Yesterday, there was the first robin outside, looking for a nice fat worm. Last week the red winged blackbirds showed up in droves. Temperature today is at 68 degrees, but at the back of my house, where its not at all sunny, there is still a big chunk of frozen snow and ice. My winter rye is perking up again, and the soil has become soft enough for me to dig a hole and plant a few red raspberry canes. I also sprayed my apple and peach tree with a lime/sulfur/oil spray to kill off any overwintering bugs and fungus. Odd too, there are a few honey bees out there hovering near the ground over some wild bird seeds I just put out. I guess they are just hatching too, but are not finding much in the way of food yet. Snow is predicted for Friday here, and the weather on the weekend is for 20's and 30's. Just a sample of things to come I guess.

Melly,

Sure can identify with the rhubarb! My dear old mom in Minnesota still has a large patch and has had since before I was born. Strawberry rhubarb pie! Rhubarb sauce on top of vanilla ice cream!

After a very cold February spring might be a little farther off than usual. Very warm yesterday and today (upper 70s), but back to the normal 50s for a high tomorrow. I live in a greenway and my house is nestled in amongst dense tree growth starting just 10' from my deck in the back yard. The trees are not showing normal signs of leaf budding yet so I'm worried that it might be a cold spring. Nature knows.

Best regards,

jt

Here is a link that might be useful:

Looks nice John, love the curtains!
Ha ha, just kiddin'!
Here's mine! Our property is the big "C" shape. The oval is where the house is.
{{gwi:881888}}
Deanna

2 inch per hour snow today, and its already up to 9 inches as the nor'easter hits hard. Two days ago it was 68 degrees.. Thats New England..

Lots of fog here. Keeps it cool - in the 50's - it comes because of the warm inland deserts - in 80's, meeting ocean influence. Makes freeway driving hazardous - as usual.

At $3.00+ a gallon for gas tho - folks probably staying home, making fudge and playing monopoly more often (perfecting sourdough bread recipes - visiting Forums, etc.).

No need to water vegetable seedlings today. I still have to plant ground cover type rosemary around some fruit trees - to conserve moisture. Little by little my ornamental part of the yard is covered with plants that are drought tolerant, so I won't be wasting a lot of water there. We may be in for some dry summers.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Got almost a foot of snow last night, then heavy rains came. My heavy duty snow blower couldn't even move this stuff very much., even though is a high horsepower. Its got to be all that water in the snow. My driveway looked like a small pond after clearing most off, and water was flowing down to my road area from both directions, as I am in a slight valley. Cars had no regard for anything or anyone attempting to clear their driveways. I came in after 2 hours totally soaked to the skin. If I let this stuff sit, it will freeze solid tonight. Guess spring needs a bit more of a waiting time here.

The robins have returned again, and were a bit confused by last weeks snow storm. A female was quite fat with eggs, and looking for a good worm meal for herself. I also see the crocus is now blooming. Most of my crocus bulbs got eaten by rodents of some kind. Even my fig tree in the garage all winter is suddenly showing more green on the tips of the branches.

Daffodils on their way out here, tulips getting going, crocuses long gone. Just sowed runner beans and courgettes (zucchini) indoors. Favas and chard coming up outside. Lettuces growing in modules for planting out next week. I will put the lemon tree outside tomorrow after its winter break in the porch. We've had a very mild winter. I went to trim back a 'tender' fuchsia which I never got round to bringing indoors this year and it's covered in flower buds. Oleander has been out all year.

I kickstarted spring my favourite way by putting in two flats of purple and yellow pansies! Most went into the front bed, but a few went into deck boxes on the verandah interspersed with lettuce seedlings (which I started a couple of weeks ago under lights indoors). So I officially have a kitchen garden again!

Crocuses are popping up in my little front bed in surprising numbers; I didn't plant these, they were put in by the previous owners, and I'm tickled by how much they've multiplied in the 3 springs we've been here; the first year there were only a handful. I'm going to have to remember to divide them after they bloom.

Back to cold and wet and dreary weather this week here on Lake Ontario, but the pansies give me hope. They are so great --- they don't mind the cold. How did "pansy" ever become slang for a wimp? It's one tough little flower...

Zabby

I was sure my "Anna" - low chill apple had left me. Last year it harvested about 20 nice tart apples, good for sauce, but it finally dropped leaves and went dormant last winter. It is showing signs of new growth here and there. The Dorsett Golden - equally low chill, has been blooming and setting fruit like it really belonged - almost 2 months now.

Today, I moved the male and female kiwi - as the arbor that they were planted near, has some vigorous owners - the 3 grapes I planted a few years ago. Two are Thompsons - eating types, the other a wine grape - Sauvignon Blanc - that the Wine Forum folks tell me is a good pick for this climate - sure hope so. Anyway, so happy that I obviously pruned them OK - they all have strong main branches running the length of the arbor and the side shoots are doing just what they are supposed to.

