I'm looking forward to planting peas and onions the first week of April, followed by annuals under lights inside to be planted out in mid-May. In the meantime...

Here in Michigan there is still snow and my pond (and ground) are still frozen. The spinach and green onions in my unheated greenhouse survived the winter, though, in spite of those 30 below zero nights. I think the spinach is being lunch for a vole, something is nibbling it and it doesn't look like bug nibbles and nothing bigger can get in there. The green onions didn't grow at all but they are still alive and some sunny days should get the temps up enough to cause some growth, I think.

I set up all my lights and shelves this weekend so I can start seedlings. My neighbor wants some petunias, so those will probably get started tomorrow. Peppers will be a couple of weeks as well as cabbage and that cold weather type stuff. Cabbages love it in the greenhouse, so they can go there after they grow a little and get hardened off. Tomatoes won't be started until the first week of April, but I've been going through seeds and plotting where to plant everything.

I do need to prune apple and peach trees and the grape vines in the next week or so too, or as soon as enough snow melts that I can get to them.

Annie

Meanwhile in the land of chosen people, month of February hoovered between low 60s and upper 70s with Magnolia trees swaying in gentle gulf winds. Many warm season plants are in the ground. White Bass and Crappie are biting so there's an abundance of fish scraps for those lonely Fall leaves. Ground will be warm enough to plant okra when those big gals move off bait buckets to sit on the banks. Klem was seen washing his long johns in the creek while wearing them and taking his end of Winter bath.

On the social landscape , crawfish boils and home crafted beer tastings are just around the corner. Ya'll come !

It snowed here yesterday. The ground is under about a foot of snow.

Oooooh I can't imagine going out in pre-dawn with snow on ground to see the Blood Moon yesterday. As it was, there was a come as you are block party with pot luck breakfast. With such nice weather, the host said it was ok to show up in what you slept in as long as it was tasteful. Guy raised in Arkansas brought his canopy bed.

klem1 - I forget what state you are in but it sounds good. The ground here in SW MI is just starting to thaw out. The only signs of spring I see are some daffodils starting to poke through. I've been fairly successful with ice fishing this year, today I caught a limit of bluegills and perch so the compost will continue to be happy.

Is that a Robin? How sweet! North American Robins aren't quite as cute and are larger and mine are less social than that. And boy! that's some pretty soil., flora.

Yes. It's a Robin. They're very friendly to gardeners.

Good to hear from all of you. I'm still plugging along in Texas, too late to get out now. I thought of you recently old_dirt. A family of coyotes became increasingly bold , relying on pets and human waste instead of hunting. I enjoy watching wild life but putting myself in people's place that lost a pet, intervention was needed. I snared a couple and considered composting them but due to size decided it would take too long.

klem1 - I'd say composting a coyote would take quite a while I don't think I'd try it myself. I wouldn't care if they took out my neighbor's little dog. This is a pair of coyotes that frequent my little woodlot.

I was going to offer to turn Klem's pile since he's always too tired to do it himself, but I withdraw my offer. I composted a mink hat once, and, forgetting that I had, I screamed bloody murder every time I flipped the pile for the next six months..

I drove two mice to Tractor Supply yesterday. Unfortunately, they weren't the two I've been hoping to catch. I was a little worried about cameras, so I tried to be subtle, but I got so creeped out, my little parking lot dance by the row of trailers probably got some attention. At the same time, though, a man let his three-legged dog out of his car, so I'm hoping that took their attention off me.

Good to see yawl getting a bit of spring fever. Today I planted asst lettuce seed and tomorrow will prep rows for the cabbage and broccoli transplants that will go in ground by mid month, assuming that there are no more major freezes ahead. 76F & sunny here today with warm temps for the next few days, still waiting for the peas to pop up. Will prep the carrot and beet rows next week for seed planting by Apr 1st. The young spinach is looking great. That should wrap up the early crops. Meanwhile, the pear trees are now waking up and are at their bud swell stage.

Oh my gosh Pat, you are so kind for thinking of turning my pile while I take it easy. I've been trying to think of a solution for an uninvited feral cat visiting cattywampus' food bowl. I can send it to stand watch in your car.

Someone suggested a king snake. I've been setting off an air horn in there the last two days. The cedar sachets, the mint sachets and an air horn will discourage the most settled of mice, I hope.

Don't you touch that feral cat, klem!! Have your spoiled, overiindulged cattywampus clean her bowl!

Ssshhh, a lady always leaves food on her plate and she's already disturbed by this stray licking her bowl. We will forget the cat and send you a Chicken Snake instead, unless you would rather have a Rattler, we have plenty of both and either will keep your mind off mice while driving.

Ha!

Just examine packages before ripping into them and be mindful of those with air holes poked in them,else "your little parking lot dance".might overtake you again.

Warming up now, maybe too much for some of you out there. Some pics from this morning, the Spring planting is almost complete, onward to prepping for summer crops...

Here's our fall planted Spinach, it's doing well as we pick...

The Peas are up.....

