HOw are the northerners doing this winter?
Ordered seeds and trying to get my lights set up here.

Hi. I just joined the forum. I'm a Texan, but have been living in Minnesota since 1992.

I'm starting to get seed catalogs in the mail (first one arrived right after Christmas), and also browsing seed company web sites, trying to figure out what I'm going to plant this year. I'll be starting a new thread in a few minutes about cowpeas, because I want to try growing them even tho' most varieties are not suited for here.

Welcome to the garden.org site!


You will find lots of people who can give info on gardening in Minnesota.
I have not grown cowpeas but likely there are several cultivars and there may be one that can be grown in the north.
Maybe place your post on cowpeas over in the vege forum and the experienced vege gardeners may know which cowpea is best in the north.

CarolineScott said:Welcome to the garden.org site!


You will find lots of people who can give info on gardening in Minnesota.
I have not grown cowpeas but likely there are several cultivars and there may be one that can be grown in the north.
Maybe place your post on cowpeas over in the vege forum and the experienced vege gardeners may know which cowpea is best in the north.

Thanks Caroline. I know there are a few cultivars that will grow up here (at least in a normal year), I just haven't figured out where to buy seeds for them. Also I'd like to hear from any northerners that even know what purple hull peas are ;) and maybe have stories about trying to grow them.

BTW, if you haven't bought your lights yet, I highly recommend these: [edit: forum won't let me post a link, but goto Amazon and search for B00HEYCRI8 it should bring up a 4 foot 4-lamp T5 fixture] The price jumps around all over the place; I was going to buy another fixture last year and they were over $100 so I bought something else and didn't like it nearly as much. $80 is a fair price.

I already have my lights.
3 shelves are shop lights with LED tubes.
Two shelves are Sunblaster T5s.

Well I have been banned from the Sandbox so I will put this here as this topic is dead as a doornail so if I get banned from here no loss.

I spent most of a day yesterday at the local hospital as my sig. other was having physical therapy, she fell and fractured her shoulder and a stress test for upcoming knee surgery .

Most of the place is closed to the public, and most of the entrance doors are locked. (It is an old large long hospital with many additions seemingly added by a drunken Irishman so it is long)
The door by the handi-capped parking was locked so maybe if an old person with a cane stood out there and beat on the door long enough some might risk discipline and open it.

I was there for almost four hours so I wandered the hall and joked with nurses and other employees about asinine this was.

One nurse said she agreed as if I had it, now she would get it, etc. etc. plus when I went to cafe and got some pecan rolls, asked if the person who made them did so in a hazmat suit and if it were better if threw her the money from six feet away.

The only one who approached us when we entered was a dude asking if I wanted valet service.

I took her in a wheel chair to the correct part of the place and after wandering for a bit I was reading a novel but after another bit had to lay on the floor, no sofas , the chairs in this waiting room/lounge I think were designed so you needed physical therapy after sitting in them.

After a couple of hours I got tired of that and went to the desk and asked a female there if there were any public computers not off limits. (Most lounges for persons waiting for some one, were closed )
She said there were two televisions, back over there.(there were two odd small rooms way back in the corner of a corner where I found a television with a remote, so apparently computers some how spread the disease but a television remote handled by x number of people is OK.

Then the chick said my shift is done if you need help you will have walk back into the therapy rooms and speak to some one.
Now this was a big waiting room/lounge and it was weird being there all by my self, as even when I was reading while laying on the floor, the desk person was not at the desk.

Saw one doctor who went to the coffee machine close to where I was laying on the floor; he asked how it was going I said, anything is better than sitting in those chairs.

He laughed and went on his way.

Oh yes, her surgery for a new knee at the hospital April 1 has been cancelled due to the virus but they will see if they can do it at one of the clinics instead.
What is a little pain and misery compared to heeding Chicken Little and the Sky if Falling.

Sorry that you had that bad experience.
How is your gardening coming along?

It seems that this will be an early spring; New Years Day the weather switched from colder and wetter than average to warmer and drier than average.
Snow is gone here, now and temps will be a bit above average for the next week.
As our governor has shut down half of the places to go, restaurants, theaters etc. weekends will be boring so I will see what is available in roses I can afford, or want and decide what to put in the garden to take up dead space in time.
I have cut way down on the time I spend here, even before being banned for not joining the paranoid parade, plus on line as a whole as I was spending way too much time.

For what ever reason I just have no gardening thrill this year, which is pretty much a complete flip from last year as last fall I was more gung-ho than I had been in a while.
I am anticipating a bit to see how the tulips and iris I put in last fall will turn out.
Refurbishing my South rose garden desire comes and goes but I will give it one more shot,.

