You are much, much smarter than I am - I spent most of the weekend raking the back yard. On the plus side, it did give me plenty of time to look around and figure out what needs to be done where.

Also checked on my wintersown containers and gave my neighbors a free show with all the gleeful jumping and happy dancing. I've got African daisies, hollyhocks, lettuce, marigolds and sunflowers popping up in milk jugs, baggies and foil pans. Good thing I did all that raking, so I know where to put all the seedlings that are coming up!

What a great weekend, I was outside from morning until night. I raked and cleaned up, stained our fence, moved pea gravel into a small path area, transplanted a few perennials, planted some lettuce and radishes.

Picoteeladybug,
I am right next to you in Waushara county and my wintersown containers have not popped yet. You are lucky.... Raked all day. Looked at all all the perrienals waiting to start growing. Started more seed in the gh. What a wonderful weekend. Oh and hung bluebird houses. We had one on our garden fence. Barb

This past weekend was great. I cleaned up most of my gardens. Hubby and I did a lot of tree trimming too. We have a large Linden that we did some trimming on. It's over a part of my back garden. Luckily I was out there when he was trimming, because he was going in my garden! I couldn't believe it. He thought because you couldn't see the plants up yet, that it wouldn't hurt them if he stepped on them. I have mostly hosta and 2 b. Jack Frosts in that garden and none of them are up yet. I just hope he didn't damage anything when I wasn't looking. Now I look out at my gardens around the garage and the daylilies, sedum and irises are really showing now. I still have to trim the dead canes from my roses yet. But at least I'm seeing signs of life now. :)

Kat

I was so glad to finally get out in the garden, this past weekend! It's been a long winter.

I trimmed the dead canes from the roses (and stacked them around some small shrubs that are a rabbit buffet when the new growth starts), and generally cleaned up the garden. Visited with all the neighbors who were also outside (after hibernating all winter), and planned to exchange the perennials we're going to be separating soon.

Sunday night was....2 Aleve and a cup of tea.

Monday I didn't do much outside since I worked during the day and evening was cold. However, the lawn needed a dethatching pretty bad. I spotted a guy doing it for a neighbor. Looked like the riding machine he was using was doing a really nice job and it bagged the dead grass instead of leaving it.

At first he didn't want to do my lawn as he said he was booked up for the year. A little cold, hard, green stuff changed his mind though ;-) (I really don't enjoy dethatching)

So, one more thing off the list!

yep....was a LOVELY weekend...

spent saturday out in the garden cleaning up the beds...

sunday was spent at miller park routing on the brewers to a win....

totally great weekend...

jill

Got my truck's emission tested. It Passed!
Picked up one of my prescriptions.
Went to the garden center and picked up a landscape planner packet.
Received two trellises for my self watering trough planters. Had to send one back because it was damaged.

All in all, not a bad day though.

Yippee!!
Planted lettuce, chard, snap peas, radishes, spinach. Dug in the litter from my chicken coop (moved the girls to their summer palace too).
Started indoors: tomatoes, snapdragons, love-in-a-mist, sweet annie, bishops flower. Want to try a cutting garden this year, but I don't yet know where I'm gonna put everything. Dug out 2 of my 3 sage (culinary) plants and potted them up for family members. Flipped the compost and prepped a new bin. Started a worm bin! There's a company in Racine that sold me 1lb of red worms for $18. I checked the feed store for onion seedlings - not in yet. I'm talking about Klema Feeds in Franksville. They get theirs from Texas, so no shipments until weather is safer. Does anyone know a local source? I'm not thrilled to plant onions from so far away. What gives?
I've still got loads of dead stuff to cut down from last year - prerennials plus sunflower stalks, etc.
Put up bluebird houses plus a nuthatch house about a week ago. Something's been nibbling on the oranges I put out, but it can't be an oriole yet.

I enjoyed the beautiful (past) weekend, like the rest of you, catching all the fresh air and sunshine I could - ending up with very rosey cheeks.

The neighbor, his daughter, my hubby and I did our own "power raking" by hand, to remove the gravel from our lawn near the driveway edges. Nothing like a good Spring workout to remind me of all the muscles I have, that I forgot I had, until the next day when they screamed at me for abusing them!

DH was in the mood to moove a shrub for me - a Yellow Twig Dogwood - that I had been hinting about all winter. He dug it out of a garden bed where it was getting too big. We gave it a place of its own in a lawn area where it can show off all by itself. I now have more room in the flower bed to add about 5 more daylilies!

Getting more rain here today, to add to the flooding of the creeks and rivers and lowlands, which we sure don't need. But I'm not complaining, since I'd rather have this than a drought.

Julie

Could somone enlighten me on wintersown containers. That is a new term to me and I am interested in how it is done.
Thanks

The most 'official' source of wintersowing information can be found here.

Monday I picked my most ready/least weedy raised bed and got the quack grass out of it as best I could. Moved compost from two containers into it (lasagna beds always settle over time) and planted away. Swiss chard, spinach, kohlrabi, many types of lettuce, radishes, arugula, dill, cilantro, beets, cabbage, collards (never planted them before), kale, and broccoli. Left a little space for nasturiums, and it already has onion growing in it. Also mucked some of the material in another raised bed around, still adding old produce to that one.

