New England, January 2016

Happy new year everyone! We're having a strong El Nino this year and there's not a lick of snow to be found on Cape Cod. I likey!

 I was able to pick up 8 buckets of seaweed midday yesterday. The boxes have all been composted so the seaweed was dumped on top.

There's also seaweed around the fruit trees, and the garlic I planted has sprouted through it, as have the 8 squares of garlic I planted mid-November.   
I'm thinking of planting more garlic but haven't got around to it yet.

The new compost pile is looking good and is steaming when I dig into it.


The old compost pile is still going and is loaded with worms. 


Just started watching the series 'Heroes'  for the winter and I'm on season two. Not much else going on here  this time of year.  C'mon February, so I can start planting seeds .  Oh, I forgot to bring in a bucket of used MM  to start the seeds in. Better go do that now . You never know when everything will freeze up. 

How's everyone else doing?

Officially frozen here, a little late, but it's OK. My compost pile is tarped, needs bulked up but will have to wait until a thaw.

I am in planning and dreaming mode, and trying to figure out how to get more square footage (figure I am going to be building a 4x4 this year). My garlic was up 5 or 6 inches before the freeze, Atlanta Marie gave me a head's up to mulch it, so it is currently under about 6 inches of leaves...hope it is all tucked in!

Finally getting some good snow today.  I'm glad, because it's supposed to be a low of 5 on Monday, so maybe the snow will help the plants get through the shock of going from the 60s to single digits in a week. 

I'm so anxious for more seed catalogs to come!  C'mon, guys, I want to get stuff ordered already!  Or at least sit around dreaming about what to order!  I'm going to try lots of kinds of peppers in my new mini greenhouse.  I really want to get some actual peppers from my garden this year!

I've been thinking about ways to grow things outside of the garden (because I want more growing space too, Scorpio).  I'm wondering if I can put winter squash in a 5 gallon bucket with a tomato cage.  That probably wouldn't work for really long vines, but maybe one of those bushier varieties.  I saw a blog post about how someone grew their zucchini vertically by training up a tomato cage.  That sounds like it would save a lot of room. 

So now I'm just in my planning mode.  Thinking up crazy new techniques to try.

My garlic came up a little too because of all the warm weather, but it was only an inch or so.  It's also German Extra Hardy variety, supposedly the hardiest variety you can grow, so I'm not worried about it.  It manage so survive -20 degree weather the last two years just fine.

LS, that is good to hear about the garlic...I have never grown it before. I too am thinking vertically, for a melon and my pole beans, and a cuke perhaps.

I am going to build a triangle for strawberries in a tough to mow corner, and at least a 4x4 bed. Not sure when, but this year!

CapeC....thanks for the pix so I can see how well you are tending your garden spaces.  I love to see pix.
I've rec'd about a half dozen seed catalogs already since Dec. I love to see what new varieties are coming along.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It sure has been a weird winter, hasn't it?  Up until last week, we had no snow to speak of, and then we got a little storm on Tues last that dropped a few inches on us, but nothing to write home about.  We haven't even turned on the oil furnace; the wood stove has been plenty to keep us warm.  The coldest it's been was in the low teens, I think, then 40s & 50s mostly.  

I have no idea if my garlic sprouted during the "heat-wave", but I'm hoping not.  

CC, I've got seaweed-envy!    I look at your gorgeous piles of gleaming seaweed and I start to drool!!!  That's going to turn into some yummy veggies.  

Big rain coming tomorrow so I harvested some Swiss chard babies for the morning smoothie and then planted these garlic cloves and shallots.

Nice looking chard, CC!  We're getting lots of snow in a couple days... maybe I should go pick some kale while I still can.

Heads up, New England...potential storm this weekend.

I was able to pick some lettuce and parsley from my box bay window garden yesterday.  They went into my morning smoothie:


Ginger/lettuce, parsley, stevia that needs cutting back, petunia in back is just about to bloom:

My last seaweed haul was on New Years Eve:

It was a beautiful day!

It's been below freezing for a few days now.  Who knows when I'll be able to hit the beach again.

Nice pics, especially the beach! Lol, I usually have volunteer petunias at the end of my season in my containers, nice surprise!

Each pic is lovely in its own way. Thank you for sharing.

Picked all the outside kitchen garden parsley yesterday. Forgot to grab the oregano since it's buried under leaves. Not looking forward to this storm tomorrow. We've been lucky so far weather-wise. Regardless, I'm starting my leafy greens this weekend!

CC

Good things still happened during blizzards!

First bloom of 2016.


 These guys don't count cuz they're always in bloom.
Gotta post this fast... Power surges are starting now...

Take care, stay warm, CC, love your petunia and orchids! Keep us posted.

Hope things work out well for you CC ... keep safe.

Hang in there, CC!

I just saw where the Cape got almost a foot & a half of snow.  You OK, CC?

And what about others in New England?  

We didn't even have a single snowflake to speak of, for which I am grateful, but others don't seem to have been as fortunate.

QB? How you doing?  Others?

All's well here! I don't think my power ever went out even though there were surges last night. Let the shoveling begin...blech...

Thanks for the well wishes, friends!

Yay, glad all is well.

Got the kales and collards planted, tags made, and now they are sitting on the heating pad. 18 of each.

Once these are sprouted and in the window I'll start on the lettuces.

Nice! I have never grown or eaten kale, and have had collards, but a long time ago with bacon grease

I can't think of anything that doesn't taste good with bacon grease, SR!   

Wow, CC; it looks like you're super-motivated thus year.  I can't believe you've got seeds going already!  

I don't know if I'm going to start anything inside this year...the house needs painting among other repairs/maintenance and so the garden is probably going to be put on a side-burner this summer.  Boo.

mollyhespra wrote:
I don't know if I'm going to start anything inside this year...the house needs painting among other repairs/maintenance and so the garden is probably going to be put on a side-burner this summer.  Boo.

Molly, how about experimenting and just throwing some seeds in to the SFG to sprout and grow whenever they want?  Apparently I did that last year with leafy greens (which I don't remember doing) and had extra plants come up in just about every box.


The leafy greens seeds I planted Sunday were up this morning and are now in the window.  Seems I was a bit heavy handed with some.

Yea, I just might do that, CC.  DH swears that the volunteers from the compost pile are always more rugged than my starts, which is true, except that there's hardly ever enough time for the fruiting veggies to ripen if I just let nature take it's course.  I hadn't thought about doing it with leafy greens, though.

I am doing an experiment this year that I hadn't posted about yet: I've got a mini-hoophouse going over one of my smaller beds.  I bought late-season Kale starts last summer and planted them in there with the idea of overwintering them.  I also covered up some onions and parsley and pansies, IIRC.  This winter has been so unseasonably "warm" for us that I'm sure the plants under there are just fine, so I may actually end up with quite a bit of Kale, etc.  I've only checked on them once to see about moisture levels and it was as warm and moist as a nice Floridian winter day.    So I've left it alone for about a month and a half now.  It's supposed to be 40 this weekend, so I might take another peek just to be sure, and I'll take a picture of the set-up.

Oh, and since you over-seeded I see micro-greens in your future, CC! 

Oh boy am I having fun! As I type this my fingers smell like oregano. I just found a little bunch growing out under some leaves in my kitchen garden.
Looks like pizza for lunch today!

 I started more seeds this morning - all these guys, 6 cells of each.

They are now in their little makeshift greenhouses on the heating pad on a chair in the dining room...

 ...except for the mustard spinach, which I planted in a pot in the window around a wintered over collard green.


I'm so glad Spirit is moving me this year, albeit it a bit early, because it certainly didn't last year.