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Post by bunkie on Jan 28, 2013 10:52:00 GMT -5
still got 4 feet here...snow on and of...cold...and what's up with this fog???! and where the heck did our January Thaw go?!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 28, 2013 11:16:25 GMT -5
We only have 25" of snow here... On flat places. The mailbox keeps getting buried deeper and deeper by the snowplow. There are plenty of drifts up to my waist where a windbreak caught a bit more.
I don't shovel snow around the truck, I just park it in the same place every time I go out, so it's that time of year when I have to step down into my truck... Reminds me of the huts we built in the irrigation ditches when I was a kid. I have a spare snow shovel in the bed of the truck, but it can stay there till spring. I'm not going to dig it out.
Visibility got down to 300 feet the other day. I just smiled, thinking how clever it was that we only get fog a couple times a year, so it's really cool when it visits.
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Post by steev on Jan 28, 2013 12:10:20 GMT -5
It's January, so little rain, but lots of fog in the Valley and lots of roadkill skunks. My helper called in Monday flu-ish, so I'm for hooky to work on the farm. Week ago, temps dropped to 24F; looks to be the low point of the season, uncommonly warm Winter; this past week only dropped to 30F. Think I'll plant peas today.
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Post by synergy on Jan 28, 2013 14:28:41 GMT -5
I am so excited to see emerald green grass after a week of frost and I am dire need of fresh greens so i am going to try starting a flat each of swiss chard and kale in my house for transplanting into a coldframe around March . I just got a grow light for when the seedlings emerge but I am not highly experienced. I have been eating tons of bagged spinach and I have heard that is not best to over indulge in raw but I really love it and the convenience of buying a big bag of it makes it so easy to have on hand .
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Post by steev on Jan 28, 2013 23:06:02 GMT -5
I find bagged arugula is a welcome break from spinach, when I have to buy fresh salad. OK, I never worry about fresh salad, except when eating with my sweetheart. Left to my own devices, I'd eat any aged greens braised in bacon grease, probably with roadkill. There's a lot of skunk and hawk out there, this month.
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Post by raymondo on Jan 28, 2013 23:21:27 GMT -5
Had a tad over 70 mm (a little shy of 3") of rain over the weekend caused by Cyclone Oswald. The cyclone was much further north but we still got plenty of water and some quite spectacular winds. Many of the tomatoes are wilting as they are badly waterlogged and a couple look beyond help. A few of the beans were drying down. I picked what I could but most of the seed had already begun to rot. I'm hoping for clear skies for a while to help things dry out a bit. Mind you, this brought an end to a very long dry spell so saturated ground is a welcome thing, mostly.
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bertiefox
gardener
There's always tomorrow!
Posts: 236
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Post by bertiefox on Jan 30, 2013 13:39:58 GMT -5
Enormous differences in weather here in France compared to 2012. Last year we had extreme cold and drought until well into April. The large lake near where we live didn't fill up until May after a lot of rain, and never reached the overflow on the dam. This year our lake is brimming and overflowing the dam and the soil is waterlogged. We are currently enjoying 13C during the day and 3C or higher at night. The sun came out this afternoon and it was quite spring like. How can two years be so different? Something is happening to the climate!
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Post by steev on Jan 30, 2013 21:28:44 GMT -5
Things are definately warming; I must get cracking. If I bust my butt, this looks to be an excellent year, getting such an early start for veggies. Probably only plums for stone fruit, though. I can't imagine what sort of year would be great for everything; don't suppose there is such a thing.
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Post by RpR on Jan 31, 2013 17:10:22 GMT -5
More below zero F but we need snow, many feet of snow badly.
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Post by mountaindweller on Jan 31, 2013 19:30:59 GMT -5
Raymondo I have the same with some of the tomato plants. Especially two which are very loaded with fruit, but I think it's more the location. A pawlownia tree which I planted for instant shade in the chicken run drops its leaves, I think he will die. First we had bushfire weather and it could well have been like in Victoria, then this rain from Oswald. Before 35C and a day later you wear a jumper. It is crazy how fast the moisture dissapears.
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Post by ilex on Feb 4, 2013 4:28:39 GMT -5
Dry, dry, dry ... and warm. Peppers are flowering and setting fruit. Should be getting frost everyday, but only once ... the first week of December. Not a normal year in a long time.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 4, 2013 12:12:25 GMT -5
Ilex, it's very dry here in California too. If my parts to my tiller were not enjoying Italy, I could be tilling and planting!
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Post by steev on Feb 4, 2013 21:00:02 GMT -5
The dryness in NorCal, at least, is superficial; while soil surface may appear dry (certainly compared to a month ago), there is plenty of moisture in the soil. It is, indeed, primo conditions for tilling and planting. Temps last week on the farm added up to 95F, slow growth, but only weeks away from full-tilt boogie.
I need to pull more unneeded T-posts for pounding in where they'll make trellis; looking for lots of pole beans this year. It's also the season for digging holes; lots of pomegranates, quinces, and various trees I need to set out while the soil is relaxed.
People here in Oakland are turning on their irrigation, prematurely, in my opinion; better to let the plants root deeper, looking for water, while the weather is cool, so they'll be better prepared to stand the heat.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Feb 6, 2013 1:10:50 GMT -5
It got up to 60F today. It was wonderful and sunny. It would have perfect to have corn growing. I know with the weather we had today that some of my frost tolerant indian corn would grow, and i suspect josephs frosty corn too. A greenhouse would be even more clever. I suspect this is part of the new normal weather here.
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Post by circumspice on Feb 6, 2013 8:26:51 GMT -5
It's been unusually warm here. I want to plant my garden, but I hesitate to do so because there could be another freeze before 21 March. So far this winter, we've had 2 week cold spells bracketed by 1 month warm spells. Also, we've been getting discouragingly small amounts of rainfall. Winter is when we usually get about half of our annual rainfall. That doesn't seem to hold true this year.
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