Hard to see but there are freshly planted young cabbage and broccoli below...

Lastly, all 3 pears trees in bloom survived the 28F temps ok.....

I have started broccoli, cauliflower, and 2 kinds of lettuce seeds, and Saturday planted a row of onion plants, Highlander sweet. I also set out a row of glad corms and sowed fungicidal mustard seed ...whoopie.

Whoopie here too, Wayne. I'm in zone 5a and I have lettuce, cabbage, peppers, eggplant, broccolini, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and some pansies under lights. I planted leeks and onions a couple of weeks ago and have some sweet potatoes in a pan of soil hoping to get some sprouts to start. This weekend I"ll plant the tomato seeds and some dahlia seeds, probably salvia for my front flower box. The cabbages and their cousins will go into the unheated greenhouse in a few weeks, and I'll plant carrots there in a raised bed the first part of April. I do have spinach and green onions already growing in there, they were planted last fall and managed to survive in spite of the 30 below zero nights we had here. They didn't grow over the winter but they didn't die either, and now they are beginning to grow. Of course, we have something eating the spinach right to the ground, maybe mice or voles because nothing else can get into the closed up greenhouse and it isn't insects.

Annie

Over the past 3 days I've caught 4 adult rabbits and relocated them to a forested area 2 miles away. They snuck up on me and chowed down on about 25% of the young pea plants. No sign of any more rabbits (traps empty this morning) so hope I got them all. The peas should recover ok. Now it's time to start some cukes and a few other things indoors for a May planting outside. The pear trees have now shedded their blooms and tiny pears should start to form up soon.

The beet seeds are popping up now and hopefully the carrot seed will do so soon. Last week I went to a local nursery looking for 2 young tomato plants to place outside for a jump on an extra early tomato (my annual "cheating" tomato plants, nyuk). They had them there but for $5 each, ugh, so instead I bought 2 4-packs at $2 each that I repotted up at home ( Cherokee Purples and Supersteak), so I'm now nursing 8 tomato plants of which I will give some away. I only wanted 2 plants but will plant 4 cheaters.
On Monday I'll plant 4 of them outside, it's extra early but the long range forecast looks warm enough, no temps in the 30's after Sunday morning. If it does get cold again I'll set up my light bulbs in a box trick to get them through.

Otherwise, Spring has been kind so far, the lettuces are looking good, the fall planted Spinach is plentiful, and just one more plot to prep for my Sweet Potato slips which I plan to start in cell packs by early April. The Peas are recovering ok from their recent rabbit attack, glad I caught them before it got too bad. We're expecting some rain tonight, we could use it, might get 3/4" if lucky.

vgkg, I'm glad your peas are recovering, last year rabbits ate two rows of green beans but would not touch the horticultural beans or pink half runners. They did like the yard long beans and the kidney beans, but not the soldier beans or the Christmas limas. Go figure. I'm trying to figure out how to protect the green beans, at least, last year was the second year I got no green beans, the first year the groundhogs got them, last year it was rabbits. Both creatures seem adept at avoiding the traps...

I planted onions in flats pursuant to instructions from Luke at MIGardener. I divided two flats in half and filled them with soil, sprinkled the onion seeds on top, covered with a bit more soil and stuck the flats under the lights on heat mats. The red onions, the Walla Walla and the white Sterling all came up thickly and have grown tall enough that they got their first haircut. The brown Frontier didn't germinate to speak of, about a dozen came up from the entire package of seeds, so half the flat is thickly grown with Walla Walla onions and the other half of the same flat is nearly empty. It looks odd but since I have hundreds of onion seedlings, I don't think I'll miss those, LOL.

Annie

Hi Annie, as for the 4 adult rabbits I caught, hopefully before they had litters, they couldn't resist a combo bait of an apple on a bed of spinach. I'd leave a tiny slice of apple at the entrance to the traps and they were hooked and went inside.

77 degrees here today in Chicagoland. So I put some Tom Thumb pea seeds in the raised bed out front. Felt nice to sit out in the sun. Rest of the week looks rainy.

Thanks, vgkg, I'll try that. I did try apples a couple of times but the gophers ate them before the rabbits ever found them, I think. At least it was something small enough to go inside the live traps, steal the apple slices and then leave without tripping the traps. I need some trail cameras, I guess, and probably bigger slices so the small creatures can't carry it off.

I have also been thinking of planting peas in a raised bed, but we have one night of low 20s coming up this weekend, then most of the time the temps are in the low 30s at night, so I'd feel more confident about planting something outside and unprotected, I think.

I'm going to plant carrots, mizuna and kohlrabi in the greenhouse this weekend, I think, and in a couple of weeks the lettuce seedlings will be big enough to put out there too.

Annie

I set live traps to catch squirrels eating my sweet corn last season using old pistachios, and all I got were birds in the small ones and a raccoon in the big one. They took 75% of my corn and know it was squirrels, and would break up their all you can eat corn on the cob festival every time I walked out there. I can tell the difference between coons, turkey and squirrel bandits by the damage they do.