Snow this morning but none yesterday, Margaret . . . well, there was a skiff.

March is my month to cultivate - I never get it finished this month but I'd sure like to start!!

I'm thinking of migrating to Kalispell . . . or maybe B.C. Think that would help?

digitS'

brrrr...the two guys who have been putting up our siding just finished late yesterday afternoon in the SNOW! We got four or five inches between yesterday afternoon and this morning. bah! I had about six little iris reticulata blooming, and I bet they are cold now! *cry* :(

I never get it finished this month but I'd sure like to start!!

That's exactly it... There are so many Spring projects that I'm dying to start. And now there's fresh snow on the ground.

Guess I will try to get the cover crop for the garden seeded today anyway (perennial rye). It was just too windy to broadcast it out over the weekend.

Cheers,
Michelle

Wind??? What wind???

Our pond thawed out this weekend, - frozen since early Dec. Recent years, we've been lucky if it froze for more than a week. Currently snowing.

Michelle, tell us about your plans for the perennial rye. Is that because you are downsizing? Are you planning to turn this grass over at some time?

Why a perennial?

d'S'
Waiting for the wind to die down under these fast-moving gray, gray clouds so that I can put a new roof on the "bird house." I've got everything cut and stacked and ready to go. I'll just need an hour with no rain/snow/hail and no wind.

It was easier finding the moments to replace the steps on the deck but the weather has been stormy for a week+ since.

Hmmm Steve, I'm mystified and glad you asked. :-) Airhead (that would be me) thought I was supposed to get perennial rye for a green manure cover crop - probably should have planted it in Fall, eh?

Maybe I'll broadcast this in my back yard, instead, and pick up some annual rye for the garden. Yeah, that would make more sense. :-)

What kind of roof for the bird house? I need to re-roof a shed this Spring, too. The old tin has come loose and bangs in the wind. Very annoying!

Cheers,
Michelle

Tin, Michelle . . .

It'll be my first experience with metal roofing. The roof has never leaked on the pigeons/chickens but I'm tired of using tarps to make sure the darn flat thing doesn't. I'm putting on a little gable-type roof.

There are several grasses known as rye. Perennial rye is used for pasture and lawns. Cereal rye is a grain and grown like winter wheat altho' it would probably do okay as a cover crop if Spring-sown.

Some cover crops are planted as a "living mulch" like in orchards. Others are intended as a "green manure" to be turned under - usually in the Spring.

Here's North Carolina State U on cover crops.

They give you lots of ideas but don't talk about perennial ryegrass. If you'll scroll down to their "NON-LEGUMES" you'll see that they separate the Lolium species from the Secale species. It can be confusing.

digitS'

I'm sure your roof will come out nicely. It's suprising you were able to get tarps to hold up over winter. Did you have to do a lot of snow removal?

Re: cover crops, yes, I need to read up. I had this link saved, too:

Green Manure Crops, CSU

I thought it might be a good idea to plant a green manure crop now, till it, then plant a summer chicken forage & green manure crop. There seem to be two summer waves of weeds - one being the early grassy weeds like foxtail, junegrass, etc. Then a later crop of lambs quarters, pig weed, and more leafy type weeds. There is the Fall wave of weeds, like foxtail sprouting so it can overwinter and come up early in Spring.

Ugh, I really need to do some more planning, don't I?

Cheers,
Michelle

You forgot cheat grass. :->

... and bindweed

Is junegrass the same as cheatgrass? I always thought so...

And why do I not remember seeing much bindweed in the garden??? I dunno, bindweed doesn't bug me that much. It's rather pleasant pulling, for a weed. :-) No stickers, no icky white sticky milk. It's the Cadallac of pulling weeds, if you ask me. :-)))) And it cheerfully comes right back up so you can pull it again...

Cheers,
Michelle

Or it could be the Cadillac. Driving and typing isn't easy.

(I kid!)

Rather than opting for noxious weeds as "cover crops" we could be considering fun plants from alyssum to hairy vetch with all sorts of charming clovers and cereal grains in between.

(Personally, I wouldn't go for the hairy vetch. It used to tie itself and the oats into big balls when we tried to bale an annual hay crop. I hate to think what it would do with a rototiller or spading fork.)

