Wrapped up the garden as best we can, predicted lows for tonight are 25F
(-4C), tomorrow 24, next night 24. Predicting 7 hours under 30 (-1C)
tonight.

Likely to be more of an issue than it might have been due to early
spring warmth - record highs in 3rd week of march.

Blossoms are on the plums & cherries - those are probably gone for this
year. Some apples out, some not - the ones that are not might make it.

Got my new mist nozzle setup (thinking about doing a propagator) kludged
up and hitting the blueberries, which are also in full flower. Hopefully
that will save them if it doesn't freeze up (running water, but also
fairly low flow...)

Been quite a while since I got the garden going early enough for the
"plant as soon as the soil can be worked" stuff to get seriously smacked
with a freeze rather than a frost. Peas, lettuce, carrots, spinach,
radishes are all up. Most have been covered in some way for the night.
Shallots are out under glass, and the glass has a packing quilt over it
for the night - they may be tougher than that, but this is the first
year I've tried them.

Looking forward to Monday night - 38F or 3C. Meanwhile, we'll have to
see what makes it, or not.

NW Mass USA USDA Zone 4 (5 if you believe optomists - or 6 if you go by
this year's low temp, though my bamboo does not believe that, evidently.)

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

Ecnerwal wrote:
....
Been quite a while since I got the garden going early enough for the
"plant as soon as the soil can be worked" stuff to get seriously smacked
with a freeze rather than a frost. Peas, lettuce, carrots, spinach,
radishes are all up. Most have been covered in some way for the night.
Shallots are out under glass, and the glass has a packing quilt over it
for the night - they may be tougher than that, but this is the first
year I've tried them.

Looking forward to Monday night - 38F or 3C. Meanwhile, we'll have to
see what makes it, or not.

yeah, i'm seeing just a little damage here or
there on the tips of some leaves. the turnips
took the most damage, but now the ones that have
survived repeated frosts are coming along. the
frosts/freezes have done the thinning for me there.

the onion sprouts are doing well, the second
batch of seeds are up, now i can put in the last
planting of those (bulb onions from seeds, i don't
expect to harvest them until next year, but we'll
see what happens ). the bunching onions haven't
shown up yet, i think it's been too cold for them.
this week should change that. i have plenty more
of them to plant so this was an experiment to see
how early i can get them in.

the peas i planted ages ago are now up to about
8 inches and haven't been affected by the cold,
but they aren't blooming yet either. i like having
some green covering where i put them. those i have
plenty of to keep planting. the other peas/beans
i have in limited supply for planting i'll hold off
for a few more weeks yet.

the swiss chard is sprouting and looking ok. the
small sprouts already show the color of the adult
plant. funny.

most time i'm out now i'm spending catching up on
weeding the spiral garden. it's coming along nicely.
already the alfalfa is a foot and a half high and
the trefoil is a foot high in places. i'm selectively
grazing it now and will chop it all down twice this
year to get more organic material to cover the surface
of the clay. adding to the existing layer of woody
stems left from last years trim. the worms are doing
well. i've even started to see nightcrawlers (haven't
seen them much back there for many years) again.

the garlic that is randomly planted in there is
doing ok. the garlic that gets the most light
(growing in the shorter trefoil) is doing the best
but even the garlic in the alfalfa does ok as it
gets a few months of full sun before the alfalfa
gets going. as i'm weeding i clear out some of
the alfalfa around the garlic to give it even
more sun and a boost of fertilizer once the worms
chew up the greens i leave behind.

i still have about a week's worth of weeding there
to do and of course that doesn't mean i'll be done.
but some of the parts i'm getting to now are those
i've not been able to get at before. still even
the heaviest weedy parts have a few plants from when
i seeded them in and they'll do fine once i get the
weeds knocked back. the weeds make good worm food
too. chop off the green stuff and leave it behind.
the roots go to the weed pile. the edges i kept clear
the past two years i can keep up with, which is why
i am able to start getting to the rest of it.


NW Mass USA USDA Zone 4 (5 if you believe optomists - or 6 if you go by
this year's low temp, though my bamboo does not believe that, evidently.)

i'm going by what the weather is doing this year,
since it's being odd i'm going to hold off on the
warmest weather plants until June. the rest of
everything will go in 2 weeks from now if we don't
get a late snow. extra seeds and other cover crops
are going in the next few weeks as i get time and
the weather cooperates.


songbird