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Hi, all Gardeners 2010


Twinky
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Just thought I'd start a new thread, because the other one is so very long, but will include a link to the last page.

Right now my garden is probably not growing anything...subzero temps have left the whole garden covered in frost. Looks pretty with everything rimed in hoar frost, but the paths are slippery with ice and my visits to the compost bin are few.

My fishpond is under ice, which at least protects my solitary remaining fish from the hungry heron.

The brassicas this year did very badly and are cowering down and refusing to stick their heads into the freezing fog. Maybe they will develop a bit better in a month or two.

gc, is it any warmer where you are?

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Hey, Twinky, my garden isn't doing anything either but that is good. We are experiencing abnormally low temps. It was 14 degrees this morning and only reached 39 for the entire day. The temps are suppose to be like this for the next week. We usually have something like this for a week in February.

We make it to the compost pile every other day. I have a bin under the kitchen sink where we put compostables. The new one is growing.

Fixin to try my hand again with snow peas.

Must have a soil sample test done on one of the gardens. The collards in that garden twice as small as in the others.

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Back at'cha, WG!

I must say the veggies from the garden have been keeping us comfy warm. Several pots of soup. I love the speckled butterbeans on top of a bowl of rice.

There is no getting out to the garden. The temps just will not allow it. The end of this arctic blast is in sight for us. Starting Wed. it is suppose to be in the 50's. Dang, that will feel like a heat wave.

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I think we might be beginning to have a bit of a thaw too. I'm sure there is a garden somewhere out there, under all that white stuff.

It's been interesting seeing the tracks in the snow. There is a fine blackbird family lives nearby, and Mr Blackbird visits frequently. He churned up a surprisingly large area in the fresh snow on the lawn looking for crumbs underneath. He has hopped around in other areas, leaving quite a distinctive track where feet and his tail have been. Other bigger birds have been there too. I have been putting out bits of bread and chopped up bacon rind and other meat fragments for them. The collared doves might have visited but they don't seem as smart as the blackbird. I haven't seen Mrs Blackbird; hope she has survived.

Way above the lawn, on the vege part of the garden, I saw footprints from some small four-legged critter, probably a cat. Just the one set, and only one set in a week.

My girlies (see "Cat Whispering") refuse to go near the door and when it is open, rush off to the back of the room to hide.

I've enjoyed several walks through snow-laden woods over the weekend and am amazed at the number of small birds there are about. They must be finding it hard. I saw a wren yesterday, the smallest British native bird. How do these tiny creatures stay alive, when human beings have been found frozen in the streets or their own gardens?

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Recently moved from the Cleveland area to Indy. Have a nice big back yard that has nothing in it except seedling trees I planted in the fall. Didn't have enough time before cold weather set in to move my perinneals down here from the old place, so it will now have to wait until spring. Kitten & roomies are renting the old place from us for a bit, so I hope to be able to move all my perinneals down here, and Geek has enough room to put as many veggies out as he pleases. I am looking forward to him planting lots of tomatoes, squash, beans, cukes, and lettuce.

I will miss my Cherokee Chief dogwood. Nurtured that one for about 7 years and it is just recently looking fabulous. Will also miss my redbud. Both are probably a bit too large to dig up and take to Indy.

Edited by Catcup
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I'm walkin on sunshine!!! 55 degrees here today and I worked in the yard for 4 hours. I feel like a new person... released from the trappings of the indoors.

Funny though, the back of the yard, where grows the Hosta garden, was still frozen. Trusty ole shovel would not go in that ground!

I dug out weeds in another garden, spread lime and mulched with newspaper and leaves. A landscaping friend gave me several bags of leaves some months back. They have been in the black plastic bags until today. It is amazing how much they have composted.

Aahh, what a wonderful day!!!

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Hooray hooray, the snow has all melted. My lawn went from thick white to yellowy green overnight. Just a few slivers of snow along my wall where the sun doesn't reach at this time of year. Have been watching them melt rapidly during the day.

The cats went out today, too, for the first time for about a month.

Interesting to see the little shoots that have still been putting on a little growth under all the snow.

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Twinky, I haven't seen any shoots coming up yet. It is still a little too early for us. When I see those naked Dogwoods start putting forth their shoots I know Spring is coming. The Hosta starts peeking its little rolled point up through the soil and yessiree, honey child, I know Spring is upon us.

This may sound crazy but it is what I have reckoned in my head....The Daytona 500 in February makes me feel like we are on the downside and coming out of winter!!! Nature start your engines!

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Hi Every Gardener...

Totally awesome the daffodils are peeking their shoots out... we are almost to spring...not of course the one on the calendar but the mother nature one.. the one where you walk outside and get that whiff of spring air a combination of warmth and blossoms and grass. IT is so distinct I can smell it in my mind...anyway it won't be long now till it happens maybe 5 weeks or less.

Any way the other good news is the leaves I put down for a weed barrier are working excellently and are doing a good job of breaking down into a fine layer of mulch! now why didn't I do this before LOL

on top of it all we are scheduled for a week of rain... it couldn't be better!. We need all the rain we can get!

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  • 2 weeks later...

