New England Jan 2015

Aha. Scallions are a shorter growing time than bulb onions. I've never tried scallions, but this is why I really love Ray's seed program - you try things you wouldn't have otherwise. I've never grown banana peppers either, and it will be interesting to see what Rutgers tomatoes are like.

This year I'm not bothering with cherry tomatoes - maybe just one, that's it. Too time consuming to pick them all, and I find they don't cook as well and you can't slice them on sandwiches very easily, so I'm going with the Big Guys, and Rutgers seems like a good one for that.

The latest Mother Earth News features an article by a landscape designer, about intermixing flowers and vegetables. I never connected all the dots before about the importance of flowers right there in your vegetables to help with pest control -- besides just bordering the boxes with marigolds. The photos she has in the article are really beautiful, combining flowers, vegetables, paths, different types of beds, trellises. Works of art. It's amazing the different types of landscapes you can create, isn't it? Boggles the mind.

edit: CC, green onions as perennials? Can't wait to try that! I have the Egyptian onions, but I don't think those particularly qualify as a green onion, unless I'm wrong.

I've been tossing out old seed packets and writing out a new listing of what I have in my crisper draw for this year.  I have more than I thought. My only necessary purchases are greens and herbs this year.   In fact, 2 varieties of toms I thought I'd buy I don't need because I got some from a friend last year so I'm saving a bit of money there.
Has anyone tried Kalettes before?  In Johnny Seeds catalog its "......developed by crossing kale and Brussels sprouts.  Just like Brussels sprouts, the plants are tall and produce crops of florets on their stalks.  Kalettes are late; their maturities range from 110 to 138 days, depending on the variety"   
I think I might try these as well.

QB, I saw the kalettes thing, I think on a Johnny's email. They do look intriguing.

Is everyone gearing up for another slam of snow?  We're now expecting 3-6" of wet snow with 4-8" in the nearby big city of Portland.  The upper coast will get the brunt of this one, up to 12"

In the meantime, I was going to order some greens from Pinetree (Superseeds.com) but can't get on.  They must be updating their site.  I want to start some indoors as soon as I can, under the grow lights.  I'm aching for fresh, extremely fresh, baby greens.

My garden is still covered with lots of snow from earlier storms.  With Feb. being our snowiest month of the year, I'm expecting to be buried in it til March this year, and maybe even into April.

Stay indoors and hibernate this weekend.  Good luck New Englanders!

We're forecasted for 4-8" here on Saturday. But I only have about 2" on the ground, mostly we've been getting freezing rain that leaves a glaze of ice over everything. Driveways are iffy. I hope the strawberries are happy under their blankets, they'll be producing first this summer! Well, maybe the asparagus will be first.

On the tree order list this spring: pawpaws, sweet cherry, chestnut, linden, one more peach (Madison). Also ordered a sea kale. But THEN I decided I ALSO wanted some hardy kiwis, honeyberry, medlar, and nanking cherry. I haven't scraped up the $$ for those yet tho, so they're still on the back burner.

I also ordered some companion plants for between the fruit trees. Fedco has an order for that, which I hadn't seen before. Kind of neat.

Oh, and I also saw this recently: http://www.permacultureorchard.com/the-film/ Very good!

Not much snow supposed to fall here from this storm, thank goodness. Just the usual  rain and big wind.  Which means potential power outages.    And we all know how I love power outages!

So, I made a coffee can heater for if/when the power goes out.  
http://tacticalintelligence.net/blog/how-to-make-a-survival-stove-car-heater.htm
We tested it at work yesterday with 70% alcohol and it's great!  

I don't think I could use it in my car though, but I could use THIS one in the car:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/stuck-in-a-blizzard-heres-an-inexpensive-emergency-heating-system-012914.html

I have books and copious amounts of other reading at the ready. Since I have a few old school SFG beds, I'm rereading the original SFG book from 2005, which has updated photos and diagrams.  It's making me want to start gardening NOW!  Guess I'll pull out the New Victory Garden book next.

NHG, what kind of companion plants go between fruit trees?

CC

Wow CC, that guy even warmed his apartment with tea lights!

Power outages are one reason why I smooch my woodstove on a regular basis. Not when it's hot tho. 

In the orcharding trailer I liked up there ^ there's a segment where it displays the different types of companions he uses in his orchard. If you pause it, you can read the different ones he uses. And this is Fedco's option: http://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/search?item=697&search=companion (yarrow, hyssop, sweet cicely, tansy, comfrey) - I ordered one of these groupings just to try it out, and I figure if it looks worth repeating between my fruit trees, I can probably figure out how to propagate them.

One thing I liked about that film was it listed the different types of plants to use as companions - nitrogen fixers, and now of course I forget what else because during the movie I couldn't write them down. I'd like to see that one again, with a pause button.

When I owned a 1971 VW beetle, a can of Sterno was my functioning defroster along with my trusty snow scraper to scrape the inside of the windshield. I was not loving this aspect of being a Volkswagon owner in New England.

I love the heater in my Honda!

Oh man, those VWs were classics. Husband had a '64 and ended up rebuilding the engine by reading the manual. It ran for a few minutes and then quit, and he was just happy it ran for a few minutes.   The floorboards were so rusted, he'd get wet when it hit a puddle. Those were the days! (After that it was a beat up Honda that you had to use a rubber band to keep the key turned to on position)

Sorry to ruin your New England thread, but I also had a VW 1969.  Cost new $2,100 and that included a speaker in the back.  Can't remember if air conditioning or not.  Installed an 8 track tape deck in the glove compartment.  My dad built a real cool top rack that I used to carry my kayak back and forth to college.  We had four in the family at the same time ranging from 1964 - 1969.

Too funny yolos... Those 8 track tape players that used to switch tracks in the middle of a song... We can probably thank the 60s for the push back to nature and growing, so it's not SO off topic... 

Ooooooo...I had a Super Beetle back when I lived in Ft. Myers and worked at the Naples mall. It spent more time in the shop than on the road.    Thank goodness for the CB radio!  Handle - "Silver Lining"

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIgVCU19pjg

CC

Love it, CC.

Mother Earth, Jan 1970

So much for my good old fashioned Cape Cod winter. Looks like a coupla days of working from home to me:

CC

That's weird CC - the time stamp on your last message is 2 hours later than the time here. I'm assuming it's wrong, you can't be 2 hrs. behind me.

I was just looking at the forecast. I don't see this far northeast in your map there, but I'm trying to find a similar regional map. It's looking like a doozy! But I'm thinking here it's not going to be as much as, say, coastal Connecticut, where they're predicting up to 3 feet, or maybe even Cape Cod. I'm kind of ready for some snow cover, but if this were winter's ONE blast I wouldn't complain. Plow guys will finally be able to make their truck payments......

OH HURRY UP SUMMER I HAVE THINGS TO GROW. Itching to get out there.

edit: Aha. My time stamp says 6:00 and it's only 4:00 here so I guess it's a system thing.

MAN! We are gonna get whomped, a storm overnight on Monday and another predicted for Friday. Both with expected snowfall totals of 12"+ for each storm.

MEH!!!

NHG, check your preferences in your profile for time stamp info. My time stamp is currently correct.

You're right, camprn! Now how did my preferences location get changed??! I set it back to NYC.

Another storm on Friday?? I guess you're looking on wunderground. BLEH! NOAA is predicting snow showers, I hope they're the right ones. 

Today I learned of a weather website that might interest those of you in the New England area:

www.wxrisk.com

This fellow supposedly has a 95% accuracy record.  I'd subscribe, except that he doesn't seem to focus much on my area.  (It's only $5 per month.)

NHGardener wrote:You're right, camprn! Now how did my preferences location get changed??! I set it back to NYC.

Another storm on Friday?? I guess you're looking on wunderground. BLEH! NOAA is predicting snow showers, I hope they're the right ones. 

I don't usually use weatherunderground, this is my go to weather forecasting and history site. I choose the NOAA model. http://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;a=USA/NH/Keene

Stay safe.

Sanderson, you spelled sane wrong... 

Watching the news about your approaching storm. Take care, folks.

Batten down the hatches!