From commentor Marvel:
It’s been a mild Winter here in the Pacific Northwest, but it’s still a little early to be out there mucking about. We’ll throw some ceremonial (sacrificial) potatoes in the ground tomorrow in our yearly ritual and I’ll probably sow some peas next week, but we’ve got at least another month before things get serious, garden-wise (and we’ll plant spuds for real come May).
Here’s some fun garden news: we planted some cauliflower last year, mid-Summer, planning to harvest them in late Fall. The stars didn’t line up, and the little gems got all leafy, but never set any fruit. Instead of ripping them out, I left some of the vegetation in place to help support healthy soil in the bed. Pulled back the poly cover recently and found that we’ve been gifted a REALLY early crop of yummy beauties!
Still too early to really start gardening here north of Boston — but we’ve got the first yellow daffodil buds showing on the earliest-to-bloom clump, hugging the south-facing front of house. And six-inch-high green shoots on the hardy, unkillable, species-Siberian irises which started as a potful of thinnings from our first rental condo in Auburndale 20 years ago and have proliferated relentlessly ever since. The alpine strawberries in pots by the front door actually started leafing out a couple weeks ago, but two subsequent snowstorms put paid to that overoptimistic effort…
Today the Spousal Unit & I went to the Boston Flower & Garden Show, which is a shadow of its old self, but even two dozen landscaped exhibits and a hundred or so vendors’ booths were enough to make me enthusiastic about digging in the dirt again. While I was pre-ordering my annual batch of tomato plants, I also overinvested in “root pouches” from A.M. Leonard; after seeing how the professionals used similar pouches in their various displays, I’m thinking how I can use the pouches for ‘temporary’ displays of annuals and shade-loving plants in spots that have gone unimproved because they’re undiggable or don’t get much sun or where the dogs can reach them.
What are you all doing to get your gardens ready for another growing season?
Mary G
Water is getting really expensive in my corner of So Cal, so I am biting the bullet and tearing out grass and putting in degenerated granite, rocks, succulents and native plants. I’m hoping to hit the annual plant sales at the Huntington Gardens and the LA Arboretum in May if I am well enough.
Going to have a small raised bed in the backyard with drip irrigation for a few veggies.
Planning is fun, a bit intimidated by the doing.
raven
In preparation for our addition I met with the tree guy and scheduled the removal of two pretty sizeable tress including a wonderful red maple that has provided us with great shade on our screen porch and incredible colors in the fall. When we moved in 13 years ago I was able to buy 50 pickup loads of granite for next to nothing and we have build walls, sidewalks and planters all that I am moving out of the footprint into a big pile. While this is going on the princess spent the day going to the “Growers Warehouse” and bought more plants!
Linda Featheringill
Good morning, all. FYWP for eating two of my comments already. We’ll see if this one actually gets through.
ETA: Hooray!
Linda Featheringill
I planted seeds for green onion plants, with plans to actually put them into the ground in about a month or so.
I just bought one little pack of seeds of these particular onions. What am I going to do with 800 seeds?
c u n d gulag
It’s still really cold in my part of Upstate NY.
And it seems like it’ll remain so, for at least the next week.
So, even thinking of sh*tting in a pot is out of the question.
I’ll be making some corned beef and cabbage today, with tater’s, carrots, ‘n onions, and drinking a lot of (non-traditional – unless you’re Slavic, and can’t afford even the sh*tiest Irish whiskey) vodka.
La Chaim!
And, Erin Burnett go bragh-less!
Or something…
Ooops!
Looks like I started too early.
NotMax
Last thing I purposely planted and grew in the yard was some corn. Ended up with bushels and bushels of the stuff.
That was back in 1984.
NotMax
@c u n d gulag
That made me chuckle.
The Hebrew is most usually anglicized as l’chaim (though in Yiddish, lechaym is acceptable as well).
Sanon! (Esperanto for cheers!)
Raven
@NotMax: mahalo
NotMax
@raven
Hipahipa!
Aside: Always wondered how many tourist believe that mahalo means trash, as that’s what is printed on the swinging doors of the refuse bins at McDonald’s and similar franchise joints.
Gindy51
@raven: You’re gonna regret cutting that one.
