TGIF peoples.

Rainy and dreary here also today, light rain overnite and again late morning. Sounds like that will be the norm for the weekend.

Broke sod for a new/first garden for a young couple last nite. Some bueatiful black Iowa soil under the sod, but it's gonna be a couple years until he doesn't spend all his time with a hoe in his hands. Tried to get him to remove it first, but is was " ...alot of work ". Well, atleast they are making a start.

Weekend's tasks will include a foliar feed of the garlics ( my V.S. has a noticeable jondiced look to it also compared to the other varieties ). Got a pound and a half of winter squash I need to think about getting in, or at least ready to get in. The well is still not fixed ( although he's been working on it ) so there will be about 40 gal. of water to be hauled from the kitchen out to the grnhs. If it dries up enough, I need to work up a few blisters with my hoe. And mow. And rake the clippings for mulch. And burn off a couple more winter-damage brush piles. Dig up out of a road ditch and transplant this years native Cedar in my work-in-progress wind break. And try not to forget to call our mothers....oh yeah - and I need to replace a couple shingles on the house.

.....but right now I'm just gonna let the blood drain back into my feet and have a cup of irish'd coffee while catching up here.

TGIF indeed!

And TGIR. Yep, raining. Second time this week! Woo hoo! Supposed to turn to snow tonight, but we'll ignore that for now. Hopefully things warm up tomorrow (forecast mid-50's) and we dry out enough to do some tree planting / transplanting and insertion of heavy-duty fence posts.

A little behind schedule up here. Doing the best I can. Put 5 tomatoes outside for about an hour yesterday for a trial start at hardening off. THEY HATED IT! It was in the low 60's, partly cloudy, and they were in a sheltered spot. They perked up again after I brought them back in, but... GRRR.

Darn Liz, you went straight for MHG's post and missed mine to you on the last post of the last page!

Liz, I am glad you are getting wet. It is overdue.
Got a question for you guys. I am almost ready to plant all my tomatoes. Our weather has been perfect, but that is changing. I want to plant on Sunday. Weather is supposed to be like this, 65, partly cloudy on Sunday, 70 on Mon., 75 Tues. 80 wed, 85 thur, 80 on fri. and gets cooler and normal after that. Would you plant sunday or wait till next weekend? I could shade the starts, if that makes your answer any different. I sure don't want to hurt my starts, but if I can get them through a warm/ hot spell, I think they will take off.

this ain't Vegas....once they flop over, it's over.....the negatives vastly outweight the positives of having them in the dirt if it's going to cool off to a point that they aren't going to do anything but sit there anyway.

Hey Dave!

If you are satisfied with them being hardened off good enough, I would get them out there. Mine have been out there, planted in the ground now since, last week!

Howdy MHG, could you try your answer again and pretend I am stoopid? Was that a no, don't plant? By sitting there at 70 after the brief warm spell, is that a bad thing? My soil is up to 65 in the raised beds. I think they will grow. Sounds like you think they will be shocked 3 days after planting. Sorry, but I am fried. Been a busy week at work, so glad it's Friday. Maybe I need another Corona?

keep them inside for another week if it was me....I won't even start watching my weather patterns for atleast another week here..and I'm farther south.

Gotta keep in mind that tomatoes are a southern hemsphere plant, folks like to start them early for the bragging rights....but are only rolling the dice as to wheither they get warm enough temp.s after that to promote root establishment until Mother N. make's it so. Needless to say I don't get too impressed with people and their W.O.W.'s.....lol

Okay, I can go with that. I am only on day 5 for hardening off anyway. It won't kill me to wait till Friday. Thanks. The WOWs didn't do a lot for us last year. We wanted a mater for July 1, and got it, but it had zero taste. My decision was partly one of needing room in the grow light area for my melons that I want to start tonight. I guess I need to move some maters to the big window sill, so the melons can be over the mat. I feel better, must resist, must resist. Hey, here's a garlic question. I have 2 different elephant patches going. One has flowering stalks, the other doesn't. I thought there was only one variety of el.? Both planted the same day.

hmmmmmm.....only one that I know of.....but I'm open for some new knowledge.....my guess you have the second bed in a slightly more sheltered spot and maybe the ground temp, is behind the first one?

Hey LisaAnn, well I tried not to be so specific in replying (my thinking was trying not to exclude other folks, but maybe I was just short a Corona last night); the part about being behind was for you. Max is a great supervisor! But he keeps wanting to take a break and go for a walk.

Needless to say, this morning there is no particular rush to get out and puttering:


Nothing in the little huts yet. Still trying to raise the soil temp. How do you think it's doing?

David, your melons don't have to be under the light yet if they're just starting, right? I've gotten to the stage where new germinating things get the end of the dining room table or some such spot. Hopefully something gets put outside by the time they germinate. I did put a tray of onions outside last Sunday! They'd been in one of the south window spots, and a tray of pretty tall tomatoes took their place. The stuff that's taller than I can raise the grow lights gets a chance at the south window.

Did I mention we need greenhouses?

Morning Liz!

SNOW? CRAP!

You need to move! Rain here!

We must have gotten about 3". Isn't it pretty? It'll probably be gone by afternoon - that's why I snapped the picture early. Good thing I haven't put any tomatoes out yet, eh?

Gotta run a few errands this morning (pick up hand plant trees from soil conservation). Then continue the project of taking off snow blower & putting mowing deck back on the lawn tractor. Underneath there somewhere, the grass needs to be cut!

Now the sun's coming out. Ha ha. Spring!

Liz, that snow is pretty, but I bet you would be happier with sprinkles and 60 degrees. You are right about the seeds and light. My light setup has the mat under a big tray on the lower shelf. The seedlings get bottom warmth and the lights are on chains to raise them up.I only have 2 shelves and both are full. The tallest tomatoes happen to be where the mat is. My big window now has a wide shelf and can hold many plants. South facing, too. So, some got taken off their electric blankee to make room for the melons.

quote:

Originally posted by oh2fly:
My light setup has the mat under a big tray on the lower shelf. The seedlings get bottom warmth and the lights are on chains to raise them up.

Boy, I tried that and everyone yelled at me. Sulking. But I think the plants like it anyway!

Yep, I would be a lot happier with rain and 60 degrees. But we'll take any moisture we can get at this point. It was wet, heavy snow -- more like 5-6" as I got out and about. Not too much tree damage either, and melting pretty well. It's ok. Good luck with your starts.