Is winter over? (Cheyenne, Gillette, Wheatland: mobile home, tornadoes, live)

[HighlandLady]

I am new to this forum...but not to Wyoming. This is ridiculous! I am fair sick of the snow already! We had near white-out conditions for a wee while. This time last year I had buds on my trees and bulbs sprouting. Ah well...it is Wyoming, and we have been needing this moisture badly. I prefer rain
At least it is melting fairly rapidly...I can attest to that with all the betonite clay pawprints through the house.

[msdmckee]

Read an article yesterday wherein they calculated that the temperature in WY has risen by 3.7 degrees in the last 100 years.

USDA climate map used to have Sheridan at zone 3-4. Folks here have told me they can now grow zone 5 plants.

The last few storms do seem like too many, but LOOK when it melts there will be green grass everywhere

Just wish I had a place to plant a vegetable garden here. It would be a way to cut back on those rising grocery prices, keep my attitude and body healthy!!!

[emeraldsky]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

Read the label on the Raid Yellow Jacket traps. They don't work on Paper Wasp's, which are the most common wasps around here. Last year, I put out two of those traps and I think I got about a half dozen wasp's.

The only way I could rid the area of them was that spray foam and constantly keeping an eye on the lookout of where they were starting a nest.

Hey Elkhunter, do you remember the name of that spray foam? Thanks.

And what exactly do you do when you find that nest??!!

Originally Posted by Kristynwy

Emeraldsky, you will have to come and teach us what you learned!!!
I would love to take a class like that!

I'll try to pass along any helpful tips I learn... though I'm sure most everyone else is a better vegetable gardener than I am, so most tips will be helpful for me, but I'll just aim to share the significant ones... (next Thursday is the class, so it'll be a bit)

Originally Posted by Clay Lady

It is so nice to have you back Elkhunter! Thanks.

I know. He's such a wealth of information...

p.s. the sun is out today! 55.8 degrees our SkyScan atomic clock thing says.

[ElkHunter]

Sorry, I don't remember what the name was. But it was straight off the shelf at Wally World. Can is black and says that it spray's a full 15 feet. It also mentions that it is a foam.

Just stand where you can see the nest and push the button and spray the nest til it's coated.

What I did was spray each nest as I walked around the house and shed. Then made a second round. Problem solved. Never came back the rest of that summer.

I did notice that my neighbor behind me has a nest up in his peak that is bigger then a basketball. we've never had a wasp problem but I wonder if his big nest is what's causing our problem. By the way. He has done nothing about his big nest.

[Clay Lady]

I have used a few different brands of wasp spray that spray out several feet after you shake up the can. I try to watch where they go around sun set. They seem to try to hide their nests if they can so I spray behind the window shutters if I notice them landing there.

Elkhunter, you should offer to spray the nest for your neighbor or spray it while they are gone!! That must be home to a million wasps!

[jdavid93225]

For those that are interested in vegetable gardens, I would like to suggest container garden boxes. There are several different ones on the market, such as Earthbox and Garden Patch. I have used these here where I live, where the climate is similar to the warmer parts of Wyoming. Since we regularly have snow here as late as Mother's Day, and have even had it on Father's Day, getting things in the ground in time for them to grow can be questionable. With the garden boxes, you can get things started earlier, and move them in to safety if a cold spell hits, provided you can handle the weight of the boxes. When the weather improves, you can just move them back out again.

One nice thing about many of these boxes is that they have a water reservoir built in to them that allows the plant to use the water it needs, without needing to be watered as frequently. With the boxes I use, I fill them with potting mix, as recommended, and have had wonderful success with things like tomatoes, peppers, and squash. I had some luck with corn, but the boxes really weren't big enough to have much success. I built a planter in my back yard for that, and it seems to work pretty well.

I'll gladly answer any questions I can about garden boxes if anyone has any, though I'm no expert. I just have a couple years experience with them.

[Kristynwy]

Jdavid, those are exactly what I have used...

We lived up in the foothills of the cascades in Oregon, and where we were it was a lot harder to grow things than it was in the valley...
You can even make your own raised beds, Gardener's supply website/catalog you can by this spike wood holders, you buy four of them and put weather treated wood and make a raised bed, and there are connectors even... you have probably seen them... and I had a lot of success with them...

Raised beds hold in heat better too... plus easier to manage it and add potting soil ect...

I have seen those earth boxes in the catalogs I get... have never tried one yet though...

my husband likes to use old railroad ties? I think they are called.... you know those things made out of wood lol and make raised beds out of them... and they work good too...

Raised beds are totally the way to go here...

Although if I tried that at my current rental, the ranch lady would about have a heart attack! I can get away with pots though lol...

[GregW]

Is winter over in Wyoming? Is it June yet?

[HighlandLady]

No! I wish!

[emeraldsky]

Thanks for the helpful info on the wasps. Glad to know they are probably paper wasps too. Wouldn't have know. I will look for that foam stuff. Makes me laugh, reminds me of that movie Ghost Busters I think it was (watched it a long time ago when I was little so don't really remember, or am I thinking of ET?) picturing the 2 of you going around your respective homes at sunset, outfitted in protective gear, looking for those nests and spraying the foam. I guess that will be me soon. Unless I can get my husband to do it.... Yeah Elkhunter, hope you can do something about your neighbor's basketball sized hive.

Great gardening idea. For my petunias in Colorado Springs (we got a few late and early snows there too, up a couple thousand feet more in elevation) I planted most of my flowers in those rectangular planters. If I knew a bad storm was on the way I would put them in the garage just in case. And I really think it helped them bloom well into the fall longer that way.

Hearing about all those veggies makes me hungry... Yum.