End of growing season? Still picking a few tomatoes. Cut a bouquet of roses for my wife yesterday. Two bunches of bananas still growing (will never mature). No killing frost in sight, according to seven day forecast. Too durn early to give up. Love this global warming, this time of the year.
Norm

What is this "end" you speak of? ;-) Seriously though, i'm growing a ton of herbs indoors (my wife was nice enough to donate the top of her computer desk for them & is regretting it! lol). My Christmas hope is to consgtruct a homemade greenhouse to make the end of the growing season nonexistant! =) I will be somewhat limited as to what I can grow in it due to not wanting a $1000 electric bill, but it will still be wayyyyyyy better than waiting till February or when ever to start seeds again!

Knock Wood, also still have roses, kerria japonica(yellow texas rose), red quince, geraniums, salvia, turtleheads, asters, and iris blooming. Gathering-peppers, and greens. Recently planted more spring blooming bulbs.
Babying brugs, and some of the smaller potted plants from the swap.
Searching (free) catalogs helps. I only order the ones that say they have a privacy policy. Enjoy reading about new plants and comparing prices from the different companies, especially in Jan/Feb when it is so cold.

Wanda

LOL! Jenn, I feel your pain. I'm right there with you. I can't stop. Guess what I've been doing this week? Rustling roses. LOL!! I have a couple of ghetto greenhouses on my kitchen counter made from soda bottles, and I'm also trying the soda bottle over cuttings in the garden over winter method.

Ever since we emailed after the swap, I've been in plant-rustling mode. What a bad influence you are!! I also have eight small cuttings from a Honeycomb Buddleia that I'm trying to root outside over winter. I put them in about three weeks ago, and they're hanging in there so far. If more than one of these makes it, I'll bring to the swap. :)

I finally pulled my last squash plants and peppers and put them in the compost a couple of days ago--maybe end of summer garden but the greens are growing, garlic sprouting, onions almost ready to eat as scallions--and I've got low tunnels started--as much for late insects as for protection from weather. Hoop house will be rebuilt soon. Elliot Coleman has a couple of books about 4 season gardening--and he's in Maine!--so I figure Tennessee ought to be great for overwintering and growing through the year.
Green houses--There's a good tutorial at Doorgarden.com about building an inexpensive hoophouse and Mother Earth has some ideas about cheap greenhouses from salvaged material in the current issue and online.
Actually only three seasons in Tennessee---Planting, Harvesting and Seed Catalog!!!

Planting, harvesting and seed catalogue ~ I like that!

Can't give up gardening in the winter. I have citrus trees, a bay tree, and a cinnamon tree in pots inside for the winter. The limequat and calmondin are both blooming and smell wonderful. Also have parsley, sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, German thyme and basil growing in pots in the house. I love walking by the rosemary and "accidentally" brushing it as I pass. What lovely fragrance.

I haven't been as succesfull as i'd hoped with my Winter plants. My main large "Mother of 1000" died cuz I left it out on the cold rain. :( But, it being quite the mother (hahaha), I have a baby of its that i'm trying to nurse into adulthood. So, all my sorrow of possibly loosing my favorite Fall swap plant may be gone. Yay! I have also sucessfully rooted all the Red Dragon Flower cuttings Wanda gave me & my original plant I had to cut off most of has grown 2-3 new branches and is back in full swing! Also, one of my African Violets has about 6-7 flowers in full bloom on it & looks beautiful!!! The only Winter downfalls (besides the mother of 1000 plant) have been a few herbs that didn't make it, but overall i'm happy with the frigid season results so far. =)

Steve, Thrilled your red dragons are doing well! I have several rooted and my original has taken off also, longest part 31" long with a baby near the bottom. Did the long one survive?
Still babying several plants, and all this cold is not helping. I do have two Christmas cactus blooming, and pregnant onion still blooming. Searching in all the seed catalogs and making a list.

Wanda

Wanda: Yes, the long one did survive! =) My original one that I had to cut like 80% off of is doing great & the 3-4 babies I have are also doing great. I imagine they are still getting used to their new homes and will probably put out some new branches within the next few months.

I spent two hours outside yesterday mulching up pine needles, pine cones and assorted leaves. I have some compost now that is fine as frog hair. My finger and toes almost fell off but the compost is SWEET!

howdy, Maddie here (short for Madgardener ) I decided to return and peek through the postings to see if there was a place for my insatiable need for horticultural endeavors. Yeppers! I am gardening inside to satiate my urges to grow....but that weren't enough. I pinched a few leggy purple leaf ends of an overpriced but way leggy ornamental Gynura aurantiaca (purple passion vine) and brought them home and started them in my rooting bottle (an older glass apple bottle I bought in Colorado that had apple juice almost 27 years ago, I believe now the apple shaped bottles are now plastic) and I just planted it. Right now I have a Sanseveria that has a spike on the end of it's rolled up leaves and makes it look like a green tail of sorts that has a bloom spike about to open its flowers, a crown of thorns that has both red and white flowers on it, a kalanchole that turned out to have red flowers, a Rubra oxalis that I got from Logee's years ago that has never failed me making buds on the little tree like plant. Next to it, upset at the dryness of my house is the Green and gold oxalis which always sulks during winter. It more looks like a small shrub underneath the Rubra I planted at the same time in the same pot.
I also have a wide assortment of various spiny cacti, succulents, and an unusual tradescantia that turned out to be tropical that I finally had a fellow gardener find it's name after for over 29 years I referred to it as "Dutch pipe, or Cherokee pipe plant" which was totally false. It turned out to be a Setcresea Purpurea (Tradescantia Cousin) as far as I know.
I also have a cactus named Brenda who weighs 150 pounds in the 20 gallon pot who blooms at night in September which is an upright Cereius and a monstrosa cactus that is really old in a clay pot weighing in around 60 pounds who has refused to bloom yet that I've had now for well on 30 years. A schiffelera that is over seven foot tall that I hung Christmas decorations on because we couldn't get a tree, and no room in our new den because all the tender house plants (including the 5 gallon clay pot full of 22 year old Blood lily bulbs) needed to come in before killing freeze. Yep, I can't seem to give it up either. I have shallots, red onions, and garlic with shoots up in the new garden, narcissus and other little bulbs I planted in November starting to come up already because I'm unsure of what it's like here in Western Tennessee.

thanks for listening!
maddie gardening in zone 7b 50 miles about from the Mississippi River near Jackson, TN

Buy bulbs and stick them in the fridge then pull them out and plant, wahlah.
The Fall just gave me my signal to start my indoor seeds and herbs. I do alot of research during this time too.

The Christmas cactus show is over for now but still have paperwhites and an orchid in bloom in the kitchen. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned winter sowing. I started in late December and have sprouts of money plant and sweet williams already. Sowed more containers today. That's what gets me through these cold days.

Well, the 2010 season has begun for me! =) I started seeds for the following maters this past Saturday: Rutgers, Persimmon, Wisconsin 55, Better Boy & Sweet Million. Yay!!! I just couldn't wait any longer...lol...Hopefully, i'll get a great germination rate like I normally do and have several of these plants to bring to the Spring swap.