Weather watching Jan 2014 Snow

My Lilac is on the "OLD" side---last year it had only 3 blooms.
It is such a pretty lilac--a french-double purple/blue. It needs more sun--I know that,
but there is nothing I can do about that.

I have been trying to cull out the really old canes--but the new growth is SOOO slow...
I am sad about it not blooming--in its hay day, it was covered with beautiful,
large clusters...
Again--it is near my maple....it is smack against the 6' fence my neighbor put up...
and is shaded by the trees.

Could I feed it something??? What?

Just reminiscing here......
1--April, 2006
2--May, 2008
3-April, 2009

Everyone--especially Ric

I have a serious question to you all--re something at HD.
Please answer if you really know--or have had any experience with this.
I, kind of, know the answer--but i want to hear what any of you think.

In Outside garden, near the cashiers, there is a product display rack.
On this rack are bottles of various fertilizers and other liquid products.
There are also some dry goods--such as small boxes of MG powdered fertilizers.
There is a good amount of product on this rack.
No one actually attends to this--and not too many customers buy stuff off of it.
I think it is meant to be a last minute 'grab" of something kind of a display.

Now that i am in garden again--I see all these "flaws" and want to do something about this.

Here's the thing...........
There products have been sitting out there through all the freezes we have just had.
Most of the liquid products are frozen solid--some, amazingly, are not.
ome things on it have been there for a couple years.

Things will progress into spring and summer soon--and I believe that all these products will
be just sold like they are perfectly OK.
I feel that they ALL are greatly compromised by having been frozen and thawed, etc....
I always bring MY liquid things in for the winter. The dry stuff stays outside in my shed.

I brought this up at our recent Pre-Season Garden meeting--and said they should
all be thrown out. This would amount to some serious mark-down losses--maybe
a couple hundred dollars.
Some quickly agreed--but, I KNOW, no one will do anything about it.

SO--here is my question:
In your INFORMED opinion, should liquid fertilizers and bug sprays be thrown out after
they have sat there frozen/thawed/frozen/thawed or are they still "viable" to use as intended??
How about the liquids vs, the dry goods?

The shame is that NO ONE--including management--have taken the responsibility
to bring all this stuff in for the winter. It all just sits there in plain sight--just outside
the Greenhouse. None of them really care--or really know anything about gardening.
In the least--the merchandise should be rotated and filled with more seasonal items--
as the seasons come and go.

I may c/p out some of your comments and present them to the garden Supervisor and ASM.
depends what you all say.....

Thank you for your time---Gita

My thoughts: Yes, the temperature swings probably do reduce the efficacy of the liquid stuff that freezes and thaws. But all those chemicals are pretty potent so even if you lose a bit of effectiveness, it's probably not going to make a difference in the end result to the average consumer.

A more particular gardener probably wouldn't buy it, because they would question storage conditions, as you do. Notice that the garden centers like Benkhe's and Valley View Farms all keep their chemicals inside.

If the product was so vulnerable to phase changes, I believe the company would have some kind of label advising that the product not be exposed to extreme temps.

I feel like the powder stuff is pretty indestructible, and probably really only susceptible to damage from UV light, not affected by temp. It's probably sold in powder form because it's not stable in a liquid, like Miracle-Gro.

But what do I know, I'm a biologist, not a chemist! :)

Good question, good answer (as far as I know too!)

Nearly all liquid fertilizers (chemical or organic) should actually be fine if frozen. The loss of efficacy would be so close to minimal as not to be noticed (like Catmint said). When Spring comes, ALL the bottles should be inspected for cracks or leaks. Contents should be shaken well before use to re-incorporate solvents and active ingredients.

Liquid pesticides, on the other hand, are a whole different animal. There is such a broad range of chemicals used in them that their temperature tolerance varies greatly. The bottles should be read to find the minimum storage temp for each, and then they should be treated accordingly. Some will tolerate -10 degrees F, some will not tolerate getting below +40 degrees F.

All dried products should be absolutely fine where they are.

At work, we store all our liquid stuffs inside the 'spare office' in the back of the store; nothing gets below +60 degrees F there. The dry stuff either stays in their respective sheds, or gets stored in the greenhouse over-winter.

Well heck, I really need more coffee this early in the morning before I start yapping... please forgive my feet in my mouth --

HAHAHA Speedie! Come on in, the coffee's fine!

