Hapy New Year...Happy Gardening

13 years ago

Hello everyone: It's been quite some time since Ive been on the forum. For one thing my computer has been acting up, and then there have been other family issues to deal with. I still managed to have a fairly 'fruitful' garden this summer, having branched out into several pepper varieties, melons, and squash which did quite well. I even had some of my own squash for Christmas dinner. Now the new year is here and I have already collected my catalogues which I will be searching for new things to plant. I plan to re-plant quite a few areas in my flower gardens, but just a glance at most catalogues shows so many hybrids. I like to plant natives and heirlooms, so I can save and trade seeds. I did not save many seeds this year, but will soon be updating my seed lists, and I hope most of you have done the same so I have make some trades. I have come to love Columbine, but never seem to get around to saving the seeds, so I'm always on the look-out for more.

Here's wishing everyone and happy and peaceful 2011, and may your Winter Sowing be successful and rewarding.

Northerner.

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Comments (11)

greylady_gardener
13 years ago
Hi Northerner
Happy new year and best wishes for a successful gardening year! :)
I have some columbine seeds that would love to come your way and grow in your garden. Let me know where to send them (my e-mail is on 'my page') and I will send them off to you.
User
13 years ago
Happy New Year!

Still thinking about WS but holding off. We are not having the normal cold spells in Ontario. It actually rained the other day. So I'm waiting until mid-Jan or end-Jan. Have tons of water jug containers saved from the summer. Should have some fun with that.

Glad to be here this winter - it's been years for me.

Cheers,
Peggy
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marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
13 years ago
Happy New Year to all of you as well.

At the moment i don't have any WSing plans. I don't have room for anymore plants (right!), so it will have to be at a minimum. Do you believe it? LOL
ontnative
13 years ago
I might do a little wintersowing this time around, but only a LITTLE, as I, too, have almost no room for any more plants until I remove or trade some of my current ones. I went a bit overboard last year in terms of WS, and now I feel like I don't want to do any more for a while. Maybe it's just winter getting me down. Sowing some seeds in the cold days of January should boost my morale, right??
marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
13 years ago
Starting seeds in January should, technically, work for morale-boosting. However i have a new toy that will take up my weekends for awhile:
{{gwi:540753}}
Chase Edmund, born on Dec. 31st - mommy couldn't hang on until the 1st, so he isn't a New Year's baby, but we love him anyway! LOL
User
13 years ago
Congratulations on your new toy...Chase is beautiful. How wonderful to start the new year with a blessing. Thank you for sharing Chase's picture. Wish I could hold him!

Cheers,
Peggy
ontnative
13 years ago
Congratulations Marcia! Babies are much more fun than wintersowing (at least most of the time). My "one and only" is now 17 and just put in his university application yesterday. They do grow fast!
celtic_07
13 years ago
Congradulations Marcia. NOW THAT'S A WINTER SOW TO WATCH!! Looks like Chase will be a hansom perennial for years to come. Best wishes to the parents.
Happy New Year to all. I hope to do some WS for the first time . We're going south at the end ofJan for 2 weeks so I'm sure that will either inspire me or depress me to do more WS . Do you cover the containers with snow? bury them in snow? or just put them out on the deck? Little snow here 6-8" only
Take care Lois
marciaz3 Tropical 3 Northwestern Ontario
13 years ago
Thanks, all! :) He's a sweetie, all right. I got to see him on Sunday and hold him most of the afternoon. His mom says he's on night shift so she's pretty tired. Like father, like son, but i hope Chase straightens out sooner than his dad did!

Lois, i have a table outside and just put my containers on that. The snow buries them, or doesn't, depending on how much we have. It's better with lots of snow, just like for your flower beds, but it doesn't really matter that much. The seeds still germinate in the spring and become good tough plants. :)
northerner_on
Original Author
13 years ago
Congratultions, Marcia. What wonderful gift. He'll be great boy, after all, born under the same sign as me - my birthday is Jan 2!!!

Peggy, beware of holding off until later. I did that last year and it never did get really cold with lots of snow as we usually get later in the winter and then I did not get good germination for those seeds that need several freeze/thaw cycles, so I will be starting next week. I did not plan on doing lots of WSing this year - just want to replace a few things that I got tired of, but I promised a neighbour to do some planting for him. He has a new house and is single father of two, so he needs some help. Of course there will be my petunias - it's just a thrill to see what appears each year. Most of my planting this year will be devoted to peppers and tomatoes which I start indoors and lots of veggies which are either direct sown or spring sown. I am in the process of ridding my house of whitefly/aphids which were brought in by some pepper plants I hoped to overwinter. I have some'decoy' plants out and I have made my sticky traps and I hope that will take care of them. Will be touch...
Northerner.
User
13 years ago
Hi Northerner,
I am starting this week with my winter sowing. I'm the same with more veggie starts.
Outdoors I'll be doing a huge batch of coneflowers, delphiniums, daisies and lavender. Indoor starts are restricted to my growing stand (4 shelf outdoor greenhouse) I bring indoors to the static patio door. As I pick up more flower seeds on the next trips to Rona or Canadian Tire, they'll be heading outside too.
Excellent point made. We are having lots of freezing and thawing - beyond weird for January.
Cheers,
Peggy