With Utah's weather, who knows? Our snow is finally melting in Cedar City so now I have to wade through the mud to feed my geese. That is OK. They are worth it. I had my gardening area tilled up last October but I will till it again this March to kill some of the early weeds. I also have to trim my Raspberries in March. You can start moving stuff in March but the first thing I will plant will be my peas during the weekend of April 15th.

Bill

I am so ready for spring. With the inversion we had in January I was ready to pack up and move! Did it affect you folks?

Even in Fillmore we had some inversion in January and we almost never have that. It's great to be able to see my yard again, though seeing the uneven, boulder strewn ground (OK, so maybe they are just really large rocks) is reminding me how much work needs to be done. It's good I was planning on doing lasagna beds, I'd never get stuff growing in that gravel pit *sigh* Now if the mud bog would dry out enough for me to prep the ground. (I'm just a little anxious to get started, it's a huge job.)

I too am doing lasagna beds! I am actually expanding my beds. I put the cardboard down yesterday and covered with my winter sowing jugs to hold the cardboard in place, until I can get the compost for it. I really am anxious also to get going while the cold weather is still here. I don't like to do this in the warmer/hot weather. The only hold up now is I am waiting until March hoping that the compost will be half price as it was last year.

Yeah, Mary_Max, it did affect me for sure. I actually applied for a job in Sacramento (my former home town), making my wife a little mad. Then she just rolled her eyes at me, patted me on the shoulder and said, "You always get like this in January. Just wait till spring and you'll never want to leave Utah again (for another nine months)!" She's pretty insightful, that gal. Maybe a little too confident that I'm not serious, though! LOL!

Mary_Max, What are Lasanga Beds?????? I am assuming that they are beds with layers.... Please make a new posting and explain them, I can once again only assume that I am not the only one curious.
Thanks!
as far as winter goes..... ohhh, I am SOOOO ready for it to be over!
I live in a tiny little pocket where I actually had visiblly no clue that there was any inversion.
I read about it, heard about it, but as I looked out, all I saw was clear and blue... gorgeous.
Then one day I needed to go into town.... Oh man!
Was it nasty!
I understand why Stevation wanted outta here! LOL
Made me wanna hightail it back home!

Thanksfully, the rains have cleared it all up for this year... I hope.

Songbirdmommy you have the right idea. In lasgna gardening most people line the ground with several layers of newspaper or one of cardboard to block weeds, then build right on top of them. You layer things like compost, manure, grass clipping, kitchen waste, shredded paper, etc onto the newspaper or cardboard, then you can either let them self compost (with the help of worms, which seem to be drawn by the paper products) or you can plant directly into them right away. Amazing, right, but they are supposed to work great and if you mulch them with straw or grass clippings (my favorite) the weeds stay at bay and the bed stays wetter and requires less water. I have been doing some reading on permaculture, which is a way of having each part of the yard or garden set so that it creates beneficial relationships with other parts of the landscape (an interesting concept, but it's hard to get specific details on how to do it), anyway, he does the same thing. The only thing to watch for is bareroot plants and trees can't be planted in lasagna beds unless they are will composted, so you have to dig into the ground to set their roots, or at least most of the root and root ball. Because you don't *ever* till the beds, only add more mulch to them periodically, they are supposed to be much easier and less work. If you go to gw forums, accessible gardening, there are lots of posts about this technique, and they can give a lot more info on it.

My husband's grandmother, who had a beautiful yard and garden, always planted her sweet pea flower seeds on March 1. Last week I took my kitchen instant thermometer out to the garden and tried measuring the soil temp for the first time. At 2 inches deep it was 40 degrees, while I hit frozen ground at 4 inches deep. Yep, the temp at that depth was 32 degrees!

It will continue to thaw rapidly from now on. If I wasn't planning to move my support panels, I would have planted my sweet peas by now.

One year I planted Yukon Gold potatoes & Siberia tomatoes the first week in April. That was waaay early, but I lucked out that year and had new potatoes and a small tomato by the middle of June. I haven't been that brave since, but I have a new little tiny greenhouse my daughter sent me, so I'm planning on challenging the rules again one of these days.

I also checked my soil temps (down here in So. Utah, elevation 6000') and they were around 40* also. I peeled back my mulch and have garlic starting to send out leaves, but the asparagus says "no way, it's too early". I can only hope, sigh.

The chickens have started laying again. Bliss, fresh eggs.

I still have leaves and grass clippings from last fall that need to be turned into the compost bins. Old grass clippings WILL heat up a compost pile. I put up lots of finished compost last summer and fall using up the old stuff first. I screen my compost and put 2 5 gallon buckets in the boxes and store 1 5 gallon bucket full in a plastic 45 gallon trash can for early spring. I can barely get the lid on it. What I mean is, for every 2 buckets I put on the garden, I put 1 in storage for next spring. I do make more than 15 gallons a season LOL. Right now I have 5 of 6 bins ready to go as soon as it warms up some (and the ice melts in the center) and about 8 sacks of leaves and a huge pile of grass clippings, plus all the straw in the hen house and hen yard that will get pulled out and replaced as soon as the snow melts under the straw. It will be a busy spring.

polly and cracker, my four legged gardening buddy

Pawsitive, @ 6000 ft, where in So UT are you?
I just moved from Enterprise(5200ft) about 2 months ago.
I was there this week and miss it SOO much!
My house down there sits empty, thank heavens the weeds have not started taking over yet.
That would have thouroghly depressed me.
It was great to see friends and family.

songbirdmommy -in Parowan, far enough off the highway to be isolated, but close enough to jump on and go to the "big city". Snow has melted in all but the deepest shade, but the rest of the area is squishy. Still wearing the mud boots in the back 40. Some of the cheat grass overwintered and the deer are nibbling on it. I dug it up in the garden area and fed it to the chickens. They were glassy eyed with content. They do love the early greens. polly and cracker

I've started my front lasagna beds. They won't be as tall as some people suggest, but I'm going 8 to 12 inches deep depeding on the part of the yard. I'm having to trade off time in the yard for time working on installing tile in my bathroom--I'll probably go crazy if I don't get the basement semi-organized soon (I can't find anything in the pile of boxes that are waiting for pantry shelves) but I can't stand to stay out of the yard for very long either, lol. I've done about 400 square foot of beds but have more than that left before I even start my vegetable garden beds. And then there are the beds and pond around the patio we're planning for theis spring. lol I don't know how to do anything on a small scale, it seems. The whole yard (we're starting from scratch) is naught but mud and rocks so I'm trying to focus on one part of the yard at a time. That's the theory anyway. And I can't wait until the time change Sunday since it will give me an extra hour of daylight after work. lol
Heather

Wow Heather, You sound like me!
I have so many projects going on with my recent move too.
I figure, outta sight outta mind when it comes to my basement.
EVERYONE sees the yard though!
So the basement and garage, with all it's boxes slowly get weeded through... when it rains. I am actually hoping to have a yard sale in a week or two. Just get rid of all the junk I hauled up here from Southern UT!
I hope the weather stays nice, but finding the time to get the garage sale organized with out taking time away from the garden is another story.
I am so busy with my kids and all their activities, I sometimes feel like I don't have time to "do it all"... so there the mounds of boxes in the basement sit.....

Today the sun is shining, the weather is to be in the 60's and life is good... for I will be in the garden! :-)