vlad - from what I understand about those little trees, you might do better potting them up first and growing them a little bigger before planting them out.

Also, a cold spell is due this coming weekend so whatever you have planned, get it done this week before the real January weather returns!!

I've started digging up an expansion to my veggie garden which I thought I'd have to wait until spring to start.

Today I was pruning roses!

Weeding. The weeds haven't stopped growing. I saw a dandelion bloom.

I think we'll get plenty of cold weather for the lilacs and everything to bloom. It was just a short delay.

Here in Central VA, where temps have hit the 70s a couple of times in the past two weeks, I'm doing two main things: 1) keeping my darling roofers from mindlessly trampling my garden beds (including emerging narcissus and crocus) this week, and 2) making up almost 2 dozen pots of soil in anticipation of indulging in a bit of winter sowing over the next two months, thanks to the inspiring enthusiasm of folks on that forum.

I'm also watching my pansies and violas bask in the sunshine; hovering over coleus and heliotrope cuttings and amaryllis under lights in my basement; drooling over seed catalogs; and nursing along a few pots of greens, sweetpeas and emerging spring bulbs on my enclosed porch. And hoping I did everything 'right' in the past 12 months to inspire my clivia miniata to bloom for me in February or March!.........

Oh, yeah, and today I started the Master Gardening course offered via my local Extension Office! Fun, fun, fun!

Weeding, weeding, weeding! Oh and mulching mulching mulching! I have been having a wonderful time cleaning up the yard. We never get to it in the fall because of all the kids activities so this has been a great two weeks.

A question if anyone is listening...I have been thinking of spreading some kind of weed killer now instead of waiting for spring because we ALWAYS get behind and the weeds take over before we can do anything to get rid of them. Will the weed killer perform correctly in this season? I live in Central Virginia.

I haven't had any "warm" temps (one day maybe), but it's consistently above freezing at least. Gives an opportunity to get out and stomp down mole tunnels around my (~30) seedlings w/o freezing my arse off.

G'Day!
- Yes, those tree seedlings would indeed be best off grown up to size (two years old) in containers, to minimize transplanting trauma, but i haven't the ten big tubs needed for that. So, in to the veggie garden they go. For two years, they'll provide a bit of shelter from the summer sun for the lettuces, then the young trees should be sturdy enough to compete at the edge of the woods; getting a nice big rootball will be easier in the garden soil, where there are no competing roots or stones.

- Weedpatch, most chemi-killers are absorbed best by actively growing tissue, so they'll be rather more efficient in the spring. However, as with pruning, "there's ideal time and then there's real time;" you could give it a try now. Of course, you are reading labels carefully and considering what happens after you paint or spray, right?; all those poisens go in to the ground and into the ground water, then us folk with wells get to pump it back up for their families and livestock to drink, or it ends up in the Bay. Poisens in the garden are a good example of where moderation is a virtue!

- Organic-Police, before y'all jump on weedpatch, offer me an alternative before i resort to Round-up myself:
- i have a 10' long gap between two large, imobile concrete pads. Poisen ivy and tree-of-heaven spew forth from this gap, which is too narrow for me to get down in to with a weeding tool. i just don't see how anything but chemical warfare will result in Bad Plants Gone. Is Round-up my only option? (i mean, other than letting the evil plants be.)
- i want to replace the evil plants with something equally hardy, so new evil doesn't squeeze in. i am thinking oregano and mints, Monarda and buddeleia davidii.

- Now out to sow poppies and blackberry lily seeds!

- Happy gardening,
-vlad

Thanks Vlad, for the information. I have put off doing this kind of overkill for many years for just that reason...and my two cats which go in an out. I'm with you in the "rock and hard place" feeling. It's not something I want to do a lot of or repeat too many times, but one good blast of a good weed killer application would sure jumpstart things in the right direction and help me get on the right path with my yard. Otherwise I will have to throw my hands up and run screaming down the highway leaving bits of flaming wreckage in my wake!

Vlad:

I have seen advertised a gadget that hooks to a propane tank to literally burn the weeds up; the device directs the flames down.

One of my former supervisors used this sort of a set up to deal with weeds coming up at the juncture of a pathway & a low rock wall. He said that over time, all the weed seeds were killed by the extreme heat.

Hope that this helps!

Dan

Vlad, wait with the iris -- I understand the feeling of absolutely wanting to do soemthing useful. Weed and mulch once the snow has disappeared, but that's it. This is inside project time.

Please do not ever burn poison ivy! The irritant becomes airborne and you can breathe it and that is not good. You probably know this, but I thought I would repeat it again in case anyone forgot and tries to flame-kill poison ivy.