As for our garden, it is planted at the low spot in the yard and is still inundated with water. I could grow rice it’s that bad. More rain coming so nothing is going on with that until it dries out and I can get a truck load of topsoil, peat moss, and vermiculite in there to add to the raised beds.
Once that’s over with I can start to think about planting stuff. Right now, I dream.
eric nny
@c u n d gulag: Ditto. Another light dusting of snow last night. I’d give a lot to speed through the next 30 days and land mid-April which is the first reasonable date to plant cold hardy crops.
c u n d gulag
@NotMax:
Usually, I spell it correctly.
But, since I’m about a Jewish as I am Irish, and I though it might be funny, since my post was meant to be humorous, I made it more “international” – aka: French/Spanish – to piss-off Conservatives.
Also too, hopefully, no one thinks my wish for Erin Burnett to go bra-less, was sexist.
After all, she’s gotta be good for somethin’!!!
Also three – now for some MuslimSocialistRussian-speak:
Allah gotta say is – за ваше здоровье!
Or, L’Chaim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There, is that better? :-)
HeartlandLiberal
Got my soil analysis back from Great Lakes Lab in Fort Wayne. I need to apply urea fertilizer 46-0-0, 10 lbs up front, 10 lbs mid season. Also, the soil is too alkaline, as I suspected, so I ordered granular sulfur to apply 10 lbs per year until I get the pH down to 7.0.
We sit on a ridge line capped by a layer of limestone right, on the very eastern edge of the limestone in southwest Indiana. (Salem limestone is among the most famous for buildings in the world.) The bedrock inclines up going north east. I can walk a hundred yards north east of the house, down the ravine, and I have descended in time into Brown Country siltstone and slate sedimentary rock. Hundreds of millions of years in one short stroll through the woods.
I have bought most of the seeds for the year, including a bunch of heirloom vegetables from a unit at Indiana University that raises and propagates heirloom plants, and has an annual sale of seeds early in March every year.
I will be being various tomatoes, peppers, and cabbages, as they come onto the market from the local nurseries. There are several that supply excellent heirloom tomato varieties.
My goal is to get the garden tilled with the additives on order within the next 10 days or so, so I can get greens and early crops into the ground as soon as possible.
I don’t have much room, but I am going to try a few rows of corn, both for eating, and decorative multi-colored cobs, this year, just for fun.
I say that even though we had light dusting of snow just a couple days ago. I know full well the weather will turn warm within a few weeks, and has been the case here for a decade now, I will be planting stuff 3-4 weeks earlier than I would have dared ten years ago. And the spring temperatures are all to brief, now, it quickly ramps up and turns hot and summer starts early and lasts long.
Cermet
Good morning and who say’s there is no difference between the Cheney admin and the puppet, bush compared to President Obama? The news (and it should be a headline but, at least, was on the front page) was that the worthless and extremely dangerous missile shield in Poland will not get any of the advance missiles. Rather, the money and missiles will be added to Alaska to defend against Palin and her stupid supporters there … I mean the north koreans. Needless to say, Russia, which has threaten military action against the missiles in Poland is rather happy and that extremely dangerous situation has been completely defused using a win-win logic that no thug or cheney ass licker would ever have allowed to enter their tiny, rat brains.
Also, my daughter has been accepted to MIT and to say I find this all such win, win makes this really one of the best weekends in a very long time!
Linda Featheringill
@Cermet:
Congrats to the daughter unit and to the parental units!
Schlemizel
The snow still covers the frozen ground here out on the tundra so all the things I want to say to you who are gardening already is unprintable in such a family oriented blog as this!
Cheryl from Maryland
Our 1970 townhouse development was pretty unique for its time — they kept the natural terrain, either kept or planted lots of trees, didn’t fill in the creek. So we live in a “cottage” in the woods. Good news, plenty of shade and low electric bills in the summer. Bad news, not enough sun for gardening, leaves, leaves, leaves always to rake. The crocuses have finally come out, but not the daffodils (naturalized throughout the woods).
