Surviving Minnesota!

[Bogtown Chick]

We live up here on acidic peat bogs. So I think barn lime has been in my Dad's-now my repertoire for a good many years. He was in SE MN also farming down there and they added a lot of lime onto fields. The bluff country down there is limestone. I remember the deliveries and I think dad said it was lime. I could be wrong. If you have a basic garden then gypsum would be the additive of choice to get calcium back in. Just did some googling.

Also just found out I need to get added calcium to my tomato containers on the deck. This helps with browning at the end of a tomato. Yellow leaves is the first sign of Calcium deficiency. check check.

 

[R2elk]

We live up here on acidic peat bogs. So I think barn lime has been in my Dad's-now my repertoire for a good many years. He was in SE MN also farming down there and they added a lot of lime onto fields. The bluff country down there is limestone. I remember the deliveries and I think dad said it was lime. I could be wrong. If you have a basic garden then gypsum would be the additive of choice to get calcium back in. Just did some googling.

Also just found out I need to get added calcium to my tomato containers on the deck. This helps with browning at the end of a tomato. Yellow leaves is the first sign of Calcium deficiency. check check.

Blossom end rot can be due to over watering along with insufficient or the wrong form of calcium and sulfate. Be careful when buying gypsum to make sure that you are getting calcium sulfate and not gypsum with added cement mixed in.

Yellowing of the leaves can also mean an iron deficiency.

 

[duluthralphie]

I suppose I should get a soil testing kit..

but if I do what can I blame my garden failures on?

I surely, can’t take any of the blame.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

I read too Ralphie that your soil might have been cold and/or wet for too long and radishes will dampen off.

Imagine that happening in MN!?!

 

[jerryse]

Finished lunch and watched youtube about MN northwest angle . Never knew this . Part of MN but the only land route is through Canada .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkbuZfC06d8

 

[duluthralphie]

Finished lunch and watched youtube about MN northwest angle . Never knew this . Part of MN but the only land route is through Canada .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkbuZfC06d8

Been there, I went there right after graduation from high school just to say I was there.

that was a few years ago now, the road in was a poorly maintained logging road.

 

[jerryse]

Morning we have about 1 inch of snow . More coming Thursday night Friday morning .

 

[Bogtown Chick]

We are slow to loose the perma frost. Yuck jerry in the snow. Crazy.
DS and dH went turkey hunting this morning.

That mud out there is like cement. Frozen up. I’m just glad for no snow and the birds can free range

 

[ejb3810]

It is colder than a wiitch's mammary gland here over the hill from the big lake. 29 degrees at nearly 11:00. In January in these conditions I would be happy to go out and do things but not in mid April.
Watched a video produced yesterday from the Sax Zim Bog. Produced by a local birding guru. Some nice video of waterfowl, hawks, song birds & etc. My primary conclusion is that this past and ongoing winter has been especially hard on the Sharptailed Grouse in the Northland.

It is difficult to be enthused about gardening when the conditions warrant the use of a jackhammer to work the soil. The growing season here is much shorter than in the Minnesota Banana Belt.
SoDak seems a world apart with the mild climate and good looking and rationally thinking Governor that they have!

 

[CindyinSD]

SoDak seems a world apart with the mild climate and good looking and rationally thinking Governor that they have!

10-4 on the governor, for whom do not think me even approaching ingratitude. Thank you God!

As for the weather, though... We're a little warmer at the moment here in the central Black Hills than you are, but that's a big improvement over the past several days. My turkeys and ducks and geese do not approve. The chickens and the cows are whining and grumbling. The rain barrel is frozen solid. I am ranting and throwing a full-on toddler fit. They promised us global warming.

They PROMISED!!! ​