March 30, 2008

Well, it's 36 degrees and lightly snowing outside at NOON!  I ran outside and checked on my hoop cover. Still leaning a bit but no change from yesterday.  I may make a trip to the hardware store to see if I can't figure out how to make the hoop covers easier and more "permanent" for winter gardening.

Other than that, I just can't see planting anything more right now when I just want to stay inside and keep warm.  I don't even want to go to the dump to get rid of that broken coldframe.  Today will be a day to play with the kids, maybe search the internet for interesting ways to grow my veggies via Winter Sowing, and also to create a better seal on my hoop cover.  Oh, and maybe even try to finish my taxes.  Joy oh joy.

Well, I went through the WS FAQ again. After I got through all the talk of *flowers* I found a great post on veggies that you can WS. The ones I hope to attempt rather than using an extensive light system are:

Onions
Beans
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Carrots
Peas
Spinach
Lettuce

It says I could do corn and tomatoes, but I am still worried about doing tomatoes from seed and I think I'll just start corn inside in peat pucks for the early plantings and then direct sow for the later ones when the soil temp's higher.  As for tomatoes, I did actually read the FAQ for growing tomatoes from seed... Judy'd be proud of me... she's converting me one day at a time. hehe

That said, I may even be able to keep most of these very plants alive and producing throughout the winter under my hoop house (at least the ones that can tolerate partial sun, since we have a solid cloud cover most fall/winter). /shrugOh, I forgot to mention, I saw a possum in my front yard last night when I went out to check on the snow conditions.  It looked like it wanted to go into my garden area but didn't.  Of course it was cold and I didn't stick around, but it was encouraging about the deterrent I put down.

That said, my wife told me while I was making dinner tonight that she saw some cats in our yard. I went out back to shoo them away and found what looked like a family of feral cats back there. So much for the predator urine working on cats (not sure it was supposed to, but it should).  And the kittens (young cats) were so cute. Grrr, I'm such a softie when it comes to cats. *He says as he's posting this message with a droolie cat on his lap* hehe.

Did you check out Judy's blog for today?  She posted a pic from Google Earth showing her property.  OMG can you say DROOOL!  It's 2 acres with well over an acre of southern facing open space. Not that I'm advocating traditional row gardening, but WOW, she could become Judy the GardenGirl (if Patti would allow the rights to be used).  She could even change it from Urban Sustainable Living to Rural Sustainable Living.  Doesn't have quite the ring, or give the same impression as GardenGirl's, but she could definitely feed her family and many others utilizing the techniques in Patti's videos.

Note if you don't know what or whom I'm referring to, there are links on the right to both Judy's blog and site and GardenGirlTV's site.  Both are well worth as much time as you can devote to them.

Hope your weekend was more productive in your garden than mine was in mine... Have a good week!