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gail_ish

All this snow in Ontario has anyone started anywhere?

16 years ago

Hi all,

I don't know how the rest of you are faring, but we've had alot of snow in parts of Canada & I'm in Ontario & we got a good dumping on. When all this snow started, I was hoping it was a fluke and that it would melt so I could clean up the pot ghetto & get it ready for this winter sowing season. No such luck  it looks like this snow is here to stay. Some of you may already know that weÂve been renovating  we have a 150 year old log house and we gutted the whole top floor, right back to the logs, resized all the rooms, new wiring, insulation, drywall, flooring, heating system and we did all of it ourselves except the wiring (& we helped on that!). Which is why I have a pot ghetto  NO time for my poor garden this year  the odd hour here & there.

But now the upstairs is almost done (new bed is coming on Wednesday for the new master bedroom), so we will be working on the next floor & hope to be done by spring, so I would like to have some WSown plants ready to go. Other than the already-established border that I want to add to, I would like to start a red bed in the barnyard & fence off the old veggie garden & plant veggies. This old property has an honest-to-goodness underground root cellar, so IÂve been checking out the Harvest forum & learning about canning. But they also talk about the gardening side  most of them can what they grow, so IÂd like to have some WS veggies ready to go in there. And if some of you havenÂt seen a red bed, you should skip on over to the Cottage forum & check out what Gottagarden has created! I can just imagine what all that red would look like against my old grey barns. Just search for Âred bedÂ.

IÂm taking 2 weeks off at Christmas and hope to get lots of renovation stuff done, but hubby will be at work some of those days, so I may just work on some WSing stuff here & there. And by that, I mean to try to clean up last yearÂs containers so I can start on this yearÂs  lol. For some reason, cleaning them up is not nearly as fun as setting them out.

So, mostly IÂve just been planning & dreaming, no actual sowing. I sorted through what I have that didnÂt get planted last year & have made a new Âmaster wishlistÂ. I responded to some SASE offers  not having gardening time also meant that I didnÂt have time to save as many seeds as other years. I think this year I may put in an order to William Dam for seeds  their prices seem to be the best when I compare them to the other catalogues IÂve been getting. If any of you have started yet, let me live vicariously through you. Please post what youÂve been WSing or what else youÂve been doing to get ready. Something about this time of year, with all the snow, that gets me all obsessed again with next yearÂs garden.

All the best,

Gail

Comments (9)

  • 16 years ago

    Gail,
    I haven't started, but yes, all this snow is definitely getting me in the mood.
    I'm mostly "getting ready to get ready". I'm taking my second graduate course which will finish up next week, so that's been taking up a lot of my time. Plus we're renovating here in my house too (which means I lost my overwintering spot for my tubers).
    I still don't have my bulbs in the ground, and I don't think I want to do it in all this snow (be kinda like ice-fishing). So I'm probably going to start them all in pots.
    In the meantime, I'm clearing off my table to get ready to go through my seeds. I need to at least find the seeds I'm sowing for Solstice.
    My opened bag of Promix is sitting on the porch, getting frozen. I have to clear a spot in my kitchen and transfer the soil to a kitty-litter bucket to make for a kinder, gentler, CLEANER WSing experience :-)

    So...I don't think you can live vicariously thru me, but isn't it nice to have snow? I hope we have snow cover through the whole season--it's good for the plants already in the ground.

    Linda

  • 16 years ago

    Well, brought my pro mix indoor to the enclosed porch- frozen outside. I have still last year WS about 50 containers of various long term germinators or those ones I am not ready to give up hope yet. I have started some aconitums, corydalis, arisaema draconitum, few geraniums, dodecatheons, etc.
    I have full blown indoor set up going with bunch of herabaceous clems and aroids from last year going. Also started some pansies, trailing dianthus and primulas for early spring show. Germinated few streaked hostas- those tiny beauties already look good showing various streaks.
    I do not go into full WS mood until mid Feb. For now just sitting there playing with seeds, sorting what goes first is enough ;)

  • 16 years ago

    Winter is definitely starting off like it used to when I was a kid. We haven't seen this kind of early cold and snow in the Atlantic provinces in ages! Just might get our first white Christmas since 1998 which would truly be nice.

    The cold took many gardeners here quite by surprise. We are already starting to cover the gardens with evergreen boughs, something which is usually done after the holidays around these parts since the ground doesn't freeze until early January. But it's already frozen and we've had to scurry. Usually we use the Christmas tree for the garden covering. Ooops!! LOL!

    The weather is certainly pushing the envelope on thoughts of winter sowing and there could be an early start to it in this house for sure!

  • 16 years ago

    I started just after Thanksgiving here in Mid-MI. I promised DH that I would wait to start until after the holidays but it has been so cold I couldn't hold out. He just rolls his eyes as I bring another container out the patio door. Here's some of what I have sown so far:

    Pulsatilla 'Red Cloak'
    Hardy Geraniums
    Siberian Iris (thank you Bakemom)
    unknown pilfered Orn. Grass seed
    Oriental Poppy
    Gaillardia
    Coreopsis 'Sunburst'
    Amsonia
    Eryngium Miss Willmott's Ghost
    Monarda
    Sedum 'Matrona'
    Agastache lavendar hyssop
    Unknown Yellow primrose
    Joe Pye Weed
    Malva 'Zebrina'

    This year I am trying something new for me. Clear rubbermaid containers with holes drilled in the lids and bottoms filled with recycled nursery pots and cups. We'll see how it goes.

  • 16 years ago

    Linda: I swear, girlfriend, that you are certifiable. Someone needs to have you committed to the funny farm. You, who were buried under seven FEET of snow last winter, are hoping for snow all winter?

    And my husband calls me a wacko?

    Karen

  • 16 years ago

    I started cutting drainage holes in some bottles yesterday and before I knew it, I had planted 9 types of seeds. We had 5 inches of snow during the week and more coming tonite. I couldnt wait and since its my first time, I indulged myself.

    I planted Beauty Berry, Iris, some veggies, some melons and five blackberry seeds from breakfast this morning.


    I found some regular old plastic planting pots that just need a baggie over the top, save some cutting time also.

    :)

  • 16 years ago

    I bought 2 bales of 3.8 cu ft Pro Mix and I think 450 black mum pots. They are squat pots about 6" diam and only 4 1/2" deep on sale for $15.00.

    I need to get my seeds from the swaps and then separate them into categories to see what I have and what I can start with.

    So basically I have barely started.

    Lime

  • 16 years ago

    Linda: I swear, girlfriend, that you are certifiable. Someone needs to have you committed to the funny farm. You, who were buried under seven FEET of snow last winter, are hoping for snow all winter?

    :-)
    You have me laughing out loud!
    ...yes...I am definitely certifiable...I'd better go look at those pictures from last February....

    But then again, I must be looking at the advantage of having it accumulate over three months rather than over three days...lol. That was absolutely insane last year!

    Linda

  • 16 years ago

    Well I went to a local farm market and low and behold, they had their seed rack out! I think they must have it out for people who like to give homemade baskets away for Christmas??? Whatever the reason, I was in my glory. I got seeds for False Indigo, that white Cupid's Dart, something I never heard of called Pagoda, and some lettuce and root veggie seeds...I'm thinking of trying to sow some lettuce indoors...desperate for fresh greens. The others are getting WSed.
    They say we're getting another storm, but they don't know how or what it will be...It's good for keeping me in the mood.

    Linda

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