Green thumb is itching, anyone else?

[HHandbasket]

Now, I have been all about the edible landscaping/vegetable gardening bug, but now these seed catalogs have started arriving in my mailbox, FORCING me to want to do flower beds now, too.

What EVER shall I do???

Well, I found my solution.

I am going to do a whole bunch of edible flowers!

 

[hollymh]

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I love this! I have my bulbs in the ground for spring flowers, I think my garden will be confused though, we havent had a winter yet!

 

[Carols Clucks]

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The weather here is SO good, I have to put aside an indoor project just to get caught up in the yard and garden! (not that I am complaining too much)

Today is a pruning class, pick up some composted mini horse ranch manure and guess we will see if it is the yard or the inside project for today

 

[Kassaundra]

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That's exactly what I was going to suggest.

 

[HHandbasket]

Same here... weather's been absolutely fabulous, almost TOO fabulous. We had about 8 days of true wintery weather in December, and it's jumped straight into spring here, as well. While this is our first year living here in this area, we didn't live THAT far away before & we know that it has usually snowed here at least 2 or 3 times by now in the winter season, but we have not had even a single drop of precipitation in I don't know how long. We had some light rain for about 15 minutes one day about a week ago, and that was IT. We are concerned about having enough water in the well for us to even have a garden this year if we don't get rain and snow soon.

Something is amiss when it's 68 degrees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains the first week of January. It is usually about 30-35 here this time of year and wet/cold. I hate the cold, but as a gardener, I know we need the seasons so I am a little concerned.

This is the third year in a row we've had "off" weather here. Makes me want to strangle everyone who says that climate change isn't even real. I don't care if it's man-made or God-made, it's real... anybody who grows food has figured that out already.

 

[Kassaundra]

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There was an older lady in our church when I was a teen (she was in her 80's then and I've not been a teen in many years) anyway when she was younger they still had horse and buggy transport. She said she remembered every winter the ponds and lakes would freeze enough to drive the horse and buggy over them in Oklahoma, but that doesn't happen at all now. Our first week of Jan was in the high 60's and low 70's also, very unusaul weather for us, last year though we were in the snowpaccolypse at this time.

 

[ozark_chickies]

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There was an older lady in our church when I was a teen (she was in her 80's then and I've not been a teen in many years) anyway when she was younger they still had horse and buggy transport. She said she remembered every winter the ponds and lakes would freeze enough to drive the horse and buggy over them in Oklahoma, but that doesn't happen at all now. Our first week of Jan was in the high 60's and low 70's also, very unusaul weather for us, last year though we were in the snowpaccolypse at this time.

Kassaundra, your post reminds me of what my grandmother told me. She was born around 1900 and walked to school. They didn't have bridges, and she said the creeks and rivers froze hard enough to walk on and to drive a buggy over. I can only remember one winter in my lifetime, walking on a froze creek, and if dad had known I would have been beat.

We've had temps hit the upper 90's in May the last three years. Those are temperatures I'm not used to seeing until late June or early July. It sure makes growing cool weather crops hard, so this year I plan on planting alot of my hardier things in February instead of March.If they freeze I can always replant.

 

[HHandbasket]

We used to have great weather out here in California for growing tomatoes! The tomato growing industry was prolific here all the years I was growing up. A couple of years ago, they had to close the Ragu Spaghetti Sauce factory in Merced (central California) because it's no longer viable to produce tomatoes out here on a large scale. They're still in business, so I am sure they're operating and growing tomatoes SOMEWHERE... just not here.

Some tomatoes do still grow here, but on a much smaller scale than 20 or 30 years ago. Last year and the year before, the only tomatoes I had that turned red on the vine were the cherry, grape, and small romas. I had about 20-25 pounds of tomatoes grow and turn green and beautiful and big, but it never got hot enough for them to turn red. Two years ago, our plants started producing big beefsteak tomatoes around mid June, and normally I would pick around mid July. Finally that year in September, I got tired of waiting for them to turn red on the vine, picked them, and fed them to the chickens. We only had 5 pounds of tomatoes actually turn red on the vine that year (outside of the cherry/mini tomatoes). Last year, I only harvested a dozen usable romas off our vines and about 2 dozen usable cherry tomatoes... though I confess, I planted very late last year so was happy we had ANYTHING.

When they come up into the Sierras in January to measure the snow pack, it's normally measured in feet. Last week when they came, it was only measurable by inches. There's no snow on the slopes, and the ski resorts and businesses that depend on skiers and snowboarders are suffering. It's hard to say when to plant because just about the time we realize spring has sprung, we'll plant and then it'll snow and kill everything.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

OMG I'm even dreaming in seed catalogs.

 

[Carols Clucks]

In the pruning class today, the gentleman teaching said "I have lived here since 1948, every winter has been an unusual one"

I thought that was interesting because this winter does seem so unusual