Hey Prairiemoon2

Thinks for making forward to something on this cold RI winter night. Hadn't thought about that spring really isn't all that far away, although it's going to seem like it with the cold weather that is supposed to be coming.

Lost much of the 15 inches of snow cover with the warm rains from this past weekend. I'll need to go out and remove some stray leaves that have taken up residence on my iris.

You had a lot of snow, daylilyluver. We had a little less, just under a foot maybe. It also disappeared with warm temps and some rain. But the cold temps are back again tonight. I was also uplifted when I thought about just 10 weekends to go. Starting the countdown, This next weekend will be weekend #0 and the weekend after will be #1.

Hmm, funny, I have a different perspective. I don't consider it the "off" season, necessarily. I guess I think of it as the "slower" season, lol.

I will be winter sowing - usually about 225 containers. I still have pots to bring in the garage, leaf mulch to be spread, dead things to be cut back, hopefully garlic to be planted (found it the other day after losing it and I'm waiting for a window to plant in). Depending on weather I may even go out and make a few lasagna beds.

I also check on my cold frames often. Not that the stuff in them is doing anything, but it's fun to look and makes me feel like I'm still gardening! I had a nice salad on Christmas Eve from my cold frames.

I also go through catalogs and websites and order seeds, dahlias, plants, etc.

Now, I do have more time - wait, let me rephrase that, lol. I always *think* I will have more time, and so I have a list of projects - mostly the usual suspects of cleaning the house, going through old stuff, decluttering, etc. and I do hope to get some of that done. Also working on finishing up the basement renovation.

But to me, that cleaning stuff is really all just stuff that I do in between my "winter gardening"!

:)
Dee

I have not had any dull winter since I started Winter Sowing 5 - 6 years ago.
And that's what I started yesterday.
I sowed some perennial seeds (Carex grayii, Geum trifolium & Solidago Wichita Mountain) then set them out in the snow.
Will sow some more next weekend, probably Butterfly Bush, and the remaining weekends until probably March or until I run out of potting soil.
I plan to fill a friend's new property with native plants. lol.

In March I will pot up my dahlia.
During the week, I watch television or prepare speeches for my Toastmasters club.
I need to do some sewing but have been postponing it for the longest time.
:-D

Wow, that makes spring seem so close! Actually, I had the same sort of thought the other day - in my mind, March = spring, I don't care if the snow is flying and the ice is an inch thick, if it's March it's spring on my mental calendar, so really that's only two more full months of winter to get through :0)

I very much enjoy indoor seed sowing, I normally get started in late February or early March for those annuals that need a longer lead time, and continue sowing through March and April according to planting-out dates. I also enjoy looking at catalogs and getting ideas for the upcoming season.

I go skiing and take snowshoe trips,usually until the 3rd week of April.
I winter sow(7th year)about 2 dozen containers March to April.

I'm going along the same lines as you, prairiemoon. :) I have done the bulk of what I'm going to do wintersowing. Yesterday I went out and cleaned up the garden a little bit and finally got my tulips in the ground (they were sprouting in the bag). So, I consider it to be done until about March, when I'll have to get out there and weed and freshen it up for spring.

Now I need to concentrate on inside. I'm thinking declutter too. We moved a couple of years ago, and we still have things in boxes that either need to find a home or get the heck out of here.

I'm planning my garden for next year and playing video games. I've already had to scrap one plan or at least delay it for another year since I didn't get the Earthboxes for xmas that I wanted. I'm ordering plants now so I don't have to worry about anything selling out. I don't do wintersowing anymore as I already have a ton of plants from the previous years I did it, and almost everything I need now isn't seed grown. And I just realized that I've got two roses that I need to find spots for since they can't go into the spot they were meant for. Hm...

This is a good thread, and will help me as I am contemplating how best to spend the six weeks or so I have left before spring. About mid to late January, I will begin cutting down ornamental grasses, grooming the daylilies, and pruning trees and shrubbery. Mid January, I will add soil amendments to the bed where I'll plant snow peas the first week of February (and hope that hot weather doesn't come before they bear). I may plant some more greens too. We have enjoyed them so much this fall but they're starting to fade out. I have had lettuce this fall/winter too. I'll never be without it again! What a treat!
It will be time to start annuals from seed by mid January, and sometime soon I want to stick rose cuttings. Anybody know when the very best time is? I have such mixed results from year to year...

Oh, and in the meantime, I am still trying to finish mulching all my beds... Story of my life: it takes all winter to finish the fall chores and all summer to finish the spring chores. :)

This will be my fifth season winter sowing, but I am rapidly filling up my beds in a small garden and like a few of you, I can't use that many seed grown plants this coming season. I still will do annuals and a few perennials just for the fun of it, but won't start until March. I usually can count on getting outside to start doing something by mid March. Definitely concentrating on the house this winter.

