CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in March 2017

This is a commercial but it touches the heart.

https://tinyurl.com/jhkeenc

Another month and some of us will actually be planting seeds and plants.

A little more snow in my area today, just a dusting, but the forecast for the next few days is flurries of snow and 10cms tonight. Even though that is the forecast, we have had a couple of sunny days and the old snow is melting but what remains is rock hard.

At least Ontario is having record highs and good luck to them. I hope it is not causing floods. Let's keep our fingers crossed that no one gets slaughtered with freezing temperatures.

It is interesting looking at the previous year what I had posted on my wall calendar for March 2016: not much, I'm afraid. Planted snow peas on the 11th, had a rush of compost turning and screening  for several hours from the 18th; the first swallow arrived on the 22nd;  I could not find the date of my first lawn mowing of the year.

So it looks as though my first job for this year will be sorting out the compost piles.

Right now, looking our my window, I estimate the snow depth at least ten inches with not a sign of grass showing, just a sea of white.

KJ ... I fixed a typo in the thread title. Hope you don't mind.

trolleydriver wrote:This is a commercial but it touches the heart.

https://tinyurl.com/jhkeenc

Wow!

  jaffa55 from Milton, S.Ont.

from your Canadian Host Kelejan.

If your garden is like mine, you still have snow on the ground?

Kelejan wrote:  jaffa55 from Milton, S.Ont.

from your Canadian Host Kelejan.

If your garden is like mine, you still have snow on the ground?

KJ ... after all the mild temps and rain there is probably no snow in Milton. Our daughter and family live in Cambridge not far from Milton and when we send photos of all our snow the grandkids want to come for a visit so they can play in the snow.

Speaking of Milton, our son-in-law cycles at the mattamy velidrome which is located there.

http://www.mattamynationalcyclingcentre.ca/en/index.asp

Here in Canada's Capital it's Red Bull Crashed Ice weekend.  The track has been installed over the Rideau Canal locks with the Parliament Buildings on the west side and the Chateau Laurier Hotel on the east side.

Scroll all the way down the page at the following link for excellent photos of the track and venue.

http://www.ottawa2017.ca/events/signature-events/red-bull-crashed-ice/

And oh yes ... Saturday is also "Seedy Saturday" (seed exchange) in Ottawa.

https://www.ottawatourism.ca/events/seedy-saturday/

Hi there, it has been awhile since I posted, but us gardeners do get mighty lonely i the winter.  This year to stave off the winter blues, we went down to Nevada and started a new WINTER hobby, Rock collecting.
But home now. I sell plants and veggies at the farmers market, so am trying to expand every year. This year I started Rosemary and Thyme in January indoors as they (espeically Rosemary) takes so long to sprout.  2 weeks ago started my pepper plants and yesterday the Tomatoes. I sell the heirloom plants at the market.
I am considering starting to weed in the few areas that the snow has melted, 
Loved reading about the veggies and the war effort, I had no idea that Canada was sending produce

Good to hear from you, GWN. I am missing my garden as well, usually we do not have to wait quite as long as this year as by now I am actually weeding this time last year.

Yes, Canada helped feed the Brits during WWII.  I remember, just after the war, when the boarding school I lived in allowed us children to go home to our foster parents, and how my foster mum used to save her food coupons to buy cans of Canadian Sock-eye salmon.  We seldom had it entire, but was usually stretched and made into salmon fish-cakes.  As children you may recall that taste was so much more acute.  No wonder we complain now that food does not taste so good as when we were young.

YES no wonder.  You keep some odd hours Keligan, your note is 2 am.  We still have a foot of snow, yet Kamloops an hours drive away has none.  Odd winter. I am worried about my garlic, I planted early October, then it was warm for so long, that they all came up, then it got really cold before it snowed.  SO I hope they have done OK
My Mom used to make salmon loaf as well.

What has happened with the rest of the March entries?

It seems as though I am getting mix-ed up.

Kelejan wrote:What has happened with the rest of the March entries?

It seems as though I am getting mix-ed up.

I now have moved them to this thread from the February thread.

TD: Thanks a bundle for sorting things out.

GWN: my post in answer to your remark that I keep odd hours, I do, but in the instance you quote my post reads 23:08 (11:08pm). I think it might be something to do with the structure of time on this Forum. What you have programmed into your computer?

