The famous Pennsylvania rodent, wanting more shuteye this year, has us with 6 more weeks of non-agrarian weather. Now I will have to wait till the white stuff melts to try my new garden tools. The seed catalog is wearing out. Jerry
Puxatonie has been right only 40% of the time over the last ten years. I personally rely on our cats, who are never wrong about anything. Ever. If we get more winter, we'll cope. If we don't, we'll rejoice!
We do not have groundhogs here...but the sun shone today. Since we do not have groundhogs, does that mean that we will not have six more weeks of winter weather?
Haha well I learned we have a La Nina which means my area is expecting 0 to +2f variation heading into spring! Some clippers but they are a few days only! So here we go being late to start as usual on a warm spring year! Seeds start this weekend!
Those stands are helpful. In the Spring, I roll it outside in the morning then back inside at night. The evenings here are too cool for the young tomatoes and peppers. Looks like you are ready to roll!
Yes! I am actually contemplating a heat tent or plastic sheet with a heat lamp to drape over it, but it certainly will make life easier than what I have been doing in previous years. Good thing I bought two! I will keep a kitchen herb garden on one I imagine.
I like winter, but I also use it to try and catch up on stuff I did not get done last summer/fall/etc. I am very far behind because the last several years I lost a lot of trees to various storms, or were danger trees to my house and the power lines. Thankfully good friends helped with a lot of the log splitting and clean up, but I never got near the weeding--a large veggie garden and somewhere around 50+ flower beds or so, plus containers.. Sometimes I cannot find homes for all the babies my flowers and things make, and hate throwing them in the burn pile or compost bins, so I start more flower beds. The old fashioned tree rose of sharon makes thousands of babies! Okay, those I have to toss if I have no takers. And there is a Japanese honeysuckle that is just as bad. But the irises and lilies I hate to toss and the daffodils... (I should probably share some of my flox and Dame's rockets too...) What do you do with so many extra flower babies? I am useless at selling things. Thankfully, we have new friends at church, and as soon as I can I will dig up more flower babies for them. And I am still working on my new chicken coop. Poor girls have only laid about 3 or 4 eggs all winter from being too cooped up in the rabbit cages. And I do not eat my chickens, I am vegetarian. I do eat some eggs. My rooster had to get rehomed as he got quite mean. I think he went across the street from her place to a neighbor of hers that has dozens of chickens, geese and ducks all over the place. He must be happy there. I did buy some more parsely seeds and cucumber seeds to plant. I can plant the parsely now as they are biennals and self sowing anyway. I once saw a website where they use things like milk jugs and soda bottles as mini green houses to start their seeds in January! I wish I still had it.
Another reason I like winter, is because if spring comes too early, then we get late freezes here and the blossoms or fruit gets killed off the trees. And the summers are way too hot also. I can do six more weeks of winter.... And Missouri is in tornado alley, so I don't want that either.
I love all four of our seasons. But this year....so so much snow. I feel like spring will be a very long ways away. It always comes when it's good and ready though. My son sent me a joke - a picture of a wolf with a caption" The ground hog said six more weeks of winter, so I ate him." I could hear the wolves howling last night and early this morning. I don't think any marmots are in a rush to come out. This is a picture of where the bon fire pile should be and the picnic table. My snow gauge. And my indoor spring sanity garden....ground hog be darned.
Indoor gardens are always fun in the winter. I root houseplants for cold time entertainment. The sunniest window has beakers of water and plants. Leaning toward the winter sun is a popular pastime for plants. Jerry
Hi Melody Mc, love your place in the country. I saw one huge wolf here in the mid 90s, and it was about lunch time. He was mostly pure white with black tips around his face and tail area. He was huge, about as tall at his shoulders as I am at mine--I am 5' 4" tall. He had huge paws, and his eyes were pale yellow. Two of my boys were with me, and one of my dogs who did not see him thankfully, he was busy smelling his scent on the ground. We were almost close enough to touch him. He was not far from my home, and it was May. Maybe he was out girlfriend shopping? I guess spring is a bit slower coming up your way. Here in southern Missouri, my daffodils are popping up and some have buds. My irises are up, and the sedums are up. I have a plant called arum that has been up and green all winter, despite near zero temps, and snow on it. It is supposed to get red berries on it in the summer, but mine has not yet done that. My onions and garlic are fine. Other things will be along later. Oh, the red flowering quince is putting out leaf and flower buds too. They always bloom early for the bees. Now and then a dandelion is blooming. We do have a lot of yo-yo weather down here. It will be cold for a bit, and then warm for a bit and then cold again... My strawberry plants have been green all winter too. I planted them in old ice chests and plastic tubs.
