The seed catalogues have been coming for some time now. The
gardening column in our paper said it is time to start onions, leeks,
broccoli, etc. inside. I bought fresh onion seed and need to get the
planting trays out and cleaned up.

My garlic is still standing up despite 20° F weather. If it gets warm
enough one afternoon soon I will get out and prune off all of the dead
branches on the herbs. Maybe I will keep some of the leaves. Should
be the same as drying them.

I have a program that tracks my seeds and keeps records like where did
I buy them, when did I start them (in the greenhouse or in the
garden), when did I set them out and when did they start producing. My
biggest problem is that the company went out of business a few years
ago and every time I change computers I have to go through and fix a
bunch of stuff. Seems to be working now. Fortunately it is not an
installed program. Too bad Win 7 wants to do too much for you and it
is not always what you want.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a
To find your extension office
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

In article ,
The Cook wrote:

The seed catalogues have been coming for some time now. The
gardening column in our paper said it is time to start onions, leeks,
broccoli, etc. inside. I bought fresh onion seed and need to get the
planting trays out and cleaned up.

My garlic is still standing up despite 20° F weather. If it gets warm
enough one afternoon soon I will get out and prune off all of the dead
branches on the herbs. Maybe I will keep some of the leaves. Should
be the same as drying them.

I have a program that tracks my seeds and keeps records like where did
I buy them, when did I start them (in the greenhouse or in the
garden), when did I set them out and when did they start producing. My
biggest problem is that the company went out of business a few years
ago and every time I change computers I have to go through and fix a
bunch of stuff. Seems to be working now. Fortunately it is not an
installed program. Too bad Win 7 wants to do too much for you and it
is not always what you want.

Here the day time temps are in the high 60s F to low 70s F. Night time
temps running around 27 to 31 F. We have had 2" of rain to date. Last
year it was 22". Presently, there is no rain in sight.

http://pressdemocrat.com/article/20140108/news/140109698#page=0

Looking like it will be near impossible to grow a garden this year, if
we don't get some rain soon.
--
Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg

The Cook wrote:

The seed catalogues have been coming for some time now. The
gardening column in our paper said it is time to start onions, leeks,
broccoli, etc. inside. I bought fresh onion seed and need to get the
planting trays out and cleaned up.

i'm always interested in what you are planting,
methods, etc. especially when it comes to onions.
this past season i harvested several hundred
onion seeds and so have them on hand for planting,
but my results so far for onions have been mixed.
mostly i think because the weather last year was
poor during prime bulbing time, but also because
the starts were not very good, the soil is gradually
improving, but perhaps not enough.


My garlic is still standing up despite 20° F weather. If it gets warm
enough one afternoon soon I will get out and prune off all of the dead
branches on the herbs. Maybe I will keep some of the leaves. Should
be the same as drying them.

garlic here is under 1ft of snow/ice. the bunnies are
running around making tracks in the snow. i have yet to
see any sign that the owls/hawks are doing the honors for
me so i may have to hunt them come spring.

it depends upon the herb, but some will not have
nearly the same flavor when left on the plant and
out in the elements as compared to harvested and
dried.


I have a program that tracks my seeds and keeps records like where did
I buy them, when did I start them (in the greenhouse or in the
garden), when did I set them out and when did they start producing. My
biggest problem is that the company went out of business a few years
ago and every time I change computers I have to go through and fix a
bunch of stuff. Seems to be working now. Fortunately it is not an
installed program. Too bad Win 7 wants to do too much for you and it
is not always what you want.

i took a look on the web for open source seed saving
software of any kind. found a few, but nothing that
made me think it would be fitting for what you seem to
be indicating. the name of the old program would be
helpful so i can see if i can find a description of
it and what it does.


songbird

In article ,
songbird wrote:

The Cook wrote:

The seed catalogues have been coming for some time now. The
gardening column in our paper said it is time to start onions, leeks,
broccoli, etc. inside. I bought fresh onion seed and need to get the
planting trays out and cleaned up.

i'm always interested in what you are planting,
methods, etc. especially when it comes to onions.
this past season i harvested several hundred
onion seeds and so have them on hand for planting,
but my results so far for onions have been mixed.
mostly i think because the weather last year was
poor during prime bulbing time, but also because
the starts were not very good, the soil is gradually
improving, but perhaps not enough.