I overslept my alarm this morning and then found that schools are 2 hour delay for this slightly-more-than-a-dusting of snow. Taking advantage of the opportunity to hang out with my kids in the morning for once. On normal work days, I leave before anyone else is awake. Here in Parkville, we received just the perfect amount of snow. Enough to make things pretty and to give the kids a little break from the routine, but not so much that it's annoying.

2-hour delay for us, too--and I had trouble sleeping last night and couldn't enjoy the extra time to sleep in! :-(

On Gita's question, I think each different liquid chemical will state on the bottle what the storage conditions are for that particular bottle.

Thanks for all your opinions--for now---

Ric--Yooo--Hoooo I need to hear what YOU have to say!
G.

Speedie, at the wholesale nursery where I worked we had a locked metal rodent proof shed where certain 'chemicals' were stored that required a Licensed Applicator to use and was part of the regular State Inspection and regs for License renewal. The owner wore a HazMat suit to enter that area or for any application of stuff. She also locked any green house and hung warning signs to prevent any accidental exposure while being treated.

Does anyone know how long it can take the ground to defrost, once air temperatures exceed freezing?

Here is the upcoming forecast in my neck of the woods -- first temperature is the predicted high, the second is the predicted low:

Today, Jan 30
31°F
21°F

Fri Jan 31
45°
29°

Sat Feb 1
Partly Cloudy
47°
39°

Sun Feb 2
Cloudy
50°
28°

Is there any chance the ground will be thawed on Sunday so I can do some planting? After Sunday it gets cold again. But I was hoping since Saturday is warm and it won't freeze Saturday night....

Then again, I know how long it takes frozen turkeys to defrost in the fridge...

How far down is your soil frozen? Sometimes I can chip away the top frozen layer in one piece or so , plant what i want in cold soil and then replace the frozen hat!

I have also cleared away snow as dark absorbs more sun (heat) than light and have used black plastic to prewarm soil in my veggie garden to speed up or enhance soil warming. Soil under a deep layer of mulch or leaves stay warmer than uncovered areas.

I buy fresh turkeys! Or go out for dinner!

Coleup: I don't know how far down the soil is frozen -- I assuming with the very cold weather we've been having, the ground must be frozen fairly deeply. I'll just have to wait and see. That's a good idea, to put black plastic over the area where I want to work!

(We don't usually buy frozen turkeys -- we even drive out to Maple Lawn Farms for very fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving. http://www.maplelawn.com/ I really recommend it! They sell frozen turkeys as a side-line, and we've bought them occasionally when we are out there for our thanksgiving turkey, to save for a cold winter's night. We assumed they'd thaw in 24 hours. Not close!)

Been there done that on the turkey thawing! And it ain't easy to run a 25 pounder under cool running water or fit it in the microwave! And even a partially frozen bird is hard to cut into smaller portions....

If it's just a couple small spots, an overturned nursery pot might do the same as the black plastic until it blew away!

What is it you want to plant if possible?

I still have bulbs to plant, so I need to dig down deep. And a bunch of hostas that I'm tucking in as I go. It's cut-and-dried-- either I can dig Sunday or I can't. I left some ice cream in the car's trunk overnight because the high today was supposed to be 31 degrees and I was too lazy to carry it into the house last night - but I just brought it in and it was soft -- so maybe that is a good sign... for my planting at least (not so much for the ice cream).

Happy--

Could you, at least, plant your bulbs in some pots and, at least, let them start
some root growth? Keep them in a very cool location such as a garage?
Then you can pot them in the beds when the frost is gone.
Seems you bit off a bit more than you can chew with all the bulb sales....:o(

I really don't think it is a good idea to plant them in frozen ground right now.
All that hard work---Not sure they would even grow any roots....

Just my 2 cents.........G.

Gita: I've planted bulbs well into February in past years with no ill effects. It's impossible to plant them if the ground is frozen, of course, but as soon as the ground is soft enough (even if only for a day) I'll go back to popping them in. Daffodils are amazingly resilient. I couldn't attempt to plant as many bulbs as I usually do without spreading that challenge across the entire winter. (Though this year proved unexpectedly challenging because my DH hurt his back. And then this January has been so cold!) And yes, I've got some planted in pots and some in the fridge! Those are the ones I won't plant in the ground until April when I'll know where the "holes" in my current daffodil plantings are and I'll use the new bulbs to fill in. Most of the "holes" are where we removed a huge oak tree some years back.

