February 2021 Week 1
dbarron
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
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Nancy RW (zone 7)
3 years agojlhart76
3 years agoRelated Discussions
February 2020, Week 1
Comments (56)dbarron, The time is flying by, but I think it is because I'm keeping myself busy with other projects since gardening is a dud so far. Tim and I should put all these long-standing water puddles to use and open a fish hatchery, because we're never going to dry up ever again. We have more rain in our forecast for tonight, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. After that, we are supposed to have a few days with no rain. We'll see if that happens. Our soil is squishy and squishy is not good. The only flowers we have blooming here are wildflowers, but they are early. The little Spring Beauty flowers have been in bloom (at least on the occasional sunny day or sunny portion of a day) for about a week, so they are slightly behind the henbit and about six weeks or so later than the dandelions. Normally the Spring Beauties do not bloom this early, but once we had that 83-degree day last week, all the plants here declared that it is Spring and they are rushing headlong into blooming....probably too early and undoubtedly they will suffer from later cold weather. We walk past a big Burford Holly each time we walk in or out of the mudroom's exterior doorway. I only have to take a few steps south of the door to look at that holly up close, and so I did...and there's tiny flower buds all over the stems. They aren't nearly big enough to bloom yet, but their presence this early is a bit shocking. I want to knock them upside the head and remind them it is only early February, but they probably wouldn't listen. Larry, You have a lot going on in the garden considering how wet it has been. We have winter grass (poa annua) dying now, leaving bare patches where the dormant Bermuda grass is visible, because the poa annua cannot handle all the standing water. I wish the Bermuda grass would do the same, but it won't. Nancy, All the plants are so confused, and it alarms me. Most years when we get the really early blooms combined with the erratic temperatures, we get enough cold later on to freeze back the plants that have bloomed really early. It is different when we have a consistently warm winter....the early bloomers sometimes get away with it, but not in the yo-yo winters. Just in the last week our temperatures have gone from the low 80s here to the low 20s and back up into the low 60s. Most nights have been pretty darn cold, in the 20s, and with frost, so it doesn't matter if you have a lovely 60-degree afternoon as you're still likely to have a 20-something degree morning. It drives me crazy, and I'm guessing the plants don't love it either. I noticed poppy plants popping up in the front wildflower meadow. They must have been in the wildflower seed mix I sowed back in November...or October....or whenever it was. Normally the poppies don't pop up here until late March or early April, so it is odd to see them sprouting in early February. Everything is odd this year. I still have no veggie seeds sown indoors. Maybe Monday. I won't get it done any earlier because the grandkids are here and they are keeping me busy. I'm totally not in the mood to grow veggies this year---I wanted to focus almost 100% on renovating the landscape and just let the front veggie garden be mostly all wildflowers, but the rain is ruining those plans. You cannot rent a sod cutter and cut up remove sod that has saturated soil (and standing water), so we cannot start on that most important part of redoing the landscape and it is making me crazy. I'm wondering if it will stay too wet all Spring to work on the landscape. That really would drive me crazy. I may have to revise my plans and postpone the landscaping (and I am not happy about that prospect) until we dry out this summer, and just plant more veggies than intended in order to keep myself busy and out of trouble. I hate this rainy year already. Larry, I am planting tomatoes and peppers in containers this year, and will fill the bottom half of the containers with old half-rotted wood, chopped/shredded autumn leaves, twigs and compost....hügelkultur style. I'll then fill the top half of the containers with a good soil-less mix. I've been "consulting" with our son on his gardening all week...starting seeds, building raised beds, etc. I even picked up some supplies for him today while I was out grocery shopping because he was at work. It is fun watching him getting heavily into gardening. They have a new worm bin and are really getting into vermicomposting so the girls can learn how that works. He knows more than he thinks he knows because he always helped me with the garden when he was a kid, right up until the time he got his driver's license and decided he had better stuff to do. I think he fears he has forgotten everything he ever knew about gardening, but I can tell that he has not. The apple does not fall far from the tree.... It is late, I am awake and everyone else is asleep, so I'm going to go start next week's thread before I go to bed myself. Dawn...See MoreFebruary 2021 Week 2
