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So it's February 1 and my cherry tree has buds. Argh. This can't be a good thing.

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Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org

I have short-term very, very good news for you leek.

The USDA has released an updated hardiness zone, and whether you believe in climate change, or not, we've moved up a Zone. That means a longer growing season here in Chicago with a last frost date of APRIL 15!!!!!!!!.

Here's a link: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2012/120125.htm

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Ava-"If you get down and out, just get in the kitchen and bake a cake."- Jean Strickland

Horto In Urbs- Falling in love with Urban Vegetable Gardening

I have been thinking about my (poor) bulbs and I have observed my Italian Parsely coming in.

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What disease did cured ham actually have?

I have herbs (thyme, oregano) and various plants that are still clearly alive. Outside, not sheltered or mulched or anything. Creepy and disturbing as far as I'm concerned.

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

some volunteer cilantro I found today...

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my food shots

Agreed. But this is definitely, can't beat them, join them so get the tomato seedlings started

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Ava-"If you get down and out, just get in the kitchen and bake a cake."- Jean Strickland

Horto In Urbs- Falling in love with Urban Vegetable Gardening

On the other hand, if we get any cold between now and April 15, let alone frost, I have no cherries. AND I had Cherry Fly Worm last year and I have to spray, and I was supposed to spray before there are buds, I think. Grrr.

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Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org

Yeah...I have to think that no good could come from this. Either we're going to get a prolonged hard frost in June or some mutant form of insect is going to proliferate wildly due to this ridiculous weather. I say...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

Gah - I came home to find stuff coming up today as well (and my Sage has been going strong all season). I'd love for it to snow as well, mostly so I can prune my grape vines without worrying about them bleeding out. It looks like they've got some buds started already. Fortunately I've left our Christmas tree laying in the middle of the backyard so I can prune the branches to cover everything that's sprouted on the ground.

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It is VERY important to be smart when you're doing something stupid

- Chris

The spring bulbs are coming up in the front.

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Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
http://www.americanbrittanyrescue.org

Ugh...my daffodils are peeking out of my flower bed as well as the garlic in my garden....not sure how to play this

We just noticed bulbs coming up this morning. We have herbs by our back porch that we have harvested from all winter but they are along a south facing brick wall.

Cover your bulbs for cold nights, but they should be fine. Come on folks, we get a longer grow season even if the future of the planet is in peril.

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Ava-"If you get down and out, just get in the kitchen and bake a cake."- Jean Strickland

Horto In Urbs- Falling in love with Urban Vegetable Gardening

I'm more concerned with the intensity of the growing season then the length. I have recently gotten back into gardening after not doing much for quite some time. Last summer lots of things did not do as well as I could have hoped for. I think that a very dry first half of July followed by a very wet period was the chief culprit, but I also think that the heat did not help much.

In any case, I was in my yard yesterday spading some turf to make the garden a little bit bigger. Most years I would not be able to drive a spade into the frozen ground this time of year. And yes, I noticed daffodils poking through a week or so back.

We also had a late start in summer 2011 for vegetables. I specifically recall not setting out my tender seedlings until the latter part of June because so many nights were right around freezing.

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Ava-"If you get down and out, just get in the kitchen and bake a cake."- Jean Strickland

Horto In Urbs- Falling in love with Urban Vegetable Gardening

The NYT chimes in: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/27/nyregion/amid-winter-blooms-wondering-what-that-means-for-spring.html?smid=FB-nytimes&WT.mc_id=NY-E-FB-SM-LIN-MSW-022712-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

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"Baseball is like church. Many attend. Few understand." Leo Durocher

This is getting crazy. Almost everything I have in the ground is coming up. It won't be a problem at all if the weather stays like this, but If we get a March/April cold snap I'm going to lose a lot of annuals (or at least have a lot of unplanned work to do). My grape vines are budding, strawberries look ready to flower, etc. Ugh. If we avoid another cold snap it will be great, but the chances are pretty good we'll get another one.

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It is VERY important to be smart when you're doing something stupid

- Chris

I believe the average last freeze for Chicago is mid April and closer to May further west. The foreseeable future looks to not only continue the warm trend but become even more anomalous. There is a good chance most of the area will be in full leaf out mid late spring mode by the end of the month. Forecasting the weather beyond 7-10 days is a low probability gambit but it looks like we'll only have a 15-20 day window from late march to mid April where a freeze is historically likely...because it isn't happening before then. Good luck.

Quick exceprt from this morning NWS discussion:



http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php ... glossary=1

Why would annuals of any kind be a concern at the moment, unless you are referring to plants that seeded themselves last fall?

