All,
I could not help myself but to start the topic

I received my spectacular Baker Creek catalog a couple of weeks ago. Although I already have quite a bit of seed to get started for this year, I could not resist buying a few more items:
green tatsoi, little finger carrots, new kuroda carrot, Rober cauliflower, Purple of Sicily cauliflower, rapini broccoli, Cima Grande broccoli rabe, to round out my garden. I had GREAT luck with cauliflower last year and dehydrated almost all of it to use through the winter. I'm hoping lightening strikes twice.
I am cutting back on any winter squash I tried last year. I did yield a couple of red warty thing pumpkins and my favorite, butternut squash, gifted me with three but they are not worth the room they've taken up. Also, I can buy organic butternut year round at the stores.

Cookinthyme held my hand, all last year with my tomato apprenticeship and much to my dismay, I was a crumby student. I'm tackling it again this year and doing things a bit different, having learned from my mistakes, I hope.

I don't feel the small greenhouse we used last year is the way to go for all summer growth so I'm going to use it for hardening off spring shoots for periods of time during the day. It was also a GREAT prep area to get stuff in pots, etc.

Anyway, it's a start. Happy New Year to all the gardeners out there.

I love looking at the Baker Creek catalog! Such eye candy!
It's so easy to get wooed by the seed catalogs. I try not to get sucked in. Over buying seeds was a weakness of mine when I was first learning to garden. But seeds were cheap back then. I am shocked how expense seeds have become over the past 2 years.

So glad it is not gardening season for me yet! Winter is my second favorite season! I cherish the calm and simplicity of dormancy.

This is fascinating to me!

In-bed vermicomposting




This gal does it all year round, but she is in Arizona

I wonder if the worms can survive our winters?????
But even buying more worms every spring might make this project worth the effort.
I'm going to try it!

I have finally getting topic notifications again from Pinecam again! I had to change my email address because Yahoo was blocking it for some reason.

In bed vermicomposting, what an interesting idea. Very curious to see how well it works for you.

I suspect they will although it may just be as eggs. I seem to have a lot of worms in my beds. Not sure how to tell if they are wrigglers or not, but they are not as big as earth worms although I do occasionally see a really big guy. I use castings every spring in the garden and occasionally in my compost. Here is a video from a fellow in Alberta, Canada where is get very cold. He manages to get them to overwinter.
https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... Pueqo6Aw16

Thanks for that video Conifer4. Helpful info. Maybe they can survive, thanks.

Just a note for you all to consider. Because of COVID and it's impacts we decided to order get our large seed orders done earlier then normal. Glad we did as some of the items we normally get were "out of stock" or "unavailable". Our orders have come trickling in so (many with long delays between shipment and delivery) so we will be planting this year, and hopefully harvesting!

I'm not getting all notifications either but try to stop in to check. Glad I did. The vermicomposting looks very interesting. We've had loads of worms in our beds the two years we've been doing this but the only think wiggling here right now is my post holiday belly.

Would anyone like some FREE gardening books?

Our gardening season is just around the corner. The seed catalogs are arriving and everyone is starting to plan out what they want to plant this coming season.

If you have any interest starting from seeds versus buying pricey starter plants from a garden center, we have the class for you. Not only is it significantly cheaper to start your plants from seed, you will have access to a much wider selection of plant varieties including short season and cold tolerant varieties which are not always available in the garden centers. With our short growing season, jump starting the season indoors can be very beneficial.

The Conifer Community Garden is pleased to offer a free class on indoor seed starting on Saturday, February 12th at 1:00pm, a flyer is attached. This online class will cover the following topics:

• What materials are required
• How to create proper growing conditions
• When and how to plant your seeds
• Caring for seedlings
• The hardening off process
• Transplanting to the garden

Our experienced gardeners will be in attendance to help answer your questions.

Below is a link to register for the class. Last year the class filled up very quickly, so if you are interested please register soon.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/regist ... 9014949392

The wife is thinking she will start peppers tomorrow she starts them in paper towels on heat mats.

I thought she was early but last year she said it was the 7th and I know she has a crazy schedule this week.

Soon if I am ever looking for her I will know where to find her.

Did you see this topic if you're not getting Pinecam notifications?

https://www.pinecam.com/forum/viewtopic ... 7&t=216596

I started seeds one week ago. Most are ones I collected end of last summer. Most have sprouted and are now under grow lights. I even got the salmon colored wildflowers that grow on the side of the road coming in. Well, I HOPE that is what is coming up. I stopped and grabbed some seed heads after the flowers were gone. We'll see! Delphiniums are coming up, as well as some of my giant sunflowers. I am planting sunflowers EVERYWHERE this year. I love them so much. I am sure I am going to have WAAAAY more than I have room for in my beds, but I am going for it, anyway. This is the first year that I collected and stored seeds.