Well, the snow is starting to melt here, a month earlier than last year BTW, but most of the flower beds are still covered. I watered a couple of pots on the porch yesterday, does that count? Oh, and I discovered what the deer were doing on the porch when I saw their hoofprints there a couple of weeks ago - eating my Sedum 'Angelina' that you brought me ... grrrr. I hope it recovers. They didn't leave much. Oh, and my neighor is running a homeless animal shelter on her front porch. She leaves several bowls of cat food and water out every night, along with a couple of empty pet carriers, so now they are hanging out on my porch too, and using the pots with leftover potting soil from last summer's annuals, that I never got around to putting in the garage as a litter box! That'll teach me for being lazy about my fall clean up.

I did start my wintersowing yesterday, so that should count as gardening. I got a dozen containers done, so that leaves about 70 or 80 to go, LOL. I've also been buying seeds, trading seeds, organizing my inventory, making my list of what to plant, etc.

Gardening in my mind,
Bonnie

If there's anything at all of your 'Angelina" left, Bonnie, it should recover---and if it doesn't, I can always give you some more! :-)

I recommend covering the pots up with chicken wire, to protect them from both the deer and the cats! I have neighbors who leave their cats out all the time, and they drive me wild! Why aren't people required to control their cats like they're required to control their dogs??? These cats seem to think my front lawn is their litterbox! And I get really tired of cleaning up the poop! And I have pots outside with soil in them too, and to keep the cats out, I lay a couple pieces of firewood on top of the soil. Then there's not enough room for them to dig in the soil. But I had to put chicken wire over the top of the small pond by my front door! They thought it was their private water source! And having a permanent source of water seemed to encourage them even more to poop all over my front lawn.

Anyway, with the 'Angelina', if any of the pieces that are left are more than an inch long, in about April cut it/them off and stick them in the soil to root them. That'll help give you more of a start again. And if it just doesn't work, let me know for whichever swap you'll be at next.

I wouldn't count on your "melting snow" to last!
Skybird

I threw some snow on my wintersowing containers. transferred used coffee grounds to the 5-gallon bucket in the garage, did some more studying up on my winterosown plants, then came to this forum. Gardening really is a year-around joy!

Bonnie - you can borrow my live animal trap or the shotgun. I think the shotgun is easier, but its your call. My cats know the garden is not a litter box, but some need "special" training.

Billie

I'm pretty jealous, Skybird!! The temps were fairly nice this weekend but it sure was windy. I acted casual and forgot to put a hat on. My ears were freezing while walking Lucy!!!!

But...I did look through the Rocky Mountain Rare Seed catalog! Oh, so many alpine plants!! Although I have not had success with seeds, I'm thinking of trying it this winter.

Still under snow but did not wear my jacket once today!

I have Dutch Iris. This is the fourth winter for one called 'Delft Blue', and it has done the best. A couple other types in different spots haven't done as well. One spot is shadier and the other gets covered with leaves. Anyway, yes, I've seen the old foliage die down in late summer, then new foliage emerges in fall, then the foliage tops usually die back some during the winter, and then in early spring they start growing up to their full size again.

Mine are a little greener than yours, to about halfway up. I think they need/like a sandy, drier (and if possible warmer) spot in winter. Even though they are known as Dutch Iris I have read that they first originated in Spain and Portugal, so that is their native habitat.

I've done a little cleanup recently too with the nice weather, although I am mindful that for marginally hardy plants, they're supposed to be better off if you don't cut them back until early spring. I have a Salvia ('Hot Lips' I think?) that is a big shaggy 4' mound of twigs, and it's hard to leave it be but it's only supposed to be zone 7 hardy so I'll leave it alone until at least mid-March. I haven't noticed any crocus yet but I suppose they're covered with matted Cottonwood leaves so I'll have to start cleaning more of those out too. It's always nice to see signs of life starting to stir again, after I get the Christmas lights down and put away.

I haven't done any cleanup yet, but the unheated cold frame (dark water only) is finally starting to have some decent size on the lettuce and mustard, and the radishes are starting to look radishy. We have Dutch Iris that is poking up too, as well as some garlic.

