Tommy plowing the cover crop yesterday.....

This morning, Tommy repaired the nesting boxes in the chicken tractor because so many hens are laying eggs that we were running short of setting spaces. We are getting about 20 eggs per day and we sure can't eat all of that, so I sell them. I cleaned up the bee equipment while Tommy moved firewood into the shed for the summer. I spent the last half of the morning roughing up the dirt in the herb bed and the potato bed so the tiny weeds wouldn't take hold.

This afternoon, I finished transplanting the broccoli, mulched them all with compost and ran the irrigation. Next, I started excavating #12 bed for the carrot planting. In the middle of that, Daingerfield came over to borrow the turn plow. We had to strap it onto the tractor scoop and lift it into bed of his pick-up truck....whew, dodgey! I took him over to Pat Cart's property (which we almost own now) for a tour. After he left I sat down in the strawberry bed and weeded until 5:30 when my stomach started growling. Productive day!

I got all the pepper plants in their individual cells much earlier in their progress because I started them with Johnny's tiny soil blocks (see the farthest flat). I hope they do OK with only the dicot leaves. They are going into the greenhouse on sunny days and back in the house at night.

Today was tomato seed planting day....in one flat about 240 tomato seeds....13 different kinds. Spending a cool spring day in the greenhouse is just heaven for me, even with the tedium of dealing with tiny seeds one at a time! The peppers are all up and in their own cells, but it is still to cold to let them spend the night in the greenhouse, so I keep the truck on the driveway and take them back and forth until it is above 50 at night.

When I went out after supper to close up the barn, I noticed a beautiful light around coloring the mountains through the bare trees. The mountains will be hidden soon when the trees leaf out. I went up to the shed roof and stepped out the window to take a few photos at sunset.

spring continues

The garlic bed is beginning to show signs of faster growth in the first photo. The plumcot tree is almost in bloom and the Nanking cherry bushes are busting out. But this is at least a week later than the usual year because of the cold winter and spring.

Peas

Spring begins

March 4, 2010...When I went out to pour hot water in the chicken waterers, I was happy to hear spring bird song, but the weather is still cold and windy! We just can't seem to warm up in NW SC this year. The snow of 3/2 has melted and I am hoping that is the last one this year. Because of this cold spring I am late planting my spring seeds, so maybe I will skip spring and go straight to summer plantings....not a chance! Who could wait?

I have planted English peas by the fenceling and potatoes in the winter carrot bed that the deer demolished a few weeks ago. They think they will still find carrots there, so they are tearing that up looking for them, even though I covered it with light row cover. That's OK, those potato seeds were old leftovers from last year and I planted them too early because they were sprouting all over the place. I'll take my chances and plant over again if they don't make it.

We moved the greenhouse to a new location with a perfect orientation to the sun and against the wind: facing the southwest with woods on the northeast side. The ends aren't closed up yet, so working is a cold affair in there. I have many seeds to get planted very soon.

This afternoon I will plant the pepper seeds, but they will stay inside with the water heater and the geothermal mechanics until they sprout. Then they can go in the greenhouse. Tomato seeds go into flats next.

Some winter day

February 6th, 2009 the weather is a cool 62 degrees, cloudy and very heavy with humidity.

I checked the weather, as I do every day and found that a mild week is forecast. This often happens in the middle of a South Carolina winter and it is heavenly.....a good reason to live here. The risk is that we optimist gardeners will get our muck shoes on and plant too soon. That's me! This method is just way too much fun! (Gardeners, in general, must love changes and gambles.)

Knowing that about myself, I figured I would take a chance on an early Sugar Snap pea planting. What is better than a basket full of crisp, sweet, spring sugar peas!? And only a home garden can get these for you....really!

Green peas must have cool, moist conditions to thrive.....that's THRIVE. They will languish if early spring weather turns dry and hot and your crop might not be worth the effort in the end. But, if everything is right, peas will be your easiest crop of all. If you wait until a later, more safe time to plant peas, you will have a short harvest before the heat gets the plants in late May.

I prepared the pea bed last fall when I pulled up my tomatoes planted along a fence trellis in the middle of a large bed. I habitually lavish my tomato plants with great conditions, so this bed was nice already. Two weeks ago I applied a layer of a soil amendment (compost, in my case), a good dose of bone meal and Tommy plowed it in for me. There have been several nice rain events since then, so everything was ready. I mixed the seeds with inoculant, threw the seeds unceremoniously into the trench, and covered them with an inch of soil, figuring that a cold snap would kill this planting anyway.

A gardener walks a line between hope and cynicism in the shoulder seasons. We could have a warm, wet spring with a vicious cold snap that would nip back all the optimistic early spring sprouts. Or we could have cold weather right up until March....that doesn't often happen. Or we could have mild weather all the way in to summer. If the latter happens, early planted peas will have a bumper season. Therein lies the "rub" with a South Carolina spring. A good farmer always takes a chance on a before-Easter corn planting just so everyone will go by and see how much bigger his/her corn patch is than anyone else's. The shame of a late freeze is worth it.

I prefer to order a double batch of pea seeds for a replant in case of freeze so I can gamble on a very early planting like this. If I know the temperatures will be above freezing for a week with one good rain and few days of warm sun, I figure that is my sign to give peas a chance. Within that week, they should germinate under the ground and be ready to proceed out of the dark earth on the next warm days.

I know what you are thinking: we ARE going to have another hard freeze before April. I have that covered...literally. I am leaving the soil bare during this mild week so the sun can warm the dark soil to speed germination. Then, if a cold spell is forecast, I will heavily mulch the row with straw or pine needles and hold in that warmth, not allowing the sprouts to freeze.

If all goes well, I will have Sugar Snap pea pods in April lasting until the first hot weather comes. A little skillet of bright green pea pods in butter would be a welcome treat in late spring.

And pea plantings actually improve your soil if you leave the roots in place when the plants die.