Winter boredom

[cjclemens]

With today's high of 15 F and overnight lows near 0, cabin fever has hit an all time high. Lately, I've been passing the time by drawing up plans for the garden. I spent a little time on that before last season, and it really paid off. This year, I'm determined to spend a little more time on planning - based on what I liked and didn't like about last year's layout.  Don't get me wrong - we really need the cold weather, since we didnt have much of a winter last year. I was just wondering how everyone else is killing the boredom, until garden season finally arrives.

[Ranger99]

pulled up the old mater stalks,
okra stalks. cleaned the leaves out
of the soil. turned over some of the soil.
bought squash seeds even after swearing
not to after the last two years of failed
squash. bought more okra seeds to supplement
seeds saved from last year. looked unsuccessfully
for trowel for a half hour. too cold to
me for much else. back inside. 

[cjclemens]

At least you made it outside for a while.  If I wanted to do anything with the soil, I'd probably have to use a jackhammer.  Last fall, I turned the garden under with a moldboard plow.  I'm not a big fan of using something so aggressive, but last winter was so mild, we had a little trouble with insects and diseases.  Since a lot of that stuff overwinters in the plant residue, I figured, why not bury it?  Only downside is I wont be able to get any of the early stuff planted until the ground is fit to work

[longwinters]

cjclemens,
 
You are 30 degrees warmer than we are plus another 15 for windchill.  My garden plans were drawn up long ago, my seeds are all ordered and received and now all I can do is keep telling myself that it is only about 2 1/2 months till winter is over and a little over 4 months till planting.  The winters keep getting longer and longer as I get older and older.
 
Long

[Ranger99]

yall must have an extremely short
growing season. how do you get
anything to maturity, or does it
just grow faster ?

[cjclemens]

Feel free to come on by for a visit! We're gonna make it back up to the 40's next week. You could probably break out the hula shirts and flip flops for that

[Bob Riebe]

Seed Savers used to produce every five to eight years a book, about three inches thick, which listed all the known open pollinated seeds available and one now longer available and when they were no longer listed.

Due to the inter-net the last new one was made about eight years ago or so, and I called to see if they were going to make a new one, NO, but I have the last one.
SO, I go through that and try to find any potato or corn seeds, and a few others, that I have not ever tried and try to find it they are still available.

So it keeps me busy reading and typing.
I tried about five potato types I had never tried before last year, and they were very, very tasty.

[longwinters]

Plant Memorial wknd.  Grow short season fruits and veggies.  Better be done by Sept.
 
Long

[Ranger99]

just got the un-yuns put to bed.
little water and stir the other dirt
around a bit.
added  about 80 lbs more cow manure.
won't be long now. . . .

[cjclemens]

I have onions started inside.  Planted seed in flats about 3 weeks ago.  They're up and going strong - most all of them have a 2nd leaf on em, and keep growing almost a half inch a day.  This is my first experiment in starting my own onions, so I just hope I can keep em from getting too leggy and falling over.

[Ranger99]

had some seed heads to try, but they got
lost in the shuffle. still had some small
ones from last year that hibernated under
the leaves, so they got moved to the holey
rusty washtub full of soil, and the new
experimental red onions got planted in
the new poop and compost. had to rehash
the raised bed instead of rebuilding it as
planned because of budget shortfalls, so
it got shoveled out and lined with landscape
fabric. what a pain to use in the wind !
still need to get about 140-160 lbs of
poop/compost and maybe a truck bed load
of sand from the farm.
always sumthin' ! !

[reliquary]

I just rigged out my grow table & light setup in the sun room; already have a few tomato sprouts and squash sprouts peeping up.  My neighbor already has potatoes and onions in the ground (Zone Eight) but I don't bother with those.

[cjclemens]

I'm in zone 5b here. I can't even think about starting anything else for a while. I can start peppers the first week of march, and ill start tomatoes a couple weeks after that. I'm already gettin the itch just thinkin about it!

[lakota]

I just bought all of my seeds and 3 of those Jiffy seed starter kits but I wont be starting anything until late March. This will be my first try at starting from seed. My goal is to buy no plants from the nursery this year. I got as many heirloom seeds as possible too so that I can harvest seed for next years crop. I want to find a food grade plastic barrel to collect rainwater to use on the garden. I am also thinking of tilling a strip across my front yard and planting raspberry bushes to act as an edible hedge of sorts. Other than that I have been working on wooden arrows and tinkering with guns to keep the cabin fever at bay.

[reliquary]

lakota: good idea on the "edible hedge".  Here in Zone 8, I haven't found any raspberries that I like, but plenty of commercial blackberries, and they make a dandy hedge.  They will send out runners 4-6' laterally every year.  I have to keep them mowed to make a line rather than a clump, though; left to themselves, they grow in a clump.
 
Most years, I buy the 3" peat pots in bunches when they have them on special, make my own potting soil from slow-release fertilizer and compost, and start from seed whenever I can.  Just finished transferring the seedlings in the peat pots to quart&half gallon containers today.  Sometimes it's easier to buy tomato and cucumber plants from Wal-Mart or a feedstore...the $1.65 for a six-pak size...and let them grow inside until they get to the right size.
 
I'm growing a couple of native squashes from heirloom seed from baker Creek:  the "Seminole Punpkin" and a "Tinda", which is classed as more of an edible gourd.  These, and the butternut/acorn, will run on the chain-link fence, or one of my berry patches. 

[longwinters]

Well I am on the line between Zone 3-4.  I envy your early/long growing seasons.
 
Long

[cjclemens]

I do get a bit jealous of those zone 8 fellas...but I also consider myself pretty lucky. Just far enough north to have a winter and far enough south to have a decent growing season. Far enough east to get regular rains, and far enough west that its not too crowded...not to mention the soil here is good enough to grow just about anything I want.

[longwinters]

There is something to be said about being just "far enough" 
 
Long