This is a not so pretty time of the year in the upper Midwest. Snow piles are dirty along roads and sidewalks - to the point where a fresh snowfall would be welcome if only to clean things up a little for a short time. The 2-3' left in the yards is crusted so hard you can walk on it without falling through. It's cold, in the teens and low twenties, but the sun's been out, lovely clear blue skies. But that doesn't help much with the overall "really getting tired of winter" feeling. Oh well, it is March; just shy of two more months of this to endure.

We moved a couple of months ago and I had to let the yard (I can't be called a garden at this point yet) just be... no matter how painful it was. My focus was house house house... it was ours but we had rented it and they turned it into a crack house. Well, we kicked them out and after a month of making it livable we moved. However, the work had only just begun... we removed popcorn from ceilings, replaced fixtures and doors... and we still aren't finished. But my focus has shifted.... causing much distress for my poor DH. (He works a lot right now so the house is all on me) I have been digging out the years of neglect (When he and I began dating he was in a different house, which we lived in prior to this move... a master gardener had lived there prior and all I had to do was maintain it all). The house we are in now was his, but he doesn't bother with anything but mowing the weeds and it has been at least 3 or 4 years since anyone has done anything here other than that. All the beds had been filled with rock, the yard is weeds and sand, it is bad. The good news... we have gorgeous trees and a great spot on a lake... so the potential is there :) Back to the topic of the post, since I started focusing on the yard and my garden in the making the house has gone to hell. There are clothes everywhere, still boxes that didn't get unpacked, spare bed is covered in christmas stuff that needs to go in the attic, no clean dishes to be found, dirt and dust galore... Ugh! My kitchen is covered in potting soil and plant seedlings, cuttings, pots and trays. I don't have a potting bench or anything even close yet, so the kitchen has been converted. My ottoman has become my sort and send for my seed trading, there are baggies of seeds everywhere.. Everywhere! My living room is littered with bubble evies... it is terrible. Best part is, a friend of ours is in need of a place to stay for a little while so he;s moving in this weekend. I am going to go into cleaning shock... and yet I'm still determined to get in some yard work this weekend. We'll see how things turn out... this is my first real garden (of my own) and the first time I've been completely responsible for so much (I'm kinda young still... just finished college and am starting out fresh... but with the love of my life so its all good!). I'm just looking forward to next spring, when I will have been properly prepared and things can really look nice :) Kim (cottage style junkie and newbie)

Yes, we can and do have fall gardens. We plant fall beans in early Aug. Sounds late for zone 6, but I am in a microclimate next to a large body of water that holds off frost until very late in the fall, unless we have one of those real severe cold fronts blow in from Canada in October. Kale will winter over in the open garden. The usual turnips, spinach, and lettuce. Somewhere I have a chart of what can be planted and when... by seed and another for putting out plants. Also keep a chart of when to start flats of seed for planting in spring and fall. I have pulled suckers off of tomatoes in late June/early July to root for a later crop that runs into fall. Any of the coles can be started from seed in a flat and planted out, but I would have to look for the chart to tell you when. I prefer fall beans to those that get caught by bugs and warm weather. Many crops we don't mess with because we have plenty from the spring garden. We have a good 1/2 acre in gardens, plus fruit trees, blueberries, and 93 asparagus plants. (don't ask how they ended up uneven numbered) I started them from seed about 19 years ago and I guess my measurer was off when I transplanted to the permanent plot...it sure won't divide by 5 rows. Actually, I am starting to drag my feet over all this gardening...back hurts too much to want to keep it up.

My Christmas Cassia is bursting out into bloom. I love it, but I should have trimmed it back this year, because the limbs are really long. One goes about 15 ft up into an oak tree. The Purple Showers are blooming like mad. The cranberry hibiscus (H. Acetosella) and Hibiscus radiatus are blooming, but not as bountifully as I'd like them to. Next year, I'll pinch them more. My milkweed and shrimp plants are starting to bloom. The purple wandering jew is looking gorgeous. My one penta is looking a little raggedy, but still blooming Vincas, which did not do well this summer with all the rain, are starting to bloom again. The Little Ruby alternanthera is looking a little faded, and still hasn't bloomed, but it's still pretty. The few marigolds that survived the rains are blooming, but they're really a pretty, bright yellow Nothing else is doing anything much.