Several years ago, when I had made a huge bulb purchase, I set aside all the rotten bulbs I found in the boxes. (Back then I hadn't gotten very skilled at storing the bulbs. Now I am more careful about the temperature I store them at and I don't lose many at all.) And I planted those bulbs -- mind you, rotten ones -- in amongst some Hakonechloa I was trying to propagate from little bitty pieces. In the shade. In February. I figured at least they'd be a good soil amendment! And now lo and behold, and to my complete shock, lots of daffodils come up in that spot, year after year. If those daffs could survive and multiply, anything is possible! So I don't follow the rule to plant daffs in September. I don't think I've EVER planted bulbs in September or October -- I'm too busy putting the rest of the yard to bed.

The biggest determiner of whether daffodils will do well for me seems to be if I put them in an area that I provide much supplemental water to during the summer. Those don't do as well. Most of mine are in a bed in the front of the house that gets very little supplemental water.

By the way, the daffodils you gave me got a special spot of honor around two Spiraea Anthony Waterer plants near our front door -- they will make a great showing there! I planted them looooong ago. I am very excited at the prospect of seeing them pop up there.

(The tulips and other spring-blooming bulbs, those I do plant quickly.)

How do you organize your photos of your garden? My photos are all organized by date (the software does it automatically), but I can never pull out specific shots. I was going to see if I had a shot of the daffodils in bloom in the front of our house.... I'll try to remember to post a photo this spring.

Too bad Picasso doesn't have a plant-recognition-feature, like its face-recognition-feature....

I keep a Steno pad into which I list plants and the dates they can be looked up under.
Not all pictures!! That would take up several note pads.

My pictures are under: My Documents--My Pictures--and another sub-title which
won't mean anything if I list it. Then there are Folders with the dates for each month.
Right now--the Folder i am stashing everything in is--January, 2014.

I bet there are plenty of programs on the computer that would work better--but i am not
all that savvy about the computer. I know my way around in what I use every day--
nothing "outside the box"...

How do you--or anyone else, find a picture to post?
G.

Here is the bottom half of my Folders.
Each has whatever pictures were taken in that month.

If I knew how to do a "screen shot"--I would not have to take a picture
of my scree--which always turn out yukky.

That's the way my photos are stored, as well. But I don't have system for locating shots within that array.... I know I could do it manually, but I'd prefer something automatic.

I save my pics the same way -- "My Pictures", and then each folder is labeled accordingly; "Winter Sowing 2010 thru 2011", "New Iris Installation Sept. 2013" etc etc. When I want to access a photo to post here, it's relatively easy to find due to its folder-categorization.

Another easier way to find pictures is to go to "My Documents" ->"My Pictures".
Now the whole screen is filled with dated Folders.
I open a Folder to see what is inside. It is easy to look at every picture at once.
It is like an "overview" of all of them...
And--what helps is that--the Folder I just looked is still highlighted after I X out of it.
I can see where i was...

My little Steno Pad is so full--I never left enough space to keep adding new ":hints".

Need to add "significant Photo descriptions" from end of last year--
like starting in September. Something else I have procrastinated away
G..

Gita, it looks like you have a version of Windows that doesn't have the Snipping Tool so here's how to take a screenshot:
Press Ctrl + Print Screen. This copies the screenshot to your clipboard.
Open a picture editing software like Microsoft Paint, or Powerpoint.
Press Ctrl + V to paste the screenshot into your blank canvas or powerpoint slide.
Crop the picture as needed. Save it as a jpg. (In Powerpoint, you need to select save slide as jpg. which may be sort of hidden so click around a little bit to find that option)

Voila!

If you have a newer version of Windows, with the Snipping Tool, it's tons easier but that's a lesson for another day :)

Oh that is so very cool, thank you Karen!! I've been wondering for AEONS how to get my "print screen" to work, LOL! You're a genius!! =)

Karen--

Whew!!! That all sounds like too much work and too complicated.

I DO have the button on the right (above the numbers key board)
that says PrtScn. Below that (on the same button) it says SysRq.
The Picture Editing program I have is Adobe Photoshop. It is a bit complicated....
I always meant to download Picassa--people seem to like it a lot.

I will just do the camera thing--that I understand--if I need to. I seldom need to
show anyone my screen--but I know it comes in handy.
I think I am pretty up-to-date with Windows. Where can I go to see what I have?

