Bought some big outdoor pots today on sale at Tagawa for a display on back patio, which can be seen thru back wrought-iron fence to greenway & many walkers, nice and modern and clean against the house and wall, and two are bright blue for a nice pop of color. Will mix my own potting soil tomorrow for these. Nice to have some time after my deadlines were met yesterday!

The big snow knocked some daffies down, but the Veronica lewanensis against the south wall of the house is starting to bloom.

My plastic is down over the raised veggie beds to warm the soil so I can sow cool seasons as soon as this weather pattern changes. Shallots and onion sets I think go in next week, depending upon my travel schedule & family stuff. Potatoes in containers thought I was a bit rude planting them out so early, fortunately I held off on onion seedlings.

I had a lovely salad out of the cold frame with dinner this evening, I took six varieties of lettuce and spinach, radicchio & arugula. Yum.

The Spiraea bumalda and Spiraea sorbifolia are a bit frostbit as usual (I wouldn't plant them here & want to rip them out but outvoted), but all the other plants in the yard are fine so far, we'll see after this weekend. The Physocarpus opulifolius 'Coppertina' budding out next to the about-1/4-of-leaves-opened Spiraea japonica 'Limemound' gets me out in the garden in the morning with coffee in hand to enjoy the contrast. Clematis jackmanii against the stone pillar has 8-10" shoots. Many of the woody perennials and grasses are poking their heads above the mulch.

Patchy areas of Poa pratensis need mowing, but I refuse to do it yet.

Dan

Hi Ivy,

I'll be back with a "real" post somewhere along the way, but just wanted to take a minute now to say, thanks for starting this thread! I was planning to, but didn't have time before I had to head out of town!

From the looks of the forecast, I'm thinkin' my garden might be mostly "white" in April!

Thanks again,
Skybird

Yesterday, the peach tree, grapevines, and strawberry plants that I ordered arrived, a couple of days earlier than I expected. At the time, I was a bit panicked, since I didn't have any holes dug, and everything was bareroot. It was getting dark by the time I finished planting everything, poor DH and kids had to have sandwiches for dinner.

When I woke up this morning, it was pouring down rain and 36 degrees, by 8:30 it was 33 and snowing. We are forecast to get between 2" - 4" of snow, which is not as bad as the Denver area forecast.

So I guess the timing of that shipment was perfect, all of this moisture should help everything settle in nicely.

Dan, it sounds like are gardens are following the same schedule. I have two Physocarpus opulifolius 'Coppertina's and they are just about to leaf out, that is unless the deer get a hold of them again. It appears that the lows in the teens this past week did in my daffodils too, which is a shame, since they had just started to bloom. All of my perennials, and ornamental grasses are showing some growth, with the exception of Asclepias tuberosa, which is a very late riser.

This dreary weather is making me want to wintersow a few more containers.

Bonnie

Whoops! I accidently hit the submit button, before I corrected my mistakes. The forecast is for 2" - 6", and that was supposed to read our gardens, not are gardens.

Sorry, I think I need another cup of coffee this morning.

Great to read your posts.

Do you use clear plastic on your raised veg beds Dan? Your description of the salad greens you are enjoying from your cold frame had my mouth watering. Reaffirms my desire to work to extend our veg gardening seasons here.

Bonnie's description of getting her bareroot fruiting plants in brings to mind my desire to grow some fruit. I would like to grow some blueberries (my fav) and raspberries (my wife's favorite). I'd also like to plant an apple tree and a sour cherry too. The trees might be projects for the fall, but I'm considering ordering bareroot blueberries and raspberries for this spring (if I'm not already too late).

Hope the sun shines on your head today! eatsivy/Chris

I haven't done anything in my garden so far this year. I see a couple of volunteer garlic plants coming up, but if I don't get busy, that may be all I get this year.

A loovelee 63 today after a lovely 58°, yesterday! The 2 inches of snow of 4 days ago just seem a bizarre memory right now.

Got the front yard cleaned up and discovered the very first bloom of the year but it's an interloper - Chickweed . . !

I've watched these things carefully. Yeah, they make flower buds the Fall and then when the snow melts - pop!! I'm waiting for Whitestem Filaree (Erodium moschatum), to celebrate Spring.

