Spring is almost another whole month away... and the snow looks like it is here to stay another night, in OKC.

I am ready for spring too. Did you see my back yard in snow picture posted on the "Pictures to warm us up" post?

Moni

I am trying to get a bunch of inside chores done so that as soon as this cold breaks for a week I will be able to get those onions in.

We got ice snow and ice over the last two days and I am hoping it warms up enough tomorrow cuz I have to run to Altus tomorrow. Are there any garden centers over that way?

lol Lisa Well, if ya didn't cook so well ...

Another British TV addict? What do you like?

I did snow removal (moved it to my lawn and my trees), then baked some bread. Yummy on the latter.

Moni

Amy, I have been watching "Monarch of the Glen". It's on Netflix, not sure it is running on PBS. My sister's family got me started on it! It's about a young Scottish man that goes home to save his family's estate .....The estate is in financial ruin. It's full of quirky characters! Last year they got me watching Doc Martin.

Still not planting onions :(

My waiting onions are looking kinda sad !

We spent the weekend trying to keep the new dog (my husband's idea...our only New Year's resolution was to remain dog free in 2015) from chasing the cat, who was hanging around inside because he hates snow. We cancelled Fort Worth Costco run once the final forecast came in.
It looks like next weekend is going to be nice, so I will probably get potatoes planted in Smart Pots (a new experiment this year). With any luck, we will be able to get a new raised bed built next weekend, too. Although we've successfully put that off for a few months, so I'm not going to hold my breath.

I bought a 5 lb bag of Yukon Gold seed potatoes a month ago during that warm spell. They've been cut and sulfured for a week now under newspaper in a cool room. Haven't bought the onion plants yet. I have green onions ready to eat in the greenhouse so I don't feel rushed about getting them in for greens. Don't want to wait too late though. But with 3-4" of snow on the ground what can one do?

No planting is occurring here either, unless the onions and potatoes are going to wear scuba gear. Our wireless internet antenna was buried in ice and snow and stopped working for a while and I felt so cut off from the world, other than the TV world.

I've been spending the snowy, icy weekend days cooped up indoors with pets while Tim & Chris have been trapped at work in Texas. Today we finally got warm enough for the ice and snow to mostly melt away and they both finally made it home, so we're about back to normal. We still have lots of huge puddles everywhere, and I've been busy feeding all the birds (particularly goldfinches and house finches), deer, bunnies and squirrels.

I'm definitely not in planting mode. The garden is about as wet as it has been since the winter of 2012, when it got so wet that seed potatoes rotted in the ground, and so did some of the onions. I cannot hold the onions much longer, so will try to plant them in the highest raised bed on Tuesday when the temperatures are expected to be decent before the next snow and ice event arrives.

So far, I'm not feeling much love for March. I think it is going to stay colder and wetter than I'd like for planting time, so I'm still not going to get in any sort of a hurry with anything. I'm the first one to plant early if conditions allow, but I'm not going to push anything into the ground in the current conditions, which means....if I'm not gardening, I'm kinda bored.

Part of this afternoon I watched 3 or 4 calves that have been born recently at the ranch across the road as they ran up the icy, muddy sloping hillside. I couldn't decide if they were playing or just frantically searching for their mamas.

It "warms" my heart to know I'm not the only one with onions waiting to be planted!!!! I lucked out with 7 bundles of Dixondale from local nursery...but they are getting dry, dry, dry-crusty. Can I do something to make them feel better? I'd be better suited to help those calves than my drying onions. And I've promised some of these to another member here so I want them to stay healthy?!

So obviously, Oldbusy1 - we're not out planting...but seriously thinking, planning and plotting....

p_mac, I used a shallow feed container and put some damp sand in it then just sat the onions on top. I don't want to water them and get them to rotting all bunched up. A little air circulating should keep and moisture issues at bay. I don't know if it is better or worse , but I had to do something .

I know I will lose some but I don't know when i'll be able to get in the garden now. My ground is mush and my cows have really made a mess with it.

