil seed feeder. So far, all is peaceful at the feeders this morning & the woodpeckers (in particular) have already made a dent in the suet I put out yesterday.

I might try to get into the garden today ... the raised beds are growing things since we’ve had lots of rain & fairly ‘mild’ weather this winter. My cousin visited Friday - he always has a nice garden & he asked if I was getting ‘garden fever’ yet ... he has it & believe I have caught the ‘bug’ from him. :-)

[TheConservativeParty]

Oohh, sounds great!

[dakine]

Planning on 24 - 36 plants..depending on how many peppers my wife wants... Use them for eating and giving away... My Italian wife wants to make some homemade sauces this summer... You must have advertised that magazine on these threads... I’ve been getting all kinds of seed magazines this Winter... Ready to start!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Varieties I like and have grown from Totally Tomatoes. All have good disease resistance and are great producers:

Any tomato in the ‘Goliath’ line
Bush Champion II
Better Bush Hybrid VF
Celebrity
Grandma’s Pick
Black from Tula
Black Krim
Cherokee Purple
Mr. Stripey

For sauces or drying:

Opalka
Purple Russian
Saucy Lady
Roma

Cherry-Types:

Brown Berry
Chocolate Cherry
Juliet
Sungold or Sunsugar

[Diana in Wisconsin]

And, anything in the ‘Chef’s Choice’ line is really good, too. The plants get HUGE though, so plan/plant/position accordingly.

[dakine]

Thanks for replying... I have some ideas now - never started from seeds before... Should be a cool learning experience..!

[Liz]

Might as well have a few good recipes on hand when those tomato plants start producing......that's my motto.

Ing: 3 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes (I use 2 cans of Fire Roasted tomatoes for a bit more flavor, with 1 can regular.
14.5-oz can chicken broth pint heavy cream 6 TBS butter, unsalted Tb dried basil (or 3T fresh) Tb sugar

METHOD Pour tomatoes and broth into pot. Chunk up butter a bit and add to pot, then basil, sugar.
Heat on med to melt butter. Reset to med-low; blend with hand blender.

If you’re hand blending while heating, exercise caution. You want the blade to be under the surface enough so it’s not touching the bottom of your pot (it almost acts like a vacuum), but don’t come too much to the surface or you will be cleaning tomato bisque off your light fixtures. Keep blending to fave texture and consistency. Add bit of heavy cream slowly, while stirring. Then slowly add the rest of the cream.

SERVE Garnished with chiffonade of basil. Can add parsley, shaved Parmesan or croutons.

[Augie]

We actually saw the sun over the weekend here in Central Missouri. Rain moved in from the south last night and it’s expected to continue through most of the day, then turn colder and snow tomorrow.

I got a bit of cleanup done in the garden yesterday, and put gravel on a couple places in the driveway that are suffering from the wet weather. Can’t get a machine off the driveway due to the mud, so there’s not a lot of progress to be made on outdoor projects for awhile yet.

The pond critters are starting to wake up from their winter nap. I noticed a few bullfrogs sunning themselves on the bank yesterday, and the shallow water near the edges is loaded with schools of minnows. I broke ice Saturday morning and dropped a baited minnow trap in next to the dock. Caught a ton of minnows and transferred them to a cage so I’ve got bait to go crappie fishing when the weather improves.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I love a man with a plan! Sounds so wonderful that Spring is at your house!

We still have quite a few weeks to go until we hear Spring Peepers. :)

[Augie]

The peepers haven’t started singing yet, but the robins got back a couple weeks ago. Spring can’t be too far off.

[Liz]

Trump to Dine on Vegetarian banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan

India’s Prime Minister Modi will host a formal banquet at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, which is expected to be all-vegetarian, according to CNN, though the menu will only be finalized at the last minute.

On previous official visits, Trump’s aides have ensured that his tastes are catered for, such as when he visited Saudi Arabia in 2017 and was served steak alongside the local cuisine.

However, when former President George Bush visited India in 2006, then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh served local cuisine including curries, biryani and seafood.

Former President Barack Obama visited India in 2010 where he enjoyed Indian dishes like chicken shami kebab, achari fish tikka and pista murgh. Obama visited again in 2015, when he dined on mustard fish curry, gushtaba and achari paneer.

[MomwithHope]

We have a pair of early sandhill cranes in the field across the street. Kind of bummed, one by product of the mild winter here in Michigan is I lost my #6 crock of kraut. It went bad and over the last 2 days I have trucked it over to the compost pile. Waste not, want not. Just not cold enough. That has happened only once before since the 80’s. Oh well, picked up a bag at the store to console myself.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Oh, that’s too bad. That kraut in a bag gets top ratings from America’s Test Kitchen, though! ;)

I know I SAID I wasn’t going to buy many seeds this year, and comparatively, I haven’t...but...tonight I’m thumbing through the Baker Creek Catalog, with marker in hand.

Just a few things. Promise! ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Califreak]

Ha!

Cute!

Just wanted to post a tip in case some people don’t know.

I’ve always had major trouble with seedlings damping off.

I read that you can add a teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide to each liter of water when misting or watering to prevent that and so far it seems to be working.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Spring is coming earlier in US this year than it has since 1896

Those hoping for an early spring this year will get their wish.

The vernal equinox will take place on March 19 throughout the entire United States including Alaska and Hawaii, almost 18 hours ahead of when the vernal equinox occurred in 2019. Moreover, the 2020 equinox will have arrived earlier than any other equinox in the last 124 years.

The vernal equinox falling on March 19 is a phenomenon that has not occurred in the U.S. since 1896, according to Geoff Chester, the public affairs officer for the U.S. Naval Observatory. This is the same year Utah became the 45th state and automobiles became available to the public.

The U.S. Naval Observatory oversees the so-called Master Clock, a system that keeps precise time for a host of clocks around the world used in GPS devices, cellphones and computers, among other things.

Each year, the equinox is expected to take place either on March 20 or 21, but in 2020, the entire U.S. will experience the equinox on March 19.

This shift in timing comes from the uneven amount of days fitting into a calendar year. Each rotation of Earth takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds, and doesn’t fit exactly into a 24-hour day.

The reason the 2020 equinox is particularly noteworthy is that it will be the first equinox since the one in 1896 to arrive early enough that it ends up occurring on March 19 throughout all U.S. time zones, Bob Berman, an astronomer at Slooh, told AccuWeather.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/spring-is-coming-earlier-in-u-s-this-year-than-it-has-since-1896/684213

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Good tip! Air circulation is key, too. So, if you can run a fan in the area where you’re starting seeds, that helps too.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Beau just sent this to me...