We have had some warm days but too much rain to go in the yard or garden. Just this past weekend there was two tornadoes in our county. One very near my home. I was almost beside myself because my two youngest were home by themselves while I was at work. But, they know what to do and where to go.

I was loooking out the kitchen window at the garden just yesterday and today...in truth I look out everyday and say to myself....hhhhmmmm, I'm going to do this and that and this and that and move this here and there...the tomatoes will go there and the beans there and the corn there...... The naked landscape is wonderful.... you get a bigger picture.

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I am so jealous! This morning when I left for work it was all of 5 degrees Fahrenheit. That's -15 C for you folks across the pond.

It's at least 3 weeks until I can even use my seed starter kit, to start some tomatoes.

So my garden is covered in white, and the ground is as hard as cement.

I'll see in a couple of months if my newly planted grape vines survived the winter.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Returned home today from central Florida. Drove mom to her 55 year high school reunion. After visiting some gardens and soaking in the local landscape I am renewed, once again, with grandiose ideas for this parcel of terra firma I am privileged to care for.

I sure do miss the digging and planting and sweating. It is just around the corner. Yee haw!!!

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It snowed again here at lunchtime, just lightly. Didn't settle.

My lawn is a dismal sickly yellow colour, perhaps because covered in snow too long. Things just look sorta dilapidated.

But there is a day lily starting to shoot in one corner of the garden. I have a wallflower that was in a pot, looked pretty dead so I shoved it in the garden, and it hasn't stopped flowering since. It's huge, too. The leaves and flowers all shrivelled up in the intense cold lately, the plant looked miserable - but now, when it's not quite so cold, it's off again, full of bloom. A bit confused, methinks.

I have leeks in the garden which have shown no signs of growth in ... months. Likewise some purple sprouting broccoli and some other sort of brassica. Well, they fill the space, even if they aren't doing much. Better than weeds and maybe I will get something edible yet.

Time to start sowing a few seeds so as to get wee plants to go out in a few months. I have a brassica seed box, got about 4 different types of brassica in 80 seeds. Give that a go.

First up is to complete the path re-laying. Started it last autumn and then the weather got either too appallingly wet, or too darn cold so the path was hastily made safe. Now the slabs want setting correctly and safely.

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All you indoor seed starters got one over on me. I am pathetically lazy when it comes to doing that.

Too wet is the bodaciously operative word in these parts as far as speaking about stepping one little foot in the garden. But, I am not complaining. No siree, wouldn't entertain the notion for one moment. I think it was about a year ago I reported that our lake was 22 feet below normal. Now it is higher than it has been in 6 years!! I think the term DNR used is "full pool."

Due to the rain I can wait to get out there in my garden, my little farm....waiting....tapping my foot, arms crossed, lips smirked, eyebrows scrunched....waiting....hope it's not like the crossed eyes things and I freeze like that!!!!

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WEll, I might freeze like that but I noticed today the dogwoods have little tiny buds as do the plum trees.

The little Camillias have each produced 3 precious flowers.

I bought a plant. I will try not to kill it. and before you ask,... NO,... I have no idea what kind it is (it had a tag when I bought it)

It's currently green. I am thinking this is a good sign. I am not a plant person.

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I bought a plant. I will try not to kill it. and before you ask,... NO,... I have no idea what kind it is (it had a tag when I bought it)

It's currently green. I am thinking this is a good sign. I am not a plant person.

I bought several plants at the grocery store - bell peppers, celery (green both), onions, garlics - I have every intention of killing them and eating them.

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Too funny, Gen. You aren't a plant person but you bought one anyway. And the reason being....???? Gonna try your hand at it one more time? Follow the directions on the tag and your plant should be ok.

Other thoughts...60 degrees yesterday, today and tomorrow and wouldn't you know it I am working. Before I do any serious garden work I have to clean up around the yard. Leaves have been blown and piled up here and there, especially on the deck and patio. Sticks from the trees are scattered everywhere. The residence needs some spiffin up.

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Too funny, Gen. You aren't a plant person but you bought one anyway. And the reason being....???? Gonna try your hand at it one more time? Follow the directions on the tag and your plant should be ok.

Ya might just reply with something like - Great Try Gen!!! May I help?!?!?!? Everything else sounds just a tad elitist - kinda like the politics and tacks forum.

Gen - I'll apologize on her behalf - better manners are taught to the Jarheads.....by a long shot.....

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WEll, I might freeze like that but I noticed today the dogwoods have little tiny buds as do the plum trees.

The little Camillias have each produced 3 precious flowers.

Kimberly I do hope you come on and tell us when the Dogwoods Burst into bloom I believ it is the sign of spring in the south or so I have heard.

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LOL you guys are funny

Some helpful notes for Gen... get a good deep pot. Is it an Ivy???(long trailing tendrils.

Maybe take a picture of the plant and post it then we can lob suggestions to you as to watering and where it should go in your house.

Some plants like tons of light other not so much..

and ditto with watering.

as to unkillable house plants

there are a couple that are pretty much the best plants to get... they are all types of Ivy.

After you feel confident with them there are some others that are good starter plants.. you know very forgiving of missing out on watering and such.

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