March 2013, New England

WOW quiltbea, that's the benefit of having a journal. I can't believe the comparison. In the 80s? Sheesh.

Climate change: whether it's warming or cooling, chaos is the result.

(Based upon my reading of about four books on the subject.)

Last year was very unusual. After that little heat wave in late March it got cold again and damaged the fruit tree blooms....... Hoping this year is better!

Of course it didn't stay at those unusually high temps for our area, but it made for a great time to get the beds ready. In April we were back to 40s and 50s days and mostly 30s nites but only one more little bit of snowfall.

We got one inch of snow on April 17, 2012. Luckily my greens were covered in the A-frame.
Then May brought with it higher temps again making the cool weather crops touchy. Some of mine bolted early so I only got a couple of broccoli and cauliflower last spring.
Mother Nature likes to play games with farmers and gardeners.

I checked my garden beds last Sunday, because I could. Can't get to them now without some serious transportation. I took a thermometer, punched it through the frozen crust, and measured soil temp of 40*. I need at least 50* to plant peas, so it will be awhile. But my planting schedule says I'm planting peas this Sunday, based on average last frost date. So much for charts in books. Sometimes you have to just look out the window.

If you're a ways off from planting peas in 6a, I'm in trouble with my climbing indoor vines in 5b.

Too bad this isn't last year when I never got around to indoor seeding. I had to go all out on indoor seeding on the year when spring was heavily delayed.

Grr.

I've only just started sowing my seeds a few days ago. Between one thing and another, I couldn't get my act together enough to get going when "the books said" to get going.

It may be that I lucked out this year. I've got a few tiny sprouts on the onion seedlings already. I've yet to get to the broc & caul, etc. But at the rate we're going, it still looks like deep winter out there.

At the same time, I know from past experience that extended winter just means shorter "spring" up my way. What's probably going to happen is that it will continue to snow off and on, with a few thaws in between and then it will get HOT pretty fast.

Oh, and HAPPY SPRING, everyone! LOL

Sorry you all are having so friggen much snow from Storm Ukko. We got a dusting then the rain washed it away. Two windows blew of the SFG's.

But guess what??? I've got outside SPINACH sprouting!!! I'm beside myself! I just lifted a window and there they were, tons of them. Some serious thinning is in my future. I'd show you a photo of course but I left my camera at work so ya'll are spared today. I took all the windows off just now as I don't want the new babies to get hot now that they've sprouted. I'll put the windows back on at night. Holy moley.

As for the peas, I'm still not sure if it's weeds or peas that are sprouting out there. They aren't growing fast like peas do. *shrug* One thing I noticed about peas last year is that my direct sowed peas caught up with my transplants so quickly that you couldn't tell which was which after a bit. But the idea of having peas growing up my bedroom wall appeals to me somehow so I may have to try that sometime.

I decided to plant my cold crop seedlings out this Sat as the nites are supposed to be above freezing after that. One can only hope. Just gotta get past tomorrows flurries.

CC

Here's my garden after ten plus more inches of snow (Total this winter 85" in my town). Will I ever see my garden soil again? My raised beds are 12" tall and they're burried.
Indoors I had a Cheddar and a Violet Queen cauliflower germinate and now have 5 Michihili Chinese cabbage newly sprouted and under the lights.
From the garage I gathered a big clay pot, a tomato cage and bagged up some garden soil I had in a bucket out there. I plan to get those super snap peas into soil one way or another. I'm not going to waste those beautiful green sprouts waiting for spring in my outdoor garden. If I get any nice days outside, I'll put out the pot for real sunshine. One can only hope.

Quiltbea, at least you can see box mounds under your snow.......... (yes, I realize they're 12")

I guess if one were really desperate, one could go out there and shovel all the snow off the boxes and then let the solar rays do their thing to warm up the soil, and some black poly or window sashes or whatever could speed that process along, so that when the weather does turn it would be ready for seedlings.

I'd do that but I'm too lazy. I'll just let nature do it for me and cross my fingers that the seedlings will still be alive.

Leeks are up in 5 days. Just sowed Brussels sprouts, red kale, dwarf kale, rapini.
I'm on my way.

Despite all this snow, sounds like many of us are making the best of it inside. I'm definitely happy so far. Nothing is taking as long to germinate as I was anticipating. Longest was rosemary at 10 days and I am getting a high germination percentage even for the rosemary. Thyme first sprout today is up at 4 days, and celery has started to come in at 9 days this week.

Eventually all that snow will melt and stuff can go out, though for me being first year I need to build the beds before then, so... melt - snow - melt...

Happy thoughts all.

-Ed

Yep, indoor gardening is where it's AT, ! I've got the first signs of life now:



I hung some lights in a wire shelving unit & wrapped the whole thing in bubble-wrap insulation to keep moisture in & cats OUT.

I call it "The Germinator":



It seems to be doing a nice job of both so far. I've got another batch of onion seedlings on the top shelf. As soon as they start to break the surface, they'll go under the lights, too.

It's amazing that when I looked at the outside temp this AM it was at 7 degrees F. I think I'm going to start keeping a detailed log like you, QB. Anyone have a particular brand of thermometer that records the day's highs & low temps that they like?

Lately, saved in my favorites, I've been getting my numbers from Weatherspark:

http://weatherspark.com/#!dashboard;a=USA/ME/Raymond

which get their info from a local weather station less than 2 miles from my house. You just enter your area in the box and you'll get your local numbers. I love the graph so I can see what's coming tonite, tomorrow and further. I also check in with wunderground, too, now and then.
Outside I have some cheap (from Walmart about $2 each) regular outdoor thermometers I use in the garden, in my A-frame, and ouside my kitchen door for current accuracy.

