I’m joining this thread for everyone’s wisdom!
I just started some little peppers and have them in the warmest room on the property. I bought them heat mats but I feel weird leaving heat mats on. I’m gun shy after a fire last year. But they need to be pretty warm don’t they?
I’m so much better at raising animals :lol:
Oh I am so sorry about your flu, again, that really bites. Well a manure pile is like a gardeners gold so good going there for sure! I and sending healing jingles your way. Hulk.
Rough out… yes peppers like to be warm. But as long as they don’t freeze they are okay. I grow my starter peppers at room temperature, and they do okay. They would do better if I did do heat mats I am sure.
I am doing a happy dance!! LOL.
Yesterday I got all my seeds started. Well okay not all but enough. I have my tomatoes in, my cukes, tomatillos, melons, peppers… and then I did a flat of flower seeds. Such as Oriental Poppies, Scabiosa “Black Knight”, and a few others.
I still have more seeds I think I’ll try indoors, even tho they could work outside. (Such as squashes).
There was also enough sunshine over the weekend to get a few weeds pulled, to visit a couple garden centers, and I found some new blueberry plants I wanted. And a few other plants I didn’t know I wanted!! LOL. :tickled_pink:
Now… I need spring to arrive for real. It’s 19* this morning. :sigh:
Do you have a refrigerator or freezer you could put them on? The top of my upright freezers is warm enough. Is there a heat register you can put them near?
Unfortunately no fridge to put them on top of.
But I broke down and used the heat mats. They don’t really get too hot so I think I’ll be able to sleep at night .
I put a thermometer next to the seed trays and it seems to hover around 70. I’m hoping in the trays it’s a little warmer
70 is pretty much what they’re designed for. I figure between heat mats and light bulbs everyone is pretty cozy.
Thanks SmartAlex! I’ll keep my fingers crossed
Gotta kick this thread back to the top! My seeds are up, surprisingly good germination rate. Now, keeping them alive and going!!
We’ve had a major shift in weather, to sunshine - think T-shirt weather. I’ve been killing myself outside weeding and pruning and doing “all at once” things that I would normally have spent a day here, a day there, to get done. My rose bushes are on their way, holy cow I am not ready for them yet!
I’ve been pleasantly surprised that a number of plants I was worried would not make it with our topsy-turvy winter have indeed survived.
I am looking forward to kicking off the garden season. GardenPalooza, a local event held by a large nursery features a number of vendors and it is the first weekend in April, so not very far away. Then after that is Hortlandia, at the Expo Center, put on by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. It is also a fabulous event. After that, the first weekend in May, is the Master Gardeners Fair.
Then there are various small events held at local nurseries. I am also planning a couple of “destination trips” LOL okay they are within reasonable driving distance, but nurseries that have extensive gardens I want to tour. I have one friend who’s a garden geek like me who’s going to come with.
Another of my friends said to me yesterday this sunshine makes her giddy… LOL. Oh yeah, I’m right there with ya!
:):winkgrin::D:yes::D:lol::):winkgrin::yes:
just ordered potatoes and BOGO daylilies. (two different catalogues). Have to reseed a bunch of pasture areas from the awful mud since last June - very windy yesterday/today that is drying things out (good).
Note to self- remember to compost stall cleanings next fall so they will be ready next spring. :encouragement:
Ready for Spring. 
I don’t have a manure pile because I use it all for gardening. This is a total mystery to most of the other horse farms in this area, as they all have a huge pile. I think to my self oh the gardens they could grow with all that wonderful black gold. We have been joking lately how we need more horses because we need more manure.
LOL on the manure situation. We had a race training barn on the coast for 25 years. 25 stalls. The “coast” is a high rainfall area, horses spent a lot of time in their stalls by choice (most of the stalls had attached paddocks). We went through two 8 unit loads of sawdust a month ($500 each) and had to rent a manure bin, which was picked up and dumped every 10 days (which cost $1000 a month at the time). These costs have probably soared since we left 11 years ago now. I used to sort the manure, the “good” stuff out of the sand paddocks (no sawdust), I would take over to my garden area to compost. The not so nice stuff with sawdust, went to the bin for removal. Our fields were so muddy and wet that we could not spread anything, vehicles would sink up to the axles if you tried that. So we were stuck, cleaning stalls 7 days a week, for hours a day running the place, and paying for sawdust for bedding, paying for manure removal, paying for feed, and paying for an occasional worker to help when we were full of boarders. No time off, no rest, then fight to get paid from owners who headed off to Hawaii for holidays. Then, the barn supporting posts started to rot off, due to the constant wet (even with full drainage etc). And we had had enough. So we sold it, and moved, and left the racing industry behind (dying anyway in our area).
