Hello Folks,

Don't know about any of you but, I have been taking advantage of the warm weather we have been having and have been working in the gardens. I have some of my tomato plants germinating. I have my sweet potatoes in jars waiting for them to "slip". I have tilled several sections of my gardens and all I am waiting for is SHUMWAY to send my lettuce seeds so I can start planting!

How about you folks?

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), February 17, 2002

Answers

Put in about a 3 foot row of radishes and a 6 foot row of spinach on Saturday in the sun trap beside the kitchen door. It's awful early for Indiana, but a few cents worth of seed is worth the gamble.

Otherwise I have been a mulch maniac, layering rabbit manure, paper feed sacks and wood chips around fruit trees and paving over most of a gone-to-weeds perennial bed. Sometime this week I hope to plant some potatoes in a polytunnel for fresh potatoes by Memorial Day.

Reassessing garden needs due to current needs -- more greens, less tomatoes, before I go hogwild with seed starting.

-- Sara in IN (urthmomma@aol.com), February 17, 2002.

I put this in another thread, but here is a more complete narrative of what I did today.

Worked my fanny off in the yard today. Put out four or five backpack spray rigs full of Round Up on fence lines, ditches, around trees, etc. Weeded and mulched five LARGE raised flower beds. This involved loading about 15 wheelbarrow loads of mulch from the big pile by the tractor shed, trundling them to the back yard, and spreading the mulch. Well, it used to be a big pile of mulch. LOL. I trimmed back a bunch of the plants that got nipped by the frost, and chopped down a tall confederate rose that I didn't like and also a big shrub that was too tall for where it was. Would have dug it up, but the roots were too tough and the ground too dry. I planted about a dozen iris bulbs, and two big clumps of fern that a friend brought me. I did a controlled burn on one of the flower beds that has bermuda grass in it. After the grass comes up through the mulch that I put on it, I can control it with Round Up. Cleaned out the small water feature I made for the wild doves. There are three kinds of doves in the yard now, mourning, ringneck, and Inca doves. I started moving hoses around to water the fruit trees and flower beds. It is VERY dry here. Made pizza from scratch for lunch, and did my grocery shopping this evening after it got too dark to work in the yard. Supper was leftover creamy potato mushroom soup that I made yesterday.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), February 17, 2002.

I can't wait to plant. Cale and I were discussing last night how to build our raised beds, and what we were going to plant. I don;t usually plant anything until mid-april ( cold weather crops) and don't set out any tomatoes until 2-3rd week of May. I am ready for Spring for sure!

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), February 18, 2002.

It's too wet and to early to do garden work here but it is time to be picking up fallen branches in the yard. A week ago we had some major ice and wind which brought down a lot of little branches. My husband and I have been discussing what to do with our chickens, when we do get our garden in. Some of them like to crawl under the chicken yard fence, some like to fly over. We haven't had this many chickens before nor this many getting out and over. I've read that they can wreck the seedlings in the garden. I did block the place where they crawl under but still have the fly overs to deal with. We're discussing some type of controlled run area. I'm waiting for my seed order to arrive!

-- Nancy (nannyb@huntel.net), February 18, 2002.

Hello Nancy,

I use my chickens as pest contril around my garden. What I have is a chicken moat which is two fences that go around the perimeters of my garden. The chickens live within the two fences and are able to catch most of the insects that cross over into the garden. They do not get into the garden this way. If you want to see pictures of my chicken moat or have specific questions on its construction please check on my webpage.

Sincerely, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), February 18, 2002.

Well got my garden rotatilled!! Traded some Rabbit poop for the rotatilling and my rabbit barn being cleaned!! The local Master Gardners are making some Demo gardens at the library and need the rabbit poop. They offered to come back anytime I need the barn cleaned! Yeah best trade I have done in a long time! Denise

-- Denise K. (Rabbitmom2@webbworks.com), February 19, 2002.

planted spinach,collards,mustard, beets, turnips, radish and lettuce. maybe some other I have forgotten. am in the process of renewing walkways with big cardboard boxes [a friend works at Walmart] held down with old boards and rakings from the woodpile.

-- carol (kanogisdi@yahoo.com), February 19, 2002.

Ernest, Been busy around here to . Have made some time to get out on the Harley tho :) . looking forward to seeing ya in Mansfeild .

Lee http://www.geocities.com/sugarmountain

-- Lee (sgrmtn@moaccess.com), February 21, 2002.