From: gwv@eastrg2.cray.com (George Vandenberghe)
Subject: Re: spring fever
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 30 Dec 92 16:34:17 CST

In article <1992Dec30.194748.25093@almserv.uucp>, s5uagm@fnma.COM (Andrew Miller) writes:
|> In article 14311@sequent.com, goose@sequent.com (Virginia Rios) writes:
|> >I just got my first gardening catalog in the mail today....
|> >The compost piles (I have 3 of them) are all doing great....
|> >one of which is ready to be tilled into the ground, and the
|> >raised beds are pretty much empty...they need to be filled
|> >with the stuff that I saw in the catalog...
|> >	    
|> >	    IS IT SPRING YET?!
|> >
|> >I'm tired of the cold, windy, dark, grey rainy days.  No more snow
|> >no more sleet or ice...
|> >
|> >	   IS IT SPRING YET?!
|> >
|> >ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!!
|> >
|> 
|> Yes Virginia there is a Spring Thaw,
|> 
|> 	I too am getting frustrated just looking at the catalogs.  Hearing
|> that it's time for people farther south to start seedlings just makes it 
|> worse. However, I've found a few things to tide me over:
|> 
|> 	1) Paperwhites - plant indoors now for blooms in Feb.
|> 
|> 	2) I just brought my bulbs for forcing out of the cold for blooming.
|> 
|> 	3) Just started a tropical seedling project.
|> 
|> 	4) I took a warmer day and raked/picked-up the yard again.
|> 
|> 	5) The local arboretum is still open and inside it's almost like spring.
|> 
|> 	6) Don't order your seeds too early. That way you can keep looking
|> 		at catalogs.
|> 
|> Just a few ideas. 
|> 
|> 		- Andrew - 

**************************************************

Okay here is my 2 cents worth (mostly in voluminous
low value paper notes)

     If you have winter sun, you can grow cold tolerant
things in a coldframe or sun pit.  This is just barely
possible in the Washington DC suburbs and some years
you lose.  Unfortunately I don't have much winter
sun in my yard.

      You can ammass all of the gardening supplies
you think you will need in the coming year (mulch, stakes,
ties, pots, potting soil (but keep it dry or cold or it
will oxidize away),

     The further North you are, the earlier you can start
the forced spring bulbs mentioned above.

     One problem a lot of Northern gardeners don't realize
is that summer is a tough time to get things to grow in
the Deep South.  In Tallahassee people spoke of Spring gardens
and Fall gardens with summer and winter both treated as hostile
seasons.  You could get things to grow in summer but it took
hard work and you didn't get the yield or quality you get further
North.   Yes I only have a six month growing season here in DC
(plus two tough transition months ) but the garden thrives 
continuously through it if kept weeded , watered, fed, and picked.
Tallahasse has its advantages too (memorial day sweetcorn roasts 
with fresh juicy better boy tomatoes come to mind).

     Also sometime after Mid January, you can start forcing
flowering shrubs such as forsythia for early bloom.

     I still have not found the time to make my raised
beds for next year.   I find that sort of thing
best done in winter when the competition for my time is
least.


But yes I am pining for Spring too.   The sun is SO pitiful
and weak and the shadows are SO long at this time of year.
But that starts improving noticably after late January.
Newsgroups: rec.gardens