My crocus are showing yellow and the daffs are nearly so!

Covered the tunnel in plastic . . . late this year. It's 20' by 8' (almost the exact size of the greenhouse and sits directly south of it). The 2 garden beds in there are now half planted to Asian greens, some direct-seeded, some transplants.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a high-60's day! I'm starting off the day with a trip to the dump! You know, it can hardly get much better than this!

digitS'

Well, the accumulated dust/loess from the recent wind storms has turned to mud leaving streaks of Arizona on the roofs, sidewalks, etc. Today they turn on the irrigation water for the season. So need to check all that stuff too.

But today I plant tomato seeds, reset the cattle panels in a new bed, if it's dry enough, till in some compost for the onions / leeks, and get a bed ready for peas, since local folk lore has it that Good Friday is the day to plant peas.

There were 22 deer in my yard this morning, the cute lil' dickens! And I saw the local elk herd run across the field north of me last week - and they were telling me that they're now here all year around, living up the canyon, not just wintering.

I went out yesterday and did all my planting. Since I can't have a "normal" garden this year (will do it up right this fall so it's ready for NEXT spring), my "garden" consists of 4 5-gallon HomeDespot buckets with a few drainage holes drilled through the sides about 2" up from the bottom. I filled them up (interspersing with water & mixing it up a bit to make sure it got good and damp, but not soaking) with organic potting mix, and mixed in some of my homemade organic fertilizer (cottonseed meal, ag lime, dolomite lime, gypsum, kelpmeal, & hard rock phosphate). I put tomato cages in all the buckets, and planted Washington Cherry tomatoes, Eva Purple Ball tomatoes, Orion bell peppers, Early Jalapenos, & Northern Pickling cukes. I also planted marigolds & Superbo basil in each bucket. I planted everything from seed.

Now I know that it's early to plant stuff like tomatoes & peppers from seed outside. But I don't have anywhere inside I can grow stuff for transplanting, so I tried a modified WS method, where I planted the seeds, then cut the bottom off of water bottles (wide-mouthed, so I drilled a big hole in the middle of the lid), and covered up the planting sites with them. The buckets are up against my northern fence, so I can make a little tarp tent if the weather threatens to turn super cold again.

I have no idea if it will work, but I figure I'll just see what happens! One learns by trial and error I suppose (mostly error LOL). Wish me luck!

You know, MsFuzz, I believe that we learn best by success. There are just soooo too many ways to error. I've spent most of a lifetime, screwing up. Keep trying until you succeed, then focus in on what went right!

If your experiments work this year, please let us know. There may be plenty of us who will like to try your technique.

digitS'

I'm mostly making lists and assembling seeds still. I hope to get the second raised bed put together this weekend, as hubby is off on a business trip next week. And I'll be starting some salad stuff in earthboxes this week and in small plantings every couple weeks or so over the spring.

As usual I probably have more planned than my veggie beds will hold, but I can't resist new varieties!

Gardening is underway! I planted a row of snow peas and 1/3 of a row of spinach just now. I'm going to do succession planting, so in a week I'll plant more.

I'm also finally preparing for my indoor seeds. Hopefully I'll get the broccoli and tomatoes planted tonight.

My peach hasn't blossomed yet. I wonder if the hard freeze killed the flowers for this year, or if I'm just jumping the gun worrying.

Edison said it best

I haven't failed, I've found the 10,000 ways that won't work

It definitely applies to gardening :-)

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
Thomas A. Edison

So many memorable quotes from Edison.

Great posts everyone. :)

Gee, I'd better get crackin'. I think I've only found 5,000 ways that don't work. :-)

Hi everyone,
This is what is happening so far at our place.

In our veggie gardens we have coming up:
Peas, Spinach, Romaine Lettuce, Green Lettuce, Radishes, Brocolli, Cauliflower, Brussel Spouts, White Onions, Parsely, & Chives (the parsely and chives were from last year.) Oh and the Rhubarb and Asparagus are doing quite well already too.

