Note to self: don’t put any plants outside when it’s maple syrup season.
This “when the soil can be worked” business seems to me a cruel joke. I have been all optimistic and got a crushing blow from the weather this past week. When the temperature soared to 70 on April 2, I didn’t go completely crazy. I looked at the 10-day weather forecast and saw that it called for temperatures of 30 and above overnight.
Ten days would bring us close to mid-April, close enough that I had hope things wouldn’t drop down below 30 again. I prepared the first bed and took the time to plant the leeks that have been growing on the windowsill since late February. Like blades of grass, but with good root systems, I gave them room to develop by September (they take six months to mature) into thick, sweet, stalks. I watered them.
I also moved out the broccoli and cauliflower in their pots and put them in the cold frame, where they will get better sunlight and “harden off.” I put out some kale and spinach plants and covered them with row cover next to the leeks. They had leaves and so I thought they might be a bit more delicate.
That night the temperature dropped to 14 degrees. When I went out the next morning, the ground around the leeks was frozen solid. The ground under the row cover seemed OK, but the wind had blown the row cover against the leaves and they were blanched white.
I came inside and planted more leek seeds, wishing I lived in Iowa. Cursing weather.com. Happy for the health of the broccoli and the cauliflower, and even a few kale plants that survived well in the cold frame.
Saturday walking through the maple syrup operation at Saint John’s University, I made the connection. The sap runs in the trees when there are freezing temperatures overnight and temps above freezing during the day. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought this through before moving those leeks outside. Of course it was likely to go below that manageable overnight temperature of 28 degrees. On the bright side, SJU is having a fantastic syruping season this year!
Today I started a motherlode of tomatoes and peppers. Inside. I have two warming mats below the trays to help with propagation. I also planted tomatillos, eggplant, cabbage and celery.
I planted enough tomatoes and peppers to seriously increase my yield. The hope is that the greenhouse, even if not completed, will have raised beds in it where I can transfer these on June 1st. Even without walls, if there is access to water and good soil, they will do fine. That is after the last frost date and also after the winds of May. The greenhouse is in a gentle space, buffered (but not shaded) by groves of pines. Though one can put out the tomatoes May 15, when I look over my past “notes to self,” I see very clearly written: “Don’t put the tomatoes out until JUNE.”
The chickens are adolescents now, after only 2 1/2 weeks. They are not as cute (the awkward phase between down and feathers). They hate me of course (maybe it’s because I let children pick them up on Easter). They’ve taken to flying up– at some point they’re going to clear the box and be running around the basement if I’m not careful about closing the lid.
It was fun to plant with them in the room. At one point they took a little nap, nestled in a circle, butts toward the center. When I went for my camera, they of course woke up. They actually don’t seem to like each other much either. I mark it up to sibling rivalry.