MattF
Open thread, so I can link to an eye-popping story– a single Alabama county going bankrupt with debts of $4.23 billion. Yes, boys and girls, ‘billion, with a ‘b”:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/03/17/business/17reuters-usa-alabama-jeffersoncounty.html?hp&_r=0
jurassicpork
Mike Flannigan’s at CPAC and he weighs in with some interesting observations.
Valdivia
Wondering if one of you wise souls can give me some advise: had a little bit of a get-together last night and after much drinking and carousing a friend came to say goodbye and as he leaned in he pushed his very thick heeled shoe into my (bare) toe. It felt like someone had kicked me straight up to my brain. It started bleeding right away and if it hadn’t been for a really quick thinking and truly amazing woman (girlfriend of a good friend) I would have just stood there watching my toe bleed and refusing to really see what had happened to it. She gave me first aid, wrapped it really well with gauze and neosporin inside and told me to ice it, keep it high and take some motrin. I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night feeling like my toe was going to blow up out of my body. It’s better now but it still hurts to move the tip and of course it’s pretty swollen. So: do you guys think I need to go to the hospital? Can it wait until I see my own doctor tomorrow? I don’t want my toe to fall off or gangrene or something :)
Sorry for the long story.
Phylllis
Debating whether to try bell peppers and maters in containers on the patio this year. The spot gets the right amount of sun, and we’ve yet to see the local deer venture that far into the yard. Plus there’s been more rain so maybe they won’t be quite as desparate for foliage this year.
c u n d gulag
@MattF:
All because of “Sewer debt?”
Jayzoos H. Keeeeeeerist, that them thar’s a lot of Bud Lite, Mountain Dew, Cheeto’s, Oreo’s, BBQ, and deep-fried Snickers bars!!!
Josie
Due to my failure to convince any vegies to grow well in my clay, alkaline soil, I am growing all vegetable crops (tomatoes, okra, peppers, eggplants and basil) in large pots. We didn’t have a freeze this year, so everything from the fall planting is still producing. I just put in some new seeds and plants for the spring and will add a few more when they come in the mail next week. The rest of my small yard is now planted with natives that will, I hope, attract hummingbirds, and I wait anxiously for the little travelers to come through on their way back north.
Valdivia
@Cermet:
Mazal Tov!
c u n d gulag
@Valdivia:
Even I wouldn’t wait – and I’m a 55 year-old guy!
But I wouldn’t go to the ER – you’ll be there until tomorrow, anyway.
Is there a Doctor’s office near you that’s open? (We have some open on Sunday’s here in Upstate NY).
If not, go to one of those scam mini-hospitals, that charge an arm and a leg – it’s better than nothin’.
c u n d gulag
@Cermet:
MIT!
L’CHAIM!!!
nipsip
The Winter in Boston sucks as usual. Cannot believe I have been here 19 years this time. Great town, really crummy weather.
Valdivia
@c u n d gulag:
Thanks so much for replying! There’s nothing open around here that’s not the hospital. GW hospital is a couple of blocks away so I could do that.
So I really have to go get it seen right away eh? Was hoping it could wait til tomorrow :(
MattF
@Valdivia: Yeah, go to the ER. The worst that can happen is that the triage nurse will tell you to go sit in the corner.
Valdivia
@MattF:
thanks I think I will. It’s near and I really don’t want to lose my toe!
hal
Watching up with Chris Hayes. I really like this show and he let’s the guests eat pastries. It’s the least you can do at eight in the morning.
lamh35
Jeez I’m bad a gardening. Prob why I hate doing it. Besides my thumb is def Black not Green (I’m African American get it… ba dum dum…ok I kno…LAME).
Anyhoo. I’m really am such a simple person. lying on my sofa watching old episodes on my DVR. such a homebody. it’s no wonder I’m still single. can’t catch a man sitting on the couch…LOL!
#Single&Content
OzarkHillbilly
@Valdivia:
Only if the pain becomes unbearable. Keep it elevated and iced as these will do the most to reduce the swelling. Not much can be done with a broken toe besides that and pain killers (unless the bones are displaced)(out of alignment). ERs are expensive, so if you can handle the pain, do.
wonkie
No gardening here. I live in the shady woods and besides the deer eat everything.
