Saturday, April 25, 2009

A Change in the Weather

The weather has made an about face here in New England. Our week started with cold rainy weather. The plants picked up little jewels of water on their leaves. The couple of inches of water we received were much needed as we are quite behind our normal precipitation this year. The week is ending with sunny dry hot weather. We have gotten into the 80°Fs (27°C). I think my two daffodils that just opened in the rain will start to wilt in a couple of days in this heat. The heat will mostly stick around for four or five days before we cool off again.

So at the beginning of the week I couldn't dig in the soil because of the rain. Now I just don't want to due to the heat. My solution this morning was to start working early - before breakfast. It is not easy to walk bleary eyed out the door into heavy digging, but I did. I put in my requisite two hours of digging today. Yesterday wasn't so hot so I waited until a reasonable hour - 10am - to start that stint of digging.

Slowly the bed is taking shape. A few more days and I'll be done. I hope I keep the digging up throughout the heat. I need that area where all my dirt is dumped so I can plant my nasturtiums. I need to get my marigolds in the ground or pot them up and I'm not potting them up. I'd better keep myself digging every morning. I'll be so happy when it's done.

After a hearty breakfast and a shower - in that order since I was starving - I went to meet Pam from Pam's Garden Dreams for the first time. We gabbed a bit to get to know each other. It turns out we have an awful lot in common. I'm sure our husbands will hit it off too once they meet since they are also a bit alike. Then she took me over to her new community garden plot. It was great fun to get a tour. The community garden is build in a marsh. The ground is extremely wet. Everyone there uses raised beds to drain the garden, but I don't know how you can ever dig in that place without destroying the soil structure. Very wet. The soil was also black as night. It looked very fertile. Hopefully later in the year when everything is growing I'll get to go back and see it again. I love peeking in other people's gardens.

9 comments:

  1. Daphne...Let's hope this heat wave is temporary! We are experiencing it, too! I have thought about getting shade cloth and draping it over some of the flowers! Gail

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  2. Daphne, what is in that first photo? I thought it was some kind of weird cabbage for a minute.

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  3. I love the picture with the water drops, very cool.

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  4. That photo of the daffodil is beautiful!

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  5. Gail, if I owned shade cloth it would probably go on my spinach. I hope it lives through the next few days before our weather goes back to normal.

    EG, it is a sedum, Autumn Joy to be exact. It is a pretty fall blooming plant. Not at all edible :>

    bughunter99 and Amanda, thanks

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  6. I love, love, love getting up in the morning with a cup of coffee and heading out to see what's happened over night in the garden! But... i definitely don't have it in me to start digging! I should start chunking out the projects better. Sitting under the hot sun on saturday planting was rough.

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  7. Daphne - it was so nice to meet you! Thank you for saving me from the ticks! I will totally have you out to see the garden again when the raised beds are in place and packed with seeds!

    I am surprised you are putting so many things out so early! I usually wait until May to even start warm weather seedlings, and don't put them out at least until after May 15th... but I guess given the crazy hot weather we've had lately, earliness is indicted! Have you changed your times over the past couple of days?

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  8. Er I mean have you changed your planting times over the past couple of years...

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  9. I've always done it that early - for over a decade. My usual safe last frost date is May 1st. I live near the top of a hill, so the valley will frost and we won't. I do however protect them. I almost always protect seedlings when I first put them out. For tomatoes they get plastic. Most other things get remay. My site is very windy (probably the top of the hill thing) so protecting seedlings is good. Sadly some of those seedlings were started too early. I may plant them earlier than usual. I'll check the weather this weekend.

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