My garlic is still standing up despite 20° F weather. If it gets warm
enough one afternoon soon I will get out and prune off all of the dead
branches on the herbs. Maybe I will keep some of the leaves. Should
be the same as drying them.

garlic here is under 1ft of snow/ice. the bunnies are
running around making tracks in the snow. i have yet to
see any sign that the owls/hawks are doing the honors for
me so i may have to hunt them come spring.

The permaculture books I've read says that at some point the predators
will become aware of the easy pickin's you got, and balance will return
to Happy Valley. ;O)

it depends upon the herb, but some will not have
nearly the same flavor when left on the plant and
out in the elements as compared to harvested and
dried.


I have a program that tracks my seeds and keeps records like where did
I buy them, when did I start them (in the greenhouse or in the
garden), when did I set them out and when did they start producing. My
biggest problem is that the company went out of business a few years
ago and every time I change computers I have to go through and fix a
bunch of stuff. Seems to be working now. Fortunately it is not an
installed program. Too bad Win 7 wants to do too much for you and it
is not always what you want.

i took a look on the web for open source seed saving
software of any kind. found a few, but nothing that
made me think it would be fitting for what you seem to
be indicating. the name of the old program would be
helpful so i can see if i can find a description of
it and what it does.


songbird
--
Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 08:37:45 -0500, songbird
wrote:

The Cook wrote:

The seed catalogues have been coming for some time now. The
gardening column in our paper said it is time to start onions, leeks,
broccoli, etc. inside. I bought fresh onion seed and need to get the
planting trays out and cleaned up.

i'm always interested in what you are planting,
methods, etc. especially when it comes to onions.
this past season i harvested several hundred
onion seeds and so have them on hand for planting,
but my results so far for onions have been mixed.
mostly i think because the weather last year was
poor during prime bulbing time, but also because
the starts were not very good, the soil is gradually
improving, but perhaps not enough.

I buy seed for Granex and Red Burgundy onions. I managed to get 144
seeds planted in the plastic trays in the greenhouse yesterday. I
also got the dead material off of the herbs. it is going into one of
the compost boxes. Yesterday it was almost 60°F so I did what really
needed to be done. Cold today and they are predictions 12°F tomorrow
morning and maybe some snow tonight.


My garlic is still standing up despite 20° F weather. If it gets warm
enough one afternoon soon I will get out and prune off all of the dead
branches on the herbs. Maybe I will keep some of the leaves. Should
be the same as drying them.

garlic here is under 1ft of snow/ice. the bunnies are
running around making tracks in the snow. i have yet to
see any sign that the owls/hawks are doing the honors for
me so i may have to hunt them come spring.

it depends upon the herb, but some will not have
nearly the same flavor when left on the plant and
out in the elements as compared to harvested and
dried.


I have a program that tracks my seeds and keeps records like where did
I buy them, when did I start them (in the greenhouse or in the
garden), when did I set them out and when did they start producing. My
biggest problem is that the company went out of business a few years
ago and every time I change computers I have to go through and fix a
bunch of stuff. Seems to be working now. Fortunately it is not an
installed program. Too bad Win 7 wants to do too much for you and it
is not always what you want.

i took a look on the web for open source seed saving
software of any kind. found a few, but nothing that
made me think it would be fitting for what you seem to
be indicating. the name of the old program would be
helpful so i can see if i can find a description of
it and what it does.


The program is Seed Planner. If it looks interesting, email me. This
is a workable address.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a
To find your extension office
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:39:20 -0500, Derald wrote:

The Cook wrote:

The seed catalogues have been coming for some time now. The
gardening column in our paper said it is time to start onions, leeks,
broccoli, etc. inside. I bought fresh onion seed and need to get the
planting trays out and cleaned up.
Thank goodness, I received only one catalog this year and that from
a particularly hard-headed vendor. I have no interest in them and the
coated stock on which many are printed isn't even good for starting a
fire! Did receive what should be my only seed order for the spring
season last week. Still looking for a suitable "French" filet bean to
replace the Delinel variety that I grew for so many years, so this
year's package includes two "new-to-me" varieties. Down here, bulbing
onions generally are transplanted in December. Those grown for their
tops only may be planted in all but the hottest months because, even
under the best conditions, they'll never make bulbs down here—not even
"global warming" is going to change day length. This past fall, I
direct seeded the cooking onions in one bed and they are doing as well
as the transplants so that's what I'll do next fall. The onions seem to
be getting along with the garlic, carrots, lettuce, cauliflower,
broccoli raab and bok choy with which they're sharing beds and (most of)
which will be long gone by the time the onions are ready.