SOrry abou the broken toe. I’d get it looked at right away. Foot problems tend to last a long time; I hope you beat the odds and recover quickly.
Valdivia
@OzarkHillbilly:
:D you give me hope!
I know the toe is not broken (I have had many broken toes before–yes I am that kind of klutz) it’s more that I am afraid he kicked the nail into the nailbed or something like that. Mostly I think that he kicked the nail out of my toe. I know this sounds stupid but I can’t get gangrene from that right?
mai naem
@Valdivia:
if it needed stitches it’s too late, so if you can handle the pain you could wait. If it’s dark/black or if you have numbness I would go in. If you’re a diabetic or you have circulation stuff you better go in. Try going to an urgent care.
@Mary G: @MattF: That was a bankruptcy that was caused by JP Morgan and Mellon pulling a bond swap on the county for some infrastructure stuff. They bribed the county officials who signed off on the deals. This was not some situation like California and Michigan towns where the primary problem was the economy.
My congresswoman is on uppers. I don’t particularly care for her(supported her opponent in the primary) but I’ll take her over the teabagger I had any day.
OzarkHillbilly
Snowing and sleeting now, will turn to rain in an hour or 2 and keep that up till 3 am, so not much to be done today. But sunshine and upper 40’s lower 50’s the rest of the week. Adding another 300 sq feet to the garden this year again so I will be picking up another 3 or 4 pu loads of compost this month.
All i can do today is continue clearing the slope at the back of the house (little better than an overgrown brush pile now) so we can have a view from the back deck and I can have the logs for my mushroom experiment (shitakes and pearl oysters) Want to see what I can do with 12 and a half acres set on edge.
Valdivia
@wonkie:
Thank you I am just glad it happened when I had been drinking for hours so I really didn’t feel as much pain as I could have. And as you say foot stuff can last a long time and I don’t want a deformed toe.
@mai naem:
that helps a lot. I can walk and there’s no blackness so far and the pain isn’t something I can’t handle. I didn’t even have to take anything stronger than Tylenol.
Linda Featheringill
@Valdivia:
Sorry about your injury.
You won’t develop gangrene in a day. I would wrap the foot to keep the toe still and stay off of the foot as much as possible and ingest NSAIDs and call the doc in the morning.
I know you’re not supposed to take cocktails but one aspirin and one Tylenol and one ibuprofen can really attack pain.
Valdivia
@Linda Featheringill:
Thank you Linda. I feel like a right idiot even asking the gangrene thing but it’s the thing that most worried me and you gave me an answer!
Last year I had the worst most debilitating sciatica attack imaginable and my doc recommended a kind of coktail that did the trick for me, as you say. I have a very good anti inflammatory (voltaren) that works wonders.
Linda Featheringill
OT:
I’m making a Chanel jacket for my daughter. It seems that while I wasn’t looking, she turned into a middle-aged woman. The pattern pieces are designed for the way I think she is but it turns out that she isn’t that way.
When I look at her, I see charming and curvaceous. The pattern looks at her and sees dumpy. And maybe a bit out of proportion.
Anyway, the difference between what I perceive and what reality seems to be telling me is upsetting. Maybe I’m questioning whether I can depend on my perceptions.
Very disturbing.
Of course, it might just come down to not trusting my perceptions about the beloved daughter.
{I don’t care what reality says. She’s lovely. :-)]
JPL
@Valdivia: Good luck at the er and make sure to update us when you return.
MomSense
This will be our 3rd year with our gardens. The first year we spent just pulling out about 20 overgrown shrubs and probably 6 trees that had been planted too close to each other and were dying. Then we just amended the soil. Last year we put in new plants and they really turned out beautifully. I can’t wait to see how they look this year! The unexpected delight was a little butterfly garden we planted–it was outrageous last summer and full of bees, butterflies–and hummingbirds!
The next step is to put in some raised bed vegetable gardens. We don’t have a lot of space and we have terrible soil. My boss has some composted cow manure from his farm that he is going to bring over and we are starting seeds and planning out how to build the beds. I am dreaming about tomatoes!
Valdivia
@Linda Featheringill:
I have to say that I find some Chanel and St John patterns to make even the slimmest of people look dumpy. It’s the boxy cut I think? Is she set on Chanel? I think some other designs, even for the same body type, actually work with the shape in a better way. I am very sure she is lovely!