In the flower gardens coming up: Tulips (many are already done along with the Crocus, and I haven't seen one Dafy yet, the squirrels may have dug them up,) Cancun Lilys, Stargazer Lilys, Day Lilys, Iris, Columbine, Dianthus, Poppies, Larkspur, Snapdragons, Johnny Jump Ups, Mums, Yaro, Hostas, Peonies, & Creeping Jenny. The hops are about 3 feet tall already.

And new this year that I already put in the ground: Raspberries, Strawberries, Hardy Blue Passion Flowers, Egret flower bulbs, and Blue Sea Holly.

Happy gardening to everyone. And to those of us in Colorado, isn't this moisture great?
JillyBillyG

Some of those perennial flowers you've mentioned, JillyBillyG, have started to grow here. The crocus are blooming in the yard and the daffs, too. In fact, DW brought a handful of daffs into the house about 3 days ago and they BURST into bloom. (Hey, I don't have much to brag about, gotta go with what I've got. ;o)

The only "weed" seed that I've seen emerge anywhere is some maple in the garden. It doesn't stop me from sowing spinach and lettuce seed in the garden today. There are Asian veggies under the plastic tunnel that are growing . . . .

I just thought of another "interloper" (might not be the right word since this 'loper is appreciated ;o). This plant germinates in the Fall and gets a "leap" on the early season. The orache looks like a purple carpet where a mother plant is allowed to grow each year. Maybe this will be the year that I finally remember to try its relative, spinach, sown deliberately in the Fall.

It is surprising how the little sprouts show up only to have frigid weather and snow put a stop to their growing for months on end. I could almost harvest enuf for a very small salad for DW and me.

Of course, they inspired some seed sowing and once those early sprouts are big enuf to be enjoyed, there should be another crop of orache coming along.

Oh, and the white-stemmed filaree is blooming. Because of a little sunshine and warmth, Ive also seen 1 or 2 dandelions around.

digitS'

Okay, I have one good pic of a tulip (I have no idea what kind) that looks spectacular and this is a perfect example of Colorado weather...

Taken April 11, 2009
{{gwi:1197338}}

{{gwi:1197340}}

Taken April 17, 2009
{{gwi:1197342}}

jen

The tulips that I thought I pulled last year are about to bloom, along with a few daffodils that weren't knocked down by the last spring storm. This most recent storm missed us, just a few sprinkles, and LOTS of wind.

Anyway, I noticed buds on Geum 'Mango Lasi' and 'Fireball', as well as Alyssum 'Golden Queen' (the ones the deer haven't munched on), and Kerria japonica 'Golden Guinea'. I also saw a couple of blooms on the Delosperma basuticum 'White Nugget'. Pretty much all of the perennials, except Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) are showing some growth. I try and get some pictures to post soon.

As far as the veggie garden goes, what's out there so far, with most of it being wintersown and transplanted to the garden:
Lettuce (5 kinds, almost big enough to start harvesting!)
Snap Peas (3 kinds)
Spinach
Broccoli - though they look pretty pitiful, and may need to be resown
Beets
Carrots (direct sowed 6 kinds, but they're not up yet. I remember from last year, that they are slow to germinate)
Parsnips (direct sown)
Radishes (3 kinds, direct sown and starting to sprout)
Onions (planted from the little starter bulbs)

The only things I haven't put out there yet, other than the warm season stuff like peppers and tomatoes, are the chard and cauliflower sprouts. All of the perennial herbs are up, as well as the rhubarb, and the strawberries are starting to show a little growth too. Our forecast shows our lows as above freezing for the next 7 days, so things should really start taking off now.

How bad did the snow storm affect you guys on the Front Range?

Bonnie

The storm dropped a good bit of very wet heavy snow that is already melting. I don't think it hurt anything but it definitely put a halt to any thoughts of digging this weekend. I have so much to do, too.

My tomato seedlings look good, but the peppers don't seem to want to germinate. I'm afraid they're not getting enough warmth, as I don't have a heating pad for them (makes note to get a heating pad for the seedlings).

Just slush and rain up here, Bonnie. The thermometer has been hovering above freezing; just a few feet higher in altitude and we'd have gotten a massive amount of snow instead.

