Friday, March 7, 2014

Slowly Planting

Weather in the northeast corner of the US is cold. I checked the records from my weather station and it is the coldest winter we have had so far. And March is just being weird. So far the average temperatures in March have been lower than in January or February. So things aren't melting out quickly. Our saving grace is that the sun is getting stronger. That by itself is melting out some of the snow. It retreats a little more every day. We will be getting a light warmup over the weekend getting our temperatures closer back to norms (highs in the low 40Fs and lows in the high 20Fs). Which is a nice change from what we've been getting (highs around 30F and lows in the single digits and teens).

I decided to wait about a week past my normal planting time to start the lettuce, small Asian greens, and parsley. I also haven't started as many as I usually do. I think I'll wait and plant these again. If the weather sticks to the frigid temperatures that it has been, the soil won't be unfrozen until April.

Don't you wish Mother Nature would be a little more predictable? Three years ago we had the winter of massive snow. Two years ago we had the winter that wasn't. And this year we have the winter that won't go away. It makes it hard to know when spring will really get here. I like to plan things out in the garden. Timing is everything to get the most of out my space. But I'll just have to go with the flow on Mother Nature's little joy ride.

9 comments:

  1. It must be exciting to see the edges of your beds at least. We were at -4˚F when I woke up this morning. I don't remember ever having negative temperatures in March before. This has been a long winter indeed. I can't wait until I can dig in the soil again.

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  2. Even with this awful drought, I love Northern California...I can always plant and harvest something!

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  3. Glad to hear that your temps are returning to normal. Ours have warmed up a bit too. Whether they will stay or not remains to be seen. Here I had it all planned out and wrote on the calendar what month to plant what! LOL Hope your seedlings do great and that you will soon be out there planting. Nancy

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  4. Our planting plan is completely off track and now we're on a just 'let's hope' plan. We'll start the greens soon too... They may just not get put in the ground as expected.

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  5. It will make a change for you to see some soil rather than snow! Today we are basking in sunshine, with the temperature at about 14C!

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  6. We have finally gotten some 'normal' March weather here yesterday and today. So maybe it is coming your way! It started off colder than normal here, like it did in your area. Hopefully at least the cold winter got rid of some bugs.

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  7. I'm sort of at the same place you are. I think I'll start some early greens today but other than that, I think I'll wait. My shelves are nearly at full capacity with flowers and it doesn't warm up soon, there will be no room for veggies!

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  8. We made it up into the 70's today and upper 70's tomorrow but in the middle of the week it is going to drop some again especially at night. It does make it hard to know when to plant anything.

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  9. Waiting out March. I thought I would start some seeds this month, but since my Cape Cod garden is still covered i snow I think I will give it a few more weeks. We are all sick of it.

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