{"id":9298,"date":"2022-02-23T17:37:40","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T22:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=9298"},"modified":"2022-02-23T17:37:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T22:37:40","slug":"three-feet-of-snow-5-f-and-im-starting-to-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2022\/02\/23\/three-feet-of-snow-5-f-and-im-starting-to-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Three feet of snow, -5 F, and I’m starting to plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that may sound totally crazy (especially when our last spring frost date is around June 12th or so. But there are a few crops that need to be started early. One of these is my favorite pansy, Sweet Ruffles, which I tuck around the front edges of some of my flower beds. Another, new to me this year, are a few varieties of Habanero pepper. These hot peppers are slow to germinate and slow to get large enough to set outside or make a crop, even in the hoop house, unless started early. So, I’m getting my containers, six packs, and ProMix potting soil ready to go tomorrow. The ProMix has been sitting on our enclosed, unheated back porch and is frozen solid like a block of ice. It needs at least 24 hours to get thawed out enough to dig some out for my seeds. I use very hot water in the mix to moisten it as no plants germinate well in very cold soil. And peppers don’t at all. They prefer temperatures in the high seventies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
After planting my seeds in moist ProMix, I put the container inside a plastic bag to hold in warmth and moisture until they sprout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Here’s some of my last year’s seedlings, just prior to transplanting into Styrofoam coffee cups.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, the sun is out, and the snow and wind have finally quit blowing. What a relief. Not only for us, but for the deer too. This morning, when I went out to do chores, the resident deer herd I feed was lying down on the plowed driveway, enjoying the sun while they waited for me to come with a bucket of corn. They looked so comfortable. And, because of the sun, I’m thinking about the gardens and the beautiful crops that we’ll be seeing before too long. We get antsy this time of the year, just waiting!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
No, my plants don’t look like this now. But in three months, they will! So encouraging.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Will continues to do very well. Yesterday, he went to cardiac rehab and checked out very nicely; nothing strange after his exercises. We’re really happy about that. And, today, we paid off Will’s new-to-us diesel truck he went to North Dakota to buy (no rust as they don’t use tons of salt like they do here!). It feels so good to be debt free! Debt sucks your soul out, I’ll swear. Some is necessary but I always feel like someone cut my shackles off when we get paid off. We are so blessed, and we know it! — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that may sound totally crazy (especially when our last spring frost date is around June 12th or so. But there are a few crops that need to be started early. One of these is my favorite pansy, Sweet Ruffles, which I tuck around the front edges of some of my flower beds. Another, new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,13,17,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9302,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9298\/revisions\/9302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}