When do you start?

[secuono]

Well, got out and laid out some cardboard. Filled a wheel-barrel of hay, dirt, horse and sheep poop. Then got a barrel full of hay, needles, chicken and rabbit poop.
Found my potato hill I forgot to dig up has sprouted a bit, hill was frozen solid, though.

 

[thistlebloom]

I can plant peas around the first of May, as well as potatoes. My started tomatoes and peppers and other warm crops don't go in until the end of May, and then I cross my fingers. We still have snow on the ground until the end of March most years. I'm in the middle of the snow belt, so it gets pretty deep and takes longer to melt off.

Secuono, glad you covered that grass with cardboard. Without it you would certainly have a battle with the grass continually, even with manure piled deeply over it. I have made lots of beds over grass using newspaper or cardboard as the base layer and the grass doesn't grow through it, but you can sure tell where I didn't overlap the seams well in one bed, the grass is always peeking up there in a line.

 

[digitS']

I once started cultivation in my most sheltered garden on February 28th .

It had been a very dry winter but I remember on that morning, I had to break thru a little crust of frozen ground with the spading fork. That may have been one of the years when I finished with cultivation in March. I am always saying that being done in March is what I'm trying for, but I seldom accomplish it.

Last year saw the wettest March on record so there was no finishing during that month.

I have also started too early. With all the gravel in my garden soil, I am not in much danger of creating clods with a spading fork; I'm not actually turning the soil over. What has happened is like 3 weeks of rain after I'd finished a garden. This happened in the dahlia garden one year and I had to go back and loosen the soil all over again.

February is my month for seed orders. Some of what I expected to be hard-to-get tomato seeds have already arrived. My onion seed order went out yesterday and with the onion seeds are a few more things that the company has good prices on. The snapdragon and pepper seed has to be ordered next. These 4 things - the onions, snapdragons, peppers, and a few of the tomatoes - will be the first seed sown here in the house. The onions will go out in that dang cold greenhouse just as soon as they look like they are all starting to emerge. But, the other things won't be going into the potting soil until about the 1st of March.

Nothing, not even onion sets & spinach seed, will go in the open garden until well into April. So, you see, if cultivation 2 or 3 weeks prior to planting is best: I've got awhile . . .

Steve :/

 

[897tgigvib]

Secuono, I do have some tips for staying warm that might help some.

Sounds like you are already layering clothes. Good.

I do it a bit differently though.

tshirt
older softer long sleeve flannel button shirt...collar up
new heavy flannel long sleeve button shirt
Outer double layered heavy long sleeved flannel shirt
extra large sweatshirt with hoody

don't cut hair in winter
don't know if you're a man or woman, but don't shave much in winter
Wool cap with pull downs...hoody over that, lightly bowtied under chin

thermal long johns
heavy new sweat pants
heavy jeans, extra wide at waist, use belt...keeps a loose layer of warm air for legs and privates

nice white cotton socks, definitely not tight, drawn over thermals
heavy real wool socks, nice n thick new, drawn over sweat pants...1 size extra large

Heavy and high work boots. even walmart brand like mine. size them with the socks on.


If seriously cold, thermal overalls


Here in California I never need all this, but there definitely were times in Montana this was my clothes. I'm probably forgetting some things.


Another thing, you well know...stay dry

 

[897tgigvib]

oh yea, all shirts except the sweatshirt are tucked in neatly

 

[Ridgerunner]

Marshal, I just layer the patches on my jeans. Doesn't sound as effective as your method but we do what we can.

 

[secuono]

I've got seeds from about 3 years ago, so I don't need to buy seeds yet. I don't know if there is a thing as expired seeds, but all sprout, so I keep them. But I always look over the seeds in the stores and wonder if I can grow this, if I have this, need that or if I just want them all, lol.
Only issue I have is the whole 'starting indoors and moving outside', most fail. Nothing I do helps them and I end up stuffing new seeds straight into the ground. =/

 

[897tgigvib]

What we need is a good

TRANSPLANTING METHODS thread

I'll start one up right away.

Ridge! I know well the iron on patches method. Used to be all my clothes were like that, except mine were all blue jean colored. These days I've been gaining and losing weight with this hyperthyroid, so I have tons of pants...stacked in the corner of my room because i need a new dresser, one for clothes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I iron them on to hold them in place but then I sew around the edges. Otherwise they peel right off. I've found that unwaxed dental floss works the best for thread.

 

[ducks4you]

Everybody talks about starting tomatoes inside, but I am starting peas, sweat peas, lettuce and spinach inside, which will be about one month ahead of direct sowing, in my zone.
Another thing is to plan where everything is gonna go this year. Study up of what vegetables need to be rotated. Tomatoes and potatoes are susceptible to the same type of blight, so you have to move them every year---many gardeners have their own timetables and preferences about keeping a vegetable out of the same spot, some prefer every 3 years, others prefer every 7 years, or more.
You are missing some of the best sales on seeds. 3 weeks ago my local Menard's (hardware store) had vegetable/flower seeds for 5 cents/package. I bought $4.50 worth of turnips, carrots, radishes, and some others. For easy to grow vegetables, and I'm growing these for me and my chickens, this has saved me a bundle. There are sales on better quality seeds, too, and you want to be the early bird for these. Some of these seed packets won't be around in April. I know bc I've been there.
If you have saved pots and didn't clean and disinfect them, you could start doing that this weekend. Buy some bleach for this.
Make a list of the plants that you keep buying every year, but they keep dying, and decide if you want to spend your money on them, yet again. I almost gave up on roses, especially those cheap, hybred tea roses, which kept dying on me, until I planted mini-roses and a knockout. They keep coming back. I only lost one of the mini's, and I replaced it with an azalea bc the spot is really too dry for a rose.
Walk your yard and decide if you want to fill in any bare spots. Bulbs are nice to fill spots in. Some folks like to plant them in groups bc it looks more natural. THIS year I'm moving a 3 x 10 area of overgrown Lilly of the Valley plants. Some previous owner planted them on the north side of the house and they have migrated out of their bed. I "lifted the crown" on 7 pine trees just north of my neighbor's wooden fence--it's like a north side garden space--and I didn't find the time in 2012 to get them started there. It will nice to plant them there and see if they make a nice groundcover.
Find out about the easy to grow annuals, like regular (not tuberous) begonias. Last year Rural King clearanced them and petunias and geraniums, and when they didn't sell, they GAVE them away. I have them growing inside in front of windows, and they're going outside in April in my beds.
Guess I really AM a gardening addict.