Alaskan: By the way, you can use one of the larger-sized (22-24 oz) cottage cheese or yogurt containers for pots, too. (Like why would a family your size buy milk in a half-gallon container?) Anyway, whatever you do, make sure to poke lots of drainage holes in the bottom! I light a little candle, then hold a nail in some plyers over the flame until it heats up, then use the hot nail to poke the holes.

The reason for today's post: I just potted up several of the ex-milk carton tomatoes into 6" pots. Done again, I would put more drainage holes than I used the first time. In fact, maybe I'll just go poke some more now! The next batch of tomatoes is nearly ready for those 4-inchers.

Liz, watering garlic? Didn't you guys get snow that melted? Dig down there and look and see how wet everything is. If you were showing 4/23 last year, guess, you'll just have to wait another week!

No elephant garlic corms up here! All my bubils of regular garlic are up, and the cloves of course, so I've given up on the Elephant garlic.

We really didn't get much snow and are actually in a severe drought. (Now down at Pogo's place they did. Different story.) Plus it's been excessively windy (not unusual), which dries things out even more. The headline story in today's paper was about the lack of moisture in our soil. It was forecast to rain last night and this morning, but guess what? It all went south of us again and we didn't get a drop.

However... The garlic is mulched so it probably does have more retained moisture than the bare soil. And (drum roll) there were a few little nubs showing today!

I realized that our trees aren't budding yet either, so it's just time to be patient. Gonna try and time this (in my memory) according to the trees budding so I don't panic next year.

Liz - Our trees aren't budding yet either and we were just talking with the neighbors about how late the spring is this year. I was pulling up my old corn stalks tonight and some of them still had ice on them. That's really not a fair comparison because I have several inches of leaf mulch over them keeping the frost in but still!

We did get lots of snow that melted and I still drug out the hose to water my grass seed today. Amazing what 70 degrees with a 40 mph wind will do.

Hey Pogo, thanks for backing me up on that tree thing. Seems late, doesn't it? By the way, I'll be down your direction this weekend ... (not for the Bon Jovi concert though) ... so hopefully the frozen tundra will have thawed out a little. We've been a bit warmer than you folks lately!

Hey! MHG, it's almost quitting time there! How's the job treating you?

I got off early today, and it's 82º and I pulled out the 2 weeds I had and watered stuff, and darn, can't find another thing to do. Compost is rebuilt, grass mowed. Now I'm just admiring and poking around on here! Have some perenials to dig and move, but saving that for tomorrow!

How are you going to get your hands dirty tonight and this weekend? Did you feel the earthquake I heard about on the radio this morning?

Want to see a picture of anything?! What a great DAY!

Tomorrow is my 28th Anniversary and Hubby must work the late shift. Boo HOO!

Well, Update me with some witty talk!

Oh gas price is up to $3.35 here tonight for the cheapest!

Oh, here's what my stinky flower looks like at this moment. It will bloom in early June:

The job treats me just fine....but it's still a job. And I still don't like standing all day on concrete again.

Garlics are looking great, even Dave's Rocco is catching up. I'd like to find the time to side-dress them with some old manure or brew up a tea to spray them with.

Rained again today, but suppose to clear and warm up for the weekend before rain again next week. The gravel roads are almost impassable in my area, even with a 4x. Haven't seen them this bad in the 12 years we've lived here.

Egg plants and tomatoes are up on the grnhs. , but no peppers yet. I'm in no hurry, not putting anything out for another three weeks at the earliest. Hope to pick up my seed taters tomorrow. They will go in as soon as it dries enough. Finished tilling the upper acre an hour after dark Wed. nite under the mostly full moon.

Dogs woke me about the time they say the earthquake shook, I slept thru it, just assumed they were fussing about some critter outside. Didn't know what had happened until I turned on the news while getting ready for work. The wife pointed out a crack in one of my newly done walls. Ohhh wellllll.......

Congrat's on you anniversary, our twentith will be in September. Bummer he has to pull his shift that night.

I've got a week's worth of work to get done this weekend, probably won't be here much.

Well Mhg?

Did you get a weeks worth of work done this weekend? Hope so! Because guess what tomorrow is?

MONDAY!!! Grrrrrr!

Rained here all day, and I've been useless!

So how's everyone? 44 here and snowing. Tomatoes won't be going outside anytime soon. Happy to have some moisture, but of course we would prefer rain.

Not to rub it in or anything like that but it's been so nice here that my grapevines are just starting to go thru bud break.

Our pear blossoms survived the cold spell, but others in Oregon weren't so lucky. In Hood River up near Mt. Hood, they lost half the cherry and apple blossoms. Not good if that is how you make your income

So Blue, what happens if you get a cold spell now? Not trying to be pessimistic or anything... but... well, you know what occasionally happens to our weather here.

By the way, how's your rosemary doing? I actually had 5 little rosemarys come up from seed. Woo hoo!

David, so glad your pears made it. Bummer for those other folks.

Now it's 38 and raining here. Fortunately, I haven't put anything out yet -- except the garlic, of course. And at least some of it is starting to pop through. I think it'll like this rain a lot. We actually have a **puddle** on the driveway!

Hi Liz,

Glad to hear you are getting rain finally! Has Max been out to stomp in the puddle? Yep, that rain will pull your garlic up!, let's see, that means by today you should be seeing 200 nubs out there! Oh Goody. So, you have rosemary germinated! Darn you are good!

My cool season crops are growing well.
Peas are up high enough now that I might be safe to take the bird netting off and get my fence up.
I'll have a fit if I take the bird netting off and throw the fence up and come home to find the birds have bit everyone off!
But I can't wait too long or the peas will start to tangle. Good grief.

Blue,

How's your rosemary doing? So, your grapes are perking up? That should keep you busy. Are your new ones in the ground now?

Hi Dave,

Pear trees blossoming, woo hoo! How are your early protected peas doing? Have you unvieled them yet? Or are they still covered?

quote:

Originally posted by Liz1:
So Blue, what happens if you get a cold spell now? Not trying to be pessimistic or anything... but... well, you know what occasionally happens to our weather here.

Well I've been thru the bad times too in other years.But if grapes get frost bite the new growth does die back.Grapes do have 3 buds available to grow.If the primary does get killed you will see the secondary start to grow for you.Last years easter freeze actually killed the primary and secondary buds on my vines.I didn't get too many grapes last year but the tertiary buds did keep the vines alive to recover for this year.
My rosemary is still hanging in there. thankfully the damping off quit taking plants on me.I think I'll have 4 plants this year.

Well, good luck with the grapes, blue. I'm pretty sure we never made it out of the 30's today, so I hope things warm up before they make it over as far as you guys. Sounds good on the rosemary! I may start a few more, but I'm hoping to have a couple available to sell. They're still pretty tiny. Two of my cuttings look ok, so that should be plenty for me!

LisaAnn, we got enough rain to green up the grass, so that's good. Not enough to help the deep layer much. Garlic is starting to come up -- haven't counted yet though! For sure I've got some. The puddle was long gone by the time Max got to the driveway. We may get a little more moisture over the next couple of days, so hopefully he'll get another chance. I'll tell him you said it was ok to stomp in it.