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jal_ut
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Brrrrr, not planting weather!

Saturday morning we got another 6 inches of snow. This morning it is clear and 9° F. I am ready for a thaw.

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hendi_alex
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Been a chilly 40 degree for the past two days. Back up to near 70 today. The plants are already outside in the cold frame. Currently 50 degrees but sunny and warming very quickly.

Your rich mountain soil is a great equalizer. Plus with more moderate temperature and lower humidity, you don't have all of the summer disease issues that we face. Funny how most everything involves all kinds of trade offs!

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gixxerific
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I feel ya James. Cold here too NOT that cold but.... Just got 8 inches a few day's ago with ice on top. Expecting 5 - 10 more in. Mon. Just got my onions in and I'm ready to plant but that aint happening too soon.

Back to the lab now to get some starters going. :lol: Gardenig never stops.

imafan26
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It's been in the low 60's at night and low to mid 70's in the day.

I'm still cold, but at least the rain is letting up at least for a few days and the 40 mph winds have taken a break.

I know you don't think that its cold, but here heat is free. Winter wear is long sleeves and and a light jacket and I feel cold anytime it is under 70 degrees.

The seedlings are coming up and I haven't had to water for a few days.

I did have to pick up a few pots more than once that blew away, but otherwise this is typical for this time of the year.

I may actually get to go outside today. :P

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jal_ut
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Pic at sunrise today.

Image

troyarbor1
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Awesome view with that pic. Yeah, champing at the bit to get gardening. Starting some lettuce and flats of early stuff on my enclosed porch today. I hope it's a good year. We didn't have much of a hard freeze here in Maryland last year and the bugs were different and prolific. Good luck and rich compost to all!

sepeters
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Holy geez! That's cold. :shock:

I'm already hardening off the tomatoes. :P Don't worry, I'll get mine in the summer!

Northernfox
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I envy you all! Still 77 days until I get out and plant :)

But then again I don't have nearly the pests I hear of in the South. The biggest one I have is my dog :)

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rainbowgardener
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imafan, you are so spoiled! :) The post I made recently about YAY! It is warm enough to go work out in the yard, it was 40 degrees that day. I was out in sweater and turtleneck but no jacket, enjoying the "warm" sunny day. Now we have more snow on the way - not so much as jal and the prairie state folks are getting, but still, cold enough to snow.

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LA47
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It's starting to warm up a bit here. It's 16 degrees this morning. We got another inch of snow last night. There's only about 10 inches of snow on the ground now as it has melted a little and packed down a lot. Only another 12 weeks or so to our last frost date!

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hendi_alex
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I sure am glad there are lots of cold lovers living in those northern latitudes. Leaves lots of inexpensive wide open land down here for us heat lovers. So far Florida is the only place to get over crowded. Odd that it is inhabited mostly by former Yankees. Some of you must not like the cold as much as one would think!

My daughter lived in Connecticut for a few years. She hated the cold, but more than that, she hated to prolonged wet, chilly springs which ease in with long periods of 35 to 40 degree overcast and drizzle. Here in South Carolina, we generally have a battle between mild winter and spring all through the winter months. So one week it is 60 to 70 degrees and the next week it is 40 to 50 degrees. Sometimes the switches take place every day or two, as has been happening for the past couple of weeks. By late March to early April our weather has usually settled with very few days when the highs are below 60 degrees.

Our climate is just perfect for me. Just enough cold to know that we had a winter. We usually have a snow or two, here today gone tomorrow. For me, the weather here is most special because of the extended periods with mild temperatures in the spring and again in the fall. Probably 9 months per year have highs that range between 60 and 80 degrees.
Last edited by hendi_alex on Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

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jal_ut
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Alex, thanks for the info on your climate. Sure different here. We have a window of 120 days, thereabouts, from sometime in mid May till mid September, where we have no frost. Actually I have seen frost every month of the year except August. One never knows what to expect.
Usually I can grow a 120 day pumpkin though.