My garlic is still standing up despite 20° F weather.
Serious questions:

What does that mean?

What would it otherwise do and—assuming a relationship to
temperature—at what temperature range would you expect the garlic to do
it?

I'm inferring the absence of snow cover; if cold weather usually kills
the tops h ow cold does it have to get and for how long?

As far as I remember, the cold here has never killed the garlic. It's
just that 20°F is miserably cold. The garlic was planted in last
October and is about 6" tall. I buy garlic from Costco and use the
largest cloves for planting. After this year I will start again to
save the largest cloves for planting. I had been doing that for
several years but last year was such a flop that I started over.

My garlic (a warm climate "Creole" variety) spent two months in the
'fridge at ±33° before planting and is growing apace: The first
planting is now approximately 28" tall (measured it this morning) and
the second, set out two weeks later, is not far behind. Down here,
temps in the low 30's are occasional (and of short duration—hours);
those in the 20's, unusual. I cover the garlic when expected overnight
lows would harm the mustard and the turnip greens (near freezing). Can
I assume the garlic in full flush to be hardy to those temps? If so,
I'll stop wasting my time, then. I don't have enough planted this year
to "test" but next year I'll set some in a container that will remain
exposed.

If it gets warm enough one afternoon soon I will get out and prune off all of the dead
branches on the herbs. Maybe I will keep some of the leaves. Should
be the same as drying them.
Lemme know how that works out. I'm pessimistic. Freezing ruptures
cell walls (not necessarily a "bad" thing) and does not destroy the
chlorophyll. Proper low-temperature drying reduces moisture,
concentrates flavor, mellows volatile aromatics (chew a fresh bay leaf
to see what I mean), leaves cell walls intact (not necessarily a "good"
thing) and destroys chlorophyll, which is harsh and bitter.

I just dumped them into a container that will go to the compost box.

I have a program that tracks my seeds and keeps records like where did
I buy them, when did I start them (in the greenhouse or in the
garden), when did I set them out and when did they start producing.
Wow. Now, I feel absolutely primitive. I still use a spiral-bound
notebook to track that info, with the addition of harvest dates and
yields plus the date each vegetable is removed from the garden. Seed
sources are not an issue because I buy from only two sources.
I use a fairly sophisticated computer graphics program to record
and reference my garden. The base layer (virtual overlay) holds a
to-scale outline drawing of the entire garden. Each major planting
("season") gets a layer of its own on which I can enter (text), planting
date, number planted, emergence, first harvest, removal in the
respective beds or containers. I also record whether I had to fill-in
or replant. My gardening "year" starts with February "spring" planting.
Each year is an individual file that contains the complete history to
date. Sounds complex but isn't and really makes it easy to keep up with
rotation. At least I am not (yet) obsessive enough to import actual
photos of plants but I can see where doing so would save some typing.

My biggest problem is that the company went out of business a few years
ago and every time I change computers I have to go through and fix a
bunch of stuff.
Fix the same stuff each time? Shoot, fix it and write the whole
ball of wax—or, at least, the fixes—to a CD, maybe?

Win 7 is not as easy to deal with as Win XP was. Once I remembered
that backed up files were read only, I changed them and things started
working correctly.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a
To find your extension office
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

Billy wrote:
....
Here the day time temps are in the high 60s F to low 70s F. Night time
temps running around 27 to 31 F. We have had 2" of rain to date. Last
year it was 22". Presently, there is no rain in sight.

that would make for some tough gardening.


http://pressdemocrat.com/article/20140108/news/140109698#page=0

Looking like it will be near impossible to grow a garden this year, if
we don't get some rain soon.

where do you get your liquid gold (water)?

i thought that things were getting better this year,
but it looks like most of the rains/flooding and heavy
snows have been in the Rockies. indirectly this
benefits where you are at via the Colorado River feed
to California. not as dire as it could be, but i do
think it a very responsible move for the govenor to
declare the water emergency.

