What did you do in your garden today?

[vette-kid]

Esther, that's awesome! I love cheese shops! My wife is from Wisconsin, I would gain 5lbs every time we went to visit. My favorite was a coffee infused blue cheese... Simply fantastic! Sadly cheese shops seem to be non existent in Florida.

 

[David from Dothan]

Transplanted into ground out of greenhouse: tomatoes (Super Sioux, Italian Heirloom and San Marzano) and okra. Planted seeds, in ground: Telegraph Improved Cukes (Long English cuke) and Fordhook Zucchini (bush type).

 

[roadrunner]

I've been transplanting a bunch of plants that attract wildlife to my newly sunny area where I chopped down the Southern Magnolia tree. Things like Pokeweed, Four O'clocks...I also planted some Coneflowers and Nicotiana seeds (Nicotiana sylvestris). https://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/1120/Nicotiana-Indian-Peace-Pipe-HEIRLOOM-Seeds

I've never seen such small seeds; I thought Alyssum seeds were small, but Nicotiana seeds are smaller than anything I've ever sowed.

 

[vette-kid]

Planted 4 red King Humbert cannas. Found at Walmart of all places, there was supposed to be 3 in there, I got a freebie!

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Is not that amazing when you see the tiny seeds, those little dots of seeds and realize the little miracle that is packed in them. the coding to tell it how tall, what color, how wide to give scent, not to give scent, etc.

@vette-kid , got 4 kinds of cheese, 3 from Ireland, one of them a nice blue, and my favorite cheese. good to know about No cheese shops in Florida, not moving there. LOL. would not anyway, love changes in seasons, and snow.

 

[jenner]

I just planted beans and tomatoes.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Still too cold to do anything, had a quick trudge through the snow to check out the garden and to refill the bird feeders.

 

[marlingardener]

I planted three rows of potatoes (with the cats' help!) and checked the emerging beans and peas. Now I'm eyeing several pots I'd like to get filled with herbs . . . .

 

[JBtheExplorer]

It was 60°F yesterday so I couldn't help but spend the day outside. It's been a long time since it's been that warm out.

I went out in the native garden and cut it down - but not all the way. I leave stems standing one to two feet tall for native bees to use. There are many ways to improve the quality of a native garden, and leaving stems standing is one of them.

Here, I've outlined the general shape of the native garden.

In my "pond garden" I didn't do anything other than stare at my fish. It was nice to see them active again.

I also saw quite a bit of new growth on my Prairie Smoke, which reminded me of why I bought it last year. It's an early grower and an early bloomer. I'm interested to see when it'll start blooming. My guess is around mid-April. I definitely need more of it in both gardens.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

My Dad's Koi are becoming more active now, a couple of degrees higher water temps and he will restart their feeding routine. Sadly he found one of his beautiful huge ones dead in the biggest pond the other day.

 

[Sean Regan]

My Dad's Koi are becoming more active now, a couple of degrees higher water temps and he will restart their feeding routine. Sadly he found one of his beautiful huge ones dead in the biggest pond the other day.

Sadly that does happen over winter, sometimes and you can never work out why.

I used to put this floating cover over our pool, it's really made for swimming pools, out of heavy duty bubble-wrap, but you can cut it to size. It's supposed to cut out the latent heat exchange between the surface of the water and the wind blowing across it.

I also used to put in a couple of 300w aquarium heater. What I thought that actually did for 3000 gallons of water, I've no idea, "but I felt better for doing ..something."
But I've weened them off it by in one year cutting out the heat and for the last two years not putting on the cover.
So far they're doing OK. But then they're a lot bigger now, some are nearly 2ft in length.

They did take a bit of food, but only a few of the fat pellets I feed to the birds, last week when it was warmer, but have stopped feeding again now. What you don't want is them eating stuff they can't digest when the temperature is low, as it can rot in their gut. But they're fairly active now., rather than being huddled five feet down at the bottom in a corner under the filter return. I've a purgeable bottom drain so the bottom of the pool stays quite clean.

The temperature of the water coming back will be warmer as the filter is in a room in the back of the garage and the filter pump, UV and air pump will be adding some heat. The movement on the surface of the water is distorting their shape. You can also see the reflection of the clouds, It's not mucky water.

 

[TomatoTango]

Watering and watching my tomatoes mostly.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Started seeds on okra and tomatos. I am going to try Parks Whopper Improved this year. It is indeterminant so I started 60 seeds. I won't need that many. About 150 seeds on okra since they are so slow. 30 days until planting so it will work out fine. I love okra almost as much as my wife. I am doubling the rows this year. I started about 300 impatiens and 150 coleous for She who cooks my dinner. I tilled the garden yesterday working in peat and sulphur and fertilizer. I had sprayed heavy for nematode and it was to be worked in. Its a thyme oil product from Humagro with humic this and that as a base so I am hopeful the winter treatments and the tilling work out in my favor. The Whoppers are resistant too. I brought home lavender for the herb garden, marigolds for the garden, and lithodora for some ground cover. Did not get around to planting them yet.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Lovely pond @Sean Regan.
My Dad's fish are so beautiful too!
Wherever my Dad has called home he has always had a pond. We even Google Earthed where we lived over 55yrs ago and happily found ' his ' pond still there!
He has two now, one is big with a little island in the middle, when we were kids we use to take a flying leap to land on it.....wouldn't...couldn't dare attempt such a stunt now!!!!

He is now in his 93rd year and still gains so much pleasure from his ponds, fish and the additional wildlife they attract

 

[Sean Regan]

I ordered some Clematis from Taylors, for delivery Thurs/Friday

Starlight

Westerplatte

Florida Sieboldi

Paradiso