Winter projects

What is everyone working on this year? Do you have something interesting to share ? I am thinking about trying to root a couple of extra fig trees.

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I won’t tackle fruit/garden until I start gathering scions in late February or so. Then I want to graft a couple of those to a tree I’m putting together for a friend. His great grandfather was a settler not far from here and there are a couple of trees he thinks his grandfather planted. We want to take scions from those. And we have other friends with a few standard trees and I’ve been trying to get those cleaned up. There’s been a lot of bear damage and neglect for quite a few years so it leaves a lot of wood on the ground!

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I’m going to try growing sprouts and microgreens for the first time - hoping it will be a quick way to get a little fresh produce over the winter. I’ll be sprouting broccoli and mung beans, and growing a variety of different microgreens in 1020 flats.

Wish me luck!

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That sounds interesting, bean sprouts would be a healthy addition to my winter diet

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I love love love winter projects. :blush:
I keep a list going all summer because it is too hot/humid to undertake most projects in our summer which is great for growing but not for working for this transplanted Yankee. I leave most repairs/upgrades until winter.

Yearly projects include:
Remediating the growing beds including chicken wire, supports, landscape timbers and giving a cover of compost then a layer of leaves for weed suppression. Also repairing garden stuff like sprayers, etc.
Outside repairs and upgrades like emptying and cleaning out and re-leveling the rain barrels (think I’ll raise them up some too), improving and automating pot irrigation. ANYTHING that makes next summer easier is given top priority

I’d like to make some small portable trellises that I can just set up over rebar.

This winter’s big project is cleaning out all the outbuildings and throwing stuff away. I have parts of old growing projects which stuck around even after the revised standard version was put into use. :blush:

And finally the hardest job in the winter is to resist buying any other plant or tree because I can barely take care of all that I already have!

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It becomes so easy once things calm down to want to add to the things to do list. I keep figuring future Jim can handle whatever present Jim requires of him. When spring rolls around, I’m always like “why did I buy all these plants without having a better plan. Darn you past Jim”

I want to make trellises for squash. Like sturdy trellises. I have been getting less and less butternut and spaghetti squash and pumpkins and I want to be able to get them off the ground.

I had posted elsewhere about starting microgreens. I am waiting for the seeds to arrive. the shelf with the LED lights is set up and ready to go.

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I really need to clean up my basement so that I can get growing greens and micros again. It’s a cement basement and when the drywall was put in it was done really poorly. It’s too much to try to explain but it’s a dark, ugly basement and I really hate being in it!! But I have no place else to grow plants during winter. So I’m going to suck it up and try to pretty it up, so I will spend more time down there getting stuff done.

Not plant related but I plan to tile my entryway. Whoever lived here before put carpet down there. It’s a tiny entryway and gets a whole lot of traffic, so carpet was a pretty poor idea. It’s too small of a space to vacuum and you can’t sweep it. Just a quirky house.

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I am working on a cider experiment, just ordered a few things and should be able to start late next week

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We’re going to move a fence and take away another 1/2 acre that the horses have had that they don’t need. I’m sure a few trees will make their way there and a few more muscadines. Now that I’ve found out that my soil is really acid I may try some blueberries too. We also need a new vegetable garden area so that 1/2 acre is already taken. What is sad is that I will have to remove an oak, a cedar, and some young mimosa trees to reclaim that area. I hate removing any trees!

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I spend most of the winter filling my freezer!

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nice looking fish. :slight_smile: I managed to end up in the one county in MN with no natural lakes, after having grown up with a lake in my backyard. I sure miss it. Enjoy!

I have tha basic supplies ready for my cider and some ingredients necessary on the way from amazon

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Reviving an old thread for fun. This winter I am working on some 300 ft. of T trellis for kiwi berries on the edge of our orchard. The logs are dead or dying White Cedar I sourced from one of our woodlots. The bars are left over chunks of floor joist from a remodel job at my work. I am collecting Balsam Fir trees that died from Spruce Budworm infestation for laterals currently. About 1/2 done, figure I need about 160. Once debarked, I will install them and I should be ready for vines to be planted in the center, between the posts .


This line closer to the trees more in the shade, is for Actinidia kolomikta. They are spaced 10’ O.C.

These two are for Actinidia arguta. They are spaced 15’ O.C.
The width of the cross bars is 4’, so I plan on having a lateral in center, and then 1 ft. O.C. from there for a total of 5 laterals on each section.
I am hoping we like these things, never actually eaten them. :yum:
What have you been up to?

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I still have greens growing in a protected hot bed. Have some spinach makng good progress in there too now.

I like the challenge of growing greens all winter.

I took down and cut up for firewood 3 hickory trees… making room for more fruit trees.


Transplanted two callery pear trees out into my field… going to graft pear scions to them this spring. Improved keiffer, orient.

Transplanted a nice clump of wild elderberry into my field. Collecting one more clump this week to plant next to these.


Been collecting and trading scions with lots of nice folks here.

Got my first (purchased) new fruit tree of the year in today… AU Rosa plum… will be planting it tomorrow. Have others ordered and on the way.

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Great revive. I love kiwis and so do my kids. Loved seeing your project. Out of likes so …:heart:

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Is that you in that tree? Unreal. I like to run a chainsaw but I am staying on the ground yelling timber. Not climbing the timber. Ha

FYI love your salad…. I was just making a point. :point_left:

I always enjoy reading your posts. Happy growing. From one wood hound to another. Out of likes so have an add on :heart:.

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@Noddykitty … yes that was me probably 60 ft up in a hickory tree. I had 3 hickories in my field near our electric service lines… that i had to make sure would fall away from those lines.

I climbed all 3 of them and used a “hand” bow saw and hatchet to remove all of the limbs from the side facing the electric lines.

This weighted them seriously away frrom the lines.

I also tied a double length of rope (total of near 800 lb test) to the top of each tree… and put some tension on them to fall away from electric lines… with my old truck.

They all fell right where i wanted them… cut up and stacked up… fire wood. Hickory burns long and hot.

Here is what it looked like from the top.

I used a safety harness… that is normally used by deer hunters who hunt frrom trees with a climbing deer stand.

TNHunter

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Safety harness, yes. Too high up for me!

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