i've not seen any actual updates on the affects of
the floods yet on the resevoirs. i do recall a bit
ago asking my sister (who is out in NM and southern CO)
if things were ok for water this year with their
resevoirs and she said they were doing ok as compared
to last year. when she visited this past fall for a
bit we did talk about water out there and she said that
there were ponds/lakes in places that she had never
seen before because of that big storm they had that
caused those floods. a help to recharge the ground
water/aquifers. she's been out there a long time
(30yrs at least).


songbird

Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
....
garlic here is under 1ft of snow/ice. the bunnies are
running around making tracks in the snow. i have yet to
see any sign that the owls/hawks are doing the honors for
me so i may have to hunt them come spring.

The permaculture books I've read says that at some point the predators
will become aware of the easy pickin's you got, and balance will return
to Happy Valley. ;O)

i'm hoping it will start happening soon as the
management is agitating to get me to shoot them
every time she sees one (and we have at least four
of them around, probably more than six or eight).

the general problem with our site is that it is
too busy (obstacles) for flying predators to get
an easy strike and the only other predators than
the hawks/owls/eagles is likely to be the semi-
feral cats from the neighbors place. far enough
away from there that the cats do not make regular
appearances (but they do come through once in a
while during the warmer weather as i see them and
their tracks and sometimes i even see them hunting
chipmunks or ...). there are tracks out there now
in the snow from cat too, but nothing that looks
like they actually made rabbit dinner.

i was really hoping the red tail hawk that
visited last summer would become a regular. since
then i've only seen a bird that might have been it
once in the north hedge/treeline.

there are coyotes that run along the river but
i've never seen them here. also there are red fox
about, but i've never seen them here. the surrounding
farm fields isolate us somewhat from the woods down
the road and the road itself takes a toll on many
wild life critters (free fertilizer if i notice them
before the turkey vultures or crows get them).

we'll see what happens...


songbird

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 16:44:54 -0500, Derald wrote:

The Cook wrote:


As far as I remember, the cold here has never killed the garlic. It's
just that 20°F is miserably cold. The garlic was planted in last
October and is about 6" tall.
Thanks. I'll not cover mine unless some of its companions need
protection. I did not plant garlic until the end of November, after the
weather began to cool a bit. It already is over 2' tall, on average.
One bed is interplanted with mustard and turnips and another with a
variety of cool weather veggies.

I buy garlic from Costco and use the largest cloves for planting.
I bought garlic from a Texas grower for a while but his 2012 crop
failure caused me to shop around for another vendor as well as for a
variety better suited to the warm humid Gulf coast climate. Settled on
a grower in Arizona (warm but definitely not humid) and hope to produce
starts of my own that might be better suited to this environment. Down
here, the sudden onset of unrelenting hot weather in April or May causes
garlic heads to divide before they're fully mature but the Creoles came
to North Amereica via the Caribbean and Mexico and are, reputedly,
better suited to peninsular Florida's warm winters and short cool
season. We'll see....


The Cook wrote:

If it gets warm enough one afternoon soon I will get out and prune off all of the dead
branches on the herbs. Maybe I will keep some of the leaves. Should
be the same as drying them.

snip

I just dumped them into a container that will go to the compost box.
Probably a good move :-). I just grow the frost-tender stuff in
containers small enough to move into shelter. I expend more effort
protecting sweet marjoram, thyme, oregano and tarragon from the harsh
sun and from too much rain than from cold. I'm some distance south of
the "official" ranges for those but they do well in open shade with only
morning sun so I move them around as the seasons progress.

Win 7 is not as easy to deal with as Win XP was.
Good to know. I "upgrade" only when software and/or web sites that
I "need" no longer function. I'm still running Win2k on one box and
WinXP on another. Will keep an obsolete O/S at least one because the
graphics app I mentioned is a ca 1990's port from Mac to 16-bit Window$
and, AFAIK, new "improved" Windows won't run 16-bit programs.


