Seeds Sown And A First Haircut

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No, not a haircut for a kid (the last first one of those was 17 years ago). For the onions.
:)
They're so cute!

I sowed the cole crop seeds today:
Broccoli
Cabbage
Brussel Sprouts (I'm hoping the weather cooperates for them a bit better this year)
and Cauliflower

There's still two more weeks to go before I can get the pepper and tom seeds started.
~sigh~ It's so hard to wait!
Crap - they're already getting these plants in the ground down south.
Yes, zone envy rears its ugly head. Even Flighty is seeing lots of green!
My ground? White, frozen, undigable and depressing.

Total WS jugs to date = 21 (yes, I'm a slacker)

A quick aside:
Trudi, at Wintersown.org, has changed how people have to go about getting the free seed offer. As of tomorrow, March 1, you have to print out a dated page and send it with the SASE postmarked within a week of that date to get them. Really, I understand her reasoning and people who take advantage of these offers suck, but what are you suppose to do if you don't have a printer? (like, right now, I have no ink, and at $20ish a pop, I won't be getting any soon!) This may leave some of those that are very deserving of these offers with no way to get them.
:(

Oh! And I'm going to do the 'Hay Bale Gardening' this year as an experiment. Our neighbor is getting rid of a bunch of them that are already degrading, so yay! I can't wait - like I need something else to obsess over.

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The Onions Are Up

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And, wow, is it nice to see such bright green life!

These are from the seeds I gathered last fall from a Yellow Spanish that we'd missed pulling in 2007 (oops!).

People always ask why I bother growing them from seed when you can just as easily buy starts, but if they saw the softball sized, delicious, juicy bulbs I yank every August/September, they'd understand.

First, it's cheap, cheap, cheap. Second, with me, it's a 'thing' to start plants from seed.
:)
I just gotta!

I can't wait to get the toms and peppers going. Yes, I'm being a good girl and holding out until it is time.
Waiting is sooooo hard!

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The End Of Agriculture In California?

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Wow, more doom and gloom.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu:
"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," Chu told the newspaper. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California.
"I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going," he added.

Last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told California's farmers to prepare for a third straight year of drought due to low Sierra snow levels and some of the state's top farming counties may get little or no deliveries of water.

Entire REUTERS Article:
Climate change could end California farming

Maybe instead of proselytizing, they should actually start doing something? I know, I know, how dare I suggest such a thing. Yes, I slapped my wrist for having such an outrageous thought.

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WinterSowing on TV . . . Again

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Well, well.
Wintersowing has made the news. Again.

Trudi Davidoff, of WinterSown.org fame, was featured on one of the national morning shows last year (I think it was last year - I posted about it somewhere on the blog.)

Anyway, it has made news again as a segment on KARE11:
WinterSowing video segment.

Although the guy went waaaaay overboard on the amount of tape he used and didn't mention to leave the caps off, it was a pretty good 'beginner' introduction.

It obviously took a few takes to get it right as they already had footprints tracked to the spot in the snow, as well as depressions in the snow where they'd previously placed the jugs.

And I wish they'd gone into more discussion about the depths (why he was measuring and marking before cutting) and that perennials aren't the only choice for this technique - some veg and annuals are also good choices.

There was also an article in Northern Gardener about WSing, but if you're not a subscriber . . . well . . .

It's about time WinterSowing started catching on like a house afire and getting the attention it truly deserves.

Go Trudi!

Cacti Seedlings And WinterSowing

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A month ago, January 11, I started some mixed cacti seed.
I was hesitant to mention it as I figured it would be a dismal failure.
Wrong!
Every single one of those seeds sprouted within days - and there were a lot of them.
They've reached almost an inch high and have the cutest little spines on some of them.
So, yay for me growing cacti.
Well, so far. I still have my fingers crossed.

I also got some wintersowing done. 15 jugs were tossed out into the snow on February 2.
I had to right two of them yesterday that the wind blew over, but they'll be fine. They always are.

I still have a lot of jugs yet to do, but I'll get there. At this point it seems that winter will never end.

And we put the Plant Stand up for this year and it has lots of cuttings on it as well as the onion seed. I just need to reign myself in so I don't get antsy and start the rest of the veg seed too soon.
I suppose The Grow Guide is worth another mention at this point. lol.

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