Damned if I do .................
It is March 14th .....
I am in a sweatshirt ... with the windows open..... and I am sweating.
Let's forget about the fact that I sweat at 45 degrees. Let's concentrate that it is March 14th ... and its heading toward 80 degrees today. And I am sweating.
We have bud break on the apples and cherry trees. The curly willow is greening up. The daffodils are popping through the mulch. And there is absolutely no frost in the ground.
The chickens are laying like crazy! My fridge is full everyday ... with 3.5 to 4 dozen fresh eggs gathered daily. I do add a little light to the girls as feed costs are so high .... they need to somewhat pay for their keep. But this many eggs .... this early in the spring........ is unusual.
So ... I read posts and status updates about everyone in their gardens ... planting away.
And I am not.
For the last several years ... we have had nice April weather. I get my plugs in the ground ... they are happy and content.
Then May comes.
And the warm, blissful days of April disappear and suddenly March has made a comeback in May! Cold, damp, windy ..... the plugs hang in there. They struggle to survive. And they do .... but they don't grow.
So this year .....I pushed back my plug orders. I pushed some orders back as much as a month.
Last year .... I planted 875 lisianthus plugs the week of April 25th at a cost of $427. Roughly ... 150-175 plugs survived the onslaught of cold, standing water. They rotted in the ground. They died of the cold..... and that was in May.
Now ..... I question my decision. Was it the wise thing to do? Should I have looked to the weather pattern of 12-15 years ago when spring arrived early in May??
It is heading to 80 degrees on March 14th. And I am sweating.
But its not the temperature that is taking me there.
Farming 101 ... damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I am in a sweatshirt ... with the windows open..... and I am sweating.
Let's forget about the fact that I sweat at 45 degrees. Let's concentrate that it is March 14th ... and its heading toward 80 degrees today. And I am sweating.
We have bud break on the apples and cherry trees. The curly willow is greening up. The daffodils are popping through the mulch. And there is absolutely no frost in the ground.
The chickens are laying like crazy! My fridge is full everyday ... with 3.5 to 4 dozen fresh eggs gathered daily. I do add a little light to the girls as feed costs are so high .... they need to somewhat pay for their keep. But this many eggs .... this early in the spring........ is unusual.
So ... I read posts and status updates about everyone in their gardens ... planting away.
And I am not.
For the last several years ... we have had nice April weather. I get my plugs in the ground ... they are happy and content.
Then May comes.
And the warm, blissful days of April disappear and suddenly March has made a comeback in May! Cold, damp, windy ..... the plugs hang in there. They struggle to survive. And they do .... but they don't grow.
So this year .....I pushed back my plug orders. I pushed some orders back as much as a month.
Last year .... I planted 875 lisianthus plugs the week of April 25th at a cost of $427. Roughly ... 150-175 plugs survived the onslaught of cold, standing water. They rotted in the ground. They died of the cold..... and that was in May.
Now ..... I question my decision. Was it the wise thing to do? Should I have looked to the weather pattern of 12-15 years ago when spring arrived early in May??
It is heading to 80 degrees on March 14th. And I am sweating.
But its not the temperature that is taking me there.
Farming 101 ... damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Comments
It is too bad that they don't teach us things like this in some book you could buy -- and also why it is important to document this type of anecdotal evidence.
On occasion, I have planted plugs & small plants that I know are susceptible to crown rot into a shallow trench and then covered the roots with sand instead of soil. It seems to help a lot. The roots will still penetrate downward to reach moisture, but the crown remains pretty dry. This is not a 100% cure, but it does increase my percentages.
I don't normally grow lisianthus - certainly not to the extent that you do - but now I will have to add this one to my list.
Crazy (but nice) weather!