Donna...aren't you a lucky duck, six more weeks before spring! :-)

"...Story of my life: it takes all winter to finish the fall chores and all summer to finish the spring chores. :)..."

Goodness, ain't that the truth, lol? Sometimes I feel like the fall and spring (and summer) chores all meld into one big chore, lol.

I forgot to add that I did just teach myself to knit. Well, I am attempting to. Took out a how-to DVD from the library, borrowed a couple needles, and I'm on my way. Figured I might as well do something useful with all those hours at the ice rink during high school hockey season. Last night I even knit in the dark (sitting in the parking lot) with gloves on! I must say I was impressed with myself, lol!

Of course, this means the house will NEVER get cleaned....

:)
Dee

I'm doing my closet today. I am pitching stuff like it's going out of style! Anyone else love throwing stuff away? :)

I'm going to paint, paint, and paint some more. Ceilings, walls and woodwork. Not my favorite thing to do but it's gotta get done. Now if my old bones hold up I should be in pretty good shape when gardening season finally arrives :o).

Annette

What do you all winter sow? Perennials, cold veggies, warm weggies?

Knitting! I think that's wonderful! Both my girls have learned and love it...but they won't let me learn since THEY don't know how to sew. My youngest is coming home this week so I can start a formal for her to wear in her Master's Voice recital. (Sorry. Couldn't help it. I am SO proud of her. :)

I need to paint this month too: bedroom and living room. I know exactly what you mean about old bones, Annette. I used to love it and could go all day, but painting hurts me a million times more than the heaviest gardening chores. Go figure.

daylilyluver, I don't winter sow, as such, but I do start a good many things from seed. I have three small beds at my front door that I plant heavily in annuals twice a year. This year it's going to be the new yellow profusion zinnias. I figure they're the same as Zinnia Highlights that I had two years ago. BEAUTIFUL. I will plant a backing of blue salvias with them. I'll be starting all those plants in a couple of weeks.

I also start tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants from seed. This year I intend to start a couple dozen Black Pearl Peppers to use in my perennial borders. I grew them last year in the veggie garden and they are too gorgeous to not show off. I saved seed, and just for anyone interested, it took DAYS for the burn to go away on my hands. Will definitely use gloves next year! That would be why the seed is so expensive. :)

And yes, prairemoon, I do feel lucky to have our kind of winters. I actually raked leaves and mulched beds several hours this afternoon, as it was in the high fifties today. It's amazing how much better I feel in every way after some fresh air and exercise.

Donna, my learning to knit really comes YEARS too late (I won't say how many years, lol). My mother knit, crocheted, sewed (made all my clothes), did crewel work - she did it all and I can't even sew on a button! The poor woman comes to visit from out of town and I greet her with a pile of clothes needing hems, buttons, patches, etc., lol. I did at one time kinda-sorta learn to knit and crochet, but that was back in the Dark Ages and I never really stuck with it.

I've been doing a LOT of painting the last few days. I'm finishing the basement, and it's getting down to the end stage. I did the walls long ago - now is all the irritating, annoying trim work (can you tell I don't like doing it, lol?). The biggest pain in the butt is the stairs. I swear these new stairs are the most beautiful thing in my house, lol, but I decided to stain the treads and paint the risers, and man oh man what a pain. I put the last coat of polyurethane on the treads two days ago, and I'm debating whether to take the time for a third coat of paint. Next Monday the railing goes in and then I have to stain that too. Yuck.

After all this work, I think I won't allow anyone to walk on these stairs, lol. I think I will make them go outside and use the bilco doors to get up and down to the cellar!

:)
Dee

Oh, forgot to add - I winter sow annuals, perennials, and most vegetables, except green beans. I do my WSing throughout the next few months, not all at once, so I start with perennials, cold-hardy annuals, other annuals, and then veggies last (usually late March into April, which I guess isn't technically *winter* sowing, but I use the same methods.)

I posted here earlier this morning and my post disappeared. I was unable to access the forum for a few hours too.

connie...I hate to throw things out most of the time. I have to really be in the mood and I am. :-)

I used to knit.. straight lines. I made a cable knit afghan once that had an unusual popcorn stitch in it. I wonder what ever happened to that? [g] It was easy and required no construction. I love to sew, the same way... straight lines. Curtains, pot holders, quilts. :-)

Donna, I'm always impressed with anyone who can actually sew clothes. Quite a skill to have. Congratulations on your daughter's recital, you all must be very excited!

How are some of you painting indoors? I always thought you had to wait for good weather and open all the windows? Dee, I would like to hear more about your basement project. We need to replace our stairs soon and paint, if we ever get the clutter out.

