CC, I wrote that article for Growing for Market! We extend the growing period for Dahlias in unheated high tunnels. Extra lighting is essential at the beginning of the season. There are some growers who leave the tubers in the ground during the winter months in their high tunnel by mulching heavily. This is done in the center bed only as it is too cold near the outside walls. Dinner plate size Dahlias are best grown under cover for height and bloom size. Dahlias are heavy feeders, and it's important to remember to fertilize them more often when grown under cover. We use a compost tea nutrient mix. Regarding placement of tuber orders, now is the time to place your order with Tall Grass Farms. I highly recommend them as a supplier. We have ordered some beauties for cut flower production. As growers, we try to place orders when tubers are being harvested. Because we are eternal optimists, we are always thinking ahead to the next growing season. The Insider's Guide to Cut Flower Dahlias by Lane Greer is a nice book to have on hand.

I've done quite a bit of winter gardening here on the high plains of Colorado. We get more sunshine than Iowa but probably very similar day length. The main thing really is soil temperature to be concerned with. I wouldn't bother with the the thermometer as I found it made me worry too much. Cold season plants can really take substantial amount of cold. Make sure to vent on sunny days above ~45F. Have your hoops up for a couple weeks before putting in any transplants or seeds to get the soil somewhat warm. The edges of the tunnels will be where the soil is coldest. On the north side of your tunnels have some sort of insulation. Bagged fall leaves in black bags combined with loose straw worked best for me. Inside your tunnels when it's below ~10F at night use a 2nd layer of row covers. The cold season is by far the best time of year to grow the tastiest greens. Good luck.

Megan, I don't really know of any bird feeders that can prevent the issue of dropped seed---it isn't a problem here because our free-ranging chickens scour the ground beneath the feeders searching for dropped seed. I don't suppose you can have free-range chickens there? Actually, there are some seed trays that you can attach beneath feeders that supposedly will catch dropped seed, but I've always wondered what stops birds from kicking seeds out of the dropped seed trays? One year, I put a piece of plywood on the ground all winter beneath the feeders so I could sweep up seed that fell to the ground and landed on the plywood. That works, but it gets tedious.....although I noticed the chickens policed the plywood for me most days. When you live in an area as rural as ours, for the most part, the existing wildlife takes care of the other wildlife. I'm mostly referring to rodents....everything eats them....snakes, owls, coyotes, bobcats, ring-tailed cats, etc., so they are not as big of a problem here as one might imagine. During the day, our own cats will hunt them, especially Pumpkin who is the youngest and considers himself to be the Great Hunter, but our pet cats are locked up indoors at night, because pet cats that stay outdoors at night usually don't last long around here. Jen, I'm laughing about the Indian princess comment. It is so true. dbarron, Your connection to John Ross is fascinating. I've read quite a bit about him. He lived a very interesting life to say the least. Jennifer, You can get bogged down in that genealogy stuff, and I just do not even want to go there and get started on that so I stay away from it. I know if I ever started it, I would be obsessed with it and would drive myself crazy. It is exciting to think about plans for the 2019 garden. Rebecca, I do have some Burpee exclusives that I like to grow , like Brandy Boy tomatoes and Biker Billy peppers, so I have to order from them occasionally, but I try to only order once every 3-5 years and to just be sure I order enough seeds to last a few years. Their seed prices have gotten so ridiculous and before I order anything from them, I make sure they are the sole source for it. (I have found that sometimes a seed company will claim to be the exclusive source for a specific variety and they are not, so I always search for another source to see if they really are the sole source.) I think Jambalaya could be a good one for you, but I haven't grown it myself. It is supposed to bear early and often, so at least on paper it sounds good. Cajun Jewel is fairly dwarf as well but bigger than Baby Bubba, and Jade and Lee are two other varieties suitable for containers. Shumway's has Pink French Quarter and Red French Quarter this year and they both are dwarf, and look good in the photos online, but I haven't grown either of them yet since they are new. Last year my Stewart's Zeebest plants produced so much okra I couldn't keep up with the harvesting, so I want to grow smaller, less productive plants this year. I know that sounds crazy, but not being able to stay caught up on harvesting and using all the okra drove me nuts. Jennifer, It was cold. It felt worse, I think, because it mostly stayed cloudy. We got a little sunshine late in the day. This coming week's weather doesn't look too great. Oh well, it is winter time and I guess we just have to deal with it. To clean chicken (or any sort of bird) poop off anything, you need Poop-Off. You generally can find it in farm supply stores, feed stores, and in most pet stores in the bird section. Or, you can order it online. I'm sure Amazon.com has it. Here is what it looks like: Poop-Off It really does work, but if the poop has been there a while and has dried out long-term, you may have to go through several rounds of spraying and scrubbing to get all of it removed. Wear gloves and a respirator type mask---not because of the Poop Off spray but because of the possible pathogens that can be found in bird poop. I hate buying veggies too. That's why I try to fill up 2 or 3 deep freezes every summer, but still, they are things we don't grow or that cannot be preserved long-term (like lettuce, for example), so I just try to buy organic and still must remind myself that purchased produce never will have the freshness or quality of home-grown. Going to Central Market for produce helps---their produce is superb in quality and quantity and going through the produce section for me is like a trip to Disney. I have a good time. However, being a gardener, I'm always tell Tim when we are there that it still kills me to buy produce, even when it is theirs. We still have fresh onions from the 2018 harvest, but some of them are starting to sprout now so I don't know how much longer they'll last. I do have a ton of them already chopped and frozen. It isn't the same, I agree, but I'd rather take my own frozen produce out of the freezer and cook it in winter than buy it at a store. I have enough frozen tomatoes to last us another year, and they smell garden fresh when I thaw them out and have them cooking away in a pot on the stove so I can make soup or chili or whatever. It is about to be chili type weather again, I believe, based on our forecast. It is time to go start next week's thread for all of us to post on. I cannot decide whether to make it December week 5, or January week 1. lol lol lol. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Dawn