Thanks for the instructions..I will print them out.

Gita: Karen's instructions are spot-on and they are actually easier than they might sound -- and you can make them easier still.

1. Hit "print screen." (You don't have to hit "control" or "alt", though doing that gives you additional options.)
2. Open Word (or any other word processing document).
3. Hit "paste" (or control and V at the same time). That's it. You may need to have Word set up to NOT default to the formatting in your Word document -- that's the only trick. So if hitting "paste" doesn't work, try "paste special." If you don't know how to do that, let us know!

Karen's instructions let you edit the print screen and save it as a .jpg document. But if you just copy the screen print to Word, you'll get an idea of how cool this is. Then we can help you find the "paint" program to save your screen print, which I'm sure is buried in your computer. If you can save it as a .jpg, you can import it into DG.

Wow Happy, you are too cool for school!!! I didn't know you could 'past' a page (like this one) from screenshot to a Word document... and I never knew before what "paste special" was! LOL!!! I'm having fun now with the new stuff I've learned!! < =D

Gita, you have GOT to give it a go and play with it, how COOL this is!!

Unlike what Zaphod Beeblebrox is told in "The Hitchhiker's Guide", in this case, buttons ARE toys!! < =D

Happy--

Are "paste" and "Paste Special" on the Word screen? Or is it the "paste"
I always use by right-clicking and choosinf "paste"???
I REALLY need a basic class in understanding the fetures on Word.
Sometimes I hit something--and then something comes up and I can't get rid of it.
Like--edit header????? What's that about???

I believe I can copy anything by right-clicking on it and choosing "Save as"--
Then a small window comes up--I name the "document" I am copying--and
click OK.
Then it, automatically would go into "Downloads"--but I can choose "My Pictures"
or anywhere else as well.
Now it is in a jpg format--and I can click and "open" it and put it in DG or anywhere else.

That is how I save pretty pictures from many sources to use on my Desk Top
or to print out for my seed packets. Many times I have to Google a plant for a good picture of it.

A side benefit--if I can say so--is that, once the picture has gone through this process--
it becomes copyrighted under MY name..NOT that it matters to me....

G.

Happy, a few years ago I bought an Adobe application called Photoshop Elements. It provides photo editing and cataloging capabilities. It is a scaled down version of the professional version used by printers in a production environment - this version is intended for hobbyists. It is fairly intuitive if you are familiar with those kinds of applications, but I went through the online help tutorials and I bought the book Photoshop Elements for Dummies. I don't want to imply that it is difficult to learn, it is just my nature to get down in the weeds.

Anyway, the physical location of my photos is the "My Photos" folder - and then in subfolders by date taken. The Photoshop Elements application lets you associate as many tags on the photos as you want. I have set up one of the a tags for category (tag it as either plants, family, friends, pets, wildlife, vacations, events, home improvement, etc... ). I set up other tags to help me target even further - If plants, I usually tag with plant name, garden location, whether it is a favorite photo or not, etc.... If people, I usually tag with person's name, where photo was taken, etc.... It makes it a snap to find exactly what you are looking for with a simple query in the Photoshop Elements application.

Physical location is no longer an issue - no searching through hundreds of folders, thousands of pictures - no keeping notes or trying to name photos to include all combinations of how you may want to search for them (or no duplicating photos if you are using folder locations to simulate categories). Believe me, I've tried all kinds of manual methods. Using this application is by far the easiest. I still haven't gone back to tag all my old photos - I work on it once in a while, but I haven't made it a priority. I just tag all new photos. The tagging is a few easy extra steps, but it saves so much time and frustration when I want to find something specific.

I can't remember the price, but I got mine at Costco. I'm sure Amazon has it as well if you are interested.


This message was edited Feb 1, 2014 9:09 AM

The way this screenshot stuff works (only so far as I know from playing with it this morning), is... First, you hit cntrl AND the screenshot button at the same time..
Then you open up "Word" and click on the "Edit" tab at the top. From there you can choose either "Paste", or "Paste Special".
When you choose "Paste Special" it pastes the thing onto the page WITH the ability to alter it... like, you can stretch out the sides to make it wider, or you can stretch the top and bottom to make it taller. (Sorta like fun-house mirrors, LOL!!)

If you were to choose plain ol' "Paste", all it does is paste it in EXACTLY as it is, WITHOUT any options to alter it.

