Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Resist the Cruel Winter

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Resist the Cruel Winter

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Resist the Cruel Winter

From commentor JeffG166:

1.26.2022
Winter sowing seeds in mini greenhouses outside in Philadelphia, PA. All the seeds either need a cold period or don’t mind being started outside. No idea when or if they will come up. If they do there is no hardening them off to transplant them.

The seeds are snapdragons, verbena bonariensis, red coreopsis, white and red coreopsis and wild columbines.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Resist the Cruel Winter 1

Commentor MomSense:

Here are a couple of photos of knitting projects taken in the garden.

Above: Flower Bookmark made with scrap yarn. The yarn is plant dyed in small batches.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Resist the Cruel Winter 2

Infinity scarf with a leaf pattern taken on the back deck next to a small container flower arrangement. Wish I had taken a photo of the container after it filled in later in the summer.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Resist the Cruel Winter 3

This is some Norwegian wool I bought in Oslo years ago. There is now a Montauk daisy where the petunias are in this photo.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Resist the Cruel Winter 4
JeffG166, again:

1.29.2022

Mini greenhouses this morning.

***********
The earliest daffodil clumps — sunny southern exposure, next to the basement window — are greening up nicely.

(So, unfortunately, is the garlic mustard in the back yard… )

What’s going on in your garden (planning / memories / indoor), this week?

Reader Interactions

83Comments

  3. 3.

    raven

    Garden Girl has already been to the Growers Outlet and planted a bunch of stuff. It’s going to be as warm as the upped 70’s this week with rain so it will probably screw up the peach crop.

  5. 5.

    MomSense

    We lost all our beautiful snow last week.  It warmed up to 50 degrees, all the snow melted, and then it dropped back to the teens and  my driveway is a luge track. I should probably go cover all the plants with some wool.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    I tried winter sowing two years ago with Shasta Daisies and it worked well- they came up and I set them early with no hardening off- they’re still there. I just don’t think I gained any time from starting them indoors under lights but it’s much easier than indoors.

    I think it would work beautifully for snapdragons which I start indoors but didn’t winter sow.

  10. 10.

    satby

    @Baud: MomSense makes wonderful knit wear. She should link to her Etsy store.

    @MomSense: We had 51° and rain on Wednesday, which melted the last couple inches of snow and ice from the previous 13 inches of snow cover. The rain turned to sleet and then snow, only about 5 inches total on Thursday, but on top of an ice glaze. The bulbs on the south side of my house had sent out some green shoots, which I hope didn’t get too frazzled by the low single digit temperatures Thursday and Friday overnight.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Temps in the 60s today, tomorrow, and Tuesday, then the bottom drops out with snow predicted for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. No prediction yet on amounts.

    Who was it who said February was the cruelest month?

    Thanx for the pics JeffG and MomSense, a real brightener to start the day/week with.

  13. 13.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    I’m getting really tired of ice. Missing snow and being able to snowshoe and cross country ski.  Now we just get the cold without the fun parts of winter.

  14. 14.

    Ken

    @Raven: I googled kudzu recipes, and apparently the leaves and roots are edible. Though it’s the first recipe I’ve seen where the ingredients list starts “protective clothing”.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Who was it who said February was the cruelest month?

    It’s all relative, innit? 99-year-old aunt decamped for the month to her beach house.

    She’s in Brazil, so the height of summer.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Maybe late in the calendar, but still timely in the weather:

    Winter is icumen in,
    Lhude sing Goddamm,
    Raineth drop and staineth slop,
    And how the wind doth ramm!
    Sing: Goddamm.

    Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
    An ague hath my ham.
    Freezeth river, turneth liver,
    Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.

    Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm,
    So ‘gainst the winter’s balm.

    Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm.

    — Ezra Pound

  17. 17.

    satby

    @JeffG166: I used the milk carton mini-greenhouses for new tiny shrubs the first winters after I planted them, never used them for direct sowing. I’ve had rotten luck with some perennials like rudibeckia that I’ve transplanted, so I’m going to try that next winter to fill in some gaps. Thanks!

  18. 18.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Who was it who said February was the cruelest month?

    T. S. Eliot, but it was April.  Also as a sometime gardener, I have to disagree with his reasons:

    “April is the cruelest month,
    breeding lilacs out of the dead land,
    mixing memory and desire,
    stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

    (I suppose I should say “sometime gardener and plebian”, because I suspect there’s a metaphor or two lurking there which I’m not fully appreciating.)