My trees are all looking super - what a surprise. The little low-chill peach - Bonanza, weathered fine. I managed to sulfur spray it twice. It has many little peaches popping out. The new apricot - Blenheim Royal has more fruit set than the much older seedling growing nearby. Maybe this year the birds will leave me some, if they all get their fill.

Ah Spring!!!

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

bejay, how exciting! Your own Sauvignon Blanc (one of my fave whites), peaches, and apricots....

After two years of working on my veggie beds, they're in pretty good shape and I am hoping to expand to a few berries and fruit, though of course I'll be needing "high-chill" varieties here in the True North. Starting with a few berries.... my dream is to have an apricot tree, though I have been warned they are heartbreakers in this climate, fruiting only some years........

Spring is a fine thing, indeed, in every zone.....

Zabby

Zabby, The manchurian apricot will survive, and if it blossoms at a time when there are still frosts, thats when it can lose teeh fruiting. If you see blossoms and there is a frost overnight a cover of a heavy white plastic fabric may help to protect it. You would remove this the next morning after temps go up above 32 degrees. Peaches are also prone to this. I have a dwarf peach, plum, apricot grafted, that blossoms at slight different times and also ripens at different times. Another good choice is a quince. I plan to grow these again as they require no care. Its a toss up though, as I am also interested in the asian pears which also needs no care. Of course blueberries are great as are red raspberies, especially thornless ones.

[Ken]
>>manchurian apricot will survive, and if it blossoms at a time when there are still frosts, thats when it can lose teeh fruiting

Yep, that's what I meant. My zone here is a little colder even in the winter than when I lived in Toronto. I haven't found a single local farmer who grows apricots, so that should be a warning to me.... but I do love them, and might be able to do something like you describe with putting a sheet over it in case of late frost, the kind of thing you can do if you have one or two trees only but not if you're a farmer.

I am not that keen on quince, myself, but I like those Asian pears, too.

And I agree about blueberries! Yum. I have had some for yeaers, even had them in pots on the balcony back when I was in the city. Have got a few rasperry plants from someone in the area, they were labelled "blue" rasperries, which I've never heard of --- I am betting they are really purple.

Hope spring is continuing to spring all over Harvest form land. We are supposed to go back to freezing temps and some snow for a week or so at Easter, pooh!

Zabby

Blackberries and my all time favorite, the boysenberry are not able to surve here in winters. A few other things that I plant are permanent, are horseradish, asparagus, and the two chive types. I just applied a coat of corn gluten on each area to reduce weeds from sprouting. The corn gluten also feeds the asparagus, which should be sprouting in the next few weeks. The robins are back again and the female has a huge belly. She loves poking round my garden where there is winter rye grass right now. With many birds starting to return to the north, I am also seeing many red winged black birds. My paperwhites are nearly done flowering, and the hyacinth is sending up its greens.

Our doves are back! Heard them cooing away the other day, and also a woodpecker.

Soon will come the chorus frogs down at the cemetery pond, which startled the bejeebers out of us the first spring we were here.

Zabby

Morning (or is it mourning?) Doves stay here all year round. Grackles and red winged blackbirds are now flocking here. The doves cooing is usualy done when the mail wants to mate and chases all the females around the yard. This week a pair of mallard ducks are enjoying the bird seeds I put out for the rest of the birds. Paper whites are blossoming as were the crocus. Soon, the 'peepers' should be making noise in the wetlands across from my house.

{{gwi:881885}}.

Carol, that's a great picture of Minnie. As you know, my beloved WonderWeiner was diagnosed with lymphoma and I had to have him put down a couple of weeks ago. I'm still heartbroken, so hug Minnie and Tank for me, will you.

No spring here either. We got several inches of snow last night and it's still snowing today. I have a lemon cake in the oven for tomorrow's dinnr and I'm working on some dinner rolls.

I think tomorrow's Easter Egg Hunt will be totally indoors. Not that the Monkey Princess will care, she's 3 and all that matters is the chocolate eggs...

Annie

Chocolate eggs... Better yet are the Reeses peanut butter eggs.. I posted a recipe for easter Bubka a while back if anyone wants to look for it. Will be making a nice big one today. The kielbasa is thawing.

Annie, I was "stalking" Minnie waiting for the right shot. She's so old I decided I'd better get what pictures I can now. Good thing I did it yesterday because today it's pouring rain.

I also got a good shot of our rhubarb. I only hope my kitchen's done in time for me to use some of the fresh. Rhubarb is one of our all-time favorite spring treats.

