Catching a Spring Break: Get Those Seeds In!
We caught a huge break here yesterday, weather-wise. Of course, compared to big swaths of the country, we almost always do, perhaps seemingly inhabiting the land of milk and honey. We're not facing epochal floods involving ice and frozen sandbags like Fargo. No eleven-foot drifts of snow like Amarillo. Tornadoes do not smite us.
After mini-nasty Saturday, ranging from merely full overcast to semi-serious sleet/snow combo, the Sunday forecast was mealy-mouthed about sunbreaks, yet we awoke to full blue. But barely post-breakfast (our usual Sunday: waffles, link sausage, and grapefruit), the blue was gone. However, the cloudcover passed on and the temperature warmed to the point of (for me) shirt-sleeve conditions. We ran a few errands (birdseed, gasoline, and propane, quite a combo) but then consulted to-do lists, priorities, and options, and independently concluded that we couldn't afford to waste sunny yard time.
In my case, I had soaked three types of peas in anticipation of planting. These had to be taken care of wind, rain, or shine. Thankfully it was the latter!
Along the way I managed to get in my first broad beans (yes, indeed, favas, as in Silence of the Lambs) and one row each of two different greens/mesclun mixes. Marg and I both wrestled some nasty delinquent brambles to their demise, she then moving on to more weeding while I went after trees, including both tricky bracing-and-propping and my most arborial rose-work, involving the climber that stretches something like 30 feet in the air thanks to the gracious support of the yellow transparent apple.
I felt a little foolish actually troubling myself to apply water to those pea/bean/greens seeds considering our recent weather (hose off, I had to tote water from potting shed), but as it has happened, I'm sure glad I did. Peas were pre-soaked, so they would have been fine anyway, but showers expected last night did not happen, nor has there yet been any of the increasing late showers called for tonight.
Rhubarb is starting to show signs of leaf-forming. Crocus and daffodils are going well, along with those trailing bluish-purple things whose name escapes me right now. Early cherries are gorgeous, and forsythia, a personal fave, is at its' peak.
After mini-nasty Saturday, ranging from merely full overcast to semi-serious sleet/snow combo, the Sunday forecast was mealy-mouthed about sunbreaks, yet we awoke to full blue. But barely post-breakfast (our usual Sunday: waffles, link sausage, and grapefruit), the blue was gone. However, the cloudcover passed on and the temperature warmed to the point of (for me) shirt-sleeve conditions. We ran a few errands (birdseed, gasoline, and propane, quite a combo) but then consulted to-do lists, priorities, and options, and independently concluded that we couldn't afford to waste sunny yard time.
In my case, I had soaked three types of peas in anticipation of planting. These had to be taken care of wind, rain, or shine. Thankfully it was the latter!
Along the way I managed to get in my first broad beans (yes, indeed, favas, as in Silence of the Lambs) and one row each of two different greens/mesclun mixes. Marg and I both wrestled some nasty delinquent brambles to their demise, she then moving on to more weeding while I went after trees, including both tricky bracing-and-propping and my most arborial rose-work, involving the climber that stretches something like 30 feet in the air thanks to the gracious support of the yellow transparent apple.
I felt a little foolish actually troubling myself to apply water to those pea/bean/greens seeds considering our recent weather (hose off, I had to tote water from potting shed), but as it has happened, I'm sure glad I did. Peas were pre-soaked, so they would have been fine anyway, but showers expected last night did not happen, nor has there yet been any of the increasing late showers called for tonight.
Rhubarb is starting to show signs of leaf-forming. Crocus and daffodils are going well, along with those trailing bluish-purple things whose name escapes me right now. Early cherries are gorgeous, and forsythia, a personal fave, is at its' peak.
posted by Sir Gumbo at 9:05 PM
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