Well, I am not likely to be moving at this point in my life. Pretty well dug in here and like the area. Yes, it is cold in winter. Yes, I am ready for some bare ground. Its snowing as I write this.

Hey, the wife and I pulled our trailer to Georgia last summer to visit the kids.
So I got to see some new country.

Have a great day!

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rainbowgardener
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Yeah, if I ever managed to pick where I live instead of ending up somewhere by accident, I think it might be So.Carolina. I think you folks have about the best climate in continental US. Not so fierce hot and muggy in the summer as farther south, very mild in winter with long growing season.

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jal_ut
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troyarbor1, welcome to the forum. Yes, if nothing else the cold does tend to kill the bugs off. It is especially effective if the ground freezes down several inches before good snow cover, then it gets the eggs too. If there are no bugs come spring, they have to move in from further south and some years the worst pests don't get here. You can bet we will have bugs though. They divide and multiply quickly and move around on the wind.

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Ozark Lady
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I kept hearing, terrible storm approaching, expect many inches of snow and lots of ice, stock up to now to hibernate. We don't have a lot of snow removal equipment or materials stored.

Sleds and snow toys, last forever here, unless they use it for another purpose, because they seldom get used.

It rained and it thundered, and it got up to nearly 60F. Well, this morning we woke up to our first snowfall of the winter 2012-2013. You can still see soil through the snow, but it was well dusted with snow. We got a bit more snow, interestingly, the ground is not frozen, and the snow is not sticking to paths, just to trees and bare soil.

It is too warm to stick around, so folks have to enjoy it fast.
I think there is enough for a decent snowball, but not enough for sledding.

There is/was an interesting feature on the Weather Channel: It is called "What is the Deepest Snow in your state" and starts with number 50 which is the least amount of snow and goes to number 1 the most depth of snow. Think about it for a moment and make a guess where your state would be... while this loads and see how close you are... I missed by a long ways. https://www.weather.com/news/weather-win ... r-20130220

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jal_ut
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Interesting.

I guessed 45 and it came up 42. Some of those snow totals are amazing.

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Lucius_Junius
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Here in Nova Scotia things have been ice for several months . . . but these days the temperature is rising above 0 celsius regularly during the daylight hours. In a month the ground will be workable, and soon after I'll start planting the hardiest crops.

Northernfox
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I am two weeks behind that ;) 74 days until I plant :D

SL

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rainbowgardener
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Northernfox wrote:I am two weeks behind that ;) 74 days until I plant :D

SL
oh geez really ? I may plant some cabbage and broccoli Monday... You really can't plant even the cold hardiest stuff until well in to May? Spinach and broccoli and cabbage tolerate cold and frost real well. I have some spinach in my garden that I planted last October. It sprouted and grew for a while and then sat there all winter. We have had snow, ice, a lot of nights in the teens, a few nights in single digits. The broccoli I planted at the same time didn't make it (I didn't cover them or anything), but the spinach came through and is growing again now. I direct seeded it in the ground, but it was warmer in October. It might be that you would have to start it indoors and harden it off. But given all the above, it's hard for me to believe you couldn't plant it sooner than May.

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gixxerific
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I agree with RBG you can plant some thing very early, I have pots of greens lettuce, spinach etc on my front porch that have been there since last fall. Even with the cold freezing temps every time we get a warm streak they perk up.

For the past few years I have been going out at random early in the year and give some seeds a toss wether it be in snow or not. To come up with early greens etc very early in the year. Be a rebel do some things that don't make sense sometime you come out ahead.

Northernfox
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it is still another 4-6 weeks until I can get to my earth. Currently it is sitting under 3 feet of snow ;) That being said I do have my hot peppers and some strawberries started in my basement. (picture below)

I guess I should have predicated the 74 days with I can put my carrots and onions in April almost as soon as the soil can be worked.

We unfortunetly have a pest here that destroys cabbage and such. they even blast out peas. I don't spray so I just cant plant them.

