CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in March 2017

Well, TD, I misread that post; do not know what I was thinking of, if at all.  At least I am glad your Mom was already there.

I remember the week before my DH died, I was to take him to Kelowna for some radiology treatment which was about four hours drive away and they would not take him by ambulance.  He took a sudden turn for the worse before we could go. I do know that he did not want to go as he knew it would have only given him a few more weeks of life. So maybe I was thinking that your Mom was with your local hospital.

You and Mrs. TD., take care.

For two days I have woken to Winter Wonderlands of snow with more snow falling during the day.  Today, no snow since last night and I see the roads are black instead of white.  Dare I hope that in a few days I will be seeing patches of grass and even be able to pull a weed or two and see how things are doing under this blanket of snow?  I know that they must be  a lot going on, especially with all the wood chips getting another winter's decay and moisture. Once it warms up I know everything will grow like crazy.

So far all I can see in the garden is part of a plank bench that is showing above the snow; the rest is pure white, not even a square bed  that is eight inches high.

How deep is the snow where you are GWN?

This year I am going to try and make as many beds as I can, double in height. No new beds, just make the ones I have easier to work with.

Tonight we put our clocks forward.  does not make any difference to me, but it will for working people who will have a bit more daylight time in the evening.

For two days I have woken to Winter Wonderlands of snow with more snow falling during the day.  Today, no snow since last night and I see the roads are black instead of white.  Dare I hope that in a few days I will be seeing patches of grass and even be able to pull a weed or two and see how things are doing under this blanket of snow?  I know that they must be  a lot going on, especially with all the wood chips getting another winter's decay and moisture. Once it warms up I know everything will grow like crazy.

I feel the exact same KJ. I have been checking the weather several times a day counting the days where the temp is above freezing all day. AT LAST TODAY, looks like it is supposed to go up to 8 here. It snowed all day here yesterday, on top of that which feel the day before that.  I DID go out yesterday and take the temp of the soil on the south side of the house and it was 48 degrees and easily workable. So I dumped out all of my large greenhouse tomato pots there, worked the soil and planted onion sets, peas, spinach and some radishes.  This is not an area that I normally have any garden beds, BUT IT IS THE ONLY place there is no snow, so what the heck. NOW it is a garden bed.  I also have a cold frame which I weeded out and planted onion sets and radishes.  This is the first time I have done this, but SOMETHING had to be done.  
KJ, I think this week we will both see a lot of ground.  I have about a foot- to a foot and half of snow on most areas right now.

Wow GWN...you're planting out already??? Will you cover if it snows or goes into deep freeze again?

Will you cover if it snows or goes into deep freeze again?

Well the way I see it, the seeds I have chosen tolerate some frost. In going back to my  record book I see where a "volunteer" pea emerged on its own on March 19th.
All the instruction books tell you to plant peas as soon as the ground is workable.  So I am
When I grow peas, I always save all of the peas that get too big before I pick them and dry them out and use as seed peas, so those are the ones I have planted.

I don't think a fall of snow will hurt as now it is melting quite quickly.  It is the clear skies with freezing temps that we need to be wary of.  So long as it rains or is cloud covered no problem. 

We must just keep an eye on our local weather conditions. Three cheers for the Internet. By the time seeds come up we will be further into spring.

I am definitely going to spend some time in the garden tomorrow as the snow is retreating and I can see patches that I can start tidying up.

For the next few days the temperature will be well above freezing day and night.  Right now it is +5C. 

Right now it is +5C.    

SAME HERE !!!!!!, we MUST be close, as the crow flies.  I know by roads we are a long ways apart.  According to my map, as the crow flies, you are 200KM away from me.  It is raining here, and I have appts in Kamloops today, so when I get home, I am hoping to see the ground.  I miss the ground.

GWN wrote:

Right now it is +5C.    

SAME HERE !!!!!!, we MUST be close, as the crow flies.  I know by roads we are a long ways apart.  According to my map, as the crow flies, you are 200KM away from me.  It is raining here, and I have appts in Kamloops today, so when I get home, I am hoping to see the ground.  I miss the ground.

I have only been to Kamloops once, when visiting a friend who along with me, supported The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. I would have visited a few years ago but they had those horrific forest fires so put that off.  My SIL and her Husband had moved to Kamloops but they are gone now.

Kelowna is my nearest "Big" city but I haven't even visited that lately.

I did say yesterday that I intended to do some gardening today, but it is raining steadily so I keep putting it off and am now working on my Income Tax return.

I may sneak out and put some more veggie peelings in the compost pile and add some previously frozen chicken manure as well. I had four 5-gallon buckets given to me just as the sub-zero temperatures arrived and they were frozen all winter when they could have been working away in the compost pile.  Better late than never.

Kelejan wrote:

I may sneak out and put some more veggie peelings in the compost pile and add some previously frozen chicken manure as well. I had four 5-gallon buckets given to me just as the sub-zero temperatures arrived and they were frozen all winter when they could have been working away in the compost pile.  Better late than never.

Lucky YOU! Do you get to keep the buckets, too?

I had four 5-gallon buckets given to me just as the sub-zero temperatures arrived and they were frozen all winter when they could have been working away in the compost pile.  Better late than never.

Horse manure sounds great!
I have something better than 4 buckets of manure,  ( if you can imagine something better than 4 buckets of manure)   I have a friend with 4 horses.. Only thing is, that we cannot get down to GET THE MANURE until some of the snow disappears.
Last summer  a friend gave me a large pile of chicken manure. I left it in the corner of my garden out of concern for it being TOO HOT.  I mixed in some plant material, I was SO thrilled to come back a month later to find the entire pile was full of worms.  Likely the same will happen with your manure.

