No fertilizer needed. simply plan a regular fall garden. lettuce & many greens turnip beets swiss chard kale spinach You could actually do the entire garden in leaf lettuce which once it grows will keep until frozen dead. however kale, collards, chard, spinach etc will stay alive to a colder temperature. since there is usually a warm spell after a freeze this can extend the harvest by another month or longer. If you had more time you could do cabbage, brussel sprouts, brocolli, etc. You should remain cool enough to grow right through the summer all kinds of good cool weather greens. My favorite green is Mizuna. You have time for that but might not have the seeds easily available. Peas would work. you would need the short peas not the big tall type as they take a little longer. Every day counts. I would simply get some good stuff and get the seeds germinating as soon as possible. there are many asian greens that are fast and tender. but you need the seeds fast. and they are not usually available in the stores. You should be able to purchase cabbage plants at a greenhouse. that would save important time on growing from seed. brocolli etc might work that way also. You have to investigate that. I would avoid tender things that will die in a mild freeze. fall gardens can be the best because the greens stay perfect outdoors for long periods of time. no need to harvest. they keep better than in the refrigerator. Of course eventually they do die from too much cold. If you feed the plants too much nitrogen they will die easier in the cold. no need to hit with chemical fertilizers. If you do want to fertilize I would recommend going lightly with some organic fertilizer. Good Luck. Let us know how you make out. Carrots do nice in the fall but the seeds can take a long time to germinate. And they can be difficult to simply germinate. better to practice on carrots some other time. golden acre cabbage can be fast at about 64 days but red cabbages can be very slow at 100+ days.

now is the time ... i would go for about a two footer .. just less stress all around ... probably wont even know it was moved ... though as noted.. knowing what kind of pine might make a difference .. i would bare root it ... and shoot for about a two foot spread of roots ... free range pines.. probably have a very shallow root system .... in my sand ... if damp ... you can nearly pull them out ... though a little spading will help ... trim all broken root ends ... you should be able to tell in very early spring.. whether the buds are elongating.. if not... move another .... since you seem to have an unlimited supply ... now is a good time.. since it will have two cool root growing seasons.. before the heat of next summer ... rather than waiting until spring.. and hoping it will get 6 to 8 weeks before the real heat hits ... this should work for z6 and colder .... though it might be getting a bit late further north .. ken

Good morning Lucy, No football for me! LOL DH will be working tonight so I do not have to watch! Weather a little cool but nice, Rain tomorrow. :( So a will enjoy today, maybe get some more seeds started. Have a great day, Dorothy I love your photo books, no matter how you set them up. ;)

What do you all suggest we go with, is one over the other going to save us more $ in the long haul? And I'm worried with the orange coils that keeping the current air handler is not a good option?? Thank You for all your time in looking at this and your answers! My opinion is that what your HVAC guy is recommending you are poor choices for your climate. Most of your winter time is spent below 32F. That is a problem for heat pumps because they frost over. This means that performance drops, emergency back up heat required which in your case is electric strip heat. a regular on and off heat pump (1 stage on or off) is likely to freeze even in 40F weather. Your climate is also known to snow. If the coils to the outdoor unit get blocked with snow / ice / frost performance drops causing defrost cycles. No heat is produced by heat pump in defrost cycling so this causes electric strip heat to run. Heat pumps are sized for heating load in your climate. So in summer time they are commonly oversized for cooling, as someone already stated. Avoid the brand trap. This brand or that brand. You need to pay attention to what the equipment does and how it does it. Inverter is the way to go as performance is much better. Does this mean an inverter will never go into defrost? No, that's not what it means. But an inverter has the capability to deliver heat at much lower temps than an on or off single stage heat pump. Bosch Inverter is one such brand. There are risks with this brand so you will need to investigate. Here's a recent thread from a couple of years ago... Another advantage to a Bosch Inverter is that due to it's stepping or ramping nature you won't get any ill effects from it being over sized for heating when running it in cooling mode. All major brands make Inverter heat pumps. Just realize that the differences between these are in how they are controlled and in some cases the inverter is limited in the number of speeds. A brand is a brand... there are a myriad of ways to do something. Some ways cost more than others when you are comparing apples to apples. Meaning that you compare the inverter to another inverter. It's not saying you can't install a regular heat pump and that it won't reduce your bill / usage. It just won't be as good mostly because of your climate situation, the need for defrost which ultimately requires the need for back up heat via your electric resistance heating.