Snow- a dusting.

Forget about the El Nino/Climate Change perpetual fallish winter we've been enjoying. It's now Winter. Having never had roosters and winter together before I feel like I've failed miserably and been a crappy animal protector. The Roos both got frostbite. Papi has only had a couple of points on his comb injured, but Mattilda took it bad. Both comb and wattles are significantly burned. I suspect he will lose his points and wattle skin (whatever it is officially called, I have no idea). I would take a picture, but I'm horrified. Hubs and I reinforced the coop by surrounding it with straw bales. The inside of the coop was about 10 degrees warmer than outside temp and no drafts this morn, so I am happy with that. Tonight it is suppose to get down to 5F. Hens are much hardier than Roos. Lesson learned. I've never had a problem with my girls.

Propagation
Not the best pic., but what is in the black plastic pot on the other side of the chicken-fence is a Aristolochia (Dutchman's Pipevine-native) I am tempting to propagate. Fill pot with dirt, rest nodes of vines on top of soil, top with a brick. Hopefully roots will grow from the node and I will have some new plants come spring.

I've really been babying these cuttings along. They are now in a ziplock bag (in this pot). I'm not sure if they will ever root, but they are hanging on. Scarlet Honeysuckle (native)

 Sea Oats/ River Oats collected from yard. Tossed on top of soil in this cat litter container.

Lid isn't completely cut off, creating a mini-greenhouse for

the seedlings. Stored outside for cold-moist stratification. 

 These sweets started to sprout so I potted them up.

Put soil on top. I will use these in the summer garden. 

I haven't bought sweet potato starts in 3 years. These

are Georgia Jet, which seem to do well for me. Growing

in the basement under shop lights.

Projects

Have thought on and off about doing this- bottle edging. It's begun. I guess I'll need to drink more.

Hubs made me some "new" planters from old tires. 

I fell in love with these when I first saw them in

a school garden in South Africa. They had a bunch of different

shapes and sizes- all painted in bright colors.

Made a few trellises from collected sticks & wild grape vine.

Food

What else do you do when winter begins and you're stuck indoors? 

Mile High Blackberry Muffins

Black Raspberry-Lime Muffin Cookies

Eggplant Pad Phet

w/eggplant & peppers (frozen) and chard (fresh)

Hen of the Woods Mushroom Soup

Peaches canned in honey

Spinach salad

This is a must keep peach recipe! 

I thought canned peaches surely would be awful,

but that's just not true! Plus the syrup makes

for a nice cocktail mixer. ; )

Thank you dear chickens for continuing

to give me breakfast throughout this horrible cold. 

Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms.

Final notes

Raised beds have extra blankets and I am leaving them covered on the coldest days. Inside the geohoop all is lovely and green. I'm harvesting corn salad for the ladies. I'm waiting to start picking a lot from the other greens when the days start getting over 10 hours long ~ Jan 24th I believe. Then growth should start picking up. Started 4 kinds of Milkweed in tall pots outside- Showy, Common, Poke and Sullivant's. Pepper seedlings are coming up. I started a few perennials- yarrow, P coneflowers, blanket flower, dianthus- no germination yet. Kale & Bok Choy started in the garage have germinated. The new "Pollinator Palooza" seed mix was sown on 1/14/16 in the new compost/bed. I need to take pics of that and post. 

If things stay this cold there won't be a lot going on outside for me. I don't mind working outside in the cold, but when the ground is frozen, it's cold AND gray or cold and windy- then I am stuck indoors. Cold and sunny or cold and not windy- I'm all good. 

We've been having a lot of wonderful sunrises. I'll just have to enjoy those for now.

Spring & Winter Break

My Spring Break begins tomorrow at noon. Looks like it will coincide with a break from WINTER too! Monday we are suppose to see 62F- OHMYGAWD. While it may have been ( I shouldn't speak too soon) the coldest winter in 40 years I honestly felt that it wasn't so bad. Maybe because it seemed like a sunny winter? Just a feeling. March is slated to also be colder than  normal.

I finally feel like I can permanently move some of my spring things outdoors for hardening off. While we will still get T's below freezing (esp. at night) I think covering them with a thick blanket in this cold frame will suffice (please don't screw up). There is nothing that brings me greater pleasure by winter's end than all of these shades of green.

Lettuces, Bok Choy, Shallots, Leeks, Cabbage, Broccoli, Kale, Walking Stick Kale, Celery

in the temporary cold frame:

bricks, concrete blocks, old window = temp cold frame

Getting these out of the basement also means I finally have room to start other things, like a tray of Flowering Nicotianas & Blanket flower. So, starting tomorrow I will have room to start 4 more flats of things, likely all flowers. 