I can no longer run my Spider game. It is a 16 bit program too. There
seems to be some way to set things up if you are running Win 7 Pro.
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a
To find your extension office
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html

The Cook wrote:
....
The program is Seed Planner. If it looks interesting, email me. This
is a workable address.

ah, that's too general of a name for me to work
with, i'm getting all sorts of stuff. i was hoping
something a little less generic that would let me
find the company that used to sell it.

looks like there are all sorts of web apps and
on-line planners out there, but as of yet i'm only
finding a few more specialised programs.

what i'm beginning to think is that a small
business inventory control program should have
all the functions needed for tracking and
expiring seeds and some small business accounting
programs even let you schedule, produce and adjust
inventories.

still that's much more than most people would
want to get into.


songbird

In article ,
Derald wrote:

Billy wrote:

The permaculture books I've read says that at some point the predators
will become aware of the easy pickin's you got, and balance will return
to Happy Valley. ;O)
Ah, but there exists that "meantime" before the "some point" is
reached. Consider, too, that equilibrium may not include a useful
quantity of the desired veggies. Bunnies and deer are (so far) not a
serious hazard to my garden but grasshoppers, in seemingly infinite
variety and number, are pure evil incarnate and are present during all
save the coldest periods. Tried "nolo" without significant success and
won't use poisoned baits for obvious reasons. Have learned the hard way
that "equilibrium", in my garden, does not include baby lima beans (the
hoppers eat blossoms off the racemes as if they were corn on-the-cob) or
speckled butter beans. Damage to other crops is bearable—I just accept
it as a tax for invading the hoppers' space—so I just settle for
name-calling.

Do you have bird feeders in the garden? Birds can be a problem with
seedling, but once the garden is established, birds are a gardener's
friend.
--
Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg

In article ,
songbird wrote:

Billy wrote:
...
Here the day time temps are in the high 60s F to low 70s F. Night time
temps running around 27 to 31 F. We have had 2" of rain to date. Last
year it was 22". Presently, there is no rain in sight.

that would make for some tough gardening.


http://pressdemocrat.com/article/20140108/news/140109698#page=0

Looking like it will be near impossible to grow a garden this year, if
we don't get some rain soon.

where do you get your liquid gold (water)?

i thought that things were getting better this year,
but it looks like most of the rains/flooding and heavy
snows have been in the Rockies. indirectly this
benefits where you are at via the Colorado River feed
to California. not as dire as it could be, but i do
think it a very responsible move for the govenor to
declare the water emergency.

i've not seen any actual updates on the affects of
the floods yet on the resevoirs. i do recall a bit
ago asking my sister (who is out in NM and southern CO)
if things were ok for water this year with their
resevoirs and she said they were doing ok as compared
to last year. when she visited this past fall for a
bit we did talk about water out there and she said that
there were ponds/lakes in places that she had never
seen before because of that big storm they had that
caused those floods. a help to recharge the ground
water/aquifers. she's been out there a long time
(30yrs at least).


songbird

Unfortunately, the Colorado River water is partitioned between 8 states.
Usually none of it reaches Mexico to quench the thirst of Mexicans, or
to flush out the Gulf of California.

About 60% of the water in the lower Colorado (7.5 million acre·ft/year)
water goes to California for agriculture in the Mojave Desert, and for
tap water for the inhabitants of Southern California. I'm unaware of any
of it finding its way to Northern California, or California's Central
Valley.

The Central Valley, and Northern California rely on a melting snow pack
to feed our rivers which provide our water. Water diverted from the Eel
River for hydro-electric power provides most of the water in the Russian
Rivers, which in turn services the coastal counties of Mendocino,
Sonoma, and Marin (North Bay). San Francisco receives its water from The
Hetch Hetchy Project which transports Tuolumne River water 156 miles
from the Central Sierra to San Francisco and peninsula cities (South
Bay).

Local cities are taking up the question of water rationing, which was on
the to do list at the Healdsburg City council tonight.

At present, there is no rain in our future. February and March are
usually our wettest months (but not last year).

