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Oh, I forgot to mention, I planted the apple seeds in pots from the pies I made, I have 3 little apple trees. Hopefully, when it gets hot, we can put them in the house, until they get big enough to handle it. 

 

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I really enjoy seeing everyone's early gardening endeavors this Spring, especially Ann in Arizona. I'm not sure I have enough years left in my lifetime to get the soil to respond to my wants in the desert.   :whistling:

 

DH and I are working on getting the hoop house nice and cozy for the hundreds of seedlings that are ready to come out of the basement. I keep trimming the greens and tossing them into our salads so they don't outgrow the shelving and grow lights.  :grinning-smiley-044:  This year, we're trying black buckets, filled with water in the unheated hoop house. The first few nights, we ended up with ice on top of the water. :0327: I didn't realize the temps would drop almost to that of the outdoors. If we can get the nights close to 32 F, we can supplement with an electric heater. I may only have to add one more layer of plastic over the seedlings and buckets of water to keep the heat in a smaller area. I like pushing the envelope of Springtime in the north. I'm ready to come out of hibernation and start GROWING!    :cele:

P1030864.JPG

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21 hours ago, Annarchy said:

Oh, I forgot to mention, I planted the apple seeds in pots from the pies I made, I have 3 little apple trees. Hopefully, when it gets hot, we can put them in the house, until they get big enough to handle it. 

 

 

Now that you mentioned seed saving...I saved back some cherry seeds from a neighbors tree because I wanted to try planting them.  Figured if I got 2 trees out of a dozen seeds I'd be walking tall! LOL  I know last year I planted seeds from a spaghetti squash and it grew and produced, also some Roma seeds...just sliced the tomato in 1/4 inch slices and buried them in potting soil.  Up they came! LOL  Didn't save any of their seeds since they were hybrid and probably wouldn't come back true.

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On 3/21/2018 at 7:07 PM, The WE2's said:

I have a little green house that hubby bought me last year.  I plan to get some herbs started in a couple of weeks.  Also (and this may sound weird to some) I plan to be on the lookout for a 4x8 or bigger outside dog kennel (like we have for Abby-girl) to turn into a green house.  Planning to use cpvc for the hoops (conastoga looking) and then pool noodles on places that might be sharp enough to cut through the heavy plastic covering, especially the door.  May work...may not...if it don't, I'll have a chicken coop! LOL

 

 

I've been using a 10x20' dog kennel since Oct, WE2.  For temporary storage, not for a greenhouse but I've certainly been eyeing it for greenhouse.  This is what I've learned:

 

1--  It will certainy keep out the large animals like deer...[except where plants  might be growing too close to the chainlink sides- but having a clear plastic skin would solve that].   We used that area one year to protect our experiment in stray/hay bale gardening.  In Oct of that year, we got puppy Koa and she had the best time learning to leap onto those bales and play with them in what was then her play pen.  :lol: 

 

2-- I think I'd used some extra chicken wire around the bottom ...for rabbits. 

 

3 -- in my area, nothing will keep out the chippies, tunneling varmints, or voles.... 

 

4-- The most important part is the roof lines.  Make sure if there is a huge amount of rain [or snow...which has been the bane of my winter] ...that no LOW SPOTS can develop.  In the case of Conestoga Wagon hoops...you'd just have to see after some rain, if you have them tight enough to roll those pounds of HEAVY water off.  If water finds/forms a low spot, shove the water puddle off by pushing cover material upwards from the INSIDE with the straw end of brooms....  Be careful ...can give you bad neck strain!   Then redesign to eleminate the low spot.   With MrWE2...he'd likely engineer this correctly but lotta other folks read this too....  :shrug: 

 

5--  The chain link makes it easy to add or take off extra side tarp(s) for blocking wind/cold on chilly days/nites. 

 

6-- Yes definitely pad the top of the chainlink to protect tarp or plastic sheeting from the wires.  I cut WIDE strips off the inside pad of a waveless waterbed.  [I keep EVERYthign to reuse!!]  It's worked very well all winter with tornadic WINDS shifting that tarp UP AND DOWN till I thot the whole thing was gonna take off and blow away.  I missed one piece of wire and sure enough, it cut a tear so go around and check for a week or so....making sure you didn't miss something.  Mine was a very used dog kennel and had more oddities than new would have.  

