A day to stay indoors here for sure. I just finished doing my exercises for the day which was 60 minutes on my Gazelle Glider. I do break it up into 4 sessions but I was able to get an hour total done again today. Still trying to loose afew pounds this winter.

@Skiekitty ............

View this morning in my yard after the snow.

It's pretty with the bright shinning sun!

Looked pretty but too much snow.

Hey, my banner is running on the same day as my Gardening Idea for Annuals Week. Great planning on that!

Looking at all of that snow, it must give you hope for spring seeing your banner. It's a beauty, Rita.

Smiles,
Lyn

Oh, I am so ready for spring to arrive already. I am not a winter person. Give me spring and summer any time.

We got 3" of light powder last night, makes for a crunchy walk. Supposed to get up to 50 tomorrow, so it'll melt fast. Not much moisture in it, but I'll take any & all we can get. Normal for us is about 27" of snow by this time of year. We've had 14". That's it. Breath over half. I don't want another dry dry dry year...

We normally average 35-40" of rain for a normal season which typically starts in Nov and ends in March or April, so far we have only had 2 days of rain since Nov. We are officially in a drought and Calif. will be implementing water rationing. Not good since Calif. is a large food and wine crop state. Not sure what the condition of out community well is like yet. We have been in the low 70's for days now, it's just lovely.

California's water problems seem to be getting worse.

Hi Sue ....

Yeah, it's going to be a serious problem for California. Trinity County is a "county-of-origin" for a lot of water down in the Valley.

This year we got 1" of rain in November. None in December and 1/4th inch so far in January. The reservoir is 50% full. The snow pack is 20% of normal for this time of year.

The demand for water for the agricultural industry will be higher and we don't have the water to send south, so everyone living or working down south will have major water restrictions. Also, our own economy will not have enough water for our own agricultural activities and to maintain river levels for the salmon industry. A major source of income up here is water recreation. Those activities will also be impacted which will trickle down to impact small businesses.

It is illegal for us to use gray water because the theory is that everything peculates down and lands in the river, so, yes, shortage of water will impact our gardens.

My electric bill has already been increased by a 17% surcharge because we have had two "dry years" in a row and won't go down until we get two "normal years" in a row.

I have a hunch the "water wars" are going to be nasty.

I plan to mulch heavier, too. I started weeding one of the street beds this afternoon and plan to put down a thick layer of shredded leaves and top it with a layer of small wood chips. I've got to figure out an inexpensive way to make plant collars so that the thick mulch stays away from the crowns of the roses, but is still in place to hold moisture in the soil.

Our day temps are finally hitting the 50s in the afternoons, but night temps are still in the mid-20s and it doesn't really start warming up much until around noon.

I have been advised to prune lightly or not at all so that I am not encouraging new growth which will make the roses more water thirsty.

I sure hope we don't have another year of no rain next year.

Smiles,
Lyn

I just thought about this. For anyone that needs to make their soil more fertile I suggest humic acid. I use mine in the dry form of Leonardite shale. I order this stuff for the veggie garden beds and use it each year. But it can be used on anything. Veggies, flowers, shrubs and roses for sure. I just never put it on my roses as they grow and bloom really well as it is. But I have good soil and use fertilizer.

http://www.groworganic.com/act...

Kansas suffers mighty wicked droughts, then horrible cold winds with no snow cover. Mulch works until it blows away.......
Once I started following the Earth Kind way of planting roses, I had some success with roses without going to extreme measures to keep them alive. The Earth Kind program suggests mixing expanded shale in the planting mix. It's expensive, but it makes a difference!
After this winter, I'll know for sure which roses really are winter hardy. Extension experts are warning us to expect many trees, shrubs and perennials to die off from the cold and drought. I'm hopeful that I have selected the toughest plants ( self-selection, the weak ones died ) so maybe I won't have to dig out too many come spring.

@CindiKS ...........

Lucky me, I get to pass on this one. I am gardening glacier debris/subsoil. The slope where the house pad was carved out of was created by glacier debris .... lots and lots of tightly compressed rocks. The house pad is 4' lower than what would be the natural top of the slope.

When I first started gardening on the house pad, I found that the "soil" consisted of tightly compressed rocks no larger than a marble, most somewhat smaller with a few fist sized stones/cobbles thrown into the mix. The dirt is clay and would be the awful stuff that everyone hates.

With all of those rocks, I can actually walk on it when it's wet without compressing the soil.

Years of mulching and watering has loosened the top of the soil enough for me to use a hand trowel to dig in bulbs. When I started, I needed a jack hammer to dig a hole.

I thought I hated the stuff, but it actually gives me excellent drainage.

I found out on the ASK A QUESTION forum that heavier mulching would not be truly more beneficial in retaining moisture in the soil, so I am going to just use my usual two inches of shredded leaves topped with wood chips. I don't have much wind in the house pad garden and the wood chips keep the leaves in place.