@JPL: thank you! I left a message with a doctor friend of the family who lives in the building (she was a nephrologist but a doc is a doc right?) hopefully she can give it a quick look and tell me if the ER is necessary or I can wait til tomorrow. Obvious no that I am hoping it can wait!
OzarkHillbilly
@Valdivia:
One can get gangrene or blood poisoning from most any open wound, but it takes time to develope. Assumiing it was well cleaned and copiously smeared with the AB ointment you can wait until tomorrow for the Antibiotics. As to the nail, I have never broken a toe but have broken many fingers including one where the bones were displaced and the back of the nail was sticking straight up (really gross). The Doc just tucked it back in under the skin and believe it or not, I did not lose the nail. (I have lost nails on other occasions, they grow back, often distorted, but I wouldn’t worry unless your significant other has a foot fetish)
@mai naem: above mentioned diabetes and or circulation problems and these are indeed factors to be weighed in. Also she is absolutely right about stitches, too late.
OzarkHillbilly
@Linda Featheringill:
I have niece just like that. You would never find her in Vogue or V. Sectrets, but I think she is stunningly beautiful. I like to say she has curves in all the right places.
Svensker
Our tiny, shady back “yard” is still ice covered so it’s not inspiring me. We tried to grow a few tomatoes in pots in a sorta sunny spot back there last year but I think we managed to harvest two maters off the things. They didn’t throw many fruits and what did come was harvested by the squirrels and raccoons, the busterds.
While I love living in the city I sure do miss my surburban vegetable garden.
Maybe I’ll do a few pots of lettuce this year…
Valdivia
@OzarkHillbilly:
the woman who helped was a god-send! she cleaned it super well (dunked my toe in warm water and salt in a tub) then applied neosporin, covered it with with gauze and then a tubular thing meant to cover toe injuries (we are a well stocked house for emergencies) So in all I think I will be ok til the morning. I really cannot thank you and every one here enough for your help. I am also hoping our doctor friend can come and take a look but I don’t know if she is town or not.
JPL
Is John McCain ill? I can’t find him on my Sunday shows.
OzarkHillbilly
Also, this is OT but I feel the need to comment. Hard to beleive this little girl was found 30 yrs ago. Seems like yesterday.
One of them flicked a cigarette lighter, and reflections from the flame danced across the decomposing body of an African-American female, lying face down.
Burgoon, now 74, said investigators first suspected she was a prostitute. Nylon rope bound her wrists behind her back. Her fingernails were polished in red. She wore only a yellow sweater, with its tag cut off.
“I thought, ‘This is going to be an easy one … We’ll get her identified because someone will have reported her missing and that’ll be it.’ And then we turned her over.”
Her head had been removed.
She was never identified and after 6 months she was buried in Washington Park Cemetery up by the airport. They want to do more testing on her remains using modern techniques…
And her grave has been lost, due to mismanagement, suicide, bankruptcy, airport expansion, highway construction, etc.
“Somebody loved that little girl,” said Joe Burgoon, one of the original homicide detectives on the case. “She was very well cared for. You would think somebody by now would have come forward to say they were missing a child. But we’re no closer now than we were then to finding out who she was.”
Baud
@JPL:
Early morning win.
c u n d gulag
@JPL:
I think, after Portman approved of gay rights, he and Senator Limpseed Cornpone Grahamcrackers (R – Closet), finally eloped.
I don’t even want to even speculate whether Lieberman’s going to join them, to make it a semi-legal 3-way.
Maude
@Valdivia:
Go to the ER. I would be concerned about blood supply to the toe. Your first thought is right. Be safe, not sorry.
A broken toe aches hugely, but pain is distant feeling. I did that a couple of years ago. It was swollen, but not strange.
Please go and don’t make me worry.
JPL
@c u n d gulag: David Gregory would be so jealous.
quannlace
St. Patrick’s Day is the traditiional day to plant peas. Ha, not in this growing zone. We also had some snow yesterday (the last, please God) and the ground still’s hard as iron.
