Thursday, March 26, 2009

Damnable Winter!

It seems that winter just does not want to let go. It snowed yesterday, off and on during the day.
This morning found a medium frost on the windshield of my car. Today is sunny, so most likely we will have a frost again tomorrow.

I have been itching to get out and start my garden beds, but the weather has been nasty since spring has sprung. I am going to start germanating this weekend and hopefully the weather will let me get outside with out a rainjacket or snow parka.

I'm going to try the 3 sisters gardening this year. I also plan to plant lots of zuchinni, since it is so proliferant.

I plan on saving my Heirloom seeds for later, and will use the readily available hybrid stuff up until next year. My plan is to buy a variety of Heirloom seeds that are not as common and store them in the freezer until needed. My reasoning is that if I have to evacuate my home for any reason, I will not have used up all my Heirloom seeds which will be available for the next year that I plant.

I am going to stockpile as much as I can in the way of variety of heirloom seeds. If for some reason the crash does not happen, I will be intensifying my backyard efforts using ideas from http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ to utilize my space to the utmost.

Happy gardening!

9 comments:

  1. Well, Selous Scout, you're always welcome here in sunny Arizona! Come August it'll be "Damn summer!"
    ;-)

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  2. Ditto that for south Texas! Summer starts about Feb.and hangs around until about Nov.

    We usually start gardening in Feburary and go all year! And August IS hot!

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  3. You can say that again HermitJim - it might hit the century mark down here in deep south Texas. Expecting a possible cold front by the weekend, that will chill us down all the way to the 80's.

    Summer really sux the big one though - dang, we're being bred for planet Mercury colonys . . .

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  4. Try not to store your seeds in the freezer. Freezing them might ruin them. Instead, store them in a can with a piece of window screen bound over the top in a cool, dry, dark place. I keep mine in the back of my pantry which is on the opposite side of the kitchen from the stove.

    Thx for the blog!!! I am REALLY enjoying reading your "novel". :)

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  5. I would like to live where I could grow citrus and avacado. I understand that the Flagstaff area is pretty nice.

    I would like to visit Texas sometime, it sounds like it has some great country down there, along with some great patriots!

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  6. Hi Melanie, I'm glad you enjoy the blog and "The Cache". I don't currently store any seeds in the freezer, i just remember seeing it mentioned somewhere. I do however, store them in the refrigerator.

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  7. Hey Selous Scout, Buy some of those peat pots and plant them indoors. Grow lights are about $10.00 for a plant type light. Then when its nicer out just put them in the gound. Those peat pots work great. I used them in Alaska all the time. I would do this until you have many warm days and the soil is warmer. This will give them a while to grow bigger before meeting the world.

    This is for all concerned, The current world seed bank is located in one of the coldest places on earth Norway and the temp inside is kept at 25 degrees but the temp can get as low as 0 degrees F. If you think about it most seeds have no climate control in nature.

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/02/26/norway.seeds/index.html#cnnSTCText

    Mark Kent

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  8. You have planting weather, Scout? Dang- got another month of snow and cold here, then maybe the ground will thaw enough to dig in the garden. Will be starting my 'maters in the house mid-April, then transplant near June.
    Good idea in useing the hybrids now, while heirloom are still available. (That's my plan as well. So let's hope it's good thinking.) As to storing in the freezer, everything else I've found says to do so, so I imagine we're going to find out, aren't we?
    Of course, by the time the plants are grown, I'll be looking forward to winter again- prefer cooler weather myself. ;)
    Shy III

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  9. Hey Shy, no planting here until 2nd week of April. The weather is pretty volatile right now. I am considering the indoor lights for starting. Just need to Cat-proof the setup!

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