Today was wonderfully warm - nearly 50°F - which is a real treat here in Vermont! It rained and rained, melting much of the snow and turning my garden aisles into mucky trenches - but I couldn't be happier, dreaming of spring.
The cold frames are bursting with greens! Lettuces, spinaches, baby carrots, radishes, cilantro, claytonia, and my newfound favorite hardy green, mache. I thought the recent cold snap (down to 5°F one night) might have been the end of the lettuces, but they seemed to perk right back up. I harvested a nice big bowl full of salad fixings for dinner. Visitors are always amazed to see me come in from the winter white with an armful of greens!
My mini hoop tunnels are also doing well - I've kept them closed up for a few weeks now and opened them today to find a delightful array of spinaches, swiss chard, carrots, and butterhead lettuce that admittedly looked a bit wan and in need of thinning.
I took down a temporary hoop tunnel that I'd put up on the winter solstice to help a winter rye cover crop get a little head start. I planted it as an experiment, a couple of months after the recommended planting date, just to see what would happen... Better late than never...? The garden is an ever-evolving series of experiments! Germination was sparse, but those little green tufts should go nuts in the spring before I hack it down to plant peas and trellised tomatoes on the north side of my garden. Just seeing that rich, fertile soil makes me so excited for the seasons to come. It's almost time to start onion and leek seeds indoors!
I took down a temporary hoop tunnel that I'd put up on the winter solstice to help a winter rye cover crop get a little head start. I planted it as an experiment, a couple of months after the recommended planting date, just to see what would happen... Better late than never...? The garden is an ever-evolving series of experiments! Germination was sparse, but those little green tufts should go nuts in the spring before I hack it down to plant peas and trellised tomatoes on the north side of my garden. Just seeing that rich, fertile soil makes me so excited for the seasons to come. It's almost time to start onion and leek seeds indoors!
This year has been the warmest winter I can remember. I have memories of being a child and tromping out to the school bus stop in two to three feet of snow - and that was "the norm". I've lived through years with temperatures that get down into the -20°s. I wonder how my ancestors survived those miserable winters.
Despite the ramifications of global warming and awful thoughts of icebergs melting and cities overtaken by the deluge, the immediate effects of a temperate winter are a northern gardener's dream. Enjoy!
<3 Aprille
Despite the ramifications of global warming and awful thoughts of icebergs melting and cities overtaken by the deluge, the immediate effects of a temperate winter are a northern gardener's dream. Enjoy!
<3 Aprille