 

7--WIND....  Honestly, we locked windward side down with a 4' length of iron I-beam.  If wind gets under it...it will LIFT OFF without an anchor..at least in our valley.   Also, I used a lot of bungie cords to let the tarps I'm using have a bit of 'give' with the wind.

 

8-- Dog kennels are VERY interesting.  They could be quickly dismantled and transported....if one would have to BugOut.  Decent size with head room [if you're short] for "expedient" portable shelter for stuff, animals, or ourselves.  I keep the correct size wrench attached to the kennel....in case of Bug Out or EVAC.  If I could possibly bring it, I certainly would try. 

 

WE2....let me know how the Conestoga Wagon top works out.  With a narrow structure, that would probably be lots easier than my 10x20'.   :thumbs: 

 

MtRider   :) 

Edited by Mt_Rider
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12 hours ago, The WE2's said:

 

Now that you mentioned seed saving...I saved back some cherry seeds from a neighbors tree because I wanted to try planting them.  Figured if I got 2 trees out of a dozen seeds I'd be walking tall! LOL  I know last year I planted seeds from a spaghetti squash and it grew and produced, also some Roma seeds...just sliced the tomato in 1/4 inch slices and buried them in potting soil.  Up they came! LOL  Didn't save any of their seeds since they were hybrid and probably wouldn't come back true.

 

I would like to experiment with some grafting of fruit trees. I'm too old to wait between sprouting seeds and edible food.  :0327:  I've always wanted to purchase some root stock, from known cultivars that survive harsh winters, and graft known fruit branches onto them. I've heard that mounding up dirt around a planted root stock will cause many sprouts to grow, thereby multiplying one root stock into many, for the following year.   :hapydancsmil:

 

So many things I want to do. So few years left to experiment and play them out.  :laughkick:

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This is my issue.  I've ordered a bundle of G9 rootstock, which is very dwarfing, but of course it won't arrive until well after this year's grafting season.  So we grow this year, and graft onto the survivors next summer.  

 

Good luck with the coppicing.  Don't forget to cut before you add the soil, to promote root growth on the new trunks/stems.

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, Ambergris said:

This is my issue.  I've ordered a bundle of G9 rootstock, which is very dwarfing, but of course it won't arrive until well after this year's grafting season.  So we grow this year, and graft onto the survivors next summer.  

 

Good luck with the coppicing.  Don't forget to cut before you add the soil, to promote root growth on the new trunks/stems.

 

 

 

Ambergris - Do you ever use sprouts from roots of an existing fruit tree to start new rootstock? My new orchard is only one year old so I know which trees are standard, semi-dwarf and dwarf on all the different varieties of fruits.     :sSig_thankyou:

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Homey, did you or anyone else here get blasted with this 12" of snow?  First an inch or so of rain after raining all day yesterday and then a foot of snow on top of it.   Yikes, this is NOT what we wanted to see!!! :) 

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8 hours ago, Homesteader said:

Ambergris - Do you ever use sprouts from roots of an existing fruit tree to start new rootstock? My new orchard is only one year old so I know which trees are standard, semi-dwarf and dwarf on all the different varieties of fruits.     :sSig_thankyou:

Yes, I've done that on figs and persimmon.  Actually, I did it on citrus a couple of times too, and I still have one of those trees.

 

Okay, I've FINALLY up-potted all my rooted cuttings and other baby plants to a minimum of one-gallon pots.

Annnnnd! Ta-Dah!  My Violette de Bordeaux fig cutting is putting on new top-growth, meaning it probably has viable roots!

