To those in south

[thistlebloom]

Well, I have to admit I do love living in the south! I'd take the heat and humidity any 'ole day rather than freezing my buns off waiting until June to put something in the ground. Sunny and 80 degrees today! Sorry, my northern friends.

Oh, you don't have to apologize Joan! I'll take freezing my buns off and shoveling snow over heat humidity ticks chiggers humidity mosquitoes heat fleas roaches heat humidity bugs and heat and humidity any day!

We just whine to keep the population down. The rest is our little secret.

 

[seedcorn]

Yes, OldGuy, we do get some fog, but it usually burns off by noon. Across the bay, it's a little warmer and better!

Mary

You do have those neat cable cars though.

& sour dough bread that some day I hope to eat

 

[OldGuy43]

I must admit that I miss those huge paychecks that I got while driving snowplows.

On second thought; Naaaaaaa!!

 

[897tgigvib]

SeedCorn, I used to live in barely zone 4 montana.


I used every trick in the book to get a longer season, even went so far as to get a job in a greenhouse nursery. Turned my living room into a garden. I picked red ripe peppers in my bedroom window! I harvested large tomatoes in my living room.

Know what you get if you dig a 4 x 4 foot hole 4 feet deep, set a mound of fresh horse manure a foot deep, and then cover that with lawn cuttings or leaves a foot deep, then fill the hole with composty soil so it is up a couple or 3 inches above the surface, then build a frame over that with glass or plastic? You get a little bit of zone 7 or so.

You're a smart guy, you can think of even better things.

 

[seedcorn]

Marshall, I could do many things but it is much more fun to whine to those that get spring long before I do.......

For the people in deep North and south, any thing you grow that we in heartland can't? Give me some more reasons to whine!

 

[897tgigvib]

You might be able to see the Aurora Borealis tonight, southerners can't...

But you can whine if you are just out of visible range or if it's too cloudy to see it...

Or you could move to a nice weather place where there are a lot of hippies and say things like far out man, I can plant Beans tomorrow...grow your hair long, wear patchouli oil, have love ins watching the sun rise...

Just getting a rise out of you! Fersure fersure.

 

[seedcorn]

Grew up in hippy era, Woodstock, etc. now surrounded by everything from "back to nature" to Amish to "yuppies". Makes life interesting.

Too cloudy to see AR and too far south. Not far enough south for sorghum presses. Love that smell.

 

[digitS']

I read an article years ago about farmers in northern China and their pit greenhouses.

Let's see if I can describe what I remember: They would dig a trench East/West about 5 feet wide and 3 feet below grade and pile the soil on the north side. Then, they would go a couple feet further down but only along the south side of the trench. That deeper area was about 2 feet wide. That soil would also go on the north side, adding to the berm.

They could then cover this with plastic.

Crops could be grown on the higher 3 foot wide bench and the person tending them could walk in the deeper trench. The deeper trench would be in shadow.

It would require a lot of digging since you have to get that deeper trench down far enuf so as to stand upright. The soil berm on the north side of the trench must have been very high but you couldn't get over there under the plastic because you'd be standing on the plants.

I imagine that the advent of a more modern transportation system is replacing a lot of local effort to grow food.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

I like that idea Digit.

 

[OldGuy43]

One of these might help:

On sale for a mere $2500, marked down from $3500.