It's Spring!

The view from my kitchen this morning:

So far it looks like about 4" of very wet snow at my place with maybe twice as much in the south metro. It's not exactly an uncommon occurrence for this time of the year in the Twin Cities and I kind of like it. It covered up the dirty and nasty looking snow piles that hadn't melted yet and it's not like it's going to stay around for too long either. It did make for a nasty commute in some spots this morning though.

It's still a little early to be watching for "ice out" this year. The ice went off the lakes in my area around 4/3 last year and I'm guessing we will be back to average this year, which is around 4/11. But that's only a little over two weeks away, it's coming despite this little blast of winter. Spring fever is starting to set in and it doesn't help when my friend Rob starts posting pics like these from his place in Louisiana. I'm even inspired now to think about a vegetable garden this year.

If I'm going to do that I better get cracking, even though last frost isn't usually until May around here. If I'm going to grow tomatoes from seed I'm going to have to start those in the next couple of weeks. I don't suppose there are online garden planners now...why yes, of course there are. It looks like at least some are free and I'm going to check out the Better Homes and Gardens one. Any other suggestions?

Comments

[Rob]

WOW. I recommend waiting a few weeks before planting tomatoes up there. :)

I used to do tomato seeds when I lived in Metairie. I grew tomatoes in a wooden box there and they had relatively limited exposure to sun and wind until they were established. When I moved to Bush, I started planting them in the ground with much greater immediate exposure to those elements. Seeds became a bit of a problem here. Would break my heart to check on them every day and nurture them only to see about 90% of them die when they were transplanted and fully exposed to the outdoors. It's cheap enough for lazy me to buy plants. Plants have a much better survival rate. I planted mostly Creoles this year with a handful of Goliaths, a handful of Bonnie's Best, and two grape tomato bushes that I've forgotten the names.

If you want to get away from that snow, crawfish boil at my place next weekend. Don't bring anything but your appetite. :)

[Dave E.]

Thanks for the invite, I'm tempted. On the garden stuff it will definitely have to wait a few more weeks unless it's getting plants started indoors. The online planning stuff was a disappointment as far as vegetable gardens go. I did find one that I'm playing around with on a 45 day trial called plangarden.com. A one year subscription is $20 and I don't know if I'll do that, but it is helping me get my thoughts organized.

So far I'm thinking carrots, green beans, green onions, bulb onions, garlic, radishes, and I might even be ambitious enough to do a row of sweet corn. I also need to figure out what variety of each of those. That second photo above, right around the old clothsline pole is where I'm thinking. I can easily drop in a 12'x 20' garden in there if I want to make it that big.

[Mr. Bingley]

Damn you Gorezilla!