I got in the rest of my seeds right before this weather system moved in, as well as a protective wind cover for my transplants.
{{gwi:1197344}}

Since the temps are a little warmer out, I've also dragged the "garage greenhouse" container plants out front so they can get a good soaking, along with the porch pansies/violas. They seem very happy about this new arrangement.
{{gwi:1197346}}

Mid April in the Kalispell Montana area.
Lets see at the home garden in Rollins we have 3800 babies in the garage.Waiting for the greenhouse,chicken coop and garden area to finish up.It ended up on hold because of a drainfield malfuction being fixed this week.New stupid fancy required system bites.
We have 130 straw bales that we are planting in this year.Its going to be an experimental garden while we fine tune the concrete self watering raised beds we hope to build.Funner yet is my honey and his 145 chickens and 4 guinea in there make shift coop right now.Straw bale chicken coop going in as quickly as possible.
In the flower beds,crocus ,snowdrops, scilla, etc are all blooming several of the early tulips next to the water feature are blooming.Was out weeding last night and smelt the sweet smell of hyacinth,found 2 blooming next to the rocks of the creek bed. yummy smells of spring.The earlier daffodils are up, all my other bulbs are poking up heads and starting.Perennials are starting up as are many of the babies from seed like the lupines.I am starting to do division from many of them.Forsythia is not quite blooming but the buds are looking like any day.
Weeds, its my main weeding time in out gardens since I mulch heavily to cut back on that chore for the rest of the year..ick and yuck
The shrubs and vines,,, Cutting back time, I am trimming everything from wild roses to the butterfly bushes.With several hundred its a small chore right now as well.The warmer placed honeysuckles are beginning to leaf out.
The watergarden is showing life, the fish are being more active all the time in the top 6 inches of water.The ice shifted a couple stones(in the first falls) that we need to fix since they are causing a tiny water leak which has one hosta and a linglaria very happy right now.Waterlilly leaves are reaching for the surface.The rushes are evergreen so they look very nice.All the water iris are sprouting up and out.Water buttercups have been blooming for 2 weeks now.
The roof garden has survived the turkey attack,sedums are showing new life.yes yes yes, was not sure what all those little buggers took out.They were hard on all the evergreens including the smaller trees..the yews are down right picked to death looking
The Kalispell house gardens, have had early tulips, dafs and crocus up blooming for a week or two.The perennials are just kicking up.Thats the ones out next to the sidewalks and road.The heat creates a nice micro climate compared to the ones in the shady areas that have yet to show life.
Someday I need to figure out the phot set up so I can share pictures.
Hugs and hope every one else is enjoying the season of regeneration.
Mary in mt

Straw bale garden like this, Mary?

....and, this is what I would do with straw bales!!

J.

Digit,
yes, similar to that.There are some huge successes with straw bale gardening if you do some searches on line.The one gentleman who has written most of the info grows 8 feet tomatoes back east.
I used to set my perennials in the old rotten composting ones if I could not get them planted right away.They did well.Also used to do the potatoes, by laying down cardboard and bury them as they grew, no soil.We used to get loads of taters that way.

J,
We are building both a chicken coop and a small spare bedroom with straw bales this year as well.Thats one we understand, we would of built the house we live in with straw bales but the hillside set up would not accommodate it.Hence the house we ended up building instead.If you look at this keep in mind the gardens are much more developed.The pictures for this were shot in 07.When people see it on worlds greenest home on discovery they have to do a double on the gardens because they filled out so much.
http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/2008-03-01/LaudHome.aspx

Chris,
I see in your photo some milk jugs. What do you do with them? Is that a psuedo green house sort of thing? Tell us how to use those, please.
Thanks,
Shannon

Yep, Shannon, that's exactly what those milk jugs are, and there is a whole forum on Garden Web dedicated just to that seed sowing method. It's called the Winter Sowing forum, see link below. Check out the FAQ section on that forum's main page for all of the details, or you can go to Wintersown.org for more information.

That's how I start 98% of all of my seeds, and I have over 100 jugs/2L bottles this year.

If you have questions after checking out the info above, there's also a thread on this forum called Wintersowing - 2008/2009, or just post your own thread, and I'm sure someone will be by to help you out.

