Who else will Winter Sow in the PNW?

Ahh, glad to have shared the oath with such good company. Just what is this pathetic weather we are cursed with? First, below freezing overnight for 4 nights in a row, and well below freezing at that. I had to go dig my banana at midnight. Call me a procrastinator, but I got kind of used to that nice weather we had for most of October. I'm easily spoiled. Anything else that can't handle the cold will have to just go ahead and die. I can't put anymore over-wintering plants in the garage, and I can barely walk into the greenhouse at this point. That pesky day job I have is taking up way too much of my time lately.
So now I sit here with a yard of unspread compost in a huge pile by my totally dug out perennial bed. With the amount of rain in the forecast, I have visions of sloshing through the garden, compacting that pathetic clay even more than usual, trying to dig this stuff into the ground and get the plants back in the garden without getting pneumonia. I must be insane. Then I come here and find that I am in good company! Thank goodness!

Katy, I envy you your heated workshop! Show us your stuff, woman!

Jburesh, sorry, I'm not going to make it this weekend. Way too much going on right now. Plus, I have so many hundreds (literally) of plants that are now out of their little dirt homes that I really have to force myself to focus on getting things put back together. It's too bad because I would have many plants to give away. But right now they are just in little piles.And let's not even get started on all the seeds I have yet to sow. Don't even ask.

Melissa, thanks for the encouragement! I did get the maple leaves raked up before the rain came. My hydrangeas look awful! Of course so do the dahlias but I know that's normal for them. I'm anxious to see if some of my pretties overwinter this year. One whole workbench in the workshop is filled with potted plants... where the heck did they all come from? LOL I didn't accomplish anything yesterday, I had to drive to Olympia for Dr's. appt only to have it canceled after I got there. Grrr! Blew the whole day for me. Here's a couple of shots of the beginning of my nativity base. It'll taper from 14" to 18" and will sit on a 6' bookshelf in my living room. I'm discovering there's an awful lot of prep work to do before I can start the fun stuff. OBTW, never use spray paint directly on polystyrene. I almost killed my critters and me when a piece I was testing with began boiling and smoking. Wow! Bad stuff.

Hey, I've got my work load down to just 10 plants that need to be planted... and mataining the plantroom.. got the fushisa,and cannas inside... jeeeesh what a job. I've got one more afternoon in the garden, and then maybe a day of cleanup,, and I'm ready to winter sow when the time comes....awwwh,,, big breath.

Dont know how well it will all come out next spring.. but I've done my best...

Oh yeah, still have compost to put down... ouch!

Viv

Keep the pics coming Kathy, I want to see it when its done!

Viv

Today I sculpted some more, sanded and painted with a latex paint. I tried a hypertufa recipe on a piece of scrap and I don't like it. Too rough. Tomorrow I'll try a recipe with just cement, sand and old latex paint for sticky. The color won't matter as I intend to sponge paint trying for as realistic landscape appearance as I can manage.

Question for Melissa or other cement artists. Will I be able to poke holes in the material after it sets up for trees and shrubs, or should I make holes while it's wet and hold them open with toothpicks? I'd prefer the former 'cause I can mess about more with the design.

katy, I'm going to enjoy watching your base emerge - keep the pics coming, please!

I have sooooooooooooooo much to do outside and no time whatsoever to do it. What's a person to do??? Just wait, I guess, and punt when the time is right.

That's going to look great, Katy! Yes, you will be able to poke holes after the stuff has started to set, but before it's really, really hard. You can use a drillbit to do it when it's pretty firm, or just a pencil or other pokey stick when it's still very soft.

I'm almost glad that this rain is keeping me inside. My yard is just too pitiful looking right now. Maybe when we get a break in the rain I'll be able to finish cleaning up without feeling so sad.

Here's todays progress. Gee, doesn't look like much for all the work and messing about! The blob on the right is the hypertufa scrap I don't like. I'm just not patient enough. Waiting for things to dry makes me nuts.