I may start some seeds indoors though.
c u n d gulag
@OzarkHillbilly:
How utterly sad…
And here I was, reveling in the fact that neither McInsane (R – Alzheimers), nor Grahamcrackers (R – Closet), nor Lieberman (I – Sphincter), were on my TV this morning for the first time in my adult life – or, at least in recent memory, since I’m 55, and losing it.
c u n d gulag
@JPL:
Don’t you worry about him – that’ll be the first “follow-up” of Disco-dancin’ Dave’s career!
Emma
@Linda Featheringill: When I used to make my own clothes, the first thing I had to do was make corrections to the patterns. I have a long torso and narrow-wish shoulders in addition to curves so there was no way I could make a jacket straight out of the envelope.
I have ordered seeds from Burpee which I will start as soon as I get them. Tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini. In the meantime I will be setting up the raised beds and the pots and, in two weeks or so, planting the first crop of veggies from local plants.
I had big gardening plans this year but my little extra will go towards a electrician. Our house was built in 1970 and a few places still have the original wiring. Trouble has predictably ensued.
raven
@Gindy51: When you have no choice you have no choice.
lojasmo
@Valdivia:
Nothing to be done. See your doctor tomorrow.
jnfr
Ordered seeds from Totally Tomatoes. Will start up seedlings as soon as they arrive. A bit of warmth this weekend, and the yard is actually starting to green up a little.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly:
Now just snow and really coming down, it was supposed to stay to the north. I guess the wife will be working from home tomorrow. That will make her happy.
lojasmo
Buried in snow here in S. Minnesota. A few more inches to come.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Now see, this is how rumors get started.
SiubhanDuinne
Hey, guys? I just saw on the Internet someplace that John McCain is seriously ill. It must be bad, he had to cancel four Sunday talk-show appearances.
SiubhanDuinne
Hey, guys? I just saw on the Internet someplace that John McCain is ill. It must be serious, he had to cancel four Sunday talk-show appearances.
justawriter
Watching the skies waiting for the predicted three to six inches of snow. Average last frost date for this part of the country is May 22, so I have a couple weeks before I can even think about starting plants inside.
handsmile
@Valdivia:
When comfort permits, do let your concerned friends here know how you are faring. :)
As there’s been no update for the past ninety minutes, I assume/hope that your condition is stabilizing, with pain and anti-inflammatory meds beginning to take effect. And stay off it (as best you can with multiple cats)!
Or else, assume/hope that you’ve taken sufficient reading material for your protracted wait at the ER.
Violet
There is no “getting ready for growing season” where I am. It’s year-round growing here. I’m currently harvesting sugar snap and snow peas, pulling radishes, harvesting the last of the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Potatoes look great. Onions too. And I’ve been covering the the tomatoes during our recently cold snap to baby them along, but I think we’re finally out of the cold weather and they’re looking great. Some are two feet tall already.
rachel
@Violet: Where do you live? I want to move there and garden year round.
WoodyNYC
Last week sowed peas. Had to hack through the 1.5 inch thick frozen dirt that lay an inch or so below the surface. It was a sort of nice day, but then it got cold this week. Eh, it’s a gamble, I know
Jay C
@c u n d gulag:
Did you RTWT? Jefferson County, AL (pop. 650,000+) is where Birmingham is: so it’s not like this is Dogpatch: it’s not surprising that (from what I have read sounds like) a major sewer-replacement project would run into the ten-figure range: big infrastructure projects ain’t cheap.
That said, though: it seems like the bulk of Jefferson County’s debt load has been inflated due to a toxic combination of corrupt local officialdom and manipulative Wall Street shenanigans. And of course, the cost of cleaning up the mess is falling on the “little people” (not leprechauns)….
Jay C
PS: While we’re discussing planting/growing:
Can anyone recommend a shrub or type of shrub which might do well at our
palace mansion villasummer house? It’s near Great Barrington in Berkshire Cty, MA: it’s growing zone 5: last frost is typically mid-May, first frost is typically mid-Oct.: the soil is pretty mediocre, but one spot is sunny all day long, and the other is sunny half the day (mornings). We’re looking for something hardy, low-maintenance, and preferably colorful.And hopefully, unattractive to deer…
Valdivia
@handsmile:
:D
I had friends visiting from nyc for the party last night and once they woke up they medicated me with my kick ass sangria
feeling pretty good (from the drink) my toe is still throbbing but I think I will wait til tomorrow.