Comments (82)So behind here! Moni, I keep meaning to message you about the SCOBY. I wanted to come get it last week, but the frozen roads! Maybe the end of this week??? Amy, Tom fell. He probably has a cracked rib. The doctor prescribed pain medicine to take at night so he can get comfortable enough to sleep. He's doing fine, though. He's been sleeping in the recliner...and that is better than lying flat, I guess. Rebecca, I also remember Dawn talking about her wish for a real snow. It looks like it might happen at her house. Amy, I'm SO sorry. Hugs to you! Around here.... I don't have great hope that our plants in the gardens will survive this. It would be nice if the brussels survive, though. Really nice. Light Shelf update: the first broccoli is looking okay. Not great. It needs to be up-potted very soon. I hope to do this tomorrow. The second round of broccoli is just popping up now. The cabbage seedlings look very healthy as does the first round of lettuce. The 4 cups of tomatoes that were started on SuperBowl Sunday have done nothing yet. I am determined to have cardinal climbers this year. I bought seed last year, but the tiny seedlings didn't do much--except one at my Mom's house did a little bit of something. I started seed early this year. I want bigger plants to put in the garden. They are sprouted and are looking great. Also, the red periwinkles are starting to pop. Hoop house building came to a screeching halt because of the weather. It looks great,, though. Super exciting. I've spent a good amount of time making sure we're ready for the upcoming weather. I think we have everything we need now. The Walmart shelves were empty last night. We already had most of what we needed, except for potatoes. We did stop at Homeland to look for potatoes today (and yeast for a Kings Cake)...they were out of the baking types of potatoes and the 5 lb bags, etc. They had a package of the tiny potatoes, so we grabbed those for dinner tonight. I guess people are making potato soup? We bought feed for the chickens too. Took the recycling in. The snow shovel is at the house now, instead of the shop. I guess Ethan and I will be doing the shoveling because of Tom's cracked rib. I wrapped the 10' x 12' chicken pen with plastic. I would like for them to have a place to walk around other than the coop. The plastic keeps most of the wind off of them...and it seems like it kept the coop warmer last night too. The water got partially frozen Thursday night at 14 degrees. The warmer works pretty well, but 14 must be it's limit. HOWEVER, it didn't freeze last night after the plastic wrap. My dogs are so restless. I walk them around the perimeter of property a couple times a day. But it's just not enough. I can handle the cold pretty well except for my hands. They were burning so badly yesterday after wrapping the pen with plastic that I almost cried. I have Raynauds. Today, I looked for heated gloves today. No luck. I will be ordering some. I'm worried about the neighbors' animals. They didn't put blankets on the horses. One of their cats isn't allowed indoors. He comes to our house for food every night. He's in our shop now. I fixed him up a litter box. Gave him some food and water. Put a towel on an old padded office chair we have down there. He seems pretty cozy. I hope my neighbors aren't upset by it...but I'm worried about him. Our shop isn't warm, but it's insulated and warmer than outdoors. I guess I'll walk the dogs now and call it a night. Stay warm and pray for those without shelter....See MoreFebruary 2021 Week 4
Comments (69)It's a blah day. . . Not cold, not hot, but not pleasant, either. Maybe I'll give it a couple hours and then go plant onions and asparagus. I have to whittle the tomato list down a bit. Onions are in, but I'm waiting a couple days for the asparagus. Do you all add fertilizer when planting the asparagus crowns? What kind? I'll have to order some, I guess. I have high hopes for the onions this year! The grow cart is beginning to fill up. I have sweet potatoes in potting soil so can make my own slips. Far too many peppers, but there are so many interesting ones, I want to sample some. I am especially interested in tasting: Hungarian Paprika Spice; Hungarian Round Pimento; Jimmy Nardello's Italian Pepper; Thunder Mountain Longhorn, Ros de Mallorca, Sugar Rush Peach, and the ornamentals Count Dracula and 5-color Chinese. Then a few hot ones (Thai, and a couple REALLY hot ones.) Because I'll be planting so many peppers, I'm going to really cut back