Snow!!!!

 

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This is our snow from yesterday.  To some of you, this does not look like a big deal.  However, I live in Maryland.  And, around here, this is a crippling storm for the day.  It was nice to see since it was the first snowfall over an inch in 716 days.  Our snow drought is now officially over.  

The plants in the greenhouse weathered the colder temps quite well.  I watered them down before the storm system arrived so that probably helped.  And, I have a soft plastic greenhouse off to the side where I have been testing it for use over the winter.  I planted a cover crop later in the year and just have let it take its course. I peeked inside today and the cover crop is doing just fine.  

That means I can use it to grow root and spring crops if it maintains this pace.  I am quite impressed.  I'd love to hear how your gardening is coming long and what you are doing.  

Winter finally arrived!

The Mid-Atlantic was visited by old man winter this past weekend. But, knowing it was definitely heading right for us, I decided to open up my leaf mold composters while it was snowing in order to get a little moisture into them. It was snowing at a pretty good pace when I went out as attested to by this picture.

It was supposed to come down at a very fast and furious pace for several periods throughout the day. So, in the morning, I went out and took off the tops of the various composters and dumped the snow from the lids into each container as seen from the pictures below.

Overnight, we were hit with an ice storm which is causing major traffic issues and sidewalk problems. Some areas have had power outages. I'm just grateful to be retired and not out in the mess. Here is a picture showing the ice out in our and our neighbors yards this morning.

We are expecting another wave of snow today through early tomorrow. I"m going to have to go out and get my front porch and sidewalks unvovered before that hits.
As of yesterday, the plants in the greenhouse have been hanging in there but I need to get out there to check their status today. Here's hoping they came through.
There is lots to do and report on in the coming couple of days so once the snows/ice are gone, I'll start digging in to them. Please check back periodically for the updates. As always, Happy Gardening Everyone!

   

Tomatoes!!!

I started 16 tomatoes from seed this past Wednesday.  I used the Jiffy seed pellet system you can find at almost any home improvement store and maybe a few grocery stores.  Having never used them before, there was a little intrepidation on my part.  So, I followed their instructions and set my seed in each moistened pelet and covered them with the supplied lid.  It made a mini greenhouse that held the moisture in.  I placed the greenhouse on top of our refrigerator and let them sit there until Friday night.
At that point, there was only one packet that had shown a shoot coming up out of it.  I decided to put them into a warming greenhouse seed starter to give them heat to help along the process.  I have had that system for probably 8 years so far.  So, I put them into the warming tray without the top and filled the warmer bed with water on Friday night.  As can be seen from the picture below, there was great progress made over the weekend.

There are 15 of 16 pellets that have plants growing from them.  Given there are various types of tomaotes here, I am pretty sure all will be showing growth within the next day or so.  Now, I have to put these under light in order to allow them the necessary light to grow.  I will wait another day or so then transfer the set of these to the lights.  They will need lots of light - approximately 12-14 hours a day.
I started another set of 18 paste tomatoes and another set of 6 mixed variety tomaotes last night. They can be seen in the backround of the picture above.  My plan is to also begin pepper plants once the tomatoes are moved under light so I can use the warmer for them.  One thing at a time.
It may seem that 40 tomatoes are a lot and I have to admit, it is.  Last year I had 3 paste tomato plants and the they gave an uneven harvest so I am hoping the 18 will give us enough to put up in the fall.  I have never done that before so hopefully we will get the harvest we need and we can learn how to put them up for winter use.
On another note, I went out to check on the state of my little salad garden I have had over the winter. Much to my surprise, they came through the snow and cold temps with great result.  As can been below, all the plants are still healthy at this point.  Even the mesclun lettuce in the lower right corner looked ok and is showing sings of producing a second set of lettuce.

We have had several salads from this bed over the last few weeks.  I'll continue to water and see if we can get pehaps another salad or two before I dig it up for the sping.  I was able to get water from my now three filled 55 gallon water barrels.

The water was cold but it was clean.  And, it's free!  I usually dont have my barrels up and running this early but last year, we had tons of rain until the end of May then pratically nothing.  So, I decided to set them up and we have had several long rainy days so now, they are full.
Another item of interest for me and hopefully you is that my winter rye has taken off quite well this Spring.  As you will notice, it has grown a lot since the last time I looked at it.

It's a lot thicker and taller than my last visit which means I will have more green manure than I anticipated I would have had at this point.  Credit the unusually warm weather and a lack of aprreciable sonwfall.  Not really sure I should be happy about that given the beneficial effects cold weather and snow have on the pest populations around here.  But, I will take what God gives.
That's all I have at this time.  The new season is getting underway and that makes a gardening nut like myself very happy.  Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone.

Winter - finally?

Tuesday, we received our first appreciable snowfall of winter.  It appears Mother Nature was a little late this year.  There were countless appocalytic forecasts that preceded it's arrival.  The area where I live was supposed to get 6-12 inches and areas north and west were supposed to get up to 24.  This led to the usual run at the grocery stores for the necessary toilet paper, milk and bread.  I bought in given the overwhelming agreement from the various forecast outlets.  I prepped for it by getting my snow blower set up, buying gasoline to be sure I had enough and finally, getting all my snow jackets and such together. I believed that this truly would be a big storm for Maryland and the New England states for this time of the year.

As can be seen from the photos above, upon waking up on Tuesday, I looked outside and saw that this much anticipated storm had indeed been a dud.  Needless to say, the storm did not match the hype here in the state of Maryland.  The storm may have left a couple inches at best.  But, those couple of inches plus the the frigidly cold temperatures may have been enough to kill off insect larvae and soil bacteria that had begun to grow due to our 70 degree weather the previous week.  I truly believe you need snow and cold weather lest you are overrun by pests and unseen bacteria during the summer. 

So, I am grateful we at least got this which may have helped in that regard.  It did cover the yards very evenly as seen below.  And, it was a icy snow which may stay around for a couple of days.  All good things in the eye of the beholder.  

Even though it was an icy mix for part of the day, the winter rye (below) stood up to the inclement weather rather well.  Rye is generally a pretty rugged grass so I am hoping to find the rye still alive when the snow has melted.

And best of all, my winter garden cover also survived untouched from this late storm.  I haven't looked inside yet as I am waiting for the weather to improve.  The temperatures inside have been at or near freezing so they may be okay. 

Given I have picked three salads worth of lettuce and spinach already, I have hopes of getting a second or third cutting of them before I have to convert the space to Spring and Summer crops.  
Until the weather turns this weekend, I will have to turn my attention to getting my Tomato and Pepper plants off to a good start.  So, until next time, Happy Gardening everyone.