Today I filled 11 five gallon buckets and 5 metal bushel baskets with horse manure and have them (covered) in the back of my truck waiting for the rain to stop. Will be mixing it with leaves (other people's bagged leaves gathered last fall) into the 2 containers I emptied into my raised bed yesterday. In the summer I will use some of that as mulch around my tomato plants.

I also carried several buckets of old produce outside to fling into my garden beds, mostly cucumbers, bananas, and a few oranges. Still have lots of bananas on the kitchen table waiting to go out, although some may be lucky and turn into more banana pancakes (today) or banana fritters (Sat.) or banana bread.

Marcia

Jung's has their onion sets out now, along with spuds, asparagus,&c. in their bare root room. Just went to look, came home with blue seed potatoes, an English rose and some raspberry bushes! Not sure if there's a location near you, though.

Have any of your WS babies started popping yet, Rosepedal?

I hate to admit how truly lazy I am...but I just took down the christmas lights from outside...LOL

Dave

Picoteeladybug,

I checked them today and still no sprouts. Argh I have terrible problems in the greenhouse. I sprayed my balsam impatience and they are mad. They were just starting to bloom too. I think I have spidermites. I used murphys oil soap dishsoap and oil mixed with water.

I am gonna go to menards tommorow to pick up neem oil. They also got my malva it was getting so big. Shucks... Cleaned the little ponds out today full of leaves. The fiance is hooking up water outside. That will be so nice when it is done. It is supposed to warm up. Yipee Barb

About two weeks ago I dug a new flower bed in the front yard and a vegetable bed in the back. A week and a half ago I put in a bunch of composted manure into the bed in the back and planted onions, peas, spinach, and lettuce. I also noticed that the garlic I planted last fall is poking up through the leaves I used to mulch it, so I side-dressed some manure on them and cleared away a bit of the mulch so the soil would warm up faster in the sun.

Last weekend I turned over some area in the main side-yard garden, added more manure, and then planted my potatoes. Three different heirloom kinds I got from Seed Savers (the garlic is heirloom, too), Caribe, French Fingerling, and All Blue.

This weekend I started my heirloom tomato seeds. Two pots each of 36 varieties. I'm going for variety this year to judge which types I want to keep planting in the future. Assuming they all make it to planting time, I'll probably only plant one of each and then give the others away, since I'm limited on space. I also cleaned out my worm bins this weekend so I'd have a ready supply of worm compost for the upcoming season. I like to use a 50/50 mix of potting soil and worm compost when I re-pot my tomato seedlings, and I like to through in a scoopful when I plant. The tomato plants seem to just love it.

Oh, I have some other small stuff started in the basement, too. Some peppers, brussel sprouts, and a bunch of prairie flowers that my wife requested for the new bed in the front.

I'd like to get out soon and get the rest of the garden and the new beds ready by loosening up the soil and adding manure. That's my task for this coming weekend.

Mike

Where do you get composted manure? Can you purchase it or beg for it from local farmers? I've got several more raised beds I need to fill.

I planted peas, chard and lettuce in my raised beds this weekend. I also got my tomato, pepper, and miscellaneous other seeds started indoors. Some of my seeds are old so we'll see what comes up and what doesn't!
Astrid

Astrid,

I buy my composted manure/humus at Menards or Home Depot at around $1 for a 40-pound bag. Usually I'll go through $20-30 worth in spring when I'm planting and a bit more later for side-dressing. It would be more efficient to get it all at once from a garden/landscape supplier, but my city lot is too small and I have no driveway so I literally don't have anywhere to put it. And I don't have to worry that it's composted enough so it doesn't burn my plants. Also, I can purchase it as I need it, since the Menards is only a few miles away. But I also don't think it's as nutritious for my plants as a fresh manure composted down, or as cheap. So it's a trade off.

Mike

Today with the wind being what it is all I did was put row cover material over a self watering container with a single cabbage in it.

My son (3rd grade) was given a plant by the Bonnie company to grow and take a photo of. This is a giant cabbage and we only have the one so I don't want the wind damaging it.

I love how in Wisconsin springs it seems everytime we get nice temps, the wind kicks up to an uncomfortable degree.

We just can't win ;-)

I love how in Wisconsin springs it seems everytime we get nice temps, the wind kicks up to an uncomfortable degree.

I just experienced that today after coming home from work. I was looking forward to a nice late afternoon dose of fresh air, possibly transplanting a few perennials. But with the nasty wind gusts, didn't want a newly transplanted perennial to dry out, so I resorted to pulling weeds.....dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and a lined windbreaker, and I STILL got cold!

Julie

I raked my front yard. Marveled at the happy and cheerful crocus around one tree. Secretely gloated that a neighbors packing peanuts that the recycling guys let fly all over my yard, had moved on to other neighboring lawns. Was thrilled that both big containers of pelorgonium that I just wheeled into the garage last winter had survived and was showing growth. Now am not sure what to do with them. Water and move outdoors?
Water and keep in the garage?

Dang near blew away on my many errands around town today.
Pondy