  19. 19.

    satby

    @MomSense: ice without snow is why I won’t move to Lexington in spite of my younger son’s not so veiled hints about how old I’m getting ? (and 67 only seems ancient to 30-somethings). I like snow, but hate to walk and drive on ice.

  26. 26.

    Chief Oshkosh

    We’ve been participating in the big bird count this weekend. Weird year. Normally we have a full complement of all the birds that will be here through Spring, but this year just a few sparrows and red-winged blackbirds. Anyway, if you’re interested, it’s very easy to participate (only takes 15 mins) and it’s fun, with full online support, including an app if you want it:

    http://birdcount.org

    Today is the last day to participate.

  33. 33.

    Scout211

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I love the way gardeners can hardly wait at this time of year.

    So true. It’s like a new beginning all over again.

    I was planning on planting my salad garden seeds this weekend because the weather has been so warm lately. But then I checked the weather for next week.  Apparently, most of the country is in for an “involuntary polar plunge” next week. Our weather, recently in the upper 70s will plunge to the low 50s and low 30s overnight. That’s cold for NorCal.

    So I will wait one more week to plant my seeds. Sigh.

  34. 34.

    CaseyL

    JeffG166: How do you get the plants out of those mini-greenhouses?  Can you just upend the bottles and the plants slide out?

    MomSense: I love the colors!   I hardly ever wear scarves (I don’t like things around my neck) – but do appreciate them as art.

    I’ve done some patio-garden work of late.  I have an abundance of potted strawberries.  Started out with 4 plants, and hoo boy do strawberries like to propagate!  I now have 12. Some still in nice-sized pots, but I finally got some wooden planter boxes for the ones that had been stuck in smaller pots.  Plus another planter box and lattice for peas, for which I bought seeds, which I really need to plant soon.  Very much a novice at this, so I’m relying on YouTube and Google for advice on when and how to sow the seeds.  Also got some lettuce seeds, but am not sure where to plant those.

    Until yesterday all the planter boxes were on the patio/deck, and the pots anywhere I could put them (on the deck, on a small table, on a lawn chair ottoman).  I wanted something structural-yet-pretty to put them all on, get them up off the cement –  and away from my cats who think the planters are litter boxes. Then yesterday on NextDoor Finds I saw a firepit table, wrought iron and tile, that looked like it would do.

    Turned out quite the score:  the table is 4 feet square, lovely and sturdy, with a metal lid on the firepit part.  The tiles are 12″ squares which, fortunately, come out: with the tiles in place, the table must weigh about 35 pounds, without them, maybe 20.  Much easier to carry and load into the car!  So I brought the table home, put the tiles back in.  Not only do all the planter boxes fit on it, so do all the pots!  It looks really, really nice, and I am so pleased.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @CaseyL:

    You cut the milk jug in half, top and bottom when you plant the seeds. I hinged mine – left one side intact- then you duct tape it around the middle when it’s planted and set it out. When the seeds come up you can grow them on for a while in the jug then just take off the top half and transplant.

    Drainage is important- it’s cold wet mix sitting for two months- so heat up a screwdriver and poke lots of drainage holes in the bottom of the jug.

  41. 41.

    oldgold

    @Ken:

    A Green Rule of Thumb: Plants the begin with the letter K, like Kudzu and Kale, even if not poisonous, should never be eaten.

  45. 45.

    Argiope

    @MomSense: your red scarf pattern is the same as one of my UFOs!  Also doing it in red, but a deeper one, and I’m doing a non-infinity version.  Nice to see how that pattern can turn out!

  47. 47.

    Gin & Tonic

    @zhena gogolia: I like the traditional names. March is березень, for the birches, April is квітень, for flowers, May is травень, for the grass.

  48. 48.

    satby

    @CaseyL: Kay has a different way to do it, I just cut the bottoms off old milk jugs and put them flat on the ground, a little dug in on the edges, and with a stick to hold them upright through the top hole.

  49. 49.

    delk

    @MomSense: beautiful knitting! Love the color on the infinity  I’m about to finish a scarf. It’s just over six feet long. The first five feet took a week.The last foot has taken about two months.

  54. 54.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic: Yes, those are lovely. Like the French revolutionary months. I think Czech has something similar? November is listopad, “falling of the leaves.”

  56. 56.