{{gwi:881887}}.

Ken, I'd love to be baking and your Bubka sounds wonderful, but currently I'm without a kitchen - no sink, no stove, no floor, no walls except studs. Instead of cooking I've been hauling sheetrock and pulling staples out of decking.

Last night I was out in the shop making pastry cream on a propane camp stove. Today it's trifle assembly time. That's the wonderful thing about preserving. With homemade raspberry jelly and home-frozen peaches, a nice Easter dessert is still doable. (The Grand Marnier basting the cake slices doesn't hurt either!)

But I miss baking, that's for sure. Otherwise it's good timing for a remodel. If all goes well, my kitchen will be back in action by strawberry time. (Keeping fingers crossed!)

Carol

Lucky you, getting a new kitchen. My dad had removed the toilet from the bathroom a few years ago, to replace the flooring. Since that time, its been leaking and getting worse, because he never replaced the seals under it. I finally had to remove it and replace the wax seal under it. Needless to say, I had no toilet in the house for a while.. Thats a lot better than the thanksgiving I had a few years ago, when the oven burned out the day before the holiday..

Just saw the news last night - sorry about you folks having this "prolonged" winter. I can still remember as a child in Minn., going to church on Easter with a heavy winter coat, topped with an easter bonnet. Nobody lauged either!

So - I vowed I would plant another rhubarb this year, so if I can find one locally in the nurseries, I may try a new location and perhaps I can tease it to think it is in a cold climate. Last year, I had one that grew until the weather warmed, then it vanished.

The Bartlett pear that I bought (when on a reminescent mood) is about 3 years now, and still sulking - no leaves. I knew better - but for some reason, I sometimes think I can beat the odds. A better choice would have been Asians.

But - on the bright side - my boysens are going great, and have started a black thornless and some Baba raspberries that seem to be adjusting. The "cots" too are well-pollinated. Bees did a good job there, and now turning to the macadamia nuts. Beautiful pink plumes that hang down -that will soon develop little "bumps" that turn into delicious nuts.

Spring - and ACHOO! too.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Love those tropial plants. For rhubarb, they should be planted in full shade in your area. Pears are hard to do, and if you don't see leaves after 3 years, consider it a gonner. Asian pears, are hard to find right now, I know, I have been searching in vain. I wanted a grafted type that had more than one kind of pear. According to the stuff I read, the Hosui type is one of the best. But they tend to need pollenators, so get a few different types. Nothing has blossoms here yet, except the paper whites. Can't grow boysens here, even though they claim they will grow in Z6. Tried several times, and even covered them heavily one winter. My horseradish had all of the oak leaves removed from the area, along with thousands of acorns. The horseradish is even showing signs of new leaf buds already. Some of the root/crowns are as big as my wrist. This year, acorns are really bad, and are almost wall to wall. My garden vacuum can only suck up so many at a time.

> Last year, I had one that grew until the weather warmed, then it vanished.

Bejay, Mine too, and I had given it up, but it's just started showing some new shoots poking up! Hooray! (It's in a pot, which I know is not really a place that makes rhubarb happy, and this year I will definitely get it into the ground). Of course, our "hot" isn't the same as your "hot," and this is in fact a great climate for rhubarb, so I don't expect you can hope for a similar miraculous rebirth.

But I am savouring minde, because there was rhubarb here when we arrived that was destroyed by digging the foundation for the workshop, so it would've made me very sad to lose the replacement, too!

Snow and nasty wind this weekend, but nothing like on the East coast. It's all gone now and looks like a perfect spring day, about 40 degrees and sunny.

Zabby

Just planted my cukes, hubbard squash and melons - durned skunks already found the nice cool damp soil for digging, but I think they missed the biggest areas.

As luck would have it, I harvested some promising dill weed a few weeks ago, as I didn't notice any promising new dill sprouting. It hung in the kitchen corner on a nail, and this morning I took scissors to it, as it was nice and dry. The smell was mouth-watering, and I think it will be strong enough to flavor cukes, in case I can't find any later. Still prefer fresh tho.

Also harvested some horseradish the other day. There was some talk about harvesting at certain times, but I've never noticed any difference. Whenever its done, it smells and tastes just as pungent. (and don't put your nose in the blender when grinding - huh Ken?). I usually add a bit of white vinegar when I do, and then refrigerate. Seems to stay fresh-tasting for long time.

This year, I planted some red type garlic (from grocery store - where else?), and though it was smaller than my usual growth of soft neck types, I thought the taste was much more pungent - and garlicky. It may be hard neck - couldn't tell - which usually doesn't like our climate as well. This deserves a bit of research, however, as I really do like the flavor of it.