(Hope you didn't mind me chiming in, Chris)

Bonnie

Thanks Bonnie - for responding to Shannon's question about winter sowing. I just now am checking in after a few days of being away from the site. I'm new to winter sowing myself, but am having success right out of the starting gates. My little greenhouses are chugging right along.

I had to leave them unattended for a few days. Watered them well, opened them up, placed them on the north side of the house and under the eave of the house. Arugula was up when we left, everything else had yet to sprout. Upon return the arugula was still looking happy and nothing else had sprouted. Today, after a couple of nice warm, sunny days I'm seeing most everything starting to germinate.

The snow is mostly all gone from the yard and I've been busy bringing in soil to level out some areas of the garden. I've also reorganized our vegetable garden area into a much more ordered pattern. My main motivations in doing so are to ease crop rotation and because I'm installing a drip irrigation system.

Above is a picture of the garden on 4 11 09.

Above is a picture of our veg garden this evening, Monday 4 20 08. Big changes from our combination flower garden/ vegetable garden. My wife has been a dear about these changes. We are both excited at the prospects of being able to grow more of our own food and to not have to spend so much time watering.

I plan to do some more planting tomorrow, and hope to be able to get started on the irrigation system this weekend.

Chris

Wow! What a mess you had a week ago.

Put it all back together very neatly and even patched the fence with no evidence of egress. Good for you, Chris.

S'

eatsivy, that's an incredible transformation!

Lovely day to be outside, and I was mostly free so I could do so. Too wet still to dig, but I always have so much cleanup and such this time of year that there's no lack of things to do.

Thats an amazing job you did in your yard, Ivy! What a lot of work!

I bit the bullet and cut my grass for the first time yesterday! I usually try to hold off as long as I can, but the front was just totally shaggy and messy looking, and the backwell, the back was covered in cottonwood catkins! Yuck! What a mess! So I mostly cut back there just to vacuum up as much of the mess as I could! Another week or so and theyll all be down again for this yearand then I can spend a couple weeks cleaning the mess off of my perennials! Lets see! Have I mentioned before how much I hate cottonwoods! ;-)

Other than that, mostly Ive just been trying to get things ready for the swap this month. I have more things starting to bloom, but I dont have pictures of a lot of them yet. My hyacinths are still bloomingand, oh, how I love the scent! The pink ones are open too now, and theyre so pretty.

And heres a pic of my drumstick primrose, Primula denticulata. Theyre more fully open now, and I took another pic today of a couple of them, but dont have time to download my latest pics. When theyre completely open they form a perfectly round ball of flowers. Ive loved them ever since the first time I saw them. Last year they were TINY, so this is the first year theyre blooming and Im expecting great things of them next year!

The first flush of my Rocky Mountain Pasque Flower if done and Ive deadheaded it and it has a few dozen more buds coming along.

And my regular primroses are looking better and better every day, but I havent taken a picture for the last week or so. Creeping wallflower and candytuft are both starting to bloom. Phlox douglasii Cracker Jack is blooming, but its not blooming all at once this year! More of it is open now, but still not all of it. Last year the whole plant bloomed at the same time. I LOVE the bright color of that one!

Once the swap is over, I have a whole bunch of things I want to dig up and move, or dig up and improve the soil and replant. Plenty of work to last the summer!

I may not have much of a veggie garden at all this year! I absolutely must get new siding this yearsome of it is literally falling off the house!and since the early veggies are right up against the house and would get trampled, I havent put anything in yet. I should have gotten the siding last year, but put it off to "protect" my veggies! Dont have that choice this year. I havent started my tomatoes yet, so theyre gonna be late, but theyll get put in and arent next to the house, so as soon as I get the rest of the seed and get them started.........

And I HAVE already had one veggie harvest this year! When I was digging in the compost pile the end of march, I ran into a potato that was growing! Heres my harvest!

Isnt that cute!

And I have a new and improved version of my compost pile potato garden this year! Last year I just pulled some compost down on one side of the pile and planted the potatoes in it. This year I "constructed" a frame to contain the compost so I could make it deeper, raked some half finished compost into the bottom, lined the whole are with a couple dozen potatoes that were growing in my cabinet, and covered them deeply with more compost. Well see how much I get out of it this year, but if they all grow, the whole thing will be full of potatoes!

