Friday, December 23, 2011

Another inch of rain...

Wishing for a white Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa? Had that rain last night been been snow we would have been digging out from under 8 to 12+ inches of snow this morning!

Think about that...

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Happy Holidays

Today is the winter solstice here in B-more. You know, the shortest day of the year (or the longest night), first day of winter and all that. 60 yesterday, 60 today and above normal temps. forecasted through the break. My warm weather plants don't know whether to die or start to bloom, AGAIN!

I hope everyone has a safe, enjoyable, restful, and peaceful break. If you prefer it warm this time of year, go enjoy it!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Hard Frosts

Don't know if you noticed, but the last few mornings the windshields and grass have been covered in a fairly good frost. For those that hate to scrape or pre-warm their car in the morning before heading off to work, think of all the good frost is doing for our horseradish.

The leaves are really starting to die back, so I am hoping we'll be harvesting in the next few day and at least before winter break.

Stay tuned!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Seed Collecting

Today was E3 Friday and the E3 gardeners (a mix of Kindergartners thru 5th graders) harvested seeds from the pollinator garden and the Urganic farm. Seeds from marigolds, black-eyed Susans, purple cone flowers, and a first for GSB, Zinnias were harvested.

The seeds were placed into plastic bags and labeled. The seeds are now inside drying and will be further cleaned in the coming months.

After seed collection, the students played garden Bingo. 5 columns and 4 rows of discovery in and around he gardens. Amazingly a student found a harlequin bug still on the horseradish, even after two pretty good frosts these last two mornings. Little buggers!

It was amazing to see the kids all bundled up with black-eyed Susans, purple cone flower, and marigolds still in bloom (or re-bloom) in the gardens. It is December, right?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

No snow!? Then let's make freezer jam

So, no snow for B-more! Oh so close. Western Maryland got 4 - 7" in places...

One thing about cold and gonna get cold for gardeners/farmers is you get caught up on reading and maintenance. Unless of course you have hoop houses and high tunnels, I don't know when y'all read or maintain anything.

So I am catching up on reading. I love periodicals; newspapers, trade papers, magazines, newsletters, etc. I am a bit older and haven't gotten used to digital reading, or blogs. I do like dog-earing and underlining and tearing out and holding - ironic that I blog, huh? Guess that is why I have four followers.

Any who, just finished reading a great article in Urban Farm July/August 2011 on Freezer Jam. What a cool concept. No cooking, just mashing and mixing and freezing or refrigerating. Sugar, instant fruit pectin, and fruit. Mash, mix, jar, and freeze for up to 1 year or use immediately from the 'fridge out to three weeks. I'm not super aware of copyright laws and in the interest of not stepping on toes go get the magazine or look up your own recipes.

Fresh fruit, you control sugar content and bingo, bango yummy spreads, ice-cream toppings, or yogurt infusions or whatever your creative mind can come up with.

I am always looking for ways to save my bounty. I have yet to learn how to can or hot jam. I do freeze and I do dry. The cool thing is that you can use fruit you have frozen in lieu of fresh - how about that for looking for some summer goodness in February!

Because I like to read and folks always ask what I want for Christmas or my b-day, I ask for subscriptions for the holidays and birthdays. If you like periodicals like me, here are some of my favorites you might consider asking for; Urban Farm (they have others in the series), Organic Gardening, Delmarva Farmer and Mid-Atlantic Grower (www.americanfarm.com), and Grit magazine. There are other good ones out there, visit a newsstand to try a few on.

Happy reading!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

So there is a chance of snow in the forecast late Wednesday into early Thursday morning. Right now we are 15 degrees above normal at 62 degrees. I don't know if we will be hearing sleigh bells ring anytime soon in B-more, but we are just fourteen days away from winter solstice.

I just started to read an article in Urban Farm magazine about container gardening. If you have read this blog at all you know I have a slight (tongue-in-cheek) interest in productive container gardens. Any who, in one of their large containers they produced nearly 5 pounds of carrots. 5 pounds!!!

Jealous...

Any who, they list container friendly root crops that are successful in containers so I will be sure to be experimenting. If you dig urban farming like I do check them out http://www.urbanfarmonline.com

Did I say let it snow?

Monday, December 5, 2011

Black-eyed Susans in bloom!

Yes, it is true. December 5th, 2011 and our black-eyed Susan's are thriving and in bloom again. This warm weather is something else. Highs in the 50's this past week-end and a high expected in the low 60's today. Even the fig tree is budding. I am curious if the peppers will start to bloom again.

This time last year we were days a way from skiing and Ski liberty had skiable snow on 90% of the mountain. We have lost pansies to this heat and have cool weather transplants leftover that I didn't think we could get to that are in great shape and ready to go in the ground.

You should also see the marigolds that are thriving in the garden - crazy I say!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Seed Catalogs

Speaking of seed catalogs, I receive a bunch of e-mail from folks I buy seeds from. I enjoy looking at all of the new offerings - from flowers, to fruits and veggies and everything in between. Burpee has just introduced some new hybrids for 2012 - http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/vegetable-collection-burpee-s-boost-prod002751.html?cid=EM_2011_11_30_TopNEW2012Introductions&

Burpee is one of those road trips I want to make. I guess that is a sign of age. First it was a road trip to Ocean City, then Atlantic City, then Las Vegas, then a foreign country or two and now Burpee. They are located just up the road in Pennsylvania. They have different events and of course lots of trial gardens. Maybe I'll get my act together this summer and go. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy their catalog and seeds.