December 20, 2018

Good morning, NOAA is hinting that there will be some major weather changes coming our way after Christmas with no details. I did read an exert from the Farmers Almanac that from the end of December to the middle of January there is a good chance of wintry weather. Here again no details. I do find it interesting that The Farmers Almanac makes their forecast a year in advance and is reasonably accurate. Maybe as good as professional weather forecasters. Go figure. Anymore all I really care for is notification of a weather change and to what temperature direction we will be headed. Any more it is the huge swings that catch me off guard.

It seems every year I get lulled into a sowing after the first hard freeze. I sow and then winter hits. 

The seeds germinate and emerge and then they sit, until the customary warming that happens around the middle of February. Maybe because that first freeze was on the heals of that chilling rain I decided to re seed. Because there was no real warmth in the soil, the fabric couldn't do its magic, and the garden was nailed. If the above mentioned change turns out to be towards wintry conditions we will be limping along for awhile longer. If it is to warmer weather then the greens will make a wonderful and welcome recovery.

It is nice to note that soon there will be green onions once again, I made a light harvest of lettuce, have managed to keep the guineas out of the spinach so there will be spinach soon. So everyone hurry up and wait. 

I appreciate everyone's patience. Please place your orders and I will do my best to fill them.

December 13, 2018

Good morning, This week I got my second bed of peas in. Trying a little something different. Most of the bed is germinated seed and planted. I am going to try transplanted seedlings. I am curious if transplants will result in more fully stocked beds.

While harvesting greens I do see some of the kohlrabi starting to mature.  I am noticing there are also a few cabbages that might make too. If not, there is next year.

It really is not very long before I begin to start my first nightshade seedlings. And with that so will begin the next season. I so hope that this coming year will not be quite as challenging as this past one. Time will tell.

Considering that we are moving into the cooler time of the year, the freeze shocked veggie greens are making a decent comeback. Although I see where the guineas got into the spinach bed. They did not kill any of them but they destroyed this week’s pickings. It is always something.

The harvests are increasing. Please place your orders and I will fill what I can.

December 6, 2018

Good morning, it was nice not to see any additional mortality from the first freeze. It was also nice to see some of the kale “nubs” actually survive and are growing. My other fall greens are looking nice too. Things are coming back I just need patience.

Talking with a fellow gardener and we may have figured out why there seemed to be more damage with a 17 degree low than with thee 1.5-degree low back in 2011. The big difference was, this year preceding the freeze we had an intense cooling storm. There was a week of overcast skies with close to freezing precipitation. There was no heat in the soil. I expected to see all the uncovered plants fry (the 20-degree mortality rule), but I was surprised to see destruction in covered beds both with light and heavy covers.

One of the qualities of fabric is to maintain the present temperature of the soil. It is good insulation. Because of the cool down there was not enough reserve heat to buffer the plants from the 17-degree morning. No practical amount of fabric could have changed this. The fabric does not generate heat it only conserves it. Any well-established plants under the covers did fine, leaf burn but nothing serious.

On a heads up note, tomorrow there is expected to be a weather event to arrive. Looking at the low temps, this could have freezing precipitation. I mention this because it was a couple years back that a similar event happened. My bulb onions were germinating, but not fully extended above the ground. Cool damp conditions and 90-percent of the onion seedlings died from dampening off disease. Sooo, this time I have drenched the seedling bed with an organic fungicide and covered the bed with some greenhouse film. The idea is not to have another deep cooling of this bed and have the dampening off thingy once again. Ah yes, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Oh, and bye the bye, I did harvest a parsnip that had been sown last spring. I roasted it in a crock pot along with a couple butternut squash. It was tender and very sweet. The one I harvested was nearly a pound. I did harvest some for bags. These all appear to range in ½ pound up to 1 ½ pounds. Not as big as what I imagined. I think I will repeat this this spring. The germination was nearly 90-percent.

The garden continues to heal, greens harvests are on the increase. Please place your orders and I will fill what I can and only bill for that portion I do fill.