And then theres the swisschard thats been growing out there the whole winter this year!

The side of the garden where I do the warm season crops is far enough away from the house that I should be able to plant them at the right time. Still working on turning the area over and incorporating more compost into the soil. So I will have something, but probably no peas, lettuce, or spinach. I need to get moving here on finding a siding company, but its a job Im not looking forward toso Ive been
procrastinating!

Oh! One more thing! I didnt get these downloaded before the end of March, so they didnt get on that thread, but heres pics of the March 26 snow storm we had. Gotta love it when the neighbors shovel the walk and drive for you! And I didnt even need to leave, so it really didnt need to be shoveled!!!

And the real reason for posting these is to show you that flowers can survive the snow! Heres a pic of where I dug the daffodils out of the snow on the 28th.

The stems were bent "too far," so they had to be cut and brought in, but the flowers were fine!

Im gonna be working over the first couple days of May, so whoever is around here first, please start a new, Our Gardens in May thread!

Happy spring,
Skybird

Everything's looking good in your yard, Skybird! I'm very impressed.

Given that it's chill and gray out today, I'm happy that I planted my Earthbox with cabbages yesterday.

These are "Toy Choy", a dwarf variety of Bok Choy, and "Minuet", a Chinese-type cabbage. Fresh greens in May! Tomato seedlings are sulking because it's cold today, though.

Hi everyone, It's remained cool and partly cloudy here in our neck of the woods (south-central Idaho). Spent the weekend digging the trenches for my drip irrigation main lines, installing the mains, and backfilling. The digging took longer than expected. I was keen to make sure that my main lines would all slope to a couple of low points - where I could install valves for seasonal draining of the lines. It was that "grading" that was so time consuming.

Today I will get going on assembling and installing the drip lines themselves (I may be unemployed, but I have plenty of work to do :) If time allows I'd like to plant some carrots and a couple of other vegetables. We will see. Here are a few pics (enjoyed seeing your greens growing in your Earthbox jnfr - they look healthy. Skyb - lovely color - brightens my computater screen up nicely. bet your compost/potato factory pumps out some beauts. Gardenbutt - loved reading the article about your home - wow - what an incredible home you two have built! Hope everyone has great success with all your projects, and really looking forward to hearing and seeing more progress reports from everyone. Thanks for all the entertaining and informative posts everyone!

Main lines and riser assemblies installed and ready for backfill.

Where all the landscape plants "landed." The vegetable garden used to include a number of perennials and shrubs. Some may have survived to see another day. We will need to spend some time spreading these out to other parts of the property, or give some away to friends and neighbors.

This robin has taken a liking to me and my shovel. He was the early bird this spring - getting here at a time that I thought he might be too early. He stuck it out and is really territorial with our yard now. He has a little feather irregularity that makes him easy to identify. Looks like he has been in a scrap.

First, a picture taken a few days ago of some tulips and daffodils in bloom:

Here's a shot of one of the walkway beds this morning. You can see the tulips at the back of the bed. They don't look near as happy today.

Hopefully, the plants won't be damaged too much from the snow. The sun is already out, so I'm sure it will all be gone by the afternoon.

I am glad that I decided to bring the wintersown containers of tomato and basil sprouts into the garage last night though. Hmmm ... I just noticed my date stamp on those photos is off by a day. Guess I need to correct that. Did anyone else get snow last night?

Bonnie

I got probably about 5" here last nite, Bonnie. Its hard to tell exactly because its so wet and melted as it came down. Its melting fast, but the sun hasnt been out yet so theres still a good 2-3" left on the grass and flower beds. My pink hyacinths are all bent over and Im hoping theyll be able to stand back up by themselves when they melt off. If theyve bent too far, Ill cut them this afternoon and put them in water. It went down to 32 last nite, but everything else is looking fineeven the hostas and deciduous ferns which are all up already. With rain yesterday afternoon, and snow most of the nite, I wound up with almost an inch of water in my rain gauge! More grass to cut soon!