Ive held off even buying my onions. The place i get mine takes good care of them so I wasnt too rushed to get them home. I will get them in this weekend. Looks like the cold is going to break by then. I hope!!

Paula, Based on how long I've held my onions without planting them, your heart should be really warmed by now. I'm not sorry I've held them because the ground is just as wet as it was in 2012 when so many rotted, but I am starting to feel desperate to get them planted. I have them sitting in a box filled with potting soil, but it is barely moist.....just moist enough to keep the roots from dying (I hope). Keeping soil (sand would work too, and maybe even vermiculite) around the roots keeps them from drying out too much though you might have to moisten the soil a little. If I had any lava sand, I would use it. A nursery in Texas from whom I have purchased many plants over the years, always holds their bundles of onions in trays of lava sand so that the plant roots do not get excessively dry.

Robert, Except for the absence of cows, I'm in the same boat you're in. We are so often dry here that I hate to complain about being wet, but our ground is mostly just mushy, squishy muddy puddles now. Even in the raised beds, the soil is far too wet....even in the ones that I already had "fluffed up" with the addition of a whole lot of compost. Right now, my garden doesn't look so much like a garden----it looks like a wetland, and in a bad way. The land outside the garden proper is even worse because it is unamended clay.....so right now our place looks like reddish-brown chocolate pudding covers the ground, with tufts of winter grass and dandelions sticking up out of it. It is not a real attractive look. I have tried to keep the wild birds, deer, rabbits, squirrels and possums fed all through this snowy spell so they have mucked up the ground out back by the compost pile and alongside the driveway something awful. It actually looks about the same as mucky, trampled mud around the cattle feeding areas and watering areas at nearby ranches.

Mike, I'm glad you have a source that cares for their onion plants and keeps them in great shape. Most of the onions here where I live have been sitting in those wooden shipping crates outdoors since they arrive in mid-January. I wouldn't purchase and plant any of those because my expectation is that they've gotten too dry. At least this year these stores have finally begun to cover up their bedding plants with frost blankets instead of just letting them freeze, so at least they are getting smarter about that.

If the weather doesn't straighten up soon, it may not be a very good onion year. I think it has been a few years since we stayed so wet across wide swaths of the state in February and March that onions struggled to get established and to grow, and I'd just as soon not have a year like that in 2015.

It seems to me that now we are paying the price for all those gorgeous, unseasonably warm days we had in December, January and the first half of February. It's all fun and games when we have that nice weather earlier in winter, but now it is time to pay the piper---and that isn't any fun at all.

Just for giggles, I might do an experiment with onions. I was thinking about planting an onion in a container. Haha , but here is my idea. Then I was going to regulate how much sunlight it received, fooling it and getting maximum leaf production. Then I would let it get the needed sunlight to promote bulb production.

Wonder how big I could get one to grow.

Do they still sell calgon, for those that remember the commercials. Calgon, take me away.

Lisa, I have watched both Doc Martin and Monarch of the glen. I you like those try Wild At Heart. I watch a lot of British TV on Netflix and Hulu Plus. I'm a long time Doctor Who fan. But I watch all the British detective shows I can find. I had both hips replaced in 2013, I watched a lot of TV.

I feel better after reading everyone else's posts. Its hard not to feel really behind, but this weather is just not cooperating at all, and my new garden beds are still not built (weather to blame there too!) I have two raised beds at this point that I can actually plant (each one is 2'x8') and I was planning to plant snap peas this weekend, and maybe some radish and onions, just for green onions. The rest of the beds are scheduled to go in March 14th, and I just hope its not too late. I have lettuce, kale, cabbage, spinach, cilantro and dill growing inside under lights, as well as tomatoes and peppers and basil. So hopefully once the garden is ready I can get a jumpstart on things anyway. I just hope we don't go from 0 to 100 like we do some years...

I know how you feel. Last year everytime I wanted to plant we had to buy more soil. It will be the same this year.