Edited by Ambergris
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3 hours ago, Dee said:

Homey, did you or anyone else here get blasted with this 12" of snow?  First an inch or so of rain after raining all day yesterday and then a foot of snow on top of it.   Yikes, this is NOT what we wanted to see!!! :) 

 

Nope it missed us.  :hapydancsmil:  I took three trays of seedlings out to my hoop-house today to get some sun but brought them in tonight. It's going to 21 F tonight and I don't want to lose sleep over them. It's too early to waste an electric heater on them. I only took out one 6-pack of each variety of cold weather veggies. That way I don't lose the whole lot.  :0327:

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/22/2018 at 10:32 PM, Mt_Rider said:

 

 

I've been using a 10x20' dog kennel since Oct, WE2.  For temporary storage, not for a greenhouse but I've certainly been eyeing it for greenhouse.  This is what I've learned:

 

1--  It will certainy keep out the large animals like deer...[except where plants  might be growing too close to the chainlink sides- but having a clear plastic skin would solve that].   We used that area one year to protect our experiment in stray/hay bale gardening.  In Oct of that year, we got puppy Koa and she had the best time learning to leap onto those bales and play with them in what was then her play pen.  :lol: 

 

2-- I think I'd used some extra chicken wire around the bottom ...for rabbits. 

 

3 -- in my area, nothing will keep out the chippies, tunneling varmints, or voles.... 

 

4-- The most important part is the roof lines.  Make sure if there is a huge amount of rain [or snow...which has been the bane of my winter] ...that no LOW SPOTS can develop.  In the case of Conestoga Wagon hoops...you'd just have to see after some rain, if you have them tight enough to roll those pounds of HEAVY water off.  If water finds/forms a low spot, shove the water puddle off by pushing cover material upwards from the INSIDE with the straw end of brooms....  Be careful ...can give you bad neck strain!   Then redesign to eleminate the low spot.   With MrWE2...he'd likely engineer this correctly but lotta other folks read this too....  :shrug: 

 

5--  The chain link makes it easy to add or take off extra side tarp(s) for blocking wind/cold on chilly days/nites. 

 

6-- Yes definitely pad the top of the chainlink to protect tarp or plastic sheeting from the wires.  I cut WIDE strips off the inside pad of a waveless waterbed.  [I keep EVERYthign to reuse!!]  It's worked very well all winter with tornadic WINDS shifting that tarp UP AND DOWN till I thot the whole thing was gonna take off and blow away.  I missed one piece of wire and sure enough, it cut a tear so go around and check for a week or so....making sure you didn't miss something.  Mine was a very used dog kennel and had more oddities than new would have.  

 

7--WIND....  Honestly, we locked windward side down with a 4' length of iron I-beam.  If wind gets under it...it will LIFT OFF without an anchor..at least in our valley.   Also, I used a lot of bungie cords to let the tarps I'm using have a bit of 'give' with the wind.

 

8-- Dog kennels are VERY interesting.  They could be quickly dismantled and transported....if one would have to BugOut.  Decent size with head room [if you're short] for "expedient" portable shelter for stuff, animals, or ourselves.  I keep the correct size wrench attached to the kennel....in case of Bug Out or EVAC.  If I could possibly bring it, I certainly would try. 

 

WE2....let me know how the Conestoga Wagon top works out.  With a narrow structure, that would probably be lots easier than my 10x20'.   :thumbs: 

 

MtRider   :) 

We've had Abby's outside kennel since she was a puppy.  4x12 (we bought an extra 4x6) and hubby used pvc pipes and crossed them over each other over the top for the "conesta" roof and then bungied a heavy duty tarp over half of it...covering half of top and half way down back and both sides.  It's stood the test.  We've replaced the tarp twice in 6 years but this last one had now lasted 2 years...it's a really heavy duty tarp.  We put down sand and then paving stones so she never gets muddy or has ever tried to dig.

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We've got water lines in the bath remodel!  Used plexi so they're are soooo much easier to deal with!  Turned on water to bleed the lines and "whooosh-spew-pop"! LOL  Hubby forgot a crimp! LOL  Not much of a mess but glad we did all this before he started putting in the flooring etc.  My little "compost potty" is working so good!  Just emptied it today...and I probably could have gone another week...so....just FYI...if you're really in a needy spot, having something like this is wonderful.  We did buy a brand new porta potty at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago for $10 so it's there if we need it.  When all is done I plan to put the compost toilet up stairs for "emergencies"...LOL  We disconnected the water feeds to the upstairs bathroom and winterized all the plumbing...so a compost toilet will work great.  Hubby built a really nice compost toilet that works with a 5-gallon bucket so I may just use it up there.  Nice having choices...LOL

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These will have to be up-potted in the coming week or two, but hey.  I'm going to prune them this weekend.  In the fall, most of them will go out here.  

