gardening

I would give anything to dig my hands in the soil and get dirt all caked under my fingernails. I miss spring and summer! Our ground is frozen solid. Not a darn thing to do in the garden these days!

A couple days before Christmas I went out to clip and snip some green sand berries to bring in for some arrangements. It felt so good! Come on spring...

Its even been unusually cold here in Vegas. I feel sorry for folks that have come here for the holidays for some fun in the sun, ain't any!!! Dark and dreary out here and colder than it should be...brrrr! No show though and thats a good thing.

Chatty

You have OUR weather. It was 70 on Christmas. Unfathomable!

Stay warm!

Danita

60s and 70s here. I've been eyeing my yard and thinking about how this would be a good time to do something.

It will get to 55 here today. I'm think I'm taking an afternoon walk. My son and husband are skiing/snowboarding for the day with a couple other fathers and sons. They probably won't even have to wear jackets.

But the ground is still frozen!

Suppose to be 55 today here also. Even during the winter if I find a warm day, I rather walk outside. We have a lot of inclines, that make for a better workout.

Contractors, are out today with my door...whole frame is gone right now, so it's a bit cold in here this morning.
Sun in hitting on the trees out back, it's looking to be a warm sunny day later on.

Dotsie...I am so with you..."Come On SPRING"...pleaaaaaaase!!!..Now that Christmas is over I am missing the green lawns and flowering, leafy trees...maybe we should start a countdown to spring...

Great idea...and TVC150 can probably tell us some "gardening" things we could be doing right now in preparation for the Spring. Or maybe there are some things that could be started "inside" until then...You can tell I don't have a clue what I'm talking about here. But I've always been interested in reading about, and playing around with garden stuff. TVC150?

JJ

I always use the winter to plan next year's garden. I go through gardening catalogs and buy seeds. I make diagrams of where I want to plant things in my yard. When it gets closer to planting time you can start your seeds indoors in a sunny window.

JJ, it's funny that you brought this up because I have a new article up this week (finally) and at the bottom of it is a winter gardening idea for growing a sweet potato vine indoors.

And while you're there check out whose book I recommended this week!

You can find the article here:
www.gardenandhearth.com/gardencooking/Growing-Sweet-Potatoes.htm

Well slap my grandmaw...I didn't know that Sweet Potatoes and Yams were two different veggies. I guess everyone on here knew that, right? Well, I sure didn't. Hmmm...learn something new every day!

JJ

TVC, I LOVE gardening catalogs. There's nothing more relaxing than sitting on cold winter's night and shuffling through those pages of gorgeous flowers.

Jawjaw, I didn't know either. Hmmm. I really didn't know that. I thought they were one and the same.

Avalon, you're just north of me in PA. We're in this together.

Dots
I planted tulip bulbs yesterday -- The small yellow turkish ones. I'd bought them from a girl who was doing a fundraiser for school and she delivered them at the end of November. I was way to busy to plant them. A lot of the ground is frozen, but there was a spot where the ground was sofrt so that's where they went.

Hey you guyyyyyysssss!!!

I just bought a sweet potato and a yam to start plants for the house. I wasn't sure which one has the lime green leaves, so decided to plant both. One of them has a kind of purplish cast to the leaves, and is the pointy kind of leaf. This I know because, last year, I planted one , but now I can't remember which. LOL. I'm such a gardener wanna be. As JJ knows, every year, I pour through those beautiful catalogues (and I get them from everywhere, in the mail. They think I know what I'm doing, because I actually spend money I don't have on them!) And every year , I go out and plant and plant and plant. Everything looks so beautiful. Til' it hits 80 degrees. Then, because I might have to sweat, and be HOT, I can't stand it. Back in the door I go.

Is there anywhere to garden where it doesn't get above 80? Well, really, 75? Actually, 70 sounds nice............

DJ, what are turkish tulips? Are they the ones that barely look like tulips, but are short and have a blossom that spreads out? Super pretty?

So maybe I'm just a spring and fall gardener. That would work , wouldn't it?

Winter is our green season, because we get some rain and the weather is pleasant. I call it our alleged rainy season, because some years we don't get much. Last year it was too rainy and my beautiful cactus crashed. Never freezes here, so you can plant almost anything in the fall and winter. Summer is hot and drought dry and everything dies and is brown. In the summer, all I can do is water and hope that my plants don't die.

If we get a little more rain, the hills may go from brown to green. Right now my jade bush is in full bloom and the aloes are growing their flower stalk.

Yes it is true, yams and sweet potatoes are two completely different animals but you really don't have to worry about it because for cooking they can be used as one and the same.

I planted regular perrenial tulips last month. Mine are red and pink. I'm told they don't do as well here in the south as they did in NY because it doesn't get cold enough for them in the winter but I love tulips and decided to give them a chance. I planted them extra deep. Now I can't wait until spring to see how they turn out.

I'm going to transplant my sweet potatoe vines outside once it gets warm enough too!

They're animals? I thought they were vegatables. Now I'm really confused.

Dotsie, you're a hoot.

And then there are all sorts of varieties of yams and sweet potatoes so if you're trying to find the one with the lime green leaves that they sell in garden centers in the summer, you might not get it from a regular store bought variety.

Searcher, actually tulips originated in the Turkey part of the world, so these do look a lot like tulips! But they're only 6-8" tall, unlike the Darwin hybrids which are the most commonly known. Tulips all have six petals and all look like each other when the leaves are spread wide open.

TVC15 Check with a professional, but I believe you can 'force' your bulbs for a showier display by storing them for several weeks in the refrigerator so they get that exposure to cold they need to really get going.

Thanks starting over but that would mean I'd have to dig them up again!
My sweet potato vine has green leaves that have purple veins. Really pretty! (Came from the grocery store)

[ December 30, 2005, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: TVC15 ]

I have over 30 different kinds of plants in my breakfast room. It is surrounded with glass doors and a big sky light so it's perfect for plants. It helps me keep my gardening connection until Spring arrives and I can marvel at the sea of yellow and various colors of daffodils that I have all around our yard.

I also like to visit nurseries at this time of the year to check out any new species of house plants I'd like to try. I admit I do have a green thumb.