    NeenerNeener

    The bottles remind me of what my mother used to do to start plants in late winter. She also used medium-sized fish tanks (29 gallon to 55 gallon) as cold frames.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    Your knitting is gorgeous. I will never forget your kindness when you knitted a lovely light blue sweater for the new baby of my bartender friend, who had given me $20 toward rescuing/transporting Walter from Cole’s house to Debit’s.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @NeenerNeener:

    It’s really easy. If you started the same seeds inside you would need space indoors to set them out and supplemental light. But it won’t work for tender or tropical-origin annuals. I’m sure it would work great for cool season vegetables- spinach, lettuce, broccoli. Not peas I don’t think because they don’t transplant well.

    If I get a late frost predicted and have already planted seedling tomatoes I just pop a big drinking glass over the seedlings overnight. You have to pull the glasses off first thing the next morning though or they’ll bake in there even with weak early spring sun.

  61. 61.

    oldgold

    @NotMax:

    The cumquat tree can be spared  from the axe using 1) the Australian spelling; 2) the well known fruit loophole; and, 3) the humor exemption – George Carlin deemed cumquats the funniest food.

    Knock-knock. Who’s there? Cumquat. Cumquat who?

  63. 63.

    CaseyL

    @Kay:  @satby:

    Yes, the milk jugs I can understand, cut or create a hinge.  It’s the glass bottle I was curious about – but, looking at it more closely, now I see that one is also plastic.  Never mind!

  66. 66.

    MomSense

    @delk:

    Sounds like the sweater I’m working on.  It’s duster length – light fingering. and the body has been done for a month but the sleeves are killing me.

    @Argiope:

    It’s such a nice lace stitch.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    @CaseyL:

    There are fancy glass “cloches” to use as little greenhouses for direct seeding in the ground, shaped like a bell. I have one I inherited, I have no idea who had it first or how I got it – it’s beautiful. Light green glass and really heavy. But just one, which is not enough :)

  69. 69.

    oldgold

    My neighbor, the sulphurically scented Dee Dee Plorable, put up a six figure greenhouse last summer. To date it has provided excellent shelter for two Schwinns and a Weber grill.

    Last I saw her, she was hyperventilating over the murderous inflation.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @oldgold:

    I’ve wanted one since I was 8 years old. My middle son tells me he’ll get me one but then we start looking at them online and picking them apart and I can’t commit. I read they were a really popular purchase during the pandemic so maybe I can get one used :)

  73. 73.

    Tata

    Has anyone propagated fig trees? I can get twigs to sprout but can’t keep them alive. It’s upsetting. Wish I knew what I’m doing wrong.

  74. 74.

    satby

    @Tata: I have not, but found a wealth of info on the web. Including this video. TBH, I look up stuff I’m pretty sure I know, just because there’s a whole mishmash of gardening tips in my head; and as I found out since I’ve moved to sandy dunes IN, what I used to know doesn’t always apply anymore.

  76. 76.

    Miss Bianca

    @SiubhanDuinne: Speaking of BJ animal transfers, has anyone heard anything about little Tado, who was posted last week? I stand poised to alert my local animal welfare group if he still needs a home, but I’ve heard crickets so far. (And yes, I have contacted both Adam and texasboyshaun.)

  79. 79.

    J R in WV

    I can’t help but think Adam is working way past full time right now.

    OT and stressful tension combined, most likely.

  80. 80.

    eachother

    Seeing tulip leaf tips peeking out of a dirt patch.  This is the first time in 45 years of not seeing them anywhere near the month of February.  @ 5,000′ for gosh sakes.  Tomorrow’s low, zero.  High in the teens.  That will tell them tips what’s what.

  83. 83.

    StringOnAStick

    Since I’m rebuilding an entire yard, I’m trying to grow 1/3 of the perennials I need from seed.  I cold stratified two kinds of multicolored Echinacea and some sea holly seeds for 3 weeks, put them in germination cells a week ago and noticed this morning that about 1/4 of the cells show sprouts, yea!

    I’ve prepared a spreadsheet of which seeds to start when, which means eventually today’s sprouts will get potted on and transferred to the cold frame.  I’ve never attempted to grow perennials or use a cold frame before, so wish me luck!

    We are getting subzero overnight lows in Monday and Tuesday, the first this year and after weeks of barely freezing and mid 50’s days.  One blueberry is starting to bud so I hope it’s a tough plant.  The nectarine tree is far along too but I bet it has never produced in this erratic climate; the pie cherry obviously hasn’t been so easily fooled.

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