Another British TV lover here. I've watched all of Monarch of the Glen, as well as lots of detective shows such as Foyle's War and George Gently. Has anyone here watched "The Good Life"? I think it was produced in the 70's, about a British couple living in the suburbs who decide to grow all their own food and live sustainably, but in their suburban home and back yard. Their next door neighbors are a very posh couple who are horrified at what's happening, and it's all great fun. Interestingly, the actor who plays husband Tom turns up many years later as Hector in Monarch of the Glen.

By the way, how does one add a photo to one's post? I've tried pushing the Photo button, and nothing seems to happen. Help!!!

Robert, With 30 bunches of onions, I'd say you could spare one (or more) for the sake of experimentation. To get the really big ones, Dixondale says 21" of water during its growing period and high nitrogen, but with little of that water the last couple of weeks as it nears maturity. I am not sure if you'd need more water than that for onions in containers. I think it would depend on how fast the growing medium drains and, if it drains really quickly, you might need more than 21" since some inevitably will drain out through the container's drainage holes.

I've grown onions (and garlic, chives and ornamental alliums) in molasses feed tubs just to have some spiky foliage in containerized plantings of mixed veggies, herbs and flowers. They grew just fine but didn't necessarily get really huge because they were packed in tightly with tons of other stuff. In this instance, I was growing them just to get a certain look in that container, not to produce big bulbs.

They do sell Calgon, and we need a special Gardener's Calgon......one that takes us away to a bright sunny garden with soil that's only a tiny bit moist instead of sopping wet and icy. Oh, and the weather would have to be in the 60s so we could be comfortable while planting but not too hot as the cool-season veggies don't need to be too hot too early in the year.

Shelley, I'm planning to put my sugar snaps in the ground this weekend too, and nothing is going to stop me. Mine are sprouted in paper cups and starting to get some height to them, so I'll likely have a tangled mess if I cannot get them in the ground soon. I'm moving them out to the greenhouse today to slow them down. It shouldn't get cold enough the next couple of nights to hurt them. Beginning today, I'll be giving them an hour of sunlight per day (if we have an hour of sun) or an hour of cloudy-light, I guess, because they aren't at all hardened off since they've sprouted indoors.

The same is true of everything I've got growing indoors. Normally by now it all is hardened off, but those plants are sitting up there on the light shelf upstairs all fat, happy and warm with no hardening off, since it didn't seem smart to try to harden them off while freezing rain, sleet and snow are falling.

If we go from 0 to 100 in a very short time frame, and I don't think we will, I'll yank out all the cool-season plants except onions, taters and snap peas and just will rush the warm-season stuff into the ground. Oh, and we'll have the lettuce that has overwintered in the greenhouse, but how well new lettuce would perform would just depend on when we go from cold to hot. I'm not going to mess around with trying to pamper a ton of cool-season crops if heat arrives extra early to stay---it doesn't seem to pay off. My gut feeling is we'll have a long, cool spring that is slow to heat up, but that is not based on anything scientific at all--it is just what I feel in my bones. By Easter, I think we'll have a pretty firm idea of what sort of spring we'll have. If we still are pretty cool by Easter, we'll likely have great yields from spring crops because the cool weather will be persisting long enough to keep them happy. In the years that we have the fabled Easter Freeze (generally sleet or snow around Easter week), I get frustrated because warm season crops cannot go into the ground as early as I like but have wonderful harvests of cool-season crops. In the years we get hot before Easter and stay hot, it is the opposite.

I actually haven't started a whole lot of stuff indoors because I didn't want to be stuck holding it indoors for too long in persistently cool, cloudy weather. I've just now started cabbage, broccoli, cilantro, chives, dill, borage and nasturtiums this morning. Oh, and peppers. Mostly all I have on the light shelf upstairs is artichokes, a ton of tomato seedlings, sugar snap peas, and 8 or 10 types of cool-season flowers. I'll be spending the rest of today potting up Exserta petunias and the last round of tomato seedlings, and starting seeds of some warm season flowers. I'm putting the newly-planted flats on top of the deep freeze today and then, in a couple of days when I move all the upstairs flats out to the greenhouse, I'll move the freezertop flats to the light shelves, and then I also can pot up more small flowers that are crammed into little paper cups and need to be divided and potted up to larger cups with fewer flowers per cup. All this cold, wet, freezing weather in late Feb and early Mar has my usual routine slowed down to a crawl. A really slow craw.