GWN wrote:

I had four 5-gallon buckets given to me just as the sub-zero temperatures arrived and they were frozen all winter when they could have been working away in the compost pile.  Better late than never.

Horse manure sounds great!
I have something better than 4 buckets of manure,  ( if you can imagine something better than 4 buckets of manure)   I have a friend with 4 horses.. Only thing is, that we cannot get down to GET THE MANURE until some of the snow disappears.
Last summer  a friend gave me a large pile of chicken manure. I left it in the corner of my garden out of concern for it being TOO HOT.  I mixed in some plant material, I was SO thrilled to come back a month later to find the entire pile was full of worms.  Likely the same will happen with your manure.

Yay!  Best $h1t ever!  LOL!

Yes, I kept the buckets but gave back the previous ones I had from my friends. I had kept buckets before but I was accumulating too many.

I did not get into the garden,as it is still raining quite hard and consistently, perhaps tomorrow or the next day.  The snow is certainly getting more shallow.  Looking forward to see if any carrots have survived the winter.  If they have, I hope they are not woody.  I have pulled carrots from the snow in other years but the snow was too deep for me to find them then the snow got frozen and hard.

My Mom continues to cling to life by a thread. This is day five since she entered palliative care. It's been a rough ride for her and for us. 

Today we have a big snow storm dumping up to 30 centimtres of snow with wind gusts of 60 km/hr. Not a nice day to be outside or driving.

My seedlings that I brought with me help to provide a small distraction from the real life and death situation with my Mom. The onions (last year's seeds) did not have great germination. The leeks (also last year seeds) and the green bunching onions (new seeds) are up and doing well.

I may not get a chance to do any more starts since we will be spending a lot of time away from home settling Mom's estate and cleaning out her house.

Thank you for the update, TD.  I, and probably the others, have you and yours on our minds and in our prayers.  

I like that your seedlings are a good distraction.  It helps to rest the mind with some gardening Zen.  Maybe you could start a few more things in pots, like lettuces, to keep with you while you're away.  Any chance you could get to a nursery for some seeds and pots, and plant some more?

CapeCoddess wrote:Thank you for the update, TD.  I, and probably the others, have you and yours on our minds and in our prayers.  

I like that your seedlings are a good distraction.  It helps to rest the mind with some gardening Zen.  Maybe you could start a few more things in pots, like lettuces, to keep with you while you're away.  Any chance you could get to a nursery for some seeds and pots, and plant some more?

No problem finding a nursery here. St. Catharines is called the Garden City.  But I have my hands full organizing the funeral. I also have to prepare the main eulogy and I will be preaching a Gospel message. Sorry for mentioning religion on the forum. I will also need to contact numerous agencies about my Mom's passing and start the process of cleaning out the house.

Thanks to all my SFG Forum friends for your kind thoughts and prayers.

TD, we appreciate the time you are taking to let us know here and  updating your situation.  Take care of yourself and the family, and we will continue to be with you in thought and prayer.

Kelejan wrote:TD, we appreciate the time you are taking to let us know here and  updating your situation.  Take care of yourself and the family, and we will continue to be with you in thought and prayer.

TD, We are thinking of you at this time. My prayer for you and family.

Yesterday I was able to spend a total of one hour outside;  half adding more veggies etc plus chicken manure to the compost pile, and half trying to clear up the carport of some of the stuff that has accumulated since last fall including clipping the dead stalks and clearing the dead leaves from my planters there.  It looks somewhat better so I am feeling happy about that.

Today, all rain forecast up to 10 to 15 mms. Late tomorrow, a little sunshine if we are lucky.  I just have the feeling that there will be no Spring, just a great leap into summer. I prefer the transition of Spring into Summer.

Kelejan wrote:I just have the feeling that there will be no Spring, just a great leap into summer. I prefer the transition of Spring into Summer.

Totally agree. It seems I no more than set out the little summer seedlings than I have to put up the shade cloth.

Today, all rain forecast up to 10 to 15 mms. Late tomorrow, a little sunshine if we are lucky.  I just have the feeling that there will be no Spring, just a great leap into summer. I prefer the transition of Spring into Summer. PS  I have edited the rainfall to read mm

WOW that sounds like a lot of rain,  we are loosing a lot of snow here as well.  My DH started pruning the fruit  trees today as well. The deer ... seem to have pulled the branches through their teeth as an easy way to get all the leaves, scraping the surface on the branches. Not sure how that will affect the trees.  THIS IS MY BTE part of the garden, not a square INCH showing... same as the SFG part  

GWN  I have edited my post to read: 10 to 15mm of rain.  I am so used to inches.

I wonder how many other times I have written cm instead of mm and no one has picked up on it?   Snow is cm and rain is mm.

My garden looks similar to yours, can just see the top of the plank that I sit on that is supported by two pieces of tree trunk.  I reckon the snow is now only about 6 to 8 inches deep as the space where I buried my Jazz was in a 3x3 double bed of 8"+8" = 16" inches and the top plank is now showing.

I wonder how many other times I have written cm instead of mm and no one has picked up on it?   Snow is cm and rain is mm.

 EXCEPT when rain IS in CM then we see houses floating down rivers......

I feel like I am waiting for the river to go down so I can go to town .......
I do have lots of stuff growing inside though, recently added broccoli and Fennel to the greenhouse lot

We it very little snow here...but super cold...arctic winds...still....

arctic winds...still....

BRRRR... I hate wind, especially arctic winds...