***Winter gardening chat! *** December~January

[missc]

Originally Posted by 3lilbubs Sorry, I'm pretty sure mine can channel the matrix to get into ours. They'll peck at mine thru bird wire (and they're successful), fences, you name it.

I'm sure ours will too, I'm just trying to figure out how much I should try to prevent it vs just let it go and plant a little extra to try to combat what they eat.

[3lilbubs]

It doesn't seem to matter what's available to them, they have "grass is greener" syndrome when it comes to my garden. Mine are destructive more with the scratching than anything. They've torn whole plants up. I really don't think there's a grey area with chickens in the garden unless you want them to do the dirty work of cleaning up a finished harvest or prepping a bed for planting (and they do an excellent job here). Everything else is devoured, not nibbled and they want the same parts of the plant that we do. Sorry.

[millermom1110]

Originally Posted by 3lilbubs Not without considerable expense. I threw plastic sheeting over my tomatoes and stuff really fast, buckets, anything I could find. It reduced the damage, but they still were burned. The true gardening fabric is the best thing but can still only protect passing frosts. If the ground freezes there's no saving it. http://www.gardeners.com/GardenQuilt...efault,pd.html

Hmm. Now I'm nervous! I was hoping to use this technique instead of forking over cash for lights and shelving to start seeds indoors. Money is tight. I'll have to weigh my options, I guess.

[3lilbubs]

well, from what I have read about this, you use a lid, right? So it would assume some greenhouse properties and maybe be ok. The author has been doing it a long time. Must be ok.

[Dani_Phen]

You ladies mind if I join this chat? As of now I'm more of a gardener than a homesteader (where I normally post). We ordered seeds tonight and I'm beyond excited. Spring fever is hitting me so hard. It's supposed to get up to 70 this sunday and it's going to make spring fever shift into a higher level. We are zone 6 and it's chilly here normally so we can't really have anything in the winter outside though I do have brussel sprouts that are just about ready to harvest, finally. That's all we have still out.

[millermom1110]

Originally Posted by Dani_Phen You ladies mind if I join this chat? As of now I'm more of a gardener than a homesteader (where I normally post). We ordered seeds tonight and I'm beyond excited. Spring fever is hitting me so hard. It's supposed to get up to 70 this sunday and it's going to make spring fever shift into a higher level. We are zone 6 and it's chilly here normally so we can't really have anything in the winter outside though I do have brussel sprouts that are just about ready to harvest, finally. That's all we have still out.

Hi! I'm at the northern most point of Zone 6. I couldn't do a garden last season because we were buying a new house...so I've really got spring fever, too. These super mild winters are just annoying to me though!! Lol it's a total tease.

[sarahannecloud9]

Welcome Dani! I have given up on my indoor garden. It just needed lights too bad. My bellpepper developed to the size of a golf ball and then ripeden, lol. 1! ll that work. Even the herbs are struggeling. It's too dark out, we stay cloudy. I needed a grow light.

Now the super news is my last planted garlic is just perfect.

I too can't wait for spring. The thread will pick back up too!

[3lilbubs]

Originally Posted by Dani_Phen You ladies mind if I join this chat? As of now I'm more of a gardener than a homesteader (where I normally post). We ordered seeds tonight and I'm beyond excited. Spring fever is hitting me so hard. It's supposed to get up to 70 this sunday and it's going to make spring fever shift into a higher level. We are zone 6 and it's chilly here normally so we can't really have anything in the winter outside though I do have brussel sprouts that are just about ready to harvest, finally. That's all we have still out.

Jump on in! My broccoli took another hit last night, we had a hard freeze. YES!!! FINALLY! Hope all my plants "got the message" and that the garden diseases were weakened or killed. I sure had a hard time watering the animals this am, hoses were frozen, I'd break the ice on their bowls, turn around and it would be frozen again. The cats were disgusted with me. LOL

I thought(again) about pulling up the broccoli but it recovered and defrosted late in the day. I really would like to at least get a small head from each of them for all the time they've been in the ground. The heads are about 2.5" across now.

I picked up a 10pk of bare root sequioa strawberries, and a pack of jersey giant bare root asparagus today and a potted thyme to fill the empty spot in my indoor planter. Tomatoes are growing fast now, I hope they manage to ripen

[sarahannecloud9]

That's great news about the broc! It's one tough species. Hope you get some good sized heads on them too.

Our hose has been like that. I lay it down the hill to train after use and it still freezes. When you turn it on, all the pieces collect and clog. Our 2 nice expensive connected hoses are now rittled with hoses.

[Dani_Phen]

Thanks ladies. We drain out the hoses everytime after we use them in the winter...Unhook it and hold the end up and work our way to the other end then rehook it. Millermom- I know! These mild winters are driving me batty.

Do any of you ladies own a tiller? If so, what kind? I'm pretty excited. Dh is buying me a 740 bcs this year, a tiller box and a rotary plow to replace an old troy bilt that I've used for a while now. He has one of his own he bought about 5 years ago but the wheel weights on his make it hard for me to use it at all. He wants one to keep here (the farm dh works for and where my garden is) and one to keep at our home farm (we work on it on weekends and any other free days dh gets...a two hour drive) so he said he's finally going to get me the machine I've been asking for!!