Kim, thanks! I hope he likes to garden. I just wish we didn't live an hour and a half round trip. It could be worse, I know. Future babies in Oregon will be especially hard. There was a house for sell near them earlier this week. It is nearly identical to the size of our house and sits on an acre. It was remodeled nicely, but it had no shop, but does have a double garage and a shed. It is something we could afford and those don't come up very often when they are this nicely remodeled. I do like our house better, tho. But, it's gone after 3 days. I knew it wouldn't last. It's not even pending...it's just gone. Probably someone who sold to the OTA had the cash to buy it. But, we aren't ready to sell our house IF we decide to go that route. Larry, I've never been worry-free. It's just how I am. I haven't been outside much this week. I watered a few things in the front beds and the pots on the porch. Things are still alive--haven't frozen yet. I picked up another bucket of pecans. The crazy wind today should knock the rest of them to the ground. I've been doing extra stuff at work--filling in for people so that gets me home a little later--nearly dark. Kim, I saw that meme on FB and laughed. :D Reminds me of when Ethan was little and we sprinkled oatmeal on the yard for the reindeer. And with Mason, we left carrots out for them. I've always been fascinated by reindeer. Even as a very small child. I'm pretty sure Tom purchased a piece of jewelry for me for Christmas. Does anyone watch Jonna Jinton on YouTube? She has some very beautiful videos. (This years videos haven't been as much because it's mostly remodeling her new studio). ANYWAY, she lives in northern sweden and the Sami people bring the reindeer down for food in the winter. She finds their antlers in her forest. (Both male and female reindeer have antlers. The males lose theirs in the autumn and the females in late winter/early spring. This is why Santa's reindeer are female! ;) ) ANYWAY AGAIN, the antlers she finds inspired a jewelry line and I'm pretty sure I'm getting silver antler jewelry for Christmas. I have a silver reindeer necklace I wear all December every year. Tomorrow I'll try to get home in time to water the hoop house. I can do it in the dark, I guess. Just take a lantern with me. Really, that's all the gardening I'm doing right now. I'm excited to look through the seed catalogs when I have a chance. Try, try, try to NOT start too many seeds next year. I did better last year and maybe I'll do even better this year.