We now live in an area where my horses live outdoors year round. Land is cheap here, we were able to upgrade substantially. I no longer clean stalls. I have a couple stalls, but don’t use them much. We can’t get sawdust here now, we had a local mini mill that delivered it for free up until a few years ago, or I picked it up there as needed. But I really don’t miss it now, I have a bit stored if I have to use it. Manure now is a valuable resource. Our pastures and hayfields are harrowed, to use the manure to increase topsoil quality and quantity. I only pick paddocks and run in sheds when necessary, all winter just two wheelbarrow loads per day now. In summer, a bit more as I have horses in training, in paddocks. I built a lovely manure bin from pilfered discarded railway ties, for when we are snowed in and I can’t get to my regular dump sites. All manure is used, composted. And my gardens and pastures show the benefit. I love it. We grow our own hay, and sell the excess. We have large pastures which feed my horses for a large percentage of the year. It’s a self sustainable farm.
The garden is actually a necessity, since we live in a fairly isolated spot, and decent grocery stores are a long ways away. And I don’t like what they do to commercially grown veggies for sale to the public anyway.
I just got the BC Greenhouse Builders Limited catalogue. To die for designs and $$$.
It’s free at: bcgreenhouses.com They’re in British Columbia.
I keep watching the progress of these mini-machines that generate electricity from manure. Our water company here is developing something like that. They already have solar to offset costs.
Here the daffodils are starting to bloom, ditto the Joshua Trees. The Oregon Grape is full of blooms about to open. The roses are filling in. I now have two hummingbirds and a woodpecker at the feeder. Spring is happening and I am beyond ready for it this year.
I got the entire garden tilled up today (sorry weeds! HAH!) and I planted the remainder of my blueberry and blackcap bushes.
Tomorrow the first of my rose orders is due to arrive…
I want my peas and potatoes in by the end of this week. I also need to get the compost spread by the end of the week (because dontcha know, it’s going to start raining just in time for spring break).
The majority of what I started indoors is looking good and pretty soon will need to be potted up.
Somehow, having the garden space tilled, feels like I finally accomplished something. I’ve been pruning cleaning chopping raking spreading for 5 days now…and it takes tilling the garden to make me feel like I’ve actually done something. Go figure.
The weather is still crappy here. It will be a week or so before I get outside and can really start to get stuff done. Then it will be spring cleaning and garden work galore. I will come in every night dead dog tired and aching to the bone. Ah that will be bliss. I am a twisted character for sure.
And speaking of getting the garden tilled, DH insists on doing that. Oh I can run the tiller, but honestly I think he likes to be a part of the process and loves the result of a fresh tilled garden. There is just something about it.
You and I must be “soul sisters” LOL. I’ve been so tired I can’t sleep! Tylenol has been my best friend.
And yes, something about the fresh turned earth. Looking at all that wonderful black soil I’ve worked so hard to build. Something about the smell, the feel, just gets me deep down.
The first of my rose orders arrives today. Still have no idea where they are going!!
Roses and no idea were to put them…oh my. We are guilty of the same type of thing. Every year we scramble to figure out where to plant every thing. Which leads to long discussions about how you cant put pumpkins too close to the garage because they vine and are invasive and DH has a hard time getting in and out with out disturbing the vines. And if you put them over here the hay guy runs them over. If you put them here the chickens peck them and leave scars. And so on.
Ah spring I absolutely love it. Sending garden glitter and sprinkles to all of you!!! :D:D:D
The snow is melting here right now. But the ground is frozen deep under it, so the water isn’t sinking in, it’s running off. A huge river running off the hayfield, and through a paddock despite my effort to reroute it last year. So it will still be a while here before actual gardening starts. We are frozen down deep this year, because we got “cold” before we got “snow”. All our “frost free” hydrants have been frozen this year. Our water lines are 6 feet deep. But at least you can see the ground again, spring is here, bright sunshine and warm temperatures.
Still cold here. Even though the afternoons are dry and sunny, I wake up most mornings to a dusting of snow. So I don’t feel frantic about planting peas and lettuce. It will be another few weeks. I have the first batch of seedlings moved from seed flat to cells. Next week I will start tomatoes. I’m relieved that I didn’t order a bunch of bare root plants this winter like I did last year!
I just planted lettuce and spinach outside. Nights are staying above freezing and it was 66 today.
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