In the summer though my garden gets 16-18 hours of sun so I cant complain too much It kind of packs an extra punch :D


Image

and plenty of wine and beer brewing :D

Image

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digitS'
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Well! That all looks good, Stephen :wink: .

I've still got snow in my yard that has been around since December but only in one spot. I might go out and stomp it good today and that should be the last of that December snow! There must be 3 feet of it about 1,000 feet higher in elevation :roll: .

It was 44°F this morning! That is the warmest over-night low since November 4th! If we go over 50 degrees this afternoon it will be the warmest since December . . . . ah, never mind.

Steve :?

Northernfox
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Steve Stamp that snow out for me :) it looks like we are going to see melting more often! Hope to get moving on things in like 4-6 weeks :)

Until then ill enjoy my wine and beer !!

Stephen

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ReptileAddiction
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Today here in So Cal it was 81. :P My tomatos are just starting to come up even though I should have planted them at least 3 weeks ago. It is starting to warm up here but we still wake up to frost. We get 1 or 2 weeks of days in the 50's (brrrrrrrrr) and nights in the high high 20's and 30's. Then we get 1 to 2 weeks of 70-80 degrees. In January it is cold most of the time here.

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Jardin du Fort
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Today, March 1, it got up to 31° here in the Fort. It has been, and will continue to vacillate with highs around 25° to 35°, and lows around 15° to 25°. There has been a smattering of snow that comes and goes. The last big storm that we had this last week left us with a whole inch of snow on the ground, and most of that is now gone.

I spent most of my years living in the Vale of Paradise at the southern end of Lake Michigan. The most snow on the ground I experienced there was about 36" in January of 1967. We had a 24" snowfall on top of 12" already on the ground. Most winters there had 6" and 12" snows on a regular basis. Lake effect, you know. Here in the Fort, a 1" snow causes a rash of accidents because people haven't learned how to drive in snow! If we get 4" or more, everything grinds to a halt until the plows get out and clear the roads. I'm used to driving through 4, 6, 8 inches and more without any problems.

The forecast shows a slight thaw at the end of next week, so maybe I'll be able to set a few more fence posts on my big fence project. If so, I'll get the "current" 40' stretch of fence up in a couple weeks. This would be great, because this is the fence that will abut my future veggie garden. Maybe I can get a bit of a start on it (the garden!) yet this spring. Of course there's still another 100' of fence to tear down, clean up, and rebuild............ :lol:

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digitS'
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I feel like hijacking the thread for a discussion on temperatures and home brewing!

Image he he he . . . however, I have a feeling James wouldn't approve Image.

Let's get down to the cold, hard facts! Jardin du Fort do you mean your soil didn't freeze this winter?

My late winter gardening project is a hoophouse in the neighbor's yard. The neighbor, a single guy, works the afternoon shift and I can't get over there until I'm sure that he is awake. I'm putting in a permanent, insulated shed with the hoophouse going up for several months each year. A storm often shows up in late afternoon and my workdays are brief and not all that many :? .

We will probably use the shed on the property line for a neighborhood pub during the "off-season."

Steve :wink:

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Jardin du Fort
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digitS' wrote:Let's get down to the cold, hard facts! Jardin du Fort do you mean your soil didn't freeze this winter?
We haven't had a hard freeze since January. The ground is frozen, but I'm not sure just how deep. I doubt it is NOWHERE near the 36" extreme conditions frost depth for this area. Maybe currently 6" to 8" deep?

One of the posts I need to set for this fence run already has the hole dug, just waiting for warmer weather before I put in the concrete. One old post still needs to be pulled up, and that must wait until the ground is totally thawed.... I have made a 4x4 tripod, and with my come-along, wrap a chain around the concrete footing, the old 2' deep footings come right up. Then I deepen the hole, make any alignment corrections, put in a liner if necessary, and put in the new post. Say it real quick and it sounds real simple! :lol:



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