Chilly forecasts

Work continues apace at the farm this week as the weather takes a turn again towards wet and cool.  A couple weeks ago Doc insisted that we were in the clear and would stay frost-free for the rest of the spring, but I demurred.  I wish I had been wrong, but forecasters are currently calling for lows of 30 or 31 on Saturday night, so it looks like we're not done with cold just yet.  What does that mean for the farm?

These pea seedlings may look fragile, but the frost won't bother them.

Well, the plants outside should stand up to it fairly well, although I probably won't put in additional transplants in after this morning. (That's fine, it's going to rain all afternoon anyway).  Many people think that a frost will kill all of their vegetables, but that's not true - most greens can survive one fairly handily, including pretty much everything I have outside - mesclun, arugula, lettuce, radishes, bok choy, all should be fine.  Onions and garlic are also no worry, and neither are the peas and potatoes - after all, those are plants that folks will tell you to plant by St. Patrick's day, if you can, or in the parlance of seed catalogs "as soon as the ground can be worked." Obviously a frost won't stop them. But I will take measures to protect them nonetheless, and will likely spend some time Saturday afternoon laying out row covers especially on the newly-transplanted lettuces.

Inside the tunnel it's another story, as there are some susceptible little babies in there.  Tomatoes and peppers will complain bitterly about the cold, as will the basil seedlings.  I've been putting row covers over all of them during the cold nights of March and that provides a lot of protection - so does the greenhouse itself, which keeps out the wind and acts, much like a cloud cover would, to alter the humidity in a way that makes frost less likely.  We'll button the tunnel up tightly early Saturday and just let it hold as much heat as it can - a good watering will help, too, as wet soil holds heat much better than dry soil does.  The greens won't be bothered by the cold, but they'll appreciate the cover and grow faster for it.

We've still got pepper plants inside under lights, too, which I'd like to bring out - but no point doing that too early, now.  Looks like next week we'll start hardening all of those off.  All in all, although the cold weather will slow down lots of things, it should be survivable for most plants.  And the late spring will help us out, too, since the fruit trees are behind schedule.  Last year by this point there were flowers everywhere on those trees - this year, they haven't all opened up yet, so even if we get a hard frost on them I think they'll be a second cohort coming along.


Spring is getting here sooner or later and we'll be here waiting and growing for it!  Look for us at the New Cumberland Community Day market on the 4th of May, and don't forget to sign up for a CSA share if you want one this year!

Dave

April showers

Looking at a thoroughly wet day today, so I'm catching up on all sorts of projects.  You're getting a blog post out of one of them!

The farm has been a busy place lately.  Just eight or nine days ago, we had nighttime lows of 22 F - and then the last couple days the daytime highs have been up in the 80s.  With the warm temperature Nature is really starting to take off.  Dandelions are blooming now, trees are budding out, robins are foraging..and the ground dried right out.  So I got to work planting, and the mesclun mix, radishes, lettuce, and arugula I planted just before Easter are germinating pretty well by now.  The peas too, and they're probably up by now - they were germinating but still below the soil when I poked around in there yesterday.  Transplants are starting to go out too, and by now I've already got over five hundred baby lettuces planted outside.  If anything, the ground has gotten too dry lately.  The Easter weekend rain I was expecting was a little disappointing, and then the rain forecast for late last week never really showed up either...so today is the first real soaking rain we've had in over two weeks.  (For that matter, it was mostly snow before that).  So I spent Monday running around getting irrigation equipment set up, trying to hurry the little seedlings along on their way.  It's already been a blessing.

It might have been the late winter, or it might more likely be the way that my income this year is so dependent on growing things, but I feel like this is getting to  be one of the most beautiful springs I can remember.  I've never really been a big fan of the season, honestly.  I mean, I work outdoors, and I'd rather work in nice weather than in the cold and snow, but the season I love the most has always been autumn.  But this year? It just feels like hope, to me, like life and fertility are flowing back into the land.  Every bud on the apples, every lettuce or potato in the ground, is a possibility right now - and the fact that some of those possibilities are going to turn into cash in my pocket doesn't make them less awe-inspiring.  In fact it makes me all the more appreciative.  It has been a long, hungry winter and I for one have never appreciated a spring more.  Let's hope it brings good things, and that today's rain is a forecast (not too much, not too little) of fine weather in the year to come.

Dave

Chicken update

A week or two behind schedule, a picture or two of the chickens! Not nearly chick-sized anymore...we got them just before Valentine's Day, so they're about seven weeks old at this point.

And just for reference, here's a first-week picture from back in February:

That's the same bird (creatively known to us as "Whitey") as in the first picture up above.  So they've definitely sized up plenty of times over.  We really wanted to get them outside by this point in the year, but the weather has been so cold this spring that their move has been delayed for weeks.  According to our electric bill (as good a source as any, I guess), this March had an average temperature 11 degrees colder than March 2012.  So it is a slow spring.....guess that's Ohio wants to put the groundhog on trial.

Other than that, the slow spring is worrying but not necessarily horrible.  I did find a few tomatoes out in the greenhouse this morning with some frost damage on them, so we'll lose a few more tonight when it dips down into the low twenties again.  There should be enough extras to make up for it, though...most of them seem to be hanging in there.  And after tonight, the weather looks good for a ways on out!  By next Tuesday nighttime temps are supposed to be up in the forties and we should be well on our way into our delayed-but-inevitable spring.  And I'll be putting more crops in the ground (outside even!) - lettuce and potatoes - once this chilly night releases its grip on us.  Not just we  humans, but those chickens, are getting anxious to get out in the sun again.

Dave