Cold Climate Gardening

Any gardener who hasn’t read Thoreau’s book Faith in a Seed should hie her/himself to the library. It is one of those read a bit, think a bit, read some more books, and now is the time to read it.

I’m in the thick of seed sowing now, trying to keep up with my schedule and shoe-horn in my new acquisitions. I am trying a new seed starting mix this year and so far like it pretty well; it is a soilless one based on coir, not peat. It stays more open textured than I thought it might, being coir. I have added a bit of vermiculite to it to increase its water take-up/drain off speed. …

Popularity: 3% [?]

Sandy of Pollenatrix posts about all the lovely things she is growing inside. Scroll down the blog for some photos of her orchids. A wonderful balm of color to snow-overloaded eyes. It’s almost as good as going into Lowe’s greenhouse. (Yes, most of my thrills are cheap thrills.)

Popularity: 2% [?]

This article doesn’t tell you all you need to grow a magnolia in Idaho, but it does give you an idea of some of the factors to consider.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Well, that title is a bit overdramatic. But I’ve just come across a new start-up site that does something I’ve wanted to do (but didn’t know how) for a long time. It allows you to create a webpage where the latest entries from RSS feeds are all gathered together. This makes it possible for technophobes (and I think there are a lot of gardening technophobes) to take advantage of the latest information available on the web. To see what I mean, point your browser to http://rollup.org/rollup/rollup.php?id=43 and take a look.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Reading Texans Bill and M Stevens enthuse about their itty-bitty snowfall made me think of this Wall Street Journal article I clipped out a couple of months ago. It seems that a Houston-based company called Ice Express charges big bucks to spray artificial snow around for that special event. A 30 foot by 24 foot area sprayed in ground-up ice will set you back–take a deep breath–$1,150. They don’t give a depth measurement for that price, but in the article it mentions ten inches at one site. So taking that as our depth, let’s do some math. Divide the price by 710 square feet and you get a little under $1.62 per …

Popularity: 4% [?]

Well, it’s that time of year again. It’s time to decide what will be bought for the coming spring. It is time to decide what will be done in this year.

Really, this is the very worst time of year to be making plans. Winter in these climes keeps a person trapped inside for so long that by the time February comes around one is positively delusional with grandiose plans for the coming year. The more weeks that pass with nothing but the four walls of the house to look at the bigger plans become. I try to sit down and make mature and thoughtful purchasing decisions for the coming year, but it is a big joke. In reality, if someone said, “So, why don’t you climb a mountain, build a house, dig a pond, and plant a huge garden, all before the end of spring–” I’d say “Sure! That would be easy!”

Okay, maybe I’d realize the folly of climbing a mountain. Maybe. But somehow every year I do make far more plans for my limited time than I could ever possibly accomplish. I start the spring with all sorts of high hopes, only to have them most cruelly dashed when reality comes crashing down on me. It’s a cycle that happens every year–without fail–and every year I see it coming. And yet, I still fall for it every time. I find it impossible to not be exuberant at the thought of spring. What can I think besides “When all this snow melts off I’ll whip everything into shape”?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Here are plans for another cold frame. This one is from Canadian Gardening Magazine and comes with a very helpful chart of which vegetables and herbs would benefit from being grown in a cold frame in either the spring or fall.

Popularity: 6% [?]