Plantling Progress:

Four kinds of Heirloom Petunias

The soil blocks are performing well. This is something I will definitely continue. 

Various Peppers

I'm almost surprised they have grown. I've taken them off heat and the basement has been

cooler than normal with the hard winter.

Nero Kale, Lovage, Valerian, Fennel, Snapdragons 

(from left to right) You can have mixed rows of seeds in a flat of soil blocks so long as they

have similar growing patterns (pace of growth, planting time).

Tomatoes

This flat is way ahead of the other. This one was under the light timer that broke

and wouldn't shut off. The other flat is just starting to germinate.

Zaatar (left) and a flat of Tropical Milkweed (right)

Projects:

Bitters

Albeit not from the Garden. I've been tinkering. Left is Coffee, Pecan & Coco Nib bitters

and right is Tangerine, Coriander and Cardamon. Recipes from this book.

Sparkling Sour Cherry Wine

And no, the kitty isn't having it. I don't share.

Outside:

The bees are taking advantage of the Sapsucker holes and sipping 

Maple sap on the warmer & sunnier days. 

Is Maple Sap the Bee's Knees?

The Witch Hazel blooms on a cloudy day. I wish I could

just sit and watch it for pollinators.

Tuesday March 4, 2014. For real. 

I think winter is closing her doors. 

Slowly.

Coldly.

Creaking. 

Closed.

Long Winter

I like winter. This one has been particularly cold. It makes me want to start lots of seeds....earlier than they should be started. Maybe I will just have to transition some plants out sooner than expected. I do have the hoophouse for that purpose now. I'm also excited about starting seeds because I got a new toy! It's a soil block maker from Johnny's. I bought the 2 inch one because I thought I wouldn't need a 2nd transplanting with that size and they could go straight into the soil from here.

2 inch soil block maker 

Makes 40-44 blocks per flat depending on spacing

Knowing that these would probably dry out quicker I bought some trays without holes.

Notice the little impression this maker creates in the center of the block for placing the seeds.

Benefits: No more plastic containers, air pruned roots, no root binding, less transplant shock, no 2nd transplant (these will go straight into the ground from here, using less seed

Using less seed was a benefit I hadn't thought about until I went to plant. Normally I would dump an entire packet (really too much) into a pot and let the seedlings duke it out for resources. I think I will get more plants with this method and now I have seed lasting more than 1 season too. 

Here are my first successful seedlings: lettuces

Tomato picks for 2014

This is the fewest varieties of tomatoes I plan on starting in years. I've decided to keep growing the ones I like while trying new varieties and weeding out the least favs each season. I plan on having about 40 plants total. They are: 

Whites: Ivory Egg (2013) & Ivory Pear (new)

Blacks/Purples: Purple Russian (2013) & Black Plum (2013)

Stripes: Violet Jasper (new)

Pinks/red: German Lunchbox (grown for years), Illinois Beauty (new), Gezahnte (new)

I will also let the tiny red cherries and white currant tomatoes reseed around the garden/yard as usual. 

Just started

Valerian, Fennel, Lovage, Nero kale, Snapdragons, 3 kinds of petunias, Browalia

Gimmicks

Kiddo got this teeny tiny egg greenhouse with herb seeds (50 seeds at least) for Xmas. I was skeptical of anything germinating, but of course I had to give it my best go. 

I think we counted about 32 seedlings and transplanted a bunch into a larger pot while several more seeds have since come up in the original egg.

Looks like dill, thyme, sage and basil.

What's Up?

 Spinach- finally! Had to do a second sowing and then bam.

 Pepper seeds up.

Tronchuda Cabbage on left. Russian kale on right.

Bok Choy

Today in Weather

Another snow day for the kid. Make that 5 in 2014. While we only received about 1in. I think there is ice underneath.

Seeds for birds 

What you don't see in this photo is the number of birds hiding in the "living fence" landscape. Having varying layers of woody plants (short shrubs, medium height shrubs, shrubs with berries, small trees) allows for lots of hiding places and food. Recently a Mocking Bird has taken up residence. I'm pretty sure it is because of the remaining Possum Haw, Viburnum and Chokeberry fruits to choose from. This is one of my favorite areas to look at. I just like all of the layers here. It also is hiding the frog pond- a secret play station for the kiddo. 

I'm trying to resist starting the tomato seeds, but honestly I'm not sure how much longer I can wait....