There's not all good news in the summary below and there's plenty of herbicide use to kill not only weeds but the cover crops . . . but, it gives you an idea of what has been done in growing cover crops before and during vegetable production.

digitS'

Here is a link that might be useful: Cover Crops Research Review

Interesting link, Steve. The homesite for cover cropping is now bookmarked in my links. There's so much information... I will have to experiment to find out what works well. A cover crop of lupine and alyssum would be a sight to behold.

I have been planning to mostly use cover crops that can provide forage for the chickens, and I would like to have something that would work as a flea beetle trap (radish or mustard). Not sure if chickens will bother with eating flea beetles, but I can hope! Maybe I should try your spray routine just on the trap crop (seems like it was pyrethrin and rotenone).

Cheers,
Michelle

It was difficult for me NOT to post a whiny complaint about Ol' Man Winter never letting up. Yesterday, I woke up to a skiff of snow but last night it began snowing with a vengeance.

A nearby airport was down to a 3/4 mile visibility and power lines went down this morning. Four inches accumulated in some locations and winds went up above 20 with gusts over 30 mph. At 32°F, we had a 16° windchill! The snow froze on my new deck steps and it was like back in mid-Winter this morning when traversing the steps was at risk to life and limb.

Then at noon the sun came out and all the snow melted.

I do have some additional news. Besides the accumulation of snow there may have been an accumulation of growing degree days in my gardens so far this month! The nearest weather station at the Spokane airport had accumulated 1 growing degree day as of March 15th. So, I'm on my way!

digitS'
(I notice Billings has 29 . . . ;o)

Here is a link that might be useful: Accumulated Growing Degree Days - 2008!!

Help me out here. What is a growing degree day?

Boise has 29 to date, 44 normally.

Hi ID gardener!

Since Wikipedia describes Growing Degree Days as "a heuristic tool," and "heuristic" as a method to help to solve a problem - a rule of "thumb" - I (digitS') feel an uncommon affinity.

Growing degree days (GDD) are "used by horticulturists and gardeners to predict the date that a flower will bloom or a crop reach maturity." GDD are also used as a way to predict pest emergence.

There's a fairly simple formula for measuring warmth and time as GDD but the gov'ment keeps track of things for us so we don't really need to do any of the pencil and paper stuff. I just wish that the seed companies would make better use of GDD instead of these made-up "days-to-maturity" for vegetable crops.

Let's say I wanted to grow Golden Nugget sweetcorn. (I can actually find the GDD information of this variety so I'll use it as an example.) Golden Nugget requires nearly 2300 GDD. If I look at the Spokane weather station, about 35 miles west of my sweetcorn patch, I see that normal GDD for the entire season is 2300. Unfortunately, I can't take full advantage of all the Growing Degree Days for the season - witness the fact that I've already got 1 GDD and it is still March. In fact, corn seed won't germinate until 100 to 150 GDD have already passed.

The fact is that there's NO WAY that Golden Nugget will ripen in my garden.

digitSteve

Actually, it may be that 200 to 300 GDD pass before the planting of corn seed.

Once the seed is in the ground, it takes 100 to 150 GDD for the corn seedlings to emerge.

There, I think I've got that right.

d'S'

Something seems weird here. Denver has 52 GDD so far this year, which would explain why my crabapple looks close to flowering. But Tacoma, WA only shows 1 GDD, despite the fact that they've had flowering daffodils there since February... Is it possible they're using a higher Base Temp out there? Or the "winter low" starting point was later?

-Francesca

On the NOAA chart, those GDD are "corn" based - so, 50°F plus. They could have been based on 40°F and been more appropriate for daffodils and spinach and such.

Obviously, daffs don't need 50° to grow. Seattle/Tacoma has absolutely pathetic seasonal GDD accumulation because it stays so cool so much of the growing season. The daffs have had much longer to grow in Tacoma but Denver has had more sunny, warm days. Heat is what builds up GDD.

digitS'

Here is a link that might be useful: Seasonal GDD

If you're a Little Feat fan, here's a link to a song that seems appropriate to the discussion.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cold, Cold, Cold

Margaret, I imagine that you aren't quite out from under this latest snow storm. And, next it should be arriving in Billings, Jamie. Weather service shows a separate storm in Utah.