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Food & Flowers: Andre Jordan's sweet doodle for a cold winter's day; diary of an unhappy restaurateur, circa 1881; winter project - try a terrarium

Screw it...I'm planting tomorrow! I'll be planting peas( English shelling peas and sugar snaps), and some arugula. Looks like the next 2 weeks will be fine weather wise and I'll take my chances after that. Worst case scenario we get a deep frost or snow and I'm out a couple bucks in seeds. Best case is I'm enjoying lettuce in late April and peas in early May.

I put in some swiss chard a couple of days ago; my wife is chomping at my bit ( ) to get me to put in some peas--I have to build the teepees first...

Sorry - I meant perennials, mainly my fruits and flower bulbs. Although at this point I do have Cilantro and other self seeding annuals that have come up and are at risk. I'll just keep my fingers crossed on those.

I've definitely been planting over the last week or so, and that's keeping to my regular planting schedule. For about 20 years I've been doing my first round of Peas, Arugula, Chard, Radishes, and heartier lettuces during the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament without any problems. At this point I'm debating if I should give a round of cucumbers a try, it's definitely way to early for them but I've got plenty of seeds. Hell, at this point I'm actually worried that it may not be getting cold enough at night for some seeds to germinate.

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It is VERY important to be smart when you're doing something stupid

- Chris

What has killed 90+ of my tomato, basil and pepper plants (I had started indoors from seed), is the historically "unlikely".


May 25
...CHICAGO... MAY 25, 1992: COOL WEATHER SETTLED OVER NORTHERN ILLINIOS CAUSING LOW TEMPERATURES TO FALL NEAR THE FREEZING MARK. ON THIS DATE... THE LOW BOTTOMED OUT AT 32 DEGREES. NOT ONLY DID THIS SET A LOW TEMPERATURE RECORD FOR THE DAY BUT WAS ALSO THE LATEST FREEZE IN CHICAGO'S RECORDED HISTORY.


May 21
MAY 21, 2002: THIS WAS THE COLDEST DAY IN A CHILLY MONTH AT ROCKFORD AND CHICAGO. BOTH STATIONS REPORTED LOW TEMPERATURES BELOW FREEZING...WITH 31 DEGREES AT CHICAGO AND 29 AT ROCKFORD... SETTING A RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE FOR THE 21ST.


From: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lot/?n=May_wx_trivia


Ron

Planned snap peas, a packet of mixed lettuces, and some lacinato kale yesterday. Ground was warmer than it usually gets in May.

Not optimistic about the kale, it was from an open packet last year. Not too optimistic about the peas either, my dog is remarkably bad about chasing the bunnies away.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

It's a probabilities game, this might help.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cm ... 3&source=0

I've been amused by the consistent chatter that we Chicagoans will have to "pay" for the mild winter with a foot of snow in June or some other atrocity. The wacky warm weather is disturbing on some level, but how does the possibility of a frost in late May, which always exists regardless of the winter and spring seasons, mean payback or regret for the gloriously (but disturbingly) warn non-winter we had? I refuse to feel guilty. The ramps are coming up, I have mosquito bites from last weekend, and I expect to be eating asparagus in a few weeks, cherries a few weeks hence. We're basically past winter's end and it didn't happen.

I've been amused by the consistent chatter that we Chicagoans will have to "pay" for the mild winter with a foot of snow in June or some other atrocity. The wacky warm weather is disturbing on some level, but how does the possibility of a frost in late May, which always exists regardless of the winter and spring seasons, mean payback or regret for the gloriously (but disturbingly) warn non-winter we had? I refuse to feel guilty. The ramps are coming up, I have mosquito bites from last weekend, and I expect to be eating asparagus in a few weeks, cherries a few weeks hence. We're basically past winter's end and it didn't happen.

I went ahead and put cilantro and parsley seeds in yesterday. What the hell.

I noticed today that a potted species blue fescue tuft grass and a potted mint made it through what just passed for "winter." The mint's sudden and explosive growth evidently was robust enough to break through its terracotta pot.

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Food & Flowers: Andre Jordan's sweet doodle for a cold winter's day; diary of an unhappy restaurateur, circa 1881; winter project - try a terrarium

There is no karma in weather, but we certainly could pay for it. A light frost is no big deal but a hard freeze (sub-28), which is still climatologically possible, would be rather disasterous from an agricultural prospective since many plants region wide are a month plus ahead of schedule, leaving them very vulnerable.

So do I still need to wait till after Mother's day to do any planting?

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The cake is a lie