The funny thing is, I wasnt even supposed to be here, and wouldnt have even known it happened (the snow part) if my trip hadnt gotten messed up. I did a New Orleans turn yesterday, then was supposed to go to Calgary, butthere were severe storms from Oklahoma to Iowa and coming back to DEN we wound up going from New Orleans straight west to El Paso and then north up the front range to DEN! It was a long flite, and a bumpy tripand we missed our connection to Calgaryso here I am, back home for the day I was supposed to be in Calgarywhere they were also expecting snow! Guess home is as good as anywhereand last nite I covered the 6-paks of marigolds and lobelia I found, cheap, at Lowes a couple days ago! I think they would have been ok anyway, but I was glad to be here to cover them, just in case!

I have a bunch more things starting to bloom now, and Ill need to get some more pictures to post as soon as I can. Wish it were nice out, so I could get something done while Im sitting here today!

Groundbird

We got ~4" in the yard and its all gone now, save for a teeny patch or three on the north sides of things, melted almost too fast to move some around to places I want it. Nothing seemed to mind, even the peas poking up thru the soil.

And I sure don't miss digging trenches! Altho I do miss looking over everything when done and having happy clients.

Dan

I had 3" by midnight Sunday night and it was still snowing. I slept a little late and it was melting fast, so I don't know the total. I had about 7/8" in the rain guage though. We had just under an inch of moisture from the last snowstorm too.

My tulips are so close to blooming. Last year they froze and never opened. This year, I have tossed a bit of straw over them for these last 2 storms. I'd really like them to make it this year.

With the snowmelt, I have been able to see (finally) if the drainage aspect of last summer's backyard project would even work. I am getting to see where I need to tweak it a little and I don't have to get soaked in the process.

This is a photo from last fall.
{{gwi:288413}}From 2008 Backyard project

Today, I did discover some gopher tunnels I hadn't found yet. My neighbor's downspout must have filled a gopher tunnel on their side of the fence and traveled underground to my side of the fence, where it came gushing out. I know they baited (poison) the gophers recently, and I don't know where they put it. I hope if it was that tunnel that the poison is diluted enough that it won't cause problems for my pets or any other critters that drink the water in the "pools" (the rectangle w/river rock, bottom right in photo). I blocked the water flow when I remembered the poison. After the major melting stopped, I waited for it to soak in a bit then ran the hose from the sump pump into the "stream" and "pools" to hopefully flush them out some more. I had almost 2' of water in the sump that I ran through there. I have one dog who I have seen drink the water there (not today) but she seems fine tonight.

so I don't know the total.

CoCoRaHS knows.

:o)

Dan

We got a dusting last night.

I've made a first sowing of some lettuces, radishes, mustards, peas, spinach, chard, beets, and such.

This bed contains Cherry Belle Radish, French Breakfast radish, Turnip Hakurei, Mild Kingdom Mustard mix, tatsoi, mizuna, arugula, gaint red mustard, and Kailaan.

Take care all, eatsivy/Chris

Dan, CoCoRaHS doesn't really tell me much (thanks though) -
I live somewhere in the unlabeled white space. We are often on the line where moisture amounts change. Just to the north in Black Forest, they tend to get higher amounts of moisture and more severe weather. We're far enough east of COS and just high enough in elevation that we're different from there too. If they labelled where they measure it would help (me at least). I like the NOAA site for forecasts b/c they have a location marked. I know that it is just up the road a bit but not all they way in the midst of Black Forest. I don't seem to find any past info there though (unless I've just missed it).

'kay greenbean. This old weatherman would just make something up!

We had .5 in the rain gauge and ~4.5 inches, so that's a ~1:10 ratio, but we're north of the divide so who knows what you got down there...BTW, we're on a hillside here and our temps are quite a bit different than the ones down further in the ravine or up on top, so we can't get the temps everyone says.

Dan

I'm still kinda trying to figure out how our weather generally relates the the reported areas near us, especially when we're borderline for frost or a freeze. It's would also be handy for moisture amounts but now I have a rain gauge again (mine broke last year).

I know in summer, we're usually cooler than town -many times I have left my house wearing a light jacket but when I got out of the car in town, it was too hot for the jacket, and it's only a 15 min drive.