I wonder if you could use less expensive lava rock instead of expanded shale.

Rita .... humic acid is what is created when organic material decomposes, so adding more may or may not be good ... depending on your soil. I do know that is part of the process which has improved my soil.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn,
Lava rock is so much bigger that I think it would leave gaps in the soil, and the roots would dry out.
The shale compacts much like the way you describe your "soil".
This winter, I totally forgot to spray anti-desiccant on my broadleaf evergreens. We had winds of 60 mph last night for over an hour, and my hollies are looking bad. A newer one blew out of the ground entirely.
The lawn chairs, tables and cushions are scattered all over the yard, but the bird feeders are still hanging in the trees. I refilled them all yesterday because we knew the temps were going to drop from 61 to 4 within 8 hours when that clipper blew in. I see birds feeding on the ground under 2 of the feeders that are now only half full, so I think maybe seed was dumped in the wind.
Our local paper reports that 300 bald eagles were sighted at a lake here on Sunday. They were feeding on fish that were killed off in the last horrible cold front.
Maybe that means the eagles will stay away from my songbirds and ducks.

@CindiKS ............

Wow ! Have you got wind ! In comparison, I only have a gentle breeze even at the top of the slope where the wind blows through the trees. Now, I understand about the mulch blowing away.

Mother Nature compacted the rocks in my clay soil, but I do add lava rock to any soil I use to back fill so that there are a lot of rocks in those spots, too. I have found that the clay fills in all of the spaces between the rocks. I also add sandy loam to my back fill because it has smaller particles that also help fill in.

The bacteria in the soil which break down organics and any foods we supply our plants need oxygen, so it's a balance. In Trinity County we have a saying that you are either gardening in rock or red clay goo. A few lucky people are gardening in river loam.

However, it's best to do what works in your garden. From my experience having rocks in the soil is much better than gardening in goo.

Smiles,
Lyn

Cindi - We had those winds most of yesterday too. It was nice in the morning, then around 3ish it started to get cold & breezy.. by 5 it was colder & windy. My windchimes were banging like mad.. sounded like a Spike Jones band starting up! Dropped from mid 50s to about 14 in about 6 hours (well, it was in the mid 50s at 3, then when I looked at the temp again around 530ish it was in the low 20s). That's what I get for having so many windchimes. The meteorologists were predicting 1-3" of snow last night, didn't get diddly. Finally started to snow about an hour & half ago (1pm-ish, it's 230 MST right now as I type this) and we've got a good covering of snow. If it keeps this up, we'll get at least 2-3" by tomorrow morning, which will be good. My ground had *just* thought about starting to defrost.. nothing quite like freezing it completely. I just hope that my iceplant will tolerate all this.. yesterday when I walked by them, they looked pretty dead. The salvias though.. they're hardier than anything I've ever seen.

yes, I'm pretty sure all my iceplants are goners. They sell it as an "annual" for a reason. Most years, it does survive.
A few of the bare root roses that I ordered in November did not get planted. Life got too busy last fall. Since they all still looked pretty good in the moist bags, I decided to pot them up and leave them next to a large west window in the garage. The potting soil that is stacked next to the door in my garage is frozen like a brick! Yikes! I brought a couple big bags in and let it thaw for a few days, then got the roses planted. I ran out of time so the last 4 went into a large tub together. Most winters, our ground does not freeze, but when I tried to plant some leftover tulip bulbs, I was hacking at ice 2 inches down. The paper says the soil temp is 37, but I don't believe it. Any advice on keeping these roses going until spring?
Lyn, I shouldn't have said anything about the lava rock since I haven't tried it. Since you have tried it and it works for you, I will give it a try! It makes sense that loose soil would fill in around the rocks. Most of my yard has excellent soil. I know how fortunate that is! I am truly grateful, yes I am!

@CindiKS

>>>> Any advice on keeping these roses going until spring?

Yeah ... move them away from the light ... Sounds kind of counter-intuitive doesn't it ? There are two reasons I am making this suggestion. 1) commercial rose growers in Wasco, which is where J & P and Weeks and other big rose distributors contracted to have their roses grown, yanked ... yes, yanked ...the rose plants out of the fields by machines in October, then processed the roses and held them in cold storage until bare root season ... around January when they were shipped to nurseries. Cold temps and no light. 2) photosynthesis in roses slows down at 70F. So, with your cold temps, even though the leaves are getting light, they are not working to provide food to the plant.

Yes, plant them as soon as you can. I don't know when spring arrives for you, so that's a judgment call on your part.

Of course, you should have mentioned the lava rocks. Sharing experiences about what works and what doesn't work is part of gardening.

Oh, yes, again, you are very, very lucky to have good soil. My soil was dead when I started this garden. The parts I haven't cultivated still doesn't grow weeds ...

Smiles,
Lyn