Sorry Katye - was out gardening all day yesterday so didn't log on - let me put it this way, I TRY TO TURN - and it really does help if we manage to do it. Our weather is almost exactly the same as yours - spring/summer is dramatically variable here - we had a remarkably late spring this year (in fact we had a freakish snow fall of over 3" after easter this year - didn't stay on the ground, but weird) and although we usually have a short period of high temp in summer (30C/90+F), this year we had quite a long dry summer with a moderate period of high temp. Then this autumn, after a long dry summer, we had a very wet October and everything seems to think it is spring! Plants have put on new growth, new leaves, and some have reblossomed. But, otherwise, we match pretty well.

What I find about compost is that it is not just heat that breaks compost down. It is the cycle of heat, wet, cold, heat, wet, cold - and that is the rhythm of our weather. We can be freezing in February, then hit a mild spell good enough to strip off to t-shirts (when wheelbarrowing), and then next day back in two layers of fleece. So when we build the compost area, I had them placed so that they get hit by all of the weather - and trust me, we get it all. So if there is any sun/heat/wind/snow/wet/cold going these bins get it all. The sides of the bins are built of wood planks too, so there is good air circulation, and then we produce alot (I'm going to have to work out posting a picture!) of green material, and we get a goodly amount of worms.

When we are ready to use the compost I rake off the top 6" or so of the pile, plop that on the 'in progress' pile and the rest seems to be good. That is the best I can say. Seems to work. (I suspect, also, we might have some little tiny garden fairies out there with tiny little spuds turning turning turning at midnight each night).

All of you keep talking about packing up the garden for winter? I'm a bit puzzled, don't you do all of your new digging/beds/maintainence in the winter?

Time for fixing things that are broken, maybe -- but the ground here was frozen for several days already, and probably will be again soon. Not much digging gets done when the top several inches of dirt is hard as ice. And if it's not frozen the rain is trying to wash all the topsoil down into the nearest stream / lake / ocean, so stirring it up isn't a good idea most of the winter. We all just have to hope that it will dry out early enough to get seeds or starts in the ground before the summer sun comes around and fries everything to a crisp while we're not looking. :-)

I'm afraid I'm hijacking my own thread! Just keep discussing around me please. Here's the top of the eastern (King's route) hill so far. I need to take a break and try to keep my hands off it. I have ideas for dibbing and dabbing final touches but patience (darn) is the word for now.

I have heavy clay soil that becomes a mucky mess in the winter and bakes quite hard in the summer (those areas that I have not built up into beds). Fall and late spring are my best times to establish new planting areas if I plan on tilling or digging. Before winter comes I do try to mulch the beds I have with old straw or whatever else I can find. This keeps the rain from beating the soil into a pulp. I also have used cover crops of fava beans or crimson clover to help prevent erosion. This year I haven't managed either as yet.

Interesting. We are on heavy clay too - last autumn/winter we spent the months between Oct and January digging a new damp bed and hot bed. We double dug the area, adding in a full two spits of manure, and then let it resettle for the remainder of the season - I find it just comes up a treat than from the spring. It is a hell of a job, but really worth the trouble. The new damp bed actually worked - never dried out even during a month without any rain at all. I was impressed - and not a little chuffed.

We do get frozen soil, but it never lasts more than a couple/10 days. We just shift from digging to cutting out unwanted growth on trees and shrubs during those periods, and shredding - boy I love my shredder! And turning the compost - bless - why is it always so far down on the list.