I have winter sown aquilegia and dianthus among others, which are very easy and dependable to do. I wait until April to do zinnias that pop up quickly. Alyssum and calendula, violas can go out all winter. I have done tomatoes and lettuce but now I buy a few starts of peppers and tomatoes at Whole Foods. I have such a small veggie garden.

I'll be painting as well-two bedrooms and the kitchen/family room (which is a deceptive description considering the size of both together equals most people's nice-sized kitchens). The hardest part is choosing the right color. I can picture in my head what I want, but I'll be darned if I can translate that image into reality. Prairiemoon, ventilation isn't as much of an issue as it used to be. I don't usually use oil-based paint these days and I am not sure we can even buy that in gallon cans anymore. The low VOC paints are great as far as odor goes.

Connie, I also need to clean and organize and throw out! I was on my butt today cleaning the hardwoods with a barely damp cloth and one hidden little pile of stuff we cleaned out of my parents house reminded me that I REALLY need to sell, pack up in an organized fashion, or give away all the remaining inherited mess that we put in in what used to be DS's room. Gave away a lot before Christmas which let me get my car back in the garage,but I just can't quite get started on the last bit. I know once I do, it will go pretty quickly. Most is stuff that needs to be boxed and put away-the old trains, pictures, a (real)leopard fur muff and another muff of some kind of fur I can't identify. I may carry one of the muffs to a memorial service for an elderly neighbor tomorrow. It will be cold at the cemetary and gloves just don't keep my hands warm enough. I also think it will be kind of fun to use them. I suspect they belonged to my grandmother or great grandmother.

I do love to throw stuff away-DH...not so much-we work at cross purposes. His box of paperback books that has been in the garage for 13 years and in storage before that just could not be donated. It's beyond me why anyone would keep something like that that he/she never uses, doesn't find beautiful, or that he gets no joy from having (if he ever took them out to read, that would be different). He has a library full of hardbacks, but we just have to keep the paperbacks, too. Oh well. I am determined that my DS won't have to go through as much as I did when we closed up my parent's home.

Dee, you have been busy. The stairs sound beautiful and I'll bet the knitting is fun. LOL-that sounds like the knitting isn't beautiful, but I'll bet it is, too!

"Of course, this means the house will NEVER get cleaned.... " Well, I started doing that today, but have decided to do some major purging which will simplify things. Gosh the junk we collect with time, eh?? UGH!! Feels good right Connie?

Just sequestered my Tropical Milkweed from two curious cats and in about a month I'll do my winter sowing. Dahlia bulbs will come out only in April for potting.

In between I'll be playing with broken glass making mosaics out of stained glass among other things.

No snow here but the ground is frozen and everything looks so bleak... But the days are getting longer! LOL!

Off season? What off season?

Kevin ; ])

"...The hardest part is choosing the right color. I can picture in my head what I want, but I'll be darned if I can translate that image into reality..."

Oh my goodness! Picking the color was practically impossible! I brought home some big squares the paint store loaned me (much better than those little chips). I ended up painting four big patches of different paint, all in the same color range, painted on each wall. I had to paint each color on each wall because each wall looked completely different. It is a basement, but has some small windows and the light changes constantly.

I finally painted the whole basement and then decided I didn't like the color, so repainted it entirely. My husband kept saying he couldn't even tell the difference between all the different shades, lol. I think I spent more money on paint than all the carpentry, electrical, etc. combined, lol!

I'm cursed with being a pack rat. I have such a hard time throwing things away. I think it's the historian/genealogist in me. I need to hold on to everything because it's part of my history. Like I really need the sales receipt from my 1990 Honda to remember I had one, lol??? Any attempt at cleaning becomes a walk down memory lane!

I am getting better - mostly with other family member's stuff, lol - but I have given quite a bit of stuff away on freecycle in the last year. I'm getting so sick of my house being a mess that I do find myself getting a bit more ruthless. I finally shredded my checking account statements from 1982.... :) (Jeez, I had them longer than I've had my husband!)

Yes, Tiff, the days are getting longer! I check the sunrise/sunset times in the paper every day. Funny how good that one extra minute makes me feel, lol!

:)
Dee

P.S. Cyn, thanks - the knitting is so-so, but coming along!

Prairiemoon what a great way to look at it, ten weekends makes winter seem like a piece of cake!
I think at the end of every gardening year that I will need and enjoy the down time from gardening. A chance to plan new gardens, winterkill keeping bugs and garden pests from totally taking over, etc. Invariably when Christmas and New Year are over my mind turns to spring again and I really miss my garden. I'd like to spend as much time as I can in it so I'll be doing the same household projects a lot of us are doing, painting, organizing stuff, donating items not needed. There is always garden related stuff too, organizing photos on my computer, keeping my files on all my plants up to date and of course looking for more plants.
And then reading, never seem to have time to read all the books I'd like to when the weather is warm and movies, there are a ton I need to see in the dead of winter.