The silver-lining is that there should be fewer mosquitos this year.




http://www.dw.de/industry-non-profit...ow-to-increase
-food-production/a-17373112

Global population growth has shot up precipitously in the past 200
years. In 1800, around one billion people lived on the planet.
Currently, Earth is populated by seven billion people, with that number
expected to rise to nine billion by 2050. All of those people have to be
fed, which confronts society with major policy problems. Already, 850
million people worldwide suffer from hunger and two billion are
malnourished.
--
Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg

Derald wrote:

... One contributing factor is that two near
"back fence" neighbors, adjacent to each other, have taken steps over
the past thirty-or-so years to greatly increase grasshopper habitat and
breeding area while also providing winged adults a virtually unimpeded
path to within just a couple of hundred feet of the garden. I'm fairly
sure that's why the "nolo" results were not what I'd hoped. Oh, well; I
was warned, albeit indirectly, by another NG member that my effort might
be futile. There seems little point to trying to control the population
locally when adults can just fly in willy-nilly. Adult grasshoppers
travel great distances during the hot season and they are prolific. It
never stays cold enough for long enough to reduce their number
significantly.

they are good eating. we have a steady population
of nice sized ones by the end of the summer here. i'm
always glad to see the birds wrestling them in the
gravel, but to me they are also a back up food source if
times get tough. they are big enough it wouldn't take
many to make a nice side-dish.


songbird

Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
Billy wrote:
....
Looking like it will be near impossible to grow a garden this year, if
we don't get some rain soon.

where do you get your liquid gold (water)?
....

Unfortunately, the Colorado River water is partitioned between 8 states.
Usually none of it reaches Mexico to quench the thirst of Mexicans, or
to flush out the Gulf of California.

About 60% of the water in the lower Colorado (7.5 million acre·ft/year)
water goes to California for agriculture in the Mojave Desert, and for
tap water for the inhabitants of Southern California. I'm unaware of any
of it finding its way to Northern California, or California's Central
Valley.

ah, i wasn't aware it only went to south CA.


The Central Valley, and Northern California rely on a melting snow pack
to feed our rivers which provide our water. Water diverted from the Eel
River for hydro-electric power provides most of the water in the Russian
Rivers, which in turn services the coastal counties of Mendocino,
Sonoma, and Marin (North Bay). San Francisco receives its water from The
Hetch Hetchy Project which transports Tuolumne River water 156 miles
from the Central Sierra to San Francisco and peninsula cities (South
Bay).

Local cities are taking up the question of water rationing, which was on
the to do list at the Healdsburg City council tonight.

seems like a wise thing to do, along with many other
things to reduce water consumption and encourage
recycling.


At present, there is no rain in our future. February and March are
usually our wettest months (but not last year).

The silver-lining is that there should be fewer mosquitos this year.

never free of them here once the season warms
up. i found one inside a few days ago. and yesterday
a lady bug which i moved to one of the few houseplants
(which hasn't started regrowing again yet for the
spring flowering).

today it is windy and blowing snow around. i was
surprised to see a squirrel out in the wind picking
and eating berries off one of the bushes in the
north hedge/treeline. it would sit with it's tail
up to the wind using it to protect the rest of it's
body from the cold. i'd not seen one do that before
here. with these really cold temperatures for this
long it must be a challenge even if you hibernate
part of the season... no fresh bunny tracks seen
yesterday or today, they're hunkered down, like us...


songbird

Derald wrote:
The Cook wrote:

As far as I remember, the cold here has never killed the garlic. It's
just that 20°F is miserably cold. The garlic was planted in last
October and is about 6" tall.

Thanks. I'll not cover mine unless some of its companions need
protection. I did not plant garlic until the end of November, after the
weather began to cool a bit. It already is over 2' tall, on average.
One bed is interplanted with mustard and turnips and another with a
variety of cool weather veggies.

when we get through to where the snow melts back i'll
be able to see how well that garlic you sent me held up
to the cold.

i'm suspecting that garlic regularly grown in the
Carribean may be a bit tender in comparison to the
garlic i've grown here for many years.

the hard-neck type has stayed green and kept
looking nice at least down to 17F when not snow
covered. under snow it seems to be fine no matter
what happens upstairs. for damage i think it takes
several days of dry freeze 15F or lower. but then
it comes back in the spring anyways and does fine.
that happened last season as we did not have much
snow cover during a severe cold spell. i still
had nice heads of garlic. this winter is being
much colder in comparison, but plenty of snow
cover.

sadly enough, the lady who gave me the garlic
passed away last Sunday at a ripe age of 88.
peacefully and at home so that was good to hear,
but still will miss her as she was quite the
character.


songbird