Let's hope this heat doesn't trick the wee ones into thinking its spring...

Dan

Today was a beautiful day out here on the windy plains. I let the girls out (hens) to find all those tumbleweed seeds that blew in the last few days. I did some gardening chores in the meantime. Some cleanup, plotted where I want to put the deck, eventually, scoped out a few more raised beds and dug a few post holes for the last of the fence. I hope to have the fence up by the time the wind kicks up again this weekend so I can clear the pile of debris to the neighbors place for firewood. I hope the wind does not make a visit until the weekend like the weather folks claim, but we will see.

I start classes again tomorrow evening, so I will have to get a earlier start than I did today. I was busy putting in job applications anyplace I could think of. Ten in four hours, not too bad. This jobless thing bites.

Billie

A few weeks ago when we had some really severe winds, the mulch blew off my garlic, so I know they're in there. They are staying safely under their mulch so far.

Dan, when did you plant your cold veggies? This may be a stupid question, but what do you mean by "dark water only"?

I've put out 3 groups of wintersowing containers in the last few weeks... (my first time).

greenbean wrote:

"Dan, when did you plant your cold veggies? This may be a stupid question, but what do you mean by "dark water only"? "

I did it the day after Thanksgiving & have had baby thinnings 3x so far, with this heat radishes are going nicely as are mustards, maché and arugula don't care for it, lettuces somewhere in middle.

I'd have more, I believe, but I don't like the design of my coldframe as the front is too high and as a result there is too much shade on the soil, limiting heat gain & slowing growth. Building a new one as we speak with a 6" front wall, 30" back wall and some heating experimentation that I'd like to market if all works out. Redoing covers as well, still trying to find the cheapest Polygal/Solexx/polycarb I can find, will purchase next Monday.

Dark water is colored water in gallon jugs, that's all I use for heat except for those couple of nights well below zero and I placed a votive candle in there. I normally use a 2.5 gal rectangular water jug like what you get at the grocery store, but mother in law threw away last year...

Dan

I have "chains" of milk jugs I have been saving to use for planters and water containers. DH made a face at me, but the neighbor's DH has been drooling over them for target pratice.
I used twine and just ran it through the handles. Hung the twine from a nail in the barn. Which reminds me, nail's full, need to put in or find a new nail today.

Billie

WOW! It was 80 on the warm side of my backyard today68 on the COLD side! Is this winter, or did I get mixed up??? I guess by this weekend Ill get my answer!

I got some stuff done, but not the fun kind of stuff I was doing earlier this week. This time I cleaned the (neighbors) cottonwood leaves out from behind my shed! Not a fun job, but has to be done or the bottom of the shed starts to rot when the wet "cottonwood leather" keeps the siding wet! The space between the back and my side fence is only a foot and a half, so its quite a "crawling around" job to get the leaves off of my "escape proof" gardensweet violets, lily-of-the-valley, and sweet woodruff. Its great flexibility exercise! And the space between the side of the shed and my back fence is more like three feet, so its easier to maneuver in, but, what a job! Thats where I store the stacks of empty pots and trellises for the veggie garden, extra bags of mulch, and all the other miscellanea I have around here, so first I have to move everything out (and try to not scream when spiders go running everywhichway) so I can get the leaves out of all the pots and out from between the pots and other stuff, then they all get raked/swept down into a "trench" along the shed where the soil was dug out to put it in, and then I need to pick them all upmore flexibility exercisesand put them in my hugest nursery-size pot to transport them to the compost pile. I got 6-8 huge potfuls out of there! Then everything needs to be moved back to where it started! At least its done for this year now! And at least it's in the shade behind the shed since it was HOT out!

I have other stuff to do tomorrow, so I guess the rest of the perennial cutting back will need to wait till the next warm spell! Theres only one really ugly thing left, its my poor smashed down switch grass!

Oh! I got a few of my "winter sown" seeds in a couple days ago! But my winter sowing this year means the seeds are going directly into the ground! Itll be interesting to see how well it works!