Wind chill down to 11 last night (glad DW didn't make me sleep outdoors :o). The wind came from every direction with snow blown in from the south under the deck roof, blown in from the north under the porch roof, and plastered on the east side of the power pole across the road. (Probably on the west side of the pole also but I'm not walking over there to find out. Bad enuf to have to shovel all the walks around here. ;o)

Below isn't the best picture to show the 5" inches of snow but I'm in sympathy for Momma Squirrel there with last year's walnut. You can almost see how she's been pulling hair out her tail for nest material or maybe in frustration with the weather. I hope all the vinyl table cloth she tore up and carried off the deck has provided some protection. Her nest is in the tree above her head.

A neighbor said that snow was 7" at her house, 9.5" in Coeur d' Alene officially, and 13" according to the guy up the road at his place. So much snow so late . . . and this after some record low temps yesterday.

digitS'
{{gwi:1194259}}

Another Saturday GW denizen, Darby, reports high winds in Billings!

Turned out sunny (& windy) here. The snow is mostly melted where the sun shone longest.

This is the latest I've ever waited to start cultivating the garden in over 10 years . . . sigh.

d'S'

Yes! Rotten winds...neighbors have a fancy gauge for wind speeds (don't know how it works) but it showed we had gusts of 62 mph this afternoon. Went and got some tie downs for the gh so at least I can sleep tonight :)

Still blustery with skiffing snow *sigh* Poor peas are gonna rot in the tray before I get them planted.

Good news on the snow melting already digit :)

March is finishing with a bang here. Strong winds all day yesterday, went to bed to a torrential downpour, woke up to a couple inches of snow, and tonight the predicted low is in the upper teens.

Bonnie

This weekend just sucked (or blew, I guess). We started building a shed a couple weeks ago, got the base and floor done, and put a tarp over it with the metal side panels laying there keeping the tarp down and waiting for good enough weather to finish it. Well, two of those poor panels actually got blown around by the wind on Saturday - I was out chasing them down and putting chairs on top to hold them on the tarp! I figured any dents from the heavy chairs laid on top were better than the dents caused by the wind trying to wrap them around trees and railings...

My yard swing got blown over as well - and the canopy ripped, so I'll need to find a new canopy for that this summer.

Luckily, the greenhouse held together marvelously - the screws we put in the panels earlier really did the trick. Unfortunately, the heater had a hard time keeping up, since there was just no sun during the day, and my poor plantlets had to endure temps in the low 40's that night. But everything did okay...whew! Now with this wet snow we're getting today, I'm just hoping nothing sticks to the power lines. I don't know how I'd get all those little plants in the house if the power went out!

Spring has to stick around soon, doesn't it?

It's snowing here now too, but I'm kind of glad with the lows they are predicting, the snow cover may actually protect the plants overnight.

The windy season has begun hasn't it?

This thread ended with Bonnie's post on the last day of March. Never wanting to leave well enuf alone, I've decided to revive it.

Ya' see, I woke up today to a mean, cold world covered with snow and altho' it melted off fairly quickly, there are still more days this weekend with snow in the forecast. Aaarrgghh!

Here's why it just isn't really April up here. I just added up all the "departures from normal" on these 26 days since some of us celebrated Spring. The mean (& I use that term advisedly) daily average temperature has been 5 degrees below normal. That is a 39°F daily average temperature! That means (that word again) we got stuck about a week before Spring and just can't get there!!

digitS'

We're doing our normal 4 seasons here - Summer (mid-June to August), Fall (Sept - November), Winter (Dec - March) and Wind - April / May.

Great fun, really. Tumbleweeds filling stadiums and covering cars left at the airport, dust storms like yesterday, spring sports like track, baseball, and girls soccer played in 50 mph wind gusts, and my favorite event, placing bets on the "picnic table, trampoline, and trash can derby".

Same here, David! The winds caused a large brushfire near Carbondale yesterday, and they closed Hway 82 for several hours, which meant DH was stuck at work until the road opened. Even then, it took 2 hours for him to make the 45 mile drive home.

I was thankful it was a Tuesday and not a Wednesday, which meant that the trash cans were all full : )

Bonnie