February 18, 2016

Good morning, well I hope we are done with the worst of the cold. After that week of in the teens daily starts, the garden really slowed down. I am very grateful that everything was covered with fabric. I did notice where some chard and kale that were touching the fabric really got burned. A gardening book I have shows a graph of cold temps and plant death. Most veggies start dropping like flies at 20 degrees unless they are covered. My Asian greens bit it altogether because it was uncovered. This really wasn't a loss because I was noticing the flower stocks were beginning to get woody. They also had not recovered very well from the saw fly larvae. I have replaced them. Normally I do not plant greens going into spring because it gets hot to quick and the greens do not do very well. The long range forecast is still saying cool and damp which is conducive to greens but present reality is 180 degrees of that forecast.

This is all very strange. Soooo what the hey, I have a bunch of fabric both heavy and light so I planted some tom transplants because the next 2 weeks are showing to be warm with highs some days being in the 80's. I had started some greens seedlings banking on the long range forecast to be cool and damp. These have been planted into beds also. I guess for one crop or the other there may be some green manure. This second guessing the weather is becoming quite challenging. Oh but this too will pass!!

Second guessing the weather can be risky but I am going to bank on long term trends that things begin to warm up after the middle of February. With increasing soil temps this is the criteria that fabric is designed for. We can still expect some cold nights and days and the fabric will do its thing. With any luck toms by the first of May. But I do have plan “B” should I be all wet.

The peas are blooming like crazy. Weather permitting I hope to start harvesting in a week. It will be interesting to see how long I harvest them this year, most likely not into May.

If anything this is shaping up to be an interesting ride. We will just have to see where it takes us!!!

This week I expect to have chard, kale, spinach, lettuce, turnips, carrots, beets, beet greens, sun chokes and butternuts. Sun chokes and butternuts are the only veggies available in abundance this week.

It is getting into that time of year where bags may have duplicates or diminished portions. I will only bill for that portion I do fill.