California - What are you doing this month?

There is just something wrong with this never ending stretch of nice weather. On weather.com the 10 day forecast is all in the 70s! And the air quality is really suffering because of it.

I stated my tomatoes last weekend in mini soil blocks. They are sprouting now and I will start to pot them up today.

Sanderson, Look how pretty your boxes are!  Your peas are doing great in them too.

I spent the day out in the hot sun.  It had to be 80 degrees out in my garden - weird!

I cleaned up the dead plants on my hillside garden from the hard freeze in December and added them to a compost pile.  Cleaned up the old straw bale garden, scooping up the mostly composted bale debris and adding it on top of the potato mounds that I will be growing in later this spring.

Set up the new bales and started watering them.  I won't "condition" them until closer to out door planting time.  

I hand watered my new Back to Eden (BTE) beds so that the chips are wet and will break down more readily.  Even in this terrible drought, under my chips is quite moist with only one rain so far this year.  It's quite amazing. 

Planted some new lettuce and pulled the lettuce that is bolting.  It's so warm during the day in the green house that it's almost too warm in there for the more delicate lettuce.  I may start one or two of my bales early and plant lettuce outside for the spring. 

Now I'm whooped and headed to the shower!

Wow that is a lot of compost! I am jealous. I have a 3 bin system I built out of pallets but I don't keep up with it like I should. The gardeners dump the grass from the backyard every other week and they have rounded up all the leaves but they put them in all 3 bins. I need to move them to 1 bin to store I guess (or next to the bins) and turn up the 1st bin. I have been adding scraps but I really need to do more - like add the chicken manure from my hens - more often. I'm sure I will end up having to buy most of my compost for the spring.

Last night I harvested some broccoli and as I was getting ready to steam it I noticed there were little grey bugs ALL OVER the crowns on the undersides and they wouldn't wash off. So I sadly threw them to the chickens before looking it up. Turns out they were cabbage aphids. All I needed to do was soak them in some water and maybe a small splash of vinegar for a little bit and they would come off. And the worst part - the chickens aren't even eating the broccoli They will happily destroy it if attached to the plant but if I cut it up they turn up their noses! I only have a few plants so losing a whole crown is just sad!

And WOW is it really going to be 75 on friday!?! That is what weather.com says! Only a mere 19 degrees above average and will set a another new record for that date if it happens.

Too hot for my fruit trees! I didn't get them pruned up in time: their buds are swelling, so I'm not going to shock them. Besides, last year they budded too soon and set fruit by early March- just in time to get torched by a 2 week frost spell that killed off 70% of the fruit. Water prices are 3x  higher than last year, so I may skip a summer crop this year (after 2 years of $900+ august water bills- It may be more financially feasible to buy a Rolls Royce and shop at Whole Foods each week!) Right now I'm nursing along onions, leeks, Brussel sprouts, kale, chard, broccoli, beets and carrots. This early heat is also bringing on a plague of aphids, so I may have to break out the sprayer. I'm also having to screen off my beds from hoards of house finches that keep getting at my greens  
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Dave

Such an unusual look, sanderson, but kind of cool just because it look so different. Did you drill any drain holes into those boxes?

Since the boxes aren't raised from the pavers, do you think you might have any drainage issues? I wonder if you might get mud butt on the bottom?

Ah, that's good. All's well that ends well (with no mud butt).

sanderson wrote:Anyone know a local Fresno/Clovis source for Bunny poop?

You could try calling some of the schools about FFA and 4H programs.

GG

What are those pvc looking structures on your beds that look like hand rails on all sides?

Sanderson I think the nights (well some of them) are too cold still for squash and corn to sprout. And we could conceivably get back to normal cool temps including freezes and frosts. I think it would be too much of a gamble IMO.