Default phrases for 2020

"We are about three weeks away from knowing everyone's true hair color."

"Apparently, this year is being written by Stephen King."

"You might as well go ahead and pronounce the 'L' in 'salmon.' Nothing matters anymore."

"Day 2 without sports. Found a lady sitting on my couch. Apparently she's my wife. Seems nice."

"Like a good neighbor, stay over there."

"If you self-quarantine for your family's safety, please be smart. I cannot afford to go to 15 baby showers in December."

"Actually, it's only quarantine if it comes from the quarantine region of France; otherwise it's just sparkling isolation."

"I'd hate to see a diarrhea virus break out right now. People would buy up all the nasal spray."

On a photo of empty store shelves: "Y'all have Walmart looking like the Cleveland Browns' trophy case."

Atop a drawing of Keith Richards holding a cigarette: "Corona virus barometer. If he goes, we all go."

With a photo of a guy wearing a medical mask and looking out a window: "Day 6 of no sports. Watching birds fight over worms. Cardinals lead the Blue Jays 3-1."

Over a photo of a guy wearing a plain white T-shirt: "2020 NCAA Champions Shirts, $19.95."

Above a photo of a hand with words written all over the palm in ink: "I washed my hands so much that my exam notes from 1995 resurfaced."

"Back in the day, there was so much toilet paper that people used to literally string it up in the trees of their enemies."

"Now that we have everyone washing their hands correctly ... next week, turn signals."

"You know that stash of fast-food napkins in your glovebox? It's their turn to shine."

Over a photo of Rod Serling: "Imagine no restaurants, bars, concerts or sports. You just entered The Twilight Zone."

My Hibiscus seeds are sprouting !
Three kinds but the yellow is not yet. Sprouting?
Started eggplant seeds and also Cardoon.

My order from Edmund's Roses.

Qty Item # Description Price
1 23506 Adolf Horstmann Hybrid Tea Rose $19.95
1 23642 Dark Night Hybrid Tea Rose $24.95
1 23746 Full Sail Hybrid Tea Rose $21.95
1 23948 Love At First Sight Hybrid Tea Rose $24.95
1 24156 Rio Samba Hybrid Tea Rose $19.95

I added
Grande Amore
Lasting Love

From Northland Rosarium and a Dr. Brownell's collection of Arctic Flame, Maria Stern, Victory, Lily Pons, Senior Prom, Dr. Brownell and Queen 'O The Lakes Sub-Zero Roses from Farmer so in total this year 14 roses.

I did the Brownell collection a year or so ago with bad results but I will give it another shot.

I am putting this here because I am banned from the Musings 202x I would normally use.

I will head to my house and check the one roof that leaks regardless of what I have done but it is still drips but still annoying.
We are watching Escape to the Chateau on PBS right now, reruns but still interesting, plus I did not now early records played from the spindle outward.

Too early to uncover the roses but up here Iris are starting to green but I am not sure if new ones are coming up.

Sharon and I have experienced first hand Minn. Marshal Law, so , I hope your gardens turns out well.
I may be banned, my political view got me banned from Sandbox before planting season begins, as I am not of the Chicken-Little political mind .

To any of the paranoid gardeners out there who may read this, as Churchhill paraphrased -- any who gives up freedom for safety deserve neither.
Godspeed.

Spring temps. have arrived though it may snow later this week.

I was out raking the lawn yesterday in a T-shirt, shorts and bare foot.

Minnnesota spring sounds. Ahead of Alberta spring.
Every thing is frozen still here.
I just keep on starting more seeds under lights.
And I running out of room.

I took my snow tires off yesterday while it was snowing.

Temps are above or below average willy-nilly, little of the norm.
Colder with a hard freeze coming, possibly snow.
Roses will ship in another week, I may contact for a delay if I can.

Will they be potted or bare root?

CarolineScott said:Will they be potted or bare root?

Bare root.
Monday to Wednesday next week temp. will be 20 degrees below average with a very hard 20 degrees freeze at night.

We're all doing well thanks! The weather is getting more sunny and bright. Today was the first day in one or two months that we've had bright sun with no fog. It gave me a chance to put my bell pepper seeds in the sun.

It was only 9 degrees here this morning, we got snow before the ground froze last fall that stayed so many plants were up when the snow went. We had a few warm days to get the snow melted and things growing and then it turned nasty cold. The alliums are black along with some of the tulips. The daylilies that had started to come up don't look good. It's suppose to be cold again tonight and then start warming up a little to at least above freezing in the day.

Caroline, I have the same problem you do, all my light shelves are full and all the surfaces by windows are getting the overflow. When it is to cold to get outside I just start more plants.