PM, it will probabaly take me 3 weekends just to get my roses pruned ! Since 'de- facto' spring here can start as early as mid-Feb , I'm going to take a week off near the end of the Feb, spend a couple of days at the coast and the rest in the garden doing spring-prep. Late Jan I will start my seed set-up in the garage .And the garage itself was looking pretty good until I started prepping for Christmas. That will be dealt with over the long holiday weekend which starts for me in approximately an hour and a half !

And I still want to paint the dining room red , and DS's room needs paint too. We'll see if that happens. I already have the paint for DS's room, and a selection of red paint chips in a drawyer that I keep looking at longingly.

Kathy in Napa

...the hardest part was picking the color..
Oh, indeed. I have learned over the years to go to paint stores that have decorators on staff. Those people must be born with different eyes from the rest of us. If I can take them a swatch of fabric, say from a pillow or curtain, they can always pick out the perfect color paint for me. I am never disappointed. Sometimes it just pays to pay the experts.

I learned something today. Was googling about roses and came across some great info from Mississippi State School of Agriculture. It said that the best time to take rose cuttings is when the blooms begin to shatter, and to take the cutting from those stems. I will be pruning my roses with hedge shears this year and hope that will make lots more stems to take cuttings from in late spring.

It does feel so good! Purge! Purge! Purge! :D

Cyn, sounds like we are married to the same guy. I had to find a place to put a stack of magazines today that just couldn't be parted with because *some* of them *might* have some pictures that he liked. Good grief!!! :D Now, if I had not asked first, he'd have never missed them. I need to start being a little sneakier.

I have spent the last few days going through every cabinet, closet and corner of every room. Our garbage can was so full it wouldn't close, and hubby took an entire truckload of stuff to Goodwill. Yes! Awesome!

We need to do a lot of painting too. We've done maybe half of the house since we moved in. I feel good about doing this first, though. I think it will motivate me to finish decorating and painting. It's really been bugging me that our house doesn't feel completely finished or moved into. I need to hurry, though, cause I know once spring gets here, painting is not where my head is going to be. :)

Enjoying hearing what everyone does to keep themselves busy all winter. Stained glass and sewing, organizing and painting, books and movies to catch up on. Productive mixed with relaxed, sounds ideal.

It seems you don't get much of a break from gardening Kathy. Kevin, too. I guess you are very happy about that. I don't think I could manage to garden more months of the year than I do, but I can imagine a younger more energetic me, might. :-)

Some of you have started already while I am still thinking about it. [g] Actually still clearing out Christmas. We are a long way from painting. I love new paint, it really lifts the spirits. I can identify with the difficulty of choosing a paint you end up happy with...that sounds like a good idea about getting help from an expert at the paint store. I'll have to look for one...

Happy New Year!

Sounds like we all have similar projects. Connie, had to laugh-I sneaked out a bunch of magazines before Christmas that were more than two years old. DH had them in the drawers of the big, square coffee table in his library-actually, I may have put them there to get the piles off the side tables and couch! Some were catalogs-also several years old. I think he noticed because there was a distinct chill in the air for quite a few days after, but he never said anything. If I ask, he always says that there is an article or something he wants to read/keep just like your DH-you should see the piles (4 of them) on his bureau near his side of the bed. lol (or maybe not!).

Dee, glad to hear someone else can get the whole room painted only to realize the color isn't quite right! You give me courage. If I hate it, I can just paint over it! Kathy, red will look great in the dining room! Go for it.

Happy new year smiles to all.

Cynthia

Hopefully in Fla. and will just be coming back and looking forward to my garden. Love to think about what I will do next out there. Tricia

I have serious zone envy towards gardeners in zones 7-8 and higher right now. :)

I didn't have a normal gardening season in 2009. Had terrible tendonitis in both wrists and elbows and was unable to dig in the garden for 5 months - May thru September. Needless to say, I feel quite deprived and Spring can't get here soon enough.

In the meantime, I will keep busy with reading gardening books, catalogs, and websites, winter-sowing, bird-watching, and taking photos. Order some seeds, do some seed trading, and winter-sow approx 100 containers. Participate in bird counts, like the weekly Project FeederWatch, and several other counts - the Christmas Bird Count, Focus on Feeders, and the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Oh, and as the fates will have it, work is really really busy right now. Gotta pay the bills and thankfully it's busy during the slow time of year for gardening.