G'Day!

- Yup, anything that "needs stratifying;" there will yet be enough cold to satisfy the chilling requirement.

- Pretty much anything "native" can be sown now too. Check the "Winter Sowing" FAQ over on that forum for more ideas on what seeds you can sow now; basically, if you can "winter sow" it in containers, you can usually direct sow it too.

- With "surface-sow" and "planting depth 1/8th inch" or less, i just rough up the ground a bit with a rake, scatter the seed, then water well. The seeds will pretty much plant themselves to the right depth, get good soil adhesion, and be less likely to be picked out by the birds.

- Now, did i remember to MARK everything, so i don't forget where i planted something? That's a whole 'nother thing!

- Oh Wise Ones who know more than i, if i happen across daffydilly bulbs while spading horseapples in to a bed, is this not the right time to move 'em?

- Happy gardening,
-vlad

Well, itching to start with spring, but it is still quite cold at night. I have planted some red clover in the pasture. Been working hard with a tall manure pile for compost and moving alot of compost to the garden. Top dressing from 4 to 6 inches in compost to get ready for spring. Still planning my garden, just got a new space to plant and working up soil for the garden to be.

I couldn't stand not getting muddy with this weekend's lovely weather. So I built the next in a series of beds along one fenceline, where the ground level drops sharply by 18". There's a Japanese maple there that I don't want to smother as I raise the surrounding areas, so last year I built a curved drystone wall out at the dripline to the right side of the tree. That became the beds and stairs leading from my kitchen side yard into the back yard. Saturday I laid in a much lower wall to the left to make the other half of the "brackets" around the maple. There's dwarf crested iris, hellebore, hosta and other goodies planted at the maple's feet, with an underpinning of golden creeping jennie, and all that I left undisturbed.
So Saturday after the new wall went in I lifted the existing siberians, iris cristata, hosta, liriope, woodruff and woods poppy from the original ground-level planting (18" below the level on the neighbor's side of the fence), trundled in five barrowloads of manure and leafpro mixed with sand to slant the new bed from fence-height down to ground level five feet away at the foot of a big oak, and reset everyone on the new slope. It'll be a nice shade bed in tones of gold and green, combining spikey and rounded forms, and much more visible than the old flat bed due to the slope. And last night's rain/sleet should water it all in for me. I'm much happier than I started out the day!

Lynn

Sowed peas, lettuce, spinach, scallions etc. directly in the garden this past weekend. Tomato, eggplant, pepper etc. started under lights on heat mats in the basement.

Will peas survive in this weather?

Oh yeah. Not a problem. Even a few inches of snow won't hurt 'em. The problem in this area is waiting too long to plant peas. Our summers get too hot too quickly for a good long pea season.

I used to wait until March to plant peas, but for the last several years, as long as the snow is off of the garden and I can get out there, I go ahead and plant in mid-February.

Now, I live in a very warm zone 7. I'm maybe 100 yards away from the Bay in southern Maryland. My vegetable garden has a full sun southeastern exposure and one side is right up near the house. All of this makes for a very cozy little micro-climate. Even up in B'more, however, I'd be getting my peas in the ground before St. Pat's.

I see that the weatherman is calling for lows around 20 for Thursday. Better not pack away those mittens just yet!

- Brent

Succombing to serious cabin fever, I brought home a bunch of ranunculus bulbs from CA and dug them in this week. Don't know how well they'll survive this clime, but I figured I'd try anyway. Snow predicted for Thursday? Argh! I'll get this east coast climate down someday... Probably freeze those poor claws! The bed was definitely soft enough...