So what is everyone up to?

[Jaded]

I'm waiting for it to cool down, so I can do some serious digging. I have a friend who has a tiller, and has agreed to till up my garden area for $20. Great deal! I have another friend who is giving me all her leaves to add to the garden before he tills, so he can till them in. Another friend is saving newspapers for me so I can mulch with them. By January, I'll be ready to plant a crop. We plant what is considered our second crop of the season in January. I'm studying what to plant...never planted a second crop before.

Anyone have any hints about growing millet? I'm not talking about the hardshell brown millet, although I guess that would be o.k. if I didn't let it mature. The cockatiels don't like it much. I'd prefer the red or white millet, like what's in the seed mixes for tropical birds, and the millet sprays. I keep trying, and it keeps damping off. Never grown millet, don't have a clue how.

Also, if anyone has any heirloom veggie seeds they'd like to get rid of, I'll buy them from you. Gotta be cheaper than the OUTRAGEOUS prices the online sites charge. I'm specifically looking for Cherokee Tomato and Moon and Stars watermelon. Any others would be nice too. I'd really like to grow mostly heirloom crops.

So that's it for now. Winter is really the season I do the most work around here, much cooler, so I'll be posting more updates.

[redmaples]

Another mulcher & composter here. We had a beautiful Indian summer day yesterday. I did some mulching too w/ leaf, grass clippings & old straw.
Dug up a few rows to plant garlic. Put a fence around the swiss chard so the chickens don't get it all. While the chickens are great garden workers they also help themselves.

I've just been getting into heirloom seeds the past few years. My 2nd generation of tomatoes did very well & I've saved a few seeds from them as well as the multi colored peppers.

Check out a site called Wintersown.
There is a lot of info on starting seeds in the winter as well as heirloom seeds you can get for the cost of postage. Used to be anyway, I haven't visited for a while. I did get a lot of awesome heirloom seeds when I started.

I'm interested as to what you will be growing in the winter & what zone you are in?

[many houseapes]

enjoying the first "cold front" here. hope it stays...I wanna go back to bed..but I have too much to do todaylol

[Jaded]

I've just been getting into heirloom seeds the past few years. My 2nd generation of tomatoes did very well & I've saved a few seeds from them as well as the multi colored peppers.

Check out a site called Wintersown.
There is a lot of info on starting seeds in the winter as well as heirloom seeds you can get for the cost of postage. Used to be anyway, I haven't visited for a while. I did get a lot of awesome heirloom seeds when I started.

I'm interested as to what you will be growing in the winter & what zone you are in?

I'm in zone 9b/10a...right on the border....SW Florida. We usually have a cold spell in December, so we plant again in January. I'll probably be doing some greens, winter squash, and peas. In late February, I'll plant the regular summer veggies so I can harvest before the heat comes in May.

Our seasons are reversed down here. It's too hot in the summer to grow much. We can grow things like okra (related to hibiscus), peppers, and eggplant, and cherry/grape tomatoes in the summer, and some melons like the heat. I'm not much into hot peppers, so I usually just grow different colored bells for freezing/canning.

By summer, I'll be in full gardening force! I'm going to get my canning jars down from the attic right after Christmas and start cleaning them up, and I'm hunting lids now. They're hard to find around here. Not many people can. I may actually have to go to a neighboring town to find them.