So! What can I plant in February in Zone 6?

Planting out in February mostly depends on where you live and what ‘zone’ you happen to fall in. Something that’s become a bit more confusing of late as those growing zones have changed! A new map put out in 2012 has basically shifted the numbers to the north a bit. I understand that my location in southwest Missouri which used to be Zone 6 is now Zone 6b which puts me a tad closer to Zone 7! This was all courtesy of global warming or so I’m told. Now, I guess what that map means is that I can plant stuff outside a little bit earlier in the year than I could before. But, is that really such a good guide?

Traditionally, most folks in the Midwestern States would wait until at least mid March before risking any seedlings or plants that could be killed by frost. Better still, Zone 6 people were advised to hold back until the first week of April as a late frost could still occur. I’ve always tended to follow that plan with the exception of onion starts which can be placed out just as soon as the soil can be worked. These cold hardy plants benefit from early plantings in good rich soil so they can be the best they can be by summer time.

I’ve already begun to keep an eye out at my local grocery stores for those bins filled with red, white and yellow onions, so that I can have them on hand during the next brief warm up outside. Last year in 2012, I saw them out in the first week of February and wrote a post on it. Those guys turned out really well and I enjoyed harvesting some as scallions as early as April of that year.

Walking Egyptian Onions

Through a fortunate coincidence, I discovered that a friend of mine, (Daniel Etchelecou) had a garden in which were growing the fabled Walking Egyptian Onions! He gave me a few of the onion sets (those little onions that grow at the end of the onion stalk) for me to take home and plant.

After I got home, I decided to ‘start’ some new onions by planting some of the sets into potting mix in a six cell starter tray. I figured that once these go to growing, I could transplant them out to select sites in my garden. Walking onions are also known as winter onions, a fact that attests to how hardy the plant is. I plan to update this post every now and then as time goes by.

Update: Almost a year has gone by and the small plants that were placed in a raised bed in my backyard are now growing in fine style as of March 30, 2013!

I apologize for being away!

Gosh! Most all of the spring and the beginning of summer has come and gone! During that period of time, DanO’s Garden has languished with no new blogs to instill any life, and yet…

I’ve noticed that every day and most every hour, someone out there visits this poor site and so that gives me pause to think and to write a bit more.

Have I lost my love for freshly turned earth, with seeds of hope planted in earth with the expectation of rewards to be gained? Hell no! I turned the soil and I planted them there seeds and by golly, I am harvesting as I write!

Only, the harvest so far, has been less than I’d of hoped for. Perhaps it’s been due to the drought my area has found itself in, or maybe it’s been due to a noticeable lack of desire on the part of the gardener! I’m not sure. Maybe it’s been a little of both that has resulted in less the hoped for results…

I’ll make an admission here. I’m a gardener and I’m also politically aware. And, I’m totally depressed with the way things have been going in Washington as of late. That depression has manifested itself in the manner in which I sow and in which I reap. For sour is the result so far this year and rancid is my feeling for the future of this country.

Catch me at Gardening for the Casual Survivor for more!

My personal plug for onions!

I’m a firm believer in growing onions and here’s why. Of all the other vegetables I work with during the regular growing season, the onion ‘set’ has them beat in a couple of ways! First, you can buy them cheaply at the store in a form that is already a growing plant! Second, once they are plopped into the ground they require very little in the way of maintenance. (I’ve harvested onions from one section of my garden that was overgrown with weeds and which received little additional water other than what fell from the sky one year and they were great)! I even did a video some years ago, ‘Onions are easy to grow’ that I think captures some of my enthusiasm for this most wonderful veggie.

Is it too early to start peppers?

I dunno. But, seeing as how I had some bell pepper and cayenne seeds that were leftover from the previous two seasons, I decided to give a few of them a go.  I figured that this early in the year, it they don’t germinate then it’s no big loss. Then again, if some do, I’ll have some early transplants to put out in the raised beds.

I prepared two 6 cell starter trays using some Miracle Gro potting mix that was left over from 2011. The mix was bone dry so I re-hydrated in the sink using warm water. Since it is so high in peat moss content, it took forever to get moist and even then, it doesn’t seem to want to held moisture very well!

In tray A, I planted two seeds each of cayenne seed in the front two cells and Cubanelle seeds from a 2009 batch in the back four.  I had collected from plants that were grown last year. Tray B has 2 seeds each in the front two cells and Sweet Hybrid Experimental pepper seeds from God knows when in the back four. I’ll be surprised to see anything come up in this tray although all these seeds were maintained in the fridge in a sealed container! Still, I feel it’s worth it to try. Especially, after paying a dollar a piece for bell peppers at the grocery store this week! Now, while my approach may look haphazard (it was), I feel it’s better to do something than to sit and think about it for so long it never gets done!

An orchid?

I'm not really sure what kind of plant this is. Maybe a member of the orchid family? My sister bought it a couple of years ago from a store when it was in flower. It then took me two years to get to flower again. Still, I think it was worth the effort!

Someone told me today that it may belong to the Phalaenopsis family!

Time for the planting of the onion sets!

By gosh and by golly! It’s getting near time for me to plant out some onion sets! I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I see a display of these at my local grocery store I know spring is just around the corner!

I bought this small batch for about a dollar ten (there’s about a pound) and think that may just be enough for an early planting in one of the raised beds out back. Course, I’ll have to wait until the cold front they are advertizing for the weekend comes and goes. Temperatures are supposed to get down to the teens and I even hear talk of a little snow. If that last part’s true, then I’d say bout time!

Later in the month of March, I’m hoping to install a new cold frame in my front yard! I plan to order one of those ‘fancy’ store bought jobs that will look appealing for being in such plain view. This 4 x 8 foot bed will also get some really good soil, sand and amendments to insure a bumper crop.

Why the front yard? Well, truth be told, the deer round these parts are a pain in the rump when it comes helping themselves to my back beds. So, this year I hope the new location will work a little better as they tend to be shy of the street traffic. That’s the plan anyway!