I've been to two Wal-Marts this week. At the one in Gainesville, heavyweight row cover was over all the outdoor plants, but I'm not sure if it was enough to save the plants that were out there (they already had tomato, pepper, eggplant, squash and some warm-season herbs on the shelves as of 3 weeks ago). It will be interesting to see what, if anything, survived out there as the row covers can only do so much for plants up on shelves with cold air coming up from below the shelves. At the one in Ardmore yesterday, while I was searching for finch seed to refill the feeders, I saw flats of limp, obviously freeze-damaged cool-season plants on rolling carts lining a back aisle of the store. They did not look like they'd recover very well, if at all, and if any of those poor plants were brassicas, they'll bolt when it warms up. I've been a little concerned I waited too late to start my seeds, but after looking at those frozen plants and at our forecast, I think mine will be ready to go into the ground at about three or four weeks of age at the end of March and will be fine. I could have planted all the cool-season crops in the greenhouse in containers and they likely would be fine right now, but I prefer growing crops outdoors and mostly in the ground. I just use the greenhouse as a place to overwinter a few tender plants and to shelter seedlings after I move them outdoors from the light shelf.

It doesn't look like March yet and it doesn't feel like March, but then, March always is a really erratic transitional month with lots of weather ups and downs about 8 or 9 years out of 10. The last good warm March here in my county was 2012 and I wouldn't expect a great March for another couple of years at the earliest.

I finally started broccoli last night, and have some asparagus and tomatoes planted, but nothing else. It is hard to get motivated in this weather. Our last snow has finally melted, but we have another one due. Next year I am going to request my onion plants later than the suggested date.

Carol, I'm likely to do the same. I don't think it will my onion harvest at all if I plant in mid-March instead of mid-February. I likely would get smaller short-day types, but I could work around that by only planting 1 bundle of short days and make all the rest intermediates or longs.

When they issued the Winter Weather Advisory a little bit ago for tomorrow, I just groaned. I still don't think we'll get that much precipitation down here, but if the relatively small amount we get falls more as freezing rain than as sleet or snow it still could be a big problem. Our roads had some horrible periods during the weekend storm, with so many cars off the interstate that it was just ridiculous. We don't another even one more day of that, but I guess it could happen.

In recent years, I've noticed there is very little upside to putting anything in the ground in February most years and sometimes there is only a small upside to planting in early March. I keep planting cool-season crops later and later without a noticeable decrease in yields, so see no reason to reverse the trend. Maybe it just is because the cold nights keep growth so slow, but for whatever reason, I'm trending later on planting all the time and with no regrets.

Y'all probably won't ever see me trend later on planting warm-season plants though. I'm always gonna push hard to get them in the ground as early as possible to beat the heat.

Although this is to be a short-lived storm, it is sounding serious. Tomorrow is Al's birthday and the first thing I said to him this morning was, "If you want to have your birthday dinner anywhere else except at home, I suggest we do it today." We have three birthdays tomorrow, Al, our grandson Gage, and our daughter-in-law Josie. Today is 3 years from losing Gary so we have lots of memories in our heads today.

I am almost afraid to keep looking at the weather since I saw one that said we might get as much as 7 inches of snow and freezing mix. I sure hope that one was wrong.

I planted potatoes one year. nothing happen unless the groundhogs ate them.

me I am busy trying to find out, and I think I have, how to plant pearly everlasting, vervain, and common buckwheat. these plants grew wild in California and I used to pick them and put them in a vase and let them dry. I have the seed packets and also ordered a pearly everlasting plant because last time I had the seeds, nothing happened. trying to get a vervain plant also, but nursery said that they would email me if they planted it this year.

that is what I am doing today. otherwise, I am waiting for spring. I am finished with my projects unless I spend time to make an apron with feed sack material. otherwise it is reading and watching tv. boring.