What did you do in the garden today?

[Sueby]

Same here! I've barely read and haven't responded to my favorite discussion here, since late October, early November. Winterized most but not all, of my beds, mostly been hibernating.

Good to see you! @Wee Farmer Sarah has been MIA too.

 

[WthrLady]

Hey, ya. Where is she???

 

[littledog]

Good to see you! @Wee Farmer Sarah has been MIA too.

Thanks! Good to see you too! I've been busy with family issues in November,

then Christmas, then hibernating...but I did manage to dig up and preserve the Dahlia bulb beauties you sent me, which have multiplied for even more beauties this year!

 

[gtaus]

I have lost interest in gardening due to this cold snap. I want to hibernate until spring.

Wait! What? Doesn't everybody hibernate through the winter until spring?

Well, I can't do any physical gardening during most of our winters here in northern Minnesota. It's my down time to watch YouTube gardening videos and plan for the next spring. I built a seed starter shelf last year with LED lights for starting plants. It turned out more successful than I had hoped for. This year I will be doing it again but expanding the variety of plants I will be starting early.

I have been trying to find a way to grow some food indoors during our winter months but have not been very successful. A few years ago, I had some Swiss Chard growing in the house. That worked great for a while but then they got full of nasty aphids around late February.

Anyways, hope spring comes early for you and you can get back to gardening.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I’m still here. I finally got the chickens moved into their new coop just before Thanksgiving. I lost a lot of work days due to rain. The grand total for our area for 2023 was approximately 64 inches of rain. Then we got 17 inches of snow a week ago. Most of it melted with temperatures in the 50’s and another 2 1/2 inches of rain. And Happy New Year to me I tested positive for Covid on New Year’s Day. I’m clear of the virus but still in recovery. We’re expecting another 2 to 4 inches of snow tomorrow. My dear cousin sent me amaryllis bulbs for Christmas. I’ve never grown them before but they are finally growing. Another bright note on indoor gardening. I have been known as the killer of cacti and succulents for years. The Christmas cactus I bought last year is still blooming and looks amazing. Other good news is one of my Wyandotte hens started laying again on 2 January. Another hen has started just a few days ago. I’m getting seed catalogs in the mail and I finally peeked at one over breakfast this morning. I suspect the rain will likely putter out and we’ll end up with a much drier planting season so I’m definitely getting my rain barrel collection system up and running this year. So happy New Year to all and best wishes for a more prosperous gardening season.

The roof is still not complete and I have a nice door for the run that still needs to be hung, weather permitting. But it is functional now.

 

[TJAnonymous]

View attachment 3726190

I feel for you, my friend....

 

[chickengr]

12 degrees here... Feels like 5 with the wind chill. Snow starts this afternoon.

My plan to keep water from freezing inside the main coop didn't work. It was frozen solid this morning. So I took a double insulated galvanized metal waterer in there instead. I have a warming plate for it to sit on to keep it from freezing. I just don't like using it because it's a little rusty. Don't like the idea of chickens drinking water from a rusty can. Hopefully a day or 2 won't hurt them...

Ready for the snow later today. I'm hoping this is the one snow we get every year and the next 2 months will be a breeze...

at my grandparent's times people used to put some rusty nails in chicken waterers. it was to prevent some disease. btw they didn't put fresh water every day. when I mentioned it a few years ago here on byc I got bombed.

 

[saysfaa]

Speaking of layering...

For me
Headband/earcover is first level
Then gloves, long sleeve shirt, jeans (any order or combination until all three)
This gets me into the 40's if I'm moving or not out long; sometimes the mid 30's. But it depends on the humidity, windiness, whether the sun is out, and my mood.

Then add a sweatshirt or heavier flannel shirt
Then a coat
That is usually good down to mid twenties unless I'm out a long time and not moving very much.

About here, I switch to more insulated boots (all insulated instead of just the bottoms).

Then hat instead of earcover, mittens instead of gloves, a scarf (any order)
That gets me down into the teens.

Then a thermal vest undershirt and/or another layer of flannel shirt and/or add wool socks and/or add flannel lined jeans.

Pushing zero or below, I start switching to alpaca.

The colder it gets below that, the more layers get switched to alpaca. Eventually, I just add more alpaca. Or cashmere, or cashmere/angora before I accumulated enough alpaca.

All this, assuming it is dry enough and not horrendously windy. For windy, nothing beats leather. Certain Carhart jackets come close, though, if they are in good shape.... older ones, at least. Last time I looked for a replacement, they seemed to have changed a lot. I ended up mending mine.

 

[TJAnonymous]

at my grandparent's times people used to put some rusty nails in chicken waterers. it was to prevent some disease. btw they didn't put fresh water every day. when I mentioned it a few years ago here on byc I got bombed.

I can imagine... Some people get very opinionated on here. To be fair, I can remember finding an antique bottle of "medicine" in my grandmother's kitchen cabinet that had belonged to her parents and contained mercury as an elixir. People did all kinds of strange things in the name of medicine. And while many died, many more also lived to tell the tale. In most cases, I try to just use common sense. While I don't think rust is (oxidized iron) would hurt my chickens in the short term, it's hard telling what other chemicals were used in the process...especially with cheap materials coming from China where standards are a little more relaxed.

Total side bar, but about 8 years ago or so, I had the opportunity to get a tour of a testing lab. At the time, they were doing testing on vape pens that are heavily used by nicotine and Marijuana users. The pens I saw were from China and had very concerning testing results. Lots of toxic chemicals coming off of them when heated up. I don't smoke or vape of any kind but I left that facility with the certainty that people who do are going to end up with all kinds of nasty health issues just from those pens.

 

[akroberts1085]

Got some decent weather today so I just got my red and Yukon Gold potatoes in the green house (in the ground). I then put my garlic and 3 each red, white and yellow onions in. Weather permitting in an hour or so, I will try to get some more put in the ground.