on the tomatoes. But this year, I'm finally organized enough that as soon as I plant a crop of anything, the seeds go into a plastic zip-lock and into the freezer so they can last a long time. . . that means a lot of unused tomato seeds go into the freezer. I finally have my rolled oats and honey, Melissa, so can get going on a big batch of granola. Haha, Danny. I've been working on this most of the day. I'm having a hard time staying on task--with ANYTHING today. Dinner's started--Cajun penne pasta with chicken. I love salads at restaurants. Not crazy about them at home. But I found these spectacular dressings, and now all of a sudden, I like tossed salads at home. That makes GDW happy, as he loves salad. These are so delicious, I'm going to share them with you all. I knew I had to try them when she said she really didn't like salads that much. I've tried the lemon one and now the blue cheese one. But fully intend to give them all a try. https://wholefully.com/healthy-salad-dressing-recipes/ Have a super good week, everyone. Hope you're okay, Amy. Thinking of you....See MoreJuly 2021 Week 1
Comments (64)Just realized I've been absent this week. We still can't have in person camp, so this year we're doing a hybrid. Every Saturday in July we're having an in person gathering at a different area, and those who can't meet in person can join us through Zoom. Today was our gathering in OKC, so I've been busy trying to finish up everything for that. It went well, not a great turnout but the kids so enjoyed seeing their friends in person. The next 3 weeks I'll be helping with the Zoom portion so I won't have quite as much to prep. Pits...The media have hype pits to be killing machines much like they did rottweilers back in the 90s, or dobermans in the 80s. We have a pit mix and he's the absolute sweetest dog. He even got pinned by another dog at the park & didn't do a thing to stop it. And our most recent addition is a pit mix (client couldn't keep him & asked us to take him, and, well, now we have another dog lol.) And we have gobs of pit mix clients, plus a few full blood pits. 99% of them have been teddy bears. But a couple weeks ago we had 2 full pits, both rescues, and one attacked the other. Had to be the most frightening thing to watch, I thought the one was going to kill the other. And before all this they were complete angels, very loving. The biggest issue with pits is how they're raised. Any dog can be vicious, but pits get a bad rep because of how much damage they can do. But honestly, I'll take a pit over a chihuahua or terrier any day. HJ, you know I'll always take any containers lol. I'm hoping that when we move I can set up a more effective seed shelf. Speaking of, we went & looked at a place yesterday. The property was almost perfect, but the house was a little too cramped for our liking and it was in Lexington. Much as I'd love to have 10 acres, that was pretty much kill our dog sitting. Nancy, I'm afraid that pepper doesn't look familiar to me. But all the varieties I'm growing this year are new to me, so I'm not much help. Off to look at y'alls native lists. If we're moving, I'm going to have a lot of work starting my garden again. And I'm wanting to include at least half natives, half all the other stuff I like....See MoreMarleigh 7a/Okmulgee Co.
3 years agoRebecca (7a)
3 years agoluvncannin
3 years agoluvncannin
3 years agodbarron
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoOklaMoni
3 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
3 years agoluvncannin
3 years agodbarron
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoKim Reiss
3 years agoKim Reiss
3 years agoLarry Peugh
3 years agoKim Reiss
3 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
3 years agodbarron
3 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
3 years agoLarry Peugh
3 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
3 years agodbarron
3 years agodbarron
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoOklaMoni
3 years agoKim Reiss
3 years agoLarry Peugh
3 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
3 years agodbarron
3 years agoOklaMoni
3 years agoKim Reiss
3 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
3 years agohazelinok
3 years agoRebecca (7a)
3 years agoKim Reiss
3 years agoLarry Peugh
3 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
3 years agoRebecca (7a)
3 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
3 years agoLarry Peugh
3 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
3 years agoLarry Peugh
3 years agoRebecca (7a)
3 years agohazelinok
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agodbarron
3 years agoRebecca (7a)
3 years agohazelinok
3 years agodbarron
3 years agojlhart76
3 years agodbarron
3 years agoMarleigh 7a/Okmulgee Co.
3 years ago
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dbarronOriginal Author