We had some heavy showers of snow today that turned to rain.  As the forecast if below Zero temperatures for the coming week, it will make conditions rather icy so no gardening for me in the foreseeable future.  I am getting cabin fever. like many others.

Hey' GWN!  

Miss my garden too.  But I have some seeds in, and more on the way!

KELEJAN  according to my computer it looked like it was written at 2 am  
Until yesterday afternoon, I was beginning to get some clear patches with no snow, but we got a new 3 inches last evening.  

I have a cold frame and put some spinach and lettuce seedlings in there... guess I will have to shovel it off now

We have a family medical emergency. My 91 year old Mother has been admitted to hospital with an infection and the blood work shows that she had a heart attack. My wife and I will be driving from Ottawa to St.Catharines today (about a 6 hour drive if all goes well). We have no idea when we will be able to come back home.

trolleydriver wrote:We have a family medical emergency. My 91 year old Mother has been admitted to hospital with an infection and the blood work shows that she had a heart attack. My wife and I will be driving from Ottawa to St.Catharines today (about a 6 hour drive if all goes well). We have no idea when we will be able to come back home.

Oh no! Drive safely. We're all sending good thoughts and prayers.

Best wishes ... drive carefully

To add to a difficult situation there was about a half-inch of ice from freezing rain on our car. I went to fill up with gas and just about wiped out at the corner of the street. The neighborhood streets are skating rinks. The main roads are OK.

We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers for safe drivi TD and that your mom gets better, TD. 


Today I woke up to a dusting of snow but now the sun is shining and the temperature should be above freezing and I am keeping my fingers crossed, if I get my housework done plus one hour of paper sorting that I can go out and shovel a path to the compost heap and deposit the stuff I have been hoarding all winter.  Doesn't matter if it is frozen so long as I can get it shifted.

ETA: I have just checked the weather forecast;  right now it is minus 1C but should get up to +2C  before dropping down to -6C tonight.

To continue the saga of Kelejan's first forage of 2017 outside in the garden.

I spent nearly an hour digging a path to my 4x4 compost bin. The snow was twelve inches deep and it was solid so I had to carve out slices of snow; I could have built an igloo.

Clearing some of the surface snow off the compost pile, it was surprising how much room there was underneath.  It seems the snow had melted underneath from the compost surface and left quite a hollow so I was able to several bags of veggie peelings etc to feed the worms.  I replaced the  snow on top of the pile and left the worms to wake up and start doing their job.  After all, they get paid for it.

In 2016 it was February 19th  when I made my first outside trip and I did some weeding, then in the days that followed I worked on the compost.

TD, Be safe, and I hope your Mom will recover smoothy.

KJ, You have written about the victory garden in England when you were a girl. Well, I'm almost finished reading The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva. WWII in England and Germany. Most action takes place in England and I am cold, wet and hungry just reading it. The rain, wind, food rationing, shortage of meat and milk. It makes me appreciate never having lived in a war torn country. Having a plot to grow something, anything, could have made a difference in health. But, even with a garden, a long, cold rain could wipe it out. Okay, enough of this.

To add to a difficult situation there was about a half-inch of ice from freezing rain on our car. I went to fill up with gas and just about wiped out at the corner of the street. The neighborhood streets are skating rinks. The main roads are OK.

Trolley driver, I fractured my shoulder with a fall last year, so am very afraid of walking on the ice this year an all trails around my place are covered with solid ice. SO I do not go anywhere with out these over my boots  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MR3HV8U/ref=s9_acsd_newrz_hd_bw_b3jWR1n_c_x_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-6&pf_rd_r=BA241C8VATEKRY9M8XSC&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=f671af16-ad11-57bb-b063-9c5912ea541c&pf_rd_i=3421064011

and poles

Update on our situation. The medical staff confirmed today that my Mom has pneumonia. I have not been able to get any credible info about a possible heart attack. Because she is contagious we have to wear gloves, masks and gowns when we are near her. She did not want to eat her lunch so I had to spoon feed her. She is still in the emergency area because there are no beds available in the other parts of the hospital. The hospital is overflowing with patients. Our medical system is strained to the limit.

On an SFG note. The leeks and onions that I sowed indoors last week could not be left alone in Ottawa. So I brought the containers with me. This morning there were a couple of leek and a couple of onion seedlings rising out of the starting mix. I don't know how to post a photo from my android phone.