It's snowing. I do not approve.
STARTING OUR SPRING GARDEN STAGE 4
Bummer...
Nicole-it was 30* outside this AM if that helps.
It's even cold in here. It was 43 degrees when I woke up this morning.
Jo-Ann
Stupid North Atlantic Oscillation.
Last I heard, the long term forecast suggested that after this time of below average temps we'll just to above average temps. If so... it'll be one of those years without a spring.
This one's for YOU!
"You Know You're Addicted to Gardening When..."
-Your neighbors recognize you in your pajamas, rubber clogs, and a cup of coffee.
-You grab other people's banana peels, coffee grinds, apple cores, etc. for your compost pile.
-You have to wash your hair to get your fingernails clean.
-All your neighbors come and ask you questions.
-You know the temperature of your compost every day.
-You buy a bigger truck so that you can haul more mulch.
-You enjoy crushing Japanese beetles because you like the sound that it makes.
-Your boss makes "taking care of the office plants" an official part of your job description.
-Everything you touch turns to "fertilizer".
-Your non-gardening spouse becomes conversant in botanical names
-You find yourself feeling leaves, flowers and trunks of trees wherever you go, even at funerals
-You dumpster-dive for discarded bulbs after commercial landscapers remove them to plant annuals.
-You plan vacation trips around the locations of botanical gardens, arboretums, historic gardens, etc.
-You sneak home a 7-foot Japanese Maple and wonder if your spouse will notice.
-When considering your budget, plants are more important than groceries
-You always carry a shovel, bottled water and a plastic bag in your trunk as emergency tools.
-You appreciate your Master Gardener badge more than your jewelry.
-You talk "dirt" at baseball practice.
-You spend more time chopping your kitchen greens for the compost pile than for cooking.
-You like the smell of horse manure better than Estee Lauder.
-You rejoice in rain...even after 10 straight days of it.
-You have pride in how bad your hands look.
-You have a decorative compost container on your kitchen counter.
-You can give away plants easily, but compost is another thing.
-Soil test results actually mean something.
-You understand what IPM means and are happy about it
-You'd rather go to a nursery to shop than a clothes store.
-You know that Sevin is not a number
-You take every single person who enters your house on a "garden tour"
-You look at your child's sandbox and see a raised bed.
-You ask for tools for Christmas, Mother/Father's day, your Birthday, and any other occasion you can think of.
-You can't bear to thin seedlings and throw them away.
-You scold total strangers who don't take care of their potted plants.
-You know how many bags of fertilizer/potting soil,/mulch your car will hold.
-You drive around the neighborhood hoping to score extra bags of leaves for your compost pile
-Your preferred reading matter is seed catalogs.
And last but not least:
You know that the four seasons are:
►Planning the Garden
►Preparing the Garden
►Gardening
~and~
►Preparing and Planning for the next Garden!
Author Unknown. I'd love to give credit to the rightful author.
This message was edited Mar 26, 2013 8:12 AM
Gymgirl - I'm guilty of most of the above, but I would add two more...
I find myself removing dead leaves from plants when I visit nurseries, and sticking my fingers in pots to see if they need water!
37F this morning !
I used all the blankets I have .... ahhhh
I keep eating lots of lettuce and carrots.
In the middle "straight" carrots planted in FRUIT dates, while the ones on the side are carrots planted in the wrong dates ... funny carrots.
I've seen versions of that one before and always get a chuckle from them. Thanks for this one!
I got the biggest laugh from the one that listed the point that Roger Swain (the bearded guy from the Victory Garden) started looking good to you. He was a great guy and an even greater teacher, but that beard.....☺
Drthor,
Are you freezing all that lettuce?
Gymgirl... There was a FUNNY comparison many years ago about buying firewood versus getting your own, it was absolutely great. Buying a new 4X4 truck vs. getting the wood delivered, Going to the hospital after cutting yourself when the saw bucked and caught you in the thigh... Throwing the wood in the back of the truck and busting out the back window were just a few that I can remember....
You cannot freeze lettuce.
I eat it every day. My DH eats just a little bit of lettuce ... he says that he doesn't like to eat the some stuff of his pets ... kind of funny - but true !
I eat half a package a meal ... weee
I had the luxury to be raised in a country that has a lot of varieties of "fresh" vegetables.
Some people eats vegetables to loose weight or to stay in shape, I eat vegetable like they are candies ... love it !
I just wish to have lettuce in the summer in a salad together with cukes and tomatoes ... oh well ... we cannot have everything !
Now, my plan is to harvest a bag a day ... I need to make room for eggplants and peppers.
This year I think I figure out he best planting dates for lettuce.
In my garden: August and mid November.
The leaves on my avocado tree curled up and went brittle in the cold, but since it's suffered so many things (including being chewed to the ground by Puppy last spring) and still come through, I have faith it'll pull through.
Something gross had started gnawing through my collards, so I pulled them out and will replace them with some more tomato seedlings once the weather evens out. I went a bit overboard with tomatoes, but I do love them so.
Others coming up inside are friarello peppers, cushaw, okra, cukes...looks like our weather is headed from chilly to 77 in a few days, so hopefully it's not too early to start the okra.
Nola_Nigella
you must try LONG BEANS this year. You eat the whole pod and not the beans.
They are BUONISSIMI !!! and they love the heat !!
Dr Thor! I've got some long beans started up, about half of them inside are taking off like rockets. They seem as though they need a lot of space - I'm going to give them a whirl alongside my house.
"-You have a decorative compost container on your kitchen counter."