That's all I know so far... but now I don't have time to goof-off with it anymore as it's nearly time for me to start on my homework. ;P

I often do like you said that you do: I find an image I like and, after checking out copyright stuff, I will right click it and "save as"... which automatically sends it to "my pictures" and allows me to rename it and save it as whatever I want to name it.

Gita: How "paste" works depends on what version of Word you use. Mine is 2010. On my version, if you right click with your cursor in the middle of a Word document, a menus comes up that gives you several Word options, including various paste ones. In addition, on the menu bar that goes across the top of the page, under the "home" tab, is a drop down "paste" menu. If you take "paste special" it allows you to choose whether to have the thing you are pasting take the format of the document into which you are pasting it OR the document from whence it came. If you take "paste" (vs. "paste special"), that is essentially a shortcut, and the format your insert takes will depend on how your Word defaults are set up. I believe the default, until you change it, is to retain the formatting of the document whence it came. (I don't usually use "whence", trust me.)

The way you have described capturing a photo and saving it to your system is perfect.

Aspen: I think we have a copy of the full-bore Photoshop. DH had MANY boxes of old family slides he wanted to digitize, so we got an expensive scanner, and I think we got Photoshop in connection with that erstwhile project. The idea was to quickly scan all the photos and immediately sell the scanner but that was years ago and he is still mid-project (sigh). Photoshop scares me! Just because there is so much to it. I wonder if I could use Picasa (which I love but haven't used since I changed computers) instead of Elements. I like the idea of being able to save tags in a way that doesn't touch the actually photo's file name - is that what Photoshop does? One problem I have with these programs is that it isn't clear when and if you are changing the actual photo files (which I don't want to do).

Speedie: I bet the screenshot protocol changes based on your version of Windows and Word. In mine, I can just hit "print screen" without using alt or control.

Trying to be modestly respectful of Sally's thread topic, I can report that Montgomery County is predicting a winter storm Sunday night /Monday morning -- 3-5" of snow.

Here is our forecast--pretty much the same.....

When will all this end????/

Mon Feb 3
Snow

36°

24°

Snow

Chance of snow:
90%

Wind:
N at 10 mph

Snowfall
3-5 in

HaHa, so sorry Sally. We did get off track of the weather topic.

So quick answer - Photoshop Elements is much easier to use than Photoshop, and yes the data tagging leaves the original photo and file name untouched.

I'm COLD. Mike is being a bum and hasn't brought any more wood over to the house for the wood stove so the temperature in the house is in the high 50s low 60s BRRRRRR. I guess I am being a bum too because I'm complaining about it but won't get out there to do it myself either. I can easily deal with our normal winter 40s, but teens and single digits? I'm with Gita, when will these cold temps end?

Terri--

The time on your post is an hour ahead! I is just 8:45PM now. It shows 9:40PM..

Did you re-set your time when all the clocks got turned back???

I have a Dr's appt. MOnday morning--whoopie! 4" of snow!
It is not too far--and I always trust my Little Subaru...

Besides--I never freak out about driving in any kind of weather--
it is the OTHER drivers I have to watch... G.

Weird, it shows 8:40 on my view. Are you sure it isn't YOU that has your DG preference set to a different time zone LOL. Actually, I AM interested to know if it is just my post that shows the wrong time on your view. Inquiring minds want to know...

Hmmmmm.........Sorry, Terri-

My post also shows 9-:56 PM.
Odd--as the clock in the bottom right tool bar is correct....9:03PM. So is my watch.

I bet there are people already freaking out re this on the DG Forum....
G.

AspenHill's post that starts "HaHa, so sorry Sally" is dated 8:40 for me, at least.

Aspen: Thanks for the info on Elements. I may try Picasa first, and if that doesn't do the trick, graduate to Elements. Though maybe Elements is better to hang my hat on, since I suppose Google could pull Picasa at any time whereas I would own Elements. Is that the correct way to think of it?

We don't keep our house anywhere close to as cold as you do, but I do get cold in the basement -- the floor of the basement (where my computer is) is almost 10 degrees colder than the air because the wood flooring is on a concrete slab. So I bought a pair of electric heated slippers on ebay and they are great (they were called "Family Practice Dry Massage System foot chargers with heat" - $15). I don't think they use much electricity (though I haven't checked them). Not a fashion statement. My DH refused to buy a pair -- maybe he is more vain than I realized! Of course, I can't walk anywhere in them....