Will harvest some thyme and oregano today - to dry hung in my kitchen corner along with the other dried stuff. So festive - my corners are with the garlic, dried peppers, mints, and dill weed, all on their respective hooks.

The thyme and oregano were both planted as ground covers - under my fruit trees. Not sure if they will eventually rob the trees, but with our water problems (and the city looking over my shoulder - to conserve, conserve - or else!), I like the idea, cuz it helps preserve moisture, and they take little water as well.

We have had some very dry winters - and I note also that the water smells more chlorinated all of the time. Wonder what effect it is having on the more susceptible plants. The new peppers seem to be a bit more yellowish than I'd like them - although weather is foggy and cool too.

Zabby - that Sauvignon Blanc sounds like fun - my only attempt at wine making was a simple balloon type - not especially outstanding - and I figured it was so expensive and bad tasting, that almost any box wine could have beat it by a mile. But then - considering my amateur standing, I wasn't expecting it to be for the connoisseur crowd.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

I never did the blender sniff of horseradish, it was my mom who had done that and almost fainted. Here, there is a new strain of garlic in a few stores that is about the size and shape of a white boiling onion, and is only a single clove/bulb. Don't know the variety, as the net bags only say its a garlic bulb or something. Suspect its grown from seeds. My horseradish has been spreading well, after an almost total loss of it a few years ago. I had to put down a litte soil there as one crown was exposed after I removed all the oak leaves from it. This year, I just ordered some asian pear trees as well as a quince. Also dug up some very old blueberry bushes as they were just in the way of my chives and garlic grass. A couple of the blueberry roots were as big as my wrist. The soil here has thawed out completely and I was able to dig without any problems. Considering doing a little tilling soon, just to get a head start and plant some peas (love them!) before too long.

Ken -

From your "new" garlic description - that sound like what I was referring to. Is it reddish in color? I can't imagine where I got these - but they are small, single bulb and much more potent that my usual planting.

I made garlic salt from them, and had to "air out" my kitchen afterward. Whee - what a smell, but its gone now. If there are still some in the garden I may plant again next time, just to see if they will come up true.

My last snap peas are beginning to fade - as the weather warms up. Today is 59 already so early, and perhaps be in the high 70s before evening. So - on with the pole beans and peppers. They are all planted and waiting for more heat - as we have had early fog (smog too). This usually doesn't set in until June - strange weather.

My canner gauge is being sent off for calibration today - as things are beginning to happen fast. It needs to be ready when things start to ripen. Hope the wait won't be too long on returning it. Probably should have done it sooner --

Bejay

The skins (whitish paper like) had a little 'tinge' of purple stripes, but it was mostly white. Because they were in little net bags of about 6-10 each, I didn't buy any. Some of the bags had a few that were brownish and shrivelled up with the white paper skins that fell off. These didn't look very fresh, and I must assume they are quite perishable compared to regular garlic. They were not elephant garlic, which has quite large cloves that are very mild. I'll have to keep looking for them, as I only saw them in a couple of stores a couple of times.

Ken -

I found a few more of these garlic bulbs. From the garden book description, they appear to be hard necks. These are recommended for more northerly latitudes, possibly because of the longer day "bulbing" time they can get.

But they do have nice thin stems that would lend to drying. The thicker stems are prone to dampness and early demise - as they don't dry as well.

Hope they like it here - will keep an eye on their progress.

Picked some asparagus - not as many Jersey types as I would prefer, but enough Washington types to make for dinner. The bed needs more attention - as trees are shading it, and will cut back on orange tree to help somewhat. Funny how sunny areas always seem to shrink and shady ones grow, as time moves on.

My permanent resident mocking bird couple told me they were planning a nest in my carob tree out front. I advised them that the neighbor across the street threatens to shoot if the male keeps him awake all night - like he did last year (singing constantly about the miracles to come).

Bejay

All my experiences with growing garlic tell me that most of the time, hard neck varieties do better in my Z6. I tried many soft neck varieties along side hard necks and never saw any of the soft necks surviving after the winter months. The single round clove of this unusual garlic has no partitions, only a single solid bulb. I didn't see any hard neck on them either, it looked more like a white boiling onion like I mentioned before. I have to plant my garlic usually early in the fall. This past fall, it was some left over ones from the previous year, that were missed when I dug them all yup at harvest time. They sit right next to my walking onion/shallot patch. I say walking onions, because they do set bulbils on top, that topple over and replant themselves. The color of these is not the normal onion color, but have definate purple layers with a bronze skin on the outsides. The shape of these also looks like a shallot. I am also growing some regular shallots from tiny black seeds, and they will be planted nearby the other stuff already in soil.

With the hard neck 'scapes' the last time, I plucked these off the garlic, I cut them up and pickled them in some dill and vinegar. Great in a salad!