I have an Acu Rite indoor/outdoor thermometer that comes with one outdoor sensor. It registers indoor and outdoor temps and records a 24-hour high and low. I think it cost about $15.00 at Lowe's.

I have two Wunderground stations within two miles of home, and one generally registers warmer temps than the other. My "home station" is closer to the higher temps, but usually a bit warmer than that.

Thus lending credence to the local legend that my neighborhood is in a "banana belt."

I couldn't wait any longer to transplant my snap peas. Remember, I started 10 seeds indoors 2/17 just for the heck of it to see if I could get ultra early peas this year. They are so tall, they had to go somewhere and I didn't want them to go into larger pots since we all know that peas dislike being transplanted at all, hence we normally start them directly outdoors.
I got mine transplanted to a clay pot with a tomato cage and 3 bamboo poles for support plus tomato twine twisted around here and there for them sto begin growing tall.

Here they are settled at last, indoors for now beside the herb pots, but I'll bring the pot outdoors every sunny afternoon when its
above freezing. Then they'll live outdoors later.

I also started my red spuds in a 5-gal bucket as per Mel's instuctions on utube. He said to plant 4 but I think 3 will be plenty. I want to allow room for new potatoes. They are under a light in the furnace room. I've covered them with 3" of compost for now. Will backfill more as they grow. I hope they manage well.

My turn, my turn!
We got plopped on...

Compost piles:

SFG's:

Waiting to go out:

Thru hook or crook, I'm planting out this Sunday. I refused to pot up the spring seedlings and they are growing roots out of the bottoms of their cells.

Snow Monday nite...something that starts with a "Y".
l'll just keep putting the windows on.

CC

Nice! nice glass too. Did you make that?

While the snow melts, one positive thing: Even tho the temps are cool (c'mon 40s!!!), they are staying above freezing for more and more hours a day. I looked at the hourly weather chart on NOAA, and noticed we're staying above freezing from earlier in the morning to later in the evening. That has to help with melting.

(srsly grasping at straws here - may I mention my pea seedlings are about 8-10" tall now)

NHGardener wrote:While the snow melts, one positive thing: Even tho the temps are cool (c'mon 40s!!!), they are staying above freezing for more and more hours a day. I looked at the hourly weather chart on NOAA, and noticed we're staying above freezing from earlier in the morning to later in the evening. That has to help with melting.

Nice! We have not been above 37*F since 3/16/13. I really need to get into my hives and probably feed the bees too.

NHGardener wrote:
(srsly grasping at straws here - may I mention my pea seedlings are about 8-10" tall now)

Ooch! yeah, live and learn It's hard biding my time but I am trying to be patient for the outside sowing time.

camprn wrote:Nice! nice glass too. Did you make that?

No, a girlfriend made it. I love it! I'm not talented like you and others on this forum. I have accounting brain without one iota of art in it. Hence my SFG which I refer to as "the Clampets" garden. I craft vicariously thru you all and rt my friends.

QB, please let me know how your potatoes do. My indoor ones died but I have 3 chitting right now and will try again. Are you doing to water them? How much?

CC

Okay, I rechecked the pea planting dates, because I started thinking maybe I got it wrong. Why do I have 10" pea plants growing in my bedroom, when the suggested transplant date is not until April 1st?

So I re-checked on Johnny's Seeds website, and sure enough, I planted them towards the end of the indoor seeding dates, March 9, and they are supposed to be transplanted outside on April 1st. I still have 9 more days to go to even hit target date.

So the only thing I can conclude is that I hold magic pea seeds. And if anyone would like to buy a magic pea seed from me.........

Cape.....I plan to water my spuds when the soil looks like it needs it. I also know I should have removed all but 3 eyes on them when planting, but I just couldn't do it. If you check the photo in an earlier post above, mine had several eyes on each of them. I'll experiment by seeing how they produce with more eyes than normal. I love experimenting and its just a fun project.

My Tyee spinach should really be transplanted outdoors but they still have to stay under the lights.

This is Tyee spinach on left and Mizuna a few days ago indrs.

If anyone remembers a Tyee spinach that germinated a couple weeks ago, that's it on the far right beside 3 of my early toms 2 days ago.
I've been contemplating shoveling off some of my beds of snow. For me, with my bad back and age, its a tough project. Its still just a thought. I wanted to at least get my plastic over the A-frame so I could get out my greens and maybe put up my new greenhouse cover over one of the beds to warm up for regular crops. They say more snow Monday nite.

Oops. Just realized I'm a week behind planting eggplant, lettuce and broccoli indoors. No matter how many times I check that chart...

FRIDAY: SUNNY AND 50.

OMG QB, you tyee is growing like crazy! Well done! I never did find Tyee in my area but since my outdoor spinach sprouted I think I'm on the road to success. *crossing my fingers*

My summer seedlings are growing pretty slowly in the window. Must be the used MM and lack of fertilizer. I'm not going to hurry them along tho since it'll be a while before they go outside. The Cape is much slower than inland to warm up to summer temps, and spring (if that's what this is) goes on until July 4th usually.

But my 7 celery stumps are rarin' and ready to get out...

Pretty day today but SO WINDY! Guess I'd better head out and take the windows off the boxes, with all this sun we're having right now.

CC