Is an old Folgers coffee can with the "aromaseal" lid decorative? Granted, that didn't work so hot the one morning I walked out to the compost pile and dumped it, and then realized I'd picked up the can of coffee I just opened instead of the compost...
I'd like to add to the list:
- Your retirement location planning assessment includes growing zone and soil type.
LOLOLOL, NICOLE!!!!! ^^_^^
That sounds like something I would do! With my coffee cup in the other hand, in my jammies!
Well,
Once AGAIN, I have these HUMONGOUS bean sprouts growing in my compost can. These things are HUGE! Thick as a chopstick, with long stems, and the seed head looks like a big old bean. I can't figure out what they are!
I did NOT sprinkle any alfalfa pellets in this batch, so that ain't it...
Hope they're not castor beans, lol.
Show us a pic Lynda
My guess is squash seeds, Linda. They get big like that.
My reaction to many of those was "OF COURSE! Wouldn't anyone? How could you NOT?"
>> -You can give away plants easily, but compost is another thing.
I know that one well. Me too. "Love thy neighbor" only goes SO far!
>> -You have a decorative compost container on your kitchen counter.
I never thought of decorating them. But I could use BIGGER ones!
IPM - is that for when non-gardening in-laws come to visit?
Some author described a gardener as wishing he had the biggest "garbage pile" in the valley.
More lettuce and peppers.
I am trying to harvest lettuce as fast as I can. I need the space for other veggies and the lettuce seem to start to bolt.
Asparagus is up!
Funny... I ordered Martha Washington but these spears are most definitely purple, and not in a vague "sometimes the tips are purplish" kinda way. Surprise!
LOL! NOIDs?
The vendor doesn't even *sell* purple asparagus.
Maybe they are cold. : /
Quote from NicoleC :
The vendor doesn't even *sell* purple asparagus.
Maybe they don't think they do. Are they actually growing the plants or just acting as a retailer? Could be they got a shipment of purple asparagus plants from their supplier without knowing it.
Quote from rjogden :
Maybe they don't think they do. Are they actually growing the plants or just acting as a retailer? Could be they got a shipment of purple asparagus plants from their supplier without knowing it.
They are supposed to be a grower, but even growers sometimes source from other places. I don't really care that they are purple; I was just happy at how lovely and healthy the crowns were.
The SO won't eat alternatively colored vegetables but I doubt he'd eat the asparagus anyway.
I thought that the purple asparagus turned green once cooked??? Maybe I have that confused with the purple pole beans....
I have started to trim my tomatoes.
I trimmed all the leaves below the first flower blooms and all the leaves that touched the ground.
The plants are making lots of suckers and I am trying to remove them, apart Gold Nugget and Koralik.
Cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, eggplants and beans have been hardening off for last week.
I will transplant them tomorrow and Wednesday.
I just love this time of the year !!
I am waiting to get headed for home. What I am planting will be seeded directly outside when I get there, Or I will pu a few plants that I have no seeds fo rto add to their new home. I cant wait, but tho I am ready my load to the house isnt materializing today, sigh.
WEEKEND UPDATE:
The tomatoes have "greened up", and are starting to crank out marbles!
The beets in planters on the patio are looking much healthier since I sprinkled Sluggo Plus and stopped the pill bugs from munching holes everywhere...
Onions are holding steady...
Spinach was being munched by a cutworm who was killed in a freak accident!
Black Beauty Eggplants outside are taking off in an EB.
Here're some pics.
#1 Beets in a planter
#2 Kimberly Cherry Tomato
#3 Black Beauty Eggplants in an EB
#4 Onions from seeds sowed in August 2012
#5 Spinach being munched on by a cutworm or a locust/grasshopper
Linda
This message was edited May 10, 2013 11:18 AM
We're due for another round of cold weather the next couple of days. :/ Thankfully, it's not supposed to freeze, but still down in the 40s overnight.
DrThor, you can take those suckers, root them, and make great new tomato plants for yourself or as gifts.
Freak only in that he got seen, chuckl. you guys are doin yourself proud.
Thanks, Steph! I need to go check the weather report again!
Thanks Kitt!
I was so outdone when I finally found him (had been looking for days), that I overcame my fear and grabbed his butt with my bare hand, and carried him over to the place of no return....
I checked the babies again tonight. I am pretty sure they're going to make it if we can get them through this next cold snap!! Tonight, I cut off the freezer burnt leaves off the maters, the flower stalks off my onions, and I sprayed the tomatoes with a combination of soap, liquid horticultural molasses, compost tea, and fish emulsion. I did this to feed and nourish the babies as well as to keep the bugs away since they're already stressed.
First Japanese Beetle sighting. He may soon be attracked to and killed by a freak chemical spill LOL! I have those bag/trap things ready to set up. If only I could train those feral hogs to eat J/B grubs. You know, like they train Italian hogs to root up truffles.
Tomatoes have been hardened off and will start planting as the week goes by. I planted out more pole beans and some cucumbers over the weekend. Also some zuc. They should be OK with the cold snap as they have crow covers on the bed. I planted out the special sweet corn I bought that is supposed to be able to germinate in cooler soil temps. That bed is covered, too. So we shall have to see about that.
My soil temps are nearing a consistant 70 degrees. Once this cold snap is past I can see some more sweet corn in my future.
Yep! Sounds like things are about to start revving up around here!
My two vacant raised beds were prepped weekend before last, and this weekend, my hope is to sow seeds!
In RB #1, Bell peppers, Okra, swiss chard, more eggplants, maybe some beans?
In RB #2, beet, turnip, and carrot seeds on one end, and eggplants on the other end.