LysmachiaMoon's blog: First taste of springtime weather

After nearly a month of snow on the ground, we got our first taste of springtime weather yesterday (Weds, 24 Feb), it went to almost 60F by mid afternoon. A lot of snow melted, but we still have about 70% snow cover. It's not going to get quite as warm today, but it's already above freezing at 8:30 a.m. Thurs. so I expect to see a lot more snow fade away.

Spotted some snowdrops up and blooming here by the deck...I planted those last fall, so very pleased to see them. Saw my first species crocus blooming yesterday: a pale lilac one just above the small pond in the Jungle Cliff garden. What a sight to see! "Solomon in all his glory..."

I took advantage of the break in the weather yesterday. Re-taped some open seams in the greenhouse plastic sheeting. Now that it's sealed up again, I'll be able to move some seedlings in there. It always amazes me how quickly it warms up in there. With a rent in the plastic about 3 feet long, the interior temperature was 46F. A few minutes after I sealed it up, it was already 52F.

The hens have been confined for nearly a month more or less. Once we had deep snow on the ground, they absolutely refused to come out of the hen house, so had all their meals in there, along with a watering pan. Even when we had milder weather, they only tip-toed out into the hen run for a bit. Sissy chickens. So, yesterday, I chased them out of the house and the pen so I could do some much needed housekeeping. You can imagine. Once they found some clear (muddy) ground, they went nuts. Scratching, digging, running, just generally enjoying themselves. There are enough cleared paths from me trudging up and down the hill to the henhouse that they are able to work their way all the way down to the driveway. At one point, it looked like a massacre. Chickens sprawled all over the heated up blacktop driveway, taking sun baths. (For anyone unfamiliar with chickens, they'll sun themselves by laying on their sides with their wings spread all over the place and sometimes fall asleep like that....it honestly looks like someone killed a chicken and tossed the lifeless corpse aside.)

I wasn't able to do a complete, down to the floor cleanout of the henhouse because there is still deep snow in the back yard and I had a lot of trouble getting a wheelbarrow up there. I was able to get the worst of it out, though, one full barrow load. Then I moved the wheelbarrow of straw and manure into the greenhouse, damped it down with some melting snow, and covered it with a tarp. As it decomposes it will give off just enough heat to make a nice "hot bed" for my seedling trays. Not to mention great finished compost in a couple of months.

One really important thing I got done yesterday was get the truck washed down to get the salt off and out from underneath. My Chevy S-10 baby is 21 years old this September, 147,000 miles and I want to keep him on the road for another 20 years if I can!

Brought up one of the dahlia roots and potted it up so it can start to wake up. Today, I'm going to try bringing up a couple canna roots into the office. I've found that simply getting them into the warmth and light will be enough to break dormancy and potting them up can wait until I see signs of sprouting. By that time it should be warm enough to move them into the greenhouse (with heavy nighttime cover).

My seedling brassicas and tomatoes are doing great. Bunny Guiness recommends starting even beet seeds early indoors, and I'm going to try that. Rather than try to get individual seedlings to set into the garden, she recommends leaving them in small clumps when setting them out. That way, the beets develop sequentially (one or two of a clump get big first and are harvested, then the next one or two in the clump, etc.) and spreads out the harvest. Last year beets were a bust for me, between dry weather and bird predation, so I'm going to try this.

My parsley seeds came up like gang-busters and I need to prick them out and pot them on. I think this might be a job for the greenhouse!

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