Thanks for the info on Dutch iris, Davies. It sounds like mine are acting quite normally, and Ill be looking forward to them being bigger and better than last year this spring.

Billie, maybe you want to suggest that your neighbor drive on out to Silt and do his target practicing on Bonnies cats! ;-) And, good luck with your job search.

Skybird

Skybird,
Does your rake fit back there, behind the shed? If it is too wide, a pooper-scooper rake might work! I have a narrow shed-fence spot too and I put that skinny rake to work!
Just sittin' here and thinking about pooper-scooper rakes...
:)

No pooper scoopers here, Jennifer! The only poop producing critters I have around here these days are the neighbors cats, and when they get into my backyard I just use a trowel and quietly return the poop in my neighbors yardwhere it belongs! Dont get me wrong! I really, really like my neighbors! Just dont like THEIR cat poop!

But I have a cute little lawn rake that works perfectly back there. I googled for pictures, but couldnt find one, so I went out and measured it. Its just like one of the full size black plastic ones, but it only has 10 tines, and it measures 7½" across at the widest spot. I think its intended to rake leaves out from around bushes and stuff, but it really works well for skinny places like around the shed. Unfortunately I cant rake the leaves off of the escape-proof garden, because the leaves get tangled in the rake, so that part all gets hand picked up, but "behind" the shed (youve seen it, you know what I mean!) I use my mini-rake! I highly recommend them. MUCH easier to use than a big rake in a LOT of places!

Maybe if I ever retire Ill get another something that requires me to own a pooper scooper!

:-)
Skybird

Monday is going to feel SOOOOOO cold after this week! I spent the afternoon outside in a t-shirt, turning the giant horse manure compost pile I decided to build around New Years. It's made with 16 straw bales as sides (2 bales high) so it's about 5'x5. I added a big trash bag of bunny cage cleanings and about 15 various sized bags of grounds from SB.

My arm hurts.

Supposed to be 66 tomorrow. I might turn the regular pile too.

Wow, you guys really are having spring like weather over there! We've had lots of sunshine the past couple of weeks, so there's been a lot of snow melting going on, but not enough to work in the garden yet. The high today was 42, so I was able to walk to the mailbox without a coat today. The rain/snow is supposed to be back in the forecast for the next few days though, so the only gardening I'll be doing is some more wintersowing (in milk jugs).

BTW, Skybird, those neighbors have a for sale sign in their yard, but with the economy, I don't know that they will be moving anytime soon. They are such sweet people, and she is so kind hearted when it comes to animals, but I think her efforts are misguided. She is only going to make the feral cat population worse by feeding them. Oh, and I even saw a raccoon on her porch eating dinner right alongside several cats one night! Sure don't need HIM in my veggie garden!!!

Bonnie

Skybird: Regarding Dutch Irises, I don't know about 'bigger and better'. For me they're more like tulips - if they're in a good spot they'll come back 'almost' as good as the year before. But even my best patch has declined some over the years. Maybe in June you can post how yours did.

Oh, thats interesting, Davies. Ive never had tulips, but Ive had grape hyacinths at a few different houses, and they wind up all over the place, and the few crocus, daffodils, and hyacinths I have at this house have been getting better each year so far, so I just assumed the Dutch iris would too! Well, theyre nice, but theyre not really spectacularor at least they werent last year, so I guess if they slowly go away Ill just think of it as: now I have room for something else! And Id kind of like to try a couple Iris pumila anyway.

I'll let you know how they do this year. If I have time I'll post pics of '08 and '09.

Thanks for the info. At least if theyre not looking that great, I wont be wondering what I did wrong!

Skybird

Bonnie - You might have to have a talk with the neighbor about the situation, unfortunatly. If they have a for sale sign up and leave after feeding all thowe cats and a racoon, where are those critters going to go looking for food. My bigger concern though is the fact that a racoon came in, that means you are in a good wild life area and skunks LOVE moist cat food. That is what we used as bait to catch our foul fowl killer.

