Same here, @drdawg - I don't want to move but I don't want to see the gardens go downhill. I'd be content to expire in the garden on a nice October day, amidst the blooming dahlias.

Weedwhacker said:

Absolutely! Nothing wrong with hiring people to do it (and I hope it didn't sound like I thought there WAS something wrong with doing so ). We have what I keep reminding DH is a "country yard." It's big, it's not very level, and it has weeds. And ants. Every 2 or 3 years I'll go out and spray and try to beat the weeds back a bit... need to keep the grass fairly healthy to provide mulch for my garden! Most of the mowing involves sitting on the John Deere, plus a little weed whacking here and there (which I'm trying to minimize more and more as time goes by).

What in the world do people who live in condos do with all their time??

Take lots of trips? Redecorate?

abhege said:Today we prepared three rows for early spring planting. I have never done this before so I am really hoping it works and I can get some things in the ground and covered early. Rows were tilled, a layer of compost put on and then a layer of newspaper and then leaves/straw. We changed our configuration so the rows are still 50'x 3.5' but the aisles are wide enough to take the lawnmower tractor through. What a difference putting on the compost with the trailer right there! We used to do the Eliott Coleman configuration with 3.5' rows and 18" aisles. It is very tight and hard to kneel and weed/pick in 18".

The dark shadow is from the row of new solar panels that are now where my strawberries used to be. Not to worry, I have two new rows in different places. Matt didn't waste any time using garden space when we decided to not do Farmer's Market next year.




I think I will try and take a better picture tomorrow morning.

Looks great and I think getting as much done in the fall as one can is the way to go.

Arlene, that's a big solar panel! Somebody who is good at math can figure out the shade question. It has to do with the angle of the sun, which as it gets higher will cause a smaller shadow. As for it now, the sun is just a few days from it's lowest point. Your latitude also figures into the equation. I might have a book about greenhouses that has the formula.

@Greene found some links to online sun angle calculators. This is the link that I saved:

http://www.findmyshadow.com/in...

@pirl your image of bring found decomposed in the garden was SO funny! If anyone is looking for Christmas gifts for an old gardener (it would not be appropriate or thoughtful to give garden tools or knee lets at this point for my Elderkt MIL) I found a great gift. It's called GreenPrints, a paperback gardeners quarterly that comes in the mail -- actual US mail-- and has lovely essays and funny insights into the gardeners soul. I ordered myself s subscription and one for my MIL. They just sent her the gift card so I should hear from her any day now. Some of us could probably write for them with these entertaining posts I've been seeing. I guess you can tell it's winter because we have time to write.

I've seen GreenPrints and enjoyed it. First I have to catch up on a few years of Fine Gardening. Before that I still have to finish gardening for 2015 and maybe start for 2016.

We also have many landscaping companies and one year we had them take care of the lawn. They didn't do a great job, mowed when it wasn't necessary (costing more money) and generally irritated me. My yard/garden out back is my "Secret Garden" and I don't want it invaded. I can totter around out there and fall on my face due to crummy balance issues with impunity. Not loss of face. Maybe butt not not face.

I am hoping the Preen will help with the annual invasion of chickweed. I despise the stuff and spend far too much time pulling it up. Which is fruitless labor as it just grows all the more. I guess I could order some good mulch or bark stuff to put between the plants after applying preen. Some fairly fine stuff. Or just go to Lowe's and get some. Like Arlene's yard it would take about 20 bags but I could handle that.

Well off to attack the inside of the house now. Talk about fruitless....

Mary - there is a Preen just for lawn weeds and it does list chickweed so give it a try. It does not show crabgrass, rats.

Crumb. I bought a bag of that also. Well, if it gets rid of some of the other weeds and the dratted Feverfew that has invaded my lawn that is a plus.

Just make sure the grass is wet when you apply it, or give it a spray from the hose. Then don't cut the lawn for a few days.

I never thought I'd harvest anything in mid-December in Michigan... but my parsley just won't give up! It's not much, but I'll take anything garden-fresh I can get in winter!

Only thing green in my garden not covered with snow is - yup, you guessed it - chickweed. lol

Mary, is Anchorage going to get any blow/waves from the storm that is hitting the Aleutian Islands Saturday/Sunday?

Don't know Ken. I thought that Damien said that we were headed toward snow so maybe that is what he was referring to. I'll ask him. We are on the coast and can just look down the chain for a ways.

For us in the south, used to summer hurricanes, it is very unusual to not only have hurricanes/typhoons this time of year but even more rare to have strong storms now.

I looked at your forecast and don't see any impact of that storm whatsoever. But gosh, while we are in a "heat-wave" down here, y'all are in the deep-freeze. Sunday, your low is 12 and high is 16F. Ouch. Get out the long handles!

It's only fair, Ken -- last winter Alaska was getting warmer weather than my area was!

I certainly agree about the chickweed, though, Mary -- I have a real problem with it, too. Have you ever tried eating it? It doesn't seem very appealing to me, probably because I hate having it in the garden, so I've never tried it; but it could be one way to have our revenge on it .

Bugs too, great way to get rid of them and save money on meat. Let me know how they taste.