IMG_20180401_192121.jpg

IMG_20180401_192421.jpg

Edited by Ambergris
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All of my veggie plants had to be removed from the hoophouse and now live on a wagon in my kitchen.  :gaah:  I had been adding more seeds/plants to the area with the shelving and lights. No room for the older kids anymore.  :laughkick:

 

DH is still recovering from the knee replacement so we're trying to find things he can do standing up.  :hug3:  We're back to finishing a lower level wall. The windows are replaced, the Styrofoam installed, and the drywall installed. I'm doing my favorite job ... taping and mudding.  :0327: I have to work around the woodburner, :campfire: so the work has slowed down due to the sudden snowstorm and cold weather outside.   :frozen:

 

Before and after photos.

P1020123.JPG

P1030087.JPG

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I'd heard about the unusual SNOWSTORM for the MN/WI areas from a friend.  Your "before" pic sends me back in time -- almost every house in that locale and time period looks exactly like that!  :)

 

Love the new stove!

 

MtRider  ....our pond is completely ice-free.  Earliest in the 2 decades we've been here.  Maybe happy ducks tomorrow?

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11 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

I'd heard about the unusual SNOWSTORM for the MN/WI areas from a friend.  Your "before" pic sends me back in time -- almost every house in that locale and time period looks exactly like that!  :)

 

Love the new stove!

 

 

 

When we moved in, only the carpet was left (and lots of holes in the wood walls). The local storm had abt 8" of rain overnight and that area became wet. We arrived a week later to a moldy smell. Our friends from church helped us move in all morning. In the afternoon, we went to Home Depot and bought carpet razor knives. The carpet was out by nightfall. Moving multi-states and ending up with water in lower level was almost too much to bare.    :0327:  The furniture for that room is still in the garage. It takes SO LONG to get anything done, especially when EVERYTHING needs our attention.  :gaah:

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4 hours ago, Homesteader said:

It takes SO LONG to get anything done, especially when EVERYTHING needs our attention.  :gaah:

 

 

Boy...I hear ya on THAT one!!!!!!  Especially when you and/or yours has health issues [lot of that here!] or when we aren't "spring chickens" anymore.  :0327:

 

We're snowing today....but glad for it.  NEED moisture!

MtRider  ... :santa: 

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On 4/5/2018 at 7:55 AM, Homesteader said:

All of my veggie plants had to be removed from the hoophouse and now live on a wagon in my kitchen.  :gaah:  I had been adding more seeds/plants to the area with the shelving and lights. No room for the older kids anymore.  :laughkick:

 

DH is still recovering from the knee replacement so we're trying to find things he can do standing up.  :hug3:  We're back to finishing a lower level wall. The windows are replaced, the Styrofoam installed, and the drywall installed. I'm doing my favorite job ... taping and mudding.  :0327: I have to work around the woodburner, :campfire: so the work has slowed down due to the sudden snowstorm and cold weather outside.   :frozen:

 

Before and after photos.

P1020123.JPG

P1030087.JPG

 

Can almost feel the warmth from here!  And yes...we're all too familiar with how projects "get stuck"...LOL  Hubby pulled back muscles this morning and went into spasms...hurry to cabinet, grab Arnica Oil, grab Valerian caps, grab tens machine, grab Ibuprofen and then put on tens pads...took a nap and he's feeling pretty much back to himself.  So, no work on homestead today for sure.  Check on van...it's 7 months in the shop now...and forecast is probably another month waiting for additional parts.  Where have I read that tribulation works patience?  :24:

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My seed potatoes have sprouted big time...just haven't been able to get them in the ground with all the crazy back and forth weather...either freezing, snowing or raining!  Thought I'd get them in this weekend...nope, winter weather is supposed to come back.  I can't plant them in mud, they'd just rot.  Guess it's a lesson learned ... how many old timers may have lost crops due to increment weather etc.  and the Irish Potato Famine. 

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Awwww, We2. 

 

I may have planted my seed potatoes too late. Go figure. I may have gotten a represe, with the cooler weather that has pushed through. I have no idea, I am hoping they will still have enough time to grow before the real heat sets in. 

 

The ones that grew from eyes, 2 of 6 have sprouted and seem to be doing good so far. 

 

Seems that root crops are my best attempt. 

 

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