N&C Midwest January & February 2024

**Scorpio Rising** 1/1/2024, 12:12 am

Happy New Year, everyone! Here we go into 2024! I am excited about the possibilities, what are you guys thinking?

OhioGardener 1/1/2024, 7:14 am

Where did 2023 go, I wasn't done yet! Very Happy

Going to be an interesting winter, apparently. Yesterday I noticed that the Rhubarb is sending up leaf shoots, and the Daffodil are all up about 3". That shouldn't be happening until March or April. But, they'll all soon be getting frozen down, then they'll have to recover their strength for next spring.

But, we did wake up to a light covering of snow for the first day of the new year.

N&C Midwest January & February 2024 Januar10

**Scorpio Rising** 1/1/2024, 11:12 am

N&C Midwest January & February 2024 Img_0111

Same here. Not sure if things are up out there, though.

nrstooge 1/1/2024, 8:00 pm

nothing here yet - that hasn't already melted. 35F today.

Blessed new year everyone

JAM23 1/4/2024, 3:06 pm

Happy New Year everyone!

It's been very green around here (but I think snow is on it's way early next week). I am working on using the garden goodies that I froze from summer. Today I canned some ground cherry jam. It is good! Currently have a minestrone soup on the stove with frozen spinach, beans, summer squash, celery all from my garden! It is so cool!

I have been doing a lot of garden planning the last few days for this summer. I am hopeful and excited! Thinking about adding one new bed this year with a cattle panel arch and really want to utilize the cold frames more effectively.

Hope everyone is doing well and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

**Scorpio Rising** 1/6/2024, 6:03 pm

Yum! I have only had enough ground cherries once for jam, but they all got eaten. Maybe next year? I have my catalogs out here, too. Snowing-ish. Just enough to make things wet.

I would like to try some spinach and Asian greens in my cold frame, and gotta start over with my strawberry bed. I lost some space last year with the removal of my legacy beds. I am going to stay the course for this year. Let the planning continue!

OhioGardener 1/14/2024, 6:23 pm

Not a good day for gardening! At 9:00 this morning it was -0.4ºF, and the ground was covered with a light coating of new snow. But, on a good note, it was tropical 70ºF inside the greenhouse this afternoon. Very Happy

N&C Midwest January & February 2024 Thermo11

N&C Midwest January & February 2024 Snow10

nrstooge 1/14/2024, 6:29 pm

We had over 22" of snow last week, then blizzard conditions. Today it was a high of -7F, tomorrow high of -2F. Tuesday will be 6F and will probably feel balmy. I've cleared the first 11" of snow from my car Thursday so just need to clean the 2nd round off for doctor appointment tomorrow.

I have been feeding the birds and put out suet too. No gardening other than microgreens and sprouts this time of year.

**Scorpio Rising** 1/15/2024, 1:38 pm

It has been really cold here, too. We haven’t had all that snow that you got, nrstooge. Just a deep freeze. Should be better by Thursday here temp-wise.

JAM23 1/15/2024, 2:14 pm

Freezing here with about a foot of snow. I have been making sauce and soup from my frozen tomatoes and getting that all canned up to free up my freezer! Then onto making tomatillo salsa to get those out of my freezer too! LOL
Hope you are all staying warm Smile

**Scorpio Rising** 1/17/2024, 10:02 pm

JAM23 wrote:Freezing here with about a foot of snow. I have been making sauce and soup from my frozen tomatoes and getting that all canned up to free up my freezer! Then onto making tomatillo salsa to get those out of my freezer too! LOL
Hope you are all staying warm

Yes, warm here! It has been cold, snow coming in tomorrow.

What recipe do you use for your tomatillos? I ended up throwing some away…

JAM23 1/19/2024, 5:32 pm

This is the one. It worked out well! This summer, I will be planting less tomatillos!

https://growagoodlife.com/roasted-tomatillo-salsa/comment-page-4

**sanderson** 1/20/2024, 4:18 am

JAM23 wrote:This is the one. It worked out well! This summer, I will be planting less tomatillos!

https://growagoodlife.com/roasted-tomatillo-salsa/comment-page-4

I'm happy to see that the article used a Ball tested recipe. Very Happy

I'm now considering planting 2 tomatillos this summer. It's been a few years.

JAM23 1/20/2024, 11:21 am

I am still relatively new to canning and always use a recipe that is a Ball tested recipe. I am way too nervous to mess anything up! LOL

**Scorpio Rising** 1/22/2024, 4:49 pm

JAM23 wrote:I am still relatively new to canning and always use a recipe that is a Ball tested recipe. I am way too nervous to mess anything up! LOL

I am, too!

**sanderson** 2/1/2024, 12:30 pm

I also only use the most up-to-date Ball/Bernardin (Ball's Canadian cousin)/NCHFP recipes.

OhioGardener 2/2/2024, 5:09 pm

Spring can't be too far off, this afternoon there was a pair of Robins cavorting around by the gardens. When we see the Robins starting to pair up, we know that the days are getting longer and cold weather is breaking.

OhioGardener 2/3/2024, 4:27 pm

Started both sides of one of the Jora compost tumblers this week (Wednesday) with five 5-gallon buckets of juice bar pulp and a couple small bags of coffee grounds from Starbucks, but wasn't too sure if it could start composting since our nighttime temps have been in the mid-20's, with daytime highs in the low- to mid-40's. But, this afternoon I was pleasantly surprised when I checked on the tumbler. When I opened the door on one side I was met with heavy steam coming out. I got the compost thermometer to check the progress, and found that one side was 132ºF and the other side was 136ºF. The outside temp was 27ºF this morning, and it was 43ºF at the time I checked the tumbler. Even with the very cool weather this time of year, the compost microbes are very busy! Very Happy

N&C Midwest January & February 2024 Compos21

OhioGardener 2/4/2024, 4:21 pm

Yesterday, after checking the temp, I rotated the tumbler one time just to distribute the microbes throughout the compost. I checked it this afternoon, and the temperature had actually gone up a little bit, to 140ºF. Going to be some nice compost there by the time I'm ready to start getting the beds ready for spring planting.

N&C Midwest January & February 2024 Compos22

**Scorpio Rising** 2/6/2024, 3:24 pm

I am looking at those turntable composters! I am not able to turn mine like it should be.

OhioGardener 2/12/2024, 4:01 pm

According to the Daffodils, Spring is in the air. They don't realize that it is only the 12th of February. Shocked

N&C Midwest January & February 2024 Daffod11

JAM23 2/12/2024, 5:31 pm

Wow! That's crazy!

Spring has been in the air here too and I took advantage of it by adding onto my garden. Put in two 24x54 beds with a cattle panel trellis in between for my pole beans, some herbs and flowers. So excited!

**Scorpio Rising** 2/21/2024, 5:57 pm

I am going to start some seeds this weekend; celery, ground cherries, various flowers (marigolds, nasturtiums, and for the first time, borage) and maybe some peppers. I want to see if these plants will get big inside. Hope so! We will see!

JAM23 2/21/2024, 6:13 pm

Nice ScorpioRising!

My plan was to start celery this weekend too and was toying with the idea of starting peppers this weekend or waiting a few more weeks. Maybe eggplant too!

**Scorpio Rising** 2/22/2024, 10:56 am

JAM23 wrote:Nice ScorpioRising!

My plan was to start celery this weekend too and was toying with the idea of starting peppers this weekend or waiting a few more weeks. Maybe eggplant too!

I was watching a YouTube video by MIGardener, and he was the one recommending to go ahead and start some seeds like peppers. They really do take forever to bear anything around here….

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