Spring Diverted to Greenland

Supposedly, our warmer spring days were stuck up in Greenland in March and we were left out in the cold. There was even a snow after the chickens took up residence here.

The delay did cause a bit of a problem in my indoor planting schedule.  The broccoli and cabbage plants couldn't exit the stage and hogged the lights meant for later flats of bottom heat plants. They couldn't even be left out on the porches overnight. They don't mind a little frost but consider temps in the twenties the opposite of de trop.  I could hear their little leaves chattering so loudly I had to let them back inside.

At last, though, some pleasant days have arrived and I was able to put in the early garden. Nothing makes me happier than getting some seeds in the ground. Local temps always lurch from cold to hot, as if the thermostat were old and unreliable. Not only that, but they can plummet below freezing after being in the nineties. "Just kidding!" said Mother Nature one year as I looked at the frost-killed blackened tomato plants that I raised from seeds. I no longer trust her until after May 10.

This junky creation is the storm doors grow tunnel. It is meant to encourage the weedy growth underneath. Next, I will make the chicken cage and let Betty and Rupert scratch out all the plants and fertilize the ground. It once was a strawberry patch, but the invasive weeds have taken over. They are not just grasses, but lots of things with long taproots, like chicory, dandelions and dock, along with red clover and fescue. Last year, I dug up part of the row. It became loam after I dug, discarded the roots, added cow manure, tilled it a few times then let it sit over the winter.  A few days ago, the soil was workable and I added granulated gypsum to break down more of the clay and ran Tillie once more.  I planted that little spot to a raised bed of carrots and potatoes.

The over-wintered parsnips were better than I thought they'd be, with all that drought.  True, they are not prize-winners, but they aren't the scrawny specimens I feared my shovel would unearth.

Unfortunately, I twisted my knee when stepping into one of those deep cow tracks on a slope out back. Yes, I know I should have filled them in, and I did, afterwards.  That called for rest, something I do not do very well at all, especially in springtime. I did get my leg up after I finished planting peas, radishes, kohlrabi, spinach, onions, chard and the mostly hardened off broccoli, cabbage and lettuce plants. Not that I'm a stubborn gardener, but I did finish up using the rake for a crutch. A big rain is headed this way tonight.

To the right are the fall-planted garlic plants. I hope I do not find any babies in this cabbage patch.