Just a heads up.
Billie

ummm its flippin chilly here.No warm stuff,, the gardens under snow yet..The pond is starting to ice up again as well,,brrrrrr
The dutch iris, mine do great up here.Always have returned well usually my clumps multiply as well.Tulips on the other hand I have hundreds in they do their own thing depending on the types.I have some Darwins that come back fantastic every year,,if the deer do not find them..

Thanks for the heads up, Billie. We've had skunks around here since we moved in, before that neighbors house was even finished being built. In the summer if the windows are open, I smell one occasionally, and I believe one was digging up some kind of grub in the garden last year. Whatever it was didn't eat the plants or vegetables, but dug a few up, as if they were looking for something that was underground.

To my surprise today, when I went out to dump my coffee grounds in the garden, I noticed the tips of daffodil leaves poking through the mulch. That's almost 2 full months earlier than last year. I knew this winter wasn't as cold or snowy as last year, but there is my proof!

Bonnie

Well heres the latest report from this side of Colorado! Spring has definitely un-sprung around here! Its 5 in my backyard right now, and still going DOWN!

And INSIDE of my house the furnace has been running for almost three hours nowand its all the way up to 63! All last weekwhen it was WARMmy furnace was running just fine! I had to get up at 0400 on Sunday morningand discovered that my furnace QUIT sometime over nite! So at 4:00 in the morning, when Im supposed to be getting ready to leave for the airport, Im running around a cold house trying to figure out whats wrong with the furnace. The pilot lite was on, and the fan and the thermostat worked just fine. If the thermocouple goes out, the pilot lite goes out! Everything worked exceptthe burner wouldnt come on! So Im stumped! I left at 0600 with a little lamp under the kitchen sink, where the pipes are on the outside wall, and an oil filled radiator on near the computer! I left the thermostat turned up while I was goneI guess hoping for magic!!! Spent the nite last nite in a WARM hotel in Newark, and got back home early this afternoon. The temp in the house was 49 when I got back! Asked the neighbor to come look at it, but he agreed with meall the obvious things were working. He recommended somebody to calland the guy came right over! I found that kind of amazing! The neighbor said he thought it was a gas valve, and he was right! An hourand $300later I heard the burner come on again! And its been running ever since then! Heats a GOOD thing when its cold outside!

But I didnt think of the Blackie sweet potato vines I have in the front windowtouching the glassbefore I left and theyre not happy AT ALL right now! Im overwintering a couple again this year to keep from having to buy more in springand I hope they make it! Wish I had thought to at least move them away from the cold window before I left! For tonite at least, theyre FAR away from the glass!

No Rocky Mountain Gardening in Winter going on around here right now outside OR inside,
Skybird

I started peppers, cutting celery and artichokes on Saturday. Inside, on a heat mat of course. Last night outside it was -14 and maybe -23 tonight and then suppose to warm up to the 20s!

Yikes! I need to get my artichokes started too. Here it rained much of the weekend, melting most of the snow around here, but it snowed last night a bit, and it's supposed to get down in the single digits tonight. The deer are now cleaning off the "winter interest" in all the beds, and munching on the snap dragons, garlic, and other stuff that's still green.

Yep, David, you and I had the same weather this weekend. Hard to believe it was raining for the X Games at Buttermilk ... in January! Fortunately, it changed to snow there by late Saturday night, but the crowds were light Friday and Saturday.

Definitely colder today!

Re: the hungry, stray cats. Please don't shoot them. And in a lot of places it's illegal to. There might be a Trap-Neuter-Release group in the area that you can call about the feral cats. If they're socialized, they can be adopted out. If they're truly feral, the group will at least see that they stop reproducing other feral cats. Two of my cats were feral kittens, taken in young enough to socialize them and adopt them out.

When it gets really cold here, it's hard to keep my house warm. I haven't had a working furnace for almost a year, and one of my heaters quit so I had to go buy a new one, an expense I did not need.

I have crocuses and tulips coming up already. That's way early. We still have a couple cold months to go, so I hope they don't get killed by a cold snap.