Thanks Handsmile.
Mnemosyne
@Valdivia:
Since it sounds like you don’t have urgent care nearby, I think I’ll go with the crowd saying it can wait until tomorrow as long as you keep it elevated and iced and take your ibuprofen to keep the swelling down. If you start seeing signs of infection (pain and/or swelling get suddenly worse, red streaks from the toe towards the foot, etc.) then you may have to schlep yourself down to the ER.
Plus now you can say you’ve had a St. Patrick’s Day injury, which makes you an official Real American. ;-)
Kristine
Started seeds in the grow tray today. Paul Robeson and Black Cherry tomatoes and Sweet Italian basil. There are still several inches of snow atop the raised bed and nights are below freezing, so it will be a while before I can start the mesclun.
Last year at this time, we had record high temps in NE Illinois–70s, 80s. Now, we’re well below normal, and still dealing with snow. Who knows what summer will bring?
Valdivia
@Mnemosyne:
Thank you it makes me feel better that you guys don’t think I am crazy for waiting. Its pretty stable and I will keep an eye on it.
Truman
Living in Louisiana (screw you Jindal), about the only thing besides my family that makes it bearable to live here I the ability to garden all year long. I just harvested the last of my Swiss Chard, kale, mustard greens, cabbage, turnips, and carrots. Just finished planting two kinds of corn, butternut squash, pattypan squash, three kinds of cucumbers, six kinds of beans, about ten plants of prolly nine kinds of peppers, some eggplant, watermelon, and last, but by no means least, sixteen tomato plants of various heirloom varieties (mmmmm….Cherokee Purples and Brandywines!)…can’t forget the asparagus, muscadines, and blackberries/rasperberries/strawberries!
I’ve got about 500 sq ft of raised beds with a big arbor for my berries and muscadines.
Now if I could only talk to somebody about the inbred rednecks, 99.99% humidity, and total lack of mountains.
Anne Laurie
@Jay C:
Default is lilacs, of course. I’m surprised you don’t have some already, I thought they came with all real estate contracts here in MA :)
If you get out there in the spring, I love having bright-yellow forsythia blooms greet me when everything else is still brown & dead. The bushes are messy-looking the rest of the year, but I’m told they’re not attractive to deer.
We had an accidental weiglia (bargain table labelled forsythia) that did beautifully here in urban north-of-Boston, with tons of pink & white blooms in July/August.
And I’ve got two philadelphus (mock orange) bushes that are unkillable… they were supposed to mature at 4′-6′, but they want to sprawl up & out in all directions with 12′ branches. I’ve cut them back to 6 inch stubs twice now, and both times they’ve shot back up the following spring, but I’m not getting the advantage of the lovely strong-scented blossoms because they take three years to bloom. IF you’ve got the room for them, they also bloom in June/July, but I don’t know how deer feel about them.
If you’re just looking for color, may I recommend daylilies (hemorocallis)? They are (mostly) extremely un-fussy about soils, will bloom in partial shade but also do well in too-sunny spots where lesser plants wilt, “naturalize” and proliferate without requiring much attention. They bloom during “high summer”, when you’re most likely out there every weekend, and since the blooms only last one day, you can just sit & admire them without feeling like you should be scrounging vases for indoor arrangements, either.
mazareth
Nothing much going on here in Central Wis. We still have over 2 feet of snow on the ground. I will probably start some kale and other cabbage family plants next weekend though.
I didn’t get much out of the garden last year – a combination of drought and neglect due to blowing up my left knee in a bicycling accident at the end of June last year.
Had ACL replacement surgery in mid-August. So I spent the bulk of the summer on the couch with my leg elevated, or on crutches. I was pretty hardcore about my rehab. At 7 months out, my leg is back to about 80% of the strength of my uninjured leg.
I’m a little afraid to see the extent of the yardwork I’ll need to do once the snow finally melts. Didn’t do anything much beyond raking leaves last fall.