I live north of Seattle and have very heavy clay soil (joking that maybe i should build a plant to make bricks in my backyard),
and i am not strong enough for double digging and mixing compost (my DH does not like gardening at all), so here what i am doing
in fall I put a layer of wood chips (get from tree service company) just on soil, on top put grass clipping mixed with leaves (get from lawn maintence company), add some soil or compost every 2-3'' layer of staff that you get from lawn maintence company (to introduce some bacteria) and sprinkle some lime, water to make sure that it's not soaking wet if clippings are dry, i'll add small layers of scheded paper for worms to enjoy, peat moss if i have it, cover everything with scheded leaves from my fruit trees and put tart on top, in winter I dig there kitchen scraps. In spring depending on time when i started this bed and kind of winter it was (colder winter means longer composting) i can add or not add small layer of planting mix, surround bed with jars from juice that my family drank during winter (i collect these jars and fill them with rain water during winter) and plant what i want on top. I feed my plants at first with fish fertulizer or "stinging nettle fertulizer" that i do by myself because beds will stil decompost some time in spring/summer but i had the best tomatoes on such kind of beds. And good thing about this that soil underneath became better by itself.

Another thing that i am doing is row composting, i dig rows along the place or bed in fall and then in winter i fill them with kitchen scraps, old cotton or wool things, paper from my schreder and any other organic matter and cover with soil. Works fine and actually warms the soil in such way that i can plant early veggies between rows.

brierGardener, I'm saving your post. That's good stuff! I've done a couple of small lasanga beds successfully but didn't use a lot of the goodies you did. I really like your row compost idea, no boxes or turning frequently.

Excellent idea Brier!

Katye, good work on your project!!!

Brier, I also have had success with lasagna gardening - I've only done it in a small way, but was astounded at the results!!! I have a rototiller which I used when we first bought this house as there were virtually no flower beds, but in a few places the clay was so hard I was literally thrown back and couldn't use it. Thus I tried the lasagna method. I find it remarkable.

Katy, nice work on your project! It's really taking shape. You must be having a great time doing this, plus learning patience to keep your hands off it until it's set up!! LOL! I've broken so many things through being impatient that one would think I would know better by now.

This rain will be the end of me and my pond is almost over flowing. Yesterday it wasn't raining in the morning, so I went out to the garden and started digging the pile of compost into the garden awaiting my attention. Mauryhill, we have the same soil. Sticky heavy clay mud in the winter, and the water just goes right through it in the summer because it has hardened into hard lumps. Walking in the soil in winter creates conditions for anaerobic bacteria to thrive. Plus makes you feel like you have clay feet. Forget walking inside after a trip to the garden. Truely I had to apologize to each and every plant in that garden as I just do not know how they survived it. Putting the fork into the soil, I found I could push it down almost all the way, and then I would hit a solid layer of rocks. Not little rocks. Big rocks. And it was as though they were cemented into the dirt. So needless to say I was still out there digging away when the storm hit. I got close to a yard dug in and then ran out of compost, thankfully, because by that time I was totally soaked. So the rest of it waits. I'm sure that everyone in the garden will be much, much happier next year.

Here's my project through today. The eastern and middle sections. This is just the bare bones, but it's starting to shape up. I still have the western (shepherds) section to start, I need to decide what to use for pasture first.

It's totally great!

Katye, amazing!!!!!!

There, I'm finished (for now). I got the base finished and added the hardscape and plant material to get an idea how it would look when I add the figures. The collage is from left to right.

Fabulous - I am so impressed . . . and I can't believe what a short time!

that is beautiful!! Will you be using any little twinkly lights? I can't wait to see all the kings and animals and such in place!

Awwwwwsome! That is really nice.

Thank you so much for all the kind words. When I'm sure it dry enough I will sponge paint some highlights here and there. I don't know about lights yet, if I could add just a few here and there to simulate firelight I would. Anyone have an idea how that could be done? Also, should I spray a protective coat of some kind over it? Remember, I'm a novice at the cement stuff!

I've made a campfire before using different colors of tissue paper, cut in the shape of flames and secured at the bottom. You can use a light at the bottom to make it glow. If you use the kind of small lights that will stay lit up when some of the bulbs are removed, then you don't have to deal with excess lights and no place to put them.

Wow...I love your project!

Thanks Melissa, I may have some of those. If not, I'll look for some. Sounds like a nice enhancement!