New England Jan 2015

Meh. We can handle 2 storms with one hand tied behind our backs. Winter. It's what we do.



P.S. - I am going NOWHERE. Got ice cream, frozen pizza, turkey lunchmeat, smoked cheddar & pepperoni today so I am SET.

I've been learning about pairing fruit trees with nitrogen fixers - as in, having those peas climb right up that trunk - so they are mutually beneficial. Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have a nitrogen fixer in every box. And that is making me think about shaking things up a little in the boxes - instead of having mono-boxes, how about a little of this, a little of that in each box? It could even include a square of oats as nitrogen fixer/mulch here and there. Along with nitrogen fixing, it could keep pests away better. If I have one tomato plant here, one tomato plant there, those hornworms are not going to have an easy time going from one to the other.

Have you all thought about haphazardly organizing like that? I've been learning that in nature, the same species aren't usually clumped together - everything grows with everything else. Maybe that's a healthy pattern for gardening too.

P.S. My other rogue ideas remain: diluted seawater spray over the garden not only to add minerals but to DETER SLUGS, and filling the space between the boxes with about 6" of brush covered with leaves, since I don't have a woodchipper, it'll have to woodchip on its own.

NHGardener wrote:Have you all thought about haphazardly organizing like that?.

Sounds like my boxes!

I figure haphazard, as you put it, is one of the beneficial parts of sf boxes.  What I figure is don't give the bugs and stuff convenience.  I try not to plant similar plants, like all coles, in one box.  

I like that idea of planting something like oats for nitrogen fixing.  Gonna try that.

Wouldn't the oats go to seed?  Then you'd have to pull the seedlings.

Oats completely die in freezing weather, and then become mulch, so if you wait until winter zaps em, no more oats. I've only ever planted them in early fall, to die in winter, so I haven't had an issue with them during main growing time. You might be right, they might not companion well during main summer season. I'll have to read more about their companioning capability. 

Aha. Here's wiki's list of companion plants, and it looks pretty comprehensive. Maybe this kind of chart would be a better guide:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

good list. thank you.

Good luck on the blizzard coming your way.

We just planted a bunch of Provider beans this morning between rows of sweet onion starts.  THEN I read the Wiki article on companion planting.  Evidently this was the wrong thing to do as they are antagonistic (so it says in the Wiki article).  Well, we're not going to take them out.  I'll let you all know what happens.

yolos wrote:Good luck on the blizzard coming your way.

+1

+2!

How's everyone up there this morning?

NHGardener wrote:P.S. - I am going NOWHERE. Got ice cream, frozen pizza, turkey lunchmeat, smoked cheddar & pepperoni today so I am SET.

OMG!  My heart just collapsed from reading that.  Sitting on my kitchen counter right now (in case of power outage) I've got celery, carrots, apples, oranges, grapes, hm sf ff gf oatmeal cookies, gf bread, pb, beans, kefir, sprouts, and on and on like that.  But...

*doing the happy dance*  I'VE GOT THE POWER!!!!!

And I'm working...

Can't see out the windows due to plastered snow/ice but I sure can hear it.  The winds are howling like a banshee!


How's everyone else doing?
CC

kauairosina - Wow! What timing! There is a huge knowledge base in gardening/farming, I don't care what anyone says. It is not easy.

CC, honestly, I pretty much never buy this stuff, but these are special conditions, like all of us kind of stuck in the house for a few days, and they love the occasional junk food. Comfort food.  

I heard it howling all night, it's blowing like crazy out there, I'm not sure how much snow yet, it's going to be one of those that aren't easy to measure because everything gets blown around so much. I'm not opening curtains yet because they're one more layer keeping the wind out. Woodstove is cranking. I'm sipping coffee. Life is good.

have you in prayer. My son is in the New York area. He said he doing ok.

Town plow guy just got stuck in the drift in front of my house. His buddy came and pulled him out. Dang thing was taller than the truck...don't know how he thought he was going to move it. Unless, like a puddle, he thought the street went up instead of the dip that it is.  Anyway, he put in a call for the town pay loader to move the drift. Don't know when that will show up but I can't get out til it does....could be days. Honestly, I don't  mind working from home. As long as I have electricity...
 
CC

It is so good to hear first hand accounts of what is going on with your blizzard and your preparations.  Makes it real to us out in the hinterlands. Many mahalos.

electricity and heat. that what I told my son. food of course.

Wow, CC!  You must have some serious snow & winds blowing to get that drift up so high.
 
Good thing that you can stay put & work from home.  Stay warm!

Up this way, it's just a "regular" storm so far.  Not much accumulation to speak of and the winds are just enough to make it look like one of those souvenir snow-globes at times, but not howling at all.  

DH went to mail some items today and the post was closed with a sign about the storm shutting them down, though, so if any of you are expecting anything in the mail to/from the NE region, it will likely be delayed.

Through rain and sleet and even... well, not snow... 

Still blowing snow here. Dang that NYC, they were so overprepared for this storm that it gave up and came our way... I went out to the chickens this morning and while there was 12" of snow outside, there was 6" of snow inside the run, blown in there. Chickens weren't coming out of the small coop into the run, even for food or water...

I'm going to try to make reservations for Florida for end of this week. Nothing is going to get accomplished right now anyway.

We're now up to 14" of the white stuff, light like fine crystals.  Thankfully its not heavy or we'd be without power for sure.  Still, those winds are bad and they could blow down some lines.  Crossing my fingers.
This morning everyone was home.  My DDIL made homemade donuts.  Mmmm good.

They were as good as they looked.
Outside my short-legged dog didn't get very far, only as far as I swept.

She wasn't keen on the blustering snow.
As for the gardens, they are truly buried.

My son looked like a ninja as he prepped to go out and snowblow the driveway.


But yesterday, I sowed some arugula and black-seeded Simpson lettuce in a shallow pot under the lights.  I'm still thinking spring.


I just hope no power outages later today.  I can manage the snow just fine by staying indoors.
Good luck to all out there in Blizzard Juno.
Hugs,
S

QB, those donuts look DELICIOUS!!! 

The plow guy probably won't get here until tomorrow morning, so I'm s-t-u-c-k. Just heard that there's another school snow day tomorrow! I imagine it's going to take everyone time to get plowed out. There are only so many plow drivers to go around....

Great photos, QB!  So beautiful with the falling snow.  Poor Penny (is that your dogs name?).  And you're right...son DOES look like a Ninja!

Hi Molly!

Wish I didn't leave my camera at work.  I'd love to show you guys this drift out front. I live up on a hill and the front porch is now even with the drift which comes from across the road up to the porch.  It's definitely a record breaker is this area.  The drifts out back are pretty impressive, too.  They keep saying on TV to go out and check the furnace vent but it's so crazy out I don't think I can even get over there.

I guess another night with earplugs and then it's over.  Yea. 

has55, fortunately NY area didn't get badly hit.  Heck, after Sandy they should get a decades worth of reprieves!

Oh...now we're having 'freezing fog'.  I've never heard of that, and can't see it -too dark out now.  What does it look like???

CC

Ohio seems to have a thing for freezing fog.  Kinda looks like this

a.k.a. "rime ice".  Pretty, but can be destructive.

And if you're worried about getting blown away, CC, you could grab a backpack or pillow sack and load it up with heavy stuff so you have some extra mass on you (I'm not kidding here) and strap it to your back so you can go outside and check out that furnace vent. That's nothing to mess around with, ya know? Is yours close to the ground or is it on the roof?

sure go a way to make you guys feel cozy. Haven't seen raised doughnuts